The youngest led the three walking men from the Salt Transport Administration along the mountain road for more than forty miles, passing through eight or nine mountains. It was already past three o'clock in the hour, and it was already dusk. The big black man was quite out of breath. He held one hand on the branch next to him and put his other hand on his waist. He stopped and said in a muffled voice, "Brother, are you here yet?" After saying that, he was breathing heavily. Since Youshi, the three of them have asked no less than five times. Now the big black man asked again, and Yu and Na stopped and came together, looking at the youngest.
The youngest walked half a foot closer, scratched his head and said in embarrassment, "You three officers, don't be surprised. Normally we should be here by now, but with today's journey, I'm afraid it's still less than half an hour." Looking at the cockscombs in the west The redness gradually faded away, and the youngest was helpless. Although these three big men are strong and strong, after all, they are not like the youngest who walks in the fields and at the top of mountains all year round. Moreover, the blind mountain trails are few and small, and there are many thorn bushes. Along the way, the three People are not as smart as the youngest. The first three hours were not a problem, but after more than an hour, the three men were already quite tired, and the youngest had to slow down from time to time to wait for the three of them. In this way, the mountain road that originally only took me three hours has not arrived today even after four and a half hours.
The scarred man looked apologetic, looked around the dense forest, and said firmly, "We won't leave today. We will find a place here and there to make a fire and make some food to fill our stomachs." , have a good rest at night. Get up early tomorrow, and I will lead the three of me there." The two men also knew that they were unable to catch up at this time, so they looked at each other and wandered away, as if they were looking for a place to stay. of.
When the youngest heard this, there was no reason to refuse, and he immediately agreed, "This is very good. This blind mountain has many side roads and small valleys. It is easy to lose your direction during the day. If you want to drive at night, then you can't do it yourself." It’s an extremely difficult thing to do, and it’s likely to go astray.”
The scar-faced man nodded slightly, obviously agreeing with the youngest's statement. Immediately, he asked everyone to find firewood. Within a moment, dry firewood was piled up to hip height and half a foot in diameter. The short man took out two cutting stones from his bag, lit a fire on the clustered pine needles, and slowly stacked some dry firewood. The scar-faced man said, "Wan Yong, just wait here for the firewood and clear the grass blades in a radius of one foot, but don't set fire to the mountain. Jiang Yang, brother, the three of us will search for food in this radius." Get some food. Remember, don’t go too far! It will take half an hour to come back whether you have found food or not. Don’t leave the sight of the fire." It turned out that these four people were walking in a hurry when they came. , but I didn’t prepare any dry food and rice. After walking for a day, I was already very hungry. After giving instructions, the three of them dispersed, leaving the short man named Wan Yong to pick up the dry grass and dead leaves around them.
Fortunately, the sun sets later in October and the moon is quite bright. Even though it is Wu Shi, we can barely see things ten feet away. The youngest and three people did not waste any time and hurriedly dived into the forest. go.
Fuzhou is a large state in Anxian County, located in the southwest corner of Anxian County and connected to the northeastern edge of Cangsheng County. Anxian County is the largest salt-producing county in Dahua. Several large salt mines were discovered in the northwest of the county more than a hundred years ago, and the imperial court established a Salt Transportation Department here. There are three Salt Administration Departments in Dahua County, and the Anxian Salt Administration Department is half a level higher than the others. Therefore, although the Salt Transport Administration Department of Anxian County is a county administration department, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce. It is directly dispatched by the emperor and is a full-time official with a second-grade title.
In the past decade or so, all the mineral salt discovered earlier has been mined, and the production has been less than 30% of the previous time. In a few years, there will be no more salt to be produced. Every time the emperor and the salt transport secretary thought about this, they couldn't help but become anxious. In recent years, they have sent more than a thousand mine workers out to search and survey, eager to discover new salt mines and continue this great livelihood crisis. These three big men were the workers of the Fuyang Salt Field, who were sent out to explore for mines by the State Salt Transportation Inspectorate. The scar-faced big man was named He Guanggen, and he was the only one among the three who had been hired by the government. The two of them had since The only way is to look at the horse's head. In recent years, the imperial court has awarded a lot of prizes in the mining prospecting book. Once a salt mine is discovered, depending on the size of the salt mine, it can be a sign of great merit. In the words of the three of them, it means a lifelong tax exemption and a hundred acres of official land, which will change the fate of their lives! Therefore, when the three of them heard in a wine shop in Fuyang Town that someone had encountered an accident with salty water in a cave in Blind Mountain, they rushed over and did not dare to delay for even a moment, fearing that someone would take the lead and investigate. Salt mine.
It was now the second hour of Wu, and Jiang Yang was seen sitting on the ground more than half a foot away from the fire. He looked a little shy and said to Wan Yong, "I was going to catch a pheasant, but this is the only time. Half a step away, he got into the thorn bush. It was very difficult at night. He waited for a cup of tea and didn't see it. Thinking about Brother He's words, he didn't dare to wait for long and turned back."
