usatvline Chapter 106 On Salt
Chapter 106 On Salt
The tense atmosphere quickly dissipated.
In reality, there was no enmity between the two sides, and they shouldn't have fought at all. The reason it has become so ugly is that both sides have troublesome people who can provoke conflict with just a few words. At this point, it's impossible to remain weak.
The meals were very simple: fish soup, stewed fish, and white rice. The taste was just average; you could only say it was edible.
Wang Huadu, that scoundrel, muttered after finishing his meal, "Your Brother Lin has never eaten anything good."
Shao Shuyi felt helpless. If this guy ever got beaten up, it would be entirely his own fault.
To prevent the two sides from arguing again, he cleared his throat and said, "Let's get down to business."
Madam Liu sat in a wicker chair by the wall, eagerly trying to mend a net. After working for a long time without making any progress, she seemed to have lost the feeling of her childhood. Upon hearing Shao Shuyi's words, she shoved the fishing net into the hands of Lin Gu, who was standing like a puppet, and said, "Second brother."
The second brother, Liu Ming, nodded, went back into the house to get a stack of papers, and then looked at Shao Shuyi, saying, "Please come here, Mr. Shao."
After saying that, he first went into a roughly tidied-up woodshed.
Shao Shuyi invited Wang Huadu and Yu Yuan to follow him inside. Seeing that there were stools, he invited everyone to sit down.
But when he saw the paper in Liu Ming's hand covered with dense writing, he seemed to be deep in thought.
So they originally had plans to enter the smuggled salt market, but I don't know why they were delayed.
Thinking about it, it makes sense. If they dared to do things like selling stolen goods for pirates, what's a little bit of smuggled salt?
Moreover, the crime of selling smuggled salt is not serious. Depending on the scale, it can result in caning, imprisonment, or a fine, but it won't lead to death.
With a little bribing, the arrested henchmen might be able to get released early.
The truly serious offense was smuggling salt; those who resisted arrest faced death.
If they don't resist arrest, according to the current salt tax regulations, they theoretically won't die, but in reality they still will. Just like how the Liangzhe Transport Commissioner didn't follow the Emperor's edict to abolish the "Salt Law," the salt smugglers think they can just go to jail? Dream on.
Therefore, from a risk control perspective, retailing smuggled salt is the most cost-effective option, while trafficking smuggled salt is much less cost-effective.
Regardless of Shao Shuyi's thoughts, Liu Ming continued, "There are several ways to sell smuggled salt. One is to sell salt directly. Grain shops sell official salt and smuggled salt mixed together. However, the official salt is of poor quality, while the smuggled salt is of superior quality, which is obvious at a glance. If you sell too little, the minor officials and runners will turn a blind eye, as they also suffer from the effects of the official salt; nobody wants to have a mouthful of sand when eating salt. But if you sell too much, it may be fine for a while, but in the long run, things will get messy." "If you sell it secretly, how much smuggled salt can a grain shop sell in a year?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"At most two jin (100 kg)."
"How much is one 'ticket'?"
"The Lianghuai Transport Office sells salt through commercial channels, with an official price of two ingots per 'yin' (a unit of dry measure). The Liangzhe Transport Office sells salt through official channels, with an official price of three ingots per 'yin'. But don't think you can buy a 'yin' of salt for two or three ingots; there are too many people trying to do so. As for the market price, it will have to rise further."
"Is a pound of salt in Liujiagang sold for a little over a hundred strings of cash?" Shao Shuyi thought for a moment and said.
"Within the boundaries of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, there are the Liangzhe and Fujian transport offices," Liu Ming said. "The Fujian transport office operates in the salt-producing areas, with the four routes of Fuzhou, Xingtai, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou being officially transported and sold. This means that salt is distributed to the people for food; these are the four lower routes of Fujian."
The four routes (Jian, Yan, Ting, and Shao) are used for commercial transportation and sales.
The Suzhou and Hangzhou region was a prosperous area with a large population, a rich cultural heritage, and thriving commerce. Therefore, the "salt law" was not enforced, and merchants were allowed to trade salt there.
The remaining prefectures, counties, and districts were all subject to the same system of population taxation and salt allocation, with provisions distributed to the people for food.
