Hodge now had little to know about the size of the Toura Chamber of Commerce compared to what he had at first, and finally had a clear outline.

He is worthy of being the chief miner in Blackstone Town, with a full thirteen mines in the vicinity of the camp alone, and according to Hardy, this is far from the total number of mines owned by Taura, and further down in the mining community, there are nine more mines of Taora, two of which are rare obsidian mines.

There are only five obsidian veins recorded in Blackstone Town, and one Taola accounts for two of them, and the power can be imagined.

The caves that Hardy took him to visit were mainly iron and copper veins, and only one was a mixed vein of agate and tearstone.

It is not difficult to understand that among the naturally occurring ores, there must not be too many gemstones that can be made into luxury jewelry, and it is precisely because of the rarity of the quantity that the price is expensive, if the production of agate jadeite is greater than the sum of iron and copper, perhaps these colorful stones have become worthless as the pebbles on the shore.

The original mine was the oldest in the world, and the miners were much older than the slaves in the other mines, and because of this, they had been oppressed and whipped more, and their fear of the slave owners had reached a very deep level, which made them accustomed to doing things according to the slave masters, and almost lost their own thinking.

The slaves in the mines that followed were much younger, and even when they heard the footsteps of the three, several male slaves who looked to be only fourteen or fifteen years old looked back, and of course the patrolling guards shook down a few heavy whips and imprinted a few bloodstained marks on their backs.

Hodge kept observing the slaves' reactions, taking in their eye movements and gradually coming to conclusions.

Although these young slaves were not as numb as the people in the original cave, they were not much better, the intense work inflicted on them by the slave owners had exhausted their physical strength, and the pain that pierced the bone marrow from time to time made them unable to resist.

It is not easy to get someone who is used to kneeling back on his feet.

After visiting Taura's fourth cave, Hardy reminded him that it was late, and Hodge agreed to his proposal, after all, it was impossible and unnecessary to walk through a dozen mines in one day, he was only here to understand the general situation, through the observation of these four mines, he already knew what he wanted to know, and it was not of much point to continue.

The long mine road was still some way to the exit, and on the way back they took another road, which was said to be shorter and closer to Taura's camp.

Halfway through, a red ** lying on the side of the mine attracted Hodge's attention.

Unlike the previous miners, the woman who fell to the ground looked to be forty years old, her wrinkled skin was full of black stains similar to asphalt, her eyes were all in her hands, and she looked at it, her hands were holding the wrap, and in the cloth was a child, this shroud should be the rag of the miners' trousers, no wonder the woman was completely naked.

Brie's child was asleep with his eyes closed, motionless, asleep?no, the baby's blood stains all showed otherwise, the umbilical cord on his belly was not even knotted, it was so exposed that Hodge could clearly see that the baby's nose had not reached at all, not even the slightest breathing movement.

It turned out that he was dead.

Maybe at the same time as birth, before even the mucus and blood that came out of the woman's belly could be wiped off, she was already no longer breathing, so she didn't knot the umbilical cord, which is meaningless.

But the woman still wrapped him in a cloth and held him tightly in her arms, as if she was afraid that someone would take the baby's body away.

Hardy also stopped, turned his head to look at the woman, and sighed softly, "Poor woman." ”

"Who is she?" Hodge asked.

"I don't know her name, my lord. Hardy put his hands on each other, paused and said, "But I have some impression of this person, she is one of the old men in this mine, and she is also the pregnant slave who has contributed the most in this mine. ”

"Pregnant slaves?" Hodge repeated, he hadn't heard of such a branch of the slave genre before.

"It's just a popular name, and it's natural that you don't know, she is still a mining slave in terms of classification, and what she does on weekdays is also the work of a mining slave. Hardy explained, "But she has another job to do, and you have to know that the consumption of miners is quite horrible, often dozens or hundreds of people die in a month, and if every time a miner dies is restocked by the market, it becomes quite troublesome for us to control costs." ”

"In order to minimize the loss of mine slaves, there is such a thing as a pregnant slave. ”

Hardy smiled slightly, and continued: "In each mine, there will be several female miners, and in addition to the work of digging, their additional task is to become a vessel for childbearing, and every night there will be male slaves who will sleep with him until they are sure that they are pregnant. ”

Hodge frowned, "Nightly?"

Hardy nodded: "Yes, we will take turns arranging the schedule of male slaves, and when all the males in the mine have slept once, we will start the cycle again, after all, it is only to give birth to a new generation of labor, as for who made her pregnant, it doesn't matter." ”

"This woman is the oldest pregnant slave in this mine, and has contributed nineteen children to the chamber of commerce, many of whom have grown up to be usable laborers and engaged in the mining work of other mines, and this time it should be the twentieth child. Hardy looked at the woman on the ground a little sadly, "But this is an unfortunate birth, and the child was already breathing when it was first taken out, hey." ”

"And then she kept holding the dead baby?"

"Well, it's been two or three days. ”

"You haven't tried to do anything?" Hodge wondered about this, from a businessman's point of view, there really was no reason for a baby's body to be held by a mine slave for so long.

