Chapter 576: The Ten Crows Shattered (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

Tatamul tribe.

The layouts of the Shiwu tribes are mostly similar.

The only difference is in size and location.

When the salt merchant first came to Shiwu to trade, he was still a young man. He spent a lot of money to find a "master" and his first business deal was with the Tatamur tribe. As a tribe adjacent to Yonggu Pass, Tatamur was of medium to high size and strength.

Being close by means of being well-informed, and making spring hunting convenient.

They are often able to get the first wave of "fat meat".

Merchant caravans from within the Great Wall also liked to come here.

Many young people from Shiwu who lack fixed assets will come to join them because of these advantages, and over time, their strength will increase.

only--

After the Battle of Yonggu Pass, life became difficult for the people of Shiwu, including the Tatamur tribe. Yonggu Pass was the most convenient and efficient trade route for smuggling, but now that it was blocked, 90% of the goods inside the pass could not get through.

One-tenth remaining?

Those were smuggled in via other remote and dangerous trade routes, bypassing Yonggu Pass. The cost ultimately comes from the consumer; with labor costs skyrocketing, the cost of goods also rises accordingly. Even if a tribe of their size wanted to buy, they couldn't compete with the larger tribes.

The tribal chief was extremely worried.

They even sent able-bodied men to search for unguarded sections of the city wall near the border, hoping to find a hole to sneak across.

result--

They were discovered by the garrison at Yonggu Pass before they even got close.

They abandoned the two unfortunate corpses and fled back in a sorry state.

On this day, outside the tent, they heard their own son shouting.

"Father, Father, the caravan is here!"

The tribal chief immediately perked up.

"What? They're really here?"

Upon exiting the tent, it was indeed a caravan.

The caravan leader was still that familiar fat man.

He instantly put on a smiling face: "Good brother!"

The salt merchant forced a fawning smile, stepped forward, opened his arms, and gave the bearded tribal chief a big bear hug.

A hand slaps the back, making a dull thud.

Tribal chief: "It's been a long time since I've seen you."

The salt merchant chuckled and said, "Naturally, it's because there's a happy occasion at home, and taking care of my wife and children has been quite a task. I've also recently had some good luck, getting a batch of top-quality goods. That's why I thought of your past kindness and sent them to you as soon as possible."

The tribal chief wasn't stupid either.

He put his arm around the salt merchant's shoulder and whispered to him.

"Didn't everyone say that the man surnamed Shen cut off your source of income and forbade you from doing this business anymore? How did you get here?"

The salt merchant also lowered his voice: "My son is successful, he got a job in the government... Of course, he will take care of his own father when there are benefits."

The tribal chief was alarmed: "Aren't you afraid of being discovered?"

The salt merchant gave him a knowing look and sneered, "There's a saying in the region, 'Money makes the world go round.' There are plenty of things the higher-ups forbid. Who would be foolish enough to report it and cut off their own source of income if they used money to build connections?"

The tribal chief thought about it and agreed.

Then they asked what good stuff they had this time.

The salt merchant showed him one of the carts.

Upon opening the package, neat blocks of salt were found wrapped in yellowish oiled paper and tied in a pretty knot. The salt merchant carefully took out a block, opened it, and offered a pinch to the tribal chief to taste. The tribal chief, who had seen fine goods before, was even more impressed after tasting it.

He hurriedly asked, "How much?"

The salt vendor stretched out a hand with his five fingers spread wide.

The tribal chief hesitated: "It's a bit expensive..."

"These are all good stuff! You know, this is refined salt, it would cost this much even in the interior!" The salt merchant held up a large number with one hand and patiently persuaded him, "You know, we can't get any goods in right now. I'm only selling it for this price because of you, brother."

Tribal chief: "Anything else?"

The salt merchant replied, "Yes, yes, yes."

Although he was a salt merchant, he didn't only sell salt.

This time, the volume of goods on the trade route was too large, so he left most of them in a relatively safe place, while he himself brought a small amount of goods and manpower to the Tatamur tribe to trade. He opened a few more chests, which were filled with other daily necessities.

The tribal chief was tempted, but couldn't bring himself to do it.

The salt merchants appealed to their emotions and reasoned with them.

“Brother, it’s not just your tribe that needs these. Why don’t we unite and eat this batch of goods together? You know how tight things are right now, and that Shen Jun is a mean and violent man. If we get caught even once, I’ll be skinned alive and burned alive. This trip has been really tough. Even with my son’s cover, we still have to feed those wolves at Yonggu Pass.”

The tribal chief hesitated.

There's a severe shortage of these things right now.

Although the salt merchants' prices were high, they weren't too outrageous, and were relatively reasonable compared to the exorbitant prices charged by other merchants smuggling salt across the border.

If I miss this chance, I don't know when I'll get another one. My heart has already made its decision.

"OK!"

He gritted his teeth and agreed.

I could only see a hint of ruthlessness in the salt vendor's peripheral vision.

The salt merchant, with a shameless grin, pretended not to see it.

In the past, these smugglers would not have dared to ask for exorbitant prices and would have followed market rates, otherwise they would have risked their lives and lost both their goods and their people. Shi Wu did not care about business reputation, nor did he understand the principle of maintaining goodwill even if a deal fell through.

So what if they killed him?

But now, caravans can't get in.

These tribes, unable to compete with the larger tribes, still rely on themselves to obtain goods, and even if they are unhappy, they will not resort to violence.

Tribal chief: "But brother, it will take some time to raise the money."

"It's alright, I can wait."

The tribal chief sent someone to collect the payment, and he resumed his previous cheerful and talkative demeanor, even enthusiastically inviting the salt merchant to wander around.

In the distance, we passed a stable.

