Chapter 94 Chapter 94 Update.
Ji County, the capital of the State of Yan, was located north of the Yellow River and was a gathering place for a wide variety of goods, including silk, fish, and salt from the Bohai Sea; horses, barking dogs, feathers, and leather from the Beihai Sea; and cattle, sheep, furs, tendons, and horns from the Jieshi River. It could be said to be a distribution center for goods in the north.
Guangdeli is a small village of a hundred households in Ji County, close to Zhuo County. It is a relatively remote place and few outsiders visit.
The people here grow beans and wheat together all year round. Now is the wheat harvest season, and people are busy in the fields.
Most of the men wrapped their heads with scarves and wore a pair of calf-nose pants, which were like the loose triangle shorts of later generations, with their upper bodies exposed. The women wore linen jackets, carried baskets and baskets of wheat, and walked in the fields.
I saw three unfamiliar faces coming up the road, one big man and two little girls. I don’t know how far they had walked, their faces were covered with dust and looked very dirty, but their eyes were still bright, and they twisted their bodies to look at the surrounding environment.
The oxcart we were riding in creaked and sounded like it was about to fall apart.
The villagers questioned them one after another, and it turned out that their accents were not local.
"Huiji? That's Wu, right? It's really far away."
"He traveled over three thousand miles to find his mother. What a filial son!"
Nowadays, filial piety is very important. The word "unfilial" is not just a moral issue, but also a serious crime that can be sued by parents and sentenced by the government, and the penalty is death by being thrown into the market. This shows the importance of filial piety.
When everyone heard that Ji Xu and his friends had traveled thousands of miles just to find their mother, they couldn't help but admire them.
Some of the men, upon seeing outsiders coming in, gripped their sickles and carrying poles tightly, looking alert.
Hearing their purpose, he became polite and replied:
"Tian Guinu? We don't have such a person in Guangdeli."
"Not to mention that there was no such person in February or March this year, even in my life here, I have never heard of anyone with the surname Tian. There is no one with the surname Tian in our area."
When Ji Feng heard that her mother was not in Guangli, she felt very disappointed. "The letter was sent from here, where else could she be..."
His face no longer had the same expression as before.
"We want to find the post office near Guangdeli. Do you know where it is?" Ji Xugai asked.
"Just to the north."
"If you walk north along this road, there is a very conspicuous watchtower."
Everyone was talking to each other, enthusiastically giving them directions, and they kept talking until the oxcart left.
"Poor thing, this ox cart has been going for who knows how long."
In half a day, the story of Ji Xu's 3,000-mile journey to Youzhou to find his mother spread throughout Guangli.
Ji Xu and her companions found the post office, and the postman in the watchtower asked them about their purpose and let them in.
There was a postman on duty inside. After hearing Ji Xu's description of the letter, he searched the shelf for it.
"From Kuaiji, Kuaiji... I found her. Here she is. There's no such person as Tian Guinu in Guangdeli. Your letter has been left at the post office forever and cannot be delivered."
The letter was still intact. It was the letter that Ji Xu wrote back to Tian. No wonder there was no news and the letter never reached Tian's hands.
"Brother, what should we do?" Ji Feng asked. The letter had not been sent and the person was not there. Youzhou was so big, and Yan State was so big, where else could he find him?
"Please read this letter."
Ji Xu found the letter from Tian Shi in his bundle, and the ink on the wooden tablet was still there.
"Maybe we can find out who sent this letter in the first place?"
The postman took it and looked at it, "It is indeed our seal. Let me look for it."
Sure enough, he found the February registration booklet and said, "It's not Tian Guinu, but Wang Ye. It was sent by Wang Ye."
King's business?
"I remember now!" The postman slapped his head. "I wrote this letter for him. He couldn't read, so he read your letter to me."
It was that sentence: Mother is away, everything is fine, I will find my sister one day and return home to reunite with her, I hope Feng and Zhu will be strong and take care of themselves.
