Most of the people in Hongjiang Salt Farm were people from Daqi, but few of them at a glance were not from Daqi.

When Jiang Zhen saw those people, he was surprised, but  did not hesitate to ask Fang Qi about them.

“Boss, the people you’re talking about are supposed to be Oriental ronins.” When Fang Qi heard Jiang Zhen’s question, he immediately took a shortcut.

“Oriental ronins?” Jiang Zhen frowned slightly; he could understand what those people said, which was not much different from one of the three foreign languages he knew. But he didn’t expect them to appear in Daqi.

Seeing that Jiang Zhen was confused, Fang Qi immediately explained.

People outside Daqi were called barbarians by the people of Daqi, and these ronins were one of these barbarians.

They originally lived on a small island in the eastern part of the sea, but because of the war in their country, many people could not live there anymore, and they crossed the sea to make a living here.

“Boss, those Oriental ronins work without complaining, so the Hongjiang Salt Farm likes to use them a lot,” Fang Qi added. Oriental ronins were very common by the sea.

Jiang Zhen asked Fang Qi some more questions and pondered this. He understood that Hongjiang Salt Farm was doing well and why they treated salt workers badly. He also estimated that this  has something to do with these Oriental ronins.

It had been 300 years since the founding of Daqi, and the Hongjiang Salt Farm had been around for more than 200 years. The number of salt workers might not be large at the beginning, but with the passage of time, these salt workers had their own children and their number increased.

Originally, the Hongjiang Salt Farm still needed them to boil salt, so even if they felt it was not very cost-effective to support so many people, they were still good to them. But over the years, more and more Oriental ronins came here.

These Oriental ronins were used to living very poor lives on their small island, so as long as they got here, they worked very hard so long as they were fed. They were also willing to work harder than others, and they didn’t have any family members. All of them were not afraid of death when they crossed the sea, so most of them were men.

With such a good labor force, the people of the Hongjiang Salt Farm naturally began to be dissatisfied with the original salt workers who dragged along their families, so they laid their hands on the salt workers and their families without worry.

They were not short of workers anyway.

Having figured out the reason, Jiang Zhen did not know how to evaluate the current mess. However, this was not the time to think about this; they had to think about how to deal with that group.

Such a group should not be left to continue to harm others . . . thinking about the few women they brought along as well as the gers in this tragic situation, Jiang Zhen couldn’t help but frown.

In ancient times, the fate of women and gers was always out of their control, and they would be miserable if they were not careful . . . His Mingzhu . . .

When he thought that Zhao Mingzhu might also encounter misfortune if there was war in the future, Jiang Zhen’s mood worsened. Then he became even more determined to take the road he wanted to take.

Jiang Zhen discussed some countermeasures with his men, and then found a place to eat and sleep first.

In the latter part of the night, Jiang Zhen woke all his men up and quietly approached the group’s camp.

Obviously, among this group, the status of the Oriental ronins was not high, so it was Oriental ronins who kept the watch at night.

It was early in the morning, so the people who kept watch at night were drowsy. Jiang Zhen knocked on the wood in the dark, and the men under his hands leaned over quietly, finally covering the mouths and noses of the watchmen and slitting their throats with a knife.

The number of people in that group of Hongjiang Salt Farm workers was about the same as that of Jiang Zhen’s and the others. They used sneak attacks at night to kill all the people in Fang Qi’s village, so this time, Jiang Zhen led a sneak attack on them.

Under this calculated attack, the group was soon wiped out, and no one under Jiang Zhen’s hands died only seven or eight were injured.

Even if the rescued women and gers were not all from Fang Qi’s village, they were still from somewhere nearby, so Jiang Zhen asked Fang Qi to talk to them and arranged for someone to clean up the battlefield.

“Those who are injured come to me,” Jiang Zhen said. 

After several injured people came over, he took out a wineskin and unplugged it. A strong aroma of wine suddenly drifted over.

“Boss?“ Jiang Ming, who was also one of the injured, looked at Jiang Zhen in some surprise.

He knew this wine; it was Qingfeng wine that many people wanted to buy but couldn’t, in Fucheng! Jiang Zhen called them over and took out the Qingfeng wine. Is he going to give these injured people some wine to drink?

As a matter of fact, Jiang Ming did not drink much wine, nor did he have much interest in wine, but as long as he thought that this was the wine that even the country magistrate was thinking about, he really wanted to taste it.

However . . . Jiang Zhen pointed the wine bag at the wound on Jiang Ming’s hand . . . 

Jiang Ming immediately let out a scream, which was no different from the pig’s cry when Jiang Zhen killed the pigs before.

The people who were originally cleaning the battlefield were startled when they heard the scream. The gers, who were from the same village as Fang Qi and had just been rescued by them, subconsciously huddled together and trembled.

“Boss, what are you doing?“ Jiang Ming was speechless. His boss poured wine on his wound. Was he deliberately messing with him? Moreover, how can such precious wine be casually poured on his wound? It was too wasteful!

“It’s for your own good.“ Jiang Zhen glanced at him and then told him to bandage it himself before letting the next person come over.

Jiang Ming also knew that this must be for his own good, so he didn’t say anything more. However, Jiang Ming was a little depressed when he saw that the people behind him clenched their teeth and didn’t yell, making him lose a lot of face.

When the battlefield was cleaned up and the wound bandaged, it was almost dawn.

The people of Hongjiang Salt Farm were the poorest, so they didn’t have much money, but for Jiang Zhen, just killing them was beneficial.

The people of Hongjiang Salt Farm had their own badges to prove their identity, and he had obtained these during their encounter. So this time, they could pretend to be Hongjiang Salt Farm people and avoid some unnecessary disputes.

Burying the bodies on the spot, Jiang Zhen packed up his things and continued on his way.

He didn’t drive away the women and gers they saved, but he also didn’t allow them to slow them down.

These women and gers were all from fishing villages along this shoreline, so it was estimated that they’ve worked there all their lives. Although it was difficult to walk, they still kept up, and when Jiang Zhen talked about his knowledge of survival in the wild, they listened very attentively.

As long as they were human, they always wanted to live.

A few days later.

Yabian Village was a small village by the sea with no more than ten families in the village.

There was a cliff where they lived, from which Yabian Village’s name came from.

The people in Yabian Village rely on fishing for their livelihood, and they were very poor. There were no fishing boats to go to the sea, so they fished from the cliff and picked up fish and shrimps on the beach. They also grew their own vegetables on the sand by the sea.

That day, the young people of Yabian Village caught some fishes and picked up some shrimps and crabs from the crevices of the rocks by the sea and walked home together.

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

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