Chapter 2161: Shizong Arc 29: The Black Industry

The fishy sea breeze kept stimulating the taste buds, but everyone on the dock seemed oblivious to it. As footsteps crossed from the ship's rail onto the shore, a stout figure stepped down the gangplank and landed on the ground in just a few strides—the agile gait looking utterly incongruous with that build.

The newcomer was naturally the ship captain, his face full of coarse flesh, covered in the marks of wind and sun, making his age hard to discern. But that fierce, ruthless aura about him could not be concealed. However, upon spotting Shen Bolong waiting on the pier, he immediately broke into a flower-like smile, strode forward quickly, cupped his hands, and bowed: "This humble one greets the old Viscount. Such a trifling matter—how could it warrant your personal attention?"

Facing the newcomer's eager flattery, Shen Bolong only gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. His style remained as swift and decisive as ever—he waved a hand and said: "Enough pleasantries, let's board the ship and inspect the goods!"

"As you wish!" The captain took no offense, sidestepping and even making a gesture of invitation.

Of course, such concrete work didn't fall to Viscount Shen to do personally. Under his direction, a young man with dark-yellow skin and a sturdy build led several people aboard the ship—this was Shen Bolong's third son, Shen Qinglin.

On the pier, the ship owner respectfully introduced the cargo of this transaction to Shen Bolong: 317 people had arrived alive, from Fujian, Liangguang, and Liangzhe alike, predominantly Han, predominantly able-bodied young adults, plus over 60 women...

Listening to the ship owner's introduction, Shen Bolong's expression showed not the slightest change; his old face even appeared especially solemn. Only after Shen Qinglin led his people off the ship and nodded to confirm to him did he finally speak to instruct: "Proceed with the handover!"

With Shen Bolong's single command, the dock immediately bustled with activity. As the handover began, under the shroud of night, row after row of men and women were driven off the ship. In the dim darkness, individual faces could not be made out, but every silhouette exuded wretchedness. It wasn't just their clothes that were rotting and ragged, but also their dignity, sold like swine...

Beneath a thatched awning, Shen Bolong sat facing the ship owner, looking somewhat listless. It had been a while now, and the dock had once again returned to calm. Shen Qinglin led his people over, first offering a bow, then reporting: "The inspection is complete!"

Hearing this, Shen Bolong gestured toward the ship owner. Shen Qinglin understood, waved a hand, and immediately a middle-aged man dressed as a servant placed a casket before the ship owner.

Seeing this, all the ship owner's reverence and fatigue vanished in an instant, his back straightened. He only opened the lid to glance twice before immediately closing it again, as if unable to bear the dim gleam of the silver coins. His rough face piled up with smiles: "Many thanks to the old Viscount!"

Unlike the Central Empire's interior, where copper coins remained the primary currency, in the vast South Seas region, besides copper coins, gold bars and silver coins circulated far more extensively and rapidly. This was determined by the various bulk commodity trades popular in the South Seas.

At the same time, due to insufficient minting technology, the gold and silver currency currently circulating in the South Seas was mostly minted by the Empire's coin workshops before circulating. Of course, as the various feudal states gradually matured, they too began establishing their own mints one by one, striking their own currencies.

"Not going to count them?" Shen Bolong asked in a deep voice.

The ship owner said: "The Viscount's dealings have always been fair—why would such measures be needed? Besides, this humble one hopes to continue this business in the future..."

Shen Bolong smiled, pondered for a moment, then sighed and pointed at Shen Qinglin standing to the side, saying: "From now on, this matter will be handled by my third son!"

The ship owner was slightly surprised, looked at Shen Bolong, then at the composed Shen Qinglin, quickly recovered his smile, cupped his hands in salute, and said: "A general's household breeds tiger cubs. From now on, this humble one will rely on the young Viscount's care..."

This black industry of human trafficking has been ubiquitous throughout history, appearing endlessly even within the Empire itself, and for a long time, it primarily involved children and women. Of course, the development of this industry often accompanied policy changes and social transformations.

Decades ago, when population numbers served as a metric for local officials' political achievements, the people under their jurisdiction were protected like chicks, and those engaged in the human trade were always severely cracked down upon, almost never spared.

