Winter City, the capital of the Northwest Province.
With the arrival of winter, the entire earth seems to be frozen, the cold current from the Arctic is raging across the earth, heavy snow is flying, and the cold wind is biting.
Lin Tong struggled to walk in the snow with a load of briquettes. The snow here is really heavy. When it snows, even the door will be blocked tightly. In the snow
Walking becomes extremely difficult.
Fortunately, this is the city of Winter City, and the snow on the roads is cleared every day. It is not as thick as outside. Otherwise, there would be no way to walk in the snow.
"Hu~hu~"
After finally returning to his home, Lin Tong also let out a heavy sigh of relief.
It's really too cold.
Lin Tong was from Huguang in the Ming Dynasty. He grew up in the warm south. Last year, he accidentally killed someone in a fight and was sentenced to be exiled to this winter city.
Coming from the warm south to this winter city in the extreme northwest, he could not remember how he spent last winter, and he almost froze to death here.
"Drink some hot tea to dispel the cold~"
When Lin Tong's wife saw Lin Tong coming back, she quickly brought a cup of hot tea and said thoughtfully.
"Hmm~"
Lin Tong looked at his wife with a smile on his face, and then looked at her belly. It was already bulging and she would give birth soon.
His wife’s name is Popova. When you hear the name, you can tell that it is not a Han name. Popova is a Slav. She was later robbed by the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate and sold as a slave to the Ming Dynasty.
When she arrived at Winter City, she was bought by Lin Tong and became his wife.
Winter City is far away from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, and the weather is freezing. No Ming people have been willing to take the initiative to immigrate here. In order to consolidate its rule over the northwest province, the imperial court also exiled a large number of prisoners to Winter City.
Since ancient times, most of the criminals have been men. Among the prisoners sentenced to exile in Winter City, ninety-nine out of one hundred are men. As time goes by, there is naturally a great demand for women.
Therefore, as a large number of prisoners came to Winter City, a large number of slave traders also spotted this business opportunity and sold a large number of female slaves to Winter City and sold them to these prisoners as wives, concubines, etc.
Very profitable.
Because it is very close to Europe, especially to Eastern Europe.
Not only did a large number of slave traders buy slaves from the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, but now the people of the Kazan Khanate also saw that plundering slaves could bring huge benefits, and they also actively participated in the Slavic war in Eastern Europe.
from the plunder of men.
A large number of slaves passed through the nearest Winter City from the Kazan Khanate and were then sold exclusively to various parts of the Ming Dynasty. The slave trade has become an emerging pillar industry in Winter City.
The price of purchasing these slaves from the Kazan Khanate is very low. If you transport them to Winter City and sell them for dozens of taels of silver, you can make a huge profit.
As for many people, they are worried that these exiled prisoners have no money.
There is no need to worry about this, because the Ming Dynasty has the support behind it.
No one here in the Northwest Province is willing to immigrate here, so the only option is to exile the prisoners, but since they are all male prisoners, this is definitely not an option in the long run.
Therefore, the government in the Northwest Province also applied for such a policy from the imperial court. When every prisoner exiled in the northwest province purchased a female slave, the imperial court would provide an interest-free loan and then subsidize one-third.
The price of one.
It can be said that this is an extremely preferential policy.
One-third of the money for buying a female slave is given by the court, and the remaining two-thirds are returned to you as an interest-free loan. In short, the government here just wants you to buy more and more, and create more people.
The better.
Because the imperial court needed more people to consolidate the Ming Dynasty's rule over the northwest province, and to match these exiled prisoners with female slaves, on the one hand, it would allow these prisoners to settle down here and let them live here in peace and contentment.
On the other hand, it can also reduce the contradictions and conflicts between prisoners. If they were all prisoners, these people would originally be criminals, brave and fierce, but if they were put together, they would not be shaken up, and they would die for an unknown number of times.
What about people.
But it would be different if all these prisoners were paired with women. If they had the energy to go to bed with their own women, creating a few more dolls would be more effective than anything else.
Now that we have a woman, a child, and a home, even if the conditions here in Winter City are more difficult, the prisoners can slowly settle down and increase the population here.
Such a policy is obviously very effective.
Even though there are a large number of exiled prisoners gathered here in Winter City, many of them were gangsters and brave and ruthless people in the past, but after arriving here, they gradually became much better. In less than a short time, the entire Winter City
Earth-shaking changes have taken place in three years.
