As May is about to enter, pirates and Japanese pirates along the coast are becoming more and more rampant. News often comes that coastal guard stations in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian have been breached. Many local people have left their hometowns and begun to flee.

Those who are young, strong, capable, and with good luck can be taken into the home of a wealthy family as a slave. If they have no talent, they can only beg for food. There is really no way to hide in the mountains or live as hermits for the rest of their lives, or to join the ranks of bandits.

road.

By April 29th, more and more refugees came to Erwei Fort. The news that Erwei Fort was going to build four new villages outside the fort had spread. The four villages were responsible for cement manufacturing. Su Ren had already transferred the four villages to Erwei Fort.

A newly built location in the village was released, just one mile outside the fort. If you encounter danger, you can enter the fort at any time.

There is no farming in Erweibao, and the occasional vegetables grown can only produce enough for one's own consumption. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the village being close to Erweibao. After all, the people in the village need to rely on Erweibao for their livelihood.

Su Ming and his elder brother Su Ren were walking on the road to the salt factory early in the morning. Behind them were ten people carrying poles, each carrying a stone of snowflake salt.

"Eighth brother, even if you don't let your fifth brother accompany you, at least let your thirteenth brother or Tiezhu follow you. It's not safe for you to carry so much snowflakes and salt alone, even if you have a musket. There are water bandits in the Huangpu River area.

But there are so many, it's too dangerous for you to go alone." Although Su Ming insisted on going alone, Su Ren still said in his ear.

"It's not good to have too many people going to Fenglingdu. My goal of carrying ten stone salts by myself is still small. When we get to Fenglingdu, their village master will send someone to help. Brother, don't worry." Su Ming said.

This time, because he was carrying 10 pieces of rock salt, Su Ming could not carry so much salt to Fengling Ferry on horseback. He rowed his own boat to Fengling Ferry so that he could hide the secret of his coast guard ship warehouse.

Su Ming also wanted to try out what difficulties he would encounter if he rowed a boat and took the waterway to Fenglingdu. If the waterway was passable, he could leave the matter with Fenglingdu to others.

Several people came to a bay north of the salt factory. Su Ming saw that the fifth brother and the thirteenth brother were waiting for him at the beach. A two-foot-long boat was docked at the beach. This boat was the boat brought by the Japanese pirates last time.

The imperial court did not allow the coastal people to trade with maritime merchants, nor did it allow the guards to own ships. Therefore, the ship was hidden in some hidden bays in the south by the eldest brother, and was quietly rowed from those places when it was in use.

Su Ming watched the soldiers put bags of snowflake salt into the cabin. Su Ming boarded the boat and said goodbye to his elder brother and others. He rowed the boat north along the coast alone.

In April, the wind on the eastern coast of Daming was mostly northerly. Taking advantage of the northward ocean current, Su Ming rowed the boat without spending much effort.

When he could no longer see his elder brother and others, Su Ming put the bags of snowflakes and salt in the cabin into the coast guard ship's warehouse. The speed of the boat suddenly became much faster.

Su Ming kept rowing without stopping, and only reached Bishui Bay at noon. He had covered 40 miles in two hours, and the boat speed was less than 2 knots. This made Su Ming miss his coast guard ship. If it was a coast guard ship

These journeys can be reached in a quarter of an hour, and an hour is enough to go to Fenglingdu.

Entering the river from Fenglingdu and going upstream, Su Ming's speed slowed down a bit. Fortunately, Su Ming's physical strength was much stronger than usual. He was consuming energy while his sculpture in the sea of ​​consciousness template was still recovering. By the end of the afternoon

When he came to the first water village he passed last time, a boat saw Su Ming and rowed over.

"Stop, this is our Bailong Village, what do you do?" A man stood on the bow of the boat, looked at Su Ming, and motioned for him to stop the boat.

Su Ming took out his gun and hung it on his waist. If things didn't go his way today, he wouldn't mind forcing his way through and killing a group of water bandits along the road. When the time comes, he would bring the guards from Erwei Fort over and occupy this place.

Su Ming stopped the boat, and the man took a companion on board. Su Ming was surprised to see that there was nothing on the boat.

"Two eldest brothers, I know the leader of Fenglingdu Zeng Guosun Village. This time I went to Fenglingdu to discuss something with him. I also asked the two eldest brothers to make it easier." Su Ming said with a smile.

"You're going to Fenglingdu? Why don't you hang up the village flag? Pay a hundred pence!" said the man.

Su Ming thought for a while but still didn't draw his gun. He took out a bunch of money from his pocket and handed it to the other party. The money was originally placed in the coast guard ship's warehouse. He put it into his pocket just for show.

Passing through the seaports and ferries controlled by imperial soldiers would charge much more than the Bailong Village. Therefore, Su Ming did not have much objection to the Bailong Village. This is how the world is.

After passing Bailong Village, Su Ming rested for a quarter of an hour and continued rowing westward against the current. In the afternoon, he passed two water villages and spent another 100 coins. In fact, the water here was not as scary as Su Ming imagined.

Bandits are actually more disciplined than officers and soldiers.

It was getting dark. After rowing for a day, Su Ming didn't reach Fenglingdu. If he were riding a horse, he might have finished the transaction and returned to Erwei Fort.

In the dark night, Su Ming hung an oil lamp on the bow of the boat. He stopped on the river bank only two miles away from Fenglingdu, tied the boat to a big rock with a rope, and Su Ming walked towards Fenglingdu on foot.

"Who is that?" Su Ming heard a voice coming from the front after walking a few steps.

"I have an agreement with your leader Zeng, and I will make a deal with him today!" Su Ming saw two young men with bows and arrows pointed at him in the distance, and he was not lying at all.

