The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 19: The Salt Dealer in the River Cascade

As mentioned above, the ship was divided into three layers. The first layer below the deck was the cargo warehouse and the boatman's room, and the passenger cabin above the deck was occupied by the Jia family.

Because the second floor was more blocked out, it was allocated to the female family members.

However, Ruan Rong went up to the second floor in a worrying way and ran into two panicked women. She was guilty in her heart, so she didn't dare stop and ask the reason. Instead, she dodged aside.

Who knows that the two old servants couldn’t pay any attention to their manners? They just briefly apologized without looking back and hurried downstairs.

The servants of rich and powerful families always pay attention to the word "etiquette". If there wasn’t something big happening, they would never panic like this.

Ruan Rong was also curious about what was going on outside, so she went to Daiyu's room. As the hostess of the boat, Daiyu's room had a panoramic view of the ship’s bow.

When she opened the cabin door, she saw Lin Daiyu, Zi Juan, and Xue Yan lying in the window, looking down through a gap. Except that Daiyu was barely calm, the remaining two servant girls all looked worried.

"What exactly happened?" Ruan Rong walked quickly behind the three ladies and asked curiously, "Looking at you one by one, it seems like the sky has fallen."

The three ladies were startled. Seeing Ruan Rong, Daiyu hurriedly stepped aside and said, "You will know after looking at it!"

Given their relationship, Ruan Rong would not be polite to her. She went to the window and saw that they had only opened a gap carefully, so she stretched out her hand to push the circle and looked out.

On the river nearly 100 meters wide, there were six big watercraft with wild geese spreading their wings lined up, cutting across the whole river. There were at least 70 or 80 people on the deck, shouting and scolding the servants of the rich with the Cao family's boat across the river.

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"Have we encountered a water bandit?"

Ruan Rong muttered casually that the two servant girls who had been bluffing were pale, especially the younger servant, Xue Yan. Their eyes were red, and they almost burst into tears.

Daiyu hurriedly pushed Ruan Rong and protested with dissatisfaction, "Don't scare people, sister! How are there so many water bandits on the canal, and how can they even use those ships for transporting tribute grain? There must be some other reason!"

She then turned back to comfort Xue Yan and said, "Don't panic. When Mother Zhang comes back, we will know what's going on."

Coincidentally, Mother Zhang broke in at this time. Before she could breathe, she replied, "Don't be afraid, girls. They are not water bandits ahead, but a group of salt dealers!"

It turned out that the six watercraft were caravans carrying salt northward. One of their craft accidentally got stuck on a reef because the boat was freighted with too much merchandise and was too deep in a draught. The bottom of the boat was also broken.

Seeing that if this matter was going to be delayed further, the salt dealers were afraid that the ship of salt would be gone. The salt traders simply cut off the river course and wanted to seize the passing passenger ships to transport the salt to the ferry thirty miles away.

If Jia Lian had left two days later in the evening, someone else would have suffered this misfortune. It happened that Sun Shaozong helped him, and the Jia family set off on the journey a few days earlier. As a result, they were bumping into this group of ”obstacles”!

The sudden huge earthquake on the ship just now was caused by the boatman's emergency dropping of the four claw iron anchor.

If an ordinary passenger ship saw such a large number of people on the other side, they may be terrified. However, if the servants of the rich from the Jia family do not bully others during ordinary times, they will be considered doing good deeds. How would they be willing to be intimidated by just several salt dealers?

So the two sides shouted at each other when they disagreed!

Jia Yucun was taking a nap in the room. After hearing the servant's report, he quickly got up and hurried to the deck. Seeing that they were shouting at the top of their lungs, he hurriedly shouted, "Stop fighting and stop scolding further! Shut up!“

How would the servants of the rich from the Jia family ever take this “broken settlement” seriously?

After hearing Jia Yucun's reprimand, the servants of the rich scolded even more fiercely. Some people shouted at the top of their voices, "Jia Yucun, the governor of Jinling is here! You better get out of the way quickly, you ass stabbing dogs!"

Jia Yucun's hands and feet trembled angrily, but he could not do anything to them. He had to gather around Jia Lian and exhorted, "My Second Master Lian! Let them stop scolding. What if something bad were to happen?"

There's a saying that goes “like master, like servant”. In fact, it was the same thing said the other way around. Even the servants of the rich from the Jia family didn’t give a damn about the salt dealers across the river. How could Jia Lian be afraid of them when he was used to being a master?