"We tried, but she kept holding the baby, and after a few attempts, we didn't interfere anymore, maybe a few more days, and she'll figure it out for herself. ”

When the miners figured it out for themselves, Hodge was a little unconvinced that this was something that a merchant who used slaves as his capital could say.

Feeling Hodge's strange gaze, Hardy smiled politely, shook his head, and said, "We are also human beings, adults, and flesh and blood existences, after all, she is an old man who has silently contributed to Taora for so many years, so it is not too much to ask, what reason do we have to refuse?"

Hardy spoke sensationally, but Hodge didn't believe a word.

Because not long ago, the same mine slave who worked for Toura to death was paralyzed by his companion's shovel and was dragged out and buried by Hardy's order before he died.

Such an out-and-out businessman is talking about human feelings at this time.

Who believes?

After Hardy sighed, he added in a low voice: "What's more, the quality of the other nineteen babies she gave birth to is quite good, and many of them can even be sold for a higher price as bed slaves. ”

I see, Hodge figured everything out in an instant.

Businessmen don't talk to you about favors, they only talk about value.

The paralyzed miner had no value, and the female slave had a surplus value, so she survived and was tolerated to a certain extent.

It's as simple as that.

Hodge and Hardy were talking, neither of them noticing Hera's movements next to her.

Hera looked at the woman lying on the ground, and seemed to feel that she should be a little cold when she was naked, after all, the mine was already halfway through, and there was already a cold air flow pouring in.

She walked up to the woman, dragged the little cotton fur that Devany had made for herself, and draped it over her.

The woman felt the touch of the cotton fur on her shoulder, and looked up at Hera, her eyes were empty, she didn't thank her, she didn't make any movements, she just looked at it, and then quickly lowered her head again, returning to her original appearance, clutching the baby's corpse tightly.

Hera crouched to the side with her little head tilted, her face full of doubt, as if she thought the woman's reaction was strange.

After Hodge finished talking to Hardy, he looked back and saw such a scene.

Hardy's face sank in an instant, and it was so black that it seemed like ink was about to condense, and he scolded in a low voice: "Bastard, are you qualified to wear a cotton coat? It's just a dirty piece of this young lady's clothes, why don't you return it quickly!"

He said it angrily, and there was still the smell of "nostalgia" in the conversation just now.

The slave girl, who didn't even say a word of thanks, shrank violently when she heard Hardy's voice, and stood up tremblingly on the rock wall, still holding the child in one hand, and handing her cotton coat back to Hera with the other.

Hodge could read fear in a woman's eyes.

"Useless things, they've all been so dirty, how can you let Miss wear such things. Hardy scolded again, snatched the cotton coat from the woman's hand, untied his thick cloak, and said to Hera with a flattering face, "I'm sorry Miss, I'll have this coat washed and then give it back to you, and before that I use my cloak." ”

"No need, just use mine. Before Hardy could fully untie his thick cloak, Hodge had already raised his coat and put it over Hera's body.

After being able to control his abilities, he had learned to use them to keep his body warm, even if he wasn't wearing a jacket.

Not to mention...... He instinctively had some disgust at the clothes Hardy was wearing.

......

The situation was even worse than I expected.

Hodge pondered the question alone.

Before going to the mine, although most of the slaves were accustomed to being enslaved, the reality was still unexpected, and the slave owner's control over the mine slaves was so thorough.

There is no doubt that slavery is a dregs that will inevitably be abandoned by the times, and the liberation of these slaves is not only a promise he had made to Harlow, but also something he had planned to do.

However, judging from the current situation, even if Blackstone Town is mastered, it is far from the time to solve the slave problem.

What impressed Hodge the most during this visit was the servility of the miners from the bottom of their hearts.

Whether it was the miner who was numb and wielding the iron tree at first, or the female slave who lay down on the side of the road, it only took a reprimand from the slave owner to make them feel terrified from the bottom of their hearts, but no one else could elicit a reaction from them.

If it's a minority, that's fine.

Almost all of the miners Hodge could see behaved in the same way as them, at best, to a shallow degree.

Such a group of slaves, even if Hodge recklessly attacked the Chamber of Commerce and let them return to their free status, it would be meaningless.

They are accustomed to being enslaved and accustomed to the fear of slave owners, which has made them disconnected from the real society, and if they are rescued in this way, the problem will never be solved naturally, but will become more serious.

These slaves would be disturbed by their "freedom", unlike the life they were familiar with, where no one would arrange everything for them.

Freedom is one's own, and freedom earned through the charity of others is not true freedom.

Hodge didn't even suspect that most of the slaves would not even be grateful for saving them, but would have a layer of hatred.

Because he deprived them of their original life.

Even if it lives like a pig without dignity.

But they are used to it.

And the habit ...... It is highly toxic that penetrates deep into the bone marrow.

Such people, if they want to save them, cannot just "save" them.

There has to be an opportunity.

As a result, they are numb and rediscover themselves as "people".

Then they will have their own emotions, and they will learn to be angry, angry at their slave owners, angry at their fate, not just fear, and at this point, they will rebel against their irrepressible anger and want to regain their "freedom" from the bottom of their hearts.

When the flame of defiance ignited from the basin, Hodge had a reason to add a few good pieces of wood to the fire.

Now – far from the time.