After rebirth, I made the princes cry

"I was implicated because of my uncle. My uncle and his family wanted to escape to Dongyu, but they failed and were executed. I and my family did not intend to leave their hometown, but they were all imprisoned in Wumei Warehouse. Now my parents and brothers and sisters have long disappeared. Because I can speak Chinese, I did hard labor in Wumei Warehouse for twenty years before I was sold to the Yijihang Company not long ago." said the middle-aged male servant.

The Third Prince turned around and asked, "If I want to buy a No-Eyebrow Slave, there shouldn't be any restrictions, right?"

He had been standing in front of the old servant, and was obviously moved with compassion.

The old servant finally responded, "Your Excellency, there is no need to buy me. I am already old and will not live for many days. Next to me is my granddaughter. She was buried in the Wumei Warehouse not long after she was born. She cannot speak Chinese. She was implicated by me and has to do all this hard labor. Your Excellency is kind-hearted and bought my granddaughter as a slave. My family, including my son and daughter-in-law, were all executed. Only my granddaughter is left. If she can survive, I can die tonight and close my eyes."

Ke Cao Ling also said quickly: "Your Excellency can certainly buy eyebrowless slaves to use as servants. The identity of the eyebrowless slaves sold by the eyebrowless warehouse can be transferred."

The slave status of eyebrowless slaves was a lowly slave status, which was different from ordinary slaves. That is, eyebrowless slaves were never allowed to speak Chinese, wear colorful clothes, grow eyebrows, etc. However, Ke Cao Ling was a smart man. He would not emphasize these restrictions to the prince of Dong Yu. Anyway, the envoys of Yu could only buy a small number of eyebrowless slaves. Regardless of whether the eyebrowless slaves could be taken away from Northern Han in the future, there was no need to be fussy about one or two.

However, the Lady of Shenyuan Palace chose the middle-aged male servant, because she really could not ignore his fiery and longing gaze. She thought that the male servant had already spoken Chinese, and if she did not buy him, he might be executed.

"I will buy his identity and keep him at the disposal of the Third Prince for the time being." The Prince was planning to let Nanci and Yingshu pick one person each, but when she turned around, she found that the two were absent-minded and seemed to have no intention of getting involved, so she did not make any proposal.

Ke Cao Ling was eager to end this incident quickly, so he asked the shopkeeper: "Please bring the identity documents of these two people to us quickly."

Although the value of eyebrowless slaves was low, the company bought them as a bonus and to show that they were a slave trading company officially recognized by the Northern Han Dynasty, so as to attract wealthy and powerful customers. However, seeing that the customer only wanted to buy two eyebrowless slaves, they would naturally not take nothing. They were about to offer an offer...

The third prince raised his hand and threw out a gold ingot.

The shopkeeper was immediately cheered up, but he was also embarrassed: "Dear guest, if you want to change, our shop dare not accept gold and silver directly. I have to trouble you to exchange it into currency first..."

"Don't bother looking for money. As long as you can show that this is real gold, I don't doubt that I want to make a profit."

"You are joking, my dear guest..." The shopkeeper quickly stuffed the gold ingot into his sleeve and was about to say some flattering words.

The Third Prince was impatient to listen to the flattery: "Let me ask you, where are the ordinary slaves sold to except for the eyebrowless slaves?"

"This..." The shopkeeper looked at Ke Cao Ling, and seeing that Ke Cao Ling was still smiling, he responded, "Most of the customers of this shop are officials, and some are merchants."

"Will the merchants in the West Market also come to your house to buy slaves?"

"That's natural. Except for the slave without eyebrows, all the slaves can speak Chinese, and some can even write. Many accountants in Changyun Road in the West Market buy their goods from the small shop."

The shopkeeper was also a smart man. Hearing the guest Cao Ling repeatedly calling him "honorable envoy" and "Your Highness", how could he not know the identities of these customers? His big boss was also a noble of the Northern Han Dynasty. He had heard about the fact that the Yu envoy wanted to advocate for treating the survivors well. This matter was too sensitive and should not be discussed too much. "Shifting the disaster eastward" was the best policy. The "rich man" behind Changyun was Master Wen, who could handle any big problem.

The third prince decided to go to Changyun for a trip.

It was still the guest officer who led the way. Changyunxing was not in Yijixing, so there was no need to ride a horse. The guest officer followed the third prince and said, "Changyunxing's main business is spices. It has also established a caravan and opened a shop in the West Market. The shop is just across the street."

The third prince was not interested in spices. He was only interested in the survivors who had been reduced to slaves.

The owner of Changyun Shop is a Qiang, but except for him, all the people in the shop are slaves of the remnant tribe.

