In the afternoon of April 17, the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong's reign, several large boats with awnings of 300 stone sailed upstream along the Yangtze River and stopped near the Chaotianmen Pier in the northeast corner of Chongqing.
After the Qingming Festival, more merchant ships came and went on the Yangtze River. The river bank outside Chaotianmen was densely covered with trestles, and all kinds of wooden boats were moored along the river bank and in every nearby river bend.
There are rows of large and small shacks and shops on stilts, and the streets are bustling with people walking like ants, making it full of life and interest.
"Brother Xu, why is this place called Chaotianmen?" Several young people standing on the bow of the awning boat looked back and asked.
"Uh..." Although Xu Dayong had been to Chongqing once, how could he know such a thing.
At this time, I only heard a sailor rocking the oar say: "I want to let a few young brothers know that the arch above is facing the direction of Nanjing, so it is called Chaotian. There is a saying here in Ba County, 'Chaotian Gate, the big wharf, greeting
Officials receive saints. Well, this is the official reception hall."
Several young people from Beihai Town looked up as the sailor pointed, and then they saw the courtyard with the vermilion gate on the pier.
Xu Dayong returned to the cabin, opened the curtain of the boat awning and said solemnly to the man named Zhang who was sitting drinking tea: "Brother Zhang, look, that's Jiangbei Tingcheng. The locals call it Manying."
.”
Zhang Beihai took out a military telescope from a backpack beside him, huddled in the cabin and observed outside for a while, and then put the telescope away.
The place name "Jiangbei" was still used in another time and space in history. Later Chongqing was divided into two administrative divisions during the Qing Dynasty. The main part of it was the area where Chongqing Fucheng and Baxian County were combined into one.
.To the north of this area, on the north bank of the confluence of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River, is Jiangbei Tingcheng, where the Chongqing Tongzhifu Yamen is located. And the "Jiangbei Barbarian Camp" is located in Jiangbei Tingcheng.
The so-called "Jiangbei Barbarian Camp" has been buried in historical archives in later generations, and even many Chongqing locals no longer know about it. On the surface, the Jiangbei Barbarian Camp during the Qianlong period was a diversified non-Han immigrant community; however,
The real situation is that there is a large-scale red light district where minority women are trafficked and coerced into prostitution.
Xu Dayong also heard people talk about it when he came to Chongqing last year, and he has paid attention to it since then.
At this time, under a mat on the beach to the north of Chaotianmen, Li Shangyuan, a porter who was sitting crookedly and picking his teeth with a bamboo stick, lightly kicked the buttocks of a porter in front of him and muttered: "Silly."
Kui, the boat is coming, go and have a look."
"Yes." The porter, known as Shakui, responded in a sullen voice. He knocked the pipe pot on the ground, emptied it and inserted it into his back, and then walked over with his companions.
When Shakui walked to the riverside, several sand boats flying the same flag had just tied up their moorings. From the depth of the draft of the boats and the outer packaging of the large bags of cargo on the deck, he estimated that the boats were carrying cotton.
At this time, the gangplank has not yet been lowered, and seventeen or eight people from Yaxing have gathered on the beach, shouting at the boat to solicit business.
"Renhe Xingxing, Renhe Xingxing, Renhe Xingxing, specializes in copper and lead. The business is fair, and no one is deceived!"
"Ji Yi Xing, specializes in raw silk cotton~~"
"Zhengtaihang, Zhengtaihang, acts as an agent for medicinal materials from the north and south..."
Xu Dayong was well prepared. This time he came from northern Jiangsu and brought a lot of cotton. So he waved the Yaren from Jiyi Xing to come over and asked a companion to negotiate the cost with him.
Due to climate reasons, Sichuan is rich in rice, but cotton production is insufficient. However, the textile industry is very developed. Therefore, when many merchants came to Sichuan, they brought goods to Sichuan and sold rice to Chu.
Shakui also walked onto the boat at this time, following behind Yaren, waiting to be assigned to move the cargo. However, when he caught a glimpse of Xu Dayong coming out of the cabin from the corner of his eye, he suddenly felt that this person looked familiar.
, turned his head and looked again, his mouth wide open in shock.
"Xu, Mr. Xu, why are you here again?"
When Xu Dayong saw it, he immediately grinned and said, "Silly Kui, why did you become a porter? How are you making a living these days?"
