Chapter 131: My Name is Xing Honglang
Begin Chapter 127 of "The Great Ming in the Box" with: The woman and her companions tensed, ready for action.Gao Laba was digging at a chunk... Find out more!
The woman and her companions tensed, ready for action.Gao Laba was digging at a chunk of yellow clay by the roadside, intending to take it home for pottery. Being the closest to the womanās group, he raised his head and smiled at her. āSelling smuggled salt? Youāve come to the wrong place. Buying salt here would make more sense.ā
The woman looked ready to draw her blade at any moment. āWhat do you mean?ā
Gao Laba hurriedly waved his hands. āAh! Brave woman, donāt be angry! Iām not mocking you. Itās just⦠our Gaojia Village never lacks salt. We even have surplus. You truly have come to the wrong place to sell salt.ā
The woman: āā¦ā
Having traveled with her salt-smuggling father across the realm since childhood, and later taking over the salt gang after his death, she had never encountered a single small village that didnāt suffer a salt shortage. Villages where people couldnāt afford salt? Absolutely. But villages that didnāt lack salt? That sounded ridiculous.
Narrowing her eyes, the woman scrutinized the village before her with new suspicion.
Just then, the gates of Gaojia Fortress creaked open. The Old Village Chief emerged cheerfully, a small, earth-brown sphere clutched in his hand. He shuffled slowly towards the woman. āBrave woman, selling smuggled salt, are you?ā
The woman nodded. āFolks on the rivers and lakes call me Xing Honglang. Salt trader. What wisdom do you share, Elder?ā
The Old Village Chief extended his hand, offering the brown ball to Xing Honglang. āBrave woman, try this. A tasty little thing.ā
Xing Honglang glanced skeptically at the strange brown sphere, unsure if it was food. Years of traveling the treacherous path demanded caution. Taking uncalled-for food from a stranger was outright foolish.
Seeing her hesitation, the Old Village Chief guessed her thoughts. He turned and offered it to the man behind her instead. āTry it, warrior. Iāll stay right here. If your belly troubles you after eating it, feel free to cut me down with your blade.ā
The man looked towards Xing Honglang. She nodded slightly. He accepted the brown sphere, sniffed it cautiously, then gave it the tiniest lickā¦
That mere lick was enough. His expression transformed instantly, as if experiencing something extraordinary. āLeader!ā he gasped, āthis thing⦠itās delicious⦠so good! Never tasted anything this wonderful before!ā
Xing Honglang: āļ¼ļ¼ļ¼āhis wine is called Wuliangye, top-quality celestial wine, one sip can make one fly up to heaven.ā
Xing Honglang was very surprised: āWhat kind of times are these? You all actually still have wine?ā
The villagers grinned: āBestowed by the Deity.ā
Xing Honglang didnāt know what the Deity was, but she was a bit interested in wine. She poured out a tiny amount and smelled the aroma, which startled her. She tasted a littleā52 degrees! It instantly made her whole body dizzy for two seconds.
āGreat! Amazing wine,ā Xing Honglang said excitedly. āHow do you sell this wine?ā
Suddenly, her subordinate behind her whispered: āBoss, boss, our silver is all used up.ā
āWhat?ā Xing Honglang was shocked. āUsed up? How could it be used up? I brought so much silver with me.ā
The subordinate whispered back: āOur silver was recently used to buy a batch of salt. The salt isnāt all sold yet, but here you bought a bunch of goods aggressively, so naturallyā¦ā
Xing Honglang: ā¦
She suddenly felt something was off: hey, she was clearly out to make money; earlier, when she saw this village, she was planning to sell villagers a batch of salt to earn a big profit. How had she ended up spending all her own money?
Where exactly had this gone wrong?
Hey, hey, is there some mistake here?
She was completely flustered!
Just then, Solar Vehicle No. 2 returned from outside the villageāit was Gao Chuwu, Zheng Daniu, and those two young people learning to drive.
Two teaching, two learning, they had taken a big loop outside.
Returning to the village entrance, they saw a group of outsiders surrounded by villagers, a lively scene.
Gao Chuwu foolishly went over to watch the commotion. As soon as he entered the crowd, he spotted Xing Honglang at first sight: āEh? That woman is really beautiful.ā
The nearby villagers were all astonished: she looked like a man; this brave woman, where exactly was she beautiful?ā¦
Xing Honglang is a historical figure. In Year Four of Chongzhen, Zijin Liang united Shanxi gang leaders to form the Thirty-Six Camps, and Xing Honglang was among them. Yet, historical records did not record its gender; the eunuch set her as a woman for the novelās amusement.