"This is?"
"What are the people of Wushang trying to do?"
Everyone was shocked. This was no small matter, and it made them feel a little uneasy. Could it be that they wanted to stop them and prevent them from leaving?
Only Wang Chong smiled without saying a word.
"As expected, they still came!"
Wang Chong's expression was indifferent, as if he had already predicted this scene.
"Greetings, Chief."
Wang Chong's heart skipped a beat. Without waiting for the Chief Of Wushang to come over, he led the crowd, turned around, and took the initiative to greet them.
"Marquis, I'm sorry, I've come late. Last night, Marquis let bygones be bygones and lent a helping hand. Jingwen and the villagers will remember your kindness, and will never forget it. "
The white-haired old man said with a straight face.
"Chief, you're too kind. It was nothing."
Wang Chong waved his hand, and said nonchalantly. The medicine was originally prepared for them.
"Big brother, thank you for saving my grandpa.
A soft voice came from the side. The little girl, Fang Xiaoyan, also raised her head, and said sincerely.
Seeing the sincere look on this lass's face and thinking about her barbaric, willful, and unreasonable appearance in twenty-five years, Wang Chong almost laughed out loud.
"You're welcome, it's just a small matter."
Wang Chong patted her head and said.
With the little girl's intervention, the atmosphere between the two sides suddenly eased a lot.
"Lord Marquis, there are no words to express my gratitude for this great favor. Yesterday, we were rude. No matter what, I request that Lord Marquis stay in our Wushang Village for a few more days so that we can express our gratitude as a host."
The white-haired old man said.
Many things can only be realized after a long time. Last night, despite Wang Chong's help, there were still eight Wushang villagers who acted up prematurely, and before Wang Chong's "antidote", they died on the night of the lunar eclipse.
They died with the same symptoms as the others.
Just thinking about the four to five thousand clansmen who acted up on the night of the lunar eclipse, everyone felt a lingering fear in their hearts. If it weren't for Wang Chong, last night would have been unimaginable.
It was not an exaggeration to say that Wang Chong was the great benefactor of Wushang Village. No matter how he tried to repay this kindness, it was far from enough.
Thinking of how the villagers treated Wang Chong and Li Siye during the day, even the head of Wushang Village couldn't help but feel ashamed.
"Haha, we appreciate Patriarch's kind intentions, but there's no need to linger. We still have some matters to attend to, so we'll be leaving first."
Unexpectedly, Wang Chong waved his hand and refused.
This answer obviously exceeded the expectations of the Village Chief and the group of Elders of Wushang Village. Everyone's expression froze, and they were instantly speechless.
"This … Marquis, to tell you the truth, I actually have something to ask of you. The elixir that Marquis gave us last night is very important to us. I wonder if Marquis has any more? Also, Marquis mentioned rock salt yesterday, what does that mean? "
The Village Chief of Wushang Village looked embarrassed. Although he was a little embarrassed, he still said it.
"To tell you the truth, I only have a total of a hundred of those elixirs, and they've all been used last night. As for rock salt … "
Wang Chong smiled as he spoke. He looked at the group of Elders of Wushang Village opposite him, and there was a hidden meaning in his eyes.
"Wushang Village is separated from the outside world, and there is no trade or communication. Although other things can be cultivated by ourselves, and food can also be replaced by kudzu vines, three meals a day can't be separated from salt. I wonder how Wushang Village solved this problem? "
"This …"
The Village Chief of Wushang Village hesitated, unable to speak.
This young Young Marquis of the Tang Dynasty was far more perceptive and perceptive than he had imagined. The lofty mountains and precipitous ridges were filled with rocks, making them unsuitable for growing food.
Thus, the people of Wushang Village ate things like kudzu vines and Solomon's seal. This gave them innate strength and made them physically stronger than ordinary people.
But there was one thing that they could not solve with ordinary methods: the salt that Wang Chong spoke of.
Thus, the salt that the people of Wushang Village ate was different from that of ordinary people. It was not sea salt, but rock salt. Simply put, it was salt from the cliffs of the land.
The rock salt in that area had been discovered by the ancestors of the people of Wushang Village. Generation after generation, the people of Wushang Village had eaten the salt there.
"Haha, is Chief not willing to speak because he is afraid that the Imperial Court will find out and confiscate it?"
Wang Chong grinned, immediately seeing through the Village Chief's misgivings.
Throughout the dynasties, salt and iron had always been controlled by the Imperial Court. Iron did not refer to ordinary 'iron', but to coins. No dynasty would allow the common people to casually mint coins.
That would lead to monetary chaos.
As for salt, just as Wang Chong had said, no one could live without it for three meals a day. The Imperial Court had only done this at the beginning to prevent people from profiting from this and causing the price of salt to soar. If the common people could not afford salt, they would riot.
Such a thing had happened before.
Of course, it was only later that they realized that there was a huge profit to be made from selling salt.
