Congratulations to Skylie for being the first helmsman in this book, dedicating a new chapter.

……

The government office area is in the east of the city, and the people market is in the south of the city, and there are not many pedestrians on the street in the early morning, so the carriage runs unimpeded all the way, and after traveling for a quarter of an hour, suddenly the pedestrians on the road gradually become dense.

Yu Xi, who was sitting outside driving, stretched out his head and said, "Gentleman, you have arrived in the human market!" ”

"So fast?"

Zhao Wuxian and Le Fu left the carriage, and the two habitually had to tidy up the placket of their deep clothes and wide sleeves, and wanted to straighten the jade group wearing on the silk belt, only to realize that what they were wearing was actually a soap short, and they looked at each other and smiled after being slightly stunned.

Zhao Wuxian couldn't help but sigh, he just came to the Spring and Autumn Festival half a year ago, but he was not used to wearing deep clothes and wide sleeves at all, but now he has become accustomed to it, which also shows that he is becoming more and more integrated into this era.

But what he saw next made him doubt his judgment again.

The carriage stopped in front of the Lilu Gate of the human market, and the car could not squeeze into the road after that. So everyone walked into the city with the best business, but also the worst reputation and the dirtiest city in the North Six City.

In the textbooks of his previous life, it was always said that the Spring and Autumn Period was a slave society, but after coming to this era, Zhao Wuxian found out that it was not the case. The main labor force in the Spring and Autumn Period was still free countrymen and savages with slightly lower status, and the proportion of subordinate concubines was not very large, and most of them were household chores or hundreds of jobs.

However, in the whole society, "slaves" are still common, but most of them come from prisoners of war, Rongdi, and fugitives. As for those peasants who lost their private land every year and could not pay taxes due to the collapse of the well field system, most of them were digested by the Qing family, and became serfs and gangsters who were personally dependent, living in Luzuo.

The slave trade has always been a major trade between the Zhuxia Nations, and after all wars, thousands of captives were always brought back to the victorious countries and sold for distribution. Even some nobles have been reduced to slaves, such as Baili Xi, the doctor of the former Yu State, who became the Teng slave of the Jin State after the death of the country. He also fled to the state of Chu and worked as a herd, and was later redeemed by Qin Mugong's five sheepskins and held under the mouth of a cow.

This situation was slightly reined in after the meeting of the Jin and Chu soldiers, but recently the troubled times have resurged, three years ago the state of Wu broke Chu, countless people of Chu were captured and sold to the north, Zheng Qi merchants and nobles all took the purchase of female slaves in Chu as a matter of elegance, and even caused the market price of slaves to plummet. And Qilu Zheng Wei Zhou is also constantly fighting, today you break my city, kidnap a number of people, tomorrow I force you to swear, sacrifice a hundred workers and concubines.

Those two-legged goods flowed into the Jin Kingdom through these channels, so it created the prosperity of Xinjiang City.

For the human market, the Jin government was in a state of not advocating or stopping, because the generals of the three armies also made a lot of profits from selling prisoners, especially the Zhongxing clan, which could get a large number of slaves and maids from Bai Di Xianyu, Drum, Fei, and Wuzhi every year.

Zhao Wuxian's biological mother, did she also fall into the Zhao family in this way at that time? He didn't know, but because of this, he had a natural aversion to the slave trade.

As soon as he walked in, Zhao Wuxian smelled a peculiar smell in the air, sweat and blood, mixed with the stench emitted by the dung ditch outside the Lingyu prison. Looking at the concubines who were imprisoned in cages, or wearing wooden shackles, or tied together by straw ropes, all withered and unkempt, the only little slave with bright eyes stretched out a dirty hand to him, as if begging for salvation.

Zhao Wuxian felt a little unbearable in his heart, but he could only sigh and walk away, even if he could save one, he couldn't save all, he could save one family, but he couldn't save the whole world. Fortunately, their Zhao clan canceled the burial system, otherwise, more slaves would have been bought to die every year!

The two sons of the Qing Doctor were wearing unremarkable soap clothes, while Yu Xi and the others were dressed as Chinese warriors, looking faintly, like caravan guards led by the merchant Jia Meng.