"Okay, okay." Shakui responded hurriedly, and then bowed to Xu Dayong. When he raised his head, he saw a flash of light in the sky, so he hurriedly reached out to catch it; when he looked again, it was a soybean.
Big pieces of silver. This made him extremely happy.
Among the trackers Xu Dayong talked to last year, there was this silly Kui.
"Thank you, Mr. Xu. I wish your business is prosperous and smooth sailing!" Sha Kui happily put the money away, and then said to Xu Dayong: "More, thanks to my friends for taking care of me, I went to the porter's office after winter last year."
Got a job."
Xu Dayong smiled and said: "It's fate that you and I can meet each other. You will be responsible for transporting the goods. I'll meet you for a drink in two days."
"Hey! Mr. Xu is too polite. "Yi (a humble name for common people) is just a poor pick, and he doesn't deserve such kindness from Mr. Xu."
When Sha Kui went back to call for help and told the leader Li Shangyuan about Xu Dayong, Li Shangyuan rolled his eyes a few times before saying: "Here he comes again? Forget it! As long as he doesn't cause trouble and goes about his business honestly,
It has nothing to do with us. Since he said he wants to treat you to a drink, then you should check it out. If he wants to drag people away again, someone will come to deal with it. "
In order to avoid causing trouble, Xu Dayong handed over all the sales and purchases of goods to Yahang. Afterwards, soldiers from the Inspection Department boarded the ship to inspect the goods, tickets and roads from Funing County.
The people then divided into three groups and walked towards Chaotianmen along the stairs along the river.
There are three gates entering the city from Chaotianmen, namely the outer gate with "Ancient Chongqing Xiongguan" written on it, and the second and third gates that follow. Xu Dayong and a few people had just walked to the second gate when they were suddenly kicked out of the gate.
There was a bump from the side and back. When he turned around to look, he suddenly felt Wen Yuman's arms.
"Ah~~" The woman who rushed over reacted quickly. As soon as she bumped into Xu Dayong's arms, she pushed away with both hands, and her face suddenly turned red.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Only then did Xu Dayong realize that the other party was actually a young woman who was sweating profusely. After looking at it again, he found that the girl seemed to be about sixteen or seventeen years old.
, is very pretty, but her complexion is yellow. She is holding a heavy bamboo basket in her hand, and she is wearing very ordinary clothes; she is wearing a coarse cotton dress divided into two pieces, with several patches on her knees and feet.
Wearing a pair of straw sandals, he is actually very talented.
When the girl saw Xu Dayong staring at her, she became even more embarrassed and cursed at Xu Dayong. However, because of the strange accent, Xu Dayong and his group did not understand what the other party said. However, when the woman turned around, she
When he wanted to leave, Xu Da grabbed the other person's arm.
"Hand it over."
"What?"
The woman raised her head at this moment, and her beautiful eyebrows immediately dazzled the people around her. However, to him who had been wandering around for many years, this little trick was nothing.
"Hand over the things, or I will report you to the official." Xu Dayong sneered twice, and then gestured with his chin to the two soldiers at the second door.
When the woman saw several strong men surrounding her, she realized that she was in big trouble. She also made a sudden plan to steal the chicken, but she failed, and was soon frightened to tears.
"Don't do this to me! I've seen people like you come and go so many times. Once caught, you pretend to be pitiful."
Seeing that the woman couldn't run away, and the eyes of the people around her began to look at her, she took out a brown deerskin bag from the basket, which looked heavy. When she handed it back to Xu Dayong, she said:
He said bitterly: "What's so great about this is that you are just bullying a weak woman like me because of the crowd."
Xu Dayong didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was about to teach him a lesson, but Zhang Beihai beside him said with a serious face: "Girl, I think you have a decent appearance, and you don't look like a gangster, so why bother to do this? If you want to use money to save an emergency, just go ahead and
Just tell us."
"You need to take care of it! There are no good people in this world!" After saying that, the woman shook off Xu Dayong's hand, turned around and walked towards the pier, and soon disappeared into the crowd.
The group of people thought this was just a minor disturbance, but when they walked through the Sanmen Cave, they heard a rush of footsteps behind them. Looking back, they saw the woman running up with a look of panic on her face, and everyone on the road.
They all looked sideways.
