Luzon Province, Nanyang Province, Port of Little Luzon.

In March of the fourth year of Longhan, the weather was very hot, but Little Luzon in March was as hot as June and July in the Central Plains. During the day, it was like being in the stove, Zhao Jizu was wearing a cotton and linen shirt that exposed his two arms, and sandals on his feet, but he was still hot and sweaty.

Coming from the port, it was only twenty or thirty miles along the Passy River, but the ten Kunlun slaves were very relaxed, their swarthy bodies, with only a piece of cloth around their waists, and all the rest of them naked, and their skin was as black as satin, and shiny with oil.

These people are not very tall, about 1.6 meters, but they are all muscular, young and strong.

In the underground city of Little Luzon Port, each of the ten Kunlun slaves cost Zhao Jizu a hundred silver dollars. However, Zhao Jizu thinks it is very cost-effective, and now the Kunlun slaves are very sought-after, as soon as the slave ship enters the port, there will be an auction immediately, and it will not take half a day for these newly arrived slaves to be snatched up.

Zhao Jizu still had a friend at the port, and he informed him in advance, so that he could rob ten such young and strong Kunlun slaves in advance. One hundred silver dollars per person, it is indeed very expensive to spend a thousand silver dollars, but Zhao Jizu thinks that each of these ten people can work for him for thirty years, which is quite cost-effective.

Since the introduction of the law on restricting the purchase of land promulgated by the imperial court in the New Year, the imperial court acted quickly and immediately implemented it. Zhao Jizu's family is in Shandong, and the family was originally a relatively well-known local gentleman's family, whose children are studying, becoming officials and officials, and also doing business and serving in the army, with lush branches and leaves, and tens of millions of fertile land in his hometown.

In the past two years, the family began to invest in business, and no longer vigorously bought land, but after all, there are still thousands of acres of land. A decree of the imperial court limited the land. If the land exceeds the limit, it will be expropriated and replaced with overseas land outside the customs.

The land of the Zhao family is public property, and many of the family's businesses are the same. In addition, each family in the clan also has private land and private property, this land acquisition, according to the law, there are so many people in their clan, and the land that can be retained in the end is only more than 1,000 acres, and the rest of the land must be expropriated and replaced.

No matter how dissatisfied they were, they were eventually requisitioned, and then the government quickly leased it to the local people. The boundary monument of the field has been renamed and no longer belongs to the Zhao family.

In the end, the old man of the Zhao family could only reluctantly choose to change the land in Luzon.

The land was selected near the port of Luzon, and one acre was exchanged for three acres. The Zhao family's 3,000 acres of land were replaced by 9,000 acres of land near the Paxi River near the port of Little Luzon in Luzon Prefecture.

Old man Zhao was too old to come to Luzon in person. In fact, many Zhao family members also felt that the imperial court was just robbing his land in disguise, and as for Luzon's land, they really didn't take it seriously, maybe it was just a wasteland in the wilderness.

But after all, it is 9,000 acres of land, and the Zhao family has now obtained the land deed, so in the end, the old man selected the children of the clan to go to Luzon. But no one wanted to come, this shirk and that refusal, the old man was angry and broke up.

The 9,000 acres of land in Luzon were divided into the names of each family, so that they could manage how much they got and didn't care about other people's affairs. If you are willing to manage the farming, you can figure it out by yourself, and if you are not willing to manage it, then it will be wasted.

Zhao Jizu is just a concubine of the old man, in fact, the concubines are all good-sounding, he is actually just an illegitimate son of the outer room, his mother is just a singer, the old man will like it for a while when he is young, and then he bought a foreign house to settle down, and gave birth to Zhao Jizu three sisters and brothers, two daughters and a son, and the old man Zhao never brought them back.

This time, the Zhao family divided the 9,000 acres of land, and the old man Zhao had a kind heart for a while, and he also gave a share to this illegitimate son. The concubines of the Zhao family, illegitimate children or something, basically got a share of Kai's favor this time.

Zhao Jizu was given more than 800 acres of land in Little Luzon, which also included his mother and two sisters. The Zhao family felt that Luzon's land was not valuable, and no one cared about giving them a little more.

After the land was divided, the old man took another 200 mu from his own name to him, made up 1,000 mu, and then asked Zhao Jizu to come to Luzon with his mother and sisters. When Zhao Jizu came, he also signed a letter of guarantee that he would never return to Shandong and never go back to fight for the family property.

