In the entire city of Muni, apart from Hani's palace, there are only a few decent houses in the East City area. Those who can live in the East City are all prominent figures in Shanshan State. In other places, including the shops in Tublo, they all look very... Low and shabby. As for the market, it cannot be described as low and shabby.
In Liu Xin's eyes, the so-called human market is simply a place enclosed by animal sheds, but the people locked in these sheds are not animals, but people, living people. In fact, in these countries, the status of slaves and animals Almost, sometimes even worse than animals, it is normal to be locked up in an animal shed. These people are male and female, old and young, some are barbarians from the Western Regions, some are poisonous, some are Huns, and some are even blond and blue-eyed. Daqin people. However, Liu Xin looked around and saw no Han people.
There are many reasons why these people became slaves. Some people were originally slaves or the children of slaves, and they were destined to be slaves when they were born. Others were the family members of criminals and were sold into slavery by the government. Some people were They were sold as slaves because they owed huge debts and could not repay them. Regardless of whether they were men, women, old or young, these slaves for sale were all sallow, skinny, filthy, and had a strong smell.
Seeing this scene, Liu Xin felt a little disappointed. Liu Xin didn't think there was anything inhumane about treating slaves like this, because this was a powerful society. The emperor could decide life and death with just a word, so how could we talk about human rights? ?There is also a slave market in the area under Liu Xin's rule. One of the punishments for criminals is to sell their family members into slaves. But when Liu Xin sells these slaves, he will make careful preparations and dress the women beautifully. Let the man show his strong side so that he can sell it for a good price.
Liu Xin had no choice but to choose these slaves in front of him. Even if he knew who was better at farm work and knew how to use farm tools, Liu Xin still had to worry about whether they would be infected with any diseases.[
Tublo seemed to see Liu Xin's doubts and said with a smile: "You don't know something, this is the cunningness of the slave merchants. They make all the slaves look like this, so they have the opportunity to kill the weak and sick ones." The slaves took the opportunity to sell them. However, it is not completely impossible to tell."
Having said this, Tubulo suddenly walked towards a slave for sale, grabbed his hand and inspected it carefully, then shook his head and walked towards another slave. When Tubulo inspected the third slave , turned to Liu Xin and said: "Sir, this slave often does farm work, but he is a little older."
"There are advantages to being older. You will have more experience in farm work." Liu Xin nodded and said, "That's him."
What Liu Xin needs is people who know how to use these farm tools, so that the people in the institute can get inspiration from these farm tools that are different from those in Middle-earth, and improve the existing farm tools, instead of letting them actually do farm work, even if they are old and infirm. Also called.
Tublo showed off his skills, but Liu Xin did not ask him how he could tell, because Liu Xin knew very well the method he used, which was to judge these slaves by looking at their characteristics, such as where there were more calluses. Occupations you have had.
However, seeing Liu Xin's impressed look, Tublo, who wanted to show off in front of Liu Xin, was still a little unwilling, and walked to a nearby "animal shed", which was filled with female slaves. , and they are all naked slave girls.
Of course Liu Xin had no interest in these female slaves, and the white flowers and naked appearance were a bit embarrassing. Liu Xin was about to call Tublo, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a female slave with long golden hair.
Seeing this female slave, Liu Xin couldn't help but think of Black Whirlwind, so she pointed her finger and said, "Bring her here."
Tuburo originally wanted to show off his ability to select women, but when he saw the slave girl Liu Xin pointed at, he couldn't help but be slightly startled. This slave girl was not tall, had a very average appearance, and was not slim at all. I don't know. Why did Liu Xin fall in love with her? However, Tuburo now wanted to please Liu Xin, so he hesitated and followed Liu Xin's order to bring the slave girl over.
Although Liu Xin was not a Taoist scholar, he was still a little uncomfortable facing a naked woman in broad daylight. He couldn't help but raise his head and look at the sky, and asked: "Where are you from?"
Naturally, the female slave could not understand Liu Xin's words. After Tubulo translated, she hurriedly replied: "I am a native of Shanshan."
Liu Xin waved her hand and asked the female slave to return to the "storage shed", turned to Tublo and said: "I have one thing for you to do, see if there are any Daqin people among these slaves, and if so, buy them all." Come down here and I’ll pay you a big price!”
