Three Kingdoms: Ten Times Speed, Diao Chan Says I'm Too Fast

It was noon.

The blazing sun shines on the salt fields, and from above, the snow-white salt fields shimmer with a crystal-clear luster.

Groups of people, their skin tanned and peeling from the sun, were dragging rakes, repeatedly drying the coarse salt spread on the ground.

Each salt field is 100 meters long and wide.

There is a passageway between them that can accommodate two people walking side by side.

Every ten meters or so along the passageway, there was a soldier standing guard with a spear.

The salt produced at the salt lake in Hadong County is of extremely high quality and can be eaten directly even without processing.

Moreover, it has almost no bitter taste.

After simple processing, it can become refined salt.

The mined salt was repeatedly dried in the sun before being transported to a processing site where it was ground into refined salt.

Originally, these laborers who mined salt fields worked for the local gentry and powerful families in Hedong County.

However, since Duan Yu took over the salt ponds, he has cut off all private mining by the gentry and powerful families of Hedong County.

These laborers were hired by Duan Yu.

As for the local people who originally lived in the surrounding area and were illegally mining, Duan Yu also hired them.

Selling salt illegally is a serious crime.

However, due to the large size of the salt lakes and the lax management, illegal mining is still prevalent here.

One stone of salt can be sold for eight hundred coins.

Of course, this refers to the finest refined salt from Yanchi.

If it's something that ordinary people collect privately and it hasn't been processed, a stone of it would cost at most four hundred coins.

Of course, it's impossible for ordinary people to get this price if they privately collect and sell it.

The powerful families who collect salt from the people's private salt mining usually drive the price down to an extremely low level.

That is, the price is around two hundred coins per stone.

The powerful and wealthy could easily make a profit of 600 coins per shi by simply processing the salt they collected.

The people who illegally mined salt worked hard, soaking in the salt ponds, and risked being caught by the salt inspectors. In the end, they only received two hundred coins per shi (a unit of dry measure), which was not even enough to buy a shi of fine grain.

But if it were sold to a powerful family, they would receive six hundred coins.

However, everything changed after Duan Yu arrived.

Illegal mining is definitely not allowed.

However, Duan Yu did not cut off the livelihoods of the surrounding people.

Instead, they hired all the local people to work in the salt fields.

Furthermore, the wages offered were higher than those earned by the local people who illegally mined the land.

There's no need to worry about breaking the law, and the income is higher than before, so no one would refuse.

In this way, the path for ordinary people to mine privately was directly cut off.

The biggest losers were the gentry and powerful families of Hedong County.

These aristocratic families and powerful clans colluded with salt inspectors to illegally mine large quantities of salt, which was then resold layer by layer. Some of the salt was sold to the Eastern Qiang, while others were sold to the Xiongnu and even the Xianbei.

In those places, the price of salt often increases several times over.

The powerful clans used this method to amass wealth, and then used the money earned by these laborers and common people to buy back the land held by the common people.

In years of famine, when the land produces no grain, the gentry and powerful families will buy up all the land at extremely low prices.

Then they hired these people who sold land as tenant farmers.

Tenants farmed land and collected grain for powerful families and noble clans.

After the autumn harvest, the gentry and powerful families raised grain prices, making it so that the tenants' hard-earned money from a year's work was not enough to feed themselves.

If this continues, the common people will suffer greatly, while the granaries and powerful families will have their granaries overflowing with money and grain.

But every single copper coin is stained with the blood and sweat of the people.

On the east side of the salt lake, Tie Shitou was leading a cavalry unit of about several dozen men on patrol of the salt fields.

"General."

A series of urgent shouts came from behind Tie Shitou.

Tie Shi, who was riding on horseback, turned his head and saw a cavalryman coming quickly in this direction.

"General, something terrible has happened."

The cavalrymen shouted urgently as they galloped away.

Upon hearing this, Tie Shitou frowned.

event?

Instinctively, a name surfaced in his hardened mind.

Yuan Shu!

Could it be Yuan Shu?

"what happened?"

When the cavalrymen approached, Tie Shitou asked, "What happened?"

The cavalryman, with an anxious expression, pointed behind him and said, "General, the lady and General Wang have arrived."

Ok?

General Wang?

lady?

"Why has Madam come?" Tie Shitou's face was full of questions.

"It was General Erhu who came with his wife."

Wang Erhu?

Tie Shitou was even more confused.

It's not Wang Hunu, it's Wang Erhu?

Tie Shitou didn't ask any more questions, but turned his horse around and galloped towards the camp.

..........

Before long, Tie Shitou returned to the camp with a group of guards.

“Brother Stone..…”

When Wang Erhu, who was sitting next to the carriage, saw Tie Shitou, he cried out in a tearful voice.

Iron Stone, who had not yet dismounted from his horse, was immediately taken aback, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Erhu, where's your brother? What's wrong? Why are you here?"

Tie Shitou quickly came to Wang Erhu's side, then squatted down and supported Wang Erhu's shoulder.

"Brother Stone, my brother... my brother... my brother is trapped in the city."

