TOFUH – Chapter 135.2 – The Salt Farm Is Finished

Zhao Jinge’s face suddenly turned red. “Wash yourself. I’ll wash your hair.” Jiang Zhen’s hair, if it wasn’t properly clean and tidied up, shouldn’t be seen by people at all!

Zhao Jinge refused to wash with Jiang Zhen, but when Jiang Zhen had washed once and changed the water in the tub to wash for the second time, he was still pulled into the tub by Jiang Zhen after all.

“Jiang Zhen, don’t be like this! . . . Young Master Zheng is still waiting outside!”

“Let him wait.”

“Young Master Zheng has something to tell you . . .”

“He didn’t say it just now, so he shouldn’t be in a hurry.”

 

. . .

 

The wind was strong at sea.

 

Zheng Yi asked his people to move the table and all chairs from the deck to the cabin while asking others to wait at the door of Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge’s cabin. “You don’t need to call them. Just let them come to see me when you see Master Jiang come out.”

He thought that Jiang Zhen should be ready after a while.

It took Jiang Zhen an hour to go to Zheng Yi, and by that time, it was already completely dark. However, the cabin where Zheng Yi stayed was lit with many candles, which made it look very bright.

“Young Master Zheng, is the salt field business coming to an end?” Jiang Zhen asked after entering the door.

“Yes.” Zheng Yi laughed, and then pointed to the direction of the Hongjiang Salt Farm. “That place will belong to the Zheng family.”

The imperial envoy sent by the empress dowager, surnamed Yang, had already arrived at Wuzhong Prefecture. The first thing he did after arriving at Wuzhong prefecture was call back all generals who had gone to “counter the rebellion.”

It was obvious that the Hongjiang Salt Farm was corrupt and was breaking the law by selling illegal salt, and it was the imperial envoy, Zhou Maohe, who occupied it with his people. So how did it become a salt workers’ rebellion? As soon as envoy Yang came, he convicted all the generals and then replaced them while taking control of the military power.

“Master Yang has already obtained military power. Next, he will start to clean up the officials here. I am afraid that a lot of officials from Wuzhong and Hecheng prefectures will be replaced,” Zheng Yi said.

If he had not known that the empress dowager had already disliked the situation at Hongjiang Salt Farm, he would not have agreed to Jiang Zhen’s plan to deal with the Hongjiang Salt Farm from the very beginning. If it were not for his guess that most of the generals who went to counter the “rebellion” would not have been able to get good results in the end, Zheng Yi would also not agree to Jiang Zheng going there.

At the moment, it was because the new imperial envoy had defined the original salt worker rebellion as those generals colluding with the salt farm to farm salt workers, that Zheng Yi was willing to personally come to pick up people and even didn’t mind contacting Zhu Erlin, the original “rebel leader.”

They were just poor salt workers who were persecuted by the officials and soldiers and not a rebel group at all.

Jiang Zhen understood all of this.

He dared to do everything for Zhu Erlin and the others, because he knew that as long as they survived the previous wave, they would be fine.

Of course, they still had to leave at this time . . . Even if the imperial envoy was willing to take off the label of “rebel” from them, he couldn’t keep those disobedient salt worker families. When they deal with those officials, they would certainly have to clean up the seaside.

Of course it would happen in the future. 

In this time period, there were no photos or videos, so if those people in the future change into clean clothes, take good care of themselves, and shave their faces clean . . . who could still recognize them? By then, they would be able to live openly and honestly.

“Young Master Zheng, who will be in charge of the salt farm in the future?” Jiang Zhen asked again.

“The salt farm will be under the control of this Lord Yang in the future,” Zheng Yi said. “Although Lord Yang is extremely capable, in the past, because he offended some people, he had to wait for more than a decade. But a few years ago, he won my second uncle’s favor, so my uncle looked after him. Just last year, my cousin married Lord Yang’s eldest son.”

Their Zheng family had little power in the court, but they still have such an in-law family.

Jiang Zhen raised his eyebrows at his words, but his mood suddenly became extremely good.

Zheng Yi then asked, “Jiang Zhen, what exactly do you want to do?” Their Zheng family could profit from the salt field, but Jiang Zhen should not be able to.

Even if they let Jiang Zhen’s Jinzhen Escort Agency help transport the salt in the future, Jiang Zhen wouldn’t actually earn much.

“Young Master Zheng, I want to get some sea ships to go on the sea,” Jiang Zhen said.

“Go to sea?” Zheng Yi looked at Jiang Zhen, his heartwarming up again.

Sea merchants, there were not many professions more profitable than becoming sea merchants. But in the sea, there were still many dangers. In the end, an inadvertent sinking of the ship may cause you to lose all the money. Not only that, many sea merchants who went to the sea lost their lives there.

“If you become a sea merchant, just let me know if you want any goods,” Zheng Yi said. He was very life conscious, so he himself gave up on the idea of becoming a sea merchant.

“Young Master Zheng, happy cooperation,” Jiang Zhen said directly.

