Chapter 233 Salt People
Kevin was guarding his stall with a dazed look. It was already noon, but he still hadn't eaten anything. His stomach kept growling in protest to his brain.
But what could he do? He had been setting up a stall here since the sun just rose, but he only earned a few copper coins. Kevin was reluctant to spend it on food.
He sat on the ground, holding his legs with his arms, feeling helpless. A piece of rag was spread on the ground in front of him. This was Kevin's stall, with a few bags of white things on it.
Salt, this is what Kevin was selling.
Kevin's village has always made a living by boiling salt. In the past, merchants would come to collect salt every month and pay them.
But gradually things changed. When the merchants came to collect salt, they began to push down the price and acted as if they didn't want to sell it.
Their village basically made a living by boiling salt. There was no other way to make a living, so they had to accept the price cuts from the salt merchants.
But the prices offered by the merchants were becoming more and more unbearable, and they came less and less often to collect salt.
Someone got the news from Fulan Port that merchants headed by the great salt merchant Godwin had built a "salt field" near Fulan Port. I don't know what method was used there, but I heard that it could produce tons of salt, which was much more efficient than the boiling method used in their village.
When the salt field was just put into production, it could not meet all the needs, and the merchants had to rely on these salt farmers, but as the scale of the salt field became larger and the output became higher, the dependence on the salt farmers became lower and lower.
The salt produced from the salt field was not better than the salt boiled in Kevin's village, and was even slightly inferior in quality. But it had an unmatched advantage - cheap.
That was really cheap. Kevin had learned that a well-fed family could buy enough salt to make pickled fish.
The income from boiling salt was getting less and less, and the family soon ran out of money. If this continued, the already small savings would soon bottom out.
As a last resort, Kevin and his fellow villagers carried their salt to nearby towns to sell it. In order to avoid competition, they each chose a place. Kevin chose the destination of Fulan Port.
He arrived in Fulan Port yesterday, but he only earned a few copper coins after setting up a stall for a day. He was hungry until the evening. He bought a piece of black bread to fill his stomach. He didn't make much money to begin with, and he had even less left.
He stayed in a stable of an inn and planned to try his luck the next day.
Kevin tried to sell his salt to the salt shop, but the price offered by the shop was so low that he would definitely lose a lot if he sold it to them. He tried to bargain and was quickly driven out by the shop assistant.
Just as he was thinking about what to do, he saw a man carrying an iron bucket and a brush coming over.
Kevin guessed that the city hall was probably going to paint some "slogans" again. This was a propaganda method invented by the young lord who succeeded to the throne last year. The so-called "slogans" were painted in eye-catching public areas, so that people could understand his policies through simple words.
Like "Everyone is responsible for protecting the environment", "Throwing things anywhere will be punished to the end", etc. Even their remote village had painted a few slogans, although the number of people who could read in their village could be counted on one hand.
Seeing the man with the bucket coming towards him, Kevin secretly complained about his bad luck, and quickly packed up his things and moved the stall to another place, leaving the empty space by the wall.
The people from the city hall came to the wall, dipped the brush full of paint, and painted on the wall.
A group of people gathered to watch the excitement.
Kevin also came to the crowd, patted a person who was concentrating on looking at the wall and asked: "Sir, what is written on the wall?"
This person was so absorbed in looking at it, he probably recognized the words on the wall.
The man turned around and looked at him, and replied: "Don't you know it? It says 'Be vigilant and guard against spies'!"
"Guard against spies?"
Kevin was a little confused. He knew what spies did, but why did they suddenly put up such a slogan?
"Yes, don't you know the recent situation?"
"What situation?"
The man said mysteriously: "The war is about to begin! The lords are going to fight again!"
"War? Why is there a war out of the blue?"
Kevin frowned. He had heard from his elders the horror of war since he was a child. Once a war broke out, the lords led their troops to plunder each other's territories, and would also impose war taxes on their own people and force the common people to serve as soldiers.
The closest thing to war he had experienced was the last pirate invasion, and the old people in the village said that war was more terrifying than pirate robbery.
"I heard that this time they are going to go to war with Emden."
"Emden? I heard that it is a very powerful territory to our south."
"What are you afraid of? Have you forgotten how our Lord Graman beat up those pirates and the traitors of Bayerdin?"
The person who was talking to Kevin was extremely excited. Obviously, he was very confident in Alda's military. He danced with joy when he talked about the young lord.
Kevin snorted in his heart. Fulan Port was protected by a circle of walls, but their village had no defense measures.
He turned his head and walked towards his stall, complaining in a low voice: "Fighting, fighting, we salt people are almost starving to death and we are still busy fighting..."
A person next to him accidentally heard his words, and his eyes sparkled...
Kevin continued to stay on the booth for a while, and finally couldn't hold on it anymore. Now he is boring and selling to the pedestrians.
He took a few copper plates on his hand, and he decided to buy a piece of bread to charge hunger first, and then went to the well to drink a few bites of cold water.
After he got up a few steps after he got up, he called him alone.
"Is this your booth?"
Kevin immediately turned around and said, "Yes. This is my booth. Does the guest want to buy salt?"
There is no mistake, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one 619, one book, one, one, one, one, one, one, a book!
He saw the coming clearly, his body was not tall, short, not fat or thin, and his face was mediocre.
"What is the price of your salt here?"
Kevin thought about it a little bit, and directly reported the minimum price he could accept.
The coming person was a little hesitant to say, "It's a lot more expensive than the store!"
Kevin is anxious, "Guest, I am more expensive to offend the salt here, but the quality of the texture is made by artificially grinding and screening in our village. Not much. You can look at the salt in the store.
The coming person touched his chin and seemed to be thinking about Kevin's words. He dipped his fingers with some salt and tasted it in his mouth.
"Well, you are right, the taste is indeed a lot stronger than selling in the store."
Hearing the other party said that, Kevin's eyes showed hope.
"So, guest, you ..."
"Also think, we really need to buy salt in our store. Since the quality of the salt here is good, buy it from you. This bag!"
He pointed at a bag of salt to Kevin.
"Okay, I will give you up!"
Kevin Mali tied a good bag and gave it to the guests, and the guests gave money quickly.
The guest asked: "Haven't seen you before, is it new?"
"Uh, I came here to sell salt yesterday ..."
"Will it be sold here in the future?"
"As long as you need it, I will come to sell salt."
"Okay, if you eat well, I will continue to patronize?"
He patted Kevin's shoulder and turned around with a bag of salt.
Kevin carefully shook a small bag filled with coins, and a crispy collision sounded inside, making his heart full of happiness.
I can finally eat a full meal today.
In the past two days, he was sent to Jiangsu on a business trip. Alas, it's almost New Year's Eve. Suddenly encountering such a thing. ????