Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 259 When slaves overrun

Time is like a girl's breasts, if you are not careful, it may pass.

In a flash, it was three years later.

In today's Song Dynasty, people are divided into three, six or nine grades.

The first-class Song people are court officials and shareholders of commercial banks, the second-class Song people are the imperial guards, merchants and scholars, the third-class Song people are urban residents of big cities such as Kaifeng, and the fourth-class Song people are the people of the countryside.

There are some people who do not have fixed jobs, household registration, or housing in the city. They only have leisure time. When they are busy, they go to the city to work for a period of time, and then return to the countryside when they have no work. They are the so-called migrant workers, and their status is roughly in the third. Between first class and fourth class.

Under the new restructuring, the distinction between the four classes has become more and more obvious, because the people in the first class are actually the ones who really decide the political formation of the court and the candidates for the crown prince. They actually have the right to vote in disguise. And this power is huge.

The second-class Song people influence the first-class Song people. In fact, they themselves are also the reserve team of the first-class Song people. The third-class Song people influence the second-class Song people. In other words, although they have no direct political influence, But it seriously affects people with political power.

The fourth class of people are villagers, and villagers are naturally people who have no united front value.

Of course, even the fourth-class Song people in the village are still Song people, and they can go to the city to work at any time and become Song people.

But in today's Song Dynasty, in addition to the fourth class, there are more and more non-Song people, that is, foreigners, which also makes the social structure of the Song Dynasty become more and more complex.

Some of these foreign races are already an important part of the Song people. For example, the Shatuo people are now almost all from the Forbidden Army. The slightly older ones are almost all shareholders of trading companies. They are simply the Song Dynasty version of the Tianlong people.

In fact, many generals in the Forbidden Army and even the major shareholder of the trading company can't tell whether they are Han or Shatuo, such as Fu Yanqing, Bai Chongyun, etc. But in short, in fact, the status of Shatuo people is generally higher than that of Han people. And almost no one is poor, and everyone has a certain amount of political power.

Similarly, there are Dangxiang people, who are also highly Chinese-speaking and are the absolute main force of the vassal soldiers in the Forbidden Army. The merchants treat them equally when distributing shares, and the vassal soldiers also receive shares. Moreover, the three families of Zhe, Yang, and Li originally also The trading houses hold shares, and the most important thing is that they are stationed in Hexi, which is directly facing the Khitan people. The trading houses are indeed giving them profits. For example, almost all the wines in the Song Dynasty are produced in Hexi. Is it so big? Don’t grapes grow anywhere else in the Song Dynasty?

In fact, these people have become a vital and indispensable part of the Song Dynasty's national defense system. Their current status is very similar to the position of the Shatuo people in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Within one or two generations, they will definitely be completely Assimilate them.

Besides, Yang Ye is still a general of the Forbidden Army and is deeply trusted by Zhao Guangmei.

The Shatuo people and the Dangxiang people can be said to be the most special foreign barbarians in the Song Dynasty. In fact, at least in the hinterland of Kaifeng, no one would distinguish them. The most important thing is that the Shatuo people and the Dangxiang people have no religious beliefs. , the Song Dynasty was so powerful that they put on Han clothes, learned Chinese characters, and gave the whole family a Han name. In essence, they were no different from Han people, and you couldn't tell them apart without careful identification.

Therefore, naturally the people regard them as their own people. No one thinks that they are not Song people, and they themselves are the same. There is no need for the court to expend any effort. Their people will spontaneously adapt their living habits to those of the Han people. Being close together, there is no resistance to intermarriage between the two clans.

National integration is difficult to say, but it is really quite simple. If nothing happens, in another 30 to 60 years, all the old Shatuo people will die, and there will be no Shatuo people in the world. Well, when Shi Jingtang is mentioned in the history books, they regard him as a traitor. In another 80 to [-] years, or at most [-] years, the party members will definitely be gone.

But apart from these two ethnic groups, other people are in trouble. Even the Uighurs and Khotanese are at least inferior in terms of status in the inland areas and are generally looked down upon. You don't need to go out to investigate to know that ethnic conflicts are accumulating.

In fact, the main issue is religion. No matter how strong the assimilation ability of the Han people is, they are helpless when it comes to religion. As long as this belief still exists, there will always be barriers in terms of living habits and culture. The Uighurs are naturally inferior in the eyes of the Han people. people.

Sometimes I really don’t mean to look down on people. It’s just that the differences in life are too great. It’s fine if I can’t get in touch with them. But after I get in touch with them, we can’t live in harmony at all when we work together.

