All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 284: Chen Ran fights with the salt dealer, Xianzhi flees in fear

At the foot of Longmen Mountain, next to the grove.

The two largest private salt dealers in Puzhou agreed to compete here.

The Shang family sent Shang Rang, the younger brother of Shang Junchang. Although young, he was a well-known strong man in the area.

Not only is he skilled in martial arts, but he is also extremely brave.

Previously, Wang Xianzhi had several brave warriors under his command, but they were all killed by Shang Rang.

The military industry was very developed during the Tang Dynasty. Shang Rang, who was riding a horse, was actually wearing a full set of Ming Guang armor.

With the laxity of discipline, rebellions continued and there were defeated soldiers and deserters everywhere. It was natural that a large amount of armor flowed into the civilian population.

It was precisely because of the extremely high level of civilian military strength that, even though the Tang Dynasty was in chaos, no one dared to provoke the surrounding tribal countries.

"Shang Rang is here!" The young Shang Rang shouted to Wang Xianzhi, "Who's here to die?!"

The salt workers on his side suddenly cheered and their morale was high.

Wang Xianzhi glanced at Chen Ran beside him, rode his horse forward a few steps, and shouted to the Shang brothers, "Shang brothers, I have invited a brave warrior today."

"If you win this fight, from now on, the private salt business in Puzhou will be ruled by the Shang family!"

Shang Junchang rode out on his horse and said to the other side, "You are both good men. Keep your word! If you win, our Shang family will follow your lead from now on!"

A few years later, when the two launched an uprising together, Wang Xianzhi was indeed the leader, but I don't know how he won in history.

Wang Xianzhi stroked his beard and smiled at first, but only came to his senses when he heard Chen Ran coughing behind him.

"If you lose, you will be under the command of this heroic warrior from now on."

He extended his hand to signal Chen Ran who was riding forward. "Chen Ran, courtesy name Zihou. He is also known as 'Yun Da Nu' in Jianghu~~~"

Shang Rang looked at Chen Ran, who was riding a poor horse and didn't even have any armor on his body, and couldn't help laughing, "How could you be so poor and jealous that you even gave yourself a name? You don't even have any armor, and you still dare to fight me?"

Chen Ran, holding a big spear, rode his horse slowly. "The spear has no eyes. If you die in the fight, don't blame me."

"Hmph." Shang Rang snorted coldly, spurred his horse forward, and stabbed Chen Ran in the heart with the lance that he had bought at a great cost.

Although he is young, he is not stupid at all. He is not a person with only muscles but no brains.

If he had no brains, he would not have immediately surrendered to the court when he saw Huang Chao was in trouble.

He had a backup plan in mind and was watching Chen Ran's movements vigilantly.

Seeing that Chen Ran simply raised his spear and swept across to block, Shang Rang suddenly felt relieved.

"So it's useless. Eh~~~? !"

Chen Ran blocked the attack with an ordinary hand, and his spear hit Shang Rang's lance. The terrifying force was transmitted like a mountain pressing down on one's head.

In just a moment, Shang Rang's lance was knocked away.

Chen Ran’s arms have a strength of three thousand pounds!

Under such a terrible force, let alone Shang Rang, even Li Keyong would be at a loss.

The force was so strong that the knuckles of Shang Rang's hands holding the lance were torn apart and bleeding profusely.

Before he could come to his senses, the spear in Chen Ran's hand had already stabbed towards him like lightning and pierced his throat with one shot.

Even if he was wearing a set of Ming Guang armor with amazing defensive power, it was still useless.

Seeing Shang Rang fall to the ground, the onlookers cried out in shock.

We all came from a salt industry background. We have experienced many life-and-death battles and have seen countless deaths. We should not be so shocked.

But Chen Ran acted too quickly, and in just a single blow, he stabbed the famous hero of Puzhou to death.

This level of skill and technique is truly shocking.

"Second brother?!~~~"

The person who was most heartbroken was Shang Junchang.

Seeing his second brother die, his eyes were bulging with anger. "How dare you kill my brother?!"

Wang Xianzhi was very happy, thinking that Chen Ran had killed Shang Rang, and it was impossible for the Shang family to surrender. If he operated well, he could not only take over the Shang family's business, but also possibly subdue this warrior as his younger brother.

He suppressed his joy and shouted loudly, "As I said before, swords and guns have no eyes in a fight. If there are casualties, hey hey hey, what are you going to do?~~~"

As he spoke, Chen Ran suddenly accelerated his horse and rushed towards Shang Junchang.

Shang Junchang was horrified and subconsciously picked up the lance to resist, but Chen Ran rushed over like a gust of wind, knocked the lance away with one spear, and then stabbed Shang Junchang off his horse!
The sudden change left both sides dumbfounded.

Holding the reins, Chen Ran looked around at the salt workers brought by the Shang brothers and shouted, "From now on, I will be your leader. Is there anyone who disobeys?!"

The sound was like thunder, and the echo seemed to resound throughout Longmen Mountain.

The salt workers tied their heads to their belts and did the job of selling contraband salt. Their only reason was to make money.

What brotherhood, what going through fire and water for the big brother, that's all bullshit.

Since the Shang brothers gave them money, they were naturally willing to work and risk their lives.

