Chapter 438: Buying 'Goods'

The threshing ground outside the stockade now served as the market. Simple awnings were scattered about, and groups of thuggish soldiers, bare-chested, loitered around, some of them drunk. Crowds of refugees were herded into the open space like commodities. Those sent to the market were all women and children—the rebel soldiers and officers either used women and boys to vent their lust, or, having been without a son for years, wanted to get a boy to carry on their family line, or, being single, wanted to quickly find a wife. Although Kong Youde had been a general for many years, he had never had a wife until after the Deng-Lai incident.

The young, good-looking women received better treatment. Fearing that a tan would lower their price, they were at least given a makeshift shelter. As for the ordinary, rough-handed peasant women, they could only kneel by the wall, waiting to be chosen, their hair disheveled and their faces sallow and thin.

There were both “public goods” and “private goods” here. The latter were mostly young women, plundered by the soldiers, who, having had their fill of them, put them up for resale.

Besides the human market, there was a vast flea market, with stalls spread out, filled with all sorts of items. Everything was for sale here: from piles of tattered clothes stripped from the dead to gold and silver trinkets, jade ornaments… farmers’ tools, merchants’ abacuses, actors’ costume trunks and musical instruments, and even coffins prepared by wealthy families—everything that could be found in homes, government offices, shops, and even temples was plundered and put up for sale. Some items were even covered in mottled earth—grave goods dug up by bandits from the tombs of wealthy families during the chaos of war.

The buyers were not only rebel soldiers but also all sorts of daring and ruthless individuals who would risk anything for a profit in these troubled times, gathering like flies to a corpse, trying to make a fortune. Recently, a group of human traffickers from Nan-Zhili had arrived by sea, buying up young women.

Buyers and sellers alike carried clubs and swords—there was no order here. Disputes over prices often led to fights with knives. Theft and robbery were commonplace. A few steps from the edge of the market, one could see several swollen corpses covered in flies. And, of course, rows of blackened heads hung from wooden poles.

Huang Ande frowned. He, like Cao Qing and Zhu Si, wore a Lingao-made pig-snout mask as instructed by the medic, but the stench of corpses still managed to seep in. Their strange appearance often drew stares from the people around, but no one dared to bother them. The rebel army was a motley crew, and even Li Jiucheng couldn’t effectively control every straggler. However, it was a consensus that the people under the “Qimu” banner were not to be trifled with. The rebel commander guarding the market knew that if they provoked Master Lu, this place would be slaughtered from top to bottom. So he had given strict orders to his men: anyone who disrespected the people from Qimu Island would be taken out and beheaded on the spot.

“Master Huang has arrived!” As Huang Ande was walking, a sturdy man wearing a tattered vest and with his chest exposed came up to greet him, first cupping his fists. This man was the head of the market guards, originally a servant of Kong Youde who had also taken the surname Kong. Now that Kong Youde was a deputy marshal, he had naturally risen to the rank of “major” and was in charge of managing the market with a team of men.

After exchanging greetings, the major asked, “Well, Master Huang, is it the usual or…?”

“The usual, of course,” Huang Ande said. “Three hundred able-bodied men. You count them first. Last time, you cheated us, stuffing in so many old, weak, and sick people. More than forty died on the way, not even enough to cover the cost of their food on the journey! If this happens again, our Master Lu won’t give you a single grain of rice.” He then took out a blue stamp and handed it to him.

“You flatter me,” Kong Youji, though from a servant background, seemed to have a natural talent for business. He smiled obsequiously and said, “The last batch of able-bodied men was definitely not a deception from my side—how would I dare? They were all genuinely young and strong. It’s just that they had been kept in the pen for too long, without enough food, and the weather was hot. Wouldn’t a few of them die on the way? I’d say, if they weren’t particularly strong, at least half of them would die before reaching the island. Not to mention them, a few days ago, when the Marshal was on the march, a whole line of men died of heatstroke and were left behind! The sun is vicious.”

“Let’s not talk about that. This time, you have to pick them properly. If too many die on the way, next time you might have to deliver the goods yourselves,” Huang Ande said.

“Alright, alright, I’ll go prepare the goods. Will you still be inspecting the women and children yourself, sir?”

“Yes. Everything as usual.”

Kong Youji immediately called a trusted follower and told him to lead “Master Huang” to the human market to select people.

