In the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign, Shen Zhao, the fourth daughter of a concubine in the Shen family of Yangzhou, used salt-boiling techniques and salt-license ledgers known only to her throughout the household to claw back, step by step, a salt merchant family on the verge of being struck from the rolls. She reclaimed its salt works, shipping registers, customs posts, and the Chu River route.
