"Grandpa, who are those people?"
Next to the official road outside Yunzhou City, a pair of grandfather and grandson looked at the Japanese slaves who were building a railway not far away and pointed.
The child was not very old, he looked like he was only five or six years old. His immature face was full of curiosity and he pointed at the Japanese slaves with a look of confusion on his face.
He had never seen such short people before. A bunch of little people a little over three feet were busy carrying stones, wood, and rails back and forth.
It was strange to look at the Yunzhou Army officers and soldiers who were so tired and looked at the work with a humble smile on their faces.
The old man is quite old, and at least half of the hair on the top of his head has turned silvery white, and is a bit presbyopic. After hearing his grandson's question, he immediately took out his newly-matched reading glasses from his arms and put them on, and looked at him carefully. Take a look over there.
"Hey! It's really strange. This must be a human, right? He's just so young and young?
Could it be that they are all dwarfs? But where did the Yamen get so many dwarfs? "
The old man was amazed after seeing it clearly, with a puzzled look on his face.
At this time, the store clerk who was passing by suddenly smiled and explained: "Old man, that's not a human, that's a Japanese slave, a sea monkey that our Yunzhou army captured on a small island at the other end of the sea, and there are some Ji Lingjin used them to mine and build roads!"
"Sea monkeys! No wonder they are so short. Why do these sea monkeys look like humans? How could there be so many dwarfs?" After hearing this, the old man suddenly realized.
The clerk suddenly laughed and said: "Surprise, I thought they were humans at first, but I only found out after listening to the big customers in our store. These are sea monkeys, shipped from Nanli County. Now only the Yamen have them." , if the number increases in the future, maybe the government can relax the restrictions and let people buy two and keep them at home for fun."
"Playing with monkeys?"
The old man looked at the mysterious look on the boy's face, and suddenly showed an expression like "You're kidding me." He looked at him as if he were a fool and shook his head: "What's so fun about monkeys? We used to be monkeys in the mountains in our hometown. But he’s so fierce, he can snatch people’s things, and he’ll get hurt if he’s not careful, and there are still people who want to play? What do you think?”
The waiter shook his head and suddenly whispered in the old man's ear: "Old man, I heard that the female monkey among the sea monkeys is a good thing. Many wealthy people in the city are eyeing it. They are just waiting for the Yamen to open. Buy a few and take them home to play with.”
The old man's eyes widened instantly. The world was changing so fast that he couldn't even react.
Explosion, these rich people don’t even spare the female monkeys.
What a blast!
The old man could only say these four words, and then he quickly left with his grandson.
These days, as soon as people get rich, all kinds of weird things appear. The old man can't understand them or understand them.
After the old man left, the waiter glanced at the Japanese slaves who were working and then curled his lips. The difference between this monkey and the other monkeys was too big.
One male and one female monkey are ugly and one is soft. Aren't they just like Rakshasa ghosts?
Then he shook his head and left.
On the Tri-City Railway construction site, Quan accidentally saw many Song people in the distance who would stop and look here for a while when they passed by. He immediately asked his friend in a low voice: "Shi Jun, why do those Song people look at us like this?" ah?"
The Japanese slave who was called to be a stone looked dark and strong. He glanced at the words and then said excitedly: "The people of the Song Dynasty must think that we are all good laborers. Seeing how hard we work, they are selecting people.
Don’t you know? Xingzi from the village next to me was bought back by a businessman from the Song Dynasty and became a slave. He had white rice balls to eat every day and lived a good life!
If we perform well, maybe a big businessman will take notice and buy us back, and then we can live a good life eating white rice dumplings every day! "
Shi's face was full of excitement, and his eyes were full of longing. He seemed to have imagined that he would be bought back by the Song people and have white rice to eat every day.
You must know that in the Japanese country at this time, except for the nobles, all other classes were living very hard.
The samurai were okay, they could occasionally get a good meal from working for the nobles, but they were still hungry and full every time.
And untouchables like them, who don't even have a surname and were named after whatever their parents saw when they were born, don't have enough to eat every day.
What I ate was rice bran, wild vegetables, and fish and meat caught in the river and sea.
White rice is simply a legendary food for them. Even if they have fields at home, the fields belong to the daimyo, and they have to use the harvested food to pay taxes.
What was left was only enough for them to buy some daily necessities, but most of the time the remaining bits would be taken away by the samurai who had been targeting them for a long time.
During the harvest season, samurai who had rarely appeared in the village would appear in the village in groups or alone after the daimyo tax collectors left, and snatch what was left from everyone's hands. food.
As they are called, they are noble warriors. They usually protect their safety so that they can farm safely, so they should use food to support them.
In the end, the untouchables of the Japanese country, who had worked hard for a year, could only survive on rice bran that no one wanted, wild vegetables picked from the wild, and fish and shrimp found in the river.
Those who are close to rivers and seas are fine, but those who have neither rivers nor seas around them have no choice but to go to the mountains and fight with wild beasts to get food. Every year, a large number of people become the prey of wild beasts.
As for the kind that has no rivers, seas, or mountains, if you can't find wild vegetables and eat rice bran, you can just wait for death. There is no other way to go.
Wandering is not an option either.
Untouchables like them can go to places that don't belong to them at will, and the local samurai can test their swords with them without any scruples, and no one will think it's wrong.
That kind of life is not much different from that of a slave.
Since being brought here to mine, even though it is dangerous, they still have something to eat every day. Although it is not white rice but millet rice, there is something to eat every meal!
And it’s more delicious than rice bran and wild vegetables!
Even if they are usually tired, they still enjoy it.
Now their biggest wish is to be favored by Song merchants, take them back as slaves, and eat white rice.
However, they did not know that the Song people in Yunzhou County only regarded them as monkeys, not people.
Only the female monkeys were interested. They had no interest at all in the short and ugly male monkeys.
And their only end is to die of exhaustion in the mines or on the way to road construction.
Looking at Shi's appearance, Quan couldn't help but show hope on his face. His hands became stronger and he worked harder.
And their strangeness was noticed by the soldiers of the Yunzhou Army.
Soldier A said to Soldier B: "You see, these Japanese are like idiots. They eat twenty pounds of millet that we exchanged for one pound of rice. They only have one bowl for each meal, but they are still grateful to us and just follow us." Work as hard as you saved their lives.”
Soldier B smiled and said: "Isn't this good? Mining and road construction are so dangerous, how can we let us Song people do it?
How many talents from the Song Dynasty do we have in Yunzhou County, who can do this?
This kind of hard work is what he asked these lower races to do! "
"Hahaha, yes!
I heard from the superiors that there are not enough Japanese slaves, and the superiors are going to send a group of poisonous people to come over to work. "
"What? Send them here? No, those poisonous people are lazy and unhygienic, and they are extremely difficult to control."
"Hey, isn't this easy? These Japanese slaves are obedient. Let's replace them with Japanese slaves and let them control the poisonous people. Isn't that enough?"
"It makes sense! You have a good mind, you can go to school now."
"That's right, my family didn't have the conditions at that time. Now both of my boys are in public schools. My husband said that they study seriously and do well!
When they come out in the future, there will be people with school diplomas, no matter what job they do, there will be a lot of people looking for them! "
"I'm envious. My brat always knows how to fight in school. It seems that I can only let him continue to serve as a soldier with me in the future."
"Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings, why do you think so much?
Is it worth having two drinks at night? "
"good!"
…
(End of chapter)