However, the Uighurs at the top made a great contribution to the expansion of the Song Dynasty through doing business and fighting. This group of Hu merchants were still high-class people even in Kaifeng, and they were different from those who only had rich people in the Tang Dynasty. The rich Hu merchants were really rich and had soldiers. Some of the upper-class nobles were actually allocated shares of the trading company through the Guiyi Army, so the polarization in the mountains was very serious.

What's more, the Gaochang Uighurs are still a vassal state of the Liao Kingdom. Currently, a large part of the Khitan spies ambushing Kaifeng are these Uighurs.

Similar ones, of course, include the Semu people. The Semu people are simply their enemies in the Song Dynasty. However, this group of people plays an important role in maritime trade. The merchants who stayed in the Song Dynasty are all too rich. They all became people's masters in the Song Dynasty, but they had no political power and no united front value. In short, they were definitely not socially unstable elements.

That's all. What's really difficult is the other foreigners, such as the Koreans, the Jurchens, the Shiwei people, and even the Southwest Yi, Southeast Yi, Hai Yi, etc.

Many of these people were treated as slaves and bought by the Song Dynasty.

The current system of slavery in the Song Dynasty adopts a relatively benevolent annual subscription system. Even slaves sold from the Liao Kingdom are stipulated to be used for a maximum of five years. After five years, they must be freed, and even the master must pay a sum of money. If you don't pay back the money, you can report it to the government.

Of course, after the personal affiliation relationship ends, it can still be changed to an employment relationship.

Therefore, the hatred of these slaves and maids towards the Song Dynasty is not that strong. After all, the Song Dynasty really spent money. To put it bluntly, the purpose of the Song Dynasty is to wait for these people to regain their freedom and not stay in the Song Dynasty. Returning to their own tribes with the technology and culture of the Song Dynasty, they became the comprador class supported by the Song Dynasty, especially those Ugu people, and they were expected to help the Song Dynasty conquer the Khitan.

The current Song army is almost victorious in frontal battles with the Khitan. The equipment and training have been improved, but the fatal weakness of the lack of horses has not been solved. With bicycles, it can only be said that the battlefield rescue capability has increased. Still can't compare with horses.

Therefore, if you fight the Liao army in grasslands, Gobi and other places, you will have more than enough defense but not enough offense, and you will easily be cut off from supplies. It is really not a good idea.

At present, the first batch of slaves sold to the Song Dynasty, especially the female slaves, are actually old enough.

Unfortunately, not many people are willing to go back.

Most of them married someone from the Song Dynasty, some married rich people as concubines, some found a well-off family to live in, and some continued to sell as free agents.In fact, among the large number of foreigners in the Song Dynasty, not too many were really tied up and bought. Most of them came to the Song Dynasty to be slaves on their own initiative. If they sold themselves, they could get a high price. Anyway, there were only five in total. Year time?

Now even the southwestern barbarians and southeastern barbarians are using Song money, and even Song money can be spent in Haiyi territory. This thing makes it seem like they are working to earn foreign exchange.

After all, the current productivity of the Song Dynasty has increased, and the trade surplus is indeed huge. Other foreign races do not have wine to sell like the Dangxiang people. They have a trade deficit, but the things of the Song Dynasty are in urgent need, so naturally they can only export labor to the Song Dynasty. Well, in fact, there are very few people who sell themselves for five years. Many people take the initiative to sell for ten years. In the process, there will be smugglers and intermediaries who will ruthlessly suck blood from them.

Anyway, this kind of business here in Kaifeng is the business of Yizimen. It can be said to be knocking the bones and sucking the marrow, but the special thing is legal.

At present, the population of Kaifeng City has further expanded, but after the Forbidden Army moved to Luoyang, the total population still remains at around 300 million, but this word does not include slaves.

Conservative estimates put the slave population at 150 million, almost two to one.

In fact, only a small part of them are prostitutes, and some are illegal workers, doing anything. However, the money to buy slaves is generally much lower than the wages paid by workers.

Of course, the largest number are maids. Nowadays in the Song Dynasty, at least in Kaifeng, the number of female workers is increasing. Almost all of them are dual-career workers. The status of women has also risen, and no one has to take care of the family.

Life is getting better. Naturally, everyone wants to keep a maid, but now who wants to buy a Song Dynasty person or hire a Song Dynasty person to be a maid? These must be the rich and powerful among the rich, but those Yi people are really Very cheap.

Those who can speak Song dialect are more expensive. Generally, [-] guan will cost you five years, which is no more than half a year's salary for an ordinary Song Dynasty urban family. If you don't speak Song dialect at all, it will be even cheaper. One hundred guan is not impossible to buy. .

