Tata Mushroom Tribe.
The layout and appearance of the Ten Wu tribes are mostly similar.
The only difference is size and location.
The salt merchant was still a young man when he first came to Shiwu to do business. He spent a lot of money to worship a "master" and his first business was with the Tata Mu'er tribe. As a tribe adjacent to Yonggu Pass, the scale and strength of Tata Mu'er are both medium-to-high.
It is close, the news is sharp, and spring hunting is convenient.
They often get the first wave of "fat meat".
Caravans from the interior also like to come here.
Many Shiwu youths who have no fixed assets will come here for these advantages, and over time, their strength will grow.
only-
After the battle of Yonggu Pass, life became difficult for the entire Shiwu tribe, including the Tatamul tribe. Passing Yonggu Pass was the most convenient and unobstructed trade route for smuggling, but now that Yonggu Pass was sealed, 90% of the supplies inside the pass could not be brought in.
The remaining ten percent
Those were brought here by smugglers who took other remote and dangerous trade routes, bypassing Yonggu Pass. The wool comes from the sheep, and the labor cost has skyrocketed, and the cost of goods has risen accordingly. A tribe of their size can't compete with those big tribes even if they want to buy.
The tribal leader was very worried.
They even sent young and strong men to look for unguarded city walls near the border to see if they could dig a hole and sneak across.
result-
Before they got close, they were discovered by the garrison troops at Yonggu Pass.
He left behind two unlucky corpses and fled back in a panic.
One day, I heard my boy shouting outside the tent.
"Dad, Dad, the caravan is coming!"
The tribal leader immediately became alert.
"What? Really?"
When I went out of the tent, I saw that it was indeed a caravan.
The leader of the caravan was still the familiar fat guy.
He immediately put on a smile: "Good brother!"
The salt merchant also forced out a flattering smile, walked forward, opened his arms, and gave the bearded tribal leader a big bear hug.
The palms of the hands slapped the back, making a dull sound.
Tribal leader: "It's been a long time since I saw you."
The salt merchant said with a smile, "Of course it's because there's a happy event at home, and I've spent some time taking care of my wife and children. I've also had good luck recently and got a batch of top-quality goods. Isn't it because I remember your kindness in the past that I sent it to you as soon as possible?"
The tribal leader is not stupid.
He put his arm around the salt merchant's shoulder and whispered to him.
"Didn't they say that Mr. Shen cut off your source of income and forbade you to do this business anymore? How did you get here?"
The salt merchant also lowered his voice and said, "My son has made great progress and got a job in the government office... If there is any benefit, he will naturally take care of his father."
The tribal leader was shocked: "Aren't you afraid of being discovered?"
The salt merchant had a look of "you don't understand" and sneered: "There is a saying in the interior that 'money makes the devil work'. There are so many things that are not allowed by the higher-ups. Who would be stupid enough to report it and cut off their own financial resources if they use money to open up connections?"
The tribal leader thought about it and it made sense.
He also asked what good stuff there was this time.
The salt merchant showed him one of the carts.
After opening it, neatly arranged pieces of salt were wrapped in waxy yellow oil paper and tied into a beautiful knot. The salt seller carefully took out a piece, opened it, pinched a pinch and asked the tribal leader to taste it. The tribal leader had seen good stuff before, and after tasting it, his eyes lit up.
He asked hurriedly, "How much is it?"
The salt merchant held out a hand with his fingers spread wide.
The tribal leader hesitated: "It's a bit expensive..."
"These are all good stuff! You know, refined salt, even in the interior of the country costs this much!" The salt merchant pointed a large number with one hand and patiently persuaded him, "You know, the goods are not coming in now. I'm selling it for this amount because of my brother's face."
Tribal leader: "Anything else?"
The salt seller said, "Yes, yes, yes."
Although he is a salt merchant, he does not only sell salt.
The volume of goods for this trip was too large, so he left most of them in a relatively safe place, and brought a few goods and people to the Tatamuer tribe for trading. He opened a few more boxes, which were filled with other daily necessities.
The tribal leader was tempted, but couldn't bring himself to do it.
The salt merchant appealed to their emotions and reason.
"Big brother, it's not just your tribe that needs these anyway, why don't we unite and eat this batch of goods together? You know, the situation is very tense right now, and Mr. Shen is a mean and violent person. If I get caught, I'll be skinned and burned to death, right? This trip was not easy. Even with my son's protection, I still have to feed those jackals in Yonggu Pass."
The tribal leader hesitated.
There is a severe shortage of things now.
Although the price offered by the salt dealers was high, it was not too unfair and was relatively friendly compared to the sky-high prices charged for smuggling salt through other trade routes.
If I miss this time, I don’t know when the next time will be. The balance in my heart has already been decided.
"OK!"
He gritted his teeth and agreed.
But there was a hint of cruelty in the look given to the salt merchant.
The salt merchant kept a shameless face and pretended he didn't see anything.
In the past, these smugglers would not dare to ask for too high a price and would follow market conditions, otherwise they would easily bring disaster upon themselves and lose both their goods and their lives - Shi Wu does not care about reputation in the business world, nor does he know the principle of maintaining a righteousness even if a deal fails.
Just kill him.
But now, no caravan can come in.
These tribes, which cannot compete with the big tribes, still expect to get the goods themselves, and will not kill no matter how unhappy they are.
The tribal leader: "But brother, it will take some time to collect the money."
"It's okay. I can wait."
