Outside Yiyang City, a group of ragged men were marching in line, their hands were firmly tied with their backshears, and their ankles were tied with hemp ropes that were used as shackles, each hemp rope was two fingers thick, and they couldn't do it with their bare hands without tools.

Beside the line, several people were surrounded by guards looking at the men, picking them like chickens, ducks and geese, and those who were healthy, able-bodied, and of the right age were inserted with straw markers, pulled out of the line and returned to these people.

Xiang Ba walked in the queue, accepting each other's 'selection' with the others, looking at the fierce and fierce men around him with weapons in hand, he lowered his head indifferently, as one of the surviving villagers in Luoya Village, he has not yet recovered from the nightmare.

Luoya Village is located in the mountains, originally had little contact with the outside of the mountain, the villagers lived in the deep mountains for generations, to reclaim the slope to plant crops, hunt wild things for a living, from time to time and the surrounding cottages for some trivial things conflict, the two sides were killed and injured more than 10 people after shaking hands and making peace, after a period of time to continue.

Life has passed like this, starting from the grandfather of Xiang Hachi's grandfather, and everyone has become accustomed to this kind of life, until things have changed, drastically.

Tian Yunshan, the owner of the Black Mist Village, and several other owners of the village fought against the official government surnamed 'Zhou' outside the mountain, and the official army was defeated by them when they entered the mountain for the first time, but after the second time they entered the mountain, the matter became bigger and bigger.

The Black Mist Village is gone, and the Shihu Village that shelters Tian Yunshan has also been broken by the official army, and many of the heads of the village owners have been cut off to show the public, but only the Tian Yunshan Tian Zhai owner is missing, and then many of the village owners who are standing on the side of the government will send troops to search everywhere to 'arrest Tian Yunshan'.

If the officials and soldiers outside the mountain do this, the owners of the village in the mountains are afraid that they will gather together to fight together, but now some of the cottage owners themselves send people to search, the problem is different, the village in the mountains is entangled in grievances and grievances, and the situation has become chaotic.

Because of the suspicion of 'hiding Tianyun Mountain', many villages were besieged, but the neighboring villages felt that it was irrelevant and refused to send people to help, and some even joined the other party's side, looking for excuses everywhere to 'search for suspected murderers'.

Luoyazhai is so unlucky, the red crow village near the top of the mountain and they are feuding, the ancestors have fought down for generations and have not known how many grievances, and then the redcrow village attracted the 'volunteers', saying that Tianyun Mountain is hidden in the Luoyazhai, and the battle then broke out.

The strength of Luoya Village and Red Crow Village is comparable, they are thousands of households, they were originally evenly matched, but the other party attracted 'volunteers' is different, those who come from elsewhere, the well-equipped arrows are all iron arrows, and even some people are equipped with armor.

Knowing that the situation was not good, their village also contacted other villages to help, and as a result, it only took one day for the Red Crow Village to break through their village, and all those who did not die were taken captive.

Xiang Hachi's father was shot and killed by a stray arrow while guarding the village, the enemy soldiers rushed into the village and burned and looted, Xiang Hachi was pushed to the ground by the enemy soldiers who broke through the door, and his mother and sister were dragged into the back room, listening to the constant pleadings and shouts of his relatives and the panting of men, he felt like he had a nightmare.

Fighting with each other is commonplace among cottages, Xiang Ba's mother was snatched by his father from another village, and now Luoya Village has been broken by another village, and everyone can't escape the doom.

His mother and sister were later carried out of the house and taken away as trophies along with the other women in the village, while the men who survived were taken captive, and he did not know what happened to the old, weak, sick and disabled.

Some of Xiang Bahe's young and strong people were divided into slaves by the Red Crow Village and other villages, and some of them were brought here from outside the mountains and bought and sold like goods.

"Lift your head up!" One shouted in the vernacular, lifting his chin with a stick, while several well-dressed men scrutinized him.

It's like a hunter examining a leopard that has been shot to death, and the other party takes a closer look at his limbs to check for any wounds on his body, and finally nods with satisfaction, and says something he doesn't understand.

A straw mark was stuck behind Xiang Ba's collar, and two strong men escorted him out of the queue and into the middle of another group of people, each of whom looked around anxiously, not knowing what their fate would be next.

I don't know how long it took, more and more people stuck in the straw sticks, and the men who selected the 'goods' waved their hands, and chattered with a few mountain people standing aside, and a few people carried a basket of things in front of them a moment later.

A mountain man took out a bamboo tube from the basket, poured some snow-white things into the palm of his hand, and looked at Hachi's eyes wide, vaguely recognizing that it was the incomparably precious salt in the mountains.

The mountaineer dipped his fingers in some salt and put it in his mouth to taste it, and with satisfaction he poured the remaining salt back into the bamboo tube, and he nodded to his companion, then laughed and shook hands with the well-dressed men.

