Chapter 65:

Getting the king's permission is as simple as Felix thinks. Felix has paid a lot of taxes to His Majesty the king recently, and he is very favoured by the king. The king is willing to give this face.

The most important point is that the gangsters who knew that they intended to kidnap Wei Wei were instructed by the nobles - after the initial worry, the king also realized that the gangsters were not targeting him - but now the investigation team has not caught the culprit behind it. , even the corpses of the gangsters that may die are being picked up by Felix, and the incompetence of the people under his hands makes the king feel a little embarrassed and guilty when facing Felix.

But no matter how embarrassed and guilty, the king already has the idea of not going to investigate further. The previous search of the nobles has attracted the dissatisfaction of the nobles, but they haven't caught anyone yet, and if they continue to make trouble, they will probably have A joint protest.

In this way, I feel a little sorry for Felix. For this reason, the king generously agreed to his request, not to mention that Felix sent him a sum of money.

Even the king is short of money.

After receiving the compensation, the king turned a blind eye to Felix's recruitment of free people. Anyway, those people would go to the slave market by themselves if they couldn't survive, and they would not sell to anyone.

If there is no one to obstruct, the recruitment will be much simpler. Don't look at the fact that Felix's visit to the capital is just an accident. Felix has already planned to recruit freemen in various places, and naturally, he has no intention of letting go of the capital.

Kingsley personally led a team to the Xiacheng District to recruit free people. Anyone willing to become a serf could receive "sell money". This fee is based on the current market price of the slave market. The price is different according to age. For example, the adult labour force is worth almost a gold coin, which is equivalent to a ploughing horse, while the price of the older and younger serfs is cut in half, and the price is different for men and women.

(This shows how lucrative Wei Wei's business is.)

Of course, if he has a skill or sells himself as a slave, the price will be higher, but they are serfs, and the price is already very favourable.

So there are a lot of people in line, but not everyone is willing to give up their status as free people. Compared with selling themselves, more people choose to sell their children and sell their daughters.

Whether it is in the East or the West, the general public has a characteristic that the poorer the family, the more children they have, because they must have as many children as possible to ensure that some of them live smoothly to adulthood.

And in many cases, children are also part of the property. When they can't live, they can sell children of the right age in exchange for the chance for others to live.

No one thinks there is anything wrong with this, there are many such cases every year when the cold winter comes, and most of the people who are sold are girls.

The children who were brought by their parents looked numb, and they had accepted such a fate. Some good-looking girls even showed a hint of happiness. If it wasn't for the Count to recruit serfs, girls like them would most likely be sold. The place is the brothel run by the church and nobles.

In comparison, it is better to be a serf.

Standing behind the temporarily moved table, Kingsley looked at the large line of spectacles in front of the table with a headache, and the girls were all around ten to twelve years old.

The reason why they are all girls of this age is that the older girls have either been sold or married.

Although there is a shortage of people in Sardinson County, can a girl of this age be able to do things? Kingsley even doubted they would ever make it to Sardinson.

If you consider the needs of Sardinson, Kingsley doesn't want to accept these girls at all, they don't seem to be able to work, and everyone is skinny and skinny as if the wind can blow Blow away the same.

They shouldn't have accepted children of this age. After all, they want serfs who can do things, not a group of children who need to spend food to take care of them.

But the chivalry rule made it impossible for him to ignore these people, so Kingsley had to send someone back to ask Felix what he meant.

The soldiers sent to inquire hurried away on horseback and hurried back. The news brought back to Kingsley could be accepted, but for children under the age of twelve, the price was lower.

The soldier also added: "Lord Count is out, this is what Miss Weiwei means."

Just experiencing the danger of being almost kidnapped, Wei Wei used this as an excuse to turn down some invitations and hid at home busy reading and writing With the new plan, Felix is not so lucky. There are various banquets waiting for him every day, and because his fiancee is not around, he has to deal with Yingyingyanyan who is more enthusiastic than before. Dolores took it on as her dance partner, which caused the latter to enter the social circle early.

The little girl is also very good. She thought that Wei Wei was frightened, and she saw so many people taking advantage of her not to fight her brother's ideas, and they raised the courage to overcome their introvertedness and became her brother's grass-guard. After a few days, the entire People are more confident.