Because Yumen Pass has been closed for a long time, and there are no goods from the Han Dynasty, those Qin caravans who have traveled thousands of miles will not appear in Muni City. Although Liu Xin's plan to restart the trade route continues to make new progress, these The Great Qin caravan will eventually come out here again one day, but for Liu Xin who is eager to understand the situation of the Great Qin Empire, he does not have the patience to wait for such a long time.
After seeing the blond hair of the female slave, Liu Xin suddenly thought of a way. Since she couldn't find Da Qin's caravan, it would be the same if she could find a few slaves from Da Qin. And the big price Liu Xin promised was not directly What was paid to the slave merchant was paid to Tuburo. The merchant was very profitable, and with this big price as a temptation, I believe Tuburo would do his best.
Liu Xin did not directly ask the slave merchants for another reason. He did not want the slave merchants to know that the slaves he wanted to buy were slaves from Da Qin. Because if those merchants knew their purpose, they would most likely force their subordinates to The slave claimed to be from Da Qin in order to make this deal, but it turned out that his goal was difficult to achieve. Therefore, Liu Xin handed over the matter to Tuburo, who was good at identifying slaves, without even thinking about it.
However, it is not easy to select slaves from Da Qin among so many slaves, because the status of slaves is too low, and their masters do not bother to inquire about their past, so they only know their origins. Tublo needed to inquire one by one. This would take a lot of time, and Liu Xin could not leave Juni City in a hurry, but had to wait patiently.
While Liu Xin was waiting for Tublo to select suitable slaves, Mi Fang successfully arrived at Puyang City with his goods.
In fact, Puyang City is very close to the front line, and is almost separated from the important town of Liyang by the Yellow River. Cao Cao used this place as the temporary capital of the Han Dynasty, which has the feeling of the emperor guarding the country when the emperor of the Ming Dynasty made Beijing his capital.
In fact, Cao Cao did this out of necessity. He was always short of money and food, so it was impossible to recruit a large number of troops and horses. As his territory expanded day by day, many places had to be guarded by troops. However, because there were too few men and horses, he could only try to distinguish the main ones.
Again, some places need to deploy heavy troops, and some places can only send a small number of soldiers to garrison. But in any case, the frontier border must deploy heavy troops, and as the "capital" of the rear area, the military strength cannot be too empty.
Cao Cao was actually able to come up with such a bold idea to locate the "capital" directly in Puyang, which is close to Jizhou. This instantly combined the two places that required heavy military garrison into one, and immediately solved the dilemma of insufficient troops.[
However, although the dilemma of insufficient troops has been temporarily solved, because it is too close to the front line, once the fighting starts there, there is panic here. People in a hurry can be seen in and outside the city from time to time, and in the city
Prices are also constantly rising, and food prices are even ridiculously high.
Mi Fang swaggered into Puyang City with the receipt issued by Liu Dai. The news that he had brought a large amount of food spread like wildfire in Puyang City. As soon as Mi Fang and his party found an inn to settle down, people from one after another came to visit.
.
Among the people who came to visit, there were businessmen with keen sense of smell, as well as aristocratic families in Puyang City. Of course, some officials left here by Cao Cao were also indispensable. Even Cao Cao's number one adviser Xun Yu also came in person.
All these people have only one goal, and that is the grain in Mi Fang's hands. When Mi Fang left Qiao County, she carried a total of 75,000 shi of grain, and when she entered the city, she surrendered 20,000 shi on the spot. Because Puyang City
Each of the four gates of the army has food collection offices, which are responsible for receiving military rations handed over from various places. This saved Mi Fang a lot of effort, but the remaining 55,000 shi of food was also exposed.
In troubled times, the profiteers were all thinking about hoarding, while the noble families and officials were thinking about storing more food at home to avoid danger. Xun Yu was thinking about Cao Cao and wanted to seize the food in Mi Fang's hands before others.
Buy them all. Although everyone has different starting points, their goals are the same.
Mi Fang's answer to these people's visits was only two words: "No!"
However, the batch of grain in Mi Fang's hand was too tempting. How could he easily dismiss these people with just two words? Many people were still asking persistently for the reason for their disappearance, and Mi Fang's reply was even more domineering:
"I'm not familiar with you!"
That's it for those merchants. They didn't expect to be able to easily get food from Mi Fang, and they expected not to see Mi Fang. But the others were all well-known figures in Puyang City, and a foreign businessman actually dared to let them
Naturally, some people were upset when they were touched. Some people couldn't hold it back and had an attack on the spot. However, when they saw Xun Yu's reaction, they had to put away their anger and leave obediently.