Chapter 158 Thirteen Years of Slavery

In the eyes of Shangji, the world is a huge store.

The store is filled with a wide variety of goods, including garlic, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, grapes, cotton, wood, iron, cattle, sheep... They all have their own prices.

You grow wheat and exchange it for grapes; he makes wine and uses wine to exchange for mutton; I chop wood and exchange it for potatoes... Everyone is trading around.

So what about people?

Shangji has been thinking since he was a child, since good things have prices, are people the same?

If people are turned into commodities that can be placed directly in the store, will more profits be created?

Why don't you try it?

In fact, people have prices.

Shangji has observed patiently for many years.

He discovered through chatting and asking.

It's not that everyone thinks people shouldn't have prices, but once everyone has a fixed price, people will be turned into high-quality products, ordinary goods, and inferior people according to the price.

Apart from this, if people become commodities, then who are the customers participating in the transaction?

The only one who is qualified is the gods, because the power of the gods is everywhere. The great God Yao created the Yao civilization and managed the world.

Shang Ji felt that the omnipresent gods didn't care about such trivial matters.

Everyone still took themselves too seriously.

God Yao could create lightning storms, earthquakes and fires, and destroy other evil gods... He was too busy, and the whole world needed to be overlooked and taken care of by him.

It was like a giant and a group of ants under his feet.

The giant sometimes looked at them more if he found it interesting, but most of the time, he just glanced at them - he still had a lot of important things to do.

Giving a leaf to the group of ants and blocking a stream of water were easy for this huge giant. But the giant would not keep staring at a certain ant.

Gods don't care about the ants' thoughts.

Ants are dealing with ants after all.

Shang Ji felt that as long as the transaction was clearly marked and both the buyer and the seller agreed, why not?

How to price a person?

He spent a lot of time and made a detailed set of pricing standards.

First of all, look at the age of the person. The young ones are expensive and the old ones are cheap.

Then look at the physical condition, strong people are priced higher, weak people are priced lower.

Finally, judge the personal added price, that is, the labor capacity.

Compared with people without skills, people with skilled skills are more valuable.

…

Shang Ji thinks his set is very good. Let everyone know their own prices, clear and transparent.

As long as you follow your own way, the commodity of people will definitely circulate better.

However, Mayor Yu Lian and the merchant leader Shang Li completely rejected his proposal.

"Shang Ji, you must first learn one thing. Treat people as people."

Shang Li asked back: "According to your method, there is no difference between people and beasts and livestock. Why do people gather together? Just to be bought and sold by others?"

"Once people are treated as livestock for sale, trust disappears completely."

"Without basic trust, do you think merchants will still exist?"

"Will everyone still trade according to your way and rules? Instead of directly robbing and hunting?"

"You are too focused on trading. You are now mentally ill."

Although he was very unhappy, Shang Ji could not find a reason to refute.

But he still felt that he was right.

This is how business is done.

If you don't try, who knows if there is money to be made?

Besides, this is a business that no one has ever done, full of opportunities.

So Shangji united some businessmen and slowly reached a consensus, preparing to try it out with the islanders overseas. The native islanders don't have so many taboos, and many islands have the habit of trading people.

The overseas pilot was very successful.

The native islanders liked Shangji's slave trade very much. Shangji and others also bought a large number of slaves at sea, but these slaves could only grow wheat, potatoes, soybeans and grapes on the islands and could not enter the western continent.

After the death of Mayor Yu Lian, Shangli took over as mayor.

At this time, Shangli set his sights on the sea. He left Yancheng and said he was going to the northern islands to discuss cooperation with a chief.

But Shangji got inside information that Shangli was going to rectify the overseas slave market. This time he went to meet with several chiefs, which was a sign of formal action.

Shangji didn't stop at one thing and simply took the initiative.

He bribed the sailors and fishermen to sink Shang Li's galley in the deep sea with no islands around, completely eliminating the last stumbling block. Shang Ji was relieved when he confirmed on the spot that the sunken ship was swallowed by the ocean whirlpool.

In the past, Shang Li was like a mountain, but today he has become a piece of paper.

The next step was very easy.

Shang Ji united the previous merchants and persuaded the vast majority of merchants in Yancheng to promise a part of the profits to the Yan clan... abolish the mayor, establish a citizen council, collect taxes...

Everything was for the final goal.

Legalization of slave trade.

People were finally sent to stores as commodities and put on the streets. Everyone was clearly marked with a price and could be chosen at will.

In this way, men can buy wives, women can buy the husbands they want, the elderly can buy young labor, and parents without children can also choose their favorite children at will.

Shang Ji was very satisfied.

In Yancheng, the slave business quickly became popular.

Slave traders became the most sought-after profession, and slave owners became a symbol of wealth. The number of slaves represented a person's status, and people without slaves were considered poor.

