Yangzhou, Huiji County, Qiantang County

Yuan Yao finally arrived at the destination, Yangzhou for him, there are too many novelties, whether it is from the dress, or from the accent, it makes Yuan Yao feel fresh, before arriving in Yangzhou, he even heard that Yangzhou people do not wear shoes, now it seems, obviously this statement is not right, they also wear shoes, however, from the clothing, there is still a vague difference.

What Yuan Yao admires the most is Yangzhou's agricultural mulberry, the scale of cultivated land in the Central Plains and Yangzhou is different, how to say it, perhaps because there are more people in the Central Plains, so the cultivated land is not very coherent, and in Yangzhou, there is endless cultivated land everywhere, and the cultivated land is all connected together, among which you can occasionally see a few dwellings, of course, the cultivated crops are also different.

Most places need boats to arrive, and the ships in Yangzhou have completely changed Yuan Yao's thoughts about boats, he can't believe it, he actually saw a ship as big as a two-story attic, densely packed with human figures, and there are also crossbow beds and other ordnance, just watching the huge ship slowly sailing on the canal, Yuan Yao couldn't help but boil his blood.

In this era, the people can't move around at will, even if the scholars and the like, they also need to prove their identities in order to go to various places to study, and Yuan Yao was left in various places along the way to investigate, he is only glad that the officials here can speak Yayan, otherwise, he can't even tell his identity clearly, so he lingered in Yangzhou, and it took seventeen days before he arrived in Qiantang County.

Qiantang County was originally just a not very wealthy county, and there were not many people, just a small county, but the original overseas division, and now the overseas government settled here, there have been earth-shaking changes here, the city wall has been demolished, the road extends in all directions, connecting the entire Yangzhou, there are countless carriages coming and going, Yuan Yao and several people rushed here, just on the road was blocked for more than four hours.

Yuan Yao, who couldn't stand this boredom, left a few cronies, but he rode a horse and left first, even if he rode a horse, the situation did not improve much, he saw clearly, there were many people out of it, with a fierce look, but behind him were some poor people, those people were in rags, like livestock being dragged by people, and they walked numbly.

The knights waved the long whip in their hands high, and the long whip fell on these people.

Yuan Yao frowned, rode his horse, stood aside, watched these people dragging hundreds of people, and reprimanded loudly, he couldn't help asking, "Who are these people?" Yuan Yao nodded and continued to walk forward, and the knights who drove the prisoners all nodded when they saw Yuan Yao's group, showing kindness.

So all the way, I finally came to the bustling Fang Market, the Fang Market here, it can be said, second only to Luoyang, all kinds of businessmen, however, Yuan Yao, who has lived in Luoyang for a long time, has little curiosity about Fang City, and found a few patrolling guards along the way, only to ask where the overseas mansion is. The overseas mansion is just an ordinary house, and there are not even soldiers guarding the door, and people often come in and out.

Yuan Yao got off the horse and let his entourage lead him, but he swaggered into the overseas mansion.

As soon as he walked into the mansion, he saw the little official on the side, the little official was not very old, he was sitting in front of the desk at the door, and there was pen and ink in front of him, and when he saw Yuan Yao coming in, he asked directly: "Name?" ”

"Yuan. Yuan Yao. ”

"Accompanying the sailor coming to buy slaves?"

"Come to see someone."

"Oh?" , The little official was stunned, put down the pen in his hand, and looked at Yuan Yao in front of him, dressed well, with extraordinary momentum, a young man with good spirit, the little official hurriedly squeezed out a smile and asked, "Dare to ask you, who are you going to visit?" ”

"I'm looking for Zhou to shoot."

"Zhou Servant shoots... He wasn't in the house..."

"And where is he?"

"He's in... I don't know..", the little official hurriedly stood up and said, "I don't know when Yuan Junyin will come to visit?" ”

"He's my brother, and I'm going to stay with him for a while..."

"Then there is Lao Yuanjun to rest in the mansion for a while, and I will send someone to find the servant."

"Okay, thank you."

The little official hurriedly walked to the side of another official, I don't know what to say, the little official hurriedly left here, and the previous one, but took Yuan Yao, into a house, it seems, this is the place to receive distinguished guests, after Yuan Yao sat down, someone served tea, the little official retired, Yuan Yao sat here alone, looking around seriously.

Not far away was a bookshelf, from which Yuan Yao took a book and waited while reading.

About less than half an hour, suddenly, he heard a rush of footsteps, Yuan Yao just raised his head, and saw a handsome middle-aged man, walking in with a smile, Yuan Yao recognized him, hurriedly got up, and bowed: "Meet Zhou Servant!" Zhou Yu looked at Yuan Yao in front of him, he hadn't seen him for a long time, the little guy at the beginning, now he has become a young man in his prime.

