Chapter 19: The Salt Bandits Arrive at Yang Family Village to Plunder

  （0019）

  Zhanjia Village is one of the big villages, with more than 130 military households and a total population of over a thousand people. Their land was also gone. Zhanjia Village is not by the sea, and even catching fish requires running dozens of miles, so they can only rely on the wild vegetables and roots of Laoshan Mountain for survival. Life is worse than Yangjia Village, no wonder they are the most enthusiastic about launching a riot.

  Zhan Yingwei is a rising star in Zhanjia Village, with good physical conditions and the ability to fight. He has a group of brothers by his side, and his family is one of the poorest in the village, making it natural for him to want to violently resist Wang Shixin. In fact, all the poor military households in Fushan Village want to resist Wang Shixin, but the key is whether they have the ability and someone to organize them. As soon as Zhang Zhun showed a bit of his skills, Yang Qiang and others immediately came over, and Li Jiaxi and others clearly expressed their purpose: to take down Wang Shixin.

  "Pay attention to their movements." Zhang Zhun said calmly.

  Someone takes the lead, it's naturally good, even if they can't win, they can greatly impact Wang Shixin and consume part of his strength. At the same time, it can also test the reactions of all parties, making it convenient for Zhang to make a judgment.

  After all, killing Wang Shixin is not just about physically eliminating one person, but also challenging the entire ruling class. Officials such as Ao Shanwei, Lai Zhoufu, Lai Zhou Shoubei, Deng Lai Xun, Deng Lai Zongbing, Shandong Xun and Shandong Zongbing will not sit idly by while a thousand households are killed in vain. They must be crazy to counterattack.

  "Good!" Haozi responded, and then slipped away stealthily.

  In the following days, Zhang continued to train his assassination squad, pouring all his knowledge of killing techniques into them, so that when others launched a rebellion, they could quickly join the battlefield and get a share of the spoils. He believed that his assassination squad would never lose to any opponent in a real fight.

  However, the news of the riot soon subsided, and there was no more news about Zhan Yingwei.

  The entire Floating Mountain was silent once more, and no further news of disturbances could be heard, an eerie stillness.

  Such silence is abnormal, and something must have gone wrong somewhere.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, several days later, Haozi came to report that he had heard definite news: Xuan Yingwei was "missing".

  "Missing? He must have been assassinated!" Zhang Quan's mouth corner revealed a thread of cold smile.

  "I don't know. Anyway, the people at home can't find the body," said Haizi.

  He found out that on the eighth day of February, Zhan Yingwei went to Maojiatun, possibly to contact people in Maojiatun. When he left, he brought two brothers with him, both of whom had some martial arts skills and carried short knives for self-defense. However, the three men left early in the morning but did not arrive at Maojiatun by nightfall. The next day, people from Zhanjiatun heard the news and rushed out to search for them, but they were nowhere to be found.

  They found a place called Zhangshu Gou halfway, where there were signs of fighting, and faint bloodstains under the mud. It was very likely that Zhan Yingwei had been ambushed. However, Zhan Yingwei's body was never found, nor were there any eyewitnesses around. The people in Zhanjiatun had been holding back their anger but couldn't find a way to vent it. Everyone suspected that Wang Shixin was behind it, but there was no evidence.

  "The body must have been thrown into the sea, there's no simpler way to deal with it."

  Zhang said calmly.

  It's obvious that Wang Shixin's people ambushed Zhan Yingwei. The others didn't have the motive or ability to kill. Wang Shixin, the master of Fushan Suo Qianhu, was originally a very sinister person, and everyone in the village called him Yanluo Wang behind his back. It's not surprising that he would use such despicable means to eliminate hidden dangers. The reason for taking such a sneaky approach is that he feared it would trigger even greater chaos.

  The situation is extremely tense across the country, with uprisings brewing in various regions except for the northwestern region where the uprising army is located. Especially in Shandong Province, there has been no peace for over a decade, and it can be said that the people are plagued by war and cannot make a living. The prolonged drought has caused the rioting sentiment to surge, and with just a tiny spark, a massive fire can erupt at any moment.

  It started with the White Lotus Rebellion led by Wang Huaixian and Xu Hongru in the second year of Tianqi, occupying various places in Yanzhou Prefecture, even killing descendants of Mencius, shocking the whole country. Scholars from the Hanlin Academy submitted a blood-written petition, enraging the imperial court. The Tianqi Emperor ordered severe suppression, mobilizing heavy troops into Shandong Province, but so far, Wang Huaixian and Xu Hongru have not been captured.

  Then in the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde occupied Dengzhou Prefecture and caused chaos, with people eating each other. The Ming army officers and soldiers who suppressed it were also bandits wearing uniforms, burning, killing, looting, and doing all sorts of evil, even more cruel than the rebels. This internal strife made Dengzhou Prefecture a barren land for thousands of miles, with white bones exposed in the wilderness, and no chicken crowing for thousands of miles. The situation in Laizhou Prefecture was slightly better, but not much.

