The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"One, two, three, four."

Half an hour later, in the house of a farmer who planted jujube trees in the north of the village.

Heifu counted the women sitting together and asked the village head who was tied to a pillar: "Li Zheng Feng, in the blind mountain village, there are only four women who were abducted and sold by human traffickers?"

Feng's hair and beard were still stained with coagulated chicken blood, and he was very embarrassed. He turned his head away in annoyance and refused to answer.

Tian Dian, who was a little timid, responded quickly: "Tingzhang, there are a few more, but they have been bought for a long time and are unwilling to go home..."

Heifu nodded. This is also human nature. Over time, the desire to leave faded. It was Ju's daughter "Yuanyuan" and the woman who was locked in the pigpen and abused by Ji Ying and others who were the most resistant and tried to escape again and again.

It turned out that after Heifu and Dongmenbao had subdued the head of the village and Tiandian, they immediately used them as hostages and forced the villagers who had heard the news to move aside, all the way to the place where the whistle sounded in the north of the village.

Li Xian, Ji Ying and Ju, along with a rescued woman, were besieged by the three men of this farmer and the neighbors. Dongmenbao roared again and drove them away, and the people in Huyang Pavilion were able to reunite.

Heifu had the gate of the courtyard closed and used this farmer as a temporary base. He threatened the head of the village and Tiandian and asked the villagers outside to quickly bring the other women who were abducted and sold in the village!

Most of the people in Blind Mountain were descendants of a Pu tribe in the past. The head of the village and Tiandian were both officials and clan leaders. The head of the village refused to cooperate, but fortunately Tiandian did what Heifu said. Not long after, two more women were sent over.

Hei Fu planned to take his people and leave Blind Mountain as soon as possible, but was blocked at the inner wall.

In order to gather everyone and rescue the kidnapped, they were still a step slower. The third person in the village, the prison gate, had heard the news and rushed over to organize the villagers to block the way.

Under the organization of the prison gate, the villagers who were originally scattered outside began to gather more and more, each holding farm tools and surrounding the farmhouse. They did not dare to rush in, but they were unwilling to give up the road, so the two sides were deadlocked.

Hei Fu asked Dongmen Bao and Li Xian to guard outside with spears and crossbows respectively, while he and Ji Ying were inside, asking about the experience of the four women. Now they could not go out for the time being. Only by mastering the basic situation and understanding the crimes of the officials and villagers in Blind Mountain could he make the next plan.

So, starting with Ju's daughter Yuanyuan, the four women who were abducted and sold to the blind mountain began to complain tearfully...

...

Yuanyuan is only 16 years old, but because of the suffering she has experienced in the past two years, she looks haggard and doesn't look like a young girl.

She said that in March two years ago, when she went to pick mulberry leaves, she was greeted by an old woman passing by. The old woman was over 50 years old, had kind eyes, and chatted with her, praising Yuanyuan's beauty. Then she said that her relatives were waiting for her behind the mulberry forest, and she couldn't walk, so could Yuanyuan help her over.

Yuanyuan didn't doubt it, but what was waiting for her behind the mulberry forest were two big men over seven feet tall, who put a sack on her head, strangled her and threw her into the car...

In the following days, she was half-conscious, her mouth was blocked, and she was not allowed to eat to prevent her from escaping. She was sent to the Blind Mountain with a bumpy ride. When her hood was taken off, she was already sitting in the home of the village head. The village head said that she had been sold as a slave concubine, and from now on, she would be the wife of the village head's foolish brother...

To be honest, life at the village head's home was not too bad, but Yuanyuan always missed her parents, and

could not stand serving that foolish "husband", so she tried to escape many times in the past two years, but was caught by the village head and his men every time.

Yuanyuan said while gritting her teeth and looking at the village head, because the village head's foolish brother did not know about men and women. That night, the village head actually demonstrated in person and taught him how to have sex with Yuanyuan, and then violated her several times.

She was spoiled by her parents since she was a child, and she had never suffered such humiliation. She once tried to hang herself to death, but was rescued. For two years, she was really living a life worse than death...

At this point, she threw herself into her father's arms again and cried loudly. This sixteen-year-old girl had already experienced the greatest suffering in the world.

However, her experience was nothing compared to that of the woman named "Yun" who was locked in the pigsty...

Yun had been locked up for a long time and had become mentally ill. The dirt on her body had been cleaned up by others, and Heifu even gave her his clothes to cover her body. But no matter what she was asked, she would only giggle and repeat words like "I was abducted and sold", "Help me", "Spare my life".

