Chapter 4: Salt is more precious than life

The bonfire was lit, and the faces of those sitting around it were flushed. The men around Yun Ye were soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. They belonged to the Zuoweiwei, but they were not soldiers of war, they were auxiliary soldiers, responsible for transporting supplies such as food, fodder, and weapons.

The man in charge is named Zhang Cheng, a team leader who has 50 soldiers and several civilian laborers under his command. Zhang Cheng was originally a true-blue farmer, farming when he was busy and practicing martial arts when he was not. The sons of Guanzhong loved martial arts, so in the battle to eliminate the young king of Changle, he was promoted to team leader after beheading two people. Because of the rebellion of Youliang, the security of Longyou suddenly became worse. The Qiang people lost control and would attack the grain transport team from time to time. This is why Zhang Cheng was so wary of Yun Ye.

This group of people are all good people, and Yun Ye knows this very well. Seeing Yun Ye was a little cold, Zhang Cheng took out his own clothes and gave them to him to change into. The 14-year-old Yun Ye looked ridiculous in Zhang Cheng’s clothes. The two women in the team took the clothes and took out the needles and thread to alter them for Yun Ye.

They were going to see their husbands at Hei Wukou. Zhang Cheng told Yun Ye in a whisper and winked, saying that she would only return when her belly was big. After that, he slapped Yun Ye and said that a little brat should not ask adults about their business.

Yun Ye was full of grievances. Is this what I asked? You told me yourself, didn’t you? The two women snickered and handed Yun Ye a white linen cloth. Yun Ye looked left and right and couldn’t figure out what it was for.

“What are you looking at?” Zhang Cheng said, and ripped off Yun Ye’s torn clothes. In the midst of Yun Ye’s screams and the laughter of others, he wrapped the white cloth around Yun Ye’s waist in a few seconds. Yun Ye finally understood that the two fat men were playing wrestling on the stage with this thing. After all this time, this is the only thing they learned from our ancestors.

Wangcai was also neighing, obviously laughing. Yun Ye was so angry that he slapped him. He took out the smoked mutton from his backpack that he didn’t want to eat, strung it on a branch and put it on fire to roast. After a while, the grease oozed out and squeaked.

There was a sound of people slurping their mouths around, and the sense of satisfaction increased. Zhang Cheng was asked to find a piece of wood and use a knife to cut it into thin slices. He took the flatbread in their hands, cut it in half, and then put the meat slices in the flatbread. A delicious meat sandwich was ready.

He handed the bun to Zhang Cheng, who held it in both hands, smelled it deeply, and looked intoxicated. Then he straightened his face and said, “Eat it in two waves. Eat one wave and then the other.”

Then he handed the meat pie to the two women. The two women took the meat pie with a clear conscience and began to munch on it.

Yun Ye smiled inwardly, knowing that Zhang Cheng was afraid that the meat was poisonous, so after he had picked up the second meat pie, he did not hand it to Zhang Cheng.

“Uncle Zhang, I’m so hungry, I’ll eat it first.” He took a big bite, and the mutton was so fat that the fat dripped from the corner of his mouth.

Zhang Cheng’s face was red, but I don’t know if it was red. Anyway, it was dark and I couldn’t see clearly. But he reached out and slapped Yun Ye on the head. “You’re a little kid, but you have a lot of thoughts.” After that, he took the knife and cut the mutton himself. He is worthy of living by the knife.

In an instant, a lamb hind leg was transformed into a pile of meat slices under his knife. Seeing Zhang Cheng take a big bite of the meat pie, Yun Ye even heard him moan in comfort. Yun Ye couldn’t help but shake his head and smile wryly. This is the real deal. If he had a few hard dishes, he would be floating in the clouds.

“Hey?” he called out in surprise after swallowing the first bite. Pulling a piece of meat out of the bun and licking it with his tongue made Yun Ye feel a bit sick.

“Salt, you little brat, is this how you live? You put so much salt in it.” He said he was going to beat Yun Ye, and Yun Ye ran away with his head in his hands. His big hand was like a wrench on his body, so he could take it as little as possible.

