Facts have proved that in troubled times, people can be strong men who are robbed. They can also be military rations, and they can also be chopped leeks at will.
Of course, it can also be goods. Even as goods, people can be incredibly cheap.
A P1853 rifle made in India can be exchanged for 20 people - regardless of boys, girls, and infants. This is the package price. According to the agreement reached between Wang Botao and the American company, one hundred paper-packed bullets can be exchanged for 2 juveniles.
.
For Wang Botao, this is completely a business without capital. He doesn't care about the future fate of these people at all. Why do foreigners buy people?
What else could you do? It's definitely not a good thing. But it has nothing to do with him.
For him, all he cares about is how many foreign guns, how much gunpowder, and how many foreign cannons can be exchanged.
As for people?
Not worth mentioning at all!
"Oh, what a pity, what a pity..."
Looking at the people sent by his subordinates, Wang Botao said with pity on his face.
"If I had known earlier that this man could change his gun, I would have killed less people. There are so many places inside and outside the city that are empty. It's hard to deal with people."
It was a pity to say such things in his mouth, Wang Botao said to Zhao Shi'an again.
"Shu Li Zhao, you and Liu Tongyi will discuss it again and let them stay a few more days. We have plenty of people. As long as they are willing to wait a few days and recruit tens of thousands of people, wouldn't it be easy?"
Now he actually missed the way it was when he first came to Jinshan. At that time, the place was full of people, and there were tens of thousands of people in any town, which could be exchanged for a lot of foreign guns and cannons.
That's like now...what a pity.
Alas, what a pity!
After sighing, there is still business to be done. According to the agreement between the two parties, these people will be sent to the beach, and then sent by boat to Tanhu Mountain Island, which is only more than 60 miles away from Jinzhou. Although the island
There are more than a dozen households on the property, but this does not prevent Li Fugui from setting up a "waiting center" here.
The so-called "waiting station" was actually a hut divided into male and female camps. Even the guards were temporarily recruited men. When Liu Kunpeng went to Shanghai to find a ship, Li Fugui became the "waiting station" without hesitation.
The head of the "Fashuo".
When people go to the island and enter the waiting room, they enter a lengthy process - registration, physical examination, serial number, receiving and changing clothes, receiving bamboo slips with work numbers, formation, training...
All of this was a step set by the boss when they left Nanhua. The men were to undergo military training here. To put it bluntly, they were to be trained in obedience.
"Where's the whip?"
"Cut them all!"
As soon as everyone landed on the shore, before they could figure out what was going on, what was waiting for them was to have their braids cut off, without explanation or explanation.
Of course, for people who have survived the knife, they have no other choice except to obey at a loss. In troubled times, as ordinary people, all they can do is to live in an ignoble way.
In the following days, they either walked in line or ran around the island every day. Of course, they could also eat enough - one dry and one thin, and occasionally they could eat one or two pieces of sea fish, which was barely enough.
Just eat enough.
"one two three four……"
Before the boat even docked at the port, loud slogans came from the shore, and a gray-headed and gray-faced child who looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old looked up over there.
There was still some curiosity in his uneasy eyes.
"Brother Liu, why did those elders... send us all to the sea?"
Li Lin asked curiously.
"Third Young Master, we don't know about this, but Third Young Master, you have to remember that when you go to someone else's territory, you have to follow their rules from now on. Those people...are carrying knives..."
Liu San swallowed nervously. He was scared. He saw with his own eyes how those Changmao killed people. Although he didn't know why he let himself and the people around him go, he could be more careful.
wrong.
"I know I know……"
Li Lin nodded.
"People are under the eaves..."
Finally, the ship full of people arrived at the port, and driven ashore by the Taiping Army, the men and women who had survived their wounds were thrown ashore.
Just like counting goods, counting them one by one.
"Twenty people in a team, twenty people, or something like that..."
If someone was a little slow, someone would chop them with the back of a knife, followed by a burst of curses.
Looking at the chaos on the pier, Li Fugui frowned and muttered to himself again.
"I don't know how Liu Xiucai's ship is being found."
…
As long as you have money, you don't have to worry about the boat.
As interpreters, Liu Kunpeng and Mir Yi arrived at the Shanghai concession, but it only took them three to five days to find several Citigroup clipper ships. After all, not every clipper ship has the opportunity to be filled with tea.
Raw silk and porcelain and other goods.
When these clipper ships wait for goods at the dock, they often wait for a month or two.
The next thing couldn't be simpler, it's nothing more than negotiating the price and changing the ship - those ships also need to be equipped with multiple layers of equipment, and they need to take as many people as possible.
Of course, Liu Kunpeng was not idle either. He even registered a company in the British Concession - "American Company". The business scope was, of course, the sale of foreign goods from various countries, and he also specialized in labor business.
Last year, it would still have been "illegal" to export indentured laborers from the Qing Dynasty. But last year, with their strong ships and powerful artillery, the British and French forces fought all the way to the capital and burned the Qing emperor's garden. In addition to ceding land and paying compensation, in New Zealand
The treaty also contains specific provisions for the employment of indentured labor in various countries. Now this is also an "emerging industry in the Tatars".
Mir is a black man, but this does not prevent him from being a "foreigner". Of course, Liu Kunpeng is just a comprador.
After working hard for almost half a month, the seven clipper ships in the Huangpu River were finally refitted.
On February 25, 1861, ten clipper ships left Shanghai at the same time. When the ships left, Liu Kunpeng just stood at the window of the foreign-style building and looked at the ships from a distance, muttering to himself.
"Don't worry, my lord, Liu will never let down my lord's life-saving grace!"
While talking to himself, he walked to the table again, raised his hand and started writing a letter. It was a letter to several Manchu generals, including one named Zeng and one named Li. The content of the letter was nothing more than something related to
Of course, the content related to the "emerging industry" of indentured labor also included the extremely flexible payment methods that American companies could accept.
Early the next morning, ten clipper ships arrived at Tanhu Mountain. Li Fugui, who had received the news, had already prepared for the voyage. More than 20,000 men and women stood at the dock blankly, looking at the sea in the bay.
Eight ocean ships, even though they didn't know what was waiting for them, they still felt a chill in their hearts subconsciously - if they were gone, they would never come back.
But they didn't dare to resist, they just sighed as if they were resigned to their fate.
"If you don't want to get on the boat, then I'll hand you over to Changmao..."
If it falls into Changmao's hands, wouldn't it be a dead end?
Hey, I would rather be a peace dog than a rebel!
With almost desperate eyes, people got on the boat and squeezed into the narrow and dark cabin. When they lay down on the narrow bed, Song Yu looked at her sister in the dark cabin and asked.
"Sister, where are we going?"
"Didn't you say, go to Nanhua?"
"Where is Nan Hua?"
Nobody knows.
This chapter has been completed!