There were people wandering back and forth in the grass hall, some people were sitting cross-legged on the ground and waiting, and after Li Siye and they came in, they stood by the door and watched. There were fifteen or sixteen people in the wooden cage opposite, and there were also five or six women squatting on the platform who were trapped by wooden flails, wearing rough linen clothes and unable to cover their bodies. They wore braids on the back of their heads, and their eyes showed panic and confusion. Two Turks with knives stood aside to maintain the scene. Sogdian traders twisted grass and stuck it in their collars.

The way of buying and selling is very simple, if anyone takes a fancy to the slave maid, go up directly to bargain with the slave trader, the connoisseurs will put their hands into each other's sleeves and pinch the price, the price difference between the two transactions is very large, in that saying that it is fooling you who do not understand.

Su He turned his head and spoke to Li Siye and Li Twelve Niang: "General Li, and the lady, as long as you take a fancy to the grass planted on it, tell me to go up and pinch the price for you." ”

Li Siye hesitated for a moment, as if he was still wandering between the boundaries of morality. Li Twelve Niang was very simple, pointing to the five women and saying, "This, this, and this, buy all five." ”

"Okay."

Sukh poked his sleeve and stepped forward, stood in front of the Sogdian merchants, stretched out his palm and pointed at the slave girls, and said, "I want these five." ”

He snorted and stuck his finger out, "Come on, pinch it." ”

The Sogdian merchant slapped his hand at Su He, and said with a smile in his eyes: "Su He's family is an old customer, how dare I pinch the price with you, why don't you just follow the old price?" ”

"Old price? I'm going to have five at once! ”

"Then a little bit for you?"

"A little bit will do, at least two points."

The vendor wrinkled his brows and thought about it for a moment, before he reluctantly nodded and said, "Okay, two o'clock!" But as long as Kaiyuan Tongbao and gold, I don't want any other messy money! ”

Su He walked back with brisk steps, and walked to Li Siye with a smile: "It's negotiated, Li joins the army, and the six treasures or the equivalent of three coins of gold." ”

Li Siye was taken aback: "So cheap? ”

It may be more suitable to be cheap.

Su He hurriedly waved his hand at him: "Don't say it's cheap, beware of these people's price increases, it's very dark!" ”

Li Siye led Mei'er and Li Twelve Niang to the front of the stage, and the Sogdian merchant knew that the military attache in crimson robe in front of him was the buyer, so he stepped forward with a shy face and said, "Official, these slaves and maids can be brought back now." ”

Twelve Niang bent down with a cold face, and reached out to untie the wooden shackles on the hands of the female slaves, but two Turkic men with knives took a step forward and said coldly: "Lady beware, these cheap embryos are very spicy, so let's take them home and loosen them and train them slowly." ”

Li Twelve Niang was not afraid, and still took off a woman's wooden flail, after the woman took off, she suddenly pounced on the wooden cage on the side, reached in and made a whining cry, and muttered something in her mouth, and a six- or seven-year-old girl crawled out from the back of the cage, crying and grabbing the woman's hand.

The two Turkic warriors jumped over and kicked the woman twice: "Go back, go back!" One of them drew a knife from his waist, not knowing whether to scare or to actually cut down.

Li Mei'er's face turned pale, and she tugged on Li Siye's sleeve and whispered, "Brother! ”

He stretched out his hand to block Li Mei'er's eyes, stuffed her into the arms of Twelve Niang, walked over quickly, and grabbed the shoulders of the two Turks: "Don't be rough." ”

The Turkic curled the black mustache at the corner of his lips, and the muscles on his face twitched and said: "This slave has not left this grass hall yet, she is still our person, please don't break our rules!" ”

"Now that I'm here, I'll set the rules, get out of the way."

The two Turks reached out and grabbed the palm of Li Siye pressing on their shoulders, and Siye grabbed them with his fingers and claws, and their brown clothes were torn, and their faces were red and swollen. He used his strength again and dragged the two of them out of the wooden cage.

The Sogdian merchant hurriedly walked over and crossed his hands at Li Siye and begged: "Official, official, it's easy to discuss." ”

He let go of the Turk, and the two of them flickered to the side, looking at him with a look of jealousy, rubbing their sore shoulders up and down.

He pointed to the Sogdian woman who was kneeling on the ground and weeping, and said, "You translated for me what she just said." ”

"Okay, I'll flip." The vendor pointed to the woman and said, "In the cage is her girl, she asks you to buy her girl too, and she will definitely repay your kindness in this life." ”

"How much is this girl worth?"