This price is so cheap that almost every household in the Song Dynasty now buys it. The housing problems of the city residents of the Song Dynasty are also very serious, so it is impossible for most of these maids to have a maid's room or live on the balcony. If you just set up a bed or simply live in a closet, as long as your luck is not too bad, you are unlikely to be abused by your master. The Song Dynasty court also prohibited slave abuse.

So much so that the entire ecology is particularly like the Filipino maids on Hong Kong Island, but the problem is that the Song Dynasty does not have the management capabilities of modern Hong Kong Island, and all kinds of troubles are coming one after another, which are also extraordinary troubles.

These are still female slaves. In fact, more male slaves were sold to the Song Dynasty, but most of them were sold to the countryside. After all, there are more people going to cities now and fewer staying in the villages. There are also many old and weak people. There will be more cultivated land, and landlords can no longer find tenant farmers.

Then every household raises slaves to replace sharecroppers. Even for an ordinary rural family, it is not difficult to raise a slave as a sharecropper now, and it can liberate oneself from heavy labor work.

However, when it comes to village affairs, the officials of the Song Dynasty have always been incompetent and almost left things alone. Although the laws of the Song Dynasty are not in name only, few people obey them, so many of these slaves who work as coolies will be treated badly. Treatment, slave killing, slave abuse and other phenomena occurred from time to time.

The result was that it also promoted the prosperity of martial arts in the countryside of the Song Dynasty. On the contrary, it allowed the traditional landlords who had been severely suppressed by Zhao Guangmei to regain a new life through these slaves, and the powerful landlord forces even counterattacked slightly.

The slave issue was actually the number one issue for the imperial court.

"There were at least 300 million slaves in the entire Song Dynasty, including the city walls and the countryside. At present, most of the first batch of slaves have regained their freedom, but judging from the results, those who really chose to leave the Song Dynasty and go home Very few. You know, the first batch didn’t have many people, only 40 to 100 people, but the second batch, there were at least [-] or [-] people. Next year, there might be [-] million people. Once these people stay in the Song Dynasty, They have no identity and are not slaves yet. During their five years as slaves, most of them have learned the basic Song dialect for communication. If they cannot be allowed to leave, it will be very, very troublesome."

In the new palace in Luoyang, Zhao Guangmei was reporting work to Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin listened quite absently and said sarcastically: "Look, I just said you can't make this so-called five-year agreement. Are you in trouble now?"

Zhao Guangmei said helplessly: "If there hadn't been a five-year agreement, I'm afraid there would have been a thunderstorm long ago. The most important thing in the civil economy is the mobility of people. At least for the slaves in the city, it is too easy to escape. Even if there is only one student among a thousand people, Bad, intentional killing, expropriation, and destruction will have a devastating impact on the city. To put it bluntly, the city itself cannot tolerate slaves. As for those country slaves and those who are local owners, some of them will behave well after the five-year period is up. Release him? I, Da Song, am still powerless to do anything about what happens in the village."

"Oh……"

"Oh? Brother, you should think of a solution. I wonder if this is a problem in my Kaifeng area."

"Is the problem serious?"

"Of course the problem is serious. The five-year period has come and the slaves have learned the Song dialect. Do you think they will be willing to remain maids and live in cupboards? Not to mention how many of these female slaves have seduced their masters? How many bloody ethics dramas have happened? There are more than 100 new lawsuits in this area in my Kaifeng Mansion every month. These women need to be capable and decent. To be honest, many of them are inferior in all aspects. Most people in the Song Dynasty are poor, can't they work? But if they work, where can I find so many jobs for them? Their requirements are low and their wages are low. Once they start working, we people in the Song Dynasty can beat them ? Maybe it won’t be long before the Song people, especially the women of the Song Dynasty, will all be unemployed in the city. As for the village, the problem in the village is even bigger. It’s like a big thunder, and no one knows when it will explode. "

"so what?"

"Therefore, those who have passed the five-year period, unless they are willing to continue to work in the master's house and then sign a deed of sale, otherwise they cannot be allowed to stay in the city any longer. They must be caught and sent back. "

"How much does that cost?"

"How much does it cost? We, the Song Dynasty, have to spend this money. Otherwise... we, the Song Dynasty, should charge more taxes on future slave trades. The wool comes from the sheep."

Zhao Kuangyin thought for a while and then said, "Go and talk to your second brother about these things."

"Tell me to my second brother? Why should I tell my second brother?"

"This emperor... I don't want to be the emperor anymore. If you don't want to be the emperor either, I want to pass it on to him."

"Aha?"

(End of this chapter)