After arriving in Little Luzon, Zhao Jizu found that his 1,000 acres of land was actually very good. The 1,000 acres was not a wasteland, but on the plain between the Luzon Bay and the Inner Lake, and near the Pasi River, an open plain with fertile land.

The area was originally planted by the Spaniards, who grew sugar cane, cotton, and rice.

The land is good land, but Zhao Jizu also quickly discovered the trouble and the lack of people.

A thousand acres of land, even if you grow sugarcane and cotton, which are more worry-free, will have to be at least dozens of people.

When he came, he originally planned to hire people in Luzon, but when he arrived here, he found that there were no people hired here. When he came, in addition to a family of four, only ten hired laborers were recruited in Shandong, four women and six men. This kind of person can't grow such a large field at all.

It is also unrealistic to go back to Shandong to recruit, and it is difficult to hire people in Shandong now. Especially now that the imperial court has newly expropriated a large number of fields, which are being rented out cheaply.

Fortunately, there is no endless road, and soon Zhao Jizu also found a solution, buy slaves. In Luzon, where a large number of Central Plains landlords were now replacing their fields, they were also faced with the problem of having no jobs to use, and the bold merchants immediately smelled the business opportunity and began to transport batches of slaves from all over the country.

During the more than 70 years of the Dutch occupation of Luzon, there was also a slave trade, and there were a large number of slaves on various plantations, some of these slaves came from the South Sea Islands, some were plundered from the Han coast, and some were transported from as far away as India and Africa.

Now, after the Han occupation of Luzon, especially after the land exchange, the demand for slaves has increased rapidly, and the profits of the slave traders have also increased exponentially, and the slave traders have become more and more emboldened.

Zhao Jizu sat in the carriage, couldn't help but take out the cigarette pouch, the match was lit and the smoke pot was lit, Zhao Jizu took a beautiful puff, and then looked at the ten slaves he had newly bought, very satisfied.

With the addition of these ten, Zhao Jizu has already bought sixty slaves, including twenty female slaves and forty male slaves, all of whom are very young. In addition to working in the house, the female slaves were able to raise horses, cattle, chickens, and pigs, and they were also allowed to work in the fields. It can even be used to reward those diligent and honest male slaves in the future, so that they can get married, so that when they have children in the future, they will be slaves in the family.

Zhao Jizu planned to buy another forty slaves, but he didn't have much money in his hands now, so he spent money to hire craftsmen to buy materials to build manor houses and warehouses, dig wells, buy cattle, horses, carts, and buy seeds and farm tools.

If it weren't for the fact that he did bring a sum of money when he came, and the Luzon government also provided a large amount of interest-free loans to these new immigrants from the Central Plains, I am afraid that his stall would not be able to support it at all.

A thousand acres of land can only be supported by these people first, and when the harvest is over, there is money to buy some slaves to replenish it. At that time, he also plans to build a sugar refinery.

"Master, the weather here is really hot, the peach blossoms in my hometown have just bloomed, and it is already as hot as June and July, and the rain is still falling. Yesterday's rain was so heavy that you can't walk this road now, it's like a river. The one who spoke was Wang San, the coachman who was driving the car, a man recruited from Shandong, with one leg lame and old. If it weren't for this, I guess I wouldn't be willing to come to Nanyang to make a living.

Zhao Jizu looked along the road, "Well, the government said that this Luzon Mansion belongs to the tropical monsoon climate, and the rain and heat are at the same time." There is a lot of rain, the weather is also hot, there is a cool season, dry season, rainy season, it is only March, just entered the cool season, and wait until May to October, it is the rainy season, I heard that at that time, it is rainy. ”

He took another puff of his cigarette, "But this weather is good, the sun is full of rain, and this climate is suitable for any crop." The land here is also good, the land is flat and fertile, and the water is also convenient, which is suitable for planting rice, cotton, and sugarcane. ”

Lao Wang drove the carriage to speed up a little, and the ten Kunlun slaves behind him who were tied to the car with iron chains on their hands also had to speed up.

"The weather and land are good, but it's a pity that it's too far, if there is such a thousand acres of good land in Shandong's hometown, it would be the best."

A gust of wind blew, and Zhao Jizu sighed comfortably.

Lao Wang drove the carriage and looked back at Kunlun Nu from time to time.

