Human trafficking has become the extra income of the green battalion soldiers, and the income of the green battalion soldiers in Shandong is not high, and the officers above eat empty salaries, deduct the food and military salaries of the soldiers, and the steamed buns they receive every day are getting smaller and smaller, but the wheat bran and rice bran mixed in them are getting more and more; Every month, the amount of money in hand is getting less and less, and the empty statements of the superior officers that they owe money are getting more and more.

As the two luxury goods of cigarettes and special offerings of the Eight Banners flowed into Shandong, the silver of the green battalion soldiers was becoming more and more insufficient.

Cigarettes, that's a good thing! When you are tired, you will feel refreshed; When you drink alcohol, the wine is more exciting; When you drink tea, the tea becomes more fragrant; One after a meal is a fairy-like enjoyment.

However, the price of these cigarettes is very expensive, it is said that these cigarettes originated in Nanyang overseas, most of the cigarettes are transported by the Pingxi palace through long distances, the cost of land transportation is high, to the boundary of Shandong, a pack of the cheapest cigarettes cost three dollars of silver, the average green battalion soldiers can not afford to smoke.

If you transport by sea, the cost can be much lower, but the Qing court's sea ban made the price of cigarettes high. So someone ventured to smuggle cigarettes in by sea, and the one who caught it was beheaded! The price of smuggled cigarettes is also not cheap.

Cigarettes are already a fairy-like enjoyment, and the Eight Flags special offerings are even more of a superlative!

Some green battalion soldiers who feel that smoking is not addicted to smoking after getting their salaries, the first thing they do is to walk into the smoke hall, spend half a tael of silver, lie comfortably on the kang, come to a small package of special offerings of the Eight Banners, light it, take a sip of it, and feel that they have become immortals.

Originally, as the name suggests, the special offerings of the Eight Banners were specially provided for the children of the Eight Banners. But many green battalion soldiers were really curious, so they secretly went to the smoke house to smoke once. As a result, after sucking it, I can no longer live without that wonderful feeling.

However, these special offerings of the Eight Banners were also transported by land from Wu Sangui's Pingxi Palace. The price is very expensive, and more importantly, the Eight Flags special offerings do not even have smuggled goods by sea! There is only one supply channel for Pingxi Wangfu! Imagine how expensive this price is!

Why is there only one supply channel for the special offerings of the Eight Banners in Pingxi Wangfu, and there is no even maritime smuggling? Because Wang Xinyu knew that this kind of thing was not a good thing, it was not cultivated anywhere else except in Myanmar, so there was only one supply route for Pingxi Wangfu.

Later, with the export of the Eight Banners special offerings to North Korea, a small number of ships carrying the Eight Banners special offerings also appeared at sea, but the number was too small.

Due to the advent of two luxury goods, cigarettes and special offerings of the Eight Banners, the expenses of the Green Battalion became more and more expensive. The amount of silver that arrives every month is simply not enough.

When they saw that the traffickers could smoke good cigarettes and even had the Eight Banners special offerings on hand, the eyes of the Green Battalion soldiers were red. After inquiry, I learned that the people who were originally sold out were converted into cigarettes and special offerings of the Eight Banners. Traffickers sell people to get smuggled cigarettes cheaply, and even get small quantities of Eight Banners special offerings from ships that trade with North Korea. These goods are then pulled inland by them and sold at high prices.

Discovering this money-making channel, the Green Battalion soldiers also began to sell people on their own, taking advantage of their ability to enter and exit the seaside cordon. Bring the captured people to the seashore and exchange goods with the smuggling ships that have come to buy people.

At this time, Shandong's population grew rapidly because it had been peaceful for many years. In this era, high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes have not yet been promoted nationwide. Shandong's grain output could not cope with the rapid growth of the population, coupled with the enclosure of the Eight Banners and the phenomenon of black households, many farmers were displaced. The people live in poverty, there are people everywhere who can't eat, and social order is very poor. That's why. In the early years of Kangxi, a number of peasant uprisings broke out in Shandong.

The Eight Banners enclosure is a large number of Eight Banners heroes who enclose land and occupy the land of the Han people, causing the farmers and landlords of the Han people to lose their land, and a considerable number of people who have been enclosed have become clothed slaves to make a living by farming for the heroes of the Eight Banners.

However, in the land enclosure incident, because there was a large number of black households, those black households were not qualified to become Baoyi slaves, nor were they qualified to rent the land of Han landlords. After their land was encircled by the Eight Banners, these black households were displaced and had to beg for a living.

