Planning
Upon hearing this, Wei Cong said, "I pride myself on studying and serving as an official for the sake of the people and the nation, yet now I cannot even protect the people under my own jurisdiction."
Gu Yu sighed, "Alright, you can continue. What's the deal with Liu Bian? I'll see if I can get justice for him too."
Wei Cong's thoughts drifted back to the day he met Liu Bian.
He deliberately found a coarse cloth outfit to wear, pretending to be an ordinary salt smuggler, wanting to find out the details of this salt smuggling business.
Unexpectedly, he ran into an acquaintance. Even in the dark, Liu Bian still recognized him from among the crowd.
Liu Bian leaned closer to him and asked in a low voice, "You corrupt official, what are you doing here? Are you no longer an official and are now competing with us poor people for a living?"
When Wei Cong saw him, he asked in confusion, "Aren't you the son of the kitchen worker? Why are you involved with this place?"
“My family doesn’t have extra salt to sell every day. Why can’t I sell other kinds of salt when I’m not busy? Anyway, they’re all called private salt, so what’s the difference?” His roguish tone made Wei Cong frown.
"Sir, what brings you here? Are you perhaps trying to gather evidence to arrest all those salt merchants?"
Li Daniu, who was standing beside him, vaguely heard a few "sirs" and looked over with a suspicious gaze.
"Ah Bian, what are you talking to people about? What 'sir'? Are there some officials here?"
"No, you misheard. It's someone I know. I didn't expect to run into them here. We'll chat for a bit."
Liu Bian dealt with Li Daniu for a moment, and seeing that Wei Cong didn't say much, he knew he might be right. "You're like a lamb entering a tiger's den. The people around me all hate the government. If they find out you're an official, do you think you can still get out?"
Wei Cong remained silent, his gaze calm. "At least you didn't intend to expose me, otherwise you would have informed others the moment you discovered me."
“Indeed, sir, you are wise. I am not ungrateful for your mercy. I will pretend I didn’t know anything this time.” Liu Bian said, and continued walking forward with the people in front of him.
“This group of people is going to collect smuggled salt.” He explained to Wei Cong, “When you go in later, you should talk less. None of us can read, and if you speak in a pretentious manner, you will give yourself away as soon as you open your mouth.”
"Thank you," Wei Cong said softly.
"No matter what you see later, don't show any surprise, otherwise I won't be able to help you."
Wei Cong followed those people northward until he reached the checkpoint ahead, at which point he finally understood what Liu Bian meant.
Further ahead lies the territory of Tongguanwei.
The guard posts and prefectures of Dasheng were very similar, with their own territories and military and civilian populations. These military and civilian populations were soldiers in wartime and farmers in peacetime, and the fields in their territories were military farms.
The soldiers and civilians in the garrison cultivated land, and when the harvest came, they had to pay a high land tax to support the entire garrison.
He made up a name for it and received ten pounds of salt wrapped in cloth. After opening the cloth bag, he found that the salt was of even better quality than the official salt.
Liu Bian was intrigued by his bewildered appearance and kept circling around him. "What, sir? You didn't expect this, did you? These salt merchants colluded with the officers of the garrison from the very beginning, which is why smuggled salt is so rampant."
“No,” Wei Cong retorted. “The root of the problem lies in the fact that private salt is profitable, the salt tax burden is too heavy, the price of official salt remains high, and the people are forced to buy private salt.”
Liu Bian was surprised by Wei Cong's words. "So, according to your logic, we're all innocent, including these salt merchants and military officers?"
"They are also wrong, but people die for wealth, just as birds die for food. This is unavoidable. It is the current salt tax and the corruption of the salt administration that have given these people the opportunity to make mistakes."
Liu Bian didn't quite understand these long-winded explanations, so he simply asked, "Sir, what do you intend to do? You're not arresting the salt smugglers, but you're letting them sneak in to sell smuggled salt. It'll be funny if they actually get caught by your officers on the street later."
“I want evidence. Now I know where the smuggled salt is located, but I don’t have the right to enter the garrison to investigate. I also want evidence of collusion between salt merchants and military officers, and evidence of salt merchants taking smuggled salt from the salt ponds.”
"Evidence?" Liu Bian scoffed. "I'm not going to waste my breath on you. I'm only doing you a favor by not exposing you this time. I won't help you next time. You'd better watch yourself."
