Following the footsteps of the yamen servants, Leopard and dozens of members of his clan came to a wooden shed outside the city, where several scribes sat and wrote.
"What's your name?"
Leopard was stunned: "Leopard, I don't have a surname."
"Oh, savages usually don't have surnames. According to the rules, just follow the surnames of hundreds of families. It happens that you are Miao, so your surname is Miao!"
The scribe then raised his head and looked at the group of people behind him: "Are you from the same race? Then let's all have the surname Miao!"
"I'm telling you, if you don't get married if you have the same surname, you have to go to another village to get married. You can no longer intermarry within the clan like before."
It took half an hour to register.
Fifteen families, number sixty-four, all have names, no one is exception.
At the same time, each household has compiled a household register, which is in one volume.
The carpenters on the side are busy making wooden signs, and then specially engraving and dyeing them, specially customized for household heads and adult men.
Since there is no need to collect a small tax, this identification tag is mostly used for identification.
Afterwards, a group of people were led to a land bordering a mountain forest, overgrown with weeds, and close to a small river. It was fairly flat.
Looking up, I saw nothing but a village in the distance.
"You will settle here from now on."
The subordinate official looked irritated and pointed at the grassland and jungle and said: "You try your best to cultivate the land. I will measure it again in a few years. Each household will not exceed 100 acres. If it exceeds, you will have to pay more..."
After saying that, he left directly.
Everyone was left confused.
Leopard was also confused.
What about food, salt, and houses? Why is there nothing?
Just when they were all at a loss, a big man riding a donkey came slowly with a bag on his back.
He introduced himself as the head of Changxi Township and spoke in a slightly awkward Aboriginal dialect: "Our township is named after this stream, which is called Changxi. More than a dozen villages all drink from the stream water."
"Your half-foot-long river flows into the long stream..."
The leopard naturally asked how he could live in peace, why he had no house and no salt.
Hearing this, the township chief laughed and said: "How can the yamen be so good? How can it be possible to give salt to houses? Only the legendary Qi State can do that."
"The people from the yamen just give you a piece of land and register it in the yellow book. The rest is all up to you."
Leopard said angrily: "Then, life is not as good as in the mountains! Why are we going down the mountain!"
The township chief looked carefully at the people who were wearing animal skins and lying barefoot on the ground, and chuckled: "With this yellow book and household ID, you can go to the village fair, participate in the grass market, and even go to the county."
"You have just come down from the mountain. You must have hunted a lot of animal skins and horns. You can go to the grass market and sell them. You will make a lot of money. With money, you can build houses and buy salt."
"Money?" Leopard heard this familiar yet unfamiliar word.
In the forest, barter has always been the norm, and money is simply considered a fine decoration.
But as he was accustomed to traveling to and from villages and stealing items, he quietly heard a lot that money is the most important thing among Han people.
In his Tingqiang, there were so many fathers, sons, brothers, wives, children, old and young, all in quarrels over money.
Seeing that everyone was still confused, the mayor pointed to the deerskin on the leopard and said:
"In the market, a piece of good deerskin is worth one silver dollar. In the county town, it is worth three to five cents. In Dayuan, it is two dollars. I heard that when it is sold in Fujian, it is worth three or more than five dollars."
"Deer whips are even more expensive. The thicker and bigger they are, the higher the price will be, ranging from a dozen yuan to dozens of yuan."
As he spoke, he took out a silver coin from his inner bag and let everyone see clearly:
"This one dollar can buy fifty pounds of salt, two stones of grain, or three chickens. It can even buy a set of tables, chairs, and a bamboo bed."
"Just like if you want to build a house, you can use cheap bamboo to build three houses for ten yuan."
After the metaphor, others were a little confused, but Leopard understood.
They can continue to hunt in the mountains, and then use the prey to go to the market to exchange for money and buy whatever they want without being ostracized like before.
Compared with those farmers, it is easier for these savages who have just come down from the mountains to exchange money and settle down.
It was precisely with this in mind that the Yamen settled them casually without giving any help at all.
They didn't intend to give it either.
"Half of the villages in the township are settled like you. They use the money from hunting to make up for the land reclamation. It will be fine in two or three years..."
The township chief was long-winded and talked about settling down matters, and then said: "Although taxes have been exempted for five years, corvee labor is unavoidable. Every year, one month apart from the busy farming season is allocated to work on road construction, river construction, etc. Don't worry, take care of it. There’s no money for food.”
