My eunuch godfather

After meeting up, Zhang Kun and Chen Jizong exchanged information and learned why the fleet was moving so slowly:

Chen Jizong told the fleet to slow down, and the garrison commander that Xu Bengao had put in had no objection.

The fleet traveled less than 20 li a day, and stopped at Qianning Water Station in Xingji County for a day under the pretext of repairing the ships.

It took ten days to reach Zhuanhe Water Station in Cangzhou.

The Hejian Salt Transport Office sent someone to request assistance, stating that a group of thieves were causing trouble in their jurisdiction and requesting support.

Chen Jizong didn't want to meddle, but the garrison commander insisted on going to provide support.

They even expressed their intention to go and support the Salt Transport Bureau, even if it meant disobeying orders.

Although Chen Jizong was the stationed officer of the river work camp, his position was higher than that of the garrison commander.

However, Xu Bengao was behind the garrison commander, so Chen Jizong ultimately chose to back down.

The garrison commander rushed to the jurisdiction of the Hejian Salt Transport Office to track down and wipe out the band of thieves, which took six days.

After returning, they rested in Cangzhou for another day, so much so that they only arrived in Nanpi when Zhang Kun reached Dezhou.

"My brother thinks this guy is most likely smuggling salt!"

Chen Jizong lowered his voice and confided his guess to Zhang Kun: "And behind him is Governor Xu!"

The garrison commander, along with his household servants and soldiers, brought back more than thirty coffins, claiming they contained the corpses of the thieves.

Most of it is smuggled salt!

"How much smuggled salt could thirty coffins hold? Ten thousand catties? Twenty thousand catties?"

Zhang Kun felt this reason was not quite right, and shook his head at Chen Jizong, saying:

"I suspect the story behind this is far more complicated."

Twenty thousand catties of salt, at the market price, would cost 140,000 copper coins, which is equivalent to 175 taels of silver.

Is it worth all this trouble for such a small amount of money?

"What my brother says makes sense."

Chen Jizong nodded. Several of the guards of the garrison commander were wounded, clearly indicating that they had been in battle.

Zhang Kun imagined all sorts of stories: murder to cover up a crime, dividing the loot, investigating a major case...

But Zhang Kun didn't want to get involved or be involved; recruiting river workers for the river engineering camp was the most important thing.

The fleet continued south at full speed.

After passing Liangjiazhuang Water Station and Jiamaying Water Station in Wucheng County, it only took six days to reach Qingyuan Water Station in Linqing Prefecture.

Linqing had only tens of thousands of people in the early Ming Dynasty. Due to the rapid development of the Grand Canal, the city was built during the Jingtai period.

Today, the population of Linqing, including the city proper, the surrounding areas, and other areas, is close to one million, comparable to that of the capital!

Similar to the capital, Linqing also built a new city during the Jiajing era, which was popularly known as Luocheng.

Unlike the capital city and other major cities like Nanjing and Suzhou, Linqing has a very high proportion of migrant workers, sometimes exceeding half.

Linqing was not only a key hub in the northern section of the Grand Canal and the heart of the grain transport system, but also the number one granary in the Ming Dynasty.

A quarter of the old city was filled with granaries, storing more than 300 million shi of grain annually.

This is why Zhang Kun went to Linqing Prefecture to buy grain; the old grain at the bottom of the granary was very cheap.

As long as it's not moldy and has few insects, old grains only taste worse, but don't lose much in calories.

......

Upon learning of the arrival of Zhang Kun, Chen Jizong, and others, the prefect of Linqing hosted a banquet behind the government office and personally entertained the officials of the river works camp.

Normally, the prefect would usually maintain his status and at most have his assistants and subordinates entertain him.

However, Linqing is now home to hundreds of thousands of disaster victims, and the prefect is hoping the river works camp will recruit more workers, so he has no choice but to lower his standards.

Although Linqing is located in Shandong, it has a large southern population and many southern dishes, such as the preparation of cold dishes for banquets.

Nanjing's salted duck, Zhenjiang's crystal pork, Suzhou's sweet smoked fish, and Shaoxing's live drunken shrimp.

I didn't quite like the sweet smoked fish, and I wouldn't dare eat the live drunken shrimp nowadays, but the other two were very good.

It is served with Shandong-style cucumbers and sweet and sour lotus root, making it crisp and refreshing.

The hot dish features braised sea cucumber and pork knuckle from Shandong, with the collagen-rich sea cucumber simmered in a rich aroma of meat and scallions.