However, as the Empire abolished the poll tax, and with the later tax reforms, coupled with the court no longer linking population metrics to promotions, official attention in this area naturally relaxed accordingly.

Of course, it wasn't complete neglect—after all, in any era, population, especially those with sufficient labor capacity, was precious social wealth and exploitable resource. Nevertheless, the weakening of crackdowns on related crimes was an indisputable fact.

The Great Han Empire's development in human trafficking was initially import-oriented. Mainly because in the early days of national restoration, domestic labor was insufficient, and Emperor Shizu and the court protected Han self-cultivating farmers relatively strictly.

Thus, to manage their lands, they began seeking solutions from outside. At that time, the Empire was in the early stages of external colonization, so one after another, officially (the various government offices' official fields and public fields also lacked labor) and privately, several hundred thousand foreign laborers were imported into the country. Of course, this was later strictly prohibited by Emperor Shizu.

As peace prevailed and the population exploded, while the labor shortage was resolved, it also opened the door to external export—this likewise accompanied the deepening of the Empire's external colonization.

Demand determines the market. Whether the northern land-based feudal states or the overseas feudal states in the South Seas, from their founding onward, the demand for core population experienced a surge, and even decades later, they remained in a state of hunger.

And with conventional immigration methods, the costs were prohibitively high—no feudal state could bear them. Thus, a cheaper, more efficient, and equally inhumane method gradually became the choice of various states, or rather, some immensely powerful merchants proactively helped the states solve their problems.

Initially, the merchants weren't bold, targeting mostly barbarian minorities for trade—in the south, Annam, Guangnan West Circuit, and so on served as population sources; in the north, it was the two countries of Goryeo and Japan.

But while these people were useful to the South Seas states, they weren't so welcome, and after all, barbarians were always cheap. Thus, to seek exorbitant profits, some began extending their sinful hands toward the Han...

From the initial able-bodied laborers to today's differentiated, targeted selection of trade targets—the literate, artisans, and women clearly held higher value. Especially women, whose market price kept rising, since the imbalance of men outnumbering women was common in the South Seas feudal states, and many Han masters looked down on native women, further driving up the price of women, especially young and pretty ones. By comparison, ordinary farmers, fishermen, and children who couldn't provide sufficient labor were far cheaper...

Once Pandora's box was opened, it was hard to stop, and the practical conditions gave merchants engaged in this trade enormous room. On one hand, there was the immense demand and profit temptation from overseas feudal states; on the other, there was the "immigration policy" resolutely promoted since Emperor Shizu's era. Combined together, a tide erupted, and a black industry flourished alongside it.

Of course, such heinous deeds were condemned, denounced, and cracked down upon from both ideological and moral-legal perspectives. But many people had blackened hearts while maintaining rosy lips and white teeth on the surface. Some things were both black and evil, yet could be done under a cloak of righteousness and legitimacy—even if the stench of filth was overwhelming for a time, it could later be whitewashed through other means.

For merchants engaged in human trafficking, whether through swindling and deception, collusion between officials and merchants, or exchanges of power for money, they had plenty of methods to evade the law's fragile supervision and crackdowns, gathering people at coastal ports large and small, then shipping them away in a single vessel.

This business had also become prevalent in the northern feudal states, though maritime trade was clearly more vigorous and flourishing. Demand was equally strong, transportation was convenient, and costs were lower than in the north.

And as could be imagined, such trade was destined to be inhumane and filled with tragedy. For the merchants involved, they only cared about delivering people and exchanging them for money—the "immigrants'" life, death, and health were all secondary.

In the early period, there was still some restraint, but as this path grew more intense and more frenzied, all moral bottom lines were cast aside—especially in the last decade or so, it had become particularly mad. Along those shipping lanes carved out with the lives of Han sons, from those Han sea vessels, who knew how many Han descendants had been cast overboard, and along the way, how many wronged Han souls wailed in lament...

Regarding these situations, the court in the Empire's homeland had long been alert and had adopted certain preventive and remedial measures. However, achieving temporary results was possible, but completely eradicating it was essentially impossible. For one thing, distinguishing which were human trafficking and which were legitimate immigration was extremely difficult.