The merchant snapped his fingers and said, "Although this girl is useless now, she is going to grow up, and this kind of unbroken young girl will be more valuable in the future." ”

Li Siye said angrily: "Are you still waiting for appreciation? Sensei nonsense, how much? ”

The vendor shook his head and hurriedly said, "Five hundred dollars is enough." ”

He reached out and took out the jacket from the inner pocket of his coat, and when he reached out and pulled out a Sassanid gold coin, Li Shiniang stepped forward and snatched the gold coin from his hand, but he himself carried a large string of copper coins and threw it to the Sogdian merchants.

"Let's go." Li Siye held Mei'er's shoulder, and was just about to turn around, but a dry and polite voice came from behind him: "Kind and honorable general, please buy me, you have also heard of the reputation of our Kunlun slave, with a gentle temperament and a down-to-earth and willing to work." ”

When he turned around, he saw a black-skinned man with his face stretched out of the wooden fence, his hands stretched out of the cage and gesturing, constantly selling himself: "Look at the general, I can still speak your official dialect of the Central Plains, these Sogdian slave girls can't do it, I can teach them." If you buy me back, it will come in handy immediately, and if you can use a loyal and neat Kunlun slave like me, not to mention Qiuzi, the rich people in Chang'an City will be jealous of you. ”

Li Siye pointed to the Kunlun slave and asked the slave trader: "How much is he?" ”

"Nine hundred thousand dollars."

"So expensive!" He gasped, the mansion he bought in Chang'an was only 500,000 yuan, and this Kunlun slave topped two mansions!

"Of course it's expensive, sir." The slave trader clasped his hands to his chest and said: "This is a monk slave bought from the big cannibal, it cost us a lot of gold in the big cabinet, and we specially sent someone to teach him the official dialect of the Central Plains, and he can use it when he buys it, and there are also cards, if the official wants to buy it, we can still negotiate the price." ”

"Let's go, evacuate people." Li Siye didn't say a word, and immediately beckoned Li Twelve Niang and Su He to lead the slaves and maids out. In a hurry, the black man shouted behind his back: "Honored guest, please buy me!" I'll do the work for you and give you the money you spent! I will satisfy all your respect and make all Chang'an people jealous of you! ”

Li Siye's back was numb, and he sped away from here. Good guy, if you want to make all the people of Chang'an jealous of me, then won't I be one step closer to death? With the current economic strength, there is no problem in buying such a Kunlun slave, but this Kunlun slave is a high-end luxury product, and we are in the public family, and it is easy to attract the attention of the boss when buying such a valuable slave.

The source of your huge wealth is unknown, come to the capital to drink tea tomorrow and make it clear, is it a petty official who is greedy and has swallowed up military salaries.

They came out of the crowded slave market, and Li Siye invited Su He to his home as a guest, but Su He politely refused, claiming that he would definitely come to visit him next time.

Take these maids home, none of them can speak Chinese, and the two old maids still need to gesture to communicate with them. Fortunately, these Sogdian slaves were still dexterous, and they knew what to do with a finger.

During the day, I bought a lot of bamboo and wood furniture tables, wooden baskets, wooden couches, and makeup gifts for Li Meier and Twelve Niang in the Qiuzi Market; There were also new quilts, gauze tents, pots and pans, and jars of all kinds, and the two old maidservants shouted and directed the slaves and maids to carry them and put them where they belonged.

"Grab that jar and send it to the kitchen! Alas, not here, it's over there! ”

"Dwarf oil! How stupid! The brain is missing a string! This makeup is carried to the little lady's room! ”

"Oh, Aunt Wu, you can't understand when you scold them."

"Ho, I don't understand, can't I see that the old lady is not happy on her face!"

Instead, Li Siye fell into silence and sat on the edge of the well platform, holding a hammer and chisel ready to chisel a piece of shale into a manhole cover. From time to time, I looked up at the noise at home, and smiled lightly.

The first night of the Li family's stay in Qiuzi came, and the lights shone through the small arched windows, bringing warmth to the cold house. The loud and commanding voices of the two old maids were still sounding downstairs from time to time, and they echoed in the empty room. Li Mei'er pushed open the window and looked out, there were lights in the row of flat-roofed houses and domes in the distance, and occasionally there would be houses with black tiled roofs, which might be a big family that was richer than his brother.