North and South groceries

In places where refugees live, the environment is always not very good, the living conditions are simple, the law and order are relatively chaotic, and there are even excrement everywhere.

In such an era, to do such a long-distance migration and to walk thousands of miles on foot, they not only have relatively good physical strength, but also beware of wild animals, and people often harm each other.

Therefore, it is difficult for those who are weaker and have no support to survive to the end. Surviving in groups is the norm, and dependency relationships are also very common.

The Huren lady mentioned earlier by some Changle people is actually quite lucky, at least she still has an uncle to rely on.

Her uncle also got together with a group of people. They would go hunting together, work in the towns along the way, and rob together. They robbed other refugees, and also robbed the towns and villages along the way. They killed people, Many people have died here too.

This barbarian girl has often felt terrified recently. It is reasonable to say that she should be grateful to her uncle for being able to live until now, but she also vaguely feels that her uncle is no longer the uncle she used to be.

He is becoming more and more cruel now, cruel to others, cruel to himself, and may become cruel to her niece one day.

I heard that many girls in this refugee area were sold by their families or gangs, and some women and children were also sold, but girls in their early teens were the most expensive.

She felt that her uncle also wanted to sell herself, he was just waiting for a good price.

She wanted to go to the city to work, find a job for herself, and then get some money for her uncle, maybe then he wouldn't sell herself.

There were also some people who went to the city to work earlier. They asked for very low prices and basically did not need wages. As long as they were given a little food, they could get a large amount of completely unequal labor from these refugees. At the beginning, the people in Gaochang City Those people are also more willing to use them.

However, there will inevitably be friction in this process. Refugees have suffered too much along the way. They are often sensitive and easily show hostility. This makes the locals feel dangerous and repulsive.

Then, on a certain day in mid-August, something happened that completely cut off the way for refugees to enter the city to work.

A woman was instigated by her husband and his gang to abduct two children from a client's family and sell them to human traffickers in the refugee area!

On that day, tens of thousands of Gaochang people flocked around the refugee area, clamoring that they should be driven outside the pass to feed the wolves.

Amidst the ferocious din, it seemed that even the air, even the autumn wind blowing head-on, was full of anger and hostility.

The scene at that time made the girl feel terrified and at a loss. The people in Gaochang City have completely rejected them, but in fact, among them refugees, there are also many good people. Apart from her uncle, she also had I have received help from others, and there are still many kind-hearted people.

But who cares about that at this time, the seeds of hatred have been planted, along with stubborn rejection and outright prejudice.

Although this conflict ended with Guo Xiaoke, the guardian of Anxi, dispatching the army, and later they swept the refugee area again, and captured those traffickers and those who participated in the plundering to mine, and the two children were also arrested. I got it back.

However, the way for refugees to go to the city to work and beg for food was completely cut off. Some people were too hungry to take the risk and went to the city again, but they were besieged and beaten. If not for the persuasion of some kind-hearted monks , fearing that he would be beaten to death in that city.

This girl knew very well that even if she ran away from her dangerous uncle now, there would be absolutely no one in Gaochang City who would accept her.

What about other places, as those people said, what about Changle County, Dunhuang and Jinchang?Probably about the same.Ever since someone abducted the employer's child in revenge, the reputation of their group has been rotten.

So she can only live in this refugee area, next to her uncle, knowing that there is danger, and her heart is full of uneasiness, but she can only be like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, there is no other way.

In this way, more than a month passed. In Gaochang City at the end of September in the lunar calendar, the night was already very cold. The refugees did not have enough warm clothes and food was in short supply.

On this day, it was suddenly heard that envoys from Chang'an City came to Gaochang. It was said that Khan would grant these refugees the status of household registration in the Tang Dynasty, and said that dozens of people would be selected as representatives to go to Chang'an City. Khan.

The big and small leaders in the refugee area fought over the dozens of places.

There are also rumors that these people will be scattered in the end, and they will be arranged in various counties of Longyou Road. Some people don't want to be scattered, and some people just care about where they will be arranged. The whole refugee area It was noisy, people's hearts fluctuated, and there was a lot of joy mixed in during the period.

On this day, the girl was sitting in front of her shack, twisting twine.

Although these refugees have little contact with the local people nowadays, there are always some courageous locals who shuttle through this refugee area and get some extremely cheap labor from them through connections with various bosses, big and small. Rubbing twine is a more important project.

It is such a job, not everyone can get it, but the girl's uncle can get it. He brought the materials back and asked her to do the work. She sat there twisting the twine while her uncle sat and watched.

The reason why they have to watch is because they are afraid that someone will snatch them. If these things are lost, they will not be able to pay for them at all, and it is very likely that they will never be able to get this subsistence job in the future.

The girl was concentrating on her work when she suddenly saw a commotion on the other side of the street. She wondered if someone was coming to distribute relief food again. The uncle told her to look after the things, and he quickly squeezed over there.

After a while, he came back empty-handed, with a look of lack of interest, obviously there was nothing he wanted there, but more and more people gathered on the street, obviously something good happened.

"What are you looking at, work quickly." The uncle scolded her: "If you don't finish these things before dark, I won't feed you today."

"..." The girl had no choice but to bury her head in her work again. She has been exhausted since she woke up in the morning, and she was very hungry. It seemed that the work in front of her would never be finished.

Pedestrians on the street came and went, and they were all talking about something. She could understand some words, but she couldn't understand some words at all.

She vaguely guessed that it was Roche's cashmere workshop and towel workshop that came to recruit people. The reason why her uncle was not interested was because they were looking for hired workers, not buyers.

Two or three months have passed since these people entered the customs. During this time, she heard some things from those acquaintances, as well as some monks and Buddhists who came to help them.