"Shao She, you were born in a good place. You've never eaten bad salt since you were a child, and salt is cheap there too. But I've eaten much worse salt in Wenzhou, and it was ridiculously expensive."
Shao Shuyi understood. So this was one of the advantages of being born in a big city.
In addition, Taicang is close to the Yangtze River, and the opposite bank is the salt transport area of the Lianghuai Salt Transport Office. Private salt must have been rampant, which led to the near extinction of the official salt that was mixed with a lot of mud and sand.
"Then, are there any other ways?" Shao Shuyi asked. "Salted fish?"
"Indeed." Liu Ming nodded.
"Aren't the authorities going to arrest them?"
"Wait a minute." Liu Ming flipped through the stack of papers, and after a moment pulled out a sheet, which was covered with densely packed tiny characters.
"Let me see..." Liu Ming moved his face closer.
Wow! The legal department at the Liu Group is quite diligent, though they seem a bit nearsighted. Shao Shuyi waited quietly, silently pondering the steps involved in making salted fish.
Wang Huadu sat next to Shao Shuyi and glanced at Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan lowered his head and secretly resolved that he must find time to study criminal law later, even if it might not be useful.
"I've got it." Liu Ming raised his voice and said, "Are you aware of the Ji Xiu case of the sixteenth year of Zhiyuan (1279)?"
Shao Shuyi remained silent: "I don't know."
"That year, Ji Xiu used salt from Binzhou to make 20,000 catties of dried fish, which he loaded onto his way to Lingzhou for sale. When he passed through Changlucang, he was caught by the salt official Liu Tikong and fined 78 taels and 2 mace. Ji Xiu was dissatisfied and appealed to the higher authorities. The case was transferred to the Zhongshu (Secretariat), and the Ministry of Revenue ultimately ruled that 'the sale of dried fish by travelers is not the same as the smuggling of salt. The Hejian Road Transport Office shall recover the fines from Liu Tikong and others.'" Liu Ming said, "The court ruled that selling salted fish was not the same as smuggling salt and refunded the fines. But Shao She should not be careless. The salt that Ji Xiu bought was all legitimate official salt. He was caught for smuggling salt across the border, which was not a serious crime; a fine would suffice."
Shao Shuyi cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, expressing his admiration for the "legal advisor's" professionalism, and secretly thought that his own gang should also get one.
"Isn't it too long ago that something happened 60 years ago? Perhaps the administration was more efficient and efficient back then?" Shao Shuyi added.
Liu Ming hummed in agreement and continued, "Seven years ago, Wang Bangge, a man from Henan, used smuggled salt to pickle fish and sold it by boat. He was caught by the archers of the patrol office, and the Ministry of Justice determined that he was smuggling salt and punished him for the crime of smuggling salt."
After saying that, he added, "In the Liangzhe region, most of the salt is transported and sold by the government, so selling salt directly is not advisable. Selling salted fish, however, is more feasible."
Shao Shuyi grunted, which was an implication that he should use more salt when pickling the fish, or perhaps smuggle some salt in.
"Are there any places that sell smuggled salt directly?" he asked again.
Liu Ming was silent for a moment, then said, "Yes, Zhu Chen and Zhu Ding are both."
"There are still some impressive people out there," Shao Shuyi thought to himself. "But in the early stages, we can certainly use salted fish to cover it up."
This was a borderline act, a tactic devised by ancient salt merchants in their battle of wits against the government.
He didn't ask the fishermen why they didn't make it themselves. In fact, those who dared to smuggle salt were already doing it, while those who didn't would simply buy fish salt to preserve the fresh fish they caught so they could sell it to distant places.
"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Liu," Shao Shuyi said sincerely, bowing.
After saying that, he pulled Yu Yuan and Wang Huadu away from the woodshed and into the courtyard.
"Madam, may I have a word with you in private?" Shao Shuyi asked, bowing slightly.
Liu gently stood up and said, "After dinner, it's time to go for a walk."
Shao Shuyi arrived at the ridge in front of the house, looking at the distant stream, bamboo forest, and lush green wheat fields, quietly waiting for Liu's arrival. "That's my third uncle's land," Liu said softly.
Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement.
