Grain, cloth, handicrafts from all borders, furs, medicinal materials, and weapons produced in the north are all sold and exchanged in the Hu Man Village, and there is also an important commodity, that is, slaves.

Young men, women, and even children who have been arrested from all over the country and lost their freedom are all commodities that can be bought and sold in the Fang Market of Hu Manzhai.

Not under the control of the government, with illegal trade as the largest source of income, there are some similarities between Humanzhai and Okura Castle, but there are obvious differences between the two.

One is the object of trade. Okura Castle is located in the South China Sea, and the ship-number trading houses in the city are engaged in the maritime cargo trade between Middle-earth and the western countries of Europa, while the Humanzhai is located on the northern border of the Ming Dynasty, and the main trade objects here are the Manchus, Mongols, Hui and other northern nomadic tribes.

Another difference is the management of the city.

At that time, Sima Zhufeng built Okura Castle with his own strength, and all the affairs of the city's defense and management were controlled by the "Wanjintang", and there were clear regulations, and the entire city was managed in an orderly manner.

And Hu Manzhai is much more chaotic. The Luan River valley was the only way for the traveling horse teams of the northern nomadic tribes to enter the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and many merchants from all parts of Middle-earth also transported goods here to trade with the horse teams of these nomadic tribes, and over time, a market was spontaneously formed.

After a few years, the trade in goods in the Luan River valley became larger and larger, and many tyrannical shili found it profitable and wanted to annex and control the market. These shili come not only from Middle-earth, but also from the northern grasslands. After a fierce struggle and many casualties, the parties finally reached a compromise and stopped the fighting, after all, everyone was driven by profit, and only in a peaceful situation could the trade of goods be carried out. Otherwise, it would be useless to occupy the area by force.

So the Human village was built, not by a single shili, but by an alliance formed by all the shili of all parties. After the castle was built, all other spontaneous markets in the surrounding area were swept away, and the Fang market in Humanzhai became the only place in the entire Luanhe River valley where goods could be traded.

Since the construction of Hu Manzhai, more than 30 years have passed, and it is only 260 miles away from the capital, of course, it is impossible for the Ming court not to know its existence, and there have been several ministers who have proposed that the court should send heavy troops to recruit and suppress, and erase this walled city that is not subject to the king's law on the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, neither the original Emperor Guangzong, nor the later Xizong Zhu Youxiao, nor the current Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen, did not issue an order to send troops. The reasons for this are, first, that the Human Walled City is strong and dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and more importantly, the existence of this walled city is actually quite beneficial to the security of the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty has experienced more than 200 years since the founding of the country, since the Yongle Emperor reached its peak, and then gradually began to decline, especially in Taichang, the two dynasties of the Apocalypse, it is more than the situation, and since Chongzhen, natural disasters and man-made disasters have continued, and the degree of national exhaustion has reached the verge of collapse.

A hundred years ago, Yongle Emperor Zhu Di crisscrossed the northern Xinjiang and submitted to all directions, but the current Ming Dynasty has long been gone, especially the northern border, which is facing many crises. Although Mongolia has been divided, but the soldiers and horses of the various tribes are still there, after the Jin Emperor Taiji called the emperor, changed the name of the country to the Qing Dynasty, gathered the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners to invade the territory many times, several battles down, the Ming Dynasty was defeated and won less.

After Chongzhen ascended the throne, this situation became even more serious, with the current military strength of the Ming Dynasty, the suppression of the rebel army from all realms has been exhausted, and there is really no spare strength to deal with external troubles.

The reason for the invasion of the borders by the northern peoples is actually their way of life. These peoples have always lived nomadically, not accustomed to planting, the output of food is extremely unstable, as soon as there is a change in the climate, they will often fall into the situation of running out of food, so entering the customs and looting has become their usual means of livelihood.

However, the steppes in the north also have their own unique resources: animal skins, wool, and medicinal herbs were all needed by the Ming Dynasty in Middle-earth, and the rich deposits of copper and iron ore can also be used to make weapons and other utensils.

For a long time, the nomadic tribes in the north traded with the merchants of the Ming Dynasty in Humanzhai, exchanging their special goods for food, cloth and other necessities of life, which alleviated their life crisis to a certain extent. If there is no Hu Manzhai, the trade routes between the two sides will be cut off, and the northern nomadic tribes, who have lost their food sources, will probably invade the customs more often.

This is also the reason why several generations of emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not rashly send troops to encircle and suppress Hu Manzhai. And this special walled city, which is not under the jurisdiction of the government and has no royal law, has survived for decades under the location of less than 300 miles away from the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and has been ignored by the imperial court.

