The East and West Markets and the Slave Trade
The East Market is full of treasures, and the West Market is full of foreign merchants.
This is the biggest feature of the East and West Markets of Taiyue City. Walking on the streets of the East Market, Liu Buqi seemed to have returned to the old market he was familiar with!
The sounds of hawking along the street and shouting from restaurants could be heard continuously, making the place extremely lively.
Yue Lingxi returned to the capital. Although the Hou Mansion had been established, all the necessary things were not prepared yet, and she, the hostess, still needed to be busy for a while.
It just so happened that Yue Hanxin came to the mansion on her own initiative. Regardless of whether she had other intentions, she was now captured by Liu Buqi as a "strong man" and accompanied her to tour the famous East and West Markets of Taiyue City.
"Buy a fine horse in the East Market and buy a saddle in the West Market! It is really so prosperous that it is hard to take in!" Liu Buqi sighed sincerely.
Its thinking concept is close to that of the Ming Dynasty, its deterrence against the four barbarians is close to that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and its merchant culture is similar to the "four-legged" Taiyue Dynasty of the Song and Jin Dynasties.
Liu Buqi, who has lived here for five years, can only see the tip of the iceberg. Although he has also been to the famous Jinan Prefecture in the north, compared with Taiyue City, it is nothing but a dwarf!
Yue Hanxin, who was standing by, took out a pen and ink from somewhere and solemnly wrote down the lines of poetry that Liu Buqi had just recited, "Buy a fine horse in the east market, and buy a saddle in the west market," while responding to them.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, that's nothing! If it weren't for Guannei Hou's terror, the East and West Markets of Taiyue City would be at least 30% more prosperous than they are now!"
Looking at Yue Hanxin in bewilderment as she recorded her "plagiarized" poems without caring about other people's opinions, she was afraid that she would never be able to get rid of the title of "Literary Thief"!
Judging from the situation on the market, although the prosperity has decreased, for ordinary businessmen, it seems that the current situation of the empire's division and confrontation has not been greatly affected!
Liu Buqi had long understood the truth behind this. Ultimately, the so-called chaotic times in the empire were nothing more than a struggle for the throne among the royal family! Whoever won or lost would be the ruler of the Yue family!
No matter if he is the Crown Prince or the Marquis of Guannei, neither of them will be too harsh on the people under their rule. Unless the war situation becomes uncontrollable, they will never kill the goose that lays the golden eggs!
It really damaged the foundation of the rule, with wars breaking out everywhere and civil unrest occurring. Even if we win the world, it is hard to say whether we can keep our throne!
Therefore, apart from the areas around the battlefield, the official division and confrontation have almost no impact on the lives of ordinary merchants and people!
The imperial situation that Yue Beiqiu has built for twenty years can still make Liu Buqi, an "outsider", truly feel the emotion and... pride of "dreaming of returning to the Tang Dynasty"!
It was an era of inclusiveness and an era in which a nation was invincible!
Yue Hanxin obviously didn't understand Liu Buqi's feelings at this moment. She simply thought that she was in a daze because she was shocked by the prosperity of the East and West Cities!
This is truly the most genuine reaction of everyone who comes to the East and West Cities for the first time in this era!
He grabbed Liu Buqi and said, "Madam, let's walk faster, or we'll miss the West Market Fair!"
Liu Buqi came to his senses and quickly quickened his pace. It was important to take care of business first! Other matters in the mansion were fine, but the staff needed to be prepared as soon as possible.
After all, you can't always have a group of soldiers serving as servants, and it's really not appropriate for grown men to enter and leave the inner house.
The so-called West Market Fair is nothing more than a "Spring and Autumn style of writing". According to Liu Buqi's understanding, it is a gathering of "human traffickers"!
Of course, this "human trafficker" is different from the human traffickers that everyone hates and beats. They can also be called "labor dealers"!
The Taiyue Empire had a clear ban on slavery, and the so-called slaves and maids were all cases of long-term bought-out labor.
Of course, this only applies to the Chinese. If people from the four barbarians are willing to be slaves, they can still be bought and sold!
Because Chinese merchants rarely touched this area, the Hu merchants in the West Market became the main force in buying and selling slaves and buying out servants.
When Liu Buqi was dragged to Xishi by Yue Hanxin, they just happened to catch the opening of the Xishi fair!
One by one, the Hu merchants brought piles of men and women to the platform and let the people below raise their hands to quote prices.
Liu Buqi also knew that for these slaves and servants, although being bought and sold like commodities was their only way to survive, it was difficult for modern people to accept such a trade.
In addition, most of the people who appear at the fair are big businessmen with complicated relationships in the capital, so there is no guarantee that there will not be someone who "adds sand" to the sellers.
Especially after knowing about the existence of Manichaeism, we must be more careful in doing things.
After looking for a while, he left the market with Yue Hanxin on the grounds that he didn't like it.
Wandering around the exotic West Market, people from Taiyue who visit for the first time may be shocked by the people of all skin colors and strange costumes.
Liu Buqi naturally wouldn't do that. Instead, he was still trying to figure out where these Hu merchants were from based on the general facial features and clothing features in his mind.
Sudden!
A Hu merchant, whose clothes had obvious Arab features, opened the huge tent behind him and kept shouting that he wanted to sell slaves on the grassland!
Liu Buqi took a look and saw dozens of women in grassland costumes. They must have been captured and turned into slaves.
Because powerful tribes of the grassland Han Kingdom were concentrated in the direction of Youzhou, the Youzhou army rarely went west to the grassland to fight, so there were very few slaves.
But in the direction of Datong, there are indeed many garrisons who will plunder nearby grassland tribes and privately sell people to make money. This is basically the case with the grassland slaves in Taiyue City.
Liu Buqi knew at a glance that among these grassland slaves, there were actually more than a dozen Taiyue women!
Alas! He sighed inwardly. These women were most likely Chinese women who were abducted during the grassland raids and were then snatched back by the Datong garrison.
Because they had been abducted before, they would be criticized if they returned to their hometown, and it would be basically difficult for them to get married again, so they chose to dress up as grassland women, preferring to hide their identities and become slaves.
The faces of women from the grasslands and those from the Central Plains are basically the same, and it is difficult to tell them apart if they dress carefully and deliberately hide their features.
But Liu Buqi had lived in Youzhou for many years and was still able to identify her through some details, such as the calluses on her palms. This most distinctive feature of grassland women was not found in most Taiyue women.
He waved his hand and asked Zhang Xiruo and Bai Jinjing who were following behind him to go forward and negotiate the price with Hu.
"It is generally recognized that women from the grassland are difficult to educate and are the most difficult slaves to sell in the capital. Why does Madam want to buy this group of people?" Yue Hanxin kindly reminded.
Liu Buqi smiled without saying anything. The people of Taiyue City only knew that the grassland people were unruly, but they didn't know that the grassland people also admired heroes the most!
Soon, these hard-to-sell grassland women were all sold by the Hu merchants at low prices.
Liu Buqi stood in front of the tent and spoke a few words loudly to the people inside in grassland language, and a large number of grassland women stood up.
Under the surprised gazes of Hu Shang and Yue Hanxin, he repeated what he had just said in Taiyue dialect.
"You have been sold into the Canglang Yue Lingxi Mansion in Youzhou. If you are willing, stand up and follow me!"
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