At this point, having only plundered eight salt merchant households, Ding Yun found that the open spaces on her farm were already insufficient to store anything. Simultaneously, the farm's space reminded her that the excessive amount of salt stored on uncultivated land could lead to salinization, affecting the quality of the land for future cultivation.
Faced with this situation, Ding Yun could only temporarily halt her actions.
She had to deal with the salt first.
Therefore, the next day, she temporarily left the Jiangnan region and headed to places where salt was scarcer and more expensive.
She planned to go there to help the impoverished.
This meant distributing the salt she had seized from the Jiangnan salt merchants.
She intended to give it to the poor people in areas lacking salt.
It was unavoidable, as her salt permits limited the amount she could sell. Therefore, this salt definitely couldn't be sold in her own grain stores. Selling contraband salt, on the other hand, was too complicated, requiring extensive bribes and involving various risks. Ding Yun truly wished to avoid such trouble, so giving it away seemed like a better option.
Perhaps it could even increase her merit points.
And recharge some energy for her farm.
Thus, while the salt merchants in the Jiangnan region were in a state of extreme panic, desperately guarding their private vaults and warehouses, even assigning guards twenty-four hours a day.
Ding Yun had already departed.
And a few days later, she arrived at a region lacking salt. She packed the salt into bags of three to five jin each and tossed them into houses, or directly went into the mountains to find the settlements of mountain dwellers, and then dumped batches of salt near these settlements.
She let them discover and distribute it themselves.
After leaving the salt, Ding Yun did not linger but quickly moved to another location to continue her salt distribution operation.
Within half a month, both private salt sellers and official salt sellers in the previously salt-scarce regions found their sales plummeting. Meanwhile, villagers and mountain dwellers in various places, some understood that the salt was secretly given to them by someone for reasons unknown.
Others, however, believed it was the work of a salt deity appearing.
Those villagers and mountain dwellers who knew that someone had given them salt felt that since the giver was anonymous, they likely wished to remain hidden. Therefore, none of them offered any explanations and instead unanimously attributed it to the salt deity's blessings, hoping to provide some cover this way.
This salt distribution activity.
Ding Yun continued for nearly half a year.
The primary reason was the sheer amount of salt that the salt merchants had hoarded, and the fact that Ding Yun couldn't easily delegate the task of distributing salt to her subordinates, so she had to do it herself.
Consequently, her speed was naturally much slower.
After half a year, the salt merchants who had previously been so vigilant and guarded their private vaults and warehouses tightly had long since relaxed. For in this world, there are only thieves who steal for a thousand days, but no one can guard against thieves for a thousand days. No one could remain constantly vigilant against intruders.
They lacked the energy for it.
As time passed, it was natural for them to become complacent.
At this very moment, Ding Yun, of course, continued her operations from half a year ago. After all, plundering the salt merchants' assets and distributing salt did not affect her grain store business.
She traveled all over the country.
In fact, it even saved her some transportation costs for grain!
Thus, the salt merchants naturally fell into misfortune again.
Crucially, this time Ding Yun had scouted the locations beforehand and visited all the salt merchants she could reach within a night in the local area. Furthermore, to ensure they suffered even greater losses, Ding Yun didn't even take their salt. Instead, she directly seized their assets and then quickly departed Jiangnan again after taking their assets.
After leaving Jiangnan, she would find any place.
To store those items first.
Then, she would continue to trouble other salt merchants.
Without transporting salt, Ding Yun's farm could store significantly more assets from the salt merchants.
The number of salt merchants she could plunder would also be much higher.
Thus, before long, those salt merchants experienced the panic of half a year ago once more. Although their losses this time were slightly better than the salt merchants plundered half a year ago, at least the salt they had stored at home was not lost, but having their accumulated wealth of decades or even a hundred years completely wiped out was a pain they could not bear. Each of them was almost driven mad.
If they knew who was responsible.
They would probably wish to skin and devour the culprit alive.
It can be said that from the second day Ding Yun resumed her actions, the local yamen could frequently hear the roars of some salt merchants, as well as the roars of officials in the yamen, and the yamen runners who were constantly searching throughout the city. In short, it was utter chaos.
However, this chaos could not alter the outcome. Ding Yun remained relaxed and at ease, easily causing the salt merchants to go bankrupt. Those salt merchants who had no outstanding debts outside were better off. Even if plundered by Ding Yun, a starved camel is still larger than a horse. But if they had significant external debts, they were truly miserable. The creditors' slightest pressure would force them to sell their houses and lands.
Some even faced complete bankruptcy.
In a short period, all the salt merchants were in a state of extreme panic and fear, dreading becoming the next victim.
In addition to this, they also initiated a wave of debt repayment.
And a wave of buying land and property.
What did this mean?
It meant that those salt merchants who owed money outside, regardless of whether the repayment date had arrived, all rushed to use their money to repay their debts.
Ensuring they were unburdened and debt-free.
In addition, they took out all the money, jewelry, antiques, and other items they had previously been reluctant to use and had saved. They used them to exchange for land, mountains, and even various shops and houses. In short, they converted the money in their households into tangible assets that could not be stolen.
In the past, they wouldn't have even glanced at some wasteland, barren mountains, or shops and houses in poor locations, let alone bought them. But now, they had no choice. No one knew if the money they desperately hid today would be stolen tomorrow, so they had to spend all that money quickly.
At most, they would keep a small amount for normal use.
The rest was truly spent as much as possible.
In an instant, the housing prices, shop prices, and even land prices in the cities where the salt merchants were located rose by more than 30-50%. Correspondingly, the prices of various jewelry and antiques saw a slight decrease, as they had been selling a considerable amount of them, and a price drop was normal.
But strangely enough, their actions.
Did indeed make things difficult for Ding Yun.
Because land, shops, and houses were things she genuinely couldn't steal. While she could easily take land deeds, it was useless. Even if she took the land deeds, it was meaningless, as those deeds were official documents. Even if they were lost, the salt merchants could spend a small amount of silver to reapply for them at the yamen.
And if she were to use the land deeds to buy and sell.
Wouldn't that be walking into a trap?
So, after their actions.
Ding Yun was indeed somewhat at a loss.