"Is Wang Ye a local?" Ji Xu asked. If he could find Wang Ye, he should be able to find out the whereabouts of Tian.
"No, there is no one with the surname Wang in Guangdeli. He must be a servant of some family. It is easy to identify him. I still remember his appearance. He is of medium height, with black hair and an oval face.
The most striking thing is that he has no nose. He must have been mutilated and forced into slavery. I wanted to check his household registration, but he didn't have one either."
Because of this, the postman guessed that this person was a slave.
Slaves and servants were not registered citizens and had no household registration. They were the private property of their masters and were attached to the household registration of their masters. They belonged to the household registration section and had no household registration of their own.
It was common for slaves to send letters on behalf of their masters or to their own distant family members. As long as the person paid enough postage, they would do it.
Ji Xu and her companions stayed overnight in a village pavilion near Guangdeli. While the cattle were being watered, she chatted with Tingfu, who was cleaning the cowshed next door.
I casually asked Tingfu about Wang Ye. If he had stayed overnight in Xiangting, Tingfu might have an impression of him.
Ting's father shook his head and said, "Survived the nose-cutting punishment? I've never seen such a case. However, in February, two officers and soldiers from Zhuo County came and were also looking for a man who had been subjected to the nose-cutting punishment. His appearance matched your description. However, the man they were looking for was not called Wang Ye, but Wang Ye. I heard that he was a runaway slave from the Zhuo County governor's family."
Ji Xu thought for a moment and asked, "What's the surname of the governor of Zhuo County next door?"
Tingfu said, "His surname is Wang, and he is the governor of Wang County."
Ji Xu thought that Wang Ye and Wang Ye should be the same person. If he was a runaway slave from the family of County Magistrate Wang, it would make sense, as many slaves would take their masters' surnames. Wang Ye might have used his original surname when he was on the run, or he might have casually changed it to Wang.
But what is the relationship between him and Tian, and why did she entrust the letter and two sets of clothes to him to send? Perhaps he would have to go to Zhuo County to find the answer to all this.
The next morning, I set off for the neighboring Zhuo County. I had heard that there were many iron mines in Zhuo County, but I was shocked when I saw it with my own eyes.
All I could see were bare, black, gray mines, rolling and undulating. At the foot of the mountain, there were many iron smelting furnaces and smelting furnaces, covering an area of 20 to 30 acres. Thick smoke was billowing from the top of the furnaces, and it seemed that it could rub out carbon black particles when it fell on people's faces.
Some laborers, like ants, were working beside the furnace, digging ore, transporting it, and heating it. Some were prisoners, some were imprisoned by the iron officials, and some were exiled criminals. The iron officials were supervising the work, constantly urging them to speed up.
This was a government-run iron industry, and the residence of County Magistrate Wang was in Zhuo County, the seat of government.
As they walked into the city, they saw many abandoned small workshops, which were once used by wealthy businessmen to smelt iron or recast iron tools.
However, since the salt and iron industry was officially run, these private workshops were no longer allowed to operate. The larger ones, like the large furnace next to the mine we just saw, were taken over by the government and put into use again.
The smaller workshop has been idle for many years. Now, with the leaves dead and the ground covered, some children are running around inside playing hide-and-seek.
Passing by the Duting, I saw the notice posted there was already mottled, but I could still make out what was written on it:
The fugitive slave Wang Ye had been subjected to the punishment of cutting off the nose. He was of medium build, with dark skin, black hair, and an oval face. Witnesses reported the matter to the county court.
Attached below is a portrait of Wang Ye.
It matched the description of Wang Ye given by the postman. She was sitting in the carriage, reading it carefully, when she saw a clerk come out and take down the notice on the list. She hurriedly asked:
"Why did the officer uncover it? But the fugitive has already been found."
"He was caught a long time ago," said the pavilion official.
So, Wang Ye’s whereabouts are known. Since he was captured, we should go to the county magistrate’s mansion to inquire about him.
