The threshing floor outside the village is now a market, with some simple awnings set up here and there. Groups of soldiers and gangsters are wandering around with their chests exposed, and some are even drunk. Groups of refugees
They were herded into the open fields as commodities. Those who were sent to the market were all women and children - some of the rebel soldiers were those who indulged in sexual intercourse with women and children, some of them had no sons for many years and wanted to get a boy to inherit the cigarettes, and some of them had no wives.
Those who want to get a wife as soon as possible--Although Kong Youde was a general many years ago, he never had a wife. He only got a wife after the Denglai Incident.
Young women with better looks were treated better, because they were afraid that they would not be able to sell for a good price if they were tanned, so they had to put up a tent on their head. Ordinary rough-and-tumble farm girls would have to kneel at the foot of the wall to wait for selection.
All of them have unkempt hair and sallow complexion.
There are both "public goods" and "private goods" here. The latter are mostly young women, mostly plundered by soldiers and generals who then resell them when they get tired of them.
In addition to the human market, there are piles of rag markets, which cover a larger area. Each stall is spread out and filled with items: everything is sold here: rags stripped from piles of dead people.
From gold and silver playthings to jade ornaments... farmers' farm tools, businessmen's abacus, actors' suitcases and musical instruments, and even longevity materials purchased by wealthy families are all here - anything that can be found in homes, government offices, shops and even temples, there is nothing like it.
Some of them were not robbed for sale, but some even carried beautiful native flowers - the bandits took advantage of the war to dig up the graveyards of wealthy families as funerary objects.
Those who come to buy things are not only rebels, but also all kinds of people who are not afraid of death in this troubled world. The money in the frying pan is also enough to get the meat from the hob. They gather like flies smelling a dead body and try their best to get benefits.
Recently, a group of human traffickers from Nanzhi have ventured from the sea and are buying young women.
Buyers and sellers, all armed with sticks and swords - there is no order here. Disputes over price are common and knives are used frequently. Theft and robbery are even more common. Just walk a few steps on the edge of the market and you can see several full bodies.
They were the swollen corpses of flies. There were also rows of blackened heads hanging on the wooden poles.
Huang Ande frowned. Like Cao Qing and Zhu Si, he wore a pig-mouth mask made by Lingao according to the health worker's instructions. Even so, the stench of corpses still penetrated his nose. Their strange shapes occasionally caused confusion around them.
People looked on, but no one dared to say anything - the rebels were a mob, and even Li Jiucheng could not fully and effectively control every straggler. But everyone agreed that people under the "Qi Mu" banner were not to be messed with.
The rebel general guarding the market knew that if he offended Uncle Deer, the place would be slaughtered from top to bottom, so he strictly ordered his subordinates to pull out anyone who was disrespectful to the people coming to Qimu Island and behead them directly.
"It's Mr. Huang who's here!" Huang Ande was strolling. A strong man with an open chest wearing a tattered jacket came up to him and clasped his fists first. This man was the leader guarding the market, and he was originally a servant beside Kong Youde.
The surname was Kong. Now Kong Youde is the deputy marshal. Naturally, he has also become a "guerrilla". He leads a team of people to run the market here.
After the two sides greeted each other, the boss asked: "How is it? Mr. Huang, is this the old rule?"
"Of course it's the old rule." Huang Ande said. "There are three hundred strong men. You count them first - last time you tricked people and stuffed so many old, weak, sick and disabled people. More than forty people died when they reached the ground. It wasn't enough."
They got food money for food along the way! If something like this happens again this time, we, Mr. Lu, won’t be able to give us a single grain." As he said this, he took out a blue stamp and handed it over.
"It depends on what you say." Although Kong Youyi was born as a servant, he felt quite self-taught when it came to business. He excused himself with a smile on his face, "The strong men last time were definitely not a small deceit - how dare we
Now, they are all really young and strong, mainly because they have been left in the circle of people for a long time, they don’t have enough to eat, and the weather is hot. How many of them will die while walking along the way? Let me tell you, I can’t pick them for you.
If you are particularly strong, you will die if you walk to the island at least half of them. Not to mention them, the general was marching a few days ago, and all the people who got sick and died were lost along the way! This sun is poisonous."
"Let's not talk about it anymore. You have to pick everyone up this time - if too many people die on the road, you may have to deliver the goods next time." Huang Ande said.
"Okay, okay, I'm going to prepare the goods right now. Should you go and see the women and children by yourself?"
"Yes. All according to the old rules."
Kong Youyi immediately called for a personal attendant and asked him to lead "Master Huang" to the labor market to select people.
Huang Ande was not the first to come back to do business. He was a refugee himself, so he knew how much the elders valued the population. He also knew that the chiefs, unlike other forces, paid special attention to women and children, and in many cases even gave priority to transporting women and children away.