Although Wang Chong did not know when the people of Wushang Village had fled into this valley, even a thousand-some years ago in the Eastern Han Dynasty, salt and iron had been nationalized and controlled by the Imperial Court.
No matter how little the people of Wushang Village interacted with the outside world, they should have understood this point. Obviously, they were also afraid that the rock salt mine they controlled would be discovered and controlled by the Imperial Court.
"Hehe, fortune lies within misfortune, and misfortune lies within fortune. I wonder if Patriarch has heard of this saying? Generation after generation of Wushang Villagers, starting from the age of three, began to suffer from unbearable pain. And the older they get, the more frequent the attacks and the more severe the pain. I wonder if the Elder has ever thought about why all of this is happening? "
A cool breeze blew, and Wang Chong's robes fluttered in the morning sun. Looking at the Wushang Village Chief and the Elders, Wang Chong had a meaningful smile on his face.
Others might not know the secret of Wushang Village, but as the commander of the Wushang Iron Cavalry, Wang Chong knew it clearly. The people of Wushang Village would suffer from severe pain for their entire lives. Their skin would turn black and blue, their entire body would convulse, and the pain would be unbearable.
And every time the yin energy was at its strongest, especially on the night of the lunar eclipse, it would act up. This had not changed even after Wang Chong had recruited them.
Later on, Wang Chong had recruited all the most outstanding pharmacists and martial experts in the world, including famous doctors from Ouzan, Mengshe Zhao, the Turks, Goguryeo, and other foreign countries. After eight years of repeated experiments, he finally developed a pill to solve the pain that accompanied the people of Wushang Village for their entire lives.
— — It was the kind of pill that Wang Chong had fed them!
This was also the true reason why Wang Chong was so confident that he would be able to subdue them when he came to Wushang Village this time.
However, the only problem was that this pill was very difficult to refine. In his haste, Wang Chong had only managed to refine around a hundred of them, and they had all been used during the crisis on the night of the lunar eclipse.
The chief of Wushang Village felt his heart skip a beat, and a strange feeling surfaced in his heart once more. The youth before him was at most sixteen or seventeen years old, which meant that he was in the generation of his grandson.
But for some reason, he couldn't see through this youth at all. For the first time, the chief of Wushang Village felt an unfathomable aura from a youth.
And what he couldn't understand the most was, how did he know about rock salt?
This youth seemed to be shrouded in layers upon layers of fog, making it impossible to see through him.
"Marquis means...?"
The chief of Wushang Village frowned, and a pensive look appeared on his face.
"Hehe, chief, some salt can be eaten, and some can't. Not all the salt in the world can be eaten casually. At the very least, it can't be like Wushang Village. "
Wang Chong said plainly.
Rock salt was actually poisonous. It contained many ingredients, and most of them were poisonous substances that had to be specially processed and filtered.
It wasn't just rock salt, there was also sea salt, all of which had to be specially processed. And if one consumed industrial salt, it could even lead to death.
— — For Wang Chong, who had memories from another world, this was all common sense. But for the people of Wushang Village, they clearly didn't know this.
The people of Wushang Village ate that poisonous rock salt from a young age, and the poisonous substances accumulated over time, constantly entering their bodies. So when they were three years old, the toxicity began to show.
The most obvious sign was that a three-year-old child would start to twitch and feel pain. Later on, the toxicity would continue to worsen, seeping into the flesh, hair, skin, bones, and even bone marrow. So, although there were many experts in Wushang Village, there weren't many who could live past the age of fifty.
And there were even fewer who could live to seventy or eighty years old. In the entire Wushang Village, with a population of fifty to sixty thousand, there were only about twenty to thirty elderly people.
And if they were unlucky enough to encounter a lunar eclipse like last night, Wushang Village would suffer heavy casualties.
— — this was the Achilles' heel of Wushang Village, as well as the price behind Wushang Village's great power!
"Marquis means that all of this is caused by our consumption of rock salt?"
Wushang Village's village head said.
"Haha, don't eat the rock salt in the village anymore. This is my advice to the village head and the elders, for the sake of Wushang Village, as well as for the sake of all the villagers. Of course, whether you believe it or not is up to the village head and the elders to decide "
Wang Chong said.
His face was calm, and his expression was light and breezy. Sometimes, going too far was as bad as not going far enough. If it was too obvious, the other party would feel disgusted.
So, although Wang Chong really wanted to help Wushang Village and the villagers, this was the most he could do. Anything more would only be superfluous.
Hum!
As soon as Wang Chong's words fell, the village head and the elders of Wushang Village looked at each other. There were many theories as to why the villagers would get that disease, including curses, heredity, environmental factors, and so on.
But no one expected Wang Chong to say that all of this was related to the most inconspicuous and common rock salt that they consumed daily.
This was like saying that the reason a person bled was because they took in an extra breath of air.
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