A young man, about thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in a green robe and brown, was responsible for welcoming and seeing off guests probably because he looked pleasing. When the Third Prince asked about his living conditions, he raised his eyebrows and said, "Although I don't get paid, I still get some tips during the New Year. Every ten days, I have a half-day off. I go to the East Market and use the tips to buy a Hu pancake and a bowl of mutton soup. The stall owner is a Qiang, but he has a good heart. Seeing that I always come here, he always adds half a spoonful of mutton to the mutton soup.

I have a sister. Her master is an official family. She was not originally a Qiang, but later became a Qiang. The master treats me better. I already have a brother-in-law. Although he is also a slave, he has learned medical skills and is favored by the master. He lives in a small courtyard with five or six houses. Last New Year's Eve, I spent the New Year in the courtyard of my brother-in-law and sister. My brother-in-law wanted to ask his master to take me over, but I am relaxed here, so I don't want to trouble my brother-in-law."

Hearing the Third Prince asking about other servants, as if he did not believe that the slaves of the remnants were living and working in peace and contentment, the guest officer maintained a mysterious smile and a calm attitude, thinking to himself: The more aristocratic the family, who would deliberately abuse the slaves when they have nothing to do? There were not many Qiang servants to begin with, and if there were no Han people, I am afraid that even the Weiyang Palace would be short of servants. In addition, although the Qiang tribe has Qiang language, it does not have Qiang characters, and only Chinese characters can be used for correspondence. In the past, before entering the Pass, most Qiang people could not use written letters to communicate. They only started to learn writing after entering the Pass, so wouldn’t they be more tolerant of Han people’s teaching?

If you want to ask others for advice, you must first show courtesy to them. At least everyone knows that you cannot order them around or beat them. Not to mention that the Qiang tribe has a huge shortage of doctors and craftsmen. Over the years, they have secretly recruited many survivors from Northern Zhao, Northern Jin and other tribes to settle in Dajing.

Although not many of these survivors were able to start their own businesses, the lives of ordinary slaves were already quite good, especially those of the merchant companies, who had a sad face all day long. How could customers not feel unlucky? To raise a guard dog, you need to feed it a lot of meat and bones to keep it fat and strong. The envoys from Dongyu underestimated the rulers and ministers of the Qiang tribe.

Ke Cao Ling finally saw Yingshu waving and calling a little servant over.

"Show me your best tulips." But the question was about spices.

In the incense and medicine shop, the incense and medicine are not actually displayed in the hall. Apart from potted flowers and plants, the hall is decorated with tables of different sizes and rectangles. When the customers take their seats, the servants will immediately serve tea and snacks. The customers will tell them which kinds of incense and medicine they want to see, and then the delivery man will sort the incense and medicine into categories in the incense store at the back, put them in boxes, and present them to the customers to check the quality.

Tulips are actually saffron, produced in Xiqiang. The tulip powder produced in Changyun is naturally of better quality than that produced in Dongyu. It seems that the Left Deputy Envoy is a person who understands fragrance.

Ke Cao Ling's ears and eyes were "separated". His ears were still listening to how the Third Prince and the Lord of Shenyuan Palace were interrogating the servants, but his eyes were watching how the Fifth Prince generously donated money and bought a box of tulip powder at the smile of the Left Deputy Envoy.

Yingshu picked out tulip pink and pulled Dianjun's sleeve: "Why don't we go to the rouge shop? There are many merchants from Northern Zhao in the West Market, and the rouge pure cream must be of high quality."

The Third Prince's eyebrows were all knotted: Deputy Envoy Zuo really came here just to hang out!!!

The Palace Master looked at Ying Shu's sparkling eyes, and understood her thoughts: "A Shu, please do as you please. I would like to visit a few more businesses with the Third Prince."

"Then let's meet at Weitai soon?"

"Your Highness the Fifth Prince, please accompany Ah Shu. Deputy Commander Liang will escort Your Highness the Third Prince and I."

Nan Ci stood up first and patted Liang Hui's shoulders twice with great interest. Everything was said without words.

The guest commander gave a look and five or six followers appeared, and of course they would also accompany the Fifth Prince and his entourage.

Ying Shu was indeed very interested in visiting the rouge and powder shop. As she walked, she said, "Since I entered the palace, I have not had the time to make these rouge and powder by myself. But now that I have come to Chang'an, I can buy the best perfumes and ointments in the shops in the market. I can't help but want to try it. Yesterday, I had agreed with the prince to go to the West Market for a good stroll. Who knew that the prince was influenced by the Third Prince and only cared about business."

"You don't look like the kind of person who doesn't care about his job." Nan Ci knew that there were spies around, but he didn't care.

Ying Shu didn't care at all: "The Third Prince and I have different ideas. The Third Prince is worried about Wu Mei Nu. I understand this worry, but saving one or two people is like adding fuel to the fire. Such matters should have been discussed with the Northern Han court. When we are on a diplomatic mission to the Northern Han, we should also understand the customs of a foreign country. After establishing diplomatic relations, we should set up a wedge market. For example, how do Northern Han merchants value goods, especially for spices, rouge, jade and jewelry brought by Western merchants, what price can be purchased, and what price limit should be set after they are sold to Jiankang? All these need to be considered."

