golden scales

During Zhu Cizhen's first year in Australia, he suffered from headaches.The farmers who came with the fleet not only grow vegetables, but also grow food, but the "almanac", which is a guide to agriculture, cannot be used in Australia.

Because Australia's solar terms are opposite to those of Ming Dynasty.

In addition, the Little Ice Age was a global effect, and there was no way to avoid it in the southern hemisphere, so there was even a matter of transporting water from Ping Island to the south to alleviate the drought.

As an enclave equivalent to the territory of Ming Dynasty, Australian specialties are very rare in Ming Dynasty.On the contrary, the animals and plants that Ming Dynasty took for granted never appeared in Australia.The pigs, rabbits, horses, sheep, cattle, and even cats and dogs brought by the Ming army are frequent visitors to this land.

Because there were no natural enemies, and the rabbits reproduced extremely fast, the Ming army raised these meat rabbits loosely on the grassland, and killed a few of them during their daily patrols, which was actually more efficient than raising them in cages.

The aborigines in Australia are less civilized than Taiwan, and there is no agriculture at all, they only live on kangaroo meat.The soldiers of the Ming army did not divide the land here on a tight basis of a hundred or ten acres, but often five hundred or thousands of acres.Moreover, the allocated land can enjoy income during the service period, so they welcome mainland immigrants to come to cultivate, and they have become "lords" who eat rent.

In the absence of enough immigrants, the black servants can also be used as labor, but these black servants are really not competent for the delicate work of taking care of the crops, so they can only use whips and wooden sticks to make them remember.

Shan Liantian, as Zhu Cizhao's close friend, was also allocated [-] mu of good land.He never thought that he could have such assets under his own name, and he was very concerned about the development and utilization of this land. He found a few old farmers and carefully guided the natives to cultivate it.

In Australia, hundreds of aboriginal tribes have been found, the largest has thousands of people, and the smallest has only a dozen people.It is said that there are about 50 natives on the entire island, but this is calculated using a formula, and no one knows the exact number.They don't count in the demographics.It's even debatable whether it's human.

If a Ming man accidentally killed a native, he would only be fined a bucket of rice.And if the natives were killed intentionally, there was no punishment—because the judge accompanying the army believed that if the natives were killed intentionally.It must be out of self-defense, so it is not a crime.

……

"President Shan, letter from home!" The sentinel raised the envelope in his hand and shouted loudly.

Shan Liantian stood up from the ridge of the field, jumped on his horse, and ran towards the sentinel.

The flames lasted three months, and the family letter was worth ten thousand gold.

Now it takes about half a year to go back and forth between Daming and Australia, and the letter from home is really worth [-] gold.

Shan Liantian carefully opened the envelope and took out the "[-] gold" inside. His nose felt a little sore when he saw the familiar font of his father.He is from the Jinyiwei family.Although it is said that he is a general's son, in fact, more than ten generations have not fought a war.After the Hongzhi Dynasty, the person who served as a general again in the clan was the Donggong guard camp who joined when Jinshang was in the residence.

But that clan uncle is very great, and he is also a major general on the same level as Er Xiaoping.It's just been stationed in Gyeonggi, so its reputation is not obvious.

Shan Liantian carefully read every word before turning to the next page.My father had already finished talking about his parents, and made a strange request: Can some docile black servants be sent back to Beijing to act as housekeepers.

——Is Daming still short of handymen?Why use these black servants?

Shan Liantian was quite puzzled.Looking around, he saw that every black spot working in the field was very docile.Eat what you give, and as long as you have a whip and a stick, you will not be lazy in your work.But compared to the handymen of Ming Dynasty, these people can't even speak human language, let alone etiquette, they can't even salute and say hello.Is it worth sending it all the way?

He continued to read, and the next thing was that his sister wanted a kangaroo... There was no way, the oracle strictly forbade the endemic animals of Australia to enter the native land, so as not to spread diseases, or cause the species to go out of control due to the lack of natural enemies.From here, pay tribute to several live kangaroos to Nan Haizi.They have to be washed and washed, which is more difficult to take care of than people.

"Fang Shu! Fang Shu!"

Shan Liantian twitched his ears, raised his head, and saw Zheng Chongyuan riding a horse from afar.

"Boss," Shan Liantian put the family letter in his sleeve and cupped his hands away, "Why is it in such a hurry?"

Zheng Chongyuan had already run in front of Shan Liantian, hurriedly returned his salute, and said, "Are there any more docile natives here? Both big and small."

Shan Liantian was taken aback: "You want it too?"

Why are natives so popular all of a sudden?

Zheng Chongyuan saw a corner of the page protruding from Shan Liantian's cuff, and said, "But a letter from home asks you to send some natives back?"

"Exactly, what's wrong with Beijing? Not even a handyman?" Shan Liantian pulled Zheng Chongyuan to inspect his own two thousand acres of land.

Zheng Chongyuan said: "You are really right. Now there are more masters in Beijing than servants."

"How?"

"Do you remember the oracle issued by Chongzhen for 20 years to suppress slavery?" Zheng Chongyuan said: "In the territory of the Ming Dynasty, if there are slaves and maidservants, they can get rid of their citizenship and return to good people."

