novelSusiti Chapter 10 Snow and Wind Over Hailing, the Lunar New Year Reflected on the Pass
Chapter 10 Snow and Wind Over Hailing, the Lunar New Year Reflected on the Pass
Li Jue has his future, and Li Xuan has his life. The two brothers bid farewell at the bridgehead. Li Jue led a group of knights and rode away, disappearing into the increasingly obvious twilight.
Li Xuan smiled with relief, letting go of the slight ripples of envy that had just stirred in his heart. He thought to himself that he should remain calm and "not fire unless the target is within a few dozen steps, and once fired, the arrow will fall like a bolt from the bow."
Li Chang called out from the boat, "Brother Xuan, let's go quickly, Brother Ji is still waiting for us."
Li Xuan agreed, quickly walked down the bridge, and in a few moments jumped onto his own boat. Amidst Li Chang's off-key singing, he swiftly left Guangling City and disappeared into the twilight.
During dinner, Li Xuan and Li Yuantu discussed: "Uncle, the autumn harvest is over. We sold the fragrant rice and got 300 strings of cash. We also harvested 2,000 catties of millet and 1,000 catties of soybeans. The military equipment ordered for next year has arrived and will cost 224 strings of cash. We can't cut back on the expenses of the troops' money and food; relying on Changge and me selling fish is still not enough. I plan to take advantage of the cold winter weather to go to Hailing twice to supervise the transport of salt."
Li Yuantu nodded: "Xuan-ge is an adult now, so you can make the decisions. The waterway to Hailingjian is long and the weather is cold, so you should wear more clothes. You should also bring plenty of medicinal wine to keep warm. Old Chen from Hailingjian loves Guanglinghong wine the most, and he has two jars of ten-year-old Guanglinghong at home. Take them with you this time as a New Year's gift to thank him for his help over the years."
Hailing Supervisory Bureau was one of the three major supervisory bureaus established in the Huai salt-producing area during the Great Yu Dynasty. After the fall of the Great Yu Dynasty, the regimes that ruled the Jianghuai region, such as Yang Wu and Yu State, continued to use the establishment and personnel of Hailing Supervisory Bureau, making it seem like a living fossil specimen that was out of step with the times.
Early the next morning, Li Xuan and Li Chang unloaded over three hundred catties of grain into the boat, partly to ballast the cargo hold, and partly for other uses. After preparing spears, bows and arrows, and broadswords, they bid farewell to Li Yuantu and set off eastward, relying entirely on manpower to row.
The journey was indeed smooth. Li Xuan and Li Chang's boat was small and didn't use sails, so it was invisible from a distance and made no sound up close. They passed silently through one waterway outpost after another. The patrol officers and soldiers who were hiding in the shore outposts, waiting for the New Year, paid no attention to the situation on the river. Instead, they complained about the cold weather, the lack of firewood, and the lack of hot wine to keep warm. How could they serve their country in such freezing weather?
The Yu official in charge of the patrol scoffed, "It's cold, so they should go home and rest. Isn't that what we do every year? A bunch of bastards want firewood and hot wine. Are the court supporting soldiers or young masters and nobles? They have the nerve to ask for these things. I wouldn't even dare to ask the prince for them!"
In truth, the patrol officers and soldiers weren't expecting charcoal to roast them or hot wine to drink. Their commotion was simply because they wanted to go home, and they would be even better off getting a reward. So when Li Xuan went out to collect salt, not only were there no one patrolling the rivers and lakes at the various waterway outposts, but there were also only a few people with nowhere else to go, grumbling and preparing for the New Year inside the outposts.
A few days later at Hailing Prison. Old Chen happily accepted the two jars of wine that Li Xuan had brought: "Oh, oh, my dear nephew, you're too kind. Ten-year-old wine, even in Guangling City, it's a rare find. Why are you so late this year? The wind was strong on the water, and the journey must have been particularly arduous."