Among them, the cashmere workshop and the towel workshop in Changle County are the ones that she yearns for the most. I heard that the little ladies there live a good life, not only earning money, but also learning craftsmanship. There are also female teachers who teach people to read and practice martial arts, and they can be promoted to management if they do well.

The girl never imagined that the manager of Luo's cashmere workshop and towel workshop would come to their notorious refugee area to recruit workers, but her uncle obviously didn't intend to let her go ...

After a while, for some reason, some people came back with cloth and food on their backs, and some people even had the courage to hold a bunch of copper coins in their hands without fear of being snatched.

When her uncle saw her, he hurried forward to ask. The girl was also counting her ears while working, and probably understood that the money and food were not obtained by selling people, but by advance payment of wages.

After a while, the uncle also took her to the street. There were several teams lined up here. Several stewards of the Roche cashmere workshop and the towel workshop were in front of them to see who was accepting them. Some wages can be paid in advance.

The standard for advance payment is fifty cash per month, six hundred cash per year, and up to five years, which is three pennies.This price is not to mention hiring workers, even buying people is enough.

But they have a rule here, that is, those who have paid wages in advance cannot visit these women after they enter the workshop.

In the eyes of the refugees, hiring workers like this is not much different from buying people. After all, it is the property of the Luo family. I heard that the Luo family is very powerful in this area, and they have a deep relationship with Guo Xiaoke, the governor of Anxi. friendship.

When it comes to Guo Xiaoke, the refugees are very afraid. Even if the construction period expires in a few years, whether the Luo's workshop will let people go or not, it is not up to them to decide, and how many people dare to come to the door Looking for trouble, even the governor of Guazhou, Changle County Magistrate, is theirs.

However, there are also rumors that the members of the Luo family still have a rule, that is, they only hire workers and do not buy people. Even the rough servants in the family are hired and never buy.

This kind of rule seems really weird to many people, but no matter what, Sanguan money is already a rare good price in their refugee area. The prices given by those human traffickers before are often less than Sanguan, The place to go is an excellent place to go, and it is very worthy of these girls to send them there.

More and more people got the news and rushed to the street, and the lines got longer and longer.

When it was the girl's turn, the person in charge of the team she was in was a well-dressed and serious woman, about thirty years old, but with a dignified aura on her body.

With the help of an interpreter, she asked the girl and her uncle a few questions.The interpreter was well dressed, his hands and face were clean, and his hair was neatly combed. He was obviously not from the refugee area, but he could speak their language and looked like a scholar.

"... Stretch out your hand and have a look with me." At the end, the steward said again.

The young man who was in charge of the translation conveyed to her the meaning of the job, and gave her a warm smile, but that smile made her bow her head in shame. Such a man is really not something she should look at more.

The girl stretched out her hands, which were not too big or too small, palms covered with wounds and calluses, and the knuckles of the fingers were still red and swollen, which was obviously caused by overwork.

The steward looked at the hands, and then raised his eyes to look at the girl's face, and this one look was enough to ruin things.

The girl's uncle walked all the way, and he had never even seen a scene, and he was like a human being. Looking at the scene in front of him, the steward clearly felt compassion for his niece.

So he opened his mouth like a lion, saying that the wages for five years were not enough, and he wanted to advance the wages for ten years.

Hearing this, the girl raised her head in panic and panic. As expected, she saw a displeased expression on the manager's face, and she refused expressly, saying that it was a rule in the workshop and that she alone could not make an exception.

Just like that, the girl was pulled and pushed by her uncle, and she went out of the crowd again. She looked back frequently, but the uncle told her to go back to work quickly, and they had to deliver the batch of goods before dark.

Walking on the dirty yellow mud street, there are noisy crowds behind, hope, and there is only a dilapidated shack in front, a pile of never-ending jobs waiting for her, waiting for her together, and every day Daily hunger and fear.

This is the first time that this young girl has thought of death. No matter how painful she was in the past, she never thought of death.

However, just now, a huge hope was placed in front of her, but her uncle ruthlessly crushed this hope in front of her, causing her life to return to hell again.

The great disappointment was too much for her to bear.

Since she couldn't get there, she might as well die, so that her uncle couldn't get a single grain or cloth.

Just leave him with nothing!Except for a tattered corpse!

The girl was still sitting on the street working. Her uncle cursed and said something, but she didn't listen at all.

The sky is getting darker, and there are fewer and fewer people on the street. They can be vaguely seen packing up their things, and they seem to be leaving soon.

After a while, she saw the steward who had just talked to her come towards her, and the interpreter followed her.

The girl who had been paying attention to their movement saw this scene, stood up from the ground, stood there straight, and looked at them.

The lady in charge glanced at her, and then continued to talk to her uncle, and the man in charge of the translation also tried his best to convey her meaning to the two of them.

"...The salary can only be advanced for five years at most, this is the rule in the workshop." She said.

"I see that your niece really wants to go to our workshop, and she does seem to be able to work."

"So I decided to lend you Sanguan money privately, as if she had paid ten years' wages in advance."

"..."

When the young girl was held by the steward and left the shack behind her and her uncle, she didn't look back once, but held tightly to the steward's palm, letting her lead her away from this place step by step .

This is an extremely kind and powerful hand, pulling the weak and powerless her out of the quagmire, allowing her to step on the solid ground again, and hope is rekindled in her heart.

Later, she learned from other people that the steward was named Peng Er, not only the chief steward of the towel workshop, but also one of the main stewards of the cashmere workshop.

There are also rumors that Guanshi Peng was once dragged to the street by human traffickers to sell her. The person who rescued her at that time was the head of the Luo family, Luo Yong and Luo Sanlang.