Chapter 340 Return
After eating the hot pot, Qin Guosheng, the Minister of Qin, his uncle and his nephew walked out of the governor's mansion. When the cold wind blew, the purple round-neck official robe couldn't keep out the cold, and the uncle and nephew couldn't help shivering.
"Why did you promise Qin Sanlang just now? There are more than 10,000 Han slaves in our tribe. If you really want to sell it, you have to sell him for tens of thousands!" Qin Guosheng complained.
"Uncle, Yi Guogong has already spoken, can we not let the Han slaves go?"
"But he also said to pay at the market price."
"But he only came out with 10,000 banknotes. Doesn't Uncle think that he can really make up for it?" Minister Qin thought he could understand the thoughts of the Han monarchs and ministers. Now his father is in Chang'an, and Fengzhou also has people. The Tang garrison, not to mention Qin Lang has just sent several troops to guard the periphery of Fengzhou.
In fact, the back set has been surrounded by Tang Jun now.
Have offended Xieli over there, are they going to offend the people of Tang again?
If you really want to offend the Tang people, this is closing the door and beating the dog.
Qin Lang's 10,000 guan money was already considered to give them face, so he took it when he saw it.
"Impossible?" Qin Guochang rubbed his head, not quite convinced.
"Uncle, don't just stare at those few Han slaves. Although they can be worth some money, they are only a few slaves. We voted for Tang now. The trade is booming, and our shares are quite a lot. , this first tranche has won 10,000 guan, and there will be more in the follow-up."
This ten thousand is only the share that Qin Lang gave them, and this does not include their own cattle and sheep fur business. Which one of Qin Minister's family is not tens of thousands of horses and tens of thousands of cattle and sheep.
In the past, limited by the size of the border market, I couldn’t sell it if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to give away wool or anything for free. Now it’s different. I just come and collect it. The price is not bad, and everything can be sold for money, which is great. thing.
So Minister Qin is quite satisfied with the status quo.
It not only kept the pastures from being annexed by Xieli, but also maintained the position of the leader of their own family, not to mention keeping all their cattle, sheep, camels and horses. Now it is just handing over the slaves of the Han family. In addition to Han slaves, they also have Turkic slaves Tiele slaves Sogdian slaves!
"Turn around, and send an order to hand over all the Han slaves to Tang Jun, don't delay."
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Dusk.
Yugu was milking the cows, and the master Gu Dulu came back from grazing every evening, so Yugu and other slaves rushed to milk the cows.
Milking is a very hard job. Every day before dawn, you have to get up and milk for the first time. The owner, Gu Dulu, has more than 100 cows, more than 30 horses, and more than ten camels. There are more than 2,000 sheep.
In the tribe, this is a relatively wealthy herdsman family. Gu Duolu has seven brothers. Because they are all adults, they have separated a long time ago. His father lives with Gu Duolu, who is the youngest son.
Gu Dulu had a Turkic wife, six other concubines, two Turkic women, a Tiele woman, a Sogdian woman, a Han woman and a Xianbei woman.
He also had many children. He had more than a dozen children, some of whom were already married and others married.
Most of the children are still young and have not yet married, so the eldest and second children of the married family have not yet separated. Therefore, this is a huge family with a large number of people and a large number of livestock.
Gu Duolu and his six brothers formed a tribe of about 160 to 70 people. They grazed on a pasture several tens of miles away. This pasture was the pasture of their family and tribe. They live more than ten miles apart and get together occasionally.
Gu Duulu had seven wives and concubines, more than a dozen children, and thirteen slaves. Among these slaves, there were seven Han slaves like Yugu.
Yugu means precious in Turkic language.
His real name is Yuan Zhen, and he used to be a scribe in Fengzhou in the Sui Dynasty. He recalled that when Yujuluo was guarding Fengzhou, the Turkic people did not dare to approach them, and they dared not even touch them.
But later, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty had no way, and the world was in chaos. Fengzhou, a beautiful place stuffed with pearls, became a Turkic pasture again. Yuanzhen was also captured in the Turkic attack, and then sold to many A Turkic master, finally settled down in Gu Dulu's house.
Gu Dulu treated him well, renamed him Yugu, and made him work like a housekeeper because he could read and write. But the housekeeper also needs to milk the cows and goats.
Asu came over, "I heard from the master that there is a caravan coming, so I ask you to go back and receive it."
She is also a slave of the Han family, and her family is from Mayi.
After arriving at Gu Duolu's place, the master made the two pair up. A poor couple also gave birth to five children here. The seven Han slaves of Gu Duolu's family were exactly their family.
But this does not show how good Gu Dulu is. Letting slaves pair up to give birth, in their eyes, is just like managing cows and horses and letting cows and horses pair up to give birth, it is a way of adding value.
The children they gave birth to were their slaves when they were young, working for them, and they could be sold when they grew up.
Today's Yugu and Asu are completely Turkic, with dirty sheepskin robes, and even their hair styles have changed.
