Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"These slaves were sold to us?!"

Old Zhao's instinctive reaction was that the human trafficker in front of him was trying to trick him, and a look of vigilance appeared on his face.

however.

The person opposite seemed to have seen through his concerns at a glance, and took a wooden plaque off his neck.

He then took out a document from his pocket and handed it to Old Zhao with a smile.

"Old man, this is Taiyuan Prefecture, right under the feet of His Highness the Holy Emperor and Crown Prince. Even if we were to deceive you elsewhere, we wouldn't dare to use the government's name to deceive people here in Taiyuan Prefecture!"

"If the authorities find out, losing your head would be the least of your worries... If you don't believe me, you can come with me over there. There are officials from the New Policy Implementation Department and the Commerce Department overseeing things there. Surely you don't suspect that people from those two departments are swindlers?"

Following the direction the slave trader pointed, Old Zhao saw several officials dressed in Bingzhou official robes processing documents beneath two fluttering flags.

In front of the pavilion, there were figures who were clearly merchants, waiting in line.

“Those people are all here to buy slaves. They are all landlords from Taiyuan Prefecture and the surrounding areas of Bingzhou. Now that the people have their own land, they will not be tenant farmers for them. They can’t cultivate their own land…” the slave trader said.

Old Zhao then nodded.

The eldest son of the Zhao family couldn't help but move closer to his father.

“Father, in our family, there’s my second son, and your land, which adds up to over a hundred acres. My second son, my wife, and I all have jobs, and my second son’s wife is pregnant. You can’t manage all that land by yourself, so perhaps…”

The human trafficker wore a smile.

Old Zhao looked clearly tempted, yet also obviously had some reservations.

He spoke with a smile.

"Are you worried that these slaves will be unruly, sir? Don't worry, these slaves are all from the Harsha Dynasty, and they have all been trained by the government. Those who are wild and unruly have already been sent to mines and build roads."

"His Highness the Crown Prince is concerned about the people of our Great Tang. Families are short of people and have wasted the land they have been allocated. Therefore, when merchants buy slaves, they have to pay a slave purchase tax. But for ordinary people like us, as long as we buy no more than five, we are exempt from taxes."

Old Zhao was even more tempted...

Human slave dealer: "If you are not a local, we have a contract with the slave trading caravan. If you buy five slaves, we can have the caravan deliver them to you along the way, as long as it is within the territory of Bingzhou Road."

Old Zhao's heart began to pound.

His previously tense body involuntarily followed the other person into the sheds where Harsha's slaves were locked up.

Just as this human slave trader said.

These Harsha slaves were clearly trained and disciplined.

Although each of them was physically capable of being used as cattle or horses, the cowardice in their eyes and the incompetence and stupidity emanating from their bodies were immediately apparent, even to an ordinary person like Old Man Zhao.

The slaves here include both men and women.

However, the female slaves were generally quite ordinary-looking.

The eldest son of the Zhao family looked around at the various sheds.

Some merchants, holding documents and contracts and accompanied by guards from the merchant guild, were selecting slaves here. Each of them even had a professional person to check whether the slaves had any diseases.

The human trafficker smiled.

"Don't worry, sir. All the slaves here have been examined by personnel from the National Medical College and the Royal Medical College, and they all have disease test reports. There won't be any problems..."

While they were talking, the slave trader had already led Old Man Zhao and the others to the slave shed he was in charge of.

"Old man, look, all the goods here are the best. Look at this physique, and look at this one... According to the Tibetans, this man is a border guard soldier of the Harsha Dynasty. The food he eats is far superior to that of ordinary Harsha people..."

"He can be used not only for plowing and farming, but also for physical labor such as moving things, building houses, laying bricks, paving roads, and cleaning yards..."

Soldiers of the Harsha Dynasty?

Old Zhao's curious gaze had just turned over when it met a pair of evasive and timid eyes.

Old Zhao: "......"

"You mean, this thing is for soldiers to get paid?"

Old Zhao had also experienced the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

Living in Bingzhou, he had seen countless armies.

His Majesty's Xuanjia Army, the Tang army led by Cheng Yaojin, the armies of Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong, the Turkic cavalry, and even bandits...

To be honest, everyone in his memory was inferior to the guy in front of him.

It's more like they're living off military pay.

The human broker also looked embarrassed.

"Hehe, this... old man, you may not believe it, but to be honest, even we government-trained brokers can't believe that the Harsha Dynasty is so ridiculously weak. They are indeed the original Harsha Dynasty soldiers."

"I still have the proof of sale issued by Tibet when they sold it to us..."

Seeing that the other party seemed eager to prove that he wasn't lying and started searching for the documents he mentioned, Old Zhao waved his hand.

"What's the price of these slaves?"

Oh my God! ! !

These are questions that only landlords in the past would dare to ask, yet they actually came out of my mouth, Old Man Zhao!

Old Zhao forced himself to remain calm.

The hand holding the basket still filled with eggs unconsciously tightened its grip.

The slave trader pointed to the Harsha Dynasty soldier he had just mentioned.

"These, and these stronger ones, are four strings of cash each; these shorter ones, two and a half strings; and these female slaves..."

"No female slaves!" Old Zhao interrupted without hesitation.