Huaiyang cuisine features braised lion's head meatballs and steamed Yangtze River shad as its main dishes, both incredibly tender and delicious.

It is served with Shandong-style stir-fried bean sprouts and vinegared cabbage with sliced ​​pork, and finished with Huaiyang-style thinly sliced ​​tofu as a soup dish.

Finally, arrange the fruits: cherry jelly, chilled bayberries, red and white mulberries, and yellow loquats.

This meal, even considering only the cost of the ingredients, would probably cost three to five taels of silver.

"Truly worthy of being the prefect of Linqing."

Back at the post station, Chen Jizong, taking advantage of the presence of the garrison commander nearby, deliberately asked Zhang Kun:

"Brother, how much do you think this fellow earns each year? Just from salt transport alone, it must be over a thousand, right?"

"More than a thousand taels,"

Zhang Kun glanced at the battalion commander out of the corner of his eye, and replied to Chen Jizong in a cooperative manner:

"The rule in Shandong is that for every 'yin' (a unit of weight) of salt, one and a half qian (a unit of weight) is extracted, and the salt is sold for one and a half liang (a unit of weight)."

Linqing must have processed at least 300,000 taels of silver every year, right? That's 45,000 taels!

If he sells it for 50,000 taels, he can get 65,000 taels, which adds up to 110000 taels!

Good heavens, his regular salary in salt transport alone is equivalent to more than half a year's salary for our river engineering battalion!

This doesn't even include smuggled salt, or other common practices..."

Each batch of 400 jin (approximately 200 catties) of salt is transported locally, and the salt is sold locally.

Salt merchants were required to sell their salt at stores designated by the state or county government, so the commission for selling salt directly was eight or nine times that of selling salt through intermediaries.

"Supervisor Zhang, the accounts are wrong."

Hearing Chen Jizong and Zhang Kun's discussion, the battalion commander leaned over and said with a smile:

"Your price is the usual commission rate for counties and prefectures. After deducting the cost of salt and salt sales, it only amounts to a few thousand to tens of thousands of yin per year."

This is Linqing, where at most 700,000 to 800,000 yin (a unit of currency) are produced each year. How could they possibly be drawing so many?

Putting everything else aside, where did he, a mere fifth-rank prefect of a subordinate prefecture, get the audacity to take so much?

"Zhang has misunderstood..."

After chatting about salt transport for a while, Zhang Kun asked the battalion commander guarding the camp:

"Commander Zhou, you seem to know a lot about salt transportation. Could it be that you come from a salt-producing family?"

To be honest, Chief Zhou, Zhang's family were salt producers in the Binle Salt Bureau of Shandong!

"Oh? I didn't expect Supervisor Zhang to be a member of the Yan family too."

The battalion commander named Zhou Zhong's eyes lit up, and he smiled at Zhang Kun, saying:

"Zhou was previously a salt soldier in Changlu. He was promoted to work in the Embroidered Uniform Guard by Governor Xu for his meritorious service in capturing salt smugglers."

The two became increasingly animated in their conversation, and Zhou Zhong seized the opportunity to suggest to Zhang Kun and Chen Jizong:

"From now on, I will be working at the river engineering camp. If Battalion Commander Chen and Supervisor Zhang don't mind, please accept me as your younger brother!"

After saying that, he knelt down on one knee.

Zhang Kun quickly reached out to help Zhou Zhong up, and said with a wry smile:

"Zhang is not yet twenty years old, he should address Commander Zhou as Brother Zhou."

Zhou Zhong refused to get up and insisted to Zhang Kun:

"I heard Governor Xu say before that Supervisor Zhang's contribution was indispensable to the success of the river works!"

From now on, in the river works camp, I must obey Supervisor Zhang's orders; how can I disrupt the proper order?

After offering a few more words of advice, Zhang Kun also knelt on one knee and agreed to Zhou Zhong's request:

"Thanks to Brother Zhou's high regard, I, Zhang, will presume to call myself your younger brother!"

From now on, we must work together with Brother Chen, sharing the same goals and advancing and retreating together.

"Live up to my adoptive father and Governor Xu's expectations, and do a good job in the river works camp!"

"yes!"

Zhou Zhong was very happy to see that Zhang Kun and Chen Jizong were willing to accept him.

After traveling together for so many days, Zhou Zhong could tell that the two had a very close relationship.

If they don't take the initiative to get closer to them, they are likely to be completely marginalized.