Han official!

Chapter 169 Hedong
The salt piles beside the tributaries of the Ba River glowed pale in the twilight. County Lieutenant Gao, wearing lacquered armor with tube sleeves, stood on a four-horse carriage, and his three hundred county soldiers advanced in a cone formation.

The crossbowman was smearing pig fat on the three-edged copper arrowhead. This was the method of maintaining weapons for garrison soldiers recorded in the "Juyan Han Bamboo Slips".

"Shoot quickly!" County Lieutenant Gao waved the silver-inlaid copper axe, and hundreds of crossbows were fired.

Guo Jie dodged the copper arrow by leaning to the side, and the saltpeter paper wrapped around the arrow shaft exploded on the salt brick, emitting green smoke.

The two county soldiers covered their faces and cried out in pain, the blood oozing from their fingers congealing with salt crystals.

This is exactly the method of using brine to injure soldiers mentioned in Chao Cuo's "On Military Affairs".

"Break their shield formation!" Wei Guang led the officers forward, and the hooks with barbs in their hands stuck the hinges of the shield formation.

The shape of this object is the same as the iron hook inlay unearthed from the Han Tomb in Mancheng, and the barbed hook is specifically designed to counter the connection of the shield array.

Guo Jie swung his inlaid gold sword and cut off three long spears. The spear heads fell to the ground, revealing honeycomb-like inferior iron, which was obviously a common defect in privately cast weapons.

Ten ox-hide battering rams suddenly appeared in the salt fog, their iron shafts mottled with salt and frost, imitating the battering rams described in "Mozi: Preparing for the City Gate".

"Burn the flint!" Guo Jie threw out the flint from the armory.

Saltpeter ignites when it comes into contact with fire, and the five battering rams suddenly turned into fireballs. The cotton lining of the leather armor of the soldiers driving the rams actually fanned the flames.

The way these people wore armor was exactly the same as that recorded in the Yinwan Han bamboo slips "Wu Ku Yongshi 4th Year Military Vehicle Equipment Collection Book".

County Magistrate Gao's chariot broke through the wall of fire, and the bronze ornaments on the four-horse carriage curtain were consistent with the regulations of the Weiyang Palace Guard.

"The salt pile in the northwest!" Wei Guang shouted urgently.

Thirty improved crossbows were set up, and the beef tendons wrapped around the crossbow arms were soaked in brine to make them tougher.

The remaining troops of Gao County Magistrate retreated to Hequ and deployed the Yue formation according to battle rules.

The crossbowman sat on a bag of salt and pressed the last hundred cinnabar arrows with the word "Jia" on them into the large rhubarb crossbow. Only the officials in the border counties could equip such a powerful crossbow.

Guo Jie took off his fish-scale iron armor

Wei Guang led his men to overturn the salt carts, and the county soldiers unfolded cowhide arrows soaked in fish oil, which was in line with Chao Cuo's proposal of "wearing leather armor to avoid the front line" in "Strategy for Guarding the Border".

Arrows from both sides rained down like hemp. A copper arrow pierced the cowhide. The arrow shaft was hollow and filled with lead to increase its weight.

"Switch to the blood-letting arrows!" County Captain Gao screamed, shaking off the salt grains from the ruins.

The crossbowman pulled out a triangular arrow, and salt crystals were embedded in the bleeding groove.

The armor on Guo Jie's arm guard cracked, revealing the woven pattern of "Guo Family of Chen County" on the inner lining.

Guo Jie crouched in the oak bushes, rubbing the bleeding groove of the three-edged copper arrowhead with his palm.

The shape of this object is no different from the arrowheads of the Xiongnu, but it has the unique smell of saltpeter of the Hedong salt workers.

Thirty steps away, County Magistrate Gao's personal guards were adjusting and drawing a crossbow. The bronze components of the crossbow's "teeth" and "hanging knife" shone with a cold light. It was the "Da Huang Shen Lian Crossbow" specially made by the Ministry of Works for the border troops.

"Take action when the wind starts to blow." Guo Jie demonstrated the cavalry warfare sign language from the Six Strategies to Wei Guang.

The two scouts quietly took off the flint bags on their belts.

This is a fire-starting device used by garrison soldiers, filled with sulfur and saltpeter powder.

The river wind suddenly swept up the pine waves, and the county soldiers under the command of County Lieutenant Gao were wrapping oil-soaked hemp rope around the crossbow arms.

Guo Jie suddenly loosened the three fingers that were holding the bowstring, and the sharp cry of the arrows breaking through the fog startled the crows.

Wei Guang led his assassins to throw caltrop fireballs from the flank. The flames wrapped in pine resin exploded, dyeing the salt mist into a green phosphorus color.

"Southeast position!" County Captain Gao waved the gold and silver crossbow flag, and the crossbowmen changed their formation.

Thirty crossbows fired at high angles, and the rain of arrows pierced through the thick smoke, but only penetrated the brown straw man arranged by Guo Jie.

This tactic of deceiving the enemy is recorded in the "Book of Han·Biography of Zhou Bo" - The Old Story of Xiuli Camp.

Guo Jie took advantage of the situation and led the county soldiers to approach on tiptoe, their cowhide shoes stepping silently on the ground.

When they were twenty steps away from the enemy, they suddenly lifted the camouflaged pine branches and revealed the specially made "wooden curtain" in the arsenal: three layers of oak planks covered with raw cowhide, which exactly met the specifications of the city defense equipment recorded in "Mozi·Bei Ladder".

County Captain Gao's crossbowmen quickly switched to shooting iron arrows, but the arrowheads penetrated three inches into the wood but could not penetrate the deck.

Guo Jie's followers took the opportunity to set up ten pedal-drawn crossbows, with the crossbow arms engraved with the inscription "Chang'an Engineering Official in the Second Year of Jianyuan".

"put!"

The specially made short arrow penetrated the gap in the wooden curtain, and the oil-soaked ramie cloth tied to the arrow tail would burn when it came into contact with fire.

The leather caps of the three enemy crossbowmen caught fire, and in their panic they knocked over the bamboo basket containing arrows, revealing the copper arrows with the word "Jia" sealed in mud on the bottom.

County Magistrate Gao angrily chopped off the command flag, and his personal guards suddenly pushed out five "Wugang Chariots" from the woods, with the walls of the carriages covered with rhinoceros skins.

Guo Jie sneered and brandished his sword, and his men quickly used ropes made from treading belts to make trip ropes.

When the first Wugang carriage fell into the pit, bundles of arrows with the year "Jianyuan 2" rolled out from the secret compartment of the carriage. The auspicious words "Changle Weiyang" on the carriage were secretly changed to "Yanli Hengchang".

Wei Guang quickly pulled off half of the crossbow arrow and sealed the silk cloth. The seal of the Hedong prefect on it was still warm with the cinnabar.

"Change to loose arrows!" County Captain Gao roared in despair.

The crossbowman pulled out a special quiver, and the three-edged arrowheads were hollowed out and filled with lead.

A lead arrow pierced Guo Jie's left hem and nailed the linen robe dyed and woven by the "Huai Li City Government" into the pine tree.

Guo Jie pulled out the arrow shaft with his backhand and used it as a javelin, which pierced the enemy crossbowman's throat with such force that it was just like the might of Fan Kuai who "glared at King Xiang" as recorded in "Records of the Grand Historian: The Biography of Xiang Yu".

Wei Guang took the opportunity to lead his men to split the chariot formation. The length of the copper crossbow "Guo" seized was as long as three feet and seven inches in Han Dynasty, far exceeding the size allowed by the "Corvée Law" for civilian craftsmen to make.

When the setting sun dyed the Ba River red, County Magistrate Gao personally held a hard mulberry wood bow and fought like a trapped beast.

Guo Jie untied the gold-inlaid belt hook from his waist, and the reflected light shone directly into the enemy's eyes.

The moment the arrow was shot, Wei Guang threw out the standard iron shield from the arsenal.

The moment the bronze arrow pierced the shield, Guo Jiecuo's golden sword was at the enemy's throat.

Half a corner of plain silk was visible under the sleeves of Gao County Lieutenant's armor.

As the pine forest returned to silence, the Ba River was washing the cinnabar annotation of "Jia Xin" on the arrow shafts.

Guo Jie rubbed the salt stains on the inner wall of the captured crossbow and sneered, "Look at this bronze piece with the Jianyuan year. It's three times brighter than the new one cast by the Shaofu."

Wei Guang picked up half of a broken crossbow tusk. The inner iron core was actually forged using the brine quenching method, and the direction of the cracks was exactly the same as the erosion marks on the corpses of the Hedong salt workers.

Resin torches crackled in Changling. Guo Jie placed the inlaid golden sword horizontally on the desk. The inscription "Chen County Gongguan" on the sword guard was facing the festering right hand of County Magistrate Gao.

Four prison officials stand at the four corners according to the regulations of the "Two-Year Law and Order". Wei Guang stands on the east wall holding a bamboo slip, the ink on which still has the moisture of the cellar.

"On Bingshen day of the third month of the third year of Jianyuan, He, a clerk in the salt official's office, received 200 jin of iron ingots." Guo Jie traced the weaving marks on the confiscated bamboo slips with his fingertips. "According to the Xiao Law, the monthly salary of the county iron official is no more than 10 dan of salt. Where did the extra iron come from?"

The salt crystals on the sleeves of Lieutenant Gao's armor fell down. "This is..."

"Snapped!"

Wei Guang suddenly opened a piece of white silk. The map of the tributaries of the Ba River drawn with salt on the silk was glowing with a strange green light.

Next to the "Changling Warehouse" mark in the picture is the tortoise-shaped copper seal of County Magistrate Gao.

This seal is consistent with the specifications of the county lieutenant's seal recorded in Case 16 of the "Zoubianshu" in the Han Dynasty bamboo slips from Zhangjiashan in Jiangling.

"The Law of Thieves states, 'Anyone who steals for ten gold pieces will be executed.'" Guo Jie lifted up a half-broken crossbow tusk with his sword. "This brine-tempered crossbow trigger is enough to kill your clan three times."

Suddenly, there was the sound of iron chains from deep in the cellar, and two jailers dragged out a tattooed salt worker.

The wound on the man's right ear was covered with salt scabs, which was the mark of a fugitive slave from the Hedong Salt Pond.

Wei Guang lifted up the prisoner's robe and found the word "Gao" branded next to the tattoo mark of "Chengdan Chong" on his chest.

“Speak!” Guo Jie slammed the salt brick on the table, shaking off the mud sealing the bamboo slips.

The salt worker stared at County Magistrate Gao with his one eye. "In the first month of the third year of Jianyuan, Lord Gao ordered us to melt the remaining arrowheads in the arsenal." He gestured with his broken right hand, "Every time we melt ten pounds of arrowheads, we get six pounds of fine iron."

"What nonsense!" County Magistrate Gao jumped up and tried to pounce, but was pulled back to the stone bench by an iron chain.

Guo Jie winked at Wei Guang to unfold the file. On the yellowed bamboo booklet, the numbers "Record of Armoury Losses in the Third Year of Jianyuan" were glaring.

This is the archive retrieved from the county magistrate's office.

Guo Jie pulled out two of the wooden tablets and read: "In the second month of the third year of Jianyuan, three thousand bronze arrowheads were lost from the Changling armory."

He slammed the slip of paper down on the salt brick. "That same month, the Hedong Salt Field reported a loss of 100 dan of salt. According to the Stable Law, if the official salt loss exceeds 10 dan, the county governor must inspect it. Your loss of 100 dan of salt is strange."

Wei Guang presented a ceramic jar at the right time, in which black salt was wrapped around an unmelted copper arrowhead.

Guo Jie grabbed some salt and scattered it among the bamboo slips: "Using official salt to cover up the smoke from the melting weapons is actually more ingenious than the strategy in Chao Cuo's "On Military Affairs".

Cold sweat like salt grains oozed out of County Lieutenant Gao's forehead.

Guo Jie suddenly lifted the linen cloth covering the west wall.

Thirty captured crossbows were arranged neatly, and on the hanging blade of the last "arm-drawn crossbow" there was a trace of the seal with the word "Jia".

The shape of this seal is exactly the same as the document of the county magistrate's office.

"On the seventh day of the third month, you sent your household steward to the armory at night, carrying the Hedong County talisman." Guo Jie threw out half a talisman, the wood grain of which matched the other half perfectly. It was found inside the lining of County Magistrate Gao's official robe. "The Jinguan Order states that 'those who forge talismans will be beheaded.' This talisman is indeed genuine."

He paused deliberately, watching County Magistrate Gao's pupils shrink. "Because the person who signed it was none other than Hedong Governor Jia Xin."

Wei Guang clapped his hands three times, and the jailer carried the camphorwood box in. The moment he opened the lid, County Lieutenant Gao let out a whimper like a trapped animal.

The box was neatly stacked with wooden certificates sealed with "Hedong Salt Official in the Third Year of Jianyuan", and each certificate was accompanied by Jia Xin's red-written "OK".

"These pledges should have been kept in the treasury of the Minister of Agriculture." Guo Jie pulled out the top wooden voucher and shook off the salt grains. "General Jia is so generous that he gave you the salt and iron trade pledges for safekeeping."

County Magistrate Gao suddenly struggled and pointed at the salt worker: "This lowly slave is a fugitive."

"Look who he is." Guo Jie sneered and waved his hand. The jailer brought a ceramic basin to wash the salt worker's face.

As the salt scab peeled off, a tattoo of the word "Zhao" appeared on the man's left cheek.

It was the Cang Cao who disappeared in the Zhao Wangsun case at the beginning of the year!

"You copied the Zhao family's pledge, right?" Wei Guang threw the bamboo slips on the table. The handwriting of the character "Jia" in the slips was exactly the same as the salt worker's confession.

The salt worker trembled and spat out half a jade琀 from his mouth. The word "Jia" engraved on the琀 was exactly the same as the seal of the prefect.

The cellar fell into a dead silence, with only the sound of dripping brine.

Guo Jie walked slowly around the table and suddenly tore open County Lieutenant Gao's shirt, revealing the "Hedong Gongguan" brand on his waist.

This is a mark for officials and slaves. According to the law, prisoners are not allowed to serve as officials.

"In the first year of the Jianyuan era, when Jia Xin was the governor of Hedong, he pardoned a hundred prisoners." Guo Jie's sword tip traced the scar. "So, you were one of them, County Lieutenant Gao."

Wei Guang presented a lacquer box at the right time, and the plain silk inside the box recorded the list of those pardoned that year.

When County Captain Gao saw his pseudonym "Gao Bushi", he finally collapsed into the mud.

"Now you can tell me." Guo Jie pushed the inlaid gold sword half an inch closer. "How did Jia Xin instruct you to forge weapons?"

County Lieutenant Gao's festering lips moved, and every word he uttered carried the stench of salt. "For every ten pounds of remaining weapons from the arsenal melted, General Jia will extract three stones of salt. The salt carts will be loaded with arrowheads for transport to Daidi."

He suddenly jumped up and bit the sword.

Guo Jie withdrew his sword and put it back into its sheath as he had anticipated.

Wei Guang clamped his lower jaw like lightning and dug out a hollow molar.

Inside was a secret letter sealed with wax, and the seal was exactly Jia Xin's private seal.

Under the torchlight, Guo Jie slowly unfolded the silk scroll: "On the 25th day of the sixth month of the third year of Jianyuan, Lieutenant Gao was ordered to dispatch fifty salt carts, each with three hundred ring-handled swords placed in the interlayer."

He suddenly sneered, "Envoy Jia is even doing business with the King of Huainan?"

The last psychological defense collapsed, and County Magistrate Gao crawled to the table with tears streaming down his face: "Please allow me to file a petition, Mr. Guo."

The salt crystals on the cellar ceiling shone coldly in the torchlight. Guo Jie lifted Lieutenant Gao's chin with the tip of his sword and said, "Let's start with the salt carts in Daidi."

County Magistrate Gao scratched the edge of the stone table with his festering fingers, salt grains mixed with blood falling to the floor. "In the twelfth month of the second year of Jianyuan, Envoy Jia summoned us to the Jiechi Salt Warehouse."

He stared at the unmelted arrowheads in the pottery jar and said, "The old weapons in the arsenal can be melted down to make farm tools, and then sold to the King of Dai by using the salt transport."

Wei Guang immediately unfolded the file, and clearly saw the record of "King Dai Liu Deng paying tribute of 300 pieces of ironware every year".

Guo Jie sneered: "Dai State is famous for its iron smelting. Why would they want to buy scrap iron privately?"

"This is no ordinary iron." County Lieutenant Gao's Adam's apple rolled. "Envoy Jia ordered the engineers to cast a cavity inside the arrowhead and fill it with lead sand."

He gestured with his broken right hand to measure the length of the arrow shaft. "This kind of arrow is light and fast, and is most favored by the Xiongnu cavalry."

Guo Jie slammed his fist on the table, cracking the salt bricks. "The Law on Bandits states that anyone who escapes through the border with the enemy will be crucified!" How dare you sell Han crossbows to the Xiongnu?

"It wasn't a direct transaction!" County Lieutenant Gao gasped in defense. "The King of Dai and the Right Xian King of the Xiongnu were trading horses. We hid the arrowheads in the salt carts under the guise of 'farm tools.'"

He suddenly pointed to the wooden certificate in the camphorwood box and said, "Each cart of salt contains fifty kilograms of arrowheads. When passing through Tongguan, you can present the talisman of Lord Jia to exempt you from inspection."

Wei Guang quickly found the records of entry and exit of Tongguan in February of the third year of Jianyuan: "On the third, seventh, and twenty-third day of the first lunar month, fifty salt carts from Hedong each entered Daidi - exactly matching the batches reported by the armory for damage."

Guo Jie pulled out one of the bamboo talismans. The red inscription on the talisman, "Special permission for night travel," still carried a fishy smell. "Have the Tongguan garrison inspected the salt carts?"

"The soldiers will stop after they open the three layers of salt." County Lieutenant Gao laughed bitterly. "The interlayer of the bottom cabin is sealed with salt water, making it difficult to detect by ordinary means."

"A common method?" Guo Jie suddenly pulled open County Lieutenant Gao's left sleeve, revealing a festering salt-corroded scar on his forearm. "A method of sealing the cabin that was tested with the lives of prisoners, right?"

The salt worker suddenly knelt down and kowtowed: "When sealing the hatch in December, a living person must lie down in the interlayer to test the tightness. If the brine penetrates half an inch, it is considered qualified. The test is tight."

Turbid tears mixed with salt ooze from his single eye. "It festered and he died in three days."

The cellar fell into silence, with only the sound of burning torches to be heard.

Guo Jie pressed the tip of his sword against County Magistrate Gao's throat: "Go on, talk about profiteering."

"Each pound of scrap iron melted into arrowheads earns fifty coins. Envoy Jia takes thirty, and the King of Dai takes ten." County Lieutenant Gao's voice trailed off. "The remaining ten coins are divided among the salt and iron officials."

Wei Guang quickly calculated: "In the third year of Jianyuan, two hundred salt carts were shipped out, and each cart contained fifty kilograms of arrows." He looked up suddenly, "This alone has earned a million yuan!"

Guo Jie kicked over the counting sticks and said: "Not only that, the King of Dai exchanged war horses for ironware. Who got the war horses into the pass?"

County Lieutenant Gao's pupils suddenly shrank, and Wei Guang had already unfolded the blood-stained silk book.

It was the secret document taken from the salt worker's body. It recorded that "Twenty fine horses from Dai were brought to the Jia Mansion's back stables on the night of March 9th."

"What a trifecta of salt, iron, and horse." Guo Jie's sword reflected the distorted face of County Magistrate Gao. "Sell the war horses to the powerful in Guandong, and use the proceeds to buy private salt."

"Envoy Jia has set up stables at every post station in Hedong!" the salt workers suddenly shouted. "The horses pulling the salt carts are all warhorses from Dai, so we can travel an extra thirty miles a day!"

Guo Jie suddenly lifted the linen cloth on the east wall, revealing bundles of "horse passing documents".

Each copy was stamped with the "Hedong Prefectural Governor's Seal", allowing salt merchants to use express horses.

According to the Stable Law, such privileges are only available to those reporting urgent military information.

"No wonder the salt carts could travel 3,000 miles a month." Wei Guang pulled out a document. "In the first month of the third year of Jianyuan, the salt merchant Zhang Qian used this document to pass through, and in ten days he reached Daidi from Jiechi!"

County Lieutenant Gao was completely paralyzed. "Envoy Jia ordered all county lieutenants to secretly place lead boxes in the interlayer of the salt carts, each containing ten gold cakes."

He gasped and uttered the final secret, "The gold cakes were cast with the words 'Supervised by the Imperial Household', but they were actually tribute money melted privately by salt workers."

Guo Jie picked up a salt brick with the tip of his sword: "Like this?"

Gold flakes can be seen faintly between the bricks, which are the traces of gold panning using salt water.

Wei Guang presented the wooden box at the right time.

This is the gold offered by the princes to the ancestral temple. According to the law, anyone who melts it privately will be executed along with his entire family.

"Last year during the La Festival, the gold presented by the Zhao prince was short-weight." Guo Jie slammed the gold cake on the table. "So you melted it and filled it with salt bricks!"

Suddenly, hurried footsteps were heard outside the cellar, and the jailer presented the bamboo slips he had just intercepted.

Guo Jie sneered, "What a coincidence! Jia Xin issued a warrant this morning to transfer Gao County Lieutenant to the Hedong Salt Supervisor."

The four characters "I will take up the post immediately" at the end of the letter were inscribed with cinnabar that had not yet dried, which perfectly matched the date of the secret letter, "June Dingwei", in the confession.

"It seems that General Jia is eager to silence us." Guo Jie threw the book on the salt bricks. "I'll give you a chance to atone for your crime."

Wei Guang brought in a complete set of "commitment" documents, including writing brushes, inkstones, and other utensils.

As Gao Xianwei trembled as he held the pen, Guo Jie suddenly pressed down on the bamboo slips and said, "Don't forget to write down the bronze tokens of the correspondence between the King of Dai and the Xiongnu."

When the cock crowed at dawn, three chariots rushed out of Changling.

The book that Guo Jie carried with him recorded:

"On the 25th day of the sixth month of the third year of the Jianyuan reign, Gao Buzhi confessed to colluding with Hedong Governor Jia Xin and Dai Wang Liu Deng to privately melt weapons from the armory into arrowheads and conceal salt carts from the Xiongnu. They stole 2.7 million yuan, melted 300 kilograms of gold, and secretly dispatched 60 war horses for courier service."

When the car passed Tongguan, Wei Guang suddenly pointed to the river beach.

The newly arrived salt carts were vaguely visible in the morning mist. The horses pulling the carts were muscular and knotty, and they were the Hexi war horses unique to Dai.

Guo Jie stroked the confiscated "Salt Transport" token and sneered.

The outline of Hedong County in the distance gradually became clear, but the real hunt had just begun.

The rammed earth gate of the Jiechi Salt Field was steaming with the unique bitter smell of brine under the scorching sun.

Guo Jie squinted his eyes and looked at the red flag of "Hedong Salt Administration" fluttering on the gate tower, and his fingertips stroked the copper belt hook on the belt around his waist.

The dragon pattern engraved on the hook surface was blurred by salt corrosion, which is a common method used by Luoyang salt merchants to counterfeit old utensils.

“Verify the talisman!”

The salt guard's loud shout startled the crows perched on the locust tree outside the camp.

Guo Jie lowered his head and held out the talisman. The copper-wrapped corners of the wooden talisman were covered with green rust that was deliberately made to look old.

This was the result of his soaking with brine mixed with horse urine last night. According to the "Juyan Han Bamboo Slips", when the garrison soldiers checked the copper tokens, they always used the depth of the copper rust to distinguish the new and old ones.

The salt soldier's ring-handled knife suddenly lifted the salt cart's tarpaulin, and the cold light passed by Guo Jie's ear.

The interlayers of the three salt carts have been specially modified: the upper layer is covered with green salt unique to Jie Chi, the middle layer is separated by reed mats, and the bottom layer contains hollowed-out camphorwood boxes.

"Be careful." Guo Jie slipped out a string of elm pod coins from his sleeve, the edges of which were deliberately filed to remove burrs. "Salt is precious. It will clump if it gets wet with sweat."

The tip of the salt soldier's knife paused on the string of coins, but in the end it could not withstand the crisp sound of the elm pod coins hitting each other.

While he was collecting the money, Guo Jie glanced at the guard tower at the gate: the guard who had just changed shifts at three quarters past the hour of Yin was taking a nap, and the shadow of the copper bell on the eaves happened to be cast on the third layer of salt bags.

"Let it go!" As the salt cart squeaked through the corridor covered with salt grains, Wei Guang hunched over and mixed into the salt transport team.

He wore a bamboo hat, a type unique to salt workers. The linen hanging from the brim of the hat was soaked with sweat and alkali, perfectly covering the arrow scar on his brow.

Their eyes met and then separated in the steaming salt mist.

This was the code agreed upon before departure, meaning that there was something fishy going on in Warehouse Bing.

At noon, Jiechi looked like a silver sea, and tens of thousands of salt workers were hunched like shrimps under the whips of their supervisors.

Guo Jie squatted in the shadow of the salt pile, seemingly tidying up the salt shovel, but in fact he was using the shovel handle to measure the distance between the salt bags.

Each stack of salt bags is seven feet apart, which is exactly in line with the official warehouse regulations in the "Square Field Method" of "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art".

But the salt pile in the southeast corner of Bingzi Warehouse suddenly shrank five feet, as if a giant beast was missing a fang.

"The brine in Bingzi Warehouse is 30% more bitter than that in other places." Wei Guang pretended to be gathering firewood and threw the burnt salt blocks into Guo Jie's backpack.

This was the code they agreed upon: brine was often mixed with saltpeter, which was essential for iron smelting.

Guo Jie broke the salt block into pieces and immediately tasted the familiar astringent taste on his tongue.

He recalled the smuggled salt truck that was intercepted in Tongguan a month ago. The black salt mixed with iron filings tasted the same way.

As dusk fell, the gongs gongs signaling the end of work rang out at the salt fields.

Guo Jie followed the salt workers' team towards the veranda room. When he brushed past Wei Guang on the way, he felt a warm bone fragment in his palm.

This is a divination tortoise shell made from burned ox shoulder blades. The pattern formed by the cracks is exactly the salt workers' code "37".

Guo Jie curled up in the corner of the dormitory, and all he could hear were the salt workers' painful coughs and gasps.

The cracks between these people's fingernails are full of salt crystals, and their knuckles are twisted into strange arcs due to years of moving salt.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of an old salt worker in the neighboring shop drawing on the wall.

The man used salt grains to draw the Big Dipper on the rammed earth wall, with the handle of the salt spoon pointing to the direction of Bingcang.

"The Bingzi warehouse is haunted," the old salt worker suddenly said, his voice like sandpaper grinding against a salt brick. "Last month, Wang Sanlang was buried alive in a pile of salt, and his fingernails were scratched off."

Guo Jie took out half a wheat cake and handed it to him. The old salt worker's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up: "They are transporting the black box to Bingzi Warehouse at midnight! That sound..."

He grabbed Guo Jie's wrist with his dry hand and said, "It's like pulling a bellows in a blacksmith shop!"

"Quack--"

The cry of a night owl interrupted the confidential conversation.

Guo Jie turned over and pretended to doze off, listening to the sound of the salt patrol's leather boots gradually fading away.

He took out the bone fragment and looked at it carefully in the moonlight: the end of the crack "37" was forked, pointing to the stable in the northeast corner.

That was the meeting place agreed upon by Wei Guang.

Behind the haystack in the stables, Wei Guang spread out a map of the salt fields drawn with salt stains. "The guards at the garrison change shifts every night, but the guards at the Bing warehouse stop their shifts after dusk."

He pointed at a certain spot on the map. "At three quarters past dusk, a covered baggage cart entered the warehouse. The wheel tracks were three inches deeper than those of ordinary carts."

Guo Jie sniffed the cloth Wei Guang handed him, which had a strange smell of rust and rosin. "This is the anti-rust paste for weapons in the arsenal. According to the "Second Year Law and Order: Gold and Cloth Law", official weapons need to be maintained with rosin mixed with pig paste."

He suddenly stopped talking.

There was a sound of bronze armor colliding outside the stable.

The two men stuck to the shadow of the stable pillar and saw three warriors wearing tube-sleeved armor coming with lanterns.

The gold-inlaid belt hook on the leader's waist shone with a cold light.

"The Xuanji lock on the Bing warehouse needs to be changed to a new one." The warrior's whisper drifted on the wind. "The master has ordered that the account books for the third year of Jianyuan must be kept tonight."

Suddenly, there was a sound of hooves, and a horse neighed in surprise and raised its hooves.

Guo Jie took the opportunity to eject the salt grains, which reflected dazzling spots in the lantern light.

Taking advantage of the warrior's dazzlement, he and Wei Guang climbed out of the rear window like civet cats.

After returning to his room, Guo Jie tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The old salt worker's words "buried alive" echoed in his ears, so he simply got up and pretended to go to the toilet.

The salt pile outside the thatched hut glowed pale in the moonlight, like a mountain of bones piled up by countless wronged souls.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a flash of green light at the corner of the eaves of the Bing warehouse.

That is the unique coldness of bronze ware.

In the middle of the night, Wei Guang's secret signal came from outside the wall: three short and two long chirps of crickets.

Guo Jie inserted the salt shovel into his belt and stuffed flint and saltpeter into his boots.

When he passed by the old salt worker's shop, he kept all the wheat cakes.

This journey is dangerous, and it can be regarded as the last gift to this poor man.

Guo Jie sneaked along the salt pile, and every step he took was in the blind spot of the guard tower.

Wei Guang used the "snake-like" sign language from the "Six Strategies" in front of them. The two of them sometimes lay on the ground like lizards, and sometimes stuck to the wall like geckos.

When passing the seventh salt pile, Guo Jie suddenly froze.

Two drag marks suddenly appeared in front, with a few bloody fingernails scattered in the marks!

"Bing Zi Cang" Wei Guang indicated with lip language.

The gloomy warehouse looked like a giant beast crawling, and the xiezhi pattern on the copper head of the door knocker was corroded by salt into a ghost face.

Guo Jie smelled a fishy smell coming from the crack in the door, a mixture of blood and rusty iron.

He gripped the gold-inlaid hilt tightly, the inscription "Chen County Gongguan" on the hilt pressed against his palm, and the hunt began.

The sound of the bell, mixed with the salty taste of brine, created an eerie echo outside the Bingzi Warehouse.

Guo Jie leaned against the cold salt brick wall, and his fingertips felt the iron smell seeping out from the crack of the door.

It was the smell of old blood and rusty iron, exactly the same as the smuggling convoy intercepted in Tongguan.

"The Xuan Ji lock is three feet inside the door." Wei Guang used salt grains to draw a simple diagram on the wall, which was exactly the triple copper hinge specially made by the Shaofu Kaogong Studio.

Each pivot wheel is engraved with a map of the twenty-eight constellations, and must be rotated according to a specific star sequence to open.

Guo Jie squinted his eyes and looked at the bronze Xiezhi on the eaves. The turquoise embedded in the Xiezhi's left eye had been replaced with saltpeter.

This is exactly the "mechanical pupil" recorded in "Mozi·Beixue".

"Zhen is the constellation of Jiao, and Li is the constellation of Jing." Guo Jie recited the constellations corresponding to Jia Xin's birth date in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Wei Guang immediately used the abacus he carried with him to deduce the direction according to the Zhoubi Suanjing.

The grooves made by the counting rods on the salt land gradually formed the secret code of "Bingwu, April, the third year of Jianyuan".

That was the auspicious day when Jia Xin was promoted to the prefect of Hedong.

“Click!”

The bronze hinge opened with a sound, and a cold wind suddenly blew out from inside the door.

Wei Guang quickly covered his mouth and nose, but the fishy smell still made his eyes red.

This is not an ordinary musty smell, but the smell of death from rotting flesh and blood mixed with salt crystals.

Under the green light of the fish paste lamp, twelve copper-wrapped wooden boxes were suspended on iron chains.

Each box was stamped with a mud seal inscribed with the words "Hedong Salt Supervisor". The rope pattern on the edge of the mud seal was exactly the same as that found in the smuggled salt bags seized in Tongguan.

Guo Jie used his inlaid gold sword to pry open the first box. A map of the Bashui Salt Road painted on white silk fell to the ground. The small words next to the Tongguan mark on the map hurt his eyes: "Chen Wu, the captain of the garrison, pays 20 dan of salt per year and is exempt from inspection."

"Jia Xin's handwriting." Wei Guang sneered and unfolded the file. The "Salt Consumption Record for April, the Third Year of Jianyuan" recorded an incredible number: "Jiechi produces 1,000 dan of salt a day, and the monthly consumption is as high as 300 dan!"

He took out his abacus and deduced the formula for "salt consumption" from the "Arithmetic Book," the beads making a crisp clicking sound on the salt bricks: "Assuming each salt worker boils three dou of salt a day, the actual salt consumption should not exceed 100 dan."

Guo Jie suddenly grabbed a handful of black salt and sprinkled it towards the flame. The salt grains shone green when they met the fire. "They are using salt to cover up the iron smelting!"

He broke the salt block, revealing the unburned iron shavings inside. "Look at the quenching marks—they're the remains of the Arsenal Ring-Handed Sword!"

The sound of gears meshing came from deep in the secret room, and the two men followed the sound and split the salt pile.

A bronze-cast ingenious device was embedded in the rammed earth wall: a three-layer turntable engraved with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, with an exquisitely carved jade Xuanji embedded in the center.

The shape of this object is no different from the instrument used for stargazing in the Lingtai of Weiyang Palace, but it has three blood grooves on the edge.

"In the first year of the Jianyuan reign, Jia Xin petitioned the Shaofu craftsmen to 'repair the salt warehouse.'" Wei Guang recalled the records in the archives and suddenly turned the jade swirl to the "Bingwu" scale. With a crisp click, a square iron box popped out from a secret compartment. Inside, the number of teeth on the wooden tablet containing the "Salt and Iron Account" perfectly matched the Tongguan customs clearance records.

"On March Bingshen, 200 dan of salt were produced, and 150,000 yuan was earned for ironware. The merchant took 10% and the high-end took 3%. " Guo Jie read carefully in the light of the fire, and the rope marks on the edge of the wooden slip suddenly made his pupils shrink.

This is the mark made by the bowstring of the armory, and the texture is the same as the bowstring of the repeating crossbow seized from Zhao Wangsun’s cellar!

A cold wind suddenly blew up, and the iron chain hanging the box suddenly rattled.

Wei Guang looked up alertly and saw dozens of hemp ropes hanging from the dome, with the corpses of salt workers tied to the ends of the ropes!

The hands and feet of these corpses were corroded by the brine and turned into white bones, only the chest cavity was swollen like a ball.

Guo Jie pierced a corpse with the tip of his sword, and out of the rotten flesh rolled a bunch of elm pod coins, with the four characters "Hedong Salt Supervisor" on the coins soaked in blood.

"A living person hiding stolen goods." Wei Guang's throat tightened.

These salt workers were forced to swallow copper coins during their lifetime, and then their throats were sealed with salt water to make "human jars", which is exactly the evil magic denounced in "Book of Han: Suburban Sacrifices".

Guo Jie suddenly lifted the linen cloth covering the east wall, and bundles of "horse passes" documents poured out, each of which was stamped with Jia Xin's prefectural seal.

"Click!"

The unusual sound of a mechanism broke the silence.

Guo Jie suddenly pushed Wei Guang away, and three crossbow arrows brushed past his ears and pierced into the salt bricks.

The saltpeter paper packages wrapped around the arrow shafts would catch fire when the wind blew, and the flames illuminated the dark shadows outside the warehouse.

Twenty warriors wearing tube-sleeved armor broke into the room. The leader wore a gold-inlaid belt hook on his waist that shone coldly, and the Xiezhi pattern engraved on the hook was exactly the same as the copper auxiliary head of the door knocker.

"What a Luoyang salt merchant!" The warrior leader sneered and threw out the blood-stained bamboo slips. It was the "Hongnong Zhang Family" genealogy forged by Guo Jie. "My lord, you've already known you'll come and die!"

Guo Jie turned around and kicked over the fish paste lamp, and the flames spread rapidly along the salt grains.

Wei Guang took the opportunity to split open the west window, but more crossbowmen appeared outside the window.

The crossbows in their hands were wrapped with oil-soaked hemp ropes, and were exactly the improved incendiary rockets!

“Take the waterway!”

Guo Jie suddenly crashed into the salt pile in the corner, revealing a hidden drainage ditch.

The rotten brine instantly submerged him up to his waist, and he felt a cold iron ring in the water.

It is exactly the gate mechanism recorded in "Mozi: Preparing for City Gates"!

Wei Guang gritted his teeth and turned the iron ring. The moment the gate opened with a bang, the pursuers' rockets arrived.

"boom!"

Saltpeter exploded in flames, spurring along the water like a fiery snake. Guo Jie dragged Wei Guang down into the murky brine. Inside the iron box, the engraved teeth of the wooden tablets dividing the accounts perfectly matched the bamboo talismans of Tongguan in his arms.

When the last bubble escaped from his lips, he seemed to hear Jia Xin's hideous grin on the high platform of the salt field.

The laughter mixed with the wails of the salt workers condensed into blood-red salt crystals in the night wind of the third year of Jianyuan.

When the rotten brine wrapped Guo Jie and rushed out of the culvert, it was the time when the cocks crowed (3:00-3:45), and the reeds on the east side of Jie Pond were rippled with iron-gray light under the waning moon.

He lay on the edge of the salt lake, gasping for breath. The iron box in his hand was covered with black mud, and the mark of "Hedong Salt Supervisor" on the corner of the box reflected a cold light.

Wei Guang dragged out half of the salt cart wheel from the reeds, with a broken crossbow tooth stuck between the spokes.

The salt-corroded cracks on the iron core inside the tooth are as dense as a spider web, and they match the texture of the arrowhead intercepted in Tongguan a month ago.

Guo Jie opened the iron box, and the soaked white silk showed blood streaks in the morning breeze.

This is a secret map written by salt workers using their finger blood to mix saltpeter. In the map, the northwest corner of the salt pond is marked "Jia Sancang", and next to it is written in tiny characters: "Three hundred gold, two thousand clusters".

Wei Guang tore off a strip of brown cloth and smeared it with salt water, and the hidden message "Suffered to the Xiongnu Right School King's Department in May of the third year of Jianyuan" emerged.

Blood foam oozed from between Guo Jie's teeth. Thinking of the corpses of the salt workers with swollen chests in the Bingzi warehouse, his knuckles clenched until they turned white.

At Zhongming (3:45-4:30), the crisp sound of drums clashing against each other could be heard from afar, and the two men took advantage of the night to sneak into the stables of Jiechi Posthouse.

Guo Jie used the shadows of the stable pillars to unfold the evidence: twelve pinewood tablets were strung together with bowstrings from the armory, and were engraved with the words "On Bingshen day of March in the third year of Jianyuan, two hundred dan of salt were produced, and the merchant took seven-tenths of it."

The rope marks on the edge of the tablet match the texture of the crossbow string in Zhao Wangsun's cellar.

The inscription "Hedong Gongguan" on the hanging blade of the bronze crossbow mechanism fragment was worn away, and after wiping with salt water, the words "Made in the third year of Jianyuan" appeared.

According to the "Corvée Law", local officials of industry were only allowed to cast tools at the beginning of the year, but this object was privately cast in March.

The carved teeth on the wooden slips formed a map of the twenty-eight constellations. The Ji constellation represented Bing Cang, and the Dou constellation referred to Jiechi Salt Supervisor, which exactly matched the constellation of Jia Xin's birth date.

Wei Guang struck the salt bricks with his counting rods, and the beads rolled across the inscribed pattern on the tablet. "Each cart of salt contained fifty jin of arrowheads. According to the bamboo slips in Tongguan, in the spring of the third year of Jianyuan alone, over a million yuan was smuggled into the country for military equipment!"

Before he finished speaking, dogs suddenly barked outside the stable and three carriages drove into the post house.

The corners of the salt official's robe were stained with red brine from the salt pond, and the horseshoes of the shafts were branded with a triangular emblem.

Guo Jie shot salt grains with a flick of his finger, startling the horse. Taking advantage of the chaos, he approached the carriage, and the pungent smell of saltpeter mixed with pine resin hit his face.

This is the scent of the anti-rust paste used in the arsenal's weapons.

The fog filled the streets and alleys, and the salt carts turned into the private residence of the salt inspector's officials.

Guo Jie hid on the roof of a veranda house and saw his subordinates throwing bamboo slips into the incinerator.

Wei Guang flipped into the courtyard like a leopard. On the charred remains of a bamboo slip in the stove, there were still traces of the words "In the first month of the third year of Jianyuan, I bribed the envoy of the Northern Army with a thousand stones of salt to open up a trade route for the Xiongnu."

Guo Jie rushed to rescue the man and his palm touched the gold foil on the back of the burnt bamboo slips.

The official crushed the poison sac with his molar teeth, and his body fell towards the unburned bamboo slips. The black blood gushing out of his seven orifices soaked through the secret message "On the 23rd day of the sixth month, 20 craftsmen from the Shaofu pretended to repair the Lingtai, but actually cast a crossbow mechanism in the Bingzi warehouse."

