In Dayao, a small city that wasn't on the main road, didn't have any special products, and had a population of only tens of thousands of people.
"The salt team is here! The salt team is here! "As a convoy entered the city, the people in the city immediately boiled over.
Many people ran to a certain place in the city with their bags of salt. When they reached the place, they found that it was already densely packed with people.
A young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes stood in the crowd and felt the crowd behind him. He turned his head and looked behind him before shouting, "What's with the crowd? This time, the convoy is only a little big. It's already pretty good if one out of ten people can buy salt. Those at the back might as well go out of the city to pick up stones and lick them. If you are late, there won't even be any stones left! "
The so-called "pick up stones and lick" referred to a type of marble outside the city that was bitter, salty, and slightly poisonous. However, there was a shortage of salt these days. Many people had no choice but to go out of the city to pick up this kind of stone and lick it before eating it.
If Ren Baqian was here, he would know that this was a type of carbonate rock.
Following the young man's words, the people at the back immediately started cursing, and soon, a chaotic fight broke out in the crowd. An old man in his 70s or 80s jumped two to three meters high and kicked out with a strong gust of wind … An auntie on the street punched many people in the eyes with her fists. Even a ten-year-old child darted in and out of the crowd and occasionally kicked the groin from time to time.
Fighting was the nature of the aboriginals, and this was true even for the seemingly simple residents of this small city.
As a result, fighting over a small matter had become a common occurrence.
The basic process usually went like this: "What are you looking at?", "What's wrong with looking at you?", "I'm going to beat you up!"
Then, there was a round of punches and kicks. It was just that a large-scale battle like today's would only happen every time a salt team arrived.
Due to the lack of salt, many people felt that they were getting weaker and weaker.
By the time the newly formed militia stopped the fight, many people were glaring at each other with injuries on their bodies. However, after a while, they burst out laughing again.
Not long after, the militia transported a few carts of salt bags to the open space in front of the crowd and started selling them at a low price under the supervision of the city commander. Furthermore, each person could only buy two taels.
"The price is so low! It's a pity that there's too little. Otherwise, we could buy more and keep it at home. There's always a shortage of salt. "
"Dream on! Fortunately, I came early today, otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to buy these. "
When the people at the back saw the salt in front of them, they were immediately disappointed. Just like what the kid had said, it would be good if one out of ten people could buy it.
"When will there be more salt?"
"Yeah! If I don't eat salt, I won't have any strength! "
"Everyone, the Yun Nation, Chen Nation, and Great Xia have cut off our salt supply routes. It has been two and a half months since a single bag of salt has been shipped in!" The city magistrate, who was also one of the few experts in the city, stood at the front and announced loudly.
"Kill them! Get the salt back! "
"Kill them! Kill them! "
"Kill! Kill! Kill! "
The crowd below immediately began to shout. The originally simple and honest citizens were immediately filled with murderous intent, and their faces also revealed fierce expressions.
If people from other countries were to see this scene, they would understand why the aboriginals were able to contend against other countries with such a small population, be it in terms of population, financial resources, resources, or equipment, and even win against them.
Even though these commoners had lived on this plain for 70 years, their bones were still filled with that kind of wild nature.
Even children who didn't grow up fighting with ferocious beasts in the mountains were still full of the desire to fight.
"Everyone, Dayao no longer needs to transport salt from the outside world. Dayao has its own salt pans, "the city magistrate said.
When these words were spoken, everyone below was stunned.
Dayao's salt was completely transported from other countries. This was something that even children knew. Since when did Dayao have its own salt pans?
"First of all, I want to thank Sir Ren, the principal of the Black Bamboo Academy. He was the one who researched how to produce salt from the brine in the mountains. "
Everyone below pondered one after another. Where was this Black Bamboo Academy? Who was Sir Ren? They didn't remember such a person in the imperial court.
After a long time, someone finally remembered that this person couldn't be the gigolo that Her Majesty had found, right?