Although it wasn't an order from Lord Earl, Wei Wei's had the same effect. With these words, Kingsley also lets go of recruiting people. Even if some people charged their children who were not even ten years old, they would also have One eye open and one eye closed.

On the other hand, after knowing that many parents in Xiacheng were selling their children, Wei Wei recruited the housekeeper and asked him to contact some merchants to buy shoes and warm clothes.

"The fabric doesn't need to be too good, but it must be warm enough, and the shoes should be suitable for walking. Contact a few more companies, and the number may not be small."

She is not sure about the exact number, but it is always right to prepare first.

Wei Wei's preparations were really useful. After about two hours, Kingsley sent someone back to tell her that the parents who bought the children took the food and left the children at the recruitment site. They didn't plan at all. Send these kids home and wait for them to pick them up.

In their words, since the people have been sold to them, the children have nothing to do with them, where can they bring back the food that was not much wasted?

The soldiers who came back to report the letter couldn't help but say: "It's really cruel."

Wei Wei frowned as well, she nodded and said, "I know, how many children were left behind?"

"It was almost the time when I came back. There are forty or so, and now there should be more." The soldiers thought for a while and added: "There should have been eighty-sixed children in the queue at the beginning, and then a lot of

them came." These soldiers are mainly In the past, the soldier who maintained the order did not know how to count, but his companions understood. When he was bored, he counted people by the way, and he remembered it when he heard it.

Wei Wei had a bottom line and told the soldiers: "Go and see which knight is available in the house now, and let him send a team of soldiers to watch over those children. I will send others to take over later."

"Okay. Miss." The soldier nodded and went down.

Wei Wei turned to look at the maid behind her: "Penny, you go...Penny?"

Penny, who was in a daze, came back to her senses and replied in a panic, "Yes, miss?"

"What's wrong with you?"

Penny said embarrassedly, "I just remembered my past."

Wei Wei realized, she remembered Penny was also sold by her parents, and if it hadn't been taken back to Sardinson Castle by Butler Patton, Penny would have been sold to a brothel.

She patted her hand comfortingly: "Don't think about those unpleasant things, aren't you having a good time now?"

"Yes, miss!"

Penny said excitedly, she is indeed living well now, not only eating well The clothes are warm, the salary is paid every month, and the owner is easy to get along with. There is nothing better than this.

"Miss, what do you want me to do?"

"Yes, I want you to organize the maids in the house, and let them run with them later to take care of those children."

Since they are all girls, let them It was not suitable for the soldiers to take care of them. Wei Wei had to send the maids to the house. Fortunately, some more people were added to the house recently. The maids and the four brought from Sardinson had a total of 14 people. Qin these two days. He was sent to the river to help manage the maids who were in charge of cooking. He was not at home, so naturally, Penny had to bring it in.

Wei Wei arranged: "You go over first, count the number of people, and take you to Qin's side to eat something - remember to inform Qin's side first - and then wait for the housekeeper to contact the good people and let them bring their clothes and put them on. Don't freeze."

Penny wrote them down one by one, and then asked, "Miss, where should we arrange for so many people to live? There are not so many places to live in the Earl's mansion."

This is indeed a problem, Wei Wei herself There is no way.

So he could only say: "I'll ask Felix when he comes back."

Knowing that someone was staring at her outside, Wei Wei couldn't go out.

Today Felix accepted an invitation from a nobleman to have lunch, so he came back early. When he came back, he found that there were a lot fewer people in the earl's mansion, and the housekeeper who usually appeared immediately was not there. Take off the cloak and go to Wei Wei.

Following Dolores behind her, she went back to her room to rest.

"What's the matter, where did the housekeeper and the others go?"

"There's something wrong with Xiacheng District." Wei Wei helped him pour a cup of steaming maltose ginger tea, and boiled ginger slices and maltose together for 20 minutes. Then filter out the ginger slices, drink it to warm the palace and warm the stomach, and it can also dispel cold and prevent colds. It is the most suitable for drinking in winter.

Felix tried the temperature, and it felt just right, so he drank it all in one breath, then poured himself another glass, drinking slowly this time, while listening to Wei Wei talking about Xiacheng.

Listening to her worrying about how to settle the children, Felix thought for a while and said, "I can go to Alan for help. He has a spare manor house outside the city, and he should be able to borrow it temporarily."