"Is it to exchange us for things?" Xiang Ba thought, feeling sad and indignant.

"Let's go, go this way, if you're not honest, you'll have a whip to eat!" Someone shouted in the vernacular and pushed them outside a house, where they had their hair cut off and their clothes stripped off, and then rushed to the house to bathe in the pungent smell of water.

He was also brushed on his body with a big brush, like a pheasant about to be plucked with hot water, and he boiled down in fear, and finally changed into coarse cloth clothes and was brought out.

Dressed in new straw sandals, he and the others lined up to a large boat by the river, and when he entered the cabin, he found that the warehouse was crowded with people, all men who had had their hair cut and changed their clothes like him.

"Listen well, if anyone dares to make trouble, tie up a stone and throw it into the river to feed the fish!!" A meaty-faced man shouted in vernacular, and the hatch slammed shut, leaving only a few small holes to breathe.

Listening to the sound of water coming from outside the cabin, Xiang Hachi and his fellow cabin people looked at each other, they were caught from the mountains, and they were locked in a big ship and didn't know where they would go.

That familiar cottage has been burned down, my mother and sister don't know where they were taken, and I don't know if I have a chance to return to my homeland in this life.

The sobs of an unknown number of people came from the cabin, blending with the sound of the waves outside the boat, drifting downstream with the river......

At the new wharf on the northeast lake of Xiyang City, Xu Shao and Hao Wubo of Zhizhong are supervising the unloading of 'goods', which are prisoners transported by boat from Yiyang County in the upper reaches of Ba Shui and 'delivered' to the government here.

"Don't drive, the number of people has been counted, and there are a lot of them." A clerk reported that Xu Shao looked at the "bearded people" who passed in front of him in a row and nodded, he looked at everyone carefully, and found no broken hands and feet, nor did they look sick and dying.

"Settle down well, but the guards must be strengthened, and accidents must not be allowed" Xu Shao explained one by one, he has been managing Chen Jun's prisoners of war for more than half a year, and he is already very 'experienced', these newly arrived mountain barbarians are also valuable labor, and they must not easily go wrong.

The boss of the ship escorted approached under the leadership of the officials, took Xu Shao's list of 'signing', nodded and went to the city to get the 'freight', and watched an empty boat go home, Hao Wubo sighed a little.

"When the drainage canal was repaired last year, Jun specially explained that it should be wide enough, looking at the current situation, I am afraid it is not enough."

"It can only be carefully dispatched at the gate, if it is really not enough, it may not be possible to widen the ditch." Xu Shao sighed helplessly, "Who knew that it had only been less than a year, and this wharf would be so lively." ”

There is no official wharf on the edge of Xiyang City, although the south of the city is close to the Yangtze River, but the river turbulence causes the big ship to dock very troublesomely, it is not suitable to set up a fixed wharf, and the water and land transshipment is carried out at the Bakou Wharf in the eastern suburbs on weekdays.

However, since the construction of the drainage ditch in the northeast of the city, the lake has communicated with the Santai River, Ba Shui and even the Yangtze River, and the drainage ditch has been very wide since the construction of the drainage ditch, in order to facilitate the passage of cargo ships, so it is logical that the lakeside wharf appears.

In the northeastern suburbs of the city, there are two new brick kilns for one official and one citizen, and the bricks fired are loaded at the wharf and transported to Bahe City at Bakou, or transported to various places in the upper reaches of Santai River and Ba Shui.

The stones collected along the banks of the Santai River and Ba Shui also enter the lake through the waterway, unload at the lakeside wharf and then transport them to Xiyang City not far away, at the same time, the fishermen who fish in the lake will also unload the fish, and more and more people settle by the lake.

The Bazhou Navy also set up a water village by the lake, one to guard the wharf and the other to practice water warfare techniques, and after Xiyang East City was put into use, the popularity of the northern suburbs of Xiyang City will only become more and more prosperous.

"Let's go, the next group will be here in a few days." Xu Shao turned around and left, talking with Hao Wubo while walking, this place was not far from the city, they were too lazy to ride horses and simply walk.

Yuwenwen used troops against the mountain barbarians and brought in a large number of captives to do labor, which is not surprising, because all dynasties in the Jiangchu region have done this, and in order to absorb the barbarians, countless wars have frequently broken out between the government and the chieftains.

The name of the Jiangchu region has been known since ancient times, "Jiang" is the Yangtze River, and "Chu" is the water (Han Shui), which is an important tributary of the Yangtze River, which flows into the Yangtze River in Jiangxia County.

The so-called Jiangchu region refers to a region in the two Jin Dynasty: Jiangxia, Nanjun, Xiangyang, Yiyang and Nanyang five counties, and in the Hanshui Basin, it is across Jiangxia, Nanjun and Nanyang three counties. During the Southern Dynasties, it was confined to the Jianghan River basin in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, including Jing, Yong, Ying, Si and adjacent areas.