"Something bad?"

When he saw him twitching his mouth, he said, "They even dare to stop the boat of Rongguo Mansion. I think they are the ones who will be in trouble! When we get to the Qingzhou Mansion, I will let this bastard know what the meaning of the word ”regret” is!"

"I'm afraid the Second Master doesn't know anything about it. Whenever the official salt is escorted, there must be a flag of salt merchant Yamen on the ship, but there are no signs on these ships. It must be private salt! If they dare to transport this lot of private salt in a straw boat openly, they must be supported by a person who covers extravagance. They may not be afraid of the Rongguo Mansion!"

After these words, Jia Lian's face showed hesitation. But because of his reputation, he was still unable to back down with grace.

Jia Yucun hurriedly struck while the iron was hot and said, "Besides, most of the private salt dealers are outlaws. I have heard several times of the salt dealers killing officials and rebelling when I was in Jinling. If we annoyed them..."

Hearing the words ”killing officials and rebelling,” Jia Lian immediately shivered. Why should he care about his reputation?

He hurriedly jumped to his feet and reprimanded, "Stop scolding! Stop scolding! Shut the fuck up!”

His words were effective, and the servants of the rich immediately fell silent.

However, it was too late to admit defeat at this time. He saw that the five large ships opposite had already fanned up. The passenger ship of the Jia family had just laid the iron anchor and had no time to change the wind direction. For a moment, it was stuck there!

At this time, the servants of the rich finally realized that the people they had just provoked were actually over 100 strong men with fierce spirits and sharp blades!

So, one by one, their faces looked like they were being strangled by someone in the throat. They couldn't even say a sentence and were different from the sharp-tongued people earlier on.

Seeing that they were getting closer, he saw a middle-aged fat man in a brocade mink robe on the opposite ship. Surrounded by many salt dealers, he pointed and scolded, "What kind of bullshit is the Prefect of Jinling, a small official like him also dares to appear in front of me?! I will drive all the people on the ship into the water later to wash your stinky mouth that is used to spray feces!"

All the people in the Jia family's faces changed color when they heard what they said. It seems that if people like them, who live in comfort with wealth and honor, were thrown into the water in the winter, they’re afraid that they would be half disabled even if they survive!

In a hurry, the servants of the rich were forced to show courage and quickly show their final cards, "What do you want to do? The person who is in charge of this ship is the Second Master Lian of our Rongguo Mansion!

"Yes, we are from the Rongguo Mansion!"

"Our Second Master's wife's family is Lord Wang, who is in control of the nine provinces!"

The cards turned out to be bigger and higher, and the servants of the rich also straightened their backs again. It was obvious that there were more dirty words in their scolding towards them.

The fat man on the other side laughed at the speech and said, "I thought who it was? It turned out to be the precious son of first-class general, Jia She! Well, I'll save face for the Rongguo Mansion. Other than Jia Lian, throw them all into the water for me!"

After listening to the first half of the story, the servant of the rich thought that the opposite side had been bluffed. They were about to take the opportunity to show off their power again. They didn't expect that the last sentence would be a sharp turn. They were all scared that they couldn’t speak.

It was only at this time that Jia Lian knew that what Jia Yucun said was right. Indeed, the other party had the support of a person who covered luxury behind him, and even the Rongguo Mansion and Wang Ziteng can’t let them be afraid.

While talking, he saw that the big ships had already approached. The salt dealers made concerted efforts to build the gangplank to the side of the ship, and then they all raised their swords and guns and surged up like a tide!

The servants of the rich turned chaotic, some of them were frozen and could not move on the spot. Some shouted and turned around to escape into the cabin. What's more, the weak servant was even kneeling on the ground and was screaming the name of their ancestor.

The situation suddenly collapsed into such a state that both Jia Lian and Jia Yucun looked pale. Especially Jia Yucun, who had already regretted that his intestines were green. If he had known that he would encounter such a disaster, he would not have rushed to go with Jia Lian!

While they were all in a panic, they saw that the servant of the rich who had just escaped into the cabin rushed out again, with an expression like seeing a ghost on their faces.

The next moment, he saw a large wooden pole person, like a thick and thin top beam and pole, leaping out of the cabin and staggering straight to the ship’s bow.