The human teeth were afraid that the slave's words would anger Qingji and cause his own business to be wasted.

But Qingji doesn't care!

“What are the conditions?”

The slave pointed to a wooden cage not far away, where a little boy with a small figure and a slim face, was imprisoned.

The slave said in a muffled voice: "That is the son of an old friend. His father has saved someone's life. If you can redeem him together, you will follow you all your life, and you will never refuse!"

"good!"

Qingji agreed immediately.

He looked at the slave in the bronze cage with great appreciation!

This person really values ​​love and friendship, which is extraordinary.

Not to mention anything else, the person's righteous spirit and extraordinary conversation alone are enough to make Qingji guess that his origin must be extraordinary!

You should know that ancient people did not necessarily mean words, but those who were chewed.

In daily spoken language, the dialogues of ordinary people are very concise, and only people from aristocratic backgrounds (intellectuals) can have extraordinary conversation!

Qingji immediately took out a bag of horse hoof gold from his arms and redeemed the slave.

As for the "son of an old friend", it was used as a gift and bought together!

After leaving the tits, Qingji started talking to the slave again.

I learned that he was from Chu, named Xiong Zidan, and was born into the prominent Chu Duke!

Xiong Zidan's grandfather was the famous King Zhuang of Chu.

Logically speaking, as the Miao descendant of King Zhuang of Chu, Xiong Zidan should not be so down and even fallen to the point of being acted as a slave.

But sometimes it’s really God’s will torment people!

Xiong Zidan's grandfather was a general to conquer the Yunnan barbarians in the south of Chu State, but failed in the battle. The expeditionary Chu army was cut off from its retreat and was trapped in the barbarian land and could not set off on its way back.

Therefore, the Chu army could only settle down temporarily in Yunnan and wait for rescue.

However, the long-term no-sequence and the years of cunning guerrilla warfare with the Dian barbarians finally made most of the Chu soldiers unable to hold on and began to escape on a large scale.

Xiong Zidan's father had no choice but to lead the few remaining Chu troops on his way back!

Unfortunately, most of these Chu people were seriously ill and passed away.

Xiong Zidan himself survived by chance!

He originally wanted to follow the will of his father and return to Chu State, but unexpectedly entered Wu State by chance.

In the end, Xiong Zidan was caught by a large group of slave arrested because she was outnumbered. She was not redeemed by Qingji until today!

After learning about Xiong Zidan's experience, Qingji and Sun Wu both expressed deep sympathy.

How can it not be sad that a descendant of the Chu State and the descendants of King Zhuang of Chu have fallen to this level?

However, if Xiong Zidan returned to Chu State, I am afraid that the Chu people might not be able to accept him.

Because the incident has been too long, the Chu people have long forgotten the army that was sent to the Yunnan area for expedition.

As for Xiong Zidan, he was just the son of his father and the Dian daughter. His bloodline was unclear. It would be strange if the Chu people could recognize and accept it!

This kind of slave hunting is actually not uncommon in all countries around the world, and it is even like people hunting and are used to it.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the world was divided into two main people, one was a Chinese and the other was a savage!

After the Zhou people destroyed Shang, they abandoned the relatively primitive and barbaric slavery of the Shang Dynasty and replaced it with the feudal system, but this system was not without slaves!

The Zhou people exiled the remnants of the Shang Dynasty, prisoners of war, foreigners conquered around the surrounding areas and other non-Zhou people. They were called savages, only farmed and rarely had a way to ascend.

The Zhou Dynasty implemented a feudal system, with a total of five ranks, from high to low: Duke, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Male.

Although the State of Wu had already established itself as a king, it belonged to the fourth-class viscount among the vassal states enfeoffed by the Emperor of Zhou!

This is a pyramid-like dominance structure.

The corresponding ruling status is the emperor, princes, ministers, and scholars. They are hereditary.

The people who have relatively high authority over civilians, that is, Chinese people, are the basis of the rule of the aristocratic class. Chinese people can not only farm, but also join the army, participate in political and economic life, and achieve promotion at the level of scholars!

Moreover, the Chinese people have considerable power and can even determine the throne of candidates for monarchs.

The most famous case is the "Chinese riot" during the reign of King Li of Zhou. The Chinese who could not bear the exploitation directly executed the king!

In short, the difference between Chinese and savages lies in their household registration!

Like the modern household registration system.

Household registration is closely related to everyone's housing, education, medical care, elderly care, etc., and the most important things in a person's life are closely related to it.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the urban population was called the Chinese people and the rural population was called the savages.

As the lowest-level existence, slaves naturally have no household registration, that is, black households.

In this era when Qingji lived, the concept between Chinese and savages had been confused because of frequent wars.

The people of the country represent nobles like the nobles, the common people represent the common people, and the savages are the people of other countries who fled and have no land.

Savages may be turned into slaves anytime, anywhere!

Because they are black households, once the arrested slaves are caught or the government has captured them, what awaits them will be a difficult and extremely dark slave career.

Slave transactions in various countries are basically legalized.

Not to mention remote places like Wu, even the countries of Jin, Qi, Song, Wei, Lu and other countries in the Central Plains, which claim to be a country of etiquette, slavery is very prevalent!

The origins of slaves are nothing more than savages, prisoners, prisoners, offspring of prisoners, etc.

Xiong Zidan is a very sad type.

The savage without household registration has become a valuable prey in the eyes of slave hunters!

...

After returning to the Palace of King Wu, Qingji placed Xiong Zidan and the son of the old friend, and sat opposite Sun Wu in the side hall to discuss major events.

"Changqing, today I have gained a lot of money from this private visit with you."

Qingji sighed and said, "I want to implement the new policy in our Wu Kingdom. Maybe I can start with this!"

"What the king is talking about slavery?"

“That’s right.”

Qingji nodded slightly and said, "The system of slaves is harmful to others. For individuals, it is unkind; for the country, it is unfavorable!"

"I have read the household registration documents of Wu before and found out that when the former king and Liao were in the early king, ten years ago, the number of people in our Great Wu was only 140,000, with a population of only 830,000!"

"After so many years, the population of Wu State is only 850,000!"

"Why is the growth rate of household registration so slow?"

"What's the crux of it?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Wu couldn't help but ponder, and then replied: "Master, maybe it is because of frequent wars in our Great Wu in recent years and civil strife continue."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Qingji said loudly: "Even if the military and civilians who died in the war and the missing population, my Dawu household registration should not grow so slowly!"
Chapter completed!