  Immediately following the previous year, in 1629, the White Lotus leader Wang Yilun launched another rebellion in Jinxiang. The rebel army numbered as many as 600,000 to 700,000 men and affected several neighboring counties. The governor of Yanzhou Prefecture was shocked again, and the hair of Zhu Yi, the Prince of Lu, turned white with fear. Although the rebellion was quickly put down and Wang Yilun's fate remained unknown, it had already exposed many weaknesses in Shandong's military forces.

  Due to the continuous dispatch of troops to suppress the rebellions of Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Ruzai, Shandong's military strength has become much emptier than before. The ones left in Shandong are all old, weak, sick and disabled. For example, the soldiers who were originally stationed at Jimo Camp have been transferred to the front line in Henan. For instance, the entire Ao Mountain Garrison, including Xiongya and Fushan Garrisons, has less than 300 soldiers with combat effectiveness. If another uprising occurs, Shandong's government troops may not be able to resist. Therefore, although Wang Shixin is very wary of Zhan Yingwei, he also does not dare to take open action.

  Zhang Zhun's mouth corners revealed a thread of cold and cruel smile.

  It seems that Wang Shixin is also afraid of provoking public anger!

  But how much longer can he suppress the people's anger?

  Zhan Wei's death will only fuel the anger in the hearts of the Zhan family and the military households, making it burn even more fiercely. When it finally erupts, its destructive power will be even greater.

  Wang Shixin is a madman who has lost his conscience, and the sooner he is destroyed, the better.

  This is a truth that has been proven by history.

  Stimulated by this news, Zhang Zhun once again strengthened his training of the Zha Yu squad.

  A fierce storm is coming again, strengthening its power, being prepared for any situation!

  In February, another batch of young and strong men joined the team, all of whom were from the homes of the original members. After repeated consideration, they decided to follow Zhang Zhun to train in assassination techniques. Their goal was the same as that of Li Jiaxi and others - not just to catch fish, but to catch people. Extremely dissatisfied with the current situation, they had actually wanted to rise up in resistance for a long time, but lacked the strength to do so. Now, with Zhang Zhun leading the way, they were no longer willing to endure.

  By mid-February, Zhang Zhun's fishing team had grown to forty-two people, all of whom were young military dependents from Yangjiatun. The oldest was twenty-nine years old, and the youngest was fourteen years old. Due to the increase in personnel, Zhang Zhun cancelled the title of master and let the team members call him captain.

  Yang Zhiyuan and Hao Linyong's success rate of catching fish has reached 50%, while Zou Mingjia and others have also significantly improved their fishing skills, with a success rate of almost 30%. During training breaks, it is usually these old team members who perform fishing stunts, which not only satisfies the performance desire of the old team members but also greatly boosts the enthusiasm of other team members.

  The standard for determining whether the assessment is qualified or not is still to spear fish. As long as you can spear a fish, it means that the exam is passed and more skills can be learned. After all, spearing fish is much more difficult than spearing people. Having the ability to spear fish means that spearing people is an easy task.

  On February 19th, Zhang Zhun and others were in the middle of training when Haozi rushed over to report: "Yu Lin, it's not good! The Salt Bandits have arrived!"

  Everyone's face changed slightly.

  The so-called salt bandits were actually private salt sellers. The Ming dynasty's salt tax was very high, with a cost of only a few cents per catty of edible salt, but it had to be sold for over 100 cents at retail, with tens of times the profit in between. Under the stimulation of such huge profits, private salt sellers emerged. They traveled around various places in Shandong, collecting sea salt cooked by the people themselves and then selling it at a lower price in big cities to reap huge profits.

  The salt administration in Shandong is extremely chaotic. As long as someone has some connections, they are all involved in the private salt business and don't need to care about the Salt Inspector's attitude. In fact, the Salt Inspector himself is the biggest salt smuggler, engaging in the largest private salt sales business. Large and small salt smugglers dominate the entire Shandong private salt business, almost erasing the existence of official salt.

  Chongzhen Emperor was always crying about having no money, but in fact, all the money had been embezzled by lower-level officials. They didn't care whether the emperor had money or not, as long as they themselves had enough to spend lavishly. In the past when Wei Zhongxian was still alive, the country could still collect some salt tax, but after Wei Zhongxian was removed, the collection of salt tax was less than 30% of the original amount and continued to decline. This is truly a great irony.

  The sea salt cooked in Yangjiatun was sold to various salt merchants in Jimo County, who received the private salt at a low price and transported it to Jimo Camp or other places such as Jiaozhou for sale, or concentrated it and handed it over to their superiors, or sold it to larger salt merchants.

  Originally, the price at which salt was sold to military households was very low, with each catty of sea salt costing only three or four cents. It was almost a cost-free business. However, sometimes the salt smugglers were not even willing to give this price and would directly rob people's homes, taking away their private salt without having to pay any costs at all.

  Yangjiatun, being the southernmost part of Fushan Village, is farthest from Jimo County and has never been robbed before. However, Houbeitun, Hounantun, and Renjiatun have all been visited by salt bandits. Speaking of salt bandits, everyone's hatred for them is second only to Wang Shixin. There are rumors that Wang Shixin himself was one of the leaders of the salt bandits, and many salt bandits operating in Fushan Village had to pay "protection fees" to him.

  Now, the bandits' looting plan has finally landed on Yangjiatun's head.

  Tigers don't show off their might when I'm a sick cat?

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