C294 – Hierarchy
Posted on October 25, 2018 by AzureOrchid92
The highest place was the king’s palace. It was indeed a place that overlooked the whole city.
“I heard that in order to build that high place, a lot of slaves died.” Someone expressed.
This was the difference between a tribe and a slave owner.
In the tribe, very few people would like to deliberately build such a place. At most, the house was built in high places, such as trees or mountains, but they would not spend a lot of manpower and resources to build a high palace.
“Let’s go, we can rest in this evening,” Huang Ye said.
The others found it hard to raise their spirits, and they were very curious about the city where the slave lord resides.
Around Luoye City, the walls were made of sand, averaging to around 10 meters and looking a few years old.
There were some people around the city walls, these were the slaves. On a slave-owners’ turf, the slaves accounted for the majority.
The dark and chapped skinned slaves looked at the men who were coming, holding sharpened spears in their hands and shouting loudly.
Shao Xuan did not understand their words, but, some people in the team did. They turned back to the group, then threw something to the slaves. That should be some kind of clue.
Sure enough, after seeing that thing, the slaves situated near the gate let go, and the huge wooden door that were closed were opened.
Shao Xuan and the other two followed the team in. As for Chacha, it closely followed the two eagles of the Hui tribe. This was not the first time they came here so they knew what to do.
In the city, some of the sandy houses were everywhere, densely packed. Those were not big, and the shapes were irregular. Instead of saying they were houses, rather, they were like “nests”, which seemed to collapse at any moment. This was the place where the lower slaves live.
Walking ahead, they could see some stone-built houses, which were a little bit bigger.
In the corner of the city, there was a large area where there was not much slave activity, and the people who live there were mostly the tribes.
Shao Xuan, like everyone else who came here before, thought that there was an absolute contradiction between the ways of the tribe and the slave owner, but that was not the case. The tribe might take different attitudes towards different slave owners, but the king of Luoye City had a partnership with the tribes. Here, there were some places like embassies.
In addition to the people who came in the travel team, there were some people stationed here, and probably lived here for a long time. Their skin was a lot darker, and if you ignore the tribes with very striking tribal costumes in the city, theirs didn’t look much different from the ones in town.
Several tribes have a special resting place in this city. However, for the Flaming Horns tribe who came over for the first time, the situation was a bit awkward.
Because there was no special “embassy”, the three could only be arranged in some small sand house, which was usually used for storage. The place was temporarily vacated of its things to make room for the three of them, but when they entered the room, they could smell something rotten.
In other people’s eyes, the three from the Flaming Horns tribe just came for an errand, and had no activities planned for the trip while the others also won’t guide them.
This repulsive feeling were already known to Shao Xuan and the other two. It was just that they still didn’t know how long they were supposed to stay in this place, hence, the three people were unhappy.
Lei pushed the stone wall from the inside, and complained, “Not strong enough.”
“Let’s stay here for a night first, then find a stone to build a house tomorrow,” Shao Xuan said. Since the other tribes could have a station here, the Flaming Horns tribe, of course, also has to build one here, not just for himself or for the three of them. He also has to provide a welfare for the tribesmen coming back, as they won’t come over and live in such a broken house.
Although the room was poor, it was much better than sleeping in the desert during their first few days. The three of them rested in the room for a night, and the next day, they got up in a much better spirit.
The camel was left by Shao Xuan outside the house. In the morning, Shao Xuan gave it a little water, while the surrounding grass has already been eaten by it. Shao Xuan then had to find something for them to eat.
Tuo was left to look at the house and the camel, while Shao Xuan went to ask the other tribes where it was better to look for many stones nearby. Lei followed Shao Xuan to see the other parts of the city, and at least get to know the general situation of the city.
Leaving the area where the tribes stayed, Shao Xuan found that, in Luoye City, many people did not wear animal skins, instead, mostly linens. The daytime temperatures were high, and many people simply wrapped themselves with a few linen pieces.
Shao Xuan’s group have been told that, while walking in this city, it was better for them to avoid the slave owners. In a city, there was not only one slave lord, but the highest slave owner was only one, which was the king. The slaves under the other slave owners were not many, but within them, their identity were higher than the slaves. Their authority were only surpassed by the king of the city.
There was also a place to trade. However, Shao Xuan found that the language and text here was another set, which was not the same as the tribal text, but was more complex.
Shao Xuan intended to buy some food with the money in his hand, and temporarily eat it when they couldn’t find any prey.
Here, shell coins and many other popular items in each tribes couldbe used as trading goods, but it has a serious devaluation. After all, in the slave owner’s place, as long as the slave owners live well, the slave’s demands were not of importance.
The slave owners of Luoye City preferred beautiful clothes and jade, and naturally their clothes and jade were the expensive variety. Perhaps this was the main reason why the Mang tribe and Eight Limbs tribe have the best living conditions here. Of all the tribal “embassies”, these two “embassies” were the largest.
Where the food was sold, the man responsible was also a slave. The slaves engaged in this kind of work seemed to have less aggression and able to understand the language of the tribes. But when Shao Xuan was about to take out his money, their eyes were filled with contempt, and talked to themselves in a language Shao Xuan couldn’t understand. Seeing it did not gave them a good feeling.
What qualifies you to despise a man when you yourself are a slave?
But, on the slave owners’ turf, the slaves were able to throw their faces at the tribes. After all, here was the place of the slave owners. For the slaves, the hierarchy was, the slave lord first, the slaves second, and the people of the tribes were after those two.
After they bought the food, they did not walk far when Shao Xuan heard a noise from nearby.
“What is that?” Lei looked over there and asked.
“The Slave Lord.”
Not far, four dark and sturdy slaves were carrying a simple wooden sedan. The wooden sedan was not closed all around, the top was not capped, but was blocked by different colors of cloth to shield it. When the wind blows, the banners were swinging and one could see the people sitting inside.
It was a woman carried inside, but they could not see her specific age. Anyway, she was not young, and her face had a variety of color paintings so her original appearance could not be seen.
The person who was being carried inside the sedan chair often had the people stop on the way, sometimes in the liquor place, then the person would directly reach out her hand, and someone would hold a pottery glass with fruit wine and she’d drink it from time to time. They would also hand out a barbecued piece of fruit or a string of good stone bracelet and so on, and the person would not pay anything for exchange. All she had to do was stretch her hand.
This was absolute class.
“The life of this slave lord is really good.” Lei said emotionally.
Remembering the warning of the others in the procession, Shao Xuan, when he saw the person who was being carried come their way, quickly departed with Lei. In the land of the slave owners, one couldn’t reason with them, and they alone would define what was right or wrong.