Zhu Beiguo was a little curious about this, and he turned around and asked Xue Laixiang, what do they mean by tuning?

Xue Laixiang replied that he was beaten and scolded every day, starved from time to time, or tortured with torture instruments, and did so every day, until these people trembled with fear when they heard the whip, and only then did they get out of the way.

Then, according to the terms of each person, they were to be divided into three classes and one to be abandoned, either to be a domestic slave in the mansion or to be a tenant slave in the field, but those who remained disobedient and strong and unruly by nature were to be assigned to the row of boats as slave oarsmen, and so the fate of each man was turned.

Zhu Beiguo nodded, and then asked curiously, what is the difference between three and one abandonment?

Xue Laixiang responded that this is a commonly used method of dividing people in the noble people's mansions, and the so-called third class is to divide the men and women who have been trained into three levels: superior, inferior and inferior, and those who have a good temperament, obey orders and have strength are superior.

Most of these were used by tenants for farming, and were given land and houses, and even allowed to marry women, and they could live on their own in the country and grange to which the nobles belonged, although they could only be confined to the grange for the rest of their lives, but this was the best outcome.

This time, those who have a good temperament and listen to orders, but who are weak and weak, most of them enter the government to do lowly labor, and they also have food and clothing.

These inferior people are those who have a great temperament, and who are not easy to obey orders, but who have the strength, who are either slaves and oarsmen, or quarrying in mines, but who are shackled all day long, and when they are sick and old, they are forbidden to starve and kill or sink in ponds, and in short, the end is very unbearable.

This kind of person is a person who has a big temper, does not obey orders, and has little physical strength, and such people, etc., before the training is completed, most of them starve to death, and usually do not live for the time of training.

After listening to Xue Laixiang's introduction, Zhu Beiguo nodded secretly, and said in his heart that he couldn't imagine that this Sulu country was still very good at using manpower, obviously, the most ideal people were those who had the strength and no temper, they could be tenants or slaves, and those who had the strength and temper had to be used as oarsmen and miners.

Well, if you encounter those who don't have the strength and have a special temper, then you will directly kill the matter, and I guess I don't bother to teach......

Immediately afterwards, Xue Laixiang also said to Zhu Beiguo that if you talk about the fate of these people, it is probably the most tragic of these slave oarsmen, because for the oarsmen, rowing with shackles, the drums are non-stop, even if they are tired to death, they must row, and when they encounter a war, they may be exhausted to death if they win, and once they fail, the boat sinks, and they can't run away with shackles.

In addition, once there are disobedient and old and weak rowers, they will be thrown into the sea to feed the sharks, in short, this is the final end of the slave oarsmen in the bottom cabin - unless they die of exhaustion or illness in the prime of life, there is no possibility of liberation in this life.

However, the only advantage of being a slave oarsman is that he eats well, has meat and wine, and is full, which of course is also necessary, otherwise where would he have the strength to row......

Zhu Beiguo nodded when he heard this and said, Since you have met us, then we will negotiate with the Sulu Kingdom and ask them to hand over your guys.

Also, does Brother Xue know that there are Han people in this Holo City? Were there Han Chinese slaves?

Xue Laixiang replied that there were not many Han people in the city, and there were indeed slaves, but most of them were tenant slaves.

But I heard that there are a lot of them outside, Xue Laixiang said, in addition to the highest king of the east, there are also the king of the north and the king of the west, who live in the outer islands respectively, in fact, in addition to the islands around Holo, this Sulu country also governs a part of Borneo in the west, the country of Pandan and the islands of Zamboanga in the north, there are indeed many Han people, because they are good at farming and weaving, these people are mostly recruited by the local princes, and sign a contract to become a lifelong tribe, that is, tenant slaves.

From this, Zhu Beiguo learned from Xue Laixiang that in fact, as long as he didn't go to be a slave oarsman, the Han people's life here was quite good.

First of all, because the Han people are usually very hard-working, have craftsmanship, or can farm, and love cleanliness and diligence than the locals.

The most important thing is that the Han people are usually more obedient to discipline, unlike the locals, who are lazy and unruly, and run back to the jungle tribe to live a leisurely life at every turn.

And because the Han people were outsiders and had no place to run, let alone be taken in by the tribe, the nobles of Sulu were very fond of recruiting Han people to work or farm for them, especially the peasants who fled with their families and the Han men and women who were trafficked by maritime merchants and pirates for various reasons.

Xue Laixiang also told Zhu Beiguo that the nobles of Sulu would even allocate land and provide farming cattle and farm tools and seeds to these Han people free of charge, and the only requirement was to enter the government and become the nobles' "tribe", which is a nice saying, in fact, it is to sell themselves into slavery and become the domestic slaves of the nobles, and they have been domestic slaves for generations.