But these two brothers are already dead, and no one will risk their own life to avenge them.

"From now on, everyone's reward will remain the same, and we will give everyone an extra 100 yuan."

As soon as these words came out, the salt workers looked at each other, came over to salute, and said, "We are willing to die for you, my lord."

There were also smart people who said on the spot, "It was agreed that in a fight, swords and spears are blind. If they died, it's because they didn't learn the skills well enough."

"Right~" "That's right."

"That's what I mean~"

"Boss Shang has said before that if we lose, we will hand over the business~"

During these words, more than ten salt workers turned around and ran away.

Chen Ran immediately rode his horse to chase after them, picked up his bow and arrow and shot arrows like rain, and in a short time he shot all the people to death.

These are Shang family’s close relatives and confidants, and they are thinking of escaping back to report the news.

Only at this time did Chen Ran turn his horse around and head towards Wang Xianzhi.

Wang Xianzhi, who had been in a daze before, suddenly started to wake up!
"Good fellow, it turns out that your initial intention was to eat me up. You are so cruel and ruthless. Who would dare to subdue you when I want to?!"

"Stop!" Wang Xianzhi yelled at Chen Ran to stop. "From now on, you and I have nothing to do with each other!"

After saying that, he turned his horse around and ran into the salt workers he brought with him, seeking a sense of security.

Seeing Wang Xianzhi hurriedly riding away on his horse, Chen Ran sighed softly, "I just wanted to say thank you. It's not time to swallow you up yet, why are you so scared?"

Chen Ran led more than 200 salt workers and came to the Shang family's fortress in a mighty manner.

"Charge into the fort and take the treasure!"

After hearing Chen Ran's instructions, the salt workers rushed into the unguarded fort with a roar. Immediately, the sounds of crying and fighting were heard, and even fires were started.

Chen Ran, who had experienced turbulent times, knew very well that it was impossible to subdue the Shang family's relatives and confidants.

If we keep them, no one will say that we are kind-hearted, and it will only bring endless bad things.

"I've only been here for a short time, and I've already been led astray." Chen Ran shook his head and rode his horse slowly into the fort. "It's all because of this damn world."

After the cleanup, Shangjiawu Fort had a new owner.

It was not until this time that Chen Ran counted the first force he had seized.

There were less than three hundred salt workers, and if their families were included, there were more than a thousand of them.

In history, when Wang Xianzhi and the Shang brothers led the salt workers to start an uprising, they claimed to have thousands of them.

In fact, Puzhou's private salt market could not support so many salt workers. The only explanation was that this included the salt workers' family members.

In a civilized world, everyone is responsible for their own actions.

But in the feudal era, there were crimes such as collective punishment and the practice of copying the melon vines.

If your relatives rebel, you will be punished with the same crime even if you do not join them. What else can you do? You can only grab your weapons and join in the fight.

As for the property, they were all divided up by the salt collectors, leaving only a fort and hundreds of bags of salt in the warehouse.

In the early Tang Dynasty, anyone could do salt business.

After all, the Tang Dynasty was strong at that time and did not lack the income from the salt industry.

However, after the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty, whose national strength had declined, turned its attention to salt and began to monopolize the business.

In every city, there is a place where salt is sold.

The imperial court arranged personnel to sell salt in various places.

At that time, the high-quality salt shipped from Qinghai cost only a few cents per pound, but the selling price was as high as dozens of cents.

By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the price of ordinary salt had soared from less than ten coins per dou to as much as three or four hundred coins, an increase of dozens of times.

Because it was a monopoly of the imperial court, it was natural that various problems would arise, such as selling inferior products as good ones, short-weighting, forced buying and selling, etc., which made the lives of the already poor people even more difficult.

Under such circumstances, private salt naturally came into being.

Since the people could not afford the official salt, they would naturally choose private salt.

However, this affected the government's important financial revenue, which basically accounted for more than half of the court's income. Therefore, in the late Tang Dynasty, the crackdown on private salt dealers was very severe.

Anyone who sells illegal salt shall be sentenced to death.

Not to mention relatives, even the neighbors of the private salt dealers would be implicated and suffer.

The salt production in the Tang Dynasty came from salt ponds in Hedong and other places on the one hand, and sea salt along the coast on the other.

Puzhou is not near the sea and is quite far away from Hedong and other places.

The source of local private salt was, on the one hand, official salt purchased from the government in exchange for bribes, but the government was greedy and the cost was too high.

Another source is the local rock salt.

At this time, most of the hundreds of bags of salt in the Shang family’s warehouse were locally produced rock salt.

Looking at the bags of bittern salt full of impurities in front of him, Chen Ran fell into deep thought.

"In an era dominated by warriors, I should be unrivaled and dominate the world. Do I have to go the technical route?"

The technical flow is a must. Chen Ran now needs to make money to recruit soldiers, purchase military supplies, food, grass, weapons, armor, etc.

He now didn't even have any idea where to get his next meal, because the salt workers not only divided up the Shang family's property, but also looted all the food in the fort.

"Recruit soldiers and buy horses, recruit soldiers and buy horses~"

"Without money and food, no soldier or horse will recognize you!"

(End of this chapter)