Just as he finished speaking, a sound of cursing came, and He Guanggen was seen holding a bamboo fork in his left hand with two big frogs strung on it. He grabbed a big mountain rat in his right hand and strode over, with a scratch on the left side of his face. There was a small trace of blood, but his left eye still shook a few times unconsciously. He Guanggen glanced at Jiang Yang and knew that he must not have found anything to eat, so he came over and shouted, "Don't wait there, clean up these things so that they can be roasted and eaten." He didn't wait for Jiang Yang to come over. , and threw a mouse and two frogs on the ground. "You bastard, give me a scratch!" After saying that, He Guanggen reached out to cover the blood marks again, letting out a "hissing" sound from time to time.
Jiang Yang didn't say anything. He pulled out a four-inch long dagger blade from his dry boots and hurriedly opened it. After about a cup of tea, I cleaned up and put it on the fire to roast. It's just that the portion of one rat and two frogs with their internal organs removed was so pitiful that it was probably enough for one person.
After baking less than half of the incense stick, I saw the youngest with bare arms and a bag of things wrapped in clothes walking from below. The three salt transportation officials all looked at him with expectation as they walked. Jiang Yang walked closer first and said with a smile, "Brother, what is this bag, is it food?" As he said this, he stretched out his hand to explore the bag. "They are some mountain potatoes. They are very sweet when roasted over the fire!" the youngest said with a rather proud smile.
When the three of them heard this, they were so unhappy that they all gathered around and threw the bag of more than a dozen large mountain potatoes into the fire. I heard the youngest say, "A few years ago, I saw some mountain potatoes by the col below. I dug a few plants, but at that time the potatoes had not grown yet, so I couldn't eat them. I just went down and passed by the col. Suddenly I remembered this, so I went to dig it up, but I didn't expect it to grow so big, so I dug up a dozen of them." As he spoke, he smiled sillyly, revealing a pair of old, yellow teeth.
That night, the four of them gathered around the fire and ate hot and sweet roasted mountain potatoes. They were so unsatisfied that only the peeled and burnt skin of the potatoes was left on the ground.
The next day, as soon as the fish belly was cooked, the four of them got up and headed towards the cave led by the youngest. Just after crossing a mountain peak and descending halfway down the mountain, the youngest stopped and pointed down to the left and said, "That's right there. You can see it through this elm forest." Upon hearing this, the three of them couldn't help but feel jealous. I was happy and nervous at the same time. As I read the imperial court's award, my steps quickly sped up, forming the same rhythm as my heartbeat.
A cave about one foot high and three inches wide appeared in front of him. A trickle of water slowly flowed out from it, forming a small pool more than ten feet downstream, with the bottom clearly visible.
The four of them walked to the edge of the pool first. He Guanggen leaned over and picked up a handful of water and drank it. His face was full of expressions, and it was hard to tell whether he was sad or happy. When Wan Yong and Jiang Yang saw this, they also took a sip of water and took a sip. The taste was very salty and they couldn't help but be overjoyed. Jiang Yang's face flushed even more, and he didn't hide the joy in his heart. He shouted loudly, "Brother He, it's true, it's absolutely true. There must be salt mines around here, and this water, the taste of this water will definitely be the same." Come on!" He was spitting as he spoke, his eyes widened, and the veins on his neck protruded, and he stretched out his hand to support He Guanggen.
He Guanggen forced himself to calm down and said in a trembling voice, "Wan Yong, Jiang Yang, we brought a file from our branch to chisel some ore for a test!" The two nodded heavily and took out some equipment for extracting ore from their bags. He took the tool and drove away quickly, leaving the youngest in place.
After about half a stick of incense, the three of them gathered at the edge of the pond. You looked at me and I looked at you, feeling uneasy. At this time, the three of them were all 100% sure that there must be a salt mine here, and they could find the mineral vein by tracing the stream up. Moreover, looking at the color of the cave stone and sand components and the taste of the flowing stream, we can see that the color of the vein must be extremely high, and it is unknown whether it will produce pink salt. The three people immediately agreed that Wan Yong and Jiang Yang would guard the mine here all day, and He Guanggen immediately set off to return to the Salt Transportation Department of the state government to report the good news.
He Guanggen put away the collected mineral sand and let his youngest lead him back. He kept telling his youngest not to mention this matter to others, otherwise he would be jailed. Of course, the youngest always kept his promise.
The journey back was much faster, and Shen You went down the mountain and arrived at the village. He Guanggen had no intention of settling down at all, and anxiously asked the youngest, "Brother, are there any horses in the village? I'm in a hurry to go back to the state capital, and I can't walk!"
The youngest rubbed the stubble on his chin, trembled and said, "My boss has it, I just don't know if I can lend it to him."
He Guanggen heard this and said happily, "Take me there now, take me there quickly!"
The youngest led He Guanggen to the rich man's house and knocked on the door. Seeing that the person who came was dressed as an official, he did not stop him and led He Guanggen in to find his employer. I don’t know what He Guanggen said to the rich man, but after a while he brought a fat horse from the side room. He Guanggen jumped on the horse and whipped the horse's butt hard with his whip. The horse was in pain and started to gallop.
Under the moonlit night, I rode alone to the east of Juechen.
