The cliff was relatively high and it overlooked their village, so when they looked down, the young people were startled to see a group of people running towards their village!

Were the people from Hongjiang Salt Farm coming again? When these people came, it was never good!

The young men  hurried down  the village, but as soon as they arrived, they saw that the strangers had already entered the village.

“Young masters? How . . .” An old man from Yabian village walked forward, wanting to talk to those people, but one of them, with one move of his hand, directly slashed the old man’s neck with a knife.

Blood gushed out from the old man’s neck, stunning the Yabian villagers.

These people used to ask them for things, but this time . . . why were they killing?

“Uncle!“ Many people began to cry.

Every household in this Yabian Village had familial ties, so this old man was an elder for most people in the village. Then these people suddenly killed him; the villagers couldn’t help crying.

“What on earth do you want?” one of the young and strong people asked, looking angrily at the people from Hongjiang Salt Farm. He clenched the stick in his hand. Some people went to get other weapons; they already saw that they came here with evil intent.

“Fight!” the men who slashed the throat of old men said, and people behind him started to fight with the villagers.

There were as many as 30-40 people from outside, and there were only about 20 adult men in Yabian Village without any fighting experience, so of course, they were at a disadvantage.

“Dad . . . ,” a child began to cry, but his sobs soon stopped. It was obvious that someone had covered his mouth.

“Run!”

“Everybody run!”

“Go!”

 

. . .

 

The young men who fought with others shouted as the women in the village wiped their tears and ran away with their children. But those who attacked Yabian Village, how could they allow villagers to run away? “Get them!” The leader killed another villager. “No one can run away!”

More than a dozen of these people shouted to go after them, but at that moment, another group of people appeared at the other end of the village, blocking the escape of the women and children.

The woman who ran in front, fell on  the ground in shock and fear. Behind her, an elderly woman rushed towards the people, wielding a sickle in a desperate manner.

Those who stood in the way were all armed with knives and sticks, and their leader easily knocked the sickle from the old woman’s arms.

Upon seeing this, the Yabian villagers felt a burst of despair. They were already ready to be caught, humiliated, or killed by these people. But these men, instead of killing the women with the sickle, rushed forward with a stick towards the people who chased after them.

The stick in this man’s hand moved fast and stabbed the neck of the bandit who had entered the village first. Then he directly broke the man’s neck, causing the man to fall to the ground, no longer breathing.

These two groups were not together?

The people in Yabian Village became excited, then they saw the latter group rush forward, and before long, killed several people who entered the village before.

Those who had entered the village with intention to kill, immediately became frightened and fled. But this time it was the latter group who  chased after them.

“They’re here to save us!”

“Who are these people?”

“Dad! Wake up . . .” 

 

. . .

 

There were all kinds of cries in the village. Fang Qi, upon seeing these people, felt like he had seen himself of before.

Yes, it was Jiang Zhen and his group.

At the moment, Jiang Zhen led his people to chase after the attackers, but Fang Qi stayed with the women and gers who they had saved before to appease the people in the village.

“Everybody, cheer up. It will be alright , and all  will be fine in the future!” Fang Qi said.

Fang Qi’s accent was exactly the same as the people in Yabian Village, so villagers relaxed a lot, then someone asked, “You are . . .”

“I am from Xiaotang Village.” Fang Qi  spoke about his origin, and then explained the identity of Jiang Zhen and the others.

Jiang Zhen didn’t tell Fang Qi the entire truth, but he still said he was from nearby and saw people being killed at will. Fang Qi repeated what Jiang Zhen said then continued, “Our boss is a good man. Don’t worry. He will definitely help you.”

The people in Yabian Village were immediately very grateful.

Those who fled dispersed in different directions, so Jiang Zhen failed to catch them all in the end.

These people were all from Hongjiang Salt Farm, so after they ran away they might bring more people to attack Yabian Village. However, Jiang Zhen and his party could not stay in Yabian Village to protect these villagers all the time. There are not many of them, so if more people come from Hongjiang Salt Field they would not be able to defend the village.

Jiang Zhen and others had a night’s rest in Yabian Village, and when they left, people from Yabian village were behind him.

Two days later, Jiang Zhen and others met a group of salt workers hunted by officers and soldiers sent to fight the rebels.

On this side of the Hongjiang Salt Farm, there were a very large number of salt workers’ families, but in fact, only a small number of people were killed at  Hongjiang Salt Farm in the past.

But the officers and soldiers who came to suppress the rebellion didn’t care.

If something like this happened within Hongjiang Salt Farm, they certainly had to explain it to the people above. If they couldn’t catch the culprits, they had no choice but to find trouble with the innocent salt workers. Of course, they wanted to catch those rebellious salt workers, but there were also other considerations.

There was no war these days, but if a military officer wanted to be promoted, he must do meritorious deeds or kill the enemy.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural to have as many enemies as possible. After all, they needed to kill more people before they could be promoted and make a fortune.

At the request of the officers, the soldiers slaughtered the salt workers’ families in Hongjiang Salt Farm, regardless if it was a man or a woman, young or old. They were definitely all rebels.

These generations of salt workers had already encountered a lot of injustices and needed a lot of patience in recent years, so they could only run away in panic. If they didn’t run away, they would die.

Jiang Zhen’s group became bigger.

It was also impossible for them to not meet others again.

As time went by, there were more and more people around Jiang Zhen. If most of them were not men, Jiang Zhen would not be able to look after them. But even so, so many people were still a burden.

He needed to send these people to a safe place before he could think of something else . . . When Jiang Zhen talked to the relatively knowledgeable ones among them, he learned that there was a mountain forest nearby, which was a very good place to hide.

In that case, let’s send these people there first . . .

With his men, Jiang Zhen headed for the mountain forest.

It was dangerous to take so many people, so Jiang Zhen sent out a group to scout some news first. The day when these people came back after making inquiries and scouting the situation, they spoke worriedly, “Boss, there are traces of activity nearby, and there are a large number of them!”

Meanwhile, the Hongjiang Salt Farm rebels since then had been living in hiding; even more salt workers were attracted to go to Zhu Erlin. Someone also reported, “Brother Zhu, it seems that someone is coming. We saw cooking smoke!”

“Go and inquire!” Jiang Zhen said.

“Check it out!” Zhu Erlin also said.

Many people have died along the coast of Hexing Province, but it did not have much impact on it.

The impact was still small, but some large families who had already learned the news began to hoard salt, making the price of salt in Hexing Province more and more expensive, increasing the original price by several times.

However, if you eat less salt, you won’t die for a while . . . The impact of the rise in salt prices was not as great for people as grain prices.

But the upper echelons of Hexing Province didn’t care much about it.

After all, they were not short on salt. Except for those involved in this matter and those related to the Hongjiang Salt Farm, no one was worried.

The total number of salt workers was quite  few, so it certainly would not be a big problem.

Compared with the Hongjiang Salt Farm, they were more concerned with Qingfeng wine; the imperial edict came from the capital, not only listing Qingfeng wine as a tribute, but also praising the wine.

What was the taste of wine that even the royal family praised?

The rich businessmen in Hexing Province were all interested in Qingfeng wine, but the Zheng family refused to take out even a drop ever since sending the first few wines out.

Scarcity was precious, so it made people look forward to Qingfeng wine more and more over time. But they didn’t know that Zheng Yi was actually a little depressed at the moment.

He managed to save a batch of wine. But as a result . . . Jiang Zhen sent someone to take it all!

Jiang Zhen took such expensive wine to clean his people’s wounds!

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

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