The first batch of people to be transported away from Qimu Island were also women and children. And he had vaguely heard that the chiefs were particularly interested in Shandong girls, especially those who were tall, broad-shouldered and long-legged.
, especially what they want. So when selecting people, you have to do a lot of careful things.
He walked along the way and picked, and if he pointed at the one he liked, Zhu Si and Cao Qing would stamp the other person's arm with a blue stamp. The rebels next to him would take the person out.
Circle alone.
For those who have been stamped - whether they are women personally selected by Huang Ande or Ding Zhuang randomly selected by Kong Guerrilla - once they are stamped, they are destined to die - as long as they can get to the middle station. If there are still
A child or family member can live with a stamp. As usual, the whole family can go with him. Therefore, people often ask the person who has been stamped to pretend to be a family member. If a single man is stamped, there will immediately be a woman willing to do it for him.
Wife.
In the past, they used the method of hanging wooden signs, but later, for some reason, everyone knew that if they followed them, they would have enough to eat. So as soon as they hung them up, people would come up to rob or steal them, causing fights and complaints.
There were even deaths. In the end, it was changed to stamping.
The instructions given to him by the owner of the Deer Village were simple: give priority to healthy women with natural foot, a height of over 1.5 meters, and under the age of 40. It does not matter whether they have children. As for children, as long as they are not disabled, they will all be selected.
The condition of natural feet is more difficult to meet - the foot-binding custom in Shandong is different from that in Jiangnan: rural women in Jiangnan have to work in the fields, so rural women generally do not bind their feet, but foot-binding is very common here in Shandong, and even farm women rarely have their feet bound.
.So the prerequisite of natural footing is not a must. Other conditions are relatively easy to meet.
Huang Ande walked and made choices all the way. The women and children in the market stared at them with wide eyes. Although the rebels did not allow anyone to rush forward, as soon as Huang Ande's eyes turned here, they would involuntarily want to stand up.
He pounced on him - until he was forced to hold him down by the rebels' swords and guns. This terrifying and expectant look for survival made Huang Ande dare not even look at it sometimes.
Especially when I see the orphans in the market, it is even more pitiful. They are all naked, lying or sitting, and are extremely weak. They are small and frail, and have no one to take care of them. They are the most vulnerable in the biological chain of the human circle.
At the bottom, Huang Ande sighed while trying to take away every child who looked healthy.
Every time he takes away a person from here, he saves one more life. But now the reception capacity of Zhaoyuan and the island is also very limited. The spy boat can only transport a few hundred people at a time, so Lu Wenyuan gave him
The limit is to take away a maximum of 1,000 people at a time.
The last place I went to was the "small shed". The women sold in such small sheds usually have good looks, or women from middle-class families or above. Although you can't buy such women at the "standard price", and you have to pay cash.
, but you can often find some women who meet the aesthetic tastes of the chiefs. Chief Zhu allocates him twenty taels of silver every time to purchase such women. The guide price given to him is three taels of silver per person.
There is a special guard outside the shed. Only those who show their sincerity by showing money can go in to "see the goods." Huang Ande has been there several times, but the guard knows his origins and does not question him. But Zhu Si came in for the first time, and he couldn't help but be curious.
Looking around, he suddenly trembled all over and pulled Huang Ande's clothes.
Huang Ande turned his face and saw that Zhu Si was already blushing, lowering his head and not daring to look. Huang Ande knew that he was probably still a virgin, so he couldn't control himself when he saw the spring scenery in the shed.
The shed was not big, but it was packed with people. Under the sunlight, there was a smell of sweat inside, but there was an empty space in the middle that was surrounded by ropes and no one was allowed to come near. The women who were sold were all stripped naked.
, was pushed inside and allowed to be inspected by buyers. They were only allowed to look outside the rope, but were not allowed to do anything. Otherwise, they would be served with swords and guns.
Huang Ande knew that some buyers from out of town were extremely picky and would not even buy those with a few scars on their skin. A young woman with a good figure and good skin could only be sold for five taels of silver at the highest price - only one-tenth of the purchase price in Jiangnan.
Not to mention, when buying a girl in Jiangnan, you will never be allowed to inspect it like this. It’s no wonder that the traffickers in the Nanzhi area would rather tuck their heads in their belts and risk their lives to come here to “buy goods.”
On normal days, Huang Ande would have to make fun of this young man, but the "spring scene" at the moment was a scene of endless misery. The women were first destroyed, and then they were repeatedly humiliated and abused by the rebels. They were tortured to the point where they were dumbfounded and looked dull.
She did whatever she was told, even in the presence of a group of men, she was completely shameless and allowed others to judge her - even a well-informed person like him couldn't muster the interest to make fun of her.