"If you encounter any difficulties, go to the next few villages. They are also savages..."
"If you have money, you can buy everything, including cattle and houses..."
Seeing how careful he was, the honest Leopard directly gave him a deer whip as a gift, which made the head of the village beam with joy and the fat on his belly trembled:
"I know that the people in your mountains are simple and honest, and are much better than those cunning and unscrupulous people."
As he spoke, he generously took out a pile of hatchets from the donkey's back:
"With this thing, I can finally build a shed today so I won't get caught in the rain."
He showed a sly smile: "One for each deer skin, or two for each deer whip."
Leopard was surprised for a moment, then smiled happily.
Even during the period of the Dadu Kingdom, it was not the Iron Age, which is why the Han people crushed them.
If the mountains and forests were not complex and dense with insects and snakes, many tribes would have been wiped out long ago.
"No, it's too expensive." Leopard looked embarrassed: "I heard people say that hatchets in the market only cost a penny..."
The mayor's smile stopped abruptly.
Damn it, how does this savage know so much?
"One deerskin and three knives." Leopard said sincerely.
"Okay." The mayor showed a smile.
Immediately, he took out an iron pot, salt, and a ten-pound bag of rice from the donkey's backpack.
These were urgently needed items, and after negotiating the price, both parties returned home satisfied.
Leopard exchanged ten deer skins, a deer whip, and a wild boar skin for ten hatchets, a large iron pot, ten kilograms of rice, and five kilograms of salt.
It can't be said that it was a loss, but it was something Leopard desperately needed.
The business was over, and the donkey was carrying the goods on its back. The mayor smiled happily:
"What's your last name?"
"Miao, the name Miao was given."
"That's Miao Village." The township chief said cheerfully: "From now on, your place will be Miao Village."
Ten kilograms of rice were cooked in the pot along with the bacon. The meat was fragrant and everyone's stomachs were full.
The next day, Miao Bao went to a nearby village and exchanged bacon for several clay pots and some rice.
And that iron pot became the exclusive property of him, the village chief.
The best bamboo house built here belongs to him, the village chief.
The large amount of goods stored in the tribe were also exchanged for many things, including clothes, shoes, pots and pans, etc.
And the village chief always has the best one.
Unconsciously, public ownership gradually withered, and Miao Bao became the richest person in the village.
…
Yue Kingdom, Gusu City.
After Ezo became the Yue Kingdom, Fukuoka City was changed to Gusu, which included Wu County, Wushang County, Shangyu County, and Yuyao County. The huge Yue Kingdom only had five counties.
The same is true. In addition to the Han people, the Yue Kingdom accepted the Koreans, Jurchens, Japanese, and Ezo people without fail, and the land they distributed was extremely generous:
Each household has 300 acres, which is equivalent to one town in Japan, or about 10 acres.
This is not to blame for its large area. It is really bitter cold in the country of Yue. It is almost the same location as Heilongjiang City. The land is barren. Without a certain amount of land, it is impossible to survive.
Therefore, in addition to 300 acres of land, an equal area of grassland will be allocated for raising cattle and sheep.
After several years of migration, the population of Yue has exceeded 80,000.
The big ship docked at Ping'an Port Pier, and a big-bellied blessing boat stopped slowly. Then a long ladder was put down on the trestle, and trembling people walked down one by one.
The shabby linen clothes on his body were unable to stop the howling cold wind.
In September, Vietnam has reached the end of autumn, and winter is coming, entering the cold winter more than a month earlier than Japan.
This group of short civilians trembled down and stood on the flat dock, with expectations and fear on their faces.
Standing in the crowd, Hachiro bent over, trying to reduce his presence as much as possible, while looking around, hoping to get more information to ensure safety.
"follow me!"
At this time, a group of big men came over and took the trembling civilians away to a row house.
A row of fire pits, three feet above the ground, very different from Japan.
Hachiro, with his wife and children, watched all this with fear. Like everyone else, he felt uneasy.
As a Japanese civilian, he did not have a surname, so he could only stick to his ancestral heritage and survive hard under the feudal government.
The biggest dream in life is to eat a meal of white rice.
A drought caused them to be sold by the feudal lord to this foreign country, just like livestock.
Suddenly, he smelled a scent in his nose.
"Dad!" The son held his hand and raised his head and said, "It seems to smell like rice..."
Hachiro thought he was delusional, but who knew that everyone was like this, sniffing hard, and they all said it was the smell of rice.