“It’s just salt, there’s plenty of it!” After saying that, Yun Ye took out a small cloth bag from his backpack. The bag contained four or five catties of salt that Yun Ye had picked up from the rock walls along the way. Zhang Cheng’s eyes were wide, and he snatched it away. He carefully opened the salt bag next to the fire and stared at the grayish-white powder inside.

Yun Ye walked over and pushed him: “What’s so interesting about salt?”

“You little brat! You dare to waste such good salt like this.” Zhang Cheng was completely furious. He saw that Yun Ye was hiding behind the two women and couldn’t catch him, so he took a deep breath and said, “Little brat, where did you get so much salt?”

Yun Ye was a bit confused, and the two women also held Yun Ye’s hand and looked at him nervously.

“There are salt mines by the river. Just dig.”

“Nonsense, I know there is a salt mine by the river, but that is poisonous salt, you can’t eat it, if you eat that salt, you will die of diarrhea, not to mention that if you eat that stuff, your whole body will turn purple. I’m talking about the salt in your bag, it’s better than government salt, where did it come from?” Zhang Cheng’s eyes were already red, and he shouted at Yun Ye.

Yun Ye was very impressed by the spirit of experimentation of the ancients. It was true that you could eat salt, but if you ate the nitrate, phosphorus and potassium impurities in the salt mine together, you were looking for death. After eating nitrate, you might be able to hold on for a while, but it would be strange if you ate too much phosphorus and potassium and your whole body didn’t turn purple. In later generations, Yun Ye had seen calcium supplements, iron supplements, but never nitrate, phosphorus and potassium supplements.

“Uncle Zhang, how can the salt mine just eat it like this? It has to be crushed, dissolved, filtered, and analyzed. The salt that crystallizes at the end is the salt that people eat. Just like some herbs that are obviously poisonous, but after some special processing, they become non-toxic and can also cure diseases. This is also the case with salt. Everything in this world is prepared for people. As long as you find the right and appropriate method, everything in this world can be used by people. The salt-making method is just a small road.” Seeing Zhang Cheng’s eyes full of circles, Yun Ye knew that the words he had just said were in vain.

“So you know how to separate the edible salt from the poisonous salt?” Zhang Cheng is not stupid, he can summarize, and he can ask the main points without being confused.

“I didn’t tell you, it’s just a small road.” There was no need to bother the honest man, so Yun Ye gave him the exact answer directly. He tried hard to look like a wise man.

Regardless of past or present life, people who are beneficial to others, or who can bring benefits to others, are most easily integrated into the crowd and accepted by them. Yun Ye’s top priority was to join the great Tang Dynasty family, obtain a household registration, and become a brick in the great feudal dynasty. After all, a thousand years later, he would also be a brick, so it didn’t matter where he was.

Zhang Cheng was full of joy, and wanted to speak, but he stopped himself, his face turning red, and he rubbed his hands anxiously. He paced back and forth in front of Yun Ye, like an old donkey pulling a millstone. His lowly status restrained his passion for wanting to know the secret recipe. He could not give Yun Ye any promises. There were too many benefits in the gold-making method of turning waste into treasure, and it was definitely not something that his small team could participate in. Yun Ye is a hermit’s talented student, and he has already amazed people with just a glimpse of his talent. If he reveals it all, he will have a lot of knowledge.

“I am just a simple soldier, not worthy of knowing the secret recipe. Please have mercy on our plight and allow me to report this to the school captain. You will surely be commended by the court, and your good deeds will be spread throughout the land.”

“Uncle Zhang, what does the salt you eat look like?”

Zhang Cheng carefully took out a cloth bag from his bosom, opened it layer by layer, and a walnut-sized yellow-brown crystal appeared in front of him. Yun Ye picked it up and tasted it. In addition to being salty, it also had a variety of strange flavors that made him feel like he was dying. He picked up the water gourd and gargled several times, and the strange flavor only subsided.

“Is this salt? It’s poison!” After saying that, he threw it away. Just as he did, Zhang Cheng, who had been watching Yun Ye’s salt in his hand, quickly grabbed it back. He wrapped it in a cloth and stuffed it back into his bosom. His eyes were a bit sad, and he pointed at the people around them who were listening to their conversation with a miserable smile.