Ellen's manor house is just a house with no attached land. Felix has been there before. The big stone house was in tatters from the inside out because the owner didn't care. There were only two old servants guarding it. Now, with his friendship with Allen and future partnership, it's not difficult to borrow for a while.

Felix did what he thought of, got up and went to Alan to borrow the house.

On the other hand, Penny also took the maids and went down to the lower city under the escort of the soldiers.

Compared with other areas, the environment in Xiacheng is really bad, the roads are dirt roads with potholes, the houses are dilapidated like dilapidated houses that may collapse at any time, and every door is full of garbage or "A stench permeates the air, making people suspect that there is such a place in the capital.

Wangdu is a prosperous big city with the largest population in Prady, but there are only about 30,000 permanent residents in the entire Wangdu (excluding the serfs living in the surrounding noble territories), among which the poor people in the lower city. The population of more than 16,000 people occupies half of the population of the royal capital.

The poor in the lower city do not have land, and it is difficult to find stable jobs, which makes their lives very difficult. Apart from occasional odd jobs, more people choose to engage in illegal activities. It can be said that in the eyes of residents in other urban areas. Here is the sinful lair of thieves, robbers and prostitutes.

Compared with some maids who frowned and covered their mouths and noses, obviously unable to adapt to such an environment, Penny had to be much calmer, not to mention that Sardinia didn't smell very good at first. Before she became a maid, she lived in a The place doesn't get much better than here.

Fortunately, the recruiting site is at the gate of the lower city, and they don't need to go too deep into this chaotic place.

"Lord Knight." Penny saluted Kingsley, explaining the origins of her group.

Kingsley was having a headache. Seeing that someone had finally come to take over the group of children, he turned his chin happily: "You came just in time, take them all away first."

Perhaps it is because this year is colder than in previous years. Life in the lower city is even harder. There are many families of children. They received nearly a hundred on this day. Most of them are girls, but there are also many boys.

It's not that all the people here are patriarchal and only sell girls. It's that Kingsley doesn't accept children who are too young, at least they have to be over ten years old. Boys of this age are already the labour force of the family when they are older, and they can do something if they keep them. When the girl is married, the family has to prepare a dowry. If you can't get married without a dowry, you can't do much work if you keep it. It's better to just sell it for money and let others have a way to live.

Of course, there are still many people who favour patriarchal women, and even some of their daughters are raised for money.

Penny took the maid to take over the children. She heard from the soldiers who followed them to help that these children were sold separately, and some of the children of the family who became serfs together were brought back by adults and are not here.

According to Wei Wei's instructions, Penny planned to send people to the side of the river first. Although the location of the body dump has been roughly determined, because no trace of the remaining four people has been found, there are still people fishing for corpses in different sections of the river. Naturally, people on the side of the river are boiling ginger soup and porridge every day. Someone has been sent to notify before, and the number of boiling has been increased. Now the maid's task is to take the children over to fill their stomachs.

To take these people away, they also went to the carriage and carriage company to rent a few carriages for transporting goods when they came. These children were thin, and they squeezed and packed more than 20 children in a car.

The maids and the soldiers arranged for this group of children who were naked and shivering in the cold winter to get into the car. Because it was too cold, these children could only huddle together to warm each other, which looked even more pitiful. The maid who was too willing to come to Xiacheng couldn't help showing a trace of sympathy.

But Kingsley warned Penny: "You have to be careful, some of the children here may run away, be sure to watch it."

Not only did he say so, but he also specially arranged for some soldiers to follow them so that no one escaped. Happening.

"Why?" Penny wondered, "Aren't they sold by the family? Even if they escape, there's nowhere to go, right? Even if they want to escape home, they should know we can find it, right?"

"Not everyone It was sold by the family." Kingsley motioned her to look at the boys among the girls: "Some of them were orphans who were originally living on the streets, and not all of these people came here voluntarily. Very cunning and could run away at any time."

Kingsley stopped at the point, and Penny understood.

Those orphans are probably all children who stole from the streets. Such children are controlled behind the scenes. The people who brought them here are not their relatives, but the people who control them. Those people are probably prepared to be empty-handed. Wolf, while selling the children, turned his head and let these orphans run back on their own. In this way, money is also available, and people can stay and continue to help them, and they will not suffer any losses.