When Li Hu and Zhu Huichan arrived at the Shijiao Road on the bank of the Luan River, it was already dusk the next day.

The three of them slept overnight by the stream in the forest, and set off early the next morning, Zhu Huichan's original horse was chopped off, but it was just right to change to the black horse that Yan Lei had ridden.

In order to avoid the officers and soldiers, the paths they took were all remote wilderness trails, which were quite rugged and difficult to walk, but Zhu Huichan was elated and in a very good mood.

She even hoped that a few more bandits and grass robbers would jump out of the roadside, and that they would walk the rivers and lakes again to get rid of the evil and promote the addiction of good, but unfortunately the sky did not follow people's wishes, and the road was quite calm, and no accidents happened.

By the time the sun was sinking in the west, the tall city of Humanzhai had appeared between the river valleys in the distance.

In front of the city gate, there is a roadblock, and several horses made of rough wood are placed in the middle of the road, and more than a dozen men with swords and swords on their backs and wearing leather armor stand beside them.

Although Hu Manzhai does not have the royal law, it is not completely unruly, and the biggest rule here is that when you enter the city gate, you are never allowed to fight, otherwise you will be killed by all parties in charge of the walled city, and the merchant horse team where the offender is located will also be expelled from the city and can no longer enter Hu Manzhai.

The existence of this rule is to ensure that all merchants can trade with peace of mind in the Hu Man Village, and do not have to worry about robbery and robbery. On the other hand, merchants had to pay a price of 10% of the value of the goods they were carrying when they entered the city as a cost of protection.

Of course, the rules of the forbidden fight are only valid in the city, if there is not enough self-protection, the goods and money will be plundered after the horse team in this trade leaves the walled city, but the Hu Manzhai does not care. In fact, this happens quite a few times every year.

There is a wooden table on the side of the road in front of the checkpoint, and behind the table sits a middle-aged man wearing a melon skin hat and a silk robe, who is the steward in charge of collecting the silver. The steward at the city gate was not very good, for it was difficult to make a roughly accurate estimate of all the goods entering the city that would have been difficult to do without a well-informed person who had extensive experience in the trading of the city.

Before the three of Li Hu galloped to the roadcar, the middle-aged steward looked at them a few times, and sang to Li Hu: "Pay eleven taels of silver according to the routine!"

"Eleven taels?" said Li Hu.

"Yes," said the middle-aged steward, "a high-grade female slave is worth a hundred taels, and a child is worth ten taels.

The dignified princess Kunyi was actually regarded as a slave girl who was only worth 100 taels of silver, and the crown prince Zhu Cihong was even less valuable, and the value of the assessed was only 10% of that of a female slave! Zhu Huichan couldn't help but be angry when she heard it in her ears.

She was about to reprimand, but Li Hu grabbed her arm and whispered, "Don't reveal your identity!" With a flick of her hand, a piece of silver had already flown out and landed on the table in front of the middle-aged steward with a "poof".

The middle-aged steward took the silver, weighed it in his hand, and knew that it was not under eleven taels, so he said to the guard next to him: "Open the barricades and let them enter the city!"

In terms of the size of the city, Hu Man Castle is far inferior to Jingshi, even compared to Okura Castle, but it also has the scale of a medium-sized town.

The streets of the city are wide and flat with stone slabs, but there are not many pedestrians on the streets, except for a few coolies hired to carry goods, and few ordinary people can be seen. There were a number of large carts parked on the side of the street, as well as some mules and horses carrying bags, as well as drivers and bodyguards escorting goods.

Looking at the clothing and faces of these people, more than half of them are Hu people, and the caravan of the Han people is less than thirty percent at most.

Most of the houses in the city were made of huge stones, usually not very tall, but they were very strong and generous, and they did not look like ordinary houses, but warehouses for goods.

On both sides of the street, there are also some buildings that are quite built with high style, the façade decoration is very elegant, there is a signboard hanging in front of the gate of a certain square market, many people come and go in the meantime, I think it is the place where the merchant horse team of merchants who come and go to this city to trade goods.

This kind of market scene is hard to see anywhere else. After the three of Li Hu entered the city, they couldn't help but have to take a few more looks. Especially Zhu Huichan, who has been staying in the deep palace for many years, has very few opportunities to go out shopping on weekdays, and when she comes here, whether it is those Hu people who are wearing strange clothes and looking strange, or the caravan and horse team on the street, the crowded and lively market, it makes her feel novel.

The horse galloped out of five or six streets, a rather lofty three-story building appeared in front of him, this house is not a square market, hanging on a blue flag in front of the building, written "Deyuan Inn" four big characters, but also embroidered with money three stacked ingots.