However, for the Han people living abroad, in the face of a foreign environment, I have to say that this is also a good home.

"Brother Xue, can you hear that there may be people from the Daming Sect or the family of Shili hairpins who have fled here to take refuge?"

Hearing this, Zhu Beiguo pondered for a moment, sighed lightly and asked.

Xue Laixiang replied solemnly after hearing this:

"Brother Zhu Mingjian, the so-called Daming clan, the younger brother really has no conclusive news, but the younger brother knows the Daming clan, or kill or surrender, and have not heard of those who fled overseas. After a long time in the South Seas, there may be Han eunuchs or wealthy families who were robbed and killed by sea bandits, and such things have indeed been heard. ”

"Does Sulu have it?"

"Unconclusive, or ......"

"Is there a female dependent?"

"This may be there, but in this Sulu country, the younger brother has not heard of the slaves of the sons and daughters of the big eunuchs, because they are too many to be slaves, when they are defeated by bandits, or those who flee and die in battle, and those who are willing to live as slaves are mostly servants and maids......"

"Is there a Han Chinese in Sulu who resist?"

"What Brother Zhu said about rebellion is the meaning of rebellion? From nothing, for the noble family to be a tenant slave, the most stable day, and food and clothing, if fortunate to have literacy and hyphenation can keep thin accounts and arithmetic, or for the noble family business also have, although the generation of slaves, but still expected to come out.

As for how many Han tenants are there in this Sulu country? The younger brother only knows that there are indeed many in the king's prime minister's mansion, and there are also in other places, but the real number geometry is not known, and over the years, the younger brother has occasionally heard that there are Han people who have entered the palace as slaves, but he does not know the detailed number ......".

Xue Laixiang answered all of Zhu Beiguo's questions very seriously.

Through this exchange and dialogue, Zhu Beiguo finally basically grasped the situation in Huoluo City, in addition to a small number of Han people, there are obviously a large number of foreign population, most of these people are people who have been plundered by pirates, and the vast majority of them have become slaves.

Moreover, there are many races and different skin colors here, from the geographical point of view, there are people from far and near, including Han Chinese, Siamese people, Annamite people, etc., and even Arabs, blacks and Indians from afar. These people were basically slaves, and there were very few civilians, but there were no soldiers, because it was the prerogative of the natives to be soldiers.

Most of the ordinary locals are urban commoners or people from nearby tribes, especially those who have marriages with Sulu nobles, and their status is superb, of course, the highest status is still the Sulu nobles.

Regarding the total population and population structure of this kingdom, Zhu Beiguo also probably learned something from the mouths of the captives, for example, in the city of Holo, which was surrounded by tall walls, it was divided into two cities, the inner city and the inner city in the central area had a population of only more than 10,000 people, including more than 3,000 soldiers, as well as nobles and slaves of similar numbers to this number.

As for the outer city, the population there was a more complex one, consisting mainly of merchants and townspeople, about 50,000 people, including some of the nobles' personal soldiers and artisans, as well as servants of all walks of life, most of whom lived in the outer city less than a mile from the docks.

According to Xue Laixiang, the city wall of Huoluo City was indeed built with the assistance of Han maritime merchants, which is consistent with historical records, no wonder it looks quite like the style of the city wall in the Central Plains.

As for the demographic structure of the port area of Hollow Harbor, it is even more complicated, in addition to the large resident population such as domestic slaves who do business for the nobles, there are also foreign merchants, commercial agents of nearby tribes, and a floating population from the jungle.

Especially in the core business area of the wharf, in addition to the shops of the aristocratic families, there are also a large number of indigenous merchants from the surrounding tribes, of course, there are also from all over the South Seas, in addition to these foreign, commoner maritime merchants, most of the merchants here are slaves of the Sulu nobles, many of whom are Han Chinese, and most of them are in trouble for various reasons.

Therefore, the resident population of the dock area is also close to 50,000, and it seems that the 200,000 population of the legendary Holo is actually not so much in the core area, and this 200,000 population obviously includes the population of all the indigenous tribes on Holo Island.

Merchants, among whom were also Han Chinese merchants who were considered commoners, were very few in number.

Well, Zhu Beiguo is also aware of a fact: there should be girls in the market, but the plan to buy a large number of Han girls here may be in vain......

The interrogation of the captives ended quickly, and except for the captain of a pulp boat, the others in this group were ordinary soldiers, and in the end, Zhu Beiguo couldn't ask for any more valuable information.

That being the case, it is time to begin the implementation of the second phase of the plan — intimidation and negotiation.