Li Xuan and Li Chang enjoyed the charcoal fire in Old Chen's room, their souls, frozen by the damp, cold wind, slowly recovering.
Li Xuan said modestly, "Thank you for your concern, Uncle Chen. Apart from the cold, everything else was fine along the way. We didn't see a single rat on the water."
Old Chen laughed heartily, "Of course! The Prince of Qi has arrived, bringing a bunch of his own men to infiltrate everywhere. The one currently in charge of the Huaihe River waterway patrol is a confidant of the Prince of Qi. Not only did he not receive any New Year's bonus, but he wasn't even provided with firewood or wine. In November, how can you get people to go down the river without these things? So you're lucky, kid. What's even better is that our new supervisor is returning to Jinling to deliver New Year's gifts. Now Uncle Chen is acting like a king in Hailing, so he'll issue you a pass. Go to the salt fields and collect salt with peace of mind."
Old Chen was a good friend of Li Xuan's father, and they had been drafted into the army together. Li's father died in battle, but Old Chen survived, and therefore took special care of Li Xuan.
Li Xuan was a cautious man, and over the years, under Li Yuantu's tutelage, he had carefully maintained his relationship with Old Chen. Old Chen could easily handle a nobody like Li Xuan, who only needed to carry no more than a thousand catties of coarse salt a year.
The saltworkers in the salt fields worked extremely hard. The salt they produced was bought by the Hailing Salt Bureau for five coins per dou (a unit of dry measure), and the Hailing Salt Bureau then sold it to local governments at the official price of one hundred and fifty coins per dou. The retail price set by local governments reached astronomical prices of two hundred and fifty coins or even five or six hundred coins per dou.
The entire salt tax system was a game of profit-sharing between the Yu state's imperial court and local officials. The imperial court pocketed a share of the national treasury's tax revenue from the Hailing Salt Bureau, while local officials amassed wealth through the local government's salt trade. This practice of sharing the spoils and imposing a poll tax on the people ensured a minimum level of loyalty within the administrative system.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Therefore, outside the official salt system, and despite the threat of execution, private salt from various sources flourished in the countryside of Yu State.
Li Xuan bought salt at Hailing Salt Bureau for thirty cash per dou (a unit of dry measure). The advantage was that Old Chen or other officials in charge would help issue official salt documents. These documents, if sent directly to the salt's destination, were easily detected by the local government during accounting.
But as long as you don't enter the city and transport the salt to the rural sales points, the waterway patrols along the way won't be able to tell if it's real or fake, even if they come to your door.
Li Xuan paid the money, but this money didn't go into the public account. The Hailing Salt Bureau relied on the sea for its livelihood, and every official, high or low, had a certain quota of "official salt." As long as it was within the quota, they could sell it to their own people for profit without having to report to the imperial court.
This policy was deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people, uniting everyone in the Hailing Supervisory Bureau without any flaws. Even the supervisor sent by the imperial court was not spared. He resisted for a full two seconds before being dragged into the mess, generously declaring that he would become everyone's protector and dedicate himself to this easy job that paid several thousand strings of cash a year, working tirelessly until his dying breath.
After bidding farewell to Old Chen, Li Xuan and Li Chang braved the cold wind and rowed the boat for a long time before finally entering the salt field.
The guards at the saltworks were equally lax; they recognized Li Xuan's face as belonging to someone in the trade. After checking Old Chen's records and finding an update on his annual quota spending, they waved their hand and allowed Li Xuan to go in and collect the salt.
The salt fields under the jurisdiction of Hailing were the largest in the Yu state. This is understandable. Originally, the salt fields under the Chuzhou Salt Bureau were no smaller than those under Hailing. Unfortunately, Chuzhou was adjacent to the Huai River and had become the front line of the military confrontation between the north and south.
The Chuzhou Salt Administration was severely impacted by the war and was no longer as prosperous as before. Even the salt workers were conscripted on a large scale by the unreasonable military commanders.