“Happy cooperation,” Zheng Yi also said.

After Jiang Zhen and Zheng Yi finished talking, he went back to his room.

When he went back, Zhao Jinge was still awake, but Zhao Mingzhu had already fallen asleep and was lying on her back with her arms and legs spread out, dominating half of the bed.

The bed in the cabin was against the wall, so when the child was moved, Jiang Zhen slept in the middle.

A little beauty was lying on one side while a handsome man was on another, Jiang Zhen slept very contentedly.

Of course, there were also some shortcomings, the little fat beauty wetted the bed in the middle of the night.

After a good night’s rest, Jiang Zhen was in very high spirits the next day.

He went to the bow of the ship to do some simple training only to find that at this time  there were also Eastern ronins there.

There were many Eastern ronins in Hongjiang Salt Farm, but those ronins didn’t actually end well.

Hongjiang Salt Farm, because of the Eastern ronins’ hard work, was willing to use them, but they had always looked down on them and had squeezed them dry.

As a result, when the Hongjiang Salt Farm was in chaos, those Eastern ronins were used as cannon fodder, and most of them died in the end.

In modern times, Jiang Zhen did not like that country in the East, but not enough to bother with ordinary people, so after one glance at the Eastern ronins working on the ship, he no longer paid attention to them.

At noon that day, the ten ships traveled to the island where Zheng Yi intended to relocate those people.

Zhu Erlin gave a very large amount of money, so Zheng Yi was also very generous, and he had already asked people to build some houses on the island. When he sent people down, he also gave them a lot of food. And after Zhu Erlin took out  more money, he promised that, in two days, some chickens, ducks, pigs, and goats would be sent to them to eat.

“Jiang Zhen, thank you.”  Zhu Erlin thanked Jiang Zhen when he was placed on the island with his full beard.

“Master Jiang, thank you.” A man who was rescued by Jiang Zhen also looked at Jiang Zhen.

With these two people opening their mouths first, the voices giving thanks suddenly sounded one after another.

At that moment, the old man from Yabian Village, who swung his sickle at Jiang Zhen before being knocked off by him, suddenly knelt down and kowtowed towards Jiang Zhen. “Master Jiang, thank you!”

After he did it, more and more people began to do so, and in the end, they all knelt down.

Jiang Zhen was stunned for a moment; it was the first time so many people kowtowed to him.

Zhao Jinge looked at Jiang Zhen, feeling proud. Jiang Zhen was really powerful! He was so respected!

With unspeakable excitement, he finally gave Zhao Mingzhu a kiss on the cheek and gradually calmed down.

Zhao Mingzhu could not take her eyes off those people; the expression on her face became “serious” again.

When Jiang Zhen left the island, he felt a little uncomfortable.

He saved people for selfish reasons; he received money from Zhu Erlin, and even after sharing with Zheng Yi, he still get hundreds of thousands of silver from Zhu Erlin . . . There were also other benefits, but these people were still very grateful to him . . .

“Young Master Zheng, I’ll come with you in a few days and send them some medicinal herbs,” Jiang Zhen said, facing Zheng Yi.

“Medicinal herbs cost a lot of money, you are really generous,” Zheng Yi said.

“From now on, they will all be my people,” Jiang Zhen said very domineeringly, though one of his hands was still holding Zhao Mingzhu, who was wrapped in a diaper . . .

“Father!” Zhao Mingzhu began to stir up. What she disliked the most was Jiang Zhen talking to others while ignoring her! She wanted Jiang Zhen or Zhao Jinge to hold her as they went around the ship!

“Mingzhu , Daddy is here. Where do you want to go?” Jiang Zhen asked immediately, ignoring Zheng Yi.

Zheng Yi had long been used to it, so he just smiled like he didn’t care at all that he was just ignored.

Zhao Maohe, who just happened to come over, blew up his beard and stared with an air of hatred, “Jiang Zhen, you are a man. Holding a child all day is a woman’s job!” What kind of man take care of children all day?! That is a woman’s job!

Jiang Zhen ignored him, but Zheng Yi sighed.

The empress dowager originally thought that Zhou Maohe had already died at the hands of the salt workers and thought about how to honor him, but he was still alive it turned out . . .

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

Support translation:

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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. White Whale

    What’s wrong with looking after your own child? Jiang zhen although your initial motive for saving those peopel are indeed selfish, you came to help them.

    1. Aergales

      It is a job of women to raising children at home in ancient times, just like Zheng Yi family does

  2. Merlopach

    Oh such a sweet family <3… The sea is very dangerous indeed…

  3. jiggy

    Zhao maohe will never change lol

    Can’t wait to read the next chapter.

    Thank you for your hard work.

  4. GiL

    Ugh! Zhao Maohe, you’re still alive?! Really?!
    Zhao Maohe, you never learned and so obstinate. Tsk tsk!
    Anyway, thanks for the chapter

  5. Rebecca

    Lots of people do good things for selfish reasons. It doesn’t make the good thing less good. No matter the reason, those people are alive and safe because of him.

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