Don't expect us to help you. We all make a living selling smuggled salt. If you try to shut down the smuggling trade, how will we eat?
“What if government-mandated salt could feed you?” Wei Cong said. “The salt tax is high now, but the money doesn’t go to the imperial court. The imperial court has no money, so the salt producers have even less money, and the taxes levied on you are getting higher and higher.”
“If we block the biggest route for smuggled salt, I want to change the salt tax here. I had this idea when I came here, and there are people in the higher-ups who support my idea. If my method works, the salt producers won’t be so poor, and the imperial court will be able to reclaim the salt tax.”
Liu Bian remained silent for a long time, seemingly listening but also seemingly not taking it to heart. "Sir, you should take care of yourself. Give me your salt; you shouldn't be short of that little bit of silver. But it would be bad if you knowingly broke the law."
After saying that, Liu Bian took the ten catties of salt from Wei Cong and left.
Wei Cong didn't say anything more; his hands were empty, and his heart was empty too.
Upon returning to the government office, Zhang Shuqi gave him the letter sent from Shengjing. He went back to his room, opened the letter, and sure enough, found a salt certificate.
He carefully compared the salt certificates with those in his memory and found some differences. However, he did not have the salt certificates he had obtained from Xu Yunliang, so now was not the time to break ties with him.
The salt smuggling business was in trouble again. Several days' worth of official business had kept Wei Cong busy for ten days before he was able to keep his appointment with Xu Yunliang.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Xu Yunliang and the other salt merchants were already there, and the dishes on the table were much more lavish than the first time he was invited.
"Lord Wei, it's been a long time. How have you been these days?" Xu Yunliang raised his wine cup to toast Wei Cong.
Wei Cong took a sip of wine and said, "Recently, there have been more and more cases of land disputes involving government offices. I've been busy with these matters these past few days."
"So, sir, you're not going to deal with the smuggled salt business anymore?" Xu Yunliang's eyes darted around, still showing some concern.
"I'm willing but unable, as you know. I've recently sent all the officials to the fields; I don't have the time or resources to deal with this." Wei Cong added a few more words after saying this.
“Brother Xu, although we have a personal relationship, I have always kept my personal and professional matters separate. Most of the cases that have been reported to me are related to you. I hope you can give me an explanation.”
"Alas, this is true because it's impossible to explain to those illiterate villagers. I gave them grain to buy their land, and they signed and sealed the documents, but they still turned around and accused me."
“Take the last incident for example. I just gave him a little less, and he agreed at first, but then he went back on his word.”
"They even took me to court. The officials thought he was weak and had the upper hand, but it was a deal that had already been agreed upon. I'm not a fool who would lend grain... If I borrow grain and the person doesn't make it through the end, who will I ask for the grain from then on?"
Wei Cong asked, "What about the military farms in the garrison area? Why is Brother Xu involved as well?"
"Lord Wei is referring to Li Dacheng's place at Tongguan Guard, right? Those fields were given to me by them because they thought the grain yield of the military farms was too high. It's no different from me buying their land. Later, they ran away because they thought being a tenant farmer was too hard."
"The adults may not know the rules of the donation. The land is still in his name, but the actual right to cultivate it is in my hands. Those who ran away are not doing well after they escaped, and they are now thinking about taking back the farmland."
"But buying and selling is not a one-sided matter. Shouldn't Lord Wei look at the evidence now?"
Li Dacheng and Xu Yunliang colluded and seized an unknown amount of military farmland. Every acre of farmland was burdened with extremely heavy taxes, which were levied on the original deserted military households, but the actual harvest of the farmland was attributed to Xu Yunliang.
Such a sacrifice would ultimately harm the imperial court.
Collusion between military and commercial forces, smuggling salt, encroaching on military farmland, and bullying the people by seizing land—these are probably the reasons why Xu Yunliang and his ilk wanted to bribe the prefect.
If anyone is caught on charges of a crime, they will be beheaded and their heads displayed to the public.
Wei Cong left the restaurant and found a furtive figure waiting for him in the alley.
Liu Bian saw through his confusion and shrugged. "I'm not selling smuggled salt, sir. I've come to ask you whether what you said before still stands."
Wei Cong wondered if he meant that he wanted to reform the salt tax.
"Of course it counts. I can assure you that the price of official salt will definitely not be that high, and salt producers will not need to pay so much salt tax. Any excess salt will be collected by the government."
