Rebirth of Wu Ba Spring and Autumn

Chapter 33

Ren Yazi was afraid that the slave's words would anger Qing Ji and cause his own business to be in vain.

However, Qingji didn't take it seriously!

"What are the conditions?"

The slave pointed to a wooden cage not far away, where a thin, sallow-faced little boy of about ten years old was imprisoned.

The slave said in a low voice: "That is the son of an old friend of XX. His father has saved XX's life. If you can buy him together, XX is willing to follow you for the rest of his life. He will never say anything!"

"it is good!"

Qingji agreed immediately.

He looked at the slave in the bronze cage with great admiration!

This person really values ​​love and righteousness, which is extraordinary.

Not to mention anything else, just this person's righteous spirit and extraordinary conversation are enough for Qingji to guess that his origin must be extraordinary!
You must know that the ancients were not necessarily all obsessed with words.

In daily spoken language, the conversational language of ordinary Li people is very concise, and only people of noble origin (intellectuals) can speak extraordinary!

Qingji immediately took out a bag of horseshoe gold from his bosom and redeemed the slave.

As for the "son of the old man", it was treated as a gift and bought together!
After leaving the tooth shop, Qingji started talking to the slave again.

Knowing that he is from Chu, his name is Xiong Zidan, and he was born in the prominent Chu family!
Xiong Zidan's great-grandfather was the famous King Zhuang of Chu.

Logically speaking, as a descendant of King Zhuang of Chu, Xiong Zidan shouldn't be so downcast that he was even reduced to being a slave.

But, sometimes it's God's will!
Xiong Zidan's grandfather was a general who conquered the Yunnan barbarians in the south of the state of Chu, but the battle failed. The expeditionary Chu army was cut off from the rear, trapped in the land of barbarians, and could not return home.

Therefore, the Chu army could only temporarily settle down in Yunnan, waiting for rescue.

But the long period of silence, coupled with years of guerrilla warfare against the cunning Yunnan barbarians, finally made most of the soldiers of the Chu army unbearable and began to flee on a large scale.

Xiong Zidan's father had no choice but to lead the few remaining Chu troops on their way home!
Unfortunately, most of these Chu people were seriously ill and passed away.

Xiong Zidan himself survived by luck!

He originally wanted to uphold the will of his father's generation and return to the state of Chu, but unexpectedly entered the state of Wu by mistake.

In the end, Xiong Zidan was caught by a large group of slave catchers because he was outnumbered, and was not bought by Qingji until today!
After learning what happened to Xiong Zidan, both Qingji and Sun Wu expressed deep sympathy.

How can it not be embarrassing that a dignified Miao descendant of the Chu Kingdom, a descendant of King Zhuang of Chu, has fallen to such a state?

However, if Xiong Zidan returns to Chu State, the people of Chu may not be able to accept him.

Because the incident has passed for so long, the Chu people have long forgotten the army that was sent to Yunnan for an expedition.

As for Xiong Zidan, he is only the son of his father and a Dian girl, and his blood is unclear. It is strange that the people of Chu can recognize and accept him!
This kind of slave hunting is actually not uncommon in all countries in the world, and it is even as common as people's ordinary hunting.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, all the people in the world were mainly divided into two types of people, one was Chinese and the other was savage!

After the Zhou people destroyed the Shang Dynasty in the past, they abandoned the relatively primitive and barbaric slavery system of the Shang Dynasty and replaced it with the enfeoffment system, but this system is not without slaves!
The Zhou people exiled non-Zhou people such as the survivors of the Shang Dynasty, prisoners of war, and foreigners conquered by the surrounding area. They were called savages, and they only allocated land for farming, and they rarely had access to ascent.

The Zhou Dynasty implemented the enfeoffment system, and there were five titles in total, from high to low: Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Nan.

Although the state of Wu has established himself as the king, among the vassal states entrusted by the emperor of Zhou, he belongs to the fourth-class viscount!

This is a pyramidal structure of governance.

The corresponding ruling positions are the emperor, princes, high officials, and scholars, and they are hereditary.

For the civilians, that is, the Chinese, the authority of the Chinese is relatively large. They are the basis of the rule of the aristocrats. The Chinese can not only farm land, but also serve as soldiers, participate in political and economic life, and can also achieve promotion to the rank of soldier!

Moreover, the power of the people of the country is not small, and they even play the role of being able to determine the position of the candidate for the monarch.

The most famous case is the "Chinese riots" during the period of King Zhou Li. The people who could not bear the exploitation directly executed the monarch!

In short, the difference between a Chinese and a savage lies in their household registration!
Like the modern household registration system.

Household registration is closely related to everyone's housing, education, medical care, pension, etc., and the most important things in a person's life.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the urban population was called countrymen, and the rural population was called savages.

Slaves, as the lowest level of existence, naturally have no household registration, that is, black households.

However, in the era of Qingji, Gein had frequent wars, and the concepts between Chinese and savages had been confused.

The people of the country represent nobles such as ministers and officials, the common people represent the common people, and the savages represent the people who fled from other countries and the landless.

Savages can be turned into slaves anytime, anywhere!

Because they are black households, once they are caught by the slave catchers or the government, what awaits them is a difficult and dark slave life.

The slave trade in all countries is basically legalized.

Not to mention a remote place like Wu, even the Jin, Qi, Song, Wei, Lu and other countries in the Central Plains, which claim to be a state of etiquette, slavery is very prevalent!
The source of slaves is nothing more than savages, prisoners of war, prisoners, offspring of prisoners, etc.

Xiong Zidan belongs to the very sad kind.

Savages without household registration have become valuable prey in the eyes of slave catchers!
……

After returning to the Wu Palace, Qingji settled Xiong Zidan and the old man's son, and then sat opposite Sun Wu in the side hall to discuss important matters.

"Changqing, I have gained a lot from this private visit with you today."

Qingji sighed with emotion, and said, "I want to carry out the New Deal in my country of Wu, maybe this is the way to start!"

"Your Majesty is talking about slavery?"

"Exactly."

Qing Ji slightly nodded and said: "The slave system is harmful to people. It is inhumane to individuals, and it is harmful to the country!"

"The widow has looked through the household registration records of the state of Wu before, and found out that when the former King Liao was born, ten years ago, my great Wu had only [-] households and a population of only [-]!"

"After so many years, the population of Wu State is only [-]!"

"Why is the account growth rate so slow?"

"What's the problem?"

Hearing this, Sun Wu couldn't help pondering for a while, and then replied: "Your Majesty, it may be because of the frequent wars and internal strife in my Great Wu in recent years."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Qing Ji said loudly: "Even if we exclude the soldiers and civilians who died in the war and the missing people, my Wu's household registration should not increase so slowly!"

(End of this chapter)