And these orphans don't have a home, and they may even be in black households. They are the kind of people who go out of Xiacheng and become slaves. No one will care. Except for the organization that controls them, they have nowhere to go. Naturally, it is those people. They do what they say.

To put it bluntly, it is a method of fraud, and these orphans may have done it more than once.

Penny raised her heart, and when she looked at the children again, she always felt that some of the eyes were moving too fast, not seeming to be safe.

She said helplessly: "I'm afraid I have to ask your soldiers to take more care of the knights."

"Of course, these soldiers will keep watching."

When all the children got on the carriage, the soldiers walked beside the carriage, watching the children in the carriage the whole time, so that some children who planned to escape had no chance to get off the carriage at all.

Especially when the carriage left Xiacheng, these children who wanted to escape would not be able to escape.

"Brother, what should I do?" A boy who was not ten years old huddled beside his brother and looked around in fear, especially at the soldiers following the car. Those tall soldiers with spears scared him: "Are we still going to escape?"

The elder brother, who was five years older than him, hugged his younger brother, looked at the city gate of Xiacheng District, which was getting farther and farther, and comfort in a low voice, "Don't worry, there is me." The

older boy The name is Hank, and he and his younger brother Kimmy are orphans, the kind that Kingsley says are controlled by criminal organizations.

This is not the first time he has been sold. He has been sent to the slave market before, helping them to cheat money and then escaping back by himself. If he is not smart enough, I am afraid that he will not be able to come back after being sold for the first time.

After that, he probably valued him, and Hank was sold twice. Each time he escaped by himself. This is the fourth time he has been sold.

And because the nobles who bought people this time are willing to buy younger children, those people together, they simply sent Hank's younger brother who is less than eight years old. At the age of ten, together with Hank's request for the brothers, the registered soldiers, for the sake of their initiative to lower the price, turned a blind eye to accept it like the other younger children.

In the past, Hank was so desperate to run back because his brother was in the hands of those people, and now that Chimi was by his side, he didn't plan to take any chances.

The carriage quickly arrived at the nearest river. This is the place that was notified before. The temporarily hired servants have cooked a large pot of porridge as required. The pot was specially brought from the Earl's Mansion. It was bought for the banquet before. The cauldron, which can cook enough porridge for all the children at one time, along with the cauldron, the wooden bowls and wooden spoons that were temporarily purchased nearby.

Several women in charge of distributing food tapped the edge of the pot with large spoons and shouted at the children who got off the carriage: "Everyone line up, come over one by one.

" The uneasy children of the future did not expect that the first thing to greet them was warm food. The

air was filled with the unique aroma of barley, and those aromas wafted from the half-height cauldron on the fire.

Children living in the lower city are not unfamiliar with the scent, but many of them have not eaten barley porridge for so long that they have almost forgotten the taste.

The hungry children had already forgotten their fear at this moment, and they lined up obediently one by one, and the children in the back were one step behind, on tiptoe, looking forward, looking forward to when it would be their turn. Own.

Especially when they saw those people who went to eat immediately after receiving the food, the bowl of barley porridge was much thicker than their homemade saliva drooled.

Because she didn't know how long these children were hungry, Penny remembered Wei Wei's advice and told the women who distributed them not to give them too much food, so each child received only half a bowl of barley porridge, but even so, it was enough They had been hungry and had a delicious meal.

After many children received their food, they didn't even bother to use the spoon, they just took the bowl and drank it. Even if their mouth was scalded by the hot porridge, they were reluctant to spit it out, and they tried to swallow while exhaling.

Hank and his younger brother also received their share. The brothers went to the side and devoured it. Although they were organized orphans, they usually couldn't eat such food. They could usually eat a small piece of food. Dry, hard brown bread is already good.

Chimi couldn't wait to drink the barley porridge. After he took a few sips, he thought of his brother again and held up the bowl to give him his own.

"No, I have it too. It's enough to eat."

Hank used to say this to Chimi when he was short of food, but at that time it was a white lie. Only this time, he can eat enough.

When the aroma of barley porridge rolled in his mouth, Hank felt that if he could eat such good food in the future, it would be okay for him to be a slave.

But is it possible?

Such thoughts swirled around in my mind, and they were all suppressed by the food.

The good days that you can fill your stomach every day without being cheated are probably only dreams, right?