Therefore, Heifu and others could only learn about her from the other three women's bystander narration.

Yuanyuan said: "She was abducted and sold three years ago. She was sold to the three brothers in Libei for more than a thousand yuan and became their wife at the same time..."

Polyandry, this horrifying custom that disregards human ethics, is not an exception in Blind Mountain. Another woman also cried and said that she was the wife of a father and son at the same time...

Yun was the most violent one among the abducted women. After all, it was unacceptable for ordinary people to serve three brothers at the same time. But like Yuanyuan, she failed every time she escaped, and the three brothers were very cruel. Every time they caught her, they would beat her severely and starve her in a dark room for a few days. It was at that time that Ji Ying accidentally ran into her.

In the end, they were simply locked up in a pigsty. From then on, Yun also began to become crazy.

After these women finished talking, before Heifu could do anything, Ji Ying was so angry that he kicked the head of the village several times. He had several sisters in his family who were about the same age as Yun and Yuanyuan, so it was inevitable that he was angry.

"Whose sisters are not sisters, whose daughters are not daughters, you are really cruel! As a village official, you see such a tragic thing but do nothing, and even take the lead in buying! It's really beastly! Although I, Ji Ying, am not a good person, I can't do such a thing!"

Na Na Zheng turned his head and sneered: "What else can we do? There are more men than villages in Blind Mountain, and it is far away from other places. Women from other villages are unwilling to marry here, and there are not enough women in this village. We can only buy from outside. What else can we do!"

This is the reason why people from top to bottom in Blind Mountain are so keen on buying abducted women. The original good people have become evil people just because of the instinct of reproduction.

Of course, slave trading is legal these days, and they can also buy slave concubines, but an adult slave concubine costs more than 4,000 yuan. Blind Mountain is poor, and several families can't get enough money. At this time, human traffickers come to the door. The women they provide are not only young, but also only need one or two thousand yuan each!

The village chief was making a strong argument, and it seemed that he had a point, but Yuanyuan angrily went over and slapped him, cursing: "Don't quibble here, I heard from the old people in the village that it was because the girls born in the blind mountain liked to be drowned! It's what you deserve to be like today, I curse your entire tribe and the whole village, all of you will be exterminated! Bah!"

She spat in the face of the village chief, and Heifu asked Ju to pull her back.

In this way, the things in the blind mountain were clear. Although the people in this village did not directly participate in the looting and selling, they knew that those women had problems, but they still bought them from the traffickers many times. It has been going on for more than ten years, and more than a dozen women have been sold here by the same group of people.

But except for the four people in front of them, most of the others accepted their fate, or felt that it didn't matter where they married, and now that there was hope of being rescued, they also silently chose to give up.

Or maybe it was because they had children here and couldn't let go.

At this time, Tian Dian was already asking Hei Fu what crime he would be charged with since he had not purchased the kidnapped women.

"Whether you participated or not, as long as you knew about it but did not report it, you will be punished! You will definitely be sentenced to serve as a city official, and as a village official, you will be punished even more severely, and you will be punished with tattooing on your face!"

The village head, with red eyes, told the crime, and then sneered: "As for us, we knew that these women were not legitimate but still bought them, we are guilty of the same crime as kidnappers, and shall be sentenced to death!"

"It seems that you still know?"

Hei Fu sneered, it seems that this village head had specifically asked people to find out.

Indeed, in Qin law, kidnapping and trafficking are the same crimes as rape and raping, and both are punished by crucifixion and dismemberment!

As long as the buyer knew about it in advance, he would be guilty of the same crime. The buyer who didn't know about it in advance would be tattooed and forced to work in the city. Others who helped conceal it would have their toes cut off and forced to work in the city...

In the Qin State, the punishment was so severe and the crime was so serious! It was completely different from the gentle regulations of later generations, such as "those who buy abducted women and children shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, detention or control", and "those who do not abuse the bought children and do not hinder their rescue shall not be held criminally responsible"!

Although this severe punishment for trafficking made Heifu feel relieved, there was also a problem. If the offender knew that he was doomed, he would resist stubbornly...

"It's a bit difficult for us to get out of the blind mountain safely today..."

Heifu opened the window. The fence of this farmer's house was surrounded by people. More than 200 people, regardless of gender, age or status, were almost all gathered here. They held farm tools, their faces were dark, and their eyes were also dark, full of unkindness.

More than 2,000 years of history have come full circle, and they will always suddenly intersect at a certain moment or event. This scene seems familiar...

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