"Huh~"
Taking a sip of hot tea, Lin Tong took a long breath, and it seemed that the coldness in his body had completely disappeared.
"I'm going to cook~"
Popova said in Ming dialect that she was not very proficient in. spanstyle>谷/spanstyle>
"No~ No, I'll come, I'll come, you can rest~"
When Lin Tong heard this, he quickly stopped her and helped Popova to rest on a chair while he started to get busy.
Popova was about to give birth, and with such a big belly, he couldn't bear to let her busy. He tried his best to do everything by himself.
"It's okay, it's okay~ I'm okay."
Popova is not that squeamish and feels that it is not good for men to do these things.
"No, no, you are the most important person in the family now. You can't tire my son out."
Lin Tong very domineeringly led Popova to sit on a chair next to the fireplace and said, "Eat more raisins. I heard it is good for babies and makes them smarter."
"Hmm~"
Popova nodded happily and looked at the busy Lin Tong while eating raisins. She was still very satisfied with her current life.
Ever since I was first captured and sold as a slave to Winter City, I was initially uneasy and full of fear for the future. Now, I have slowly become accustomed to everything and life here.
Although this is just the most remote and bitter cold place in the Ming Dynasty, it is a place specially used to exile criminals.
But the life lived by the Ming people here is many times better than that lived by the Slavs.
Even the prisoners have their own houses here, and the design of the house is very good. With a fireplace and a fire bed, it won't feel cold at all.
There is no need to worry about food. Rice, flour, meat, etc. from Hezhong, Nanyun, Xiyu, and several provinces in Central Asia are not expensive. You can afford to eat anything, and the food is good.
Recalling that in her hometown, Popova felt very sad every winter, because there was very little food at home, and all she ate was unpalatable black bread, horse bread and the like, and the clothes she wore were also very poor.
Very cold.
Coldness and hunger were her deepest memories of previous winters, as if they were imprinted in her bones.
But here, although it is still cold, it is very warm at home. There is no need to worry about food. Moreover, the food is much better than before, and I can live a life without worries about food and clothing.
My man treats me very well and loves me very much. Unlike Slavic men, who are very vulgar and rough and always hit women.
In contrast, the men of the Ming Dynasty were much more civilized. They felt that it was useless to hit a woman. She had never been beaten since Lin Tong bought her. After having a child, she was not even willing to scold herself.
What's not satisfying about a day like this?
What's more, here in Winter City, there is no need to worry about war.
In my hometown, I have to worry about the Crimean Tatars from the south coming to rob me all year round. Sometimes I am afraid that I will be robbed by the Tatars in my sleep, and I live a life of fear.
Feeling the warmth coming from the fireplace, smelling the food cooked by Lin Tong, and touching my big belly, I was filled with a sense of happiness.
"Okay, okay~"
"It's time to eat, it's time to eat~"
Lin Tong quickly prepared the meal. The fragrant rice coupled with the cooked bacon made people appetite.
While eating with Popova, Lin Tong also looked at the heavy snow falling outside, thinking about what profitable business he would do next year.
There are three main industries in Winter City. One is the fur industry. Because it is located in the vast Siberian Plain, it has extremely vast forests and grasslands and is rich in all kinds of high-quality furs.
Therefore, the fur trade here in Winter City is very hot. Whenever summer comes, a large number of fur merchants will swarm in, waving their money to buy furs, and then resell them to the Beijing and Tianjin areas. The profits
Very amazing.
The other one is grain trading. The dimension of Winter City is too high and the weather is too cold. There are very few crops that can be grown. At present, only potatoes can be grown. Therefore, the demand for grain is huge. A large amount of grain needs to be transported from several southern provinces every year.
come over.
In addition, there are a large number of minority tribes here in the Northwest Province, and they have a great demand for food. In winter, these minority tribes living on the vast Siberian plains will exchange their furs for food.
Most of the food in Winter City was actually exchanged by people from these minority tribes. As for the exiled prisoners, they actually couldn't eat much food.
The third trade is the emerging slave trade. Going to the Kazan Khanate to sell slaves to Winter City is also very profitable and develops quickly, but the capital requirements are relatively large.
Because once you go to the Kazan Khanate, you have to bring at least a lot of goods with you, and then buy a large number of slaves to come back. A random trip will cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.
"Perhaps we can take advantage of this winter to bring some grain, salt, tea, sugar, etc. to various tribes to do business and exchange for their furs."
After much deliberation, Lin Tong also made a decision.