Shan Liantian nodded.This edict did not abolish the slave-servant system across the board, but stated that the imperial court would no longer protect the relationship between master and slave.As long as the servants express their desire to quit their nationality, they can stop being slaves, and the contract of selling themselves signed before will naturally be invalid.

"At that time, there were not many people who left their hometowns. They probably couldn't believe such a good thing, or they were afraid that they would have nothing to eat after leaving the master's house." Zheng Chongyuan said with contempt: "Now there are millions more in Hetao. Acres of good land, Australia, Taiwan, and Liaodong are also good roads, so the number of people who leave their nationality is increasing day by day, so that each family no longer dares to buy slaves, for fear that these people will turn around and leave after taking the money. Employment contracts are more secure, at least they are guaranteed by the government.”

"So that's how it is!" Shan Liantian suddenly realized: "So we need to use Hei Si, I don't know who started it first."

"Nanfeng." Zheng Chongyuan said with a half-smile, "It must have been a good start by that gangster, and there are many gangsters in Taiwan."

Shan Liantian shook his head and said, "What does your Highness say?"

"Your Highness is going to take five hundred black servants back to report on their duties." Zheng Chongyuan said with a smile: "Each family can find a way without handymen, but not without eunuchs in the palace."

The Ming Dynasty never had a full-time "respect room". Whenever the palace needed eunuch firemen, they were recruited from the people, which led to the existence of a large number of "unnamed whites".These nameless whites were all influenced by the ethos of "distant relatives serving the emperor", they found someone to castrate at their own expense, and then found ways to enter the palace.

If they are not selected to serve in the palace, they can only hang out in the bathhouses of various temples in the capital to give people a scrub.And normal people would not go to that kind of bathhouse, they are all eunuchs in the palace.In this way, everyone is the same, saving embarrassment, and if you are lucky, you can also rely on these eunuchs to recommend you into the palace.

Although distant relatives serve the king sounds good, but to put it bluntly, it is caused by the word "poor".If the family has two acres of Susukida and can marry a daughter-in-law to carry on the family line, who would want to cut it off and become a despised disabled person?

Between leaving home and cutting off children and grandchildren, the choice of the former is still the mainstream.

"The imperial palace is so big that maids can't clean it, and many rough and heavy tasks are not capable of women." Zheng Chongyuan said: "These five hundred black servants were sent to be eunuchs."

Shan Liantian nodded.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, influenced by the legacy of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, in the expansion of foreign wars, captives would be captured from the defeated tribes.These captives were castrated and sent to the palace to become eunuchs.

This is how the famous Sanbao eunuch started his legendary life.

There are precedents before, and it is reasonable for Yongwang Cizhen to do so.

"Send them eunuchs here, or eunuchs in the capital?" Shan Liantian asked.

Zheng Chongyuan laughed and said, "It depends on how to use it."

"Why is the eldest son smiling so obscenely?" Shan Liantian became more and more puzzled.

"Only the Imperial Palace and Prince's Mansion can use eunuchs, you don't know that?" Zheng Chongyuan said.

"That's natural."

This is to prevent self-castration among the people from becoming a trend, which hurts the foundation of the country.

"But if the Australian natives have the habit of castrating boys, then the black men we send are all eunuchs. One is the custom of the black men, and the other will not hurt the country. Do you think the imperial court will take care of it, just like a gelding donkey and a gelding horse?" Zheng Chongyuan said: "There must be a big family willing to pay a good price."

Of course, Shan Liantian knew that the local natives didn't have this habit, and he was very shameless towards Zheng Chongyuan's wanting to be a man. He squinted and said, "You are an idiot when you are in the court? How can you have such a custom?"

"Fukuo even drowned boys, so what's impossible if he's so poor?" Zheng Chongyuan said.

"I can't do such things without conscience." Shan Liantian said with a serious face, "I just send a dozen or so strong natives back to deal with the adults."

Zheng Chongyuan was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Hey, actually, we don't need to do this. You also know what the military doctor did... If you are castrated, you have to recuperate. Maybe you won't be able to survive such a long journey at sea. .I'm just telling you about the situation in the north."

"I'm afraid you came to me not just to ask for a few black servants?" Shan Liantian said coldly.

"Brother, you often fight with the natives. You might as well hand over those captives to the younger brother." Zheng Chongyuan said with a smile: "The benefits are all shared, and the fat and water don't flow into outsiders' fields."

Shan Liantian was about to refuse, but Zheng Chongyuan said again: "Don't refuse me in a hurry, Fang Shu, you are the leader of the army, and other battalions are doing it. Do it, how do the brothers under your command obey you? We are a friendship lying in the house, so I am not afraid to say it clearly: this matter was initiated by King Yong, whoever does not do it will hit His Highness in the face. Can you not do it?"

Shan Liantian's heart was in a mess.He never thought about what harm Daming would do to the natives after he arrived in Australia, he only thought that the most important thing in the world belonged to the virtuous.Australia is such a great land, of course it should be Wanghua by Daming.In the past, he heard people say that the natives were like livestock, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Didn't the instructors in the recruit camp also treat recruit eggs as livestock?

After hearing what Zheng Chongyuan said, he felt disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

Ps:

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