"Brother Li, do you see it, the people of Yelang Country are all exchanging what they don't need in exchange for what they need most.

But we brought the most precious silk and grain here in exchange for some useless stones. ”

On a stall in front of them, Zhang Yuan and Li Jian saw a merchant dressed as Han Chinese, holding Shu brocade and discussing with the vendor in exchange for a piece of jade on his stall.

If it was in the past, Li Jian might have felt that it was harmless, and these jade stones were also bought by Xungui when they were brought back to the Han Dynasty.

Those who starved to death were ordinary people or slaves, and there was never a precedent for the Han Dynasty to starve to death on the streets.

But following Zhang Yuan all the way, he was almost brainwashed to reshape his cognition.

When the people of their own country are not well fed and clothed, it is tantamount to treason to exchange food and silk for these things.

"Merchants are very profitable, Your Majesty should issue a law to restrict the nobles and prevent them from paying attention to these foods, so that the merchants will not bring disaster to the country and the people."

Li Jian still didn't understand the deep meaning, Zhang Yuan shook his head with a smile and explained to him.

"Brother Li, I don't think there's anything wrong with Xungui buying these things, on the contrary, I'd like to see Xungui spend a lot of money to buy these things, but the profits should be taken by the people of my Han.

You see, if we can levy conscription here, we can't let these Yelang people dig jade and gold mines for us, give them a little food, and starve to death, such a price is what we can accept and are willing to see. ”

Although the merchant was cunning, the jade seller insisted on making a dress for his wife, and when the transaction was completed, he still took the one-man Shu brocade from the merchant.

Walking from the market to the farmland on the edge, Zhang Yuan gradually discovered a problem, those vendors are all men, and the people who cultivate are also men, and he doesn't seem to have seen many women in Yelang Country.

Yelang Kingdom is too close to the Han Dynasty, and there is Nanyue, a descendant of the Qin Dynasty, so the language in this area is also Chinese, and there is no obstacle to communication.

On the edge of the farmland, there was an old farmer naked, resting against a stone.

Zhang Yuan leaned forward because he had doubts in his heart, and planned to ask for advice.

"Old man, when I first arrived in this county, why didn't I see many women?"

Before asking, Zhang Yuan had already weighed it in his heart, if the customs of Yelang Country were similar to those of the Han Dynasty, and those women did not show their heads outside, then this phenomenon would be normal.

However, in the Han Dynasty, those who don't show up are all women who have not yet come out of the cabinet, and those who marry women have been able to act as a laborer, and they will definitely not show up because they avoid suspicion.

In the middle of summer, if you ride a horse and gallop in the suburbs, you can always see a woman with only a few strips of cloth working in the fields.

After all, for the Han Dynasty, men have to enlist in the army because they have to bear the conscription, which directly leads to the proportion of women in each household is much higher than that of men.

But in Yelang, Zhang Yuan rarely even sees an elderly woman.

The old farmer held the hoe with both hands, looked up at Zhang Yuan, and saw Zhang Yuan and Li Jian dressed gorgeously, so he stood up directly.

Nobility is good there.

Even if the scholars left over from the Qin Dynasty appeared at this time, the treatment in prison was much better than that of ordinary people, and the people of the Xiang clan were able to become prime ministers in the Han Dynasty, and they seemed to have determined their identities as soon as they were born.

"The villain has seen the nobleman, and he doesn't know what the nobleman has to ask, and the villain must tell everything he knows."

The old farmer's hands holding the hoe were already trembling, and Zhang Yuan didn't know where he was putting pressure on him, so that the old farmer forgot all the questions he had just asked. 17

"The old man is fine, I just want to ask why there are not many women in this county."

Hearing Zhang Yuan's question clearly, the old farmer's face was very ugly, and he was even more hesitant, and his fear slowly turned into vigilance.

Zhang Yuan glanced at Li Jian, and Li Jian took out a piece of gold from his arms and handed it to the old farmer.

This gold can make a family of four not go hungry for a year, even in Yelang Country.

Even so, the old peasant hesitated for a while before he took the gold into his arms.

"Nobleman, you may be from the Great Han Kingdom.

We are often at war with the surrounding tribes, and in recent years those tribes have joined forces against me, and they do not encroach on the land, but only rob the food and women, and there are many fewer women than men in my Yoro.

That's why you don't think you have seen many women. ”

Zhang Yuan nodded after hearing this, the doubts in his heart were solved, and there was nothing else to do.

Tang Meng and Duotong didn't have a clue even now, so they had to wait until Zong Xing returned to the county town after the investigation, and then he could make the next judgment.

On the second and third days of the next day, Zhang Yuan didn't wait for Duotong to summon him again, so he followed Li Jian to wander around the county town all day long, experiencing the customs of Yelang.

On the afternoon of the third day, Zongxing, who was covered in dirt, finally returned to the post house from the outside on a war horse.

He didn't bother to take a shower and change into clean clothes when he returned to the post house, so he knocked on Zhang Yuan's door.

"The head of the house, the head of the house, I'm back."

Zongxing knocked on the door very quickly, and Zhang Yuan hurriedly got up and opened the door.

"But what's the catch?"

Zong Xing nodded excitedly.

"Okay, sit down and drink some water, now that you're back, you don't have to be in such a hurry."

Zong Xing patted the dust on his body outside the door, and then walked in again and sat down, and by the way, he picked up the tea bowl and drank the green tea brought from Shu County.

"The head of the family, the Huang clan and the people forcibly conquered by Tang Meng are not the people of Yelang Country at all, but from other surrounding tribes."

"Captured from other tribes?"

"Uh-huh, yes.

Some of Tang Meng's soldiers had left the valley in the past two days and went to arrest people among the surrounding tribes.

I blended in with the armor soldiers who went with me, and only then did I realize that they were not capturing Yelang's people.

Those soldiers didn't seem to know the facts, after all, they were only ordered to arrest people from above, and they didn't care about other things at all. ”

At this time, Zhang Yuan knew why Duotong agreed to levy people's husbands, but he was unwilling to count the registered population of Yelang Country.

Once the registered population is counted, the officials who will come from Dahan in the future will easily find that the people they are recruiting are not Yelang people at all.