Even if I asked for directions and found the place, I could only walk around the tall gate and the courtyard and stare blankly, without seeing a single person who could speak.
Whenever they approached the gate, the powerful gatekeeper would pick up a stick and drive them away.
"What are you doing! Go out to the streets to look for someone! We don't have the person you're looking for here! Get out of here!"
Not to mention the steps in front of the door, even the stone lions at the door cannot be approached.
After sending them away, he nodded and bowed politely to the distinguished guest who came down from the carriage.
Ji Feng was so angry that he put his hands on his hips and cursed, "Look at their faces! Everyone here says that County Magistrate Wang is honest and cares about the people, but his officials are so flattering and looking down on the weak. Pah!"
They couldn't find any news about the county magistrate's office, so they could only stay in an inn temporarily. Fortunately, they had earned some money at the previous two stops. After closing the door and counting, they still had twenty-five taels.
"We have no house, no land, no business in Zhuo County. We must find out where our mother is as soon as possible, otherwise we will be left with nothing."
Ji Fengdao said that it was not cheap to stay in this inn for a day, and she had to save money for the return trip after finding her mother. She wanted to find some work nearby, as she could not stay idle in the inn all day.
Ji Xu would not let her go, so he asked Ji Zhu to teach her to recognize words. They carried books in their bags. They were on the road for more than a month. Ji Xu would teach his two sisters to recognize words when he was driving the car. However, Ji Zhu remembered them well, but Ji Feng forgot them the next day, which made them review their books to kill time.
She went to the vicinity of the county magistrate's residence and found that the entrance and exit of the residence were orderly. Before dawn, there would be people delivering vegetables and fresh meat, and people taking out night incense. At dusk, there would be people collecting garbage and disposing of ashes.
But they all stopped at the corner gate, and the servants inside took things in or carried them out.
She noticed that in the past two days, apart from some dignitaries in gorgeous clothes, no other outsiders entered the mansion.
This day was a little different. A carriage was hitched at the side door, and the driver was waiting at the corner gate. A maidservant who was dressed in gold and silver, well-dressed and with a strong body got on the carriage.
Ji Xu followed all the way to the East Market, where there were not only a wide variety of goods, but also slaves from all over the place.
The traffickers surrounded the strong woman on both sides and greeted her with a smile:
"Mrs. Lai, you haven't been here for a long time. I have a new batch of healthy slaves. None of them are sick. They can be used as soon as you buy them back."
"Mrs. Lai, come and see me."
"Come here! Don't crowd me."
Mrs. Lai looked very proud and pointed with her finger, picking out five or six slaves with their hands and feet intact.
The slaves were tied up hand and foot and locked in a cage with cattle and sheep. When they were called, the traffickers would lead them out. Mrs. Lai would pat their faces, open their mouths to check their teeth and tongues, and only the healthy ones would be kept.
There was a little girl locked in the cage, about five or six years old, with lice crawling all over her head, and she was as skinny as a stick.
The trafficker pointed at her and said, "Sell this to Madam Lai for half the price. You can keep her to do some odd jobs. Her hands and feet are still nimble. She has been raised since she was a child and knows her master. She won't run away even if you beat her or scold her."
Mrs. Lai pinched her arm and found that she would not scream, so she said:
"How dare you fool me? This is clearly a dud. If you give me a thousand coins less, I'll buy it from you."
The human trafficker said he dared not, but agreed to Mrs. Lai's bargaining price, uncuffed the little girl, and handed her to Mrs. Lai to take back.
A healthy slave is worth more than ten thousand coins, but this young mute girl cannot be sold at that price. We are calculating the total price here.
Ji Xu felt that the little girl looked familiar. She looked like the "daughter" of the thief Mrs. Xiao who had settled in Benguli in the past.
It seems that this little girl is indeed a trick of the thief woman. She might have kidnapped someone else's daughter from somewhere. She looked around the cages but did not find Ji Huhai.
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