Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 58
The salt pond is like a mirror, inlaid on the earth, and the sky is reflected in the mirror, just like the heaven on earth.

When they arrived at Yanchi, everyone finally cheered up. The three high mountains in front should be Sanwei Mountains.

Sanwei Mountain is the barrier to enter Shazhou from the east. After passing Sanwei Mountain, you can see Mogao Grottoes, and after that is the majestic Shazhou City.

The player and his party cheered up, drove the animals forward, and finally walked to the edge of the salt pond before sunset.

"There's cooking smoke ahead, do you want to go and have a look?" Qin Chuan said, pointing at the rising smoke in front of him with sharp eyes.

"It's probably a salt household near the salt pond. We can go over and get in touch and find out about Sanwei Mountain." Li Daoyuan said.

Finally met the NPC!The caravan selected a few merchant players who were good at negotiating, and under the escort of the adventurers, they rushed towards the direction where the smoke rose.

They arrived at this small village before sunset, only to see that this dilapidated village turned out to be a small fortress, with shooting holes in the one-foot-high earthen wall, and soldiers guarding the entrance of the village with sharp knives.

A general wearing a vermilion robe was patrolling. When he saw the player approaching, he immediately drew out his long sword and said, "Stop! Shazhou Salt Field, no one is allowed to enter!"

After saying these words, more than a dozen bows and arrows stood on the dirt wall, holding strong bows and aiming at the players.

Now the players were afraid to go forward, Li Daoyuan immediately raised his hand and said, "My lord, we are a caravan from Shazhou, and we want to take a rest here."

The domineering general drew out his saber and said, "Rest? This is a salt field! Is this a place for you to lodge? Get lost, or you will shoot arrows!"

Li Daoyuan had no choice but to take the player back.

"The officers and soldiers are more domineering than the bandits!"

"This salt field is so heavily guarded?"

"Of course, salt was equal to money in ancient times. Whether you have money or not, you have to eat salt. You can see whether the bank is strictly guarded or not."

The players returned to the camp, but they didn't expect the NPCs in Shazhou to be so unfriendly.

In the saltworks, Yan Ding Ma Wu immediately sat up when he heard the rooster crowing. He put on his worn linen shorts and shorts, and walked out of the house trembling.

The early morning in Shazhou in the first month is quite cold, but Yan Ding is always dressed like this.

"Dianmao!" The fierce soldiers counted the number of people, and after the twenty salters in the same group had arrived, they came to the salt cooking workshop under the supervision of the soldiers.

The big stove was burning non-stop, and only Yan Ding, who was dressed like Ma Wu, was stirring the brine in the pot.

As soon as he entered the workshop, the chill on his body was completely driven away, followed by a feeling of scorching heat.

The big stove does not turn off the fire, and the salt workers work in two shifts to cook salt in the workshop, working by the big stove for twelve hours at a time.

Sweat dripped down before he started working. Ma Wu wiped the sweat from his forehead and began to talk to Yan Ding from the previous shift.

The vicious soldiers rushed up and started to attack the Yan Ding who was on shift, carefully searching their pockets and body parts to check whether they had secretly carried any salt.

The soldiers even asked Yan Ding to take off his thin clothes for inspection. Ma Wu chuckled, even if they took some salt with them, they couldn't leave the salt pond, and how would they sell it.

In fact, all the salt workers know that it is these soldiers on duty who are really carrying and selling the illegal salt in the salt farm. Salters like them can't even get out of the gate of the salt farm, so where do they go to sell the illegal salt.

After Ma Wu finished his shift, he made a gesture with his companion tacitly, and today is the day he agreed to escape.

Leaving this salt field and running into Sanwei Mountain to become a bandit is better than dying in this salt field.

Ma Wu and other salt workers have been planning for many days. They were planning to run away yesterday. Yesterday, a caravan came in front of the salt farm, and Zhang Lvshuai, who was guarding the salt farm, went out to check in person, which made Ma Wu and the others delay their escape plan. .

Today, the caravan in Shazhou City came to fetch salt, and Ma Wu and others were going to take advantage of this time to escape.

Finally at noon, Yan Ding also had to eat in the salt field. The cook who was in charge of cooking brought in rice paste mixed with rice bran, and Yan Ding gathered together to eat with pickled vegetables.

"Hurry up, hurry up! Master Lu Shuai said it! If there is less salt this month than last month, everyone will be whipped ten times!"

Ma Wu hurriedly stuffed the hard-to-swallow paste into his mouth. At this time, there was a noise outside the door, and it was the salt convoy from the city.

The soldiers in charge of guarding Yanding are ready to move, and every time the convoy comes over, it will also bring goods from the city.

Ma Wu waited for Yan Ding to return to work immediately, and the guard soldier said: "Don't be lazy, I'll go outside and have a look."

Originally there were ten soldiers guarding the saltworks, but the saltworks were extremely hot and had an unpleasant smell of brine, so the youngest soldier was assigned to guard the saltworks, and the other soldiers would sit and chat outside the workshop on weekdays.

The caravan came today, and the young soldier took out a bag of fine salt from his pocket, which he secretly scraped from the workshop during this time.

This bag of high-quality refined salt can be sold to a merchant for more than ten yuan, which is worth half a year's military pay.

Therefore, although the task of guarding the salt field was hard, everyone in the Doulu army flocked to it. If his brother-in-law hadn't been the brigade commander in the Doulu army, he would never have been able to do such a good job.

At this time, Ma Wu and other salt workers came to the edge of the salt field. They uncovered the straw on the dog hole and drilled out of the salt field from the dog hole.

run!
Yan Ding began to run towards Sanwei Mountain, but their good luck ended here. The soldiers on the city wall found the escaped Yan Ding.

"Ding Yan ran away! Ding Yan ran away!"

When Zhang Lvshuai, who was wearing a red robe, heard that Yan Ding had escaped, he immediately shouted angrily: "Bang the gong! Bring these untouchables back to me!"

Ma Wu didn't turn his head back, he ran all the way thinking about Sanwei Mountain, he had already heard the sound of the gong in the saltworks, Ma Wu was not lucky, if he was caught by the soldiers, with the tyrannical temper of Zhang Lushuai, Yan Ding who escaped will definitely be beaten to death.

Every month, Yan Ding, who offended Zhang Lvshuai, was whipped to death with a leather whip full of salt water. Fleeing Ding Ding was a serious crime listed in the salt field, and he could only die worse!

With a bang, a bow and arrow hit the companion beside him, and Ma Wutou would continue to run away.

But when he heard the rapid sound of horseshoes, Ma Wu felt desperate, and he was doomed now!
The sound of horseshoes was getting closer and closer, and when Ma Wu closed his eyes in despair, he suddenly heard the sound of horseshoes in front of him.

Only a dozen riders were seen riding their horses from the opposite side, and the leading knight was wearing Tang-style armor and holding a shining Mo Dao.

Now Ma Wu was completely desperate.

Unexpectedly, these knights did not come to surround them, but passed through this group of ragged people and intercepted the pursuers behind.

The leading knight yelled: "Why did you kill the people!?"

(End of this chapter)