"Which gigolo of Her Majesty is this Sir Ren that you are talking about?" someone asked.
"How rude!" The city magistrate's face darkened. Then, he pondered for a while. Even though these words were a little disrespectful to the empress, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with them. He knew a little more than the commoners and had heard about some of the things that happened during the war with Great Xia in the north. However, he still saw Ren Baqian as a gigolo, let alone the others.
"He is a gigolo because his face is white!" the city magistrate added.
"I didn't say anything else!" The voice from the crowd made everyone laugh. The city magistrate might as well not have said anything.
"In any case, thanks to Sir Ren, we have salt to eat. However, this salt has only been produced for a few months and needs to be transported to various cities. As a result, there is a little less salt now. However, there will be more and more salt in the future. Everyone will have it, so you don't have to worry. "
Even though the people below were all laughing, the tension caused by the lack of salt had been alleviated a lot. Furthermore, their impression of Ren Baqian had improved greatly.
Ren Baqian's reputation among the commoners had improved a lot during this period.
…
Ren Baqian and the empress stayed in Tianjing Basin for more than three months. Many things had happened in the outside world.
There were three things that attracted everyone's attention. The first was the war between the Protectorate of the Northeast and the Yun Nation.
Before the empress entered Tianjing Basin, Zhu Wuzhen had scattered the allied warlords into the interior of Dayao to destroy villages and strongholds. This was exactly the same tactic that Great Xia had used.
In the early stages, many of the villages at the border were destroyed, but the villagers taught the allied warlords a lesson.
The number of soldiers was less than 2,000, and they were repeatedly defeated by a village of about 100 people. This made the allied warlords lose a lot of face.
The reason for this was that the defenseless villages didn't have the time to move, so there was no way out. They fought to the last man and wouldn't stop until he was dead.
However, if the casualties of the allied warlords' young masters exceeded 15%, they would retreat, and if the casualties exceeded 20%, they would collapse.
In addition, most of the adult aboriginals were at the Man Wheel level.
As a result, the Yun Nation's advance in the early stages was extremely slow.
By the time they learned from their painful experiences and formed a large army, the newly trained new army arrived …
The result was obvious …
When Ren Baqian and the others returned to Gu City, Zi Donglai had already conquered four cities in the Yun Nation.
The second thing was that the Chen Nation had already declared war on Dayao.
The war in the southeast wasn't intense. Both the Zhuo Nation and the Chen Nation didn't seem to have much interest in fighting. Both sides stared at each other at the border every day. Occasionally, there would be a small fight, but it was more like an exhibition than a war.
Dayao was happy to see this, but they didn't know how long this situation would last.
The third and most important thing was that the salt transportation routes from Great Xia, the Yun Nation, and the Chen Nation to Dayao had been cut off. Since the Chen Nation sent their troops, not a single grain of salt had been transported into Dayao. This made many people very nervous.
Fortunately, the imperial court had recently released a batch of salt. There were 100,000 stones of salt, which was 1.2 million kilograms, which was enough for more than three million people to eat for a month. After some restrictions, it could barely be enough for seven million people.
In addition, the imperial court was vigorously promoting the fact that Ren Baqian had researched how to produce salt in the mountains.
The people of Dayao still had a high degree of trust in the imperial court. What happened in that small city was happening everywhere, which eased the tension in various places.
However, only a few people knew that this amount of salt had been accumulated over the past six months.
Although salt wells had been dug and the saltworks had been expanded, the salt production speed had increased significantly over the past three months. However, only 30,000 stones of salt were produced every month, which was barely enough for one million people.
Next, the most important thing was to rely on Zi Donglai to seize the salt in the Yun Nation.
As a result, the empress's first order was for Zi Donglai to occupy the Yun Nation as quickly as possible and send all the salt found in every city back to Dayao.
Following the empress's order, Zi Donglai completely let loose and attacked like a raging fire.
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