The Ludong County Riverway Inspector conducted routine patrols of the various rivers and lakes. Beyond clearing away hidden dangers such as demon calamities and bandit troubles, he also had another important duty: investigating smuggling.
The Great Jin Immortal Dynasty's nineteen provinces sprawled across a vast territory. Every province and region had resources it produced in abundance, as well as resources it lacked desperately.
For instance, Yang Province was a land of fish and rice and lay close to the East Sea, producing Spirit Rice, spirit salt, and all manner of rare treasures from the sea.
Yet comparatively speaking, Yang Province was short on all kinds of spirit mineral resources. The Mystic Spirit Iron Mine of Fuyu Mountain was already considered an exceedingly important spirit mineral resource.
On the other hand, the northwestern regions and other places deep inland within the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty presented an entirely different situation.
Those places were rich in all manner of spirit mineral resources, yet desperately lacked supplies such as Spirit Rice and spirit salt. The various rare treasures of the sea were even more sought-after goods in short supply.
Under such circumstances, transporting Yang Province's abundant Spirit Rice, spirit salt, and marine treasures to places like the northwest would naturally multiply their price tenfold, even dozens of times over; then, transporting the various spirit minerals of the northwest back to Yang Province would bring in overflowing profits.
Thus, the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty had always imposed heavy taxes on such trade.
In particular, resources such as spirit salt and spirit iron not only bore heavy taxes, but were also restricted goods.
With such enormous profits driving things, all sorts of smuggling operations inevitably arose.
The Alligator Serpent demon beast had previously been the "Water Lord" of the Long Wharf River, commanding all the