"Are you alone? Come here!" Seeing that Su Ming was alone, the patrol captain said to Su Ming.

Su Ming was taken to a bamboo house in Shuizhai. Two young men holding long knives stood at the door. A cup of brewed brick tea was placed in front of him. When he arrived at Fenglingdu, Su Ming could clearly feel that the discipline here was better than that in Ming Dynasty.

In most local military camps, it is strictly prohibited. Zeng Guosun is not an ordinary person.

Su Ming did not remember that there was any big shot named Zeng Guosun in the Ming Dynasty. If possible, he hoped to establish a good relationship with Zeng Guosun, which would be a win-win situation for both parties.

"Brother Su, it's really you! I thought you had to wait until tomorrow to arrive." Su Ming was slowly drinking tea when he saw Zeng Guosun coming from outside the bamboo house.

"It took a little longer to take the water route this time. I came late. Brother Zeng, I wonder if the money is ready?" Su Ming stood up and said with a smile.

Zeng Guosun came to Su Ming and smiled and motioned for him to do it. Both of them were willing to make friends, so they were very polite.

"Of course there is nothing wrong with the money, but brother Su, where is your salt?" Zeng Guosun asked.

"Ten stones of snowflake salt is not a small amount. How can I get it by myself? I asked Brother Zeng to get the salt with me." Su Ming said as he stood up and was about to take Zeng Guosun away.

Su Ming was in the front, and Zeng Guosun was behind with many of his men. The group soon arrived at the place where Su Ming docked Snowflake Salt. Su Ming took the lead in boarding the cabin and took ten stones of Snowflake from the coast guard ship's warehouse before Zeng Guosun boarded the ship.

Release the salt.

"You two go call someone, Old Nie, go get money for Brother Su." Zeng Guosun ordered his men in front of Su Ming and asked people to get the money, just to reassure Su Ming.

Zeng Guosun admired the courage of a person to do such a big business. He would never think that Su Ming was a fool, because from the beginning, Su Ming always had a plan in mind, even though he didn't know what Su Ming had behind him.

.

For a moment, Zeng Guosun thought about killing Su Ming, but he quickly dismissed this idea. He was able to live happily in Fenglingdu for so many years, always being cautious, and being able to bring out the power of 10 stones of snowflake salt at a time, then he must

It won't be weaker than their Feng Ling Du.

There must be a reason why Su Ming dared to come to Fenglingdu to trade alone. If he didn't understand the reason, Zeng Guosun would not take action.

Soon more than 20 of Zeng Guosun's men came forward to help. Su Ming saw them carrying all the salt bags ashore. He and Zeng Guosun followed the team until they arrived at Zeng Guosun's home. At this time, the man named Lao Nie was holding the bag.

There is a wooden box in one of Zeng Guosun's rooms.

Zeng Guosun asked his men to open all the bags. He carefully checked that all the snowflake salts were fine one by one, and then asked his men to start weighing them in front of the two of them.

"10 shi, 52 catties and 12 taels, we agreed on 800 wen per catty, a total of 1,242 taels and 200 wen, brother, what do you think?" Seeing that the quality of the snowflake salt this time was better than all the snowflake salt he had ever seen, Zeng Guosun was very happy.

is the difference.

He began to pay great attention to the young man in front of him. There were only a handful of salt fields in the Ming Dynasty that could produce 10 stones of snowflake salt at a time.

Zeng Guosun wanted to ask Su Ming where the snowflake salt came from, but in the end he didn't ask. He just wanted to make money by getting it. He was afraid that if he asked too much, he would get into trouble!

"We have agreed on ten stones, so let's count them as ten stones! More is enough to make a friend. I wonder if Village Leader Zeng will still need snowflake salt next month?" Su Ming asked.

"How much snowflake salt can Brother Su provide next month? It may take some time for me to get the funds back." Zeng Guosun said with some hesitation.

After picking up the wooden box Zeng Guosun gave him, Su Ming opened it and took a look. There were mostly 10 taels of silver ingots, and there were also five taels and two taels of small silver ingots. A large silver bag contained all broken silver. Look.

It looks like it's at least three hundred taels, which shows that 1,200 taels of silver is a lot of money for Zeng Guosun. This time he may take away all the silver from Fenglingdu.

"Then how about I continue to send 10 stones of snowflake salt. If Village Master Zeng needs more next month, we can discuss increasing the amount." Su Ming weighed the box's medium weight with his hands, which was about 40 kilograms, and then

He rejected Zeng Guosun's request to bear the burden and said to him.

"Okay, where is Brother Su's house? If it's convenient for us to find a suitable location to agree on a time to trade, then Brother Su won't have to work hard alone." Zeng Guosun said.

"Brother Zeng and I hit it off right away. It's really inconvenient to come to Fenglingdu. I think the location is at Bishui Bay. How does Zeng Guosun feel?" Su Ming said.

"Okay, where's the time?" Zeng Guosun asked.

Bishui Bay is a natural port for smuggling by many forces in Songjiang Prefecture. There are many rivers flowing into Suzhou Ocean a few miles to the north. Even if the transactions here are discovered by the Donghai Navy of the Ming Dynasty, they can be quickly evacuated.

"Brother Zeng, it's up to you to decide the time! We need some food and weapons. I wonder if Brother Zeng can get some." Su Ming looked at Zeng Guosun and asked.

When Zeng Guosun heard this, he also knew that there was a big force behind Su Ming, but there was a serious shortage of food in the Huangpu River Basin for business, but he thought about it and nodded in agreement.

"Is there enough food? There are still dozens or hundreds of dan per month. I wonder how much Brother Su needs?" Zeng Guosun asked.
Chapter completed!