While wiping away his tears, Wang Erhu said, "My brother closed the city gates and lowered the heavy gates so that I could bring my sister-in-law out. We were trapped in the city by Yuan Shu's Tiger Army."

"what?"

Tie Shitou's expression froze.

"What did you say?" Tie Shitou hurriedly shook Wang Erhu's shoulders and said, "What Tiger Army? What happened to Yuan Shu? And what happened to your brother!"

While crying, Wang Erhu recounted the events in detail.

When Tie Shitou heard that Wang Hunu had closed the city gates and lowered the heavy gate to cover their escape, he was completely stunned.

"Husband... hurry and save the tiger slave!"

The carriage chain was lifted, and Lan'er, holding little Tie Rui, leaned out to look at Tie Shitou, who was standing there dumbfounded, and said, "Hu Nu was trapped in the city so that Rui'er and I could escape. Husband, you must save Hu Nu."

Once he realized what was happening, Tie Shitou suddenly stood up.

"Order the troops to assemble! Assemble all troops and march on Anyi!"

..............

South of Anyi City.

Ji Ling stood before Yuan Shu with his head drooping, just as he had the night before.

Yuan Shu's whip lashed incessantly across Ji Ling's body.

"waste!"

Yuan Shu glared angrily at Ji Ling and cursed, "You good-for-nothing! You can't catch people when I ask you to chase them, and you let them escape when I ask you to capture them! What else can you do?!"

Ji Ling, with her head down, looked utterly aggrieved.

Can you blame him?

Can you blame him?

He wasn't the one who closed the door, nor was he the one who released the heavy-duty gate.

In that situation, anyone would have done the same, let alone him.

"General."

Fan Xian, who was standing to the side, stepped forward and said, "Actually, it doesn't matter if they escaped, we've already caught one, haven't we?"

Fan Xian looked to the side.

Not far from the group, Wang Hunu, who was bound by ropes, was being forced to kneel on the ground by two soldiers.

With a rag stuffed in his mouth, Wang Hunu lowered his head and closed his eyes.

Blood continued to flow from the shattered armor on his body.

“General, based on my deduction, that man named Tie Shitou will definitely come back to rescue him,” Fan Xian said with a smile. “All you need to do is wait quietly in the city.”

"If that guy named Iron Stone comes back, the general only needs to use him to coerce Iron Stone into submission."

Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow at Fan Xian, let out a soft "hmm," and then nodded, saying, "What you said makes some sense."

"Not bad."

As he spoke, Yuan Shu glared at Ji Ling, who was standing to the side with his head down, and said, "Listen up, learn more from Fan Xian, and use your brain more in everything you do."

"You couldn't even catch two people, you're utterly useless."

Wang Hunu, who was kneeling on the ground with his mouth gagged to prevent him from biting his tongue, slightly opened his closed eyes when he heard the conversation between the two.

..........

Not long after.

As soon as Yuan Shu and his party climbed onto the city wall, a cloud of dust billowed up from the south of the city.

"coming!"

Fan Xian pointed south of Anyi City and said, "General, they're here."

Not long after Fan Xian finished speaking, several hundred elite Liangzhou cavalrymen arrived outside the south of Anyi City.

The one leading them was Tie Shitou, who had an angry expression on his face.

"Yuan Shu!" Tie Shitou roared, pointing his spear at Yuan Shu atop the city wall, "Release Hu Nu, and I will forgive and forget this matter; otherwise..."

"Humph."

Yuan Shu, standing atop the city wall, sneered and said with a laugh, "Let bygones be bygones?"

"Who do you think you are, to dare speak to me like that?"

"Dismount now, kneel down, and call me 'Grandpa,' and I might consider letting you go," Yuan Shu said, leaning on the battlements. "Your name is Iron Stone, right?"

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. Dismount, kneel down, and then bind yourself."

"if not."

With that, Yuan Shu drew his sword and placed it directly against Wang Hunu's neck, saying, "Otherwise, I'll kill him right in front of you!"

Yuan Shu wore a smug smile.

"He was captured by me because of your woman and your child. Such a loyal and righteous brother, you can't just watch him die in front of you, can you?"

Immediately, Tie Shitou's teeth were about to grind to powder.

Looking at Wang Hunu kneeling on the city wall, bound and gagged, Tie Shitou felt as if his heart was being torn apart.

Yuan Shu was right about something.

Wang Hunu was captured because of his wife and children.

"Tiger slave..."

Tie Shitou gritted his teeth and called out softly.

As if hearing the sound of iron and stone, Wang Hunu, who was bound to the city wall, suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes and looked down at the iron and stone below the city wall.

"Brother Stone..."

Wang Hunu grinned, then suddenly revealed a smile.

The next second, Tie Shitou's expression suddenly changed. As if realizing something, he suddenly reached out and shouted loudly in Wang Hunu's direction, "Hunu, no!"

Before Yuan Shu could react, Wang Hunu shouted loudly at Tieshitou below the city wall: "My name is Wang Hunu, and I would rather die than submit!"

brush!

Wang Hunu suddenly turned his neck, the blade of Yuan Shu's sword pressed against his neck.

The next second, the sharp blade sliced ​​open the neck, and blood gushed out!