The tribal chief sent someone to collect the payment for the goods, and then he resumed his previous cheerful and cheerful appearance, and enthusiastically invited the salt merchant to go around.
In the distance, we passed by a stable.
The salt merchant saw a female horse washer kneeling on the ground. Her face was covered with dirt but she looked peaceful and calm. She was praying devoutly with her eyes closed. The tribal leader followed her gaze and smiled wickedly: "Why, is this female slave very pretty?"
Salt merchant: “…”
Logo
I can't say these two words with a clear conscience.
The slave girl was unkempt and had a brown face, which made her look unrecognizable. As an old hand, he naturally knew some of the customs of the Shiwu tribe and could tell the identity of the woman at a glance. Because there were more men than women in each tribe, women were extremely scarce. In the low- and medium-sized tribes, "sharing wives" was popular. One woman served a father and son or several brothers. There were not enough women to share, which made the extra men a hidden danger. In order to appease these hidden dangers, the tribe would spend money to buy a few cheap female slaves.
These female slaves were of low status. They were either infertile or old and ugly... They were common to all single men in this tribe.
Their life span is short. From the time they are bought to the tribe, the shortest life span is one to two months, and the longest life span is three to five years...
The female slave washing horses in front of him was obviously one of them.
The salt merchants felt sympathetic but could do nothing.
"I'm just curious about what she's doing..."
The tribal leader spat with a gloomy face and said: "I don't know when these slaves started to become weird and talk about their ancestors all the time." Especially when a man came to find this female slave, she would always look painful and scold him.
Such as their ancestors benefited the earth, were selfless and kind, fair and honest, and loved their people. They themselves were of the Great Golden Crow lineage and had noble blood. Treating her like this would be a wrong path and a betrayal of their ancestors, and these unworthy descendants would definitely be punished.
The tribal leader looked disdainful and said, "The other slaves have also been corrupted by her and are no longer as active in their work as before."
Haha, if it wasn’t for the fact that it couldn’t find a suitable one in a short while, this horse-washing slave girl would have been beaten to death with a horsewhip long ago.
The salt merchant was stunned at first, then he remembered something.
Respond with two sentences in an unnatural manner.
"Leading astray? Wouldn't that be troublesome?"
Why do these words of the slave girl sound familiar
He remembered that these seemed to be the contents of the stone tablet that fell from the sky in the Shiwu refugee valley. Out of curiosity, he recited a few paragraphs. He didn't expect that after the Shiwu ancestor appeared, the contents of the inscription would be spread to such a distant Tata Muer.
The tribal leader said lightly: "What's the trouble? Slaves are slaves. If they don't obey, just beat them to death."
The salt merchant responded with a smile on his face, but he was trembling inside.
As soon as he received the payment and counted the goods, he left without stopping, fearing that he would be killed by the tribal leader if he left too late.
The tribal leader didn't know what he was thinking, but waved goodbye: "Good brother, remember us when you have good things."
The salt merchant agreed readily.
"Sure, sure!"
Seeing his embarrassed back as if his butt was on fire and he was running away, Yu Zi curled her lips and said, "You are a timid person, but you were very good at making up stories about the lord just now, and you said it right away."
The salt merchant wiped away the sweat guiltily.
He smiled and said, "I just wanted to deceive that person, not to slander Mr. Shen. Even if I had ten thousand guts, I wouldn't dare to do that! Besides, the Ten Crows are very fickle. What if he changes his mind halfway... I only have one life, and if I lose it, I can't get it back... You just saw the appearance of that slave girl, how could I not be panicked?"
"snort!"
When talking about slave girls, Yu Zi felt depressed. She thought of the life her mother lived when she was abducted and sold to the first family. She was a wife shared by her father and brothers, trampled on and humiliated, unable to live or die - how similar was she to that slave girl
Yu Zi led the salt dealer to meet Lü Jue, who was guarding the goods. Lü Jue was sitting on the truck, reading a military book with great interest in his left hand. He looked up when he heard the noise and asked with a smile, "Why? Wei Heng seems not in a good mood. Did he fail in business?"
Yu Zi: "I got all the money."
"Why is that?"
Yu Zi talked about the female slave who washed horses, and was puzzled: "Why are they unwilling to treat them well when they are so short of women?"
Lu Jue had been a slave himself, so he understood the situation very well.
"Who told you that you should cherish what you don't have? They don't lack women, they lack young women who can give birth. They want the child that will be born from that body, not just a 'woman'. Besides, no matter how well a woman lives, she can give birth to a child, so why should we bother to treat her well? Old or infertile women are a burden that wastes food rations."
Yu Zi pursed her lips stubbornly.
Lu Jue murmured softly: "It's the same for men."
Yu Zi looked at him.
Lu Jue took out an exquisite small drum with a gold handle from a pile of goods. The drum head was made of a special material, which was sarcastic.
"The weak are not divided into men and women. As long as they are weak, they will be trampled. They may become food on the plate in the literal sense, or be skinned and boned to make the human skin drum in the hand of the beater. If they die from overwork, it is considered merciful by the master." Lu Jue threw the human skin drum back, and suddenly thought of a detail, and asked, "You just said that the female slave 'led' many slaves astray?"
Yu Zi nodded: "Yes."
Lu Jue thought for a while with a calm face.
"Let's go to the next place. Pay attention to the slaves in that tribe and see if they are also like this..."
"Um?"
"I'm afraid the situation is going to change for Shiwu."