The once elegant frontier civil servants are now badly portrayed by wind knives and frost swords. Their skin is rough and dark, and they always have a fishy smell on their bodies.
Carrying a bucket of milk, Yugu first sent the milk back to the dairy, where a female slave was beating ghee. A bucket of milk had to be turned up and down thousands of times to make a small amount of ghee. These ghee were good things for the masters to enjoy , It is also a good thing for the herdsmen to keep and trade salt tea.
Yugu went over and touched her face, and then took the dried cow dung off her hair.
"Aye, I just heard that a caravan is coming and the master wants to sell us. Is it true?" Yu'er was terrified. She knew that slaves were often bought and sold. If the price is high, the owner will sell them at any time.
She didn't want to leave Grandpa and Madam, she was afraid of the outside world.
Yugu rubbed his daughter's head and felt a pain in his heart. What a lovely daughter, the treasure in his heart is just someone else's grass. He started working since he was a child. He was often whipped. , was often punished to sleep with the sheep.
Ten years old, I don't know how this child survived.
He stared into his daughter's eyes, "Yu'er, father will not let the master sell you, father will beg the master to keep you, you are a good hand at work."
Yu'er nodded and lowered her eyes.
Yugu left the nursery with a lot of thoughts and came to the owner's tent.
Gu Duulu’s family all sat in the tent, cow dung was burning in the firepit, and an iron pot was placed on top of it. This was a precious treasure of Gu Duolu’s wife, and ordinary herdsmen’s homes did not have such an iron pot.
Such an iron pot is very good for making milk tea or stewing lamb.
"Yugu, I have something to tell you!"
Gu Duolu holds a porcelain milk tea cup in his hand. This set of porcelain is also one of the treasures of Gu Duolu's wife.
"Respected master, Yugu obeys your orders!"
Yugu bowed his head and said.
"I just received an order from Yu Sheshe to ask the whole tribe to send Han Chinese slaves to Fengzhou."
Yugu's heart moved, but he held back his expression.
"What are we going to do?"
"Yu Sheshe voted for the Tang Dynasty, and was named the king of Huaihua County by Tang Tianzi, and named Qin Guozhong. He also worshiped Qin Qiong, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, as his adoptive father. Now Yu Sheshe is staying in Chang'an to marry the emperor's younger sister. Zhou is Qin Qiong's son, and Yu Sheshe's righteous brother Yi Guogong Qin Lang came to inspect the school and the governor..."
Yugu actually knew this. When a caravan came over before, he asked them a lot about the outside situation and knew about these changes.
Gu Duolu continued, "Now we are all Tang citizens. Duke Yi wants to redeem all the Han slaves. The eldest son of the county king has ordered all the tribesmen to send the Han slaves under him to Fengzhou. Yugu, You are going to be free, you have met a good emperor and a good official, and they will redeem you!"
Yu Gu, no, Yuan Zhen felt sore in her heart.
Finally the day came.
It has been more than ten years. He has been a slave for more than ten years, and he has been under Gu Dulu for eleven years. His eldest daughter is ten years old. In fact, Gu Duolu treated him pretty well, much better than the few masters he met before.
But no matter how good it is, it’s only the master’s kindness to the slave. He was never really regarded as a human being from the beginning to the end.
Yuanzhen lowered her head to prevent her tears from being seen, "Really?"
"Well, you, your wife Asu, and your three children can all go to Fengzhou, and the Guihua County King will make up for us."
After the order was delivered, the members of the Gudulu family also had a long dispute.
Ru Gu Dulu's father firmly refused to agree. Minister Qin said that he would compensate them, but how much? And they are also used to the Yugu family, and feel that this family is very docile and obedient, and Yugu can also write Chinese characters, which can be of great use.
Gu Duolu finally decided to send him back, because the current situation has changed, and even Yu Sheshe went to Chang'an to marry the eldest princess of the Tang Dynasty, and accepted the canonization of Huaihua County King.
Besides, they are now trading with Han merchants, selling wool, sheepskin, and even livestock have also gained a lot of benefits. This is all a change.
Times have changed.
Early the next morning.
Gu Duolu prepared his horse, put beef jerky, mare milk, and water on his back, and then rode on the horse and set off for Fengzhou. Behind his horse, Yuanzhen's family of seven, who hadn't slept all night last night but were still extremely excited, They were all wrapped up tightly, and they followed closely behind the bone-thumping horse.
The snow is thick, the wind and snow are very strong, and the weather is very cold.
But Yuanzhen and his family are very passionate, and they finally embarked on the road to return to their homeland. Even if there is a knife in the sky, they will not hesitate to shrink back.
No matter how long the road is, the road is long and difficult, but the way home is exciting.
Yu'er held the hands of her younger brothers and followed her father closely.
"Grandpa, is Toyosu far away? Is it cold there?"
"Daughter, Toyosu is far away, but it's not cold there. That's our hometown. When we get there, we won't be slaves to others anymore!"
(end of this chapter)