“Alright, tomorrow night, those salt merchants will go to Tongguanwei to settle accounts with Li Dacheng. The evidence you want should all be there, as long as you can get in.” Liu Bian revealed the information, but he still had some hesitation.
"The magistrate hasn't caught any salt smugglers in a long time. They're having a celebration banquet tomorrow night; they must have made a lot of money. All of us who have worked for them can go."
Wei Cong nodded. "I'll disguise myself and bring the soldiers with me. If they show up together, I'll arrest them on the spot."
"The garrison is full of soldiers and civilians, are you not afraid, sir?"
“I’m not afraid. I will write a letter to my teacher. If something happens to me, they may escape other charges, but they can’t escape the charge of plotting against an official of the court. They won’t dare to touch me. If they dare to touch the prefect here, the previous prefect wouldn’t have gone to jail for corruption and bribery,” Wei Cong pondered.
He had initially had some doubts about his teacher, but after Xu Ziliu sent him a salt certificate, his doubts about his teacher almost disappeared.
He decided to be honest with Xu Ziliu about what had happened recently, so that Xu could be prepared for what was to come.
Xu Yunliang's actions were extremely serious and could not possibly go unnoticed by his teacher. If Sun Gu were to seize the opportunity to cause trouble, things would be even worse.
"It would be even better if we had their correspondence or ledgers showing how they divided the spoils."
Liu Bian seemed to understand but not quite, "When you've subdued the person, I'll sneak into Li Dacheng's room and help you look for him."
"Then you need to be quick. Even if you can't find it, you have to come out. By the time he realizes what's happening and destroys the evidence, it won't take more than fifteen minutes."
"Okay." Liu Bian made his decision and turned to walk into the darkness.
Wei Cong returned to the government office and summoned several skilled and trustworthy officers, discussing in detail the preparations for the next day.
The following evening, Wei Cong disguised himself and mingled with the officials around him into the crowd of salt smugglers. Liu Bian glanced at him from afar but did not approach.
Wei Cong and his officers waited patiently until wealthy-looking merchants began to appear outside.
Li Dacheng, who sat in the main seat, had a rugged face, slightly dark skin, and was not tall but very strong.
"Brothers, if it weren't for you, that salt wouldn't have sold so quickly. I, Li Dacheng, want to thank all of you brothers who were willing to work with me. Smuggling salt is a business where you risk your lives. Since you're willing to work with me, I certainly won't treat you badly..."
As he spoke, he had his men bring out a tray of loose silver and copper coins. “The government hasn’t been cracking down hard these past few days, so I’ve earned more silver than usual. I don’t want to treat you brothers unfairly, so this is all for you. Please divide it among yourselves.”
After saying this, he waved his hand and threw all the copper coins and silver pieces on the ground, causing chaos among the crowd.
Wei Cong was still waiting for the right opportunity. He had brought few men and planned to make his move when Li Dacheng and the wealthy merchants had finished their drinks. Moreover, Xu Yunliang had not shown up, which made him feel uneasy.
As everyone squatted down to pick up the silver, he also pretended to pick up a few copper coins. When the officer next to him asked him a question, seeing that he did not stop him, he also joined the line of people grabbing silver.
Liu Bian silently approached him. "What's wrong, sir? Aren't you going to make a move?"
"Xu Yunliang is not here."
“He’s cautious; I don’t think he’ll come,” Liu Bian said.
Wei Cong thought for a moment, then secretly slipped the copper coin he had picked up into his hand and said, “I won’t pursue this money later. You can keep it. I have nothing to repay you for helping me.”
"Use this embezzled money?"
Wei Cong retorted in a low voice, "Money isn't dirty; it just depends on how the person using it views it."
"Alright, I'll take it, Lord Wei. This is the first time in my life I've worked for the government, so please don't disappoint me." Liu Bian gave him a deep look.
"In another fifteen minutes, I will approach Li Dacheng. My men will subdue the other merchants. You can look for something when the opportunity arises. Even if you can't find it, you still have to come out."
After everyone drank some more wine, Wei Cong, using the excuse that he could tell fortunes for Li Dacheng, moved forward, and the officials also secretly moved forward.
Li Dacheng looked at the frail scholar before him, who seemed powerless, and didn't suspect anything. "You look like someone who has been to school?"
"He had studied for a few years and knew a few words, but his family was poor and he had no way to make a living, so he could only work for adults to make a living."
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