Chapter 986: Private Slaves

Baifeng gifted a total of three servants to Baoxi, two men and one woman. It was not that Baifeng was reluctant, but rather that Huaxia truly did not have that many high-quality servants left; these three were all exceptionally well-trained.

One of them was named Zhu, the most clever and quick-witted of the group. Baoxi liked him very much and would now keep him directly by his side, taking over the role of Huangpin. Fortunately, he did not need to participate in or handle Government Affairs Department matters, which prevented Huangpin from feeling too great a sense of crisis.

From the beginning of their training, servants were instilled with the absolute rule that they must not participate in government affairs and must not interfere in their master's family matters; they were to do whatever their master ordered. Now that they had been handed over to Baoxi, both Baifeng and the people from the Ministry of Rites had warned him: servants were simply not allowed to participate in politics, no matter how clever one might think they were.

If one truly felt reluctant to waste such talent, then one should go to Baifeng to have their slave status removed, allowing them to study and take exams as an ordinary person of Huaxia, but they must never touch things they shouldn't while in the status of a slave.

They might yearn for and love literature, but their status as servants meant they were not allowed to study; they could not learn in secret, nor could they learn if others taught them. Once discovered, they would be punished. Although this seemed very unfair to these servants, a servant was a servant after all; no matter how well they lived, they could not change their status.

Fortunately, their children were given the opportunity to study, and they had the chance and freedom to learn, so the servants themselves would diligently do their own work without crossing the red line, in order to secure a better future for their children.

Baifeng did this to nip the hidden danger of servants interfering in politics in the bud from the very beginning. It was one thing for those in the homes of Nobles, but in his own home, it was absolutely impossible. There were too many historical examples of officials interfering in politics, and furthermore, these people here had not been castrated; physically, they were normal men.

Baoxi was simply reluctant to part with such a clever person by his side. As soon as he arrived at the Suiren Clan, he began trying to assign tasks to Zhu, wanting him to help handle government affairs.

Yet Zhu said to Baoxi with a smile, "Master, I cannot do this; I am only a servant."

Even when Baoxi used his status as master to command him, Zhu remained unmoved and knelt on the ground, saying firmly, "Master, I will not obey your order. You may kill me, but participating in government affairs violates our principles as servants. The King would kill me, and if it were because of you, it might even affect you, Master."

"Therefore, the King only needs to arrange some miscellaneous tasks for us to take care of your daily life. Even if you let us farm for you, that is fine, but we absolutely cannot touch government affairs."

Baoxi was somewhat moved; he had not expected that Huaxia could train servants to such a high degree, so he could only give up on this clever person and stop making things difficult for him.

However, having one less Zhu did not have much impact, because officials stronger than Zhu had arrived in Huaxia. He did not even need to overthink things; just as Baifeng said, he only needed to grasp the overall situation and coordinate everyone, without needing to do everything himself.

In order to have more excellent servants, Baoxi had Zhu and the other two select some individuals from among the slaves of the Suiren Clan to train, and it did not matter even if they were worked to death.

Because Baoxi felt he needed more good servants like this, and at the same time, he had inquired clearly that the value of such a servant in Huaxia was extremely high.

The trade of servants was not conducted by Baifeng; Baifeng merely had the Ministry of Revenue organize auctions for such high-quality servants. However, the Nobles had many more slaves in their homes, only the quality was poor and they were not worth much.

When they needed servants, they could also trade among themselves. Only when the slaves they already had were insufficient would they buy government slaves from the Ministry of Revenue; their own were private slaves.

Furthermore, Baifeng had also given Baoxi a guarantee: all the Bronze Ritual Vessels currently held by the Suiren Clan needed to be confiscated for future use in sacrificial rites, but everything he used in his daily life belonged to Baoxi.

Baoxi was to use the population and means of production of the entire tribe to exchange for a noble title and a wealthy life in Huaxia. Baifeng would also allocate to him the largest and most abundant farmland in all of Huaxia, as well as the most private property, all as compensation for Baoxi.

However, the current slaves of the Suiren Clan were counted as Baoxi's private property. At the same time, to limit certain situations from occurring, Baifeng required that the number of slaves could not exceed one-twentieth of the total population. That is to say, based on the current minimum estimated population of the Suiren Clan of 300,000, Baoxi could personally own at most 15,000 slaves, and they would be his private property.

If there were more than 300,000 people, then the number of slaves he could own could also be higher. However, the current number of slaves in the Suiren Clan was more than 15,000, which meant Baoxi still had to let the portion exceeding 15,000 become Free Persons, and only the remainder would be his own private property.

The entire Huaxia, from population to land, was Baifeng's private property. But once you had a Nobility, you were no longer Baifeng's property, and the property you owned became independent. Therefore, Baifeng could not arbitrarily change or confiscate the wealth of Nobles who held titles; only after they broke the law and were stripped of their titles could Baifeng punish them.

Therefore, when Baoxi joined Huaxia, he could become the wealthiest person in Huaxia, but he could not treat Free Persons as his wealth like Baifeng did.

Baifeng had promised farmland, but Huaxia City and Lema City no longer had that much farmland to give him. Therefore, Baifeng could only give a symbolic amount in these places; the main enfeoffment would be in a more distant, uninhabited place, which would be Baoxi's inherent private property.

Whether he went there to farm or grow flowers, Baifeng would not interfere. Although it could not be compared to Baoxi's current Suiren Clan territory, its value could not be mentioned in the same breath.

Only after Baoxi clearly understood how much profit this massive number of private slaves could bring him did he first think of having Zhu train a batch of high-quality servants.

In the future, besides using them himself and distributing them to his numerous children and wives, he could also sell them at a high price, because the Nobles had a great demand for high-quality servants.

The government slaves currently sold by the Ministry of Revenue were of increasingly lower quality, because they were all the ones left over from before, the kind sent to do hard labor. When the Nobles bought them back, they still had to train them themselves to barely meet their requirements.