His wife has passed away, and besides his two daughters-in-law, it's best not to have any other women in the house.

Seeing this, the slave trader stopped explaining.

After waiting for a while, Old Zhao pondered and then discussed it with his two sons.

Finally, they selected one Harsha's soldier slave and four relatively cheap slaves.

"We sincerely ask that you accept nine strings of cash. Please put your fingerprint on this document and leave your address. We will deliver these slaves to you within one month at the latest."

The human trafficker had a big smile on his face.

In fact, the slave trade, especially the slaves sold to people to be used as "farm tools," was not profitable at all.

The real money made by the Tang Dynasty from buying and selling slaves came from dealing with merchants.

The slaves that the common people no longer needed could only be resold to the government; they could not be sold to others privately. However, the purchase tax that merchants had to pay when buying slaves was actually more expensive than the purchase of slaves themselves.

When Old Man Zhao walked out of the slave market, escorted by the slave trader, he still looked at the document in his hand with disbelief.

I feel a little lightheaded when I walk.

"This... does this mean our family will have servants from now on? Are we now landlords?"

He muttered to himself, while his eldest and second sons beside him looked equally bewildered.

landlord...

Think about their lives now.

We no longer lack meat at home, and while we earn a lot of money, it's a far cry from what we used to be able to dream of.

Now that he's bought servants, isn't he just a landlord?

The slave market was extremely busy. Even when Old Zhao and his group entered Taiyuan City, they could still see many carriages and merchants coming out of the city, all heading towards the market.

In today's Tang Dynasty, every industry is short of people.

Especially a physically demanding job.

Yangcheng Palace, Shougong Hall.

"Your Highness, sales at the slave market are going very well. Not only are the common people fond of those Harsha slaves, but the merchants are also very interested. I estimate that the twelve thousand slaves will be sold out in no more than half a month..."

Xiao Rui, the head of the Commerce Department, excitedly reported to Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian looked at the report in his hand and nodded in satisfaction.

“Very good. The defeated soldiers and noble slaves from the Turks, Tuyuhun, and Goguryeo, as well as the convicts who dug canals, are ultimately unsuitable for the civilian market. But the slaves from Harsha are perfect; they are easy to tame and have a deep-seated servility…”

Li Chengqian paused slightly as he spoke.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes.

"If that's the case, the number of Harsha's slaves might not be enough..."

Xiao Rui immediately lowered his head and moved closer.

"Your Highness, why not send someone to Tibet and ask them to intensify their efforts?"

Li Chengqian shook his head slightly, glanced at the Tibetan geomantic map on the signboard beside him, and sneered.

"Songtsen Gampo was an ambitious man. The Harsha slaves could bring him a lot of wealth and military power, but what he wanted even more was the power to break free from the control of my Great Tang, and... the land of the Harsha Dynasty!"

“If we get them to increase their investment in capturing slaves for the Harsha dynasty, they can take the opportunity to make some excessive demands.”

"Now that our Great Tang is engaged in a major war in the Western Regions, the Goguryeo situation will further distract us, making it unsuitable to devote our energy to dealing with them."

Xiao Rui frowned.

However, before he could figure out how to break the deadlock...

Li Chengqian suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"It's alright. One dog has meat to eat, so it's naturally fearless. But what if another dog comes along and tries to take the meat from them?"

As he spoke, Li Chengqian tilted his head toward Wang De, who was standing to the side.

"Go, summon Zheng Lizhen to me."

Wang De accepted the order and left quickly, and only a short while later...

Sun Yi suddenly strode in.

"Your Highness, an old man from the Zhao family in Jiaoniu Village, Hehe County, has come to the palace. He says he wants to see you."

Li Chengqian was taken aback, but Sun Yi quickly spoke up again.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to disturb Your Highness, but His Highness the Prince of Chu happened to enter the palace and encountered the Zhao family member at the gate, so he sent this old servant to inquire about Your Highness's situation..."

Xiao Rui didn't understand who this old man from the Zhao family was.

Li Chengqian immediately thought of the other party, but he couldn't believe it. Coming from Hehe County to Taiyuan Prefecture, he had almost crossed half of Bingzhou.

"Let them in."

Outside Yangcheng Palace.

King Li You of Chu has just returned from the Agricultural College of the Imperial University.

At this moment, however, he was chatting with the Zhao family father and sons with his hands in his pockets, showing no sense of distance or airs.

When they learned that they had also purchased slaves, they burst into laughter.

"You're lucky to have stumbled upon this. There are over ten thousand Harun slaves. The area around Taiyuan alone wouldn't be enough to accommodate them all."

"However, with these slaves, you can think about how to get rich when you go back. You can select some of the hundreds of acres of land to plant orchards, or if there is farmland near the river in Hehe County, you can open a fishpond..."

This wasn't the first time Li You had interacted with farmers from the lower classes of the Tang Dynasty in this way.

He was interested in farming and animal husbandry, and often accompanied professors from the agricultural college to help out in the countryside.

however.

Listening to this Crown Prince's younger brother, who is so young, he has such profound insights into farming.

The Zhao father and son felt a sudden heaviness in their hearts.

This is what it feels like to be treated like a human being by noble lords...