This was not Huang Ande’s first time on this errand. He himself was from a refugee background and knew how much the elders valued population. He also knew that the chiefs, unlike other powers, placed special importance on women and children, often prioritizing their transport. The first to be transported from Qimu Island were also women and children. And he had long heard whispers that the chiefs had a particular interest in the tall, broad-shouldered, long-legged women of Shandong. So when selecting people, he couldn’t help but take a careful look.

He walked along, making his selections. When he saw someone he liked, he would point, and Zhu Si or Cao Qing would stamp their arm with a carved blue seal. The rebel soldiers nearby would then lead the person out and put them in a separate enclosure.

For those who were stamped—whether they were women personally selected by Huang Ande or able-bodied men randomly chosen by Kong Youji—once they were stamped, their lives were saved, as long as they could make it to the transit station. If they had children or family, one stamp would save the whole family; they were allowed to go along. Therefore, people would often beg those who were stamped to pretend to be their relatives. If a single man was stamped, women would immediately be willing to be his wife.

In the past, they had used wooden tags, but later, for some reason, everyone found out that following them meant they could eat their fill. So as soon as a tag was hung, someone would snatch it or steal it, leading to fights, cries of injustice, and even deaths. In the end, they switched to stamping.

Manor Lord Lu’s instructions were simple: prioritize healthy women with unbound feet, over 1.5 meters tall, and under forty years old. It didn’t matter if they had children or not. As for children, as long as they were not disabled, all of them were to be taken.

The condition of unbound feet was difficult to meet. The practice of foot-binding in Shandong was different from that in Jiangnan. In Jiangnan, rural women had to work in the fields, so foot-binding was not common among them. But in Shandong, foot-binding was very common, even among peasant women. So the prerequisite of unbound feet was not a must. The other conditions were relatively easy to meet.

Huang Ande walked and selected. The women and children in the human market stared at them with wide eyes. Although the rebel soldiers forbade them from rushing forward, whenever Huang Ande’s gaze turned towards them, they would involuntarily try to stand up and rush forward, only to be held back by the rebels’ swords and spears. This terrifying, hopeful gaze of survival sometimes made Huang Ande unable to look.

The orphans in the market were especially pitiful, barely clothed, either lying or sitting, extremely weak. They were small and weak, with no one to care for them, at the very bottom of the food chain in the entire human pen. Huang Ande sighed as he tried to take away every child who looked reasonably healthy.

For every person he took from here, he saved a life. But the reception capacity in Zhaoyuan and on the island was also limited. The special service boats could only transport a few hundred people at a time, so Lu Wenyuan’s quota for him was a maximum of one thousand people each time.

The last stop was the “small sheds.” The women sold in these sheds were generally of better appearance or from middle-class families. Although buying such women couldn’t be at the “bulk price” and required payment in cash, one could often find women who met the aesthetic tastes of the chiefs. Chief Zhu always gave him twenty taels of silver specifically for purchasing such women, with a guide price of three taels per person.

There were special guards outside the sheds. Only those who showed their silver to prove their sincerity were allowed in to “inspect the goods.” Huang Ande had been here a few times, and the guards knew his background and didn’t question him. It was Zhu Si’s first time here, and he couldn’t help but look around curiously. Suddenly, he shuddered and tugged at Huang Ande’s clothes.

Huang Ande turned to look and found Zhu Si blushing, his head lowered, not daring to look. Huang Ande knew he was probably still a virgin who had never been with a woman and was a little overwhelmed by the “spring scenery” in the shed.

The shed was not large, but it was crowded with people. Under the sunlight, a stench of sweat filled the air. In the middle was an open space cordoned off with ropes, which no one was allowed to approach. The women for sale were all stripped naked and pushed inside for the buyers to inspect. They could only be viewed from outside the ropes; touching was not allowed, otherwise they would be met with swords and spears.

Huang Ande knew that some buyers from other places were extremely picky, rejecting even those with the slightest scar on their skin. A beautiful young woman with a good figure and skin would sell for at most five taels of silver—not only was this one-tenth of the price in Jiangnan, but in Jiangnan, you would never be allowed to inspect a girl like this. No wonder the human traffickers from Nan-Zhili were willing to risk their lives to come here to “buy goods.”

On a normal day, Huang Ande would have teased the young man, but the “spring scenery” before them was a scene of boundless misery. The women had first lost their families, then were repeatedly raped and abused by the rebel soldiers, tortured until they were all dazed and expressionless. They did whatever they were told, completely oblivious to shame even when surrounded by a group of men, allowing themselves to be judged and commented on. Even someone as worldly as him couldn’t find the interest to joke around.