"Salt Owl" - a historical conspiracy novel about salt, blood and survival
One-sentence summary: In the Yangzhou Salt Farm, a small, literate householder was involved in huge waves due to a fatal private account. He was caught between officials, businessmen, and bandits, and struggled to survive between the abacus and the blade.
Content introduction:
During the Yongzheng period, the "Fuchang Hao" salt farm in Yangzhou. Chen Zhulu, the son of Zaohu, was promoted from the salt field to the accounting office by his boss Shen Rong because he was literate and could count. He originally thought he would be freed from hard labor, but he accidentally discovered that the steward Liu Mingde colluded with Zhou Bingqian, the secretary of the Salt Road Yamen, deducted rations from Zao households, and smuggled official salt, and was involved in a life-and-death whirlpool.
Liu Mingde fell and Zhou Bingqian died suddenly, but the storm had just begun. Du Wenyuan, the newly-appointed book office, entered the salt field with the power of "imperial envoy". Three "accounting gentlemen" with different ideas, Lin Jingzhi, Zheng Tong, and Su Wenqian, used the name of auditing to monitor, divide, and frame the situation. A corpse floating in the river, a jujube tree hiding secrets, a top-secret list that could subvert Yangzhou's officialdom... All forces are undercurrents on the small salt farm pier, and murderous intentions are everywhere.
Chen Zhulu holds the "Fuchang" Iron Order, which symbolizes the power of life and death, and deals with the deep thoughts of his boss Shen Rong, the official pressure of Du Wenyuan, and the unpredictable calculations of Lin Jingzhi. He must use the numbers on the account books as weapons and the dock laborers as his eyes and ears. Between the white of the salt fields and the red of the blood, he must clear up old accounts, uncover the inner ghosts, protect secrets, and more importantly, fight a way out for himself and those who follow him in this cannibalistic world.
This is not the Yangzhou of talented men and beauties, this is the sound of abacus, the coldness of sword, and every grain of salt.