Liu glanced at him, intending to say something, but then hesitated and asked, "Why did you call me out?" "I wanted to ask," Shao Shuyi carefully chose his words, "how confident are we about things in Jiangyin Prefecture?"
Lady Liu did not give a clear answer, but only asked, "Do you know how much salt permits Jiangyin Prefecture has annually?"
"I don't know."
"Eight thousand yin, which is three million two hundred thousand jin."
"How many people live in Jiangyin?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"During the early years of the dynasty, Jiangyin was downgraded from a circuit to a directly governed prefecture. At that time, it was rumored that because there were fewer than 50,000 households, it could only be a prefecture and could not have a general administration office. Now, with more than 73,000 households, the call to establish a general administration office is growing, but no one is paying attention," said Madam Liu.
Shao Shuyi did a quick mental calculation and concluded that Jiangyin Prefecture should have a population of over 300,000—and that was just on paper; the actual number was likely much higher.
An average of eight or nine catties of salt per person per year was already a bit too much for the Yuan Dynasty, given its practices.
The so-called "salt quota allocation" was actually just the Zhejiang Provincial Salt Transport Office breaking down and apportioning the annual salt tax revenue to various prefectures and counties, assigning more quotas to wealthier areas and less to poorer ones. Whether the salt could be consumed or not was none of the Transport Office's concern; their only concern was collecting the salt tax revenue.
"Three million two hundred thousand catties is too much, two million catties would be more like it," Shao Shuyi said. "But how much salt does Zhu Ding sell in a year?" "Not much, the majority is still government-supplied salt," Liu said. "It's just salt that the saltworkers in the Lianghuai salt fields intercept and smuggle out. How much could that be? If you can bring some salted fish over, I'll give you one string of cash per catty, how about it?"
"Isn't that a bit low?" Shao Shuyi couldn't help but bargain. "There's fish in it too! It's not included in the price?"
"Fish aren't worth much. Fishermen sell their catch to buy food; this is just something to enjoy for a while, it doesn't fill you up." Mrs. Liu shook her head and said, "Back then, my family caught sea fish, which are more filling than river fish, but they still didn't fetch a good price, and we often had leftovers..."
At this point, Liu's expression became slightly dazed, as if she were recalling something.
"Fine, one string of cash it is," Shao Shuyi sighed. "However, how about we negotiate the price annually?"
"You're quite good at business, not like someone who's always fighting and killing." Liu looked at Shao Shuyi, chuckled, and said, "Most men at sea are very capable when it comes to big things, but they're terrible at accounting. As for being cheated by unscrupulous merchants in business, that's a common occurrence. I don't know how many losses I suffered and how much trouble I went through before I slowly learned my lesson."
"Fighting and killing is a low-class thing." Shao Shuyi blurted out, "I still prefer to strategize from behind the scenes rather than kill people." Liu smiled without saying a word. Did Zhou Ziliang and Li Daweng agree with this statement?
"Things have come to this point," Shao Shuyi said, his smile fading. "Could you perhaps reveal a little about who you know in Jiangyin Prefecture? It would give me some motivation to sell salted fish."
"You've crossed the line." Liu's smile remained unchanged. "I can only say that if you get caught selling salted fish, the authorities definitely won't touch me." Damn, ruthless! Using a henchman as a scapegoat.
Shao Shuyi cupped his hands in a gesture of respect and said, "I admire you. You've even taken responsibility for me, working to earn money for you, Madam."
Madam Liu gently played with a strand of hair at her temple, then said, "Alright, let me give you some news. Several neighboring towns are all under the wing of my third uncle, who was my late father's sworn brother. If you can't find fresh fish, you can come here to buy some. As for whether they're willing to cook salted fish for you, that's their own business, I don't care. If things ever come to light and the authorities are pressing you, you can come here to hide for a few days, and the news won't leak out for a while. Besides..."
Liu glanced at Shao Shuyi and said, "If Zhu Ding kills you one day, don't blame me, it would be a real shame."
Shao Shuyi was speechless.
Women are like the weather, fickle and unpredictable. One minute they're fine, the next they're spewing profanities.
But you wait, those who offend me won't get away.
"Thank you for your concern, Madam. I am deeply grateful. Farewell," Shao Shuyi said, cupping his hands in a respectful gesture.