Unless the court completely changed its grand policy of external expansion, severed overseas connections, and banned a single plank from putting to sea... but compared to the immense profits continuously flowing in from overseas, some human tragedies seemed not quite so unbearable after all.

Thus, prohibition and crackdowns were fine, but throwing away the food for fear of choking was entirely unnecessary.

As for the South Seas feudal states, the slave trade was essentially legal, though it targeted native barbarians. And whether for political necessity or for appearances, regarding the Han population, although the states engaged in actual buying and selling under the pretext of "immigration" to increase their core ruling population, on the surface they too followed the Empire's central laws and severely cracked down on Han trafficking... The South Seas feudal states had been playing this dark joke for decades.

By the Jianlong era, on those vessels plying between the Empire's homeland and the South Seas feudal states, unless a thorough search was conducted, you simply couldn't tell whether the holds contained various goods from the Empire's homeland or so-called "immigrants."

As could be imagined, the status of "immigrants" who entered the South Seas through "trade" was destined to be low. Though higher than the natives, imagining they could become Han masters like the early immigrants was clearly impossible.

For the Shen family, they too participated in this, engaging in related activities with official endorsement—a semi-official operation. For that shipload of "immigrants," it was the best of a bad situation: being settled and handled by the Shen family saved them much trouble, and they could quickly settle down under the Shen family's arrangements.

As for "immigrants" who came south through other private channels, going through some twists and turns was inevitable, but regardless, once they were registered with the authorities and obtained national identity, they could always receive basic protections.

For no other reason than the identity of "Han people." The methods by which people came varied widely, even criminal in nature, but once they arrived, the settling process was no less complete. After all, sharing the same roots, and at a time when foundations were being laid, could they really treat Han people like swine, like slaves?

Unanimously, in matters of safeguarding Han status and interests, all the major feudal states had enacted dedicated laws to explicitly guarantee them. If certain things were done too excessively, it would be slapping one's own face—they dared not go too far.

After handling and settling the affairs of a shipload of "new immigrants," Shen Bolong leisurely returned to his mansion beside the royal city. For someone of his status, having over a hundred servants was standard. He took a sip of fruit drink, washed up, and by the time he reached the main hall, a guest was already waiting quietly.

The visitor was also an old man, named Shen Haiqiong—Shen Bolong's cousin, an old brother who had followed him to Borneo to fight and struggle through life-and-death for decades.

Although Shen Haiqiong hadn't earned a noble title like Shen Bolong, he too had achieved success and fame. Still serving as a deputy general in the Wu Kingdom's navy, he wielded considerable power—of course, backed by Shen Bolong behind the scenes.

And Shen Haiqiong's request for this meeting was over a matter not fit for outsiders' ears: a new band of pirates had risen in the Sulu Archipelago, raising their banner and gathering followers. Somehow obtaining information, they had sent someone at the risk of death to find Shen Haiqiong, hoping to unload their goods at Zhao Hui Harbor...

Entering the age of navigation, the rise of pirates was inevitable, and the Sulu Archipelago, due to its geographical position, would decades later become the largest gathering place for pirates in Southeast Asia.

But robbing alone wasn't enough—they also needed channels to unload their goods. In the early period, some pirates sold their plunder at the Empire's coastal ports, but that route carried too much risk. Later, they gradually shifted, and with the establishment, development, and growth of the South Seas feudal states, these became the pirates' primary targets for unloading goods, since oversight was looser.

Although both the Wu Kingdom on Borneo and the Lu Kingdom on the South Sea islands had organized naval expeditions to suppress them, this didn't hinder private business dealings. Of course, being able to unload goods in these two kingdoms wasn't something just any pirate could accomplish.

Therefore, when he heard that a newly risen pirate band had managed to uncover this connection and directly approach Shen Haiqiong, Shen Bolong felt both vigilant and somewhat curious...

Piracy was also a profession that could rapidly accumulate wealth. Thinking back to when he was still at Shanghai Beach, the first time he led his brothers to sea, before achieving anything, a band of pirates shattered his dreams—his brothers were nearly all killed, and he himself nearly lost his life, falling into utter despair.

Had it not been for a twist of fate that led him to join the Duke of Wu's reclamation corps, he might long ago have been buried in some unknown corner...