She made a very convincing argument, which made Nanci laugh: "Yes, yes, business is also related to the people."

After leaving the rouge shop, Yingshu went to the silk shop, just to stroll around, but she didn't like any fabrics - silk was originally produced in abundance in Dayu, and the silk from Northern Han was not only expensive, but the quality was not top quality in Yingshu's opinion and not worth buying. She then went to Gu's embroidery shop, but also didn't like the embroidery. She also went to the leather shop, where she liked two good fox furs, visited the fruit and flower shop, bought a bag of dried grapes, and turned into the herbal medicine shop to buy some Cordyceps sinensis.

Nanci had spent most of the gold coins in his pocket.

When turning back to Weitai, Yingshu saw a shop with a flag with the words "Douyin" written on it at the door, and asked curiously, "What kind of shop is this?"

A post guard explained, "This shop is the only one in the capital city that deals in seal appraisal. The peculiar thing is that the shop owner has put up a banner of competition. If the seal that the customer brings with him is better in material and workmanship than the shop owner's, he can win a thousand baht. However, one seal can only be used in the competition once, and the shop owner has a photographic memory of every seal he has seen."

Yingshu became interested and said to Nanci, "Although 1,000 baht is not much, I was thinking of buying another lucky mirror to pair with my black jade mirror. The owner dares to attract customers in this way, so there must be treasures in the store. Let's go in and take a look."

The best black jade was mostly produced in the Western Regions. Dayu lost half of its territory and could no longer trade directly with the Western Regions. Not to mention Dayu, even the four countries of Jin, Qi, Yan and Liao could not allow the caravans from the Western Regions to enter directly. They had to pay an expensive commercial tax to the Northern Zhao court before they could hope to be allowed to pass. Instead of being responsible for the commercial tax, it was better to trade directly with the Northern Zhao merchant company... The Northern Han was the "first checkpoint" for the Western Region merchant group to enter the Central Plains. They did not dare to stop the Western Region merchant group from entering Luoyang through the Northern Han, but they could trade directly with the Western Region. Therefore, this seal shop named Zhenxi Pass did have many high-quality jade seals.

Nowadays, not all seals are engraved with names or courtesy names. The so-called auspicious seals are engraved with auspicious words such as "all goes well" and "health and happiness" for people to play with and carry around. Therefore, there are quite a few finished auspicious seals. Generally speaking, the auspicious words and the button decorations should match each other. As for the competition of seals, not only the materials must be compared, but also the craftsmanship of the button carving and the layout and knife skills of the printing.

It is a game for literati.

Of course, ordinary civilians would not have seals.

The black jade seal on Yingshu's body is certainly not a simple auspicious seal. It just has the shape of an auspicious seal, but can command the Flying Eagle Tribe of Dayu. It is an extraordinary symbol of status. Of course, she also knows that this Zhenxiguan seal shop is actually Dayu's most important secret office in the Northern Han Dynasty.

Unlike the perfume and medicine shop, the seal shop was also decorated extremely elegantly, but when people walked in, they could tell at a glance that it was a seal shop, and there was no misunderstanding of why it was a teahouse or a restaurant. Since seal-buying was a refined sport, there were not often a bunch of gamblers gathered in the shop. At this moment, there were only seven or eight guests in fine clothes, who were scattered around admiring the seal stones of different materials and sizes placed on the shelves in the shop - none of them had been carved into seals yet.

It was not known whether all the customers in the shop were regulars. Anyway, when Yingshu and Nanci entered, they were already being watched by several pairs of eyes. A young man in a blue and white robe came forward with a rather dignified attitude: "Are you choosing a seal stone or a seal?"

"I'm here to fight with the seal." Yingshu said.

When they heard the word "Dou Yin", the scattered customers gathered around. They were indeed regular customers and they all knew that Dou Yin was the specialty of this restaurant.

The man who greeted the guests was not surprised at all. He turned around, stretched out his hand, and pointed to the table on the north wall of the shop: "Please take a seat, sir. I will go and invite the shopkeeper."

"Tell your shopkeeper to prepare. I want to fight Mo Yu, and I will not follow the rules he set. I wonder if he dares to fight?"

This is the agreed code word.

The young man's heart was pounding, but his face remained calm: "What rules do you want to set, my dear guest?"

"If I win, your store will have to give me a black jade auspicious mirror. If I lose, this auspicious mirror will belong to you." Yingshu took out the black jade mirror that Sikong Yuehu handed to her personally.

"Please wait a moment, my dear guest."

The young man bowed and raised his eyebrows twice. No one else noticed, but Yingshu saw it.

The code matched, and this shop was still the secret office of the Flying Eagle Department.