The salt merchant noticed a female horse-washing slave kneeling on the ground, her face covered in grime yet radiating a serene peace as she devoutly prayed with her eyes closed. The tribal chief followed her gaze, grinning maliciously, "What, isn't this female slave quite beautiful?"

Salt vendor: "..."

Logo?

I can't say those two words against my conscience.

The female slave was disheveled and filthy, her face sallow, almost unrecognizable. As a seasoned veteran, he naturally knew some of the customs of the Ten Crows and immediately recognized the woman's identity—because every tribe had far more men than women, and women were extremely scarce. In smaller tribes, "shared wives" were common, with one woman serving a father and sons or several brothers. Even then, there weren't enough women to go around, leading to surplus men becoming a threat. To appease these threats, tribes would spend money to buy several cheap female slaves.

These female slaves were of low status, either infertile or old and faded in appearance... a situation shared by all single men in this tribe.

Their lifespans are short; from the moment they are sold into the tribe, some live for a year and a half, while others live for three to five years...

The female slave girl in front of me is clearly one of them.

The salt merchants felt sorry for the salt but were powerless to help.

"I'm just curious what she's doing..."

The tribal chief spat with a disgruntled look, "I don't know when it started, but these slaves have become so superstitious, constantly chanting about their ancestors." Especially when a man approaches this female slave, she always looks pained and berates him.

Such as their ancestors who blessed the earth, were selfless, benevolent, fair, and honest, and loved all their people; and themselves being of the lineage of the Great Golden Crow, of noble blood, treating her this way is going astray, betraying their ancestors, and these unworthy descendants will surely suffer retribution.

The tribal chief looked at her with disdain: "The other slaves have been corrupted by her, and they are not as enthusiastic about their work as before."

Hehe, if it weren't for the fact that a suitable one couldn't be found in a short time, this female servant who washes horses would have been beaten to death with a horsewhip long ago.

The salt merchant was taken aback at first, then suddenly remembered something.

He awkwardly echoed with two sentences.

"Lead them astray? Wouldn't that be troublesome?"

Why do those words from the female slave sound so familiar?

He remembered that these seemed to be the contents of the stone tablet that had fallen from the sky in the Ten Crows Refugee Valley. Out of curiosity, he had even memorized a few passages. He never expected that after the Ten Crows ancestors manifested their power, the contents of the tablet would reach such a distant place as Tatamur.

The tribal chief said casually, "What trouble? A slave is a slave. If he doesn't obey, just beat him to death."

The salt vendor smiled and agreed outwardly, but inwardly he trembled.

As soon as he received the payment and confirmed that everything was correct, he left immediately, fearing that if he stayed too long, the tribal chief would kill him.

The tribal chief, unaware of his thoughts, waved goodbye, saying, "Good brother, remember us if you find anything good."

The salt merchant readily agreed.

"Of course, of course!"

Watching his hasty and disheveled escape, Yu Zi curled her lip and said, "You're a coward, but you were quite good at making up stories about the lord just now, you could come up with anything without even opening your mouth."

The salt vendor, feeling guilty, wiped away his sweat.

He forced a smile and said, "This humble subject only wanted to deceive that person, not to truly slander Lord Shen. Even if you gave me a thousand lives, I wouldn't dare! Besides, the Ten Crows are the most fickle of the tribes. What if he changes his mind halfway through... This... This humble subject only has this one life. If I lose it, I can never get it back... You saw what that female slave looked like just now. How could this humble subject not be panicked?"

"snort!"

The mention of female slaves weighed heavily on Yu Zi's heart. She recalled the days her own mother endured after being abducted and sold to the first family. Shared as a wife by her father and two brothers, she was trampled upon and humiliated, unable to live or die—how similar was this to that female slave?

Yu Zi led the salt merchants to meet Lü Jue, who was guarding the goods. Lü Jue was sitting on the wagon, engrossed in reading a military book with his left hand. Hearing the commotion, he looked up and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Wei Heng doesn't seem very interested. Did the deal fall through?"

Yu Zi: "I've received all the money."

Why is that?

Yu Zi mentioned the female groom, puzzled: "If there's such a shortage of women, why are they unwilling to treat them well?"

Lü Jue himself had been a slave, so he knew a lot about it.

"Who told you that you cherish what you lack? They don't lack women, they lack young women who can bear children. They want the child that body can produce, not just a 'woman'. Besides, whether a woman is doing well or not, the child can still be born, so why bother to treat her well? Older women or women who can't have children are just a waste of resources."

Yu Zi pursed her lips stubbornly.

Lu Jue murmured softly, "Men are the same way."

Yu Zi looked at him.

Lu Jue took out an exquisite small drum with a gold handle from a pile of cash. The drumhead was made of a special material, which he mocked.

“The weak are not defined by gender. All the weak will be trampled upon. They will either become food on a plate in the literal sense, or be skinned and dismembered to make this human skin drum. It would be considered merciful of their masters if they died from overwork.” Lü Jue threw the human skin drum back, then suddenly remembered a detail and asked, “You just said that the female slave ‘corrupted’ many slaves?”

Yu Zi nodded: "Yes."

Lu Jue pondered for a while with a somber expression.

"Let's go to the next place. Keep an eye on the slaves in that tribe and see if they're like this too..."

"Um?"

"The situation in Shiwu is about to change."

(ノへ￣、)

The neighborhood was sealed off because an older man who had returned from out of town went to a massage parlor during his home quarantine and got infected. His neighbor, an elderly woman, also got infected, and the school also found that several students had also gotten infected.

_(:з」∠)_

I'm at my wit's end. I was planning to go to the local hospital tomorrow for an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid and umbilical cord, and I haven't finished my heparin sodium injections yet. I know how to administer it myself, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I originally wanted to combine two updates into one, but I don't have much energy, so I'll leave it at that.

(End of this chapter)