“Young master, you think everyone is like you, who has been pampered since childhood, and has never touched the water of spring with his hands. Even if you are in trouble now, you still have the methods left by your ancestors to survive, and you will still live a comfortable life. You look like a talented person, you are smart, and you understand human nature. In two years, you will grow up, and you will be as comfortable as if you were born with it. You can’t take it away. This is your fate! We are different. Our parents only taught us to scratch a living from the soil, and nothing else. The salt you threw away was a gift from the captain of the school, who had personally killed two rebels. Ask them, how many have seen such a large piece of salt?

The men gathered around the fire shook their heads, and the two women lowered their heads in embarrassment.

“Isn’t it already the Zhenguan era? Why is life still so difficult?”

“My lord, you don’t understand. The world is just at peace. Without the scourge of war, we can get by on wild vegetables and grain. In the past few years, salt was expensive, but we could still get a few taels occasionally. But in recent years, the Turks have been raiding our borders every year, burning, killing, and plundering. The trade routes have been cut off, and the salt from Shandong can’t be transported here. I have been stationed in Longyou for three years, fighting battles every year. The soldiers lack salt, and the vinegar cloth is used as a seasoning. The body of the soldiers is weaker and weaker every year. The general knows that the Turks are returning to the grasslands from Yanchuan, and the soldiers are weak and unable to pursue them. I heard that the general was so angry that he broke his precious sword and vowed to kill all the Turks. The young master has a secret skill. Once he uses it, the army will no longer lack salt. After we have rested and recuperated, it will be easy to kill all the Turk dogs.

Ignoring Zhang Cheng’s seductive language for the moment, the rough man’s plan is straightforward and cute. The method must be explained, but who to explain it to and how is a big question.

Zhang Cheng’s boss’s boss is Cheng Chumo, the eldest son of the famous devil Cheng Yaojin. He is currently the Lanzhou Zhechong Xiuwei, a standard second-generation official. He is a man of generosity and loyalty. At the age of 18, he has been fighting on the battlefield with his father for many years. He is the best of the rich. Through him, the method of salt production can be considered a shortcut to success. More importantly, it is said that Old Cheng lived to be over 100 years old, a living legend of the Tang Dynasty.

Yun Ye then stood up and bowed to Zhang Cheng and everyone in a dignified manner: “Listening to your words is better than reading for ten years. Yun Ye will remember what you taught me today and never forget it.”

It wasn’t that he was trying to sound learned, but he really respected him. He threw away the part about General Cheng swearing, but the rest of what he said shocked him. My goodness, the Zhenguan era was like this. War, famine, and hunger were everywhere. Zhang Cheng and the others were so lowly in their demands. As long as there was no war and they could feed their stomachs, it was worth risking their lives to fill them. People like me, who eat meat with a bowl in one hand and scold my mother with the other, have no right to pretend to be important in front of them. Young master? What a joke!

With a bang, the men all moved aside, and Zhang Cheng shook his hand like a windmill: “What can we poor people teach the young master? We’re just rambling on. The young master is a man of great ability, and will surely become a general and a prime minister in the future. It’s already a great blessing to be able to get along with the young master.”

It seems that the literati have too much pressure on them. According to historical records, in the early Tang Dynasty, the proportion of scholars in the population was only one to two thousand. Learning has never been something that ordinary people can hope for, and the great families have held the door to knowledge. In this generally uncivilized era, the owners of knowledge had a higher social status, and it was these ordinary people who were eager to gain knowledge who spontaneously elevated their status. This can be seen from Zhang Cheng’s name for Yun Ye, “kid,” “stupid kid,” “Yun Langjun,” “young master,” and so on, which he elevated again and again as he learned more about Yun Ye.

Become a general or enter the government? They really dare to think about it. Yun Ye laughed to himself. Can there be generals and ministers who can’t even recognize the word “and”? The Zhenguan period was an era when there were many talented people. As a lowly official, Yun Ye would be dead meat if he met Li Er, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruxi, or Zhangsun Wuji. It was inevitable that he would be sold out and help them count the money. Businessman? In the feudal dynasty, people who can’t even afford silk are not blessed with wealth, they are just fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered.