The soldiers lifted the cloth, and there were neatly stacked sacks inside, and they could not see what was inside, but the soldiers took their knives and gently slashed them, and pulled out a hole, and the contents immediately poured out like sand.

Cao Liang looked over, and it turned out that the sack was not filled with anything else, but a whole bag of salt.

The salt of this era is obviously different from that of later generations, and the coarse and irregular grains are not pure white in color, but yellowish-brown.

However, salt is a relatively valuable thing in this era, because the government levied heavy taxes on salt, so the price of salt circulating in the market is extremely high, and there is even a saying that half a year of salt is earned, of course, this is for the poor people, those officials and nobles will not spend half of their annual income on eating salt.

There is a salt pond in Hedong County, so Hedong County has been rich in salt since ancient times, but the government has a monopoly on salt and iron, and the government has strict control over the production and sale of salt, prohibiting anyone from selling and selling salt.

It is precisely because of the extremely high price of salt, in order to chase huge profits, that there will be smugglers who take risks and take risks, and the successive dynasties have repeatedly banned them.

At that time, the imperial court also imposed heavy penalties on the sale of illicit salt, and the Wei court stipulated that those who sold more than one liter of illicit salt would be punished with two hundred lashes, and those who sold more than one bucket would be punished by exile and stabbed for thousands of miles, and those who sold more than one stone would be directly sentenced to death.

Cao Liang looked at the salt in this boat, not to mention a stone, not to mention that there were dozens of boats behind him, if they were all loaded with salt, it would be more than a hundred heads to cut off.

Cao Liang turned his head and looked at Han Zhang with interest.

Han Zhang's face is like ashes, his uncle is Hedong Taishou, how can he not understand what a crime is to sell illicit salt, but he usually relies on his uncle's relationship, and he is covering the sky in Hedong County, and others naturally can't control him.

So on weekdays, Han Zhang didn't have any pressure at all, but he didn't expect to be detained by a Pingbei general who came out of nowhere when he arrived in Pubanjin today.

Han Zhang's sweat was like pulp, but he still stubbornly resisted: "These goods are all first-class living, if you act rashly, in the end you will not be able to eat and walk around!" ”

Cao Liang said with a smile: "Yes, such a large amount of illegal salt sales is far from being something that you can do with a little nephew of Taishou, Yipinju is right, General Ben is still worried about not being able to rule him, and today he just hit the head of the gun, isn't it providence." Someone came, put Han Zhang down for me, and all cargo ships were detained back to Linjin Pass. ”

After crossing the Yellow River, it is the territory of Hedong County, and of course Cao Liang can't bring people and goods to Hedong County, so he will be detained to Linjin Pass first.

Selling so much illicit salt is a serious crime, but this is outside Cao Liang's purview, Cao Liang can only detain the people and goods first, and then play them to the imperial court, and the imperial court will send people to deal with them.

Han Zhang kept saying that this product was a first-class residence, which Cao Liang did not doubt, after all, Han Zhang only had connections in Hedong County, and if he left Hedong County, he was not a fart, and if he wanted to sell salt to Luoyang or even farther states and counties, he needed a harder network.

And Yipinju, with the Sima family as the backstage, undoubtedly has an advantage in this regard, so Han Zhang's fleet can be unimpeded from Hedong to Luoyang.

Cao Liang secretly sneered, after Yipinju failed in the Luoyang Wushisan market, it was really another way to make money, and it was slow to make money by doing legitimate business, and Yipinju set his sights on making money on illegal salt, and the profit from selling illegal salt was extremely high, which could just make up for the loss of Wushisan's business.

Sure enough, the profiteering industries in ancient and modern China and abroad are all illegal and criminal activities, and it is difficult to take a shortcut to make a fortune if you want to make a fortune quickly and take risks and sell your head to make a living.

The Sima family actually sold private salt, and it seems that in order to maintain the operation of the huge underground system, they have reached the point of unscrupulous means.

The interception of this batch of illicit salt this time was purely an accident, and Cao Liang's original intention was just to requisition Han Zhang's fleet to cross the river, but it was only because Han Zhang refused to give his life that the Yue cavalry battalion forcibly detained the boat.

However, Han Zhang really didn't dare to respond to the order and handed over the boat to Cao Liang, wouldn't it be revealed all of a sudden?

Bringing the fleet to the dock of Linjin Pass, Cao Liang instructed the people of the Yue Cavalry Battalion to move all the sacks loaded on the ship together, and Chen Duwei led the way, and temporarily stored all these sacks in the treasury of Linjin Pass.

The number of these sacks full of salt is really a lot, and if you look at the market value, it is indeed worth a lot.

Because of the seizure of this batch of private salt, the Hedong Taishou and Sima family, Cao Liang did not dare to entrust Chen Duwei to keep it, but deliberately allocated a tun of people, that is, a hundred people, to strictly guard this warehouse, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving.

As for Han Zhang, he was also locked in this warehouse, and he was deliberately locked in a small room, he was a key witness in this illegal salt case, Cao Liang instructed Du Bo, who guarded the warehouse, to be sure to take care of Han Zhang, and neither let him run away nor let him die.

After dealing with the illicit salt, these cargo ships were all emptied, and Cao Liang ordered these cargo ships to be used for ferrying, and all the Yue cavalry battalions were transported across the Yellow River.

With the capacity of these dozens of boats, the Yue cavalry battalion crossed the Yellow River in less than a day.

Cao Liang was the last group to cross the river, before leaving, he called Chen Duwei and told him to assist the Yue Cavalry Battalion team to guard Han Zhang and this batch of private salt, he would explain this matter to the imperial court, and I believe that the imperial court will send someone to handle the case in the near future, and someone will naturally take over at that time.

Chen Duwei resignedly agreed, and watched Cao Liang leave the ferry.

The interception of this batch of illicit salt is just a small episode, after Cao Liang simply dealt with it, the most important task is to cross the river, but he has the task of counterinsurgency on his shoulders, and he cannot delay for a moment.

At this time, it was the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and the weather gradually became hotter, but fortunately, there was no heavy rain in recent days, and the water level of the Yellow River was only at the usual level, which did not affect the crossing of the river at all, so the crossing of the river by the Yue cavalry camp was still extremely smooth.

Cao Liang arrived at the east bank of the Yellow River, and the Yue cavalry battalion that had crossed the river in advance was already in full formation, ready to set off.