The problem of black households is a legacy of the Ming Dynasty. Because people with merit in the Ming Dynasty did not pay taxes. As a result, many yeoman farmers and even small landlords attached their land to the names of those who had meritorious names in order to avoid taxation to the imperial court. But because of this willingness, a large number of black households have appeared.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the household registration was re-examined, but the problem of black households was not resolved.

Due to the war, many people with the fame of the previous dynasty died in the war, so those black households attached to their names became real black households, and their names were not included in the household register of the yamen. Eight banners enclosed the land, and these black households were driven from their land and turned into beggars.

However, because Zheng Xi and Zheng Jing bought a large number of people, many beggars and petty thieves were sent overseas, resulting in a decrease in Shandong's population, an increase in per capita land, and a good social order for peasants, which became the political achievement of local officials.

And the problem of black households has also been solved in human trafficking, because the first people to sell to the outside are those black households. The black households are not counted in the household registration, so a large number of people in Shandong have been trafficked, but in terms of the official household registration, the population of Shandong is growing! This made the Qing rulers very satisfied with the "political achievements" of the local officials.

Of course, there are also a small number of "clean officials" and "righteous" officers of the Green Battalion, who, in order to stop human trafficking, have strictly ordered them to crack down on cases and crack down on smuggling. However, the Qing Dynasty, the darkest dynasty in Chinese history, had a dirty officialdom, corrupt officials were rampant, and there was no market for Qing officials at all. Those guys who don't think much of themselves will end up miserable because they cut off other people's financial routes.

The time goes back three months.

Wu Xiaolei is more unlucky, he is not a black household, he is an ordinary farmer. Because his mother was sick, he went into the city to get medicine for her. Who knew that a green battalion soldier who had spent all the money on the Eight Banners Special Offering had been secretly following him for a long time. When he got to a place where no one was, he was hit with a stick, put him in a sack and took him away.

"Let me go back! My mother is sick in bed! Wu Xiaolei shouted.

The green battalion soldier with a full face of flesh whipped down: "Stinky poor man, mud legs!" Be honest with me! Tell you, you are Lao Tzu cigarettes, and it is a special offering of Eight Banners! How can Lao Tzu let you go back! ”

Wu Xiaolei also has a bedridden mother, two minor younger brothers and a young sister, and the whole family depends on him for their livelihood. Thinking of family. Wu Xiaolei tried to escape, but was captured by the Green Battalion soldiers, and naturally he was inevitably beaten.

"Tell you to run! Tell you to run again! I want to send you to the south to enjoy the blessings, you don't go! Toast without eating and eating penalty wine! A Green Battalion soldier whipped him with a leather whip.

"That's it!" The meaty-faced Green Camp said, "Don't beat people to death!" Such a sturdy man, but two packs of high-quality Nanyang red double happiness! Or a small packet of high-grade Eight Flags special offerings! ”

Wu Xiaolei, who was covered in bruises, was lying on the grass, thinking of his family, and he shed tears: Where will they send me? I heard that those who were arrested were sent to Nanyang as slaves. Either working in a sweltering mine until you die of exhaustion, or farming in the scorching sun and eating the worst food every day. Finally died in the South Seas. It's okay if I'm dead, but what about my mother? What about younger siblings? It looks like I'll never get a chance to see them again in my life! Mother! Children are not filial!

In the past two days, the Green Battalion only sent one meal to the captured Minzhuang before and after the Qing soldiers, eating porridge made of rice bran and wheat bran, with a few wild vegetable leaves in it.

"If you have captured us, you must feed us!" There was a protest.

The green battalion soldier whipped up again: "When you get to the boat, someone will naturally feed you!" Hungry for two days and no one will die! What is it called! ”

Wu Xiaolei didn't speak, and after drinking a bowl of porridge, he lay quietly on the haystack.

"This big brother. You were caught? A little beggar of sixteen or seventeen years old next to him asked.

Wu Xiaolei nodded lightly.

"You were captured, I'm not like you, I went to their soldiers on my own and asked them to sell me. I heard that you can eat enough when you go there. The little beggar said softly.

"Little brother. Go over there, and suffer as a slave! A middle-aged man on the side said.