"Hahaha, Yao'er, you're so old, okay, good, I'm finally looking forward to you!" , Zhou Yu was very happy, walked in front of Yuan Yao, looked at his vaguely familiar face, pulled him to sit down, Yuan Yao, who had always been casual, was a little restrained at the moment, lowered his head, Zhou Yu asked with a smile: "How is it, is the master okay?" ”

"All well, thank you.. Brother. ”

"Well, that's good, since the death of Shijun, I want to take you with me and teach you personally, where did I think, but I was taken to Yuzhou by someone first, and you came back from Yuzhou this time? Or did you come back from Luoyang? Zhou Yu asked, Yuan Yao remembered the letter, took out the letter from his sleeve, and said: "I came back from Yanzhou, this is the letter of the Yanzhou Mu Sima envoy..."

Zhou Yu nodded, picked up the letter, but didn't look at it, put it away, and continued to ask: "Didn't you suffer from the crime when you came to Yangzhou, did you eat?" Along the way, Yuan Yao heard all the rumors about Zhou Yu that were cold and strong, and Yuan Yao was also prepared, but he didn't expect that Zhou Yu was so kind to him, as if he was treating his own descendants.

After greeting for a long time, Zhou Yu learned that Yuan Yao had not eaten yet, so he hurriedly called the officials, first arranged for people to prepare meals, and then asked them to entertain Yuan Yao's relatives.

During the banquet, Zhou Yu still asked Yuan Yao with a smile whether the food was delicious, Zhou Yu's kind attitude dispelled the restraints in Yuan Yao's heart, and nodded with a smile.

"Did you read those books?"

"What do you think is the best book?"

During this period, Zhou Yu also took the school to learn about Yuan Yao, I have to say, those test papers are really not done in vain, for Zhou Yu's various questions, Yuan Yao is fluent in answers, and even when Zhou Yu asked him about his views on Yangzhou, he can say a thing or two, talking about agriculture and water conservancy, complementing each other, Zhou Yu is even happier, the villager does not seem to be unlearned, and the teaching is not bad.

When Zhou Yu was almost done, Yuan Yao also asked curiously: "When I came here just now, I saw a large number of people holding prisoners, I don't know who those people are?" It doesn't look like an official errand..."

"They're officials."

"And who are they escorting?"

"They're the ploughmen."

"I don't understand."

"That's right, the temple gave me an order that I need some manpower to be sent to various places, well, they need to work on the public fields." , Zhou Yu didn't reveal much, but he still said a rough idea, Yuan Yao frowned and asked, "What is Gongtian?" ”

"It is the cultivated land that is given to the officials, such as the taishou, the state shepherd, and the servants, and the cultivated land given is relatively large, and it needs to be worked by manpower, so I need to bring these slaves from overseas and let them work in the public fields, and of course, sometimes, they also need to dig canals and so on."

It turned out to be a slave brought from overseas, Yuan Yao nodded, it was not that he had never seen slaves, the Han Dynasty became a habit of acquiring slaves, and Emperor Xiaokang gradually began to accumulate slaves during the period to make certain changes, investigate the number of slaves, protect their safety, and not allow them to be killed, etc., the situation has only improved a little, but Yuan Yao has never seen such a poor slave.

"The overseas government is there to catch slaves?" , Yuan Yao frowned, as if he had compassion for those slaves.

Zhou Yu said with a smile: "No, the overseas government is responsible for all overseas affairs, including overseas tuntian, overseas commerce, and even overseas wars, the slaves you see today are all bought from overseas, there are many princely states overseas, these people are rich and noble, they use these slaves to trade with the Han Dynasty, we will not catch them ourselves..."

Yuan Yao nodded and said, "Then there must be a lot of ships in the overseas mansions?" ”

"Hahaha, that's of course, the scale of the overseas government, absolutely you can't imagine, we now have 60 strongholds overseas, 6,000 hectares of arable land, and thousands of hectares of minerals, large and small ships exceed 10,000, when we sail on weekdays, the merchants of Yangzhou will also follow us, seeking protection, hanging the flag of the overseas government, and no one embarrass them, when they go to sea together, ah, mighty..."

Yuan Yao's eyes widened, and he said with some excitement: "Then the next time I go to sea, can I go with me?" ”

"Of course you can, Yao'er, follow me well, the future of this big man must be in this overseas, there is endless wealth overseas, until now, we have not been able to explore this overseas world... We have recently discovered that along the sea route all the way west, we can even spot ships of the Sabbath Country..."

Yuan Yao nodded as if he didn't understand, seeing his appearance, Zhou Yu didn't say more, and said: "These days, don't be idle, just follow me to live on the shore, there are also overseas mansions, you can board the ship at any time on weekdays, and it can be regarded as familiarizing you with it in advance, and when the time comes, you won't be too uncomfortable." ”