These black men, all of them are strong and strong, but they are also very honest. He couldn't help but say to Zhao Jizu, "Master, I heard that the imperial court is not forbidden to slaves, let's buy so many big black ones, it will be fine, right?" ”

"What can it be? Besides, this is overseas, thousands of miles away from the Central Plains, this place, how to cultivate and develop without buying slaves. ”

Although Zhao Jizu said this, he really didn't have any confidence in his heart. At the beginning of the establishment of the imperial court, a ban on slavery was issued, slavery was abolished, slavery was prohibited, and those slaves who had been granted freedom were changed to hired laborers.

But Zhao Jizu felt in his heart that there was no one to hire in this overseas reclamation area, so was there any other way than to buy slaves?

Everyone does this, just hoping that the court will turn a blind eye.

With a hint of worry, Zhao Jizu was also in a good mood, he leaned on the carriage, half-closed eyes, thinking about his thoughts in the bumpy shaking of the carriage.

I don't know how long later, the old king stopped the horse with a shout.

"Master, I'm home."

Zhao Jizu opened his eyes, and the car had already gone all the way to Zhaojiazhuang.

Zhaojiazhuang is Zhao Jizu's manor, this new manor built this year is built next to a small river, it used to be an indigenous village, but after the Dutch came, it was abandoned, leaving only many trees.

Zhao Jizu built his own three-entry courtyard here, and built barns, tobacco houses, cow and horse sheds, pigsty and chicken coops around the periphery, drilled wells, and houses for the next people.

The houses were also surrounded by a stone wall and wooden gates.

The car had stopped in front of the wooden door, Lao Wang went down to open the door, Zhao Jizu stretched his waist, watching himself little by little, devote himself to the manor that he had worked hard to build, and his heart was full of fulfillment.

He turned to the ten new Kunlun slaves and said, "This is Zhaojiazhuang, and it will be your home in the future, you work here honestly, as long as you are diligent and honest, I will not treat you badly, you can eat well, live well, behave well, and I will reward you as a woman to become a family." But I also said ugly things in front of me, if anyone dares to steal and play tricks, they will be beaten, and if they dare to run away, if I am caught, they will break your legs and even hang you. ”

The ten Kunlun slaves had no idea what the new master meant by this call.

Zhao Jizu didn't care whether they understood it or not, and after finishing speaking, he ignored them.

"Master, someone from the government is here."

Lao Wang returned, followed by his son Xiao Wang.

"What's the matter?" Zhao Jizu frowned.

"People are in the hall, sir, go quickly, I heard that they are coming for the big black man in our village." Xiao Wang said with some concern.

Zhao Jizu's face changed, and he hurriedly jumped out of the carriage, and accelerated towards the hall of his house.

As soon as he entered the hall door, Zhao Jizu saw several officials sitting there drinking tea. As soon as he saw the frame, he sensed that the person who came was not good.

"Oh, what kind of wind has blown a few officials to my little land." As soon as Zhao Jizu entered the door, he gave his hand again and again.

Several officials also stood up.

"Zhao Yuanwai finally came back, what's the matter, I went to buy Kunlun slaves again, how many did I buy this time? I just went around your village, and the fifty you bought before were all good goods, all of them were young and strong. ”

Zhao Jizu didn't know what their trip meant, but he didn't dare to hide it, so he had to smile and say, "I also responded to the call of the imperial court to come to Luzon to pioneer the real border, but there is really a shortage of people." Zhaojiazhuang has 1,000 acres of land, but he can't recruit people, so he has no choice but to make this decision. I bought ten more today, but it's still a little insufficient. ”

One of the leaders smiled, "We do know this, but now that the imperial court has issued an official document to reiterate the ban on slavery to us, hey, we are just a businessman, it's really embarrassing." ”

Zhao Jizu only felt that his head was buzzing, as if he had been hit hard by a sledgehammer, and his brain was buzzing, but he couldn't react to anything.

Reaffirming the Slavery Ban?

Then what about the sixty Kunlun slaves he bought before and after, it cost him six thousand silver dollars before and after. This is a lot of money for him, especially if there are no sixty Kunlun slaves, then what is the point of the thousand acres of land in Zhaojiazhuang in his hands?

"Official, this, it can't be like this!"

Zhao Jizu was shocked and couldn't say a complete sentence clearly.

"Don't worry about Zhao Yuanwai, things will be as they should be, but the court will not ignore everyone. How to deal with the matter, the above is still discussing, we are here today, is to confirm the situation of Zhaojiazhuang's slaves, and the other is to inform Zhao Yuanwai to go to the small Luzon port three days later to attend a meeting presided over by the prefect of Luzon, and how to deal with it in the end, it will be announced at the meeting. (To be continued.) )