The little beggar replied, "That's better than being hungry!" I haven't eaten in days, otherwise I wouldn't have gone looking for them. ”

Two days later, Wu Xiaolei and a group of arrested people were sent to the beach. The Green Battalion soldiers received the cigarettes and the special offerings of the Eight Banners from the sailors. Sold the people to the officers and soldiers of the naval division. Afterwards, they were taken into a small boat, and the Qing soldiers of the Shandong Green Camp Naval Division rowed them out to sea.

On the sea. There was a big ship of the Tessians parked, and the sailors on board were dressed as Tessians and Han Chinese, and the ship did not fly any flags, but the cannons on board showed the strength of the ship.

Wu Xiaolei and others were handed over to the smuggling boat by the Qing army's sailors, and the sailors and soldiers moved boxes of cigarettes from the big boat, and then rowed away in the boat.

When they arrived at the big ship, the trafficked people finally had a full meal.

Although the food is not very good, the amount is still relatively sufficient, one sweet potato per person, a bowl of corn porridge, and pickles. The hungry people quickly finished eating what had been given to them, and some people picked up empty bowls and wanted to add more food. But the sailors on the ship told them that those who had been hungry for days should not eat too much, or they would die.

Although the crew on board seemed to be much better spoken than the fierce Green Battalion soldiers, no one dared to ask them where they would be sent. Since they have all been sold, let's leave it to fate, and hope that one day I will be able to return home alive.

The big ship hoisted its sails and sailed into the depths of the sea, jolting on the surface of the sea. In June, the sea was still calm, which made these people not suffer much. For the first two days, three meals a day consisted of corn porridge or sweet potato rice porridge. On the third day, the crew improved the food for Minzhuang, and everyone was given a fragrant white flour bun, in which steaming millet porridge was boiled, and in addition to pickles, spiced dried tofu was added.

"I can manage my full stomach every day, and my life is much better than before!" Zhang paparazzi said. Zhang Paparazzi is the little beggar.

"I don't know until I'm doing well! Don't tire you out then! The middle-aged man said. This middle-aged man is named Gao Shiwen. During the Ming Dynasty, he attached his land to the name of a nobleman. Later, Juren's family died in the war, and he became a black household without household registration.

The boat arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River, entered the Huangpu River, and stopped at the port of Shanghai. After getting off the boat, someone came to explain to everyone, saying that it is not allowed to keep braids here, and you can break the braids and drape them on the back of your head, or you can choose to cut off the braids.

Some people choose to wear their braids, while others cut their braids.

Wu Xiaolei and this group of people were settled, but they were not sent to Nanyang, but stayed in Shanghai, building docks, forts, castles, and houses every day. The labor intensity of the people is not too strong, and they work five hours a day, and what they do is to transport building materials in cars, lift them in winches, dig foundations, carry wood, and so on. Because there are vehicles and winches and other tools, the work is not too tiring, and the more difficult thing is only the summer sun.

The food of the people is not bad, the grains are full every day, the vegetables are fresh vegetables, soy products, fried with rapeseed oil or lard, and a little fish and shrimp can be used for rice. Every seven days, the food is improved, eating rice and white noodles, and the dishes include potato stew, roast mutton, braised fish, etc. Sometimes the staple food is pork dumplings or large meat buns, with some cold dishes.

It's quite good to be able to live such a life, not to mention Zhang Paparazzi and Gao Shiwen, who have never had a full stomach, and even Wu Xiaolei, who used to be able to eat well, also feels that the living conditions here are much better than at home. What's even more amazing is that they still have wages to pay!

Each Minzhuang has a salary of five dollars of silver every month, but the money is not found, it is temporarily kept by the company, and after the five-year period is completed, he is allowed to go home to visit his relatives, and the silver can be withdrawn at that time.

"I just don't know how my mother, brother, and sister are doing now! I really miss them! I must live well, work for five years, save enough money to take home, and give my family a good life! Find a daughter-in-law for both younger brothers. Whenever it was quiet in the dead of night, Wu Xiaolei secretly said to himself in his heart.

But they stayed in Shanghai for a short month, and then they were put on the ship.

"Are we going to be sent to the hot South Seas to work as coolies?" Everyone was very uneasy.

Instead of being sent to the South Seas as coolies, they followed the fleet all the way north. After the convoy crossed the Korean Peninsula, the Ming soldiers on board issued cotton clothes to each of them.

Landing on Ezo Island, someone shouted to the people: "You guys are working here!" Build a house as soon as possible! You can farm here, you can choose to be a herder, and everyone will have military training! (To be continued.) )