Chapter 47: Surrender

  Li Meng returned to Ling Shan Wei on the third day after taking office, and those who had escaped were unexpectedly following Chen Liu and Wang Hai for training, which really made Li Meng angry. However, since he was back, his orders were carried out.

  These four people were driven out of the salt well and explicitly told that no one would buy their salt in the future, so they might as well go home and farm honestly.

  No more wages for salt workers, and the salt cooked at home has no place to sell. These good days have passed in just a few days, and I'm afraid we'll soon return to our former poverty. But these people dare not complain, they can only accept this treatment, after all, Wei is also a soldier.

  Everyone was discussing and saying that if this were on the battlefield, deserters would be beheaded by military law, but Li Erlang is truly merciful.

  The news of killing more than 80 salt workers on the official road had spread to the state city, but no one in Ling Shan Wei Suo and the salt field knew about it. Li Meng transferred 100 salt workers who were originally assigned to Feng Meng Town to the surrounding areas of Ling Shan Salt Field, under the pretext of preventing bandits from invading.

  In fact, it was firmly controlled here. Every catty of salt had to go through monitoring, but the salt field was not within the jurisdiction of the patrol inspection. Li Meng did things very rigorously and sent someone outside to loudly proclaim the conditions, comparing them to those who worked in the Xue family's thousand-household salt fields, promising that anyone who jumped ship would receive this treatment, and also promised that it would increase in the future.

  The salt workers in the salt yard were being exploited to death by the salt tax collector. This time, someone outside was poaching them, and indeed knew that their former colleagues were doing well in the adjacent salt fields, so they all agreed to join. As a result, within three days, half of the people from the official Ling Shan Salt Yard had run away.

  The rest are just mixed roles, not willing to run, and Li Meng doesn't want them either. The salt tax envoy wants to take charge, but the few people under him see the salt sticks guarding outside and can't wait to knock their heads down, who dares to speak up there?

  Now Li Meng has stationed a hundred salt-boiling troops in Lingshanwei, a hundred at the Lingshan Salt Field, fifteen in Mangcheng Town, and 150 within the city walls. Almost all of his recruits are being utilized, with Li Meng firmly controlling the places where salt is produced, which means he naturally controls the entire private salt trade in Laizhou Prefecture.

  Within three days of taking office, Li Meng took such action, simply not allowing others to take advantage of the loophole. The two salt merchants in Fengmeng Town were full of complaints, and some people who had interests inside were also making a fuss. The Salt Gabelle Envoy even had someone send a letter to the Magistrate of Jiaozhou.

  However, by the fifth day, even with the speed of information dissemination in this era, the massacre on the official road and the number of deaths had spread, and everyone was silent as a cicada. Whatever Li Meng ordered, they would do it honestly, without daring to say an extra word.

  It's not even mid-March, and the southern part of Laizhou City has basically stabilized. Zhao Neng, Ma Gang, Chen Liuzi, and Wang Hai each lead a group of people on duty at various places, with shifts changing every three days and inspections every six days.

  For the situation where they almost collapsed in front of Yan Ding on the official road, Li Meng's conclusion was simple, that is, the training was not enough and must be strengthened.

  It's been almost half a year, and the initial thirty salt transport team members are quite familiar with Li Meng's training methods, physical fitness, and skills. They take turns supervising each other's practice, and when they rotate to Jiaozhou City, Li Meng checks on their training results.

  After the four salt peddlers who deserted at the critical moment were ruthlessly driven out by Li Meng, the family's life quickly became miserable and poor. The family quarreled every day, and several times they came back to beg in tears, but were rejected.

  In the meantime, they gave a warning to other young people that it's not just about working hard in this salt-making village to have a good life. When you need to work hard, you must work hard. Their families also sent messages saying that there is such a good place and you must cherish it. Look at those few kids, not only are they lazy but they also drag their own family into poverty.

  Lingshan Salt Field and Xuejia Thousand Households' salt fields produce salt, which is sold to salt merchants and salt peddlers in Gangmeng Town and various places in Laizhou, generating a stable income.

  Li Meng roughly calculated that he had an income of nearly eight hundred taels of silver per month, and after deducting the food, drink and other expenses for more than three hundred salt workers, as well as all necessary expenses, he could save about three hundred taels of silver.

  Mu Xun's sudden death left his position vacant, and the people under him scattered like birds and beasts. The account books and documents were left unattended, abandoned in the chaos. Li Meng borrowed a warehouse manager from Jinzhou to help sort out the accounts. It wasn't a difficult task, but what struck Li Meng as odd was that when Mu Xun died, his relatives and friends had only taken around 2,000 taels of silver with them. This meant that after serving as a circuit inspector for seven or eight years, Mu Xun had only managed to accumulate a little over 3,000 taels of silver. Considering the expenses he incurred each year, including the cost of salt production, which was around 4,000 taels per year, it seemed unlikely that Mu Xun's spending could have been so extravagant, even in the small city of Jiaozhou.

  Wasn't there still silver buried underground? Li Meng was very puzzled. This question got an answer on the eighth day after taking office.

  A small state and a Wei camp are between the territories, Li Meng's subordinates do not ride horses but walk, they can arrive during the day, there is Hou Shan in Fengmeng Town at this midpoint, and all kinds of big and small outlaws provide information, everything is under control, very calm.

  For the next few days, Li Meng's daily work was to go out of the city for training and verification with these new salt sticks, which also suited his living state. To be honest, living in Jiaozhou City made Li Meng feel very good. In this small state city at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this urban life brought him back to modern times vaguely.

  Just as Li Meng was about to go out, he heard Chen Liu Zi, who was on duty here, hastily walking into the house and said with a confused expression:

  "Lord Li, there's someone kneeling at the entrance of your residence. He's been there since before dawn. The morning guard just came over to tell me."

  By the way, Li Meng's troops were completely built, trained, and educated according to modern military standards, including sentry duties.

  "This isn't a government office, what are you kneeling here for!"

  "That man claimed to be a former mentor of King Mu-yeol..."