Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1118, Eastern European slaves

On the west bank of the Black Sea, the beautiful Danube is flowing quietly, carrying snow water from the Alps into the dark Black Sea.

The land is vast and snow-covered, but as far as the eye can see, gunpowder smoke fills the air and thick smoke billows. On the banks of the Danube, the cavalry of the Ottoman Empire, carrying crescent banners flying, drove groups of slaves slowly on the cold land. advance.

The Ottoman Empire has been fighting fiercely with the coalition forces of Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and Poland for almost a whole year.

Since the beginning of the year, when the Ming Empire was at war with the Ottoman Empire, Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and Poland, who realized the opportunity was coming, took the initiative to attack the Ottoman Empire.

When the main force of the Ottoman Empire was transferred to the Asia Minor Peninsula to fight fiercely with the Ming Empire, their attack was very fast and smooth. They marched eastward all the way, just like the Crusades back then, and once pushed the battle line to the Thrace region. , only a few hundred miles away from Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

But when the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Empire signed an armistice agreement, the army returned to the Western Front War, and the powerful Ottoman Empire quickly began to take back many occupied areas, quickly repelling the coalition forces, and continued to attack the West. Attacking forward, the proud knights were beaten back steadily.

Up to now, the two sides have been fighting bloody battles in the Danube River Basin for several months, and they have suffered heavy losses from each other, but the Ottoman Empire does not seem to intend to stop there.

Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and Poland have all sent several waves of envoys for peace talks, and proposed peace talks to the Ottoman Empire, but they were all rejected by the Ottoman Sultan.

It's not that the Ottoman Empire is unwilling to negotiate peace. The Ottoman Empire is actually holding on now. You must know that the losses of the Ottoman Empire are much greater than those of the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms.

After being swept away by the [-] troops of the Ming Dynasty, the elite army alone lost [-] to [-] people. In addition, there was a fierce battle with the Persian Empire in the east, and the land was ceded to the Ming Dynasty for compensation.

To tell the truth, the current Ottoman Sultan even used the gold in the palace as compensation for war reparations to the Ming people, and the poor clang rang.

But because of this, the Ottoman Empire must recover its vitality and strength as soon as possible, and naturally the trauma of the war must be transferred abroad.

One of the most important methods is the slave trade.

Through the means of war, they wantonly captured slaves, and then sold these slaves to the Ming people, so as to quickly recover from the trauma they had suffered.

Daming was an extremely large empire, with vast land, a huge population, and a very strong demand for slaves.

Those who traded slaves with Ming Dynasty were not only the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate in the north, but also the current Ottoman Empire, and even the Italians and Venetians in the Mediterranean were engaged in slave trading.

As for the Arabs and Persians in the Middle East, they even made a lot of money from the slave trade.

The profit of the slave trade business is too high.

A strong slave could be sold for a high price of thirty taels of silver to the Ming people. If the slaves were obtained through war, the cost would be almost negligible.

So the Ottoman Empire focused on the population here in Eastern Europe, and almost all the troops were deployed here. While launching a powerful offensive, they began to arrest people on this land unscrupulously and sell them as slaves.

The Ottoman Empire has also become addicted to the business of capturing slaves and selling slaves.

Daming people are very trustworthy. A slave is thirty taels of silver. If it is a female slave with a beautiful appearance and a good figure, the price can be even higher.

No matter how many slaves there are, the Ming people can eat them all, and they can pay you silver dollars on the spot, as long as the slaves are transported to the islands ceded to the Ming people in the Aegean Sea.

Very simple.

One slave is thirty taels of silver, ten thousand slaves is worth three hundred thousand taels of silver, and one hundred thousand slaves is worth three million taels of silver.

Often in a single battle, the Ottoman army could easily capture tens of thousands of war prisoners. If they swept the surrounding area, they could easily capture tens of thousands of slaves and get hundreds of thousands of taels of silver easily.

If a city could be breached, it would not be difficult to arrest [-] people casually, and millions of taels of silver would come in at once.

Is there any business in the world that can get money faster than this?
Obviously, no.

At least for the Ottomans, they didn't find a quicker deal than this.

From the sultan to the ordinary soldiers in the Ottoman Empire, everyone was immersed in such a feast of wealth. The sultan could get the big head, and the nobles, lords, and soldiers of the lower class could also distribute their own share from it step by step. .