"Help me! Someone wants to take me back." The woman saw Zhang Beihai looking at her, and for some reason she ran over and grabbed Zhang Beihai's sleeve, with a look of pleading on her face.
"Take you back?" Zhang Beihai was a little dumbfounded, thinking that it was none of his business.
At this time, a companion walked a few steps quickly and went down the steps to the second door. When he looked out, he saw some chaos at Chaotian Gate. Several men in Tsing Yi kept pushing away the pedestrians in front of them and running up quickly.
"Did you steal other people's things again?" Xu Da pushed the woman's hand away and said to Zhang Beihai: "Don't worry about it, it's none of our business."
Just as Zhang Beihai was about to leave, the woman was so heartbroken that she knelt down in front of everyone. She pulled Zhang Beihai's trouser legs and said, "Guys, I escaped from the barbarian camp. They are trying to arrest me."
Go back! Please do well and repay me by being a cow or a horse in the next life!"
"Barbarian camp?" Xu Dayong's eyes lit up and he asked hurriedly: "Are you a barbarian?"
"I was sold from Guizhou. Those traffickers want to sell me to a brothel again!"
As soon as he said this, Xu Dayong's expression suddenly became serious. He didn't bother to ask any more questions, and said to a few of his subordinates who came to Chongqing with him last year: "Find a way to block those people, and we will meet at the inn later."
After his companion understood and left, Xu Dayong said to the woman: "Follow us first and then find a place."
On the other end, when the men in Tsing Yi chased them outside the Sanmen Cave, the leader suddenly felt as if something tripped under his feet, and then he fell down on the steps and rolled down again; and the other men in Tsing Yi also did the same.
Each of them was knocked down and fell upside down with a black nose and a swollen face.
"Damn it, why don't you have eyes when you walk? It's such a wide road, but you have to bump into people?!"
Several people in Tsing Yi screamed "Ouch" and argued: "You foreigners are so rude. It was obviously you who bumped into someone, why do you still blame me and the other three?"
As soon as the two sides began to quarrel, the pedestrians on the steps immediately gathered around and began to talk. The guard guard at the second gate also noticed the commotion and walked up.
At this time, another spy from Beihai Town slowly walked down the steps and helped the man in Tsing Yi, saying sorry repeatedly, holding his fist and saying: "My brother has a bad temper. Originally, the elders in the family wanted him to come out and sharpen himself, but who knows?
So impulsive." After that, he took another ten cents from his pocket and said he would invite a few of them to tea as an apology.
"It's my fault! Three of my bones will be broken when I fall. I can't make less than fifty cents!"
...
Two quarters of an hour later, Xu Dayong, who had entered the city, arrived at an inn near Baoen Temple in Dongshuimen. When the waiter saw that a large group of men were actually staying in the hotel with a woman, he asked too many questions.
He said something. However, Xu Dayong glared and said that this was the maid I had just bought. The man immediately did not dare to ask any more questions.
After the room was opened, Zhang Beihai led the woman into the guest room and asked the waiter to bring tea. Then he said to the woman: "It's safe now, can you tell us?"
The woman grabbed the front of her jacket and twisted it for a long time, hesitating and hesitating. Xu Da slammed the table impatiently and said sternly: "If you don't say anything, I will send you to the official!"
As soon as these words came out, the woman was so frightened that she trembled and started to cry.
Zhang Beihai raised his hand to signal Xu Dayong not to threaten, and asked in a kind tone: "What's your name?"
"...tea girl."
Tea Girl? This name is really weird.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Where are you from in Guizhou? How about I pay someone to take you back?"
"Go back..." The tea girl showed a miserable face, raised her head and looked out the window, as if she was recalling the past. Gradually, two lines of tears fell down, she shook her head and said: "I
Don’t know the way.”
Seeing that Zhang Beihai was very kind to her, Tea Girl then told the two of her life experience.
She is a Miao from Guizhou. When she was ten years old, she went to cut grass outside the village and was kidnapped. She was then transported to Sichuan with other kidnapped women. Afterwards, she changed hands several times and was sold to a barbarian camp in Jiangbei.
She worked as a maid in a brothel. This time, the trafficker was going to sell her to another brothel as a prostitute, so the tea girl found an opportunity to escape. When she met Xu Dayong before, she also had no money, so she thought of using her skills as a maid.
