Picking Up a General to Plow the Fields

Chapter 197: Pick someone

At this time, the business of the slave shop was not good.
The owner, a man named Cai Wu Lang was happy when he saw customers and happily invited them into the house, introducing himself.

Lian Fang Zhou listened indifferently; she had an instinctive dislike for such people.

“I don’t know what kind of person Young Master Juan and Miss Lian want to buy? It’s not me bragging, I definitely have whatever you’re looking for!” Cai Wu Lang promised, patting his chest.

Ah Juan smiled and said, “Can we see everyone?” As he spoke, he handed over a piece of silver worth three or four taels to the owner, “We’re looking for a few slaves.”

Cai Wu Land saw that they weren’t from a big city family, nor where they from a rich rural family.
He wasn’t very pleased to hear Ah Jian’s request but before he could reluctantly respond, Ah Jian had stuffed the money in his hand.
Holding the silver and squeezing the weight in his hand, he was satisfied and swallowed his reluctant words.
He nodded and smiled: “Okay, okay! A few people, wait a minute, I will call everyone to come!”

There were two slave shops in Yuhe County and Cai Wu Lang was the oldest.
He also had three apprentices to help with affairs and had the largest ‘stock’.

Not long after, Lian Fang Zhou and the others heard the chaotic sound of footsteps in the outside courtyard.
Looking out, they saw a crowd of many people of different heights standing in the yard, about 30 to 40 people.
Both men and women work white-washed indigo clothes with their heads handing down, depressed.

After a while, Cai Qu Lang came in and asked with a smile: “Young Master Jian, Miss Lian, I don’t know what you intend to use them for? It just so happens that I got some new ones two days ago, both male and female.
The little servants are all smart and capable!”

Lian Fang Zhou and Ah Jian glanced at each other and smiled.
“We country people don’t have any maids; we are just short of farmers! If there are any suitable ones, I will pick a dozen or so.
If there are no suitable ones, just forget it.”

“I see!” Cai Qu Lang nodded, smiling.
“As long as they are strong, anyone can do the simple work of farming.
I’ll call people in to show them to you, five or six at a time, what do you think?”

“Call them in now.” Lian Fang Zhou agreed.

Cai Wu Lang let out a ‘ah’ and went out to wave his hand at the apprentice outside.
Then he came back and sat down, still smiling.

In a short while, another apprentice led in five or six people in a line.
They lined up in a row by order of height, with their hands lowered and their heads down.

“Young Master Jian, Miss Lian, these young men are in their twenties.
They are strong and hardworking, what do you think?” Cai Wu Lang smiled, looking at the people.
He shouted in a low voice: “Hold your head up! Keep your chest tall and be more energetic!”

Lian Fang Zhou and Ah Jian didn’t say anything.
Lian Fang Zhou turned to Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji and smiled: “You two go have a look, see who is appropriate and inappropriate.”

Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji agreed and went forward.

Cai Wu Lang frowned slightly and was a little dissatisfied but didn’t say anything.

Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji circled around the people and asked a few words, such as ‘what did you do before?’ and ‘how long did you work?’ as they stretched out their hands to take a look.
Then they went back.

Cai Wu Lang hurriedly smiled and asked, “What do you think? Very good, right?”

Qin Feng glanced at Lian Fang Zhou.
He smiled and said, “They’re good, but not suitable for farming.”

Cai Wu Land uttered an ‘oh’ and sighed.
“Aright, let’s see the next batch! In fact, you don’t need to worry so much.
AS long as they are in good health, there isn’t anyone not suitable for farming…”

If it wasn’t for the amount of money rewarded and that they planned on buying a dozen people, Cai Wu Lang would be really impatient.

Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji didn’t directly respond to his words but smiled and said they would definitely choose carefully.

Among the six people just now, two of them kept rolling their eyes and the did not seem loyal at first sight.
How could they pick them? The remaining three, one was a porter and the other was for errands.
However, the porter was lazy and the errand boy was active.
This was not appropriate and their hands were too thin, afraid that they didn’t even have a few pounds of strength.
They would not be able to do farm work.

As Qin Fend slowly explained the reason for not picking this batch, Cai Wu Lang was secretly surprised and couldn’t say anything more.

After more than an hour, they picked through all the people in the yard and Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji selected fifteen suitable workers.
However, Lian Fang Zhou said that she only wanted twelve, so the two of them pared out three more people.

Despite only selling twelve, Cai Wu Lang was very happy.

They also chose a family of four, a thirty-six year old couple with one son and one daughter.
The man was named Zhang Xiao Jun and his wife was named Li Su Mei.
Their daughter, Zhang Xiu’er was about the same age as Lian Fang Zhou and their son was two years older than Lian Che, named Zhang Liang.

The family would be able to do some chores such as cleaning the yard and cooking the food.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to feed the twelve workers.
It wouldn’t be good to make Third Aunt do it every day!

After selling so many people at once, which would save a lot on food, Cai Wu Lang was in a particularly good mood.
The price he offered Lian Fang Zhou was very fair, mainly because Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji’s eyes were so sharp, making him think it wouldn’t be good to be too greedy.

The final transaction was eight taels were person for the twelve workers and a total of thirty-three taels for the family of four.
Zhang Xiu’er was worth 14 taels alone.

Looking at Zhang Xiu’er’s beautiful face, fair skin, and slender figure, Lian Fang Zhou scolded Cai Wu Lang for being black and knew what he was thinking without asking.

Zhang Xiu’er’s mouther and father became pale with tension, afraid that Lian Fang Zhou would not want Zhang Xiu’er.

Hearing Lian Fang Zhou nod and agree, the couple and Zhang Xiu’er both let out a big sigh.
Madam Li fell to the ground with a low ‘ah’ cry.
She didn’t dare to get up and struggled to knock her head towards Lian Fang Zhou, repeatedly saying: “Thank you, Miss! Thank you, Miss for your great kindness!” Lian Fang Zhou felt sad for a while.

After buying them out and the paperwork was complete, Lian Fang Zhou asked Qin Feng and Su Zi Ji to take the thirty people to the tea shop at the gates of the city to wait.
She, Lian Ze, Ah Jian, Madam Li, and Zhang Xiu’er would go buy the daily necessities for the workers.

Clothing, footwear, bedding, blankets, personal items, all of these needed to be prepared, otherwise how would they live when they returned? Coming out of the slave shop, they had nothing but the clothes on their bodies and nothing in their hands.

They would also need pots and pans, cooking supplies, and tools.
However, since it was already so late, they would just buy some steamed buns and cakes from the street vendors for tonight’s dinner and start cooking tomorrow morning.

These things were trivial but needed and it took them a long time to buy them all.

They bought so much that they could not fit it all in their donkey cart, so Lian Fang Zhou hired two more donkey carts and even though, she could barely fit it all.