Whether it is the war indemnity needed to compensate Ming Dynasty, the military expenditure needed to use the army, or even the finances of the Ottoman Empire, all of a sudden became extremely dependent on the slave trade.

"Clap~Clap~"

On the cold ground, tens of thousands of people were tied up with ropes and walking on the ground, there was a sound of whipping from time to time.

"Hurry up, hurry up~"

The soldiers of the Ottoman Empire shouted fiercely that they wanted to transport these slaves to the mouth of the Danube, where there were a large number of ships waiting, and as soon as the slaves arrived, they would set off immediately when they were full.

Ship it eastward to the West Pole Port in the South Caucasus, go south through the Black Sea Strait to the Aegean Sea, and then sell it to the Ming people on West Island.

For this matter, the great sultan of the Ottoman Empire sent special ministers and businessmen to take charge of this matter, responsible for the sale of slaves, the distribution of funds, and so on.

What these soldiers need to do is very simple, that is to defeat the enemy on the battlefield, go deep into the enemy's backyard, capture these unarmed civilians, and transport them to the port.

The person bound by the rope walked numbly.

They are lucky and unlucky.

Many were soldiers who surrendered on the battlefield.

If it was the soldiers who surrendered in wars in the past, except for a few nobles who would have the opportunity to be redeemed with huge sums of money, most of them were either killed by the Ottoman Empire or became the lowest slaves.

But it’s different now. The Ottoman Empire didn’t kill the soldiers who surrendered, nor did they massacre the city.

They have become the most important wealth in the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Each person is worth thirty taels of silver. Such a high price makes the Ottoman Empire reluctant to kill them.

This is their luck.

Unfortunately, they still could not escape the fate of slaves.

They will even be trafficked to extremely distant worlds.

Maybe it will be the colonies of the Ming dynasty and trading houses in East Africa, where they will reclaim land for the Ming people, plant sugar cane, spices, tea and the like.

Or they will be sold to trading companies in Tianzhu and become slaves in the plantations in Tianzhu and Sri Lanka to grow rice, spices or sugar cane.

If you are not lucky, you may be trafficked to the more distant Nanyang and become a slave in the Nanyang plantation, and you will be accompanied by sugar cane all year round.

Things have spread on this side of Eastern Europe.

Not only this kind of frontal war plunder, but also all kinds of pervasive slave traders, slave traders, slave smugglers and the like.

These people use various banners to deceive people in Italy, Venice, Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, Poland and other places. As long as the people who are deceived, most of them will be trafficked to the Mediterranean Sea first, and then trafficked to the Ming people , and eventually became a slave.

Human trading has existed since ancient times, no matter which country it is in.

With the soaring price of slaves, this business has become extremely active again.

Ming people regard white as beauty, like white slaves, and dislike black slaves, and Eastern Europe has become the most important source of white slaves, forming an extremely large slave industry chain.

In addition to these soldiers who surrendered, there are also a large number of ordinary people who were almost dragging their families and were caught and became slaves. In the cold winter, their tears were almost dried up, but they still had to move on. Facing an unknown fate.

As a slave, there is still a chance to live, but if the value of a slave is lost, these murderous Ottomans will not hesitate to chop their knives over.

Brad was carrying his five-year-old son on his back and holding an infant baby in his arms. Beside him were his wife Linda and his almost fourteen-year-old sister Kela.

"Brother, I'm cold~ I'm so cold!"

Kela couldn't help crying as she walked. She was only wearing tattered coarse clothes and rotten shoes. Walking in this icy and snowy field, her cold face turned into heat.

However, what makes people even more desperate is that they don't know how long they have to go and where they want to go. Not long ago, the Ottomans suddenly broke into their homes, arresting people, robbing things and houses when they saw them. Just burn out.

Their elderly parents were killed directly because they were worthless, and the rest of them were all arrested, and they have been walking in this icy world for several days.

"Hold on, hold on~"

"The darkness before dawn is the most difficult, as long as you survive it, you will usher in a new life."

Brad looked at his sister, and then at his wife. Both of their faces were flushed from the cold, and white frost had condensed on their eyebrows and hair.

Then I looked up and looked around. Everyone was almost the same. Many people even had frostbitten feet and couldn't walk anymore. They were pulled down by the Ottoman soldiers and killed.

So Brad knows that you can't stop, once you stop, you will definitely die, and these murderous Ottomans don't care whether you have frostbite or not.

(End of this chapter)