Get some money through some crooked ways.
It needs to be explained here that the "Miao people" in the Qing Dynasty did not only refer to the Miao people, but also included more than 20 ethnic groups such as Miao, Dong, Yi, Yao, Zhuang, Shui, and Buyi.
"Miao territory" can also be divided into broad and narrow senses. Miao territory in the narrow sense refers to the Miao inhabited area centered on Guzhou (now Rongjiang County) in eastern Guizhou, while Miao territory in the broad sense refers to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.
, Hunan, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces where various ethnic minorities live.
Throughout the early and mid-Qing Dynasty, human trafficking was extremely rampant in the Miao territory of Guizhou. Due to various reasons, it was repeatedly prohibited and became a stubborn disease that the Manchu government could not control.
In fact, this is related to the general environment of Sichuan in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Since the early Qing Dynasty successively implemented immigration measures such as "Huguang fills Sichuan" to enrich Sichuan's population, the reality of Sichuan's vast territory and sparse population also promoted and intensified the problem of poverty in neighboring Guizhou.
Human trafficking activities.
By the Yongzheng period, in the Sichuan-Guizhou human trafficking market, a well-organized human trafficking transaction chain had been formed where Sichuan traders and local Guizhou families shared labor and spoils, forming various large and small human trafficking gangs that abducted and kidnapped people.
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Take Tea Girl, for example. After she was kidnapped, she was first sold to a first-level human trafficker, a guy called a "ground stick", for two taels of silver. Then, after the "ground stick" gathered enough people, she was sold to a group of ten taels of silver.
She was resold to the second-level human trafficker "Sichuan Trafficker" for about 20 taels. After the "Sichuan Trafficker" trafficked her into Sichuan, her worth rose to more than 20 taels. After that, every time she was resold, the price would rise again.
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Taking Songjiang Prefecture in Jiangsu Province at the end of the 18th century as an example, the market price of one stone of rice was one to two three qian to one to two six qian. In other words, the life of a tea girl was equivalent to 3 to 4 shi of rice in Songjiang Prefecture.
The price of reselling a person has skyrocketed from "two or three taels" in the "origin" to "more than twenty taels" in the "destination". This will inevitably drive a group of desperadoes to take risks and engage in this illegal business of huge profits.
Although the Manchu and Qing Dynasties carried out severe crackdowns during the Yongzheng period, because the slave trade in Ming and Qing society was an officially permitted market behavior, it was banned repeatedly.
According to the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" in the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty", human traffickers can go to Guizhou to buy and sell people, but the number of people bought and sold is limited, generally not more than 4 to 5, and they must be approved by an official appointed by the government.
The mediators registered and kept records so that the government could know the number, origin and flow of the people being bought and sold.
However, in the actual implementation process, it is easy to allow human traffickers to enter Guizhou, but it is very difficult to restrain and supervise them. Therefore, these seemingly carefully crafted provisions actually provide a legal basis for human trafficking in Guizhou, and have affected countless victims.
The human devil was unleashed on the land of Guizhou.
In fact, in this era, Han women also faced the fate of being bought and sold. In the feudal era, wives, concubines, and daughters were to a certain extent a "financial tool." When a family faced a threat to survival, selling wives and daughters in marriage was a form of
means of hedging.
Later economists discovered that the differentiated pricing of wives, concubines, widows, and child brides in many areas of China during the Qing Dynasty was basically consistent with the pricing rules of general commodity and asset trading markets.
The most shocking thing comes from a lawsuit file in Ba County during the Qianlong period. A woman named Qin was sold five times in eight years.
Not to mention Sichuan and Guizhou, there was the mule and horse market outside Xuanwumen in Beijing. Many people in later generations only knew that livestock was traded there, but they did not know that there was once a "human market" there.
Tan Qian, who wrote "Guo Que", saw with his own eyes when he traveled in Beijing that there were a mule and horse market, a cattle market, a sheep market, and a human market on the inner street of Shunchengmen (the old name of Xuanwumen).
There are a lot of people coming to buy and sell every day. People usually go to the other party's house after negotiating good terms, either to take people there or to see the "goods."
As for the fact that Xu Dayong went to Luoyang to buy the Chen Jishan brothers and sisters who were prostituted by bids, that was simply too ordinary.