Chapter 698: The Greatest Pimp of the Ancient Era

Hiss...

Baifeng suddenly discovered that he seemed to have been holding his tribesmen to his own moral standards, and while the results achieved were indeed very positive—at least Huaxia looked more orderly and more civilized—other tribes and clans were not like this.

For them, population was everything. In an era where trading people was extremely normal, and where Baifeng himself was one of the biggest human traffickers of the age, he had forgotten that other tribes simply did not care whether the children born to their tribe's women were fathered by their own tribe's men; as long as the children were born and could provide labor for their tribe after growing up, that was enough.

Since that was the case, Baifeng felt that their policies could probably be slightly adjusted. The men of the Xuanyuan Tribe had needs, and his own Huaxia had so many people, so he had them too. Baifeng should not impose the moral standards he used to restrict himself onto a universal level.

The only thing Baifeng worried about now was that those women might latch onto Huaxia men, and the Huaxia men might also be unreasonable and do things that would put him in a difficult position. If it were just one or two, that would be easy to handle, but he feared the scale would be too large to explain to the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Baifeng thought for a moment and asked the people from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War: "Can you guarantee that your teams won't cause me more trouble?"

These two were naturally Xiong and Zhu. They were stunned for a moment, then said in very low voices: "What kind of things count as trouble?"

Baifeng also said in a low voice: "As long as you don't abduct women from the Xuanyuan Tribe back here, then I can hire more women over. Do you understand what I mean? You must first guarantee to me that this kind of thing won't happen."

Hearing that they could secure benefits for their subordinates, the two of them were very firm and immediately stated their position: "There is definitely no problem. I will certainly do a good job of ideological work with them; absolutely no one is to abduct any Xuanyuan Tribe woman to Huaxia."

Xiong and Zhu both felt the word "abduct" was used very strangely, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to fit this situation quite well.

With their guarantee, Baifeng spoke to Dahong again: "Then, as you said, our Huaxia wants to hire 2,500 female laborers at once, but the pay can only be lowered to one-third of the men's, as there really isn't much work to do. Likewise, for the female laborers, we won't have requirements regarding body and strength, only one point: the age must be over fourteen."

Dahong was very happy and immediately agreed. What did it matter if the pay was lowered a bit? It was still a huge profit, and the people would always belong to their Xuanyuan Tribe. He was only a bit puzzled by the requirement to limit the age.

Baifeng explained to him: "If a woman is too young, her body and skeleton haven't fully developed, so giving birth is too dangerous. At least five out of ten will have problems, and once a problem occurs, it's easy for both the woman and the child to die. Only those who are older are less prone to danger. That is why in our Huaxia, women must be over fourteen before they can be betrothed to men. It is precisely this policy that has spared our Huaxia many tragedies. I suggest that your Xuanyuan Tribe consider this point as well."

This was a very reasonable explanation, and Dahong also felt it made a lot of sense. As for whether to implement it, he would have to ask for Xuanyuan's opinion after returning.

But the transaction of hiring female laborers was now successfully negotiated. Neither of them made it clear what these female laborers were being hired for; they just looked at each other and smiled. As long as everyone knew it in their hearts, there was no need to put it out in the open.

The two of them easily reached the largest female labor hiring deal of this era, yet Baifeng had a feeling that he had become the greatest pimp and brothel keeper of this age. What if those brothels took him as their patron saint in the future?

However, brothels and whorehouses really did have a patron saint. Also for the sake of economic development, this person was Guan Zhong. Perhaps if Guan Zhong knew, he would hate this custom of the people needing to worship a patron saint for every trade.

Dahong's mission here was completed, and one could even say it was over-completed, having negotiated two more big deals. Baifeng also tried to persuade him to stay for another day to rest and let Huaxia treat him well.

But Dahong was burning with impatience and really couldn't sit still. Plus, the Xuanyuan Tribe was busy now with many affairs, and Huaxia was also busy to the point of being overwhelmed, so he couldn't disturb them much more. Thus, he declined Huaxia's kindness and prepared to set off immediately.

It was just a polite gesture anyway. Since Dahong was unwilling to stay, the Huaxia side immediately began preparing to fetch the Soybean Oil prepared for the Xuanyuan Tribe.

The Pottery Jars used by Huaxia to hold Soybean Oil were all crafted according to the same standard, and the amount of water they held was the same. Anything that did not meet the standard could not be used in the National Treasury.

Each Pottery Jar held ten jin and came with a lid. Although it could not fit perfectly, after adding a mud seal, it could prevent the oil from leaking out.

A sufficient quantity of Soybean Oil was moved to the riverbank, and Grass was also prepared for the Xuanyuan Tribe to cushion the Pottery Jars. The Pottery Jars were also included in the cost, so no further fees would be charged. For Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe, there was no need to separately mention a price for things made of mud; it was just a matter of spending some labor.

Dahong looked at the tightly sealed oil jars. Although this facilitated their transport, he could not guarantee that every one of them contained oil. What if they were filled with water to make up the numbers? What if they weren't full? If he opened them one by one to check, he would have to reseal them with mud again.

The person from the Ministry of Revenue noticed Dahong's unease. If it were him, he wouldn't feel at ease either, so he taught Dahong a random sampling method.

"Among so many jars, you can randomly spot-check them. Pick out a portion to see if there is oil inside and if the quantity is sufficient. You can pick as many as you like, until you feel at ease. As long as you find one that is unqualified, we will immediately open all of them, and you can inspect them one by one."