Chen Mo looked at the appointment document in his hands. It had been personally issued by his adoptive father, Sun Shouren, appointing him as the Salt Transport Envoy of Zhun Niu Market.
He was a Principal Ninth Rank official, with five hundred soldiers under his command.
Of course, the document said he had five hundred men, but how many there really were was hard to say. He would have to wait until he arrived and saw for himself.
It had to be said that this office was an absolute plum position. Though it was only Ninth Rank, in terms of authority and benefits, many Eighth Rank posts probably could not compare.
The Salt Transport Envoy was responsible for escorting the salt mined by the imperial court, controlling the flow of illicit salt, and cracking down on illicit salt dealers.
Salt had always been controlled by the imperial court. Anyone who wanted to sell salt or mine salt had to possess a salt license issued by the court.
Anyone who sold illicit salt privately would receive fifty strokes and be exiled three thousand li away. Anyone who mined salt privately would have the mastermind executed immediately, while the rest would have their households confiscated.
Yet even so, the illicit salt trade had never been stamped out, because the profits were simply too great.
It cost only fifteen copper coins to mine a pound of salt, but once sold, it could fetch at least one hundred copper coins. There was no shortage of buyers, either, because a pound of official salt cost at least one hundred and thirty copper coins.
Selling illicit salt was illegal, but buying it was not, because no illicit salt dealer would admit that his salt had an unclear origin. Besides, there was no way to investigate such