In an instant, several large buckets of steaming rice were carried over by a group of soldiers.
Then there is a bucket of dried radish and a bucket of salted fish.
"Everyone has it, don't fight for it."
The Hachiro family picked up the wooden bowls, scooped up the sweet and glutinous rice with their hands, and pushed it into their stomachs with all their strength.
I didn’t even have time to eat the salted fish and radish on top.
You can add more when you're done eating.
After eating five bowls of rice, Hachiro felt his stomach was full and had to stop.
"Asshole, that's enough. Stop eating. Do you want to become a Buddha?"
At this time, several men were still pulling the wooden bucket, scooping rice directly into their mouths with their hands.
The big men started kicking and fighting, cursing and pushing away, before the farce ended.
Many people were crying and vomiting.
Because they really couldn't eat it, but felt sorry for being forced to spit it out.
Even samurai could not eat rice more than once a year.
Why don’t the farmers who eat bran-pharyngeal vegetables feel distressed?
"Don't worry, His Highness the King of Yue is your master. From now on, there will be rice, and you can eat it every now and then..."
"In Japan, you have seven public officials and three civilians, or even eight public officials and two civilians. But in Yue, there are only three public officials and seven civilians. There is no need to collect any poll tax. There are only three public officials and seven civilians..."
"Every family has a land of three antis, and their life is more comfortable than that of a samurai..."
Not far away, a Japanese samurai wearing Wu uniform, with a Tsukiyo haircut and a felt hat, looked at all this and couldn't help but tut:
"Is the country of Yue that rich?"
"Why do a bunch of untouchables need to be cared for like this?"
"You have a lot of untouchables in Japan, but what Vietnam lacks most are untouchables."
At this time, the man accompanying him chuckled and said, "It's bitterly cold in the country of Yue!"
Soyizhen had a very good attitude towards the Hota Masatoshi in front of him.
In addition to his good looks, more importantly, if he is born in the same family name as the Japanese general Tokugawa Ietsuna, he may become a senior officer in the near future.
At this time, he was the Lord of the Furukawa Domain.
This time he came as an envoy to Yue State under the order of the general. In addition to discussing trade, he also prepared to intervene in the slave trade on a whim.
He was an upright man with outstanding abilities, so he naturally gained the respect of Soyoshi.
So I took him here to see the truth about the slave trade.
"Our country is short of people. Not only Japan, but also people from Korea will recruit people. Japan has many vassal states, and it is inevitable that there will be disaster-stricken countries. Therefore, our country has exchanged food for some of the victims."
"Not only can these victims survive, but they can also save others with the food they exchanged for themselves."
"This is a matter of immeasurable merit!"
Hota Masatoshi nodded: "That's all, let's leave it like this. People's livelihood is difficult, and it's good to be alive."
"It's better than them making trouble."
Zong Yizhen smiled.
Accompanying Hotta Masatoshi, Soyoshi took him around the Yue Kingdom. He was quite impressed by the magnificent Yue Palace:
"The architecture of the Tang Kingdom is exquisite and gorgeous, and it is really not comparable to our vassal countries."
Japan has always called China Tang Tu.
Entering the palace, he met the young King of Yue.
Hota Masatoshi knelt down to salute solemnly, then knelt down and sat aside with a serious look on his face.
The King of Yue was only twenty years old. Years of pampering made him look immature, but because of his handling of government affairs, he became a little more mature.
"Your envoy is here, can you give me any advice?"
The country of Yue has a prince title, while Japan has a prince title, which is theoretically one level higher.
But the King of Yue's concubine was from the Tokugawa family. As the son-in-law of the King of Japan, he didn't dare to deal with it.
"I heard that His Highness sells a lot of grain, so Edo specially sent me to inquire..."
Hota Masatoshi said respectfully.
It turned out that Vietnam purchased grain from North Korea and then resold it to Japan. Not only did it earn the price difference, but it also earned the gold and silver price difference. Although it smoothed the price of food in Edo, it accelerated the outflow of gold and silver from Japan.
You know, Japan's isolation is not only a safety hazard, but also to control the outflow of gold and silver and alleviate economic pressure.
Prices were high, and it was the Edo shogunate that suffered.
Hearing these words, the King of Yue suddenly blushed.
In the first half of this year alone, the country of Yue earned millions of silver dollars. It was by earning the price difference that they had enough energy to continue immigrating.
(End of chapter)