Jia Meng also had many acquaintances in the human market, and all the way through, there were people who greeted him and asked him if he wanted to buy slaves.

Zhao Wuxian specially asked the price, the young and strong laborers who can work in the field are the most expensive, and the young women who can give birth to children are second. And those seemingly useless old people and children are the cheapest, and there is no guess that the old people are mostly bought for burial, and the children, either to satisfy the strange hobbies of some scholars, or to be castrated as temple people.

Jia Meng responded one by one with a smile, and after walking for a while, he turned his head and said, "Gentleman, those Zheng State merchants will be selling here, look at this hour, it should have come to ......"

Wuxian nodded slightly, and after stepping into the central area of the human market, he found that this place was different from the periphery, the surface was washed clean, and several high platforms of earthen ramparts were full of slaves to be sold, most of them had a skill, and the price was correspondingly more expensive.

Among them, there are two dwarfs, a man and a woman, who are sold in a package together with the black dogs they use for performance. There are also those who sell Xianyu Di maid, a beautiful maid was stripped naked, covering her chest with one hand and her lower body with the other, and was pulled by the merchant with the straw rope around her neck to show it in a circle, which attracted the laughter of the onlookers.

Zhao Wuxian was silent, his senses for Xinjiang were suddenly lowered by a layer, each city has its own epic and pride, but also hides sin and ugliness. Le Fuli on the side was born as the son of Zhong Ming Dingshi, but he didn't feel this way, but he just looked around curiously, his eyes were on the breasts of the Xianyu maid, and he had the urge to buy it.

The slave trade was a bit like the auctions of later generations, where the merchant displayed the "goods" and the highest price was paid, however, according to Jamon, it was not uncommon for a high-status buyer to force down the price. Zhao Wuxian's gold was carried by his confidant Yu Xi, and during this period, someone who was not long-sighted sneakily wanted to come over and talk, so he was beaten away by the teenagers with a few punches.

Those gold wars should be enough to buy ten potters, Zhao Wuxian sighed again, he was really straightforward, he obviously hated the slave trade, but he was involved in it.

"Gentleman, those Lu country potters are here, hey, it seems that there are already people competing to buy them!"

Jia Meng pointed to a high platform near the periphery, there were two groups of people in the audience arguing fiercely, Zheng Shang, who was dressed in embroidery, was sandwiched in the middle, so it was not embarrassing.

Zhao Wuxian raised his eyes and saw a dozen men tied together with straw ropes standing on the high platform, with rough hands and feet, led by an old man with a ravine-faced face, who should be a potter. There were more than a dozen crying women in the audience, perhaps their family members.

They were better dressed than the concubines they had seen before, at least they could cover their bodies, and their expressions were not so desperate and depressed, and several of them seemed to be very dissatisfied with being sold in public.

After getting closer, Wuxian also saw the two sides of the conflict clearly, on one side was a soapy little official with his head held high and his toes high, and behind him there were several sword-wielding attendants with a meaty face, and he didn't know whose family it was.

Wuxi's gaze turned to the other side of the conflict, but he saw a handsome, elegant young merchant, and several fellow merchants.

Jia Meng whispered to Wuxian: "Gentleman, that descendant is exactly what I said a while ago about defending the country, specializing in buying Lu Wei's concubines and sending them back to China. ”

Zhao Wuxian nodded and continued to watch, only to see that the young man's movements seemed to be a humble gentleman, but when he spoke, he was as sharp as a sword.

"We are all reasonable people, I made this deal first, and I have negotiated with Shang Jia to redeem these Lu people at a low price, but you, as a latecomer, threatened Zheng Shang and asked him to sell them to you cheaply, what kind of system is this?"

The little official looked impatient: "Who cares if you come first and come later, doing business in Xinjiang has always been obtained by those with high status, I am a craftsman in the mansion of the Chinese army general, what are you, and you dare to compete with me for it?" ”

After speaking, he shook his hand and showed a carved bear-shaped mulberry talisman hanging from his waist.

Without Jia Meng's prompting, Zhao Wuxian recognized it, "That person is the Fan family's officials, they really came first!" ”

……

Ask for collections, ask for recommendations, and at night it will be after 21 o'clock.