Mystery Makes Me Strong

In this way, by taking multiple approaches, the four people finally accumulated 1,200 people in Qingyun Village.

A copycat of this scale is already a very powerful force.

Because the imperial court had troops stationed nearby, covering one prefecture and ten counties, and consisted of only one battalion of regular soldiers, totaling only 500 people.

Moreover, they were still short of half of their quorum, with only 300 regular soldiers.

The others were young and strong people who were temporarily gathered together.

But the good times didn’t last long, and the first test finally came.

Seeing that their numbers had grown and their strength was guaranteed, the four men finally reached out to the salt mine.

The mountain logistics, earthworm bases, mushroom bases, etc. that we had previously built could only be used to maintain the population and could not be exchanged for weapons, armor, silver, or horses.

Food is a bulk commodity that is difficult to transport secretly over long distances.

But salt is different; it can be transported secretly.

Soon, the private salt business became booming.

They secretly sent people down the mountain and into the villages and towns. The price of salt was only one-tenth of the government price. Even so, they still made a profit.

In particular, they could use salt, an "equivalent", to exchange other materials for iron, cloth, coal, etc.

Salt was a very good equivalent in ancient times. First of all, it would not depreciate, and people always needed to eat salt.

Secondly, it can be preserved for a long time, even for hundreds of years.

Finally, it is small in size and not low in value.

With these three points, it already surpasses most bartering.

It’s just that ordinary people lack the source of salt, so they can’t do that. They usually barter and can only rely on common items such as grains and eggs.

One pound of salt, calculated at the official price, could be exchanged for hundreds of pounds of grain.

The ancients had long used "salt permits", which were certificates for drawing salt from official salt fields, as transaction vouchers and reward certificates.

This is the characteristic of general equivalents.

As the private salt business became more prosperous, it finally attracted covetousness.

…

There was a wealthy man at the foot of the mountain. His surname was He and his name was "Wuqi". He was known for his generosity and had made many friends in the underworld. He was very famous in the county and the countryside.

At this moment, seven or eight people were drinking and eating meat at He's house.

They are discussing.

"Boss, I heard that there is a group of Qingyun thieves in the mountains near us." Lao Ba said to He Wuqi.

"I've heard about it. It is said that he has won over a lot of people and started a private salt business." He Wuqi said while eating pork ribs.

"Salt? Where did they get the salt?" The eyes of the others suddenly turned red.

Salt is like snow-white silver!

They only know that if they take the salt out, they can sell it.

There is no salt that cannot be sold. If it cannot be sold, it only means that the price is too high.

"It is said that they have discovered salt mines in the mountains, and the salt is very good, comparable to the green salt from the east!" Lao Ba said happily.

"Damn it! I'm mining salt on the boss's territory but I don't even give him any respect. Is this fair?" The seventh brother was immediately furious.

"Okay, okay, they are getting stronger and stronger now, much stronger than we were back then." He Wuqi's eyes rolled rapidly.

"Brother, we can kill someone with a borrowed knife!" Lao Liu said.

"Yes, we must kill them and seize the salt mine. This is a business that will benefit our descendants for generations to come!" said the other brothers.

"Let me think about it." He Wuqi rolled his eyes and soon came up with an idea.

He called the housekeeper and said, "Take my letter and show it to Mr. Huang in the county town. Tell them that there are bandits gathering in the mountains, preparing to rebel."

The imperial court has plenty of soldiers.

At most he could hide in the county town.

It is impossible for more than a thousand bandits to capture the county town.

Even if he was defeated, he could still escape on horseback.

Soon, the housekeeper took He Wuqi's invitation and went to the county town overnight, and then found Mr. Huang.

"Master Huang, my master said that there is a group of thieves on Qingyun Mountain."

"There are so many of them. It's obvious that they have extraordinary ambitions. Sooner or later, they will rebel."

"Haha, the bandits in the mountains can't even get enough food to eat, and yet you still want to rebel?" Mr. Huang leaned against the bed, looking disdainful.

"Master Huang, these bandits are different from what we usually see. They don't just eat one day at a time." Steward He said while kneeling on the ground.

"They also knew how to accumulate food and make a living in the mountains. They were able to accumulate a lot of food and grass."

"If this continues, it will definitely be a great disaster for the court."

"Oh, if that's the case, there is indeed a problem." Mr. Huang was getting up. "Stand up and talk."

"Thank you, sir." Butler He got up and said, "For the sake of the court and our comfortable life, if we can't control these bandits, they will definitely cause trouble."

"If they are still selling illegal salt now, they will rebel in the future."

"That's right. These damn bandits don't want to be content and starve to death, but they want to be like mantises with arms raised. It's really hateful!" Master Huang was very angry.

A bunch of untouchables, why not just starve to death, but actually dare to go into the mountains to seek survival.

It would be fine if he just wanted to survive, but he actually dared to sell illegal salt and plot a rebellion?

Of course he knew it was all lies.

The real reason was that the other party was selling private salt, not following his path, and not paying tribute to him. How could this be tolerated?

"Yes, they just want to rebel. We have to report them to the county magistrate." Butler He said quickly.

"No, the county magistrate can't handle this matter. We have to report it to the governor." Mr. Huang was obviously knowledgeable.

"Yes, report it to the governor." Butler He nodded quickly.

Soon, Mr. Huang ordered someone to take Butler He to the governor's office to report the incident.

The reason why Mr. Huang dared to do this was because he had a cousin behind him who was the Minister of Rites in the court, a third-rank official.

The governor was naturally afraid of the officials in Beijing when he was away.

The petition was delivered.

It says:

"Someone on Qingyun Mountain has gathered a group of people to plot a rebellion. I have written down the size and composition of those people in detail."

"There are ten chairs in total, and the first four are leaders."

"The six behind are minions."

"The rest are just trash and errand boys."

"As more and more bandits gather in the mountains, they will cause trouble in the future."

From beginning to end, there was no mention of smuggling salt.

The governor glanced over the petition.

If the person who delivered the petition did not have a minister behind him, he would have been beaten out long ago.

What kind of person is this? He is causing trouble for the master by doing such a mess?

Aren’t they just some bandits?

Is it worth it for him to use the Fu Biao to kill them?

Where does the money come from?

Besides, under his governance, so many bandits appeared. Isn’t this embarrassing for him?

After watching it, he didn't care at all.

Direct approval:

"They are just a group of mountain people trying to survive. When the emperor gets married, we will pardon them and let them go down the mountain."

In his eyes, he thought these people were just mountain people who evaded taxes.

Rebellion is impossible.

He didn't take it seriously at all.

The imperial court is currently too busy providing disaster relief to worry about hanging bandits.

They are just a bunch of bandits, there is no need to bother with them at all.

Because it's useless to care.

It appeared again next time.

It would be better to keep these bandits. They will absorb the hungry people themselves - keep the strong ones and deal with the old, weak and sick.

This is also the reason why the imperial court rarely suppresses bandits - unless they are causing too much trouble.

Whenever there is a disaster, new bandits appear.

This is normal.

…

"We submitted the petition, but the governor only took a glance at it and sent us back."

When Mr. Huang heard this, he became very angry.

"These bastards, leaving those bandits alone, aren't they just nurturing a tiger to cause trouble?"

"Master is right. More than 2,000 bandits are a huge trouble." Butler He thought, it's because you and Master He don't want the governor to know about the salt mine.

Some people may say, won’t we know the truth after the governor wipes out the bandits?

Haha, it will be too late by then.

During this time, Mr. Huang, He Wuqi and others had already colluded with local officials and divided the property.

The governor was just a temporary official, so just giving him one copy would be enough.

But if the governor knew about it in advance, there would be a lot that could be done.

For example, sell this salt mine in advance.

They have no way to get their hands on it.

But what Mr. Huang was thinking was even more serious.

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If these bandits really wanted to rebel, once they came down the mountain, wouldn't they steal everything from Mr. Huang's house?

Mr. Huang, we have experienced chaos caused by bandits and it is difficult to defend the county.

Thinking of this, he became very angry.

But the problem is, there's no point in him getting angry.

The county magistrate is not as good as the current one.

His cousin is far away in the capital and has no say here.

It is also impossible to interfere with the governor of a place.

The governor is a local official.

The ones who could restrain the governor were the inspector general and the governor-general. The former was an imperial envoy, but had a low official position, while the latter was also an imperial envoy, but had a high official position.

But the current situation is that the other party doesn't listen to him at all.

However, Mr. Huang was angry.

He had long known that the people in the yamen would not do anything unless they saw money.

He decided to confirm the salt mine issue and then unite more people.

So he sent people into the mountains to gather intelligence.

The results were shocking.

They were immediately shocked.

It turned out that most of the thousands of bandits in the mountains were recruited by the people of Qingyun Village.

This is obviously a large rebel gang.

It's very difficult to deal with them.

Fortunately, the other party has salt mines.

They then joined forces with the leading figures of several nearby counties, and after some arguments, the two sides began a battle for interests.

It's just ridiculous that these landlords and gentry have no idea what modern operating methods and modern organizational methods are.

When they revealed this clue, the relevant information was also passed to the ears of the four people.

After a brief discussion, they dispatched dozens of special operations teams.

That night, the He family was suddenly attacked by bandits.

In the middle of the night, He Wuqi, several old men who were visiting the family, and the entire He family were captured.

On the way, He Wuqi and the old men were killed together.

Capture all the others and take them to the mountains to do hard labor in the mines.

It’s not that they are soft-hearted.

But he didn't want to establish himself as a brutal bandit from the beginning.

If they really become bandits with no rules, and similar situations occur more and more, the group will lose its cohesion.

Bandits are prone to internal strife.

However, the number of people they attracted was gradually approaching the upper limit.

It eventually expanded to about three thousand people.

With these 3,000 core members, we can start a rebellion.

But the four decided that stability was the best option and they would wait until the next major disaster before rebelling.

So they continued to dig deep holes and store up food.

Another three years passed to complete this accumulation.

The governor was very satisfied with this situation.

Because he had made enough money, he was transferred.

This is how Liu Guan is - he naturally fears and avoids difficult things.

I would rather keep it covered than reveal it.

Only those who have a strong ambition for fame and want to be promoted quickly will do big and difficult things.

But there is only one such official among hundreds.

However, an accident finally happened to the four of them.

Accidents are not man-made disasters.

It was a natural disaster.

A general influenza epidemic broke out.

For a time, the village was full of patients.

Out of a hundred people, more than a dozen were sick.

This ratio is very high.

Two people from the core layer also won the bid.

Fortunately, their physical fitness has improved.

I only had a cold for two days and it's gone.

However, more than thirty of their trusted confidants, whom they had worked so hard to cultivate, fell ill and more than ten died.

Reality is so cruel.

Look at the princes in history. Many of them died of illness in their thirties, seventeen or eighteen years old.

The living environment for adult princes is relatively safe, and the medical care is relatively good.

Not only the princes, but also the sons of ministers were like this.

There are many people who die before they are thirty.

As the saying goes, you should achieve success as early as possible, because the later you wait, the more likely you are to die of illness.

Zhou Yu was such a great man, but he died of illness in his thirties.

Zhuge Liang lived to be fifty-four, which is actually quite good.

Number One saw this and said:

"Damn it! This is the game system cheating us."

"Okay, you forgot that Li Zicheng also led a large army into the city and got the plague."

"A large number of soldiers have lost their combat effectiveness, which will also have a great impact on the final result. Although it is not decisive, it cannot be said to be irrelevant." No. 2 shook his head.

After hearing this, everyone was speechless.

We finally got through this natural disaster.

The four of them began to summarize.

Vincent said to them at this time:

“We have to start expanding now.”

"If we don't expand, we will be exhausted to death just by waiting like this."

"Natural disasters come one after another and they won't wait for anyone."

“Only a large enough base can make it through.”

"That's right."

The crowd then stepped up expansion.

If they don't expand, then they will really be doomed.

Sometimes it's like this, although you can bear it, you can't continue to bear it.

Because of the weather, things will change at all times.

Just like epidemics and fires, these are uncontrollable factors.

Then they began to expand rapidly.

The first thing is to send people down the mountain.

They plan to build a new type of breeding farm at the foot of the mountain.

This requires collusion with big households.

Only by getting the protection of a wealthy family can one avoid the government's immediate attack.