Chapter 230： Salt people

Kevin guarded his booth dazedly. It was already noon, and he still hadn't had any water or rice, and his stomach kept growling to protest his brain.

But what can he do? He had set up a stall here since the sun had just risen, but he only earned a handful of copper coins, which Kevin was not willing to use to buy food.

He sat on the ground, wrapped his arms around his legs, feeling helpless. A rag was spread on the ground in front of him. This was Kevin's booth, and there were several bags of white things on it.

Table salt, that's what Kevin is selling.

The village where Kevin lives has been cooking salt for a long time. In the past, merchants would come to collect salt every month and pay them.

But gradually things changed. When merchants came to collect salt, they began to lower the price vigorously, and they even put on an attitude of whether they would like to sell or not.

Their village is basically cooking salt, and they have no other livelihood, so they have to accept the lower prices of salt merchants.

But the prices offered by the merchants became more and more unbearable, and they came less and less frequently to collect salt.

Someone inquired about the news from Fulan Port. The merchants headed by the great salt merchant Godwin established a "salt farm" near Fulan Port. I don't know what method was used in it. I heard that it can produce tons of salt. The cooking method in their village is much more efficient.

When the salt farm was first put into operation, it could not meet all the needs, and merchants had to rely on them, the salt farmers. However, as the scale of the salt farm became larger and the output increased, their dependence on the salt farmers became less and less.

The salt produced from the saltworks is no better than the salt boiled in Kaiwen's village, and even slightly inferior in quality. But it has an unrivaled advantage - cheap.

That's really cheap. Kevin knew that a well-fed family could buy enough salt to make kippers.

The income from cooking salt is getting less and less, and the family will soon be unable to make ends meet. If this continues, the already small savings will soon bottom out.

As a last resort, Kevin and the people in the same village sold in nearby towns on their own backs. In order to avoid competition, they each chose a place, and the destination Kevin chose was Fulan Port.

He arrived in Fulan Port yesterday, but he only earned a small amount of copper coins after setting up a stall for a whole day. He was starving until night, and he bought a black bread to fill his stomach. He didn't make much money at first. There is not much left.

He lodged in the stables of an inn, and planned to continue his luck the next day.

Kevin Cheng tried to sell his salt in the salt store, but the price offered by the store was extremely low, and he would definitely lose a lot if he sold it to them. Trying to negotiate the price, he was quickly kicked out by the shop assistant.

Just when he was thinking about what to do, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man walking over with an iron bucket and a brush.

Kevin reckons that the city hall is going to put up some "slogan" again. Speaking of which, this is also a propaganda method invented by the young lord who succeeded to the throne last year. The so-called "slogan" is put on the eye-catching public area, so that people can pass the simple text to understand his policy.

Like something like "Caring for the environment is everyone's responsibility", "Throwing everywhere, one punishment to the end" and so on. Even their remote small village has painted a few slogans, although the people in their village who can read can count them on one hand.

Seeing the bucket-carrying man walking towards him, Kevin secretly complained about his bad luck, and hurriedly packed up his things and moved the booth to another place, leaving an open space by the wall.

The people from the city hall came to the wall, dipped the brush into the paint, and applied it to the wall.

A bunch of people gathered to watch the excitement.

Kevin also came to the side of the crowd, patted a person who was concentrating on the wall and asked, "Sir, what is written on the wall?"

This person is so engrossed in watching, probably he can recognize the writing on the wall.

The man turned his head to look at him, and replied, "Don't you know, it's written 'be vigilant and guard against spies'!"

"Protection against spies?"

Kevin was a little puzzled, he knew what a spy did, but why did he suddenly post such a slogan?

"Yeah, don't you know the latest situation?"

"What situation?"

I just heard the man say mysteriously: "The war is about to start! The lords are going to fight again!"

"War? Why the **** is there war?"

Kevin frowned. He had heard from his elders about the horror of military disasters since he was a child. When a fight broke out, the lords led troops to plunder each other's territories. They would also impose war taxes on their own subjects and force the common people to serve as soldiers. .

The closest thing he has ever experienced to a war was the last pirate invasion, and the old man in the village said that a military disaster is more terrifying than a pirate plunder.

"I heard that this time is going to war with Emden."

"Emden? I've heard it's a very powerful territory to the south of us."

"What are you afraid of? Have you forgotten how our Lord Greiman beat up those pirates and Bilding's traitors?"

The person who talked to Kevin was very excited, obviously very confident in Arda's military, and danced when he talked about the young lord.

Kevin snorted inwardly. No matter what, Fulan Port is protected by a city wall, but their village has no defense measures.

He turned his head and walked to his booth, complaining in a low voice: "War, fight, we salt people are starving to death and still focus on fighting..."

The person next to him overheard his words, and his eyes lit up...

Kevin continued to guard the booth for a while, and finally couldn't hold on any longer. Now he didn't even have the energy to yell at passers-by.

He weighed the few copper coins in his hand, and decided with great heartache to buy a piece of bread to satisfy his hunger, and then go to the well to drink a few mouthfuls of cold water.

Just after he got up and walked a few steps, a person stopped him.

"Is this your booth?"

Kevin immediately turned around and responded, "Yes, this is my booth. Do you want to buy salt?"

He could see clearly the person who came, he was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, with an ordinary face.

"May I ask what the price of salt is here?"

Kevin thought about it with some embarrassment directly quoted the lowest price he could accept.

The visitor hesitated and said, "It's much more expensive than the ones sold in the store!"

Kevin was in a hurry, "My guest, the offending salt here is a bit expensive, but the quality is high. It is all cooked manually in our village, and it has been carefully ground and screened. It is worse than the refined salt eaten by the nobles." Not much. If you look at the salt in the store again, not to mention the big and coarse particles, there is so much sand in it, and the taste is many times worse than the one at my stall."

The visitor stroked his chin, as if he was considering Kevin's words. He dipped his finger in some salt and tasted it in his mouth.

"Well, you're right. The taste is indeed much better than those sold in stores."

Hearing what the other party said, Kevin showed hope in his eyes.

"Then, guest..."

"Think about it too. We really need to buy salt in our store. Since your salt is of good quality, I'll buy it from you. Just this bag!"

He pointed to a bag of salt and said to Kevin.

"Okay, I'll tie it up for you now!"

Kevin quickly tied the bag and handed it over to the guest, who also readily gave the money.

The guest asked: "I haven't seen you before, are you new here?"

"Uh, I just came here to sell salt yesterday..."

"Will it continue to be sold here in the future?"

"As long as you need it, sir, I will sell salt."

"Okay, if the food is good, I will continue to patronize?"

He patted Kevin on the shoulder, turned around and left with a bag of salt.

Kevin carefully shook the small bag full of coins, and there was a crisp collision sound inside, filling his heart with a sense of happiness instantly.

I can finally have a full meal today.