The morning light pierced through the clouds, revealing bloody fingerprints and money transactions on the densely packed gold foil: 40% of the salt production was falsely reported as loss and smuggled through secret warehouses; 3,000 ring-handled swords were melted down in the armory, hidden in salt carts and transported to the clouds.

The elm pod coins were exchanged for gold and hidden in salt bricks, and then sent directly to the nobles in Chang'an by post.

During meal time (9:00-9:45), the salt market is bustling with activity.

Guo Jie took off his bloodstained linen robe and changed into a salt merchant's brown robe, with a gold-inlaid dagger hidden under the coarse linen.

Along the rammed earth road in the market, salt piles piled up like snow hills. The vendors' shouts mingled with the neighing of mules and horses: "Hedong green salt, thirty coins a dou! Mix it with sand and exchange it for a bag!"

Wei Guang pretended to be a hunchbacked old servant, with a bamboo hat pressed down to his brow, and a three-edged arrowhead hidden in his sleeve, which was the mark of Jia Xin's private army.

Two market clerks in black robes walked around holding iron rulers with the word "Salt Supervisor" engraved in official script on the copper-clad end of the rulers.

A man overturned the old woman's salt basket, and as snow splashed, half of an iron halberd was revealed at the bottom of the basket!
Guo Jie's pupils suddenly contracted.

This halberd is shaped like a chariot halberd, but the branch is three inches shorter, which shows that it is a remnant of a weapon that has been melted and recast.

The market official pretended not to see it, slipped a string of elm pod coins into his sleeve, and kicked the iron halberd into the ditch with his backhand.

"What a good dog raised by the salt inspector!" Wei Guang cursed, but Guo Jie held his wrist.

Suddenly a salt cart overturned, and green salt poured out to the ground like a waterfall.

Amid the crowd's pushing and shouting, an old salt worker stumbled towards Guo Jie, grabbed the belt around his waist with his withered hands, and the blood-stained salt brick slipped into his bag.

Gold flakes in the brick seams spell out the five characters "丙字仓地瓢", and jade pendant patterns are engraved on the back.

This is an anti-counterfeiting mark specially used by Shaofu craftsmen!
Guo Jie suddenly looked up and saw that the old salt worker had disappeared into the crowd. Only his ragged back remained, and his left foot was covered with a blood scab from the brine.

Before noon (10:30-11:15), the scorching sun bakes the salt bricks.

Guo Jie sneaked into the warehouse in the west corner of the market, split the blood bricks, and broke the jade pendant into two halves, revealing half a piece of white silk inside: "Wang Meng, the commander of the Northern Army, pays 200 dan of salt annually and is exempt from the inspection of the armory."

"Jia Xin's hand actually reached into the Northern Army." Guo Jie sneered, and salt grains fell from his fingers.

The number of officials involved in the illegal salt trafficking is beyond imagination.

The water transport system of later generations had already been formed, and many officials, big and small, made a fortune by selling private salt.

The so-called food and clothing of millions of canal workers depend on it.

It’s just the food and clothing of tens of thousands of grain transport officials.

There were sudden knocks on the wooden door of the warehouse, three long knocks and two short knocks, which matched the rhythm of the messages in "Six Strategies".

When Wei Guang opened the door, a salt boy stuffed salt into a clay jar and ran away.

Beneath the foul salt in the jar, half a scroll of red inscription lay buried: "On Bingwu day of the sixth month of the third year of Jianyuan, the garrison at Tongguan was replaced. Three salt cart night travel tokens were issued, each bearing the seal of the Weiyang Stables."

Guo Jie hid in the shadow of the salt pile and compared the evidence one by one: the gold foil scroll recorded the smuggling of salt and iron, the blood brick and jade pendant pointed to the collusion with the Northern Army, and the remaining red book revealed the dark side of Tongguan.

The three are closely linked to each other, like the twenty-eight constellations, with Ji locking Jia Xin and Dou pointing directly to Weiyang.

"It's time to close the net." Wei Guang wiped the crossbow arm, and the cowhide string was as stretched as a full moon.

Suddenly, a flock of crows flew away in fright, and more than ten cloth-covered carts poured into the east gate of the Salt Market. The horses pulling the carts were knotted with muscles and flesh, and their horseshoes were branded with triangular emblems.

It was the Bingzi warehouse's mechanical salt transport vehicle!
Suddenly, the muffled sound of horse hooves could be heard in the streets. Jia Xin personally led twenty warriors in rhinoceros armor to block the road. The jade Xuanji on the prefect's carriage was shining with a cold light, exactly the same as the mechanism lock on the Bing warehouse.

"Guo Shangji's nighttime trespassing into a private residence violates the Household Code." Jia Xin played with the gold-leaf scroll, his fingertips brushing over the words "Shaofu Craftsman." "If this were to reach Chang'an, I'm afraid the Weiyang Palace stablemaster would also be beheaded."

"Do you know, Mr. Guo, that those who secretly spy on the imperial palace should be executed along with their entire clan?" Jia Xin smiled sinisterly, tapping the bronze box with his fingertips. Twenty crossbowmen emerged from behind the salt pile, their crossbows tautly drawn, their arrows tinged with a faint blue hue from the poisoned salt.

Guo Jie suddenly threw out the iron box, and the wooden tablets flew like snow.

Wei Guang suddenly threw out a caltrop fireball, the salt grains exploded when they met the fire, and the green flames rushed towards the cart like a poisonous snake.

When Jia Xin urgently ordered the seizure, Wei Guang had already ignited the pre-buried saltpeter. The salt grains exploded in the fire and the green flames rushed towards the salt cart.

The entire street was filled with poisonous smoke. Guo Jie broke through the courtyard wall and fled into the salt market. Behind him, he heard Jia Xin's distorted roar: "Close the city gates! Burn all the evidence for this government!"

Jia Xin's face twisted like a ghost in the firelight: "Now, it's your turn to become corpses under the pile of salt!"

(End of this chapter)