In the Hou Jing Rebellion more than 30 years ago and before, most of the Jiangchu region was under the rule of the Southern Dynasties, and the entanglement between the officials and barbarians of the Southern Dynasties has lasted for more than 100 years.

Barbarians, is the Central Plains court to the southern ethnic group name, the Jiangchu area of the 'barbarian' variety, to Jingzhou barbarian, Yongzhou barbarian, Yingzhou barbarian, Sizhou barbarian as the main category, the following subdivision of many barbarians, no matter what barbarians are the opponents of the government headache.

Xiyang County and the surrounding areas in the north of the Yangtze River belonged to the jurisdiction of Yingzhou in the south of the Yangtze River during the Southern Dynasties, and the Xiyang Barbarians (Wushui Man) who lived here were also the targets of the crusade of the officials and troops of the Southern Dynasties.

Although it was called a barbarian by the Central Plains court, the barbarians living in the plains of the Jiangchu region were not uncivilized as imagined, and many barbarians in Yongzhou (now Xiangzhou) and Jingzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty had already gone out of the mountains, settled in villages by the Han River to cultivate rice, and also built water conservancy to obtain a lot of "water and land fertile land".

There are also barbarians who make handicrafts and cloth for sale, or do business between Han and barbarians, and some are engaged in animal husbandry, raising a large number of cattle and horses and all kinds of miscellaneous animals.

After more than 100 years of crusade, the barbarians on the plains have long been integrated with the Han people, and the later Song, Qi, and Liang dynasties, the assassins and governors who guarded Jing, Yong, Ying, and Si have continuously launched wars to the mountain barbarians, so now Yuwenwen's use of troops against the mountain barbarians is just a "routine".

But then things went wrong, killed the culprit who led his troops down the mountain to harass, and the officials and soldiers collected their troops and returned home, but the action against the mountain barbarians was not over, Xu Shao knew that Yuwenwen had changed his way to the mountains to 'ask for someone': buy.

It is the natural responsibility of the government to crusade against the mountain barbarians, but Xu Shao and Hao Wubo are very surprised that their boss can make such a deal, this Yuwen envoy seems to be the reincarnation of a trader, and almost anything can be associated with trading.

The days in the mountains are very hard, basically many common daily necessities of the people in the plains are lacking, if the owners of the village in the mountains are lucky, they can also find small iron mines, but the salt can not find a source in the mountains, so the attraction of items such as salt and iron to the owners of the village is very strong.

The states of Shannan naturally do not produce salt, but Yuwenwen can get a lot of salt when he trades, and it is easy to do iron, but in order to prevent the raising of white-eyed wolves, it must be supplied in limited quantities, so the Bazhou Prefecture government uses salt and iron and other necessities to "buy" people from the owner of the village in the mountains.

There is only one condition: people must be in the mountains, and they are not allowed to plunder the people under the rule of the government outside the mountains, as long as they do not touch this bottom line, they can say anything. Xu Shao and Hao Wubo have reservations about the effect of this deal, but the reality today is beyond their expectations.

The owners of the village in the mountains really killed each other!

The owners of the villages, which were vigorously supported by the government, launched an attack on the cottages deep in the mountains with sophisticated weapons, and kept some of the robbed household registrations for themselves, and most of them were sent out of the mountains to be 'sold'.

This is just the beginning, because a large number of quarries, lumber yards, lime kilns, charcoal kilns and mining fields require cheap labor, so various proprietors began to pour into the 'labor market' of Yiyang County to 'buy' goods, and even after registering with the state government, they cooperated with the village owners to organize 'volunteers' to go into the mountains to arrest the culprit Tian Yunshan.

Tian Yunshan had already been captured and beheaded, but he had always claimed that he had not been able to 'bring him to justice', so this was an excuse to go into the mountains to catch laborers, and the officials and soldiers did not participate in the operation, but the people were continuously transported out of the mountains by the owners of the village.

This transaction seems to be a good deal, and it kills two birds with one stone in the way of trading, which not only solves the problem of barbaric chaos, but also brings a lot of labor, which seems to be very happy, but Xu Shao always feels that something is wrong.

"Chengye, what do you say will become if you continue like this?" Xu Shao asked with some concern, and Hao Wubo, who was on the side, heard the meaning of the words, and he looked at the prisoners who were escorted by the state soldiers not far away, and fell into deep thought.

Xu Shao asked "what will it become", it seems that he missed a "mountain", but Hao Wubo knew what Xu Shao was thinking, their boss Yu Wenwen could start a war to capture Chen Guo's prisoners in order to solve the problem of labor shortage, and he could also use things to 'buy' prisoners with the village owners in the mountains.

This way is a bit off-the-shelf but understandable, what he cares about is what will become in the future, looking at the expressions of those owners who are eager to start a war in order to get cheap labor, Hao Wubo feels that something is wrong. (To be continued.) )