Then slaves began to change from labor to pets, and from pets to consumables... Because slaves were property, not people, there would be no problem even if they were killed by slave owners on the street.

Shang Ji gradually realized that the slave trade was out of control.

But he could no longer stop this huge chariot. Although he was the nominal head, he actually only represented the interests of slave traders, salt tribes and others.

Going against all the beneficiaries will not end better than Shang Li.

Shang Ji did not regret it.

He felt that he was not stubborn.

There are always gains and losses in doing business, but this time the price was a bit high. Not only did he lose, but other people in the city also lost too much.

Be willing to accept the loss and try again.

Shang Ji had been planning for a few years when he suddenly got news that a group of pirates had quietly risen. This group of pirates called themselves the [Northern Temple Army]. They constantly attacked the merchant ships of slave traders at sea, robbed slaves, and killed merchants.

The leader was a man named Tonghai. Because his wife was sold as a slave, he pulled this group of people together, claiming to smash the slave system and liberate all slaves.

Shang Ji sent people to contact the [Northern Temple Army] and found that this group of people was indeed not another group of merchants, but really wanted to declare war on the entire slave system.

This made Shang Ji very happy.

External forces would be a great help to him, and under high pressure, it would help him regulate the slave market.

Then he found out that he was wrong. The Citizens' Council was not even willing to reinforce the stone walls.

Many merchants were even ecstatic.

"Now all kinds of goods can be directly increased in price! Because of pirates, transportation is expensive."

"Slaves are also more valuable!"

"Now there are fewer ships, and our business is easier!"

Shang Ji couldn't help but remember Shang Li's words.

——Too focused on trading.

Shang Ji finally understood the meaning of this sentence.

He was tired.

For the first time, doing business made Shang Ji feel tired and bored.

Let all this be destroyed, and start over.

Hurry up.

So when Tonghai led the [Northern Temple Army] to attack the city, the city responded immediately and broke the city very smoothly. That was not only the result of their years of arranging internal responses, but also the strong push of Shangji behind the scenes.

After breaking the city, Shangji fled overseas.

Then he was caught by an islander, and all the valuable items on the ship were robbed, and the people on the ship were sold as slaves to the islanders.

The old Shangji was only worth three sheepskins.

Only then did he realize that he was so worthless.

After being a slave for thirteen years, Shangji planted potatoes and grapes, raised walking birds, and now he is planting cotton.

He was resold back and forth by the islander slave owners, and now he is in the hands of a young man.

This young slave owner was pretty good to him, didn't beat him too much, gave him water to drink, and allowed him to wear clothes - this was already a good treatment for a slave.

During his slavery, Shangji discovered that there was a large insect on the island.

They have arched carapaces, and there are seven stars on the red carapace, which looks very beautiful. This kind of insect will emit a strong fragrance, and there are man-eating crabs to protect it.

Shang Ji spent all his time observing this kind of insect, which made him feel happy and peaceful.

Smelling that fragrance, he felt that he had returned to Yancheng, thousands of miles away, and returned to the normal urban civilization order.

He used charcoal to record this kind of insect on coconut shells, recording their appearance, their flying posture, their smell, what they eat, what they do during the day and what they do at night...

In the end, "Ladybug Notes" was born on a bunch of coconut shells.

When a paddle boat came to the island, Shang Ji gave this bunch of coconut shells to a scholar and asked him to take it back to Yaocheng or Yancheng.

The other party was very surprised when he saw the handwriting on the coconut shells.

"You are a very learned person. Can I ask your name?"

On Shang Ji's dark face, wrinkles squeezed into a pile, revealing a somewhat restrained smile.

The slave owner next to him pulled the rope around Shangji's neck and said in the unfluent Yao language: "His name is Sanyangpi! Slave, who can write, slave."

The scholar looked at Shangji: "I will go back to raise money to help you regain your freedom. You should go back to Yaocheng or Yancheng."

"Eight sheepskins."

The slave owner quoted: "He ate a lot of my food. I taught him to pick cotton and grow potatoes."

Watching the paddle boat sail into the sea, Shangji prayed silently.

Lord Yao, I only hope that you can bless me and spread the book I wrote... I hope everyone can find that kind of wonderful insect from this book and get the simplest happiness and peace.

Half a year later, the scholar returned by boat and found the slave owner: "I want to redeem the freedom of Mr. 'Sanyangpi'."

"Oh, Sanyangpi, dead."

"Dead? How did he die?"

"He had a stomachache and diarrhea, and died."

The scholar said angrily: "He was your slave, why didn't you save him!"

"The herbs on the island are very expensive, and you merchants sell them at a high price."

The slave owner said as a matter of course: "It's more expensive than three sheepskins... no, eight sheepskins."