"Yes, master, we have nothing, so we don’t need to bring anything, and can only leave wearing the clothes and shoes we have on,"
the fifteen-year-old servant girl chid in. Li Ming smiled wryly and shook his head, realizing that it was normal for these servant girls to own nothing, and that he was the one who had misunderstood.
Servant girls were won in ancient tis who were employed by wealthy households to perform labor.
They were responsible for the majority of household chores, and affluent households often procured servant girls to alleviate the dostic duties typically perford by the won of the family. This practice of buying and selling turned servant girls into private property, giving their masters complete control, with the authority to sell or pawn them as they pleased, as well as to decide on their marriages.
In other words, masters had lifelong binding power over servant girls, aning that the girls’ freedom was severely restricted. The term for such won is generally used by Chinese people.
Other terms include servant, concubine servant, female slave, serving maiden, maid, little maid, and barefoot, among others. Nowadays, those who perform such duties are commonly referred to as maids.
There were different types of servant girls; the term we often use for them is maidservant, referring to the won who served as slaves to the royal family, officials, or the households of the wealthy and noble. Specifically, they can be categorized into palace servants, official servants, and private servants.
The sources of servant girls largely fell into four categories: The first included those whose parents had committed cris, resulting in their children being sold publicly by the authorities, with males becoming slaves and females servant girls—these were official servants.
Another category was made up of daughters from impoverished families who were forced to sell them as servant girls, a situation that was especially common during major famines. The third category comprised won who were kidnapped or captured and then sold illegally by traffickers, such as Xiang Ling in "Dream of the Red Chamber"; additionally, so won beca servant girls simply because their parents were already slaves of another family—these won were born into servitude. These last two types were private servants.
Another group comprised those drafted into the palace to beco servant girls, also known as palace maids. The servant girls who worked in the palace were assigned to serve the Emperor, the Empress, and other royal family mbers and were generally allowed to return ho after serving until around the age of twenty-five.
Servant girls were an exceedingly tragic group in ancient society, often rising early and retiring late to serve their masters’ daily needs, engaging in tasks such as washing vegetables, cooking, cleaning rooms, and laundry every day. So also wove fabric to generate inco for their masters.
In ancient society, people were categorized into ranks, and occupations were divided into groups, with scholars, farrs, artisans, and rchants belonging to the higher echelons, enjoying a higher social status. Outside of these, the lowest layers of society included actors, prostitutes, scholars, and beggars. If one were to look even further down the socioeconomic structure, one would find the most lowly professions—slaves and servant girls.
n were slaves and won were servant girls; they were at the very bottom of society, their status even lower than beggars and prostitutes, stripped of basic dignity and freedom, living their lives under the eaves of others, obligated to serve and be commanded, often sold outright or without compensation. To put it plainly, once soone beca a slave in ancient tis, in comparison to being a living being, they resembled more a "private belonging" that the "master" had the right to dispose of at will.
The earliest slaves and servant girls ca from wars; from the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin ruins and the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou, it’s evident that whether it was the Shang or Zhou dynasties or their opposing tribes, all were keen to capture prisoners in military campaigns and take populations as spoils of war. Many of the captured were used for sacrifices, while a considerable number ended up as slaves.
During the Warring States Period, the circulation of slaves beca more frequent; apart from captives, the governnt also enslaved criminals as well as their families.
The servant girls of wealthy households were mostly bought from poor families. The often-depicted scenario of "selling oneself into servitude" in films and television cos from this.
Those who sold themselves into servitude were typically desperate and impoverished people, or those who were forced into servitude to repay debts. Regardless of the circumstances, once the "contract of sale" was signed, it essentially ant discarding one’s dignity and freedom.
After falling into servitude, the first thing lost was one’s na. In the ancient tis, when clan identity was intensely important, this was undoubtedly a severe matter.
Stripping away the na symbolized the master’s declaration of ownership over the servant girls. They were often given a random appellation instead of a real na.
Even if servant girls ever had a chance to own a na, they could not regain their original nas; they had to be granted a new family na by their masters. Of course, this was not a favor; by taking the master’s surna, one could not marry anyone with the sa surna. Essentially, this was to prevent their offspring from marrying the master’s slave descendants. After all, these practices stemd from entrenched class ideologies—in the eyes of the masters, once a slave, always a slave.
As a servant girl, even if one regained freedom and one’s own surna, in terms of status and position, one would still be considered a lower class, a stigma that could extend to one’s descendants.
Although Li Ming felt that the servant girls in his residence had a better life than many others, they were still servant girls, and all he could ensure was that their future lives would not be too difficult.
Li Ming pondered in his heart, standing still until two quarters of an hour had passed. During this ti, to demonstrate his generosity to all equally, he had embraced not only the young servant girl and the girl in red but also all the other servant girls. He had just finished when he saw Wang Guangyun, Liu Wu, Liu Zhuang, and Zhao Xiu coming out with a servant girl each, all laughing rrily.
To them, servant girls were nothing novel, as each of their standings naturally ensured they lacked for none. However, the servant girls from the Imperial Palace differed from ordinary households. Not to ntion other qualities, even the least attractive among these servant girls would be considered extrely rare beauties outside, each not inferior to those from noble families.
Otherwise, they would not have been so thrilled.
Of course, if this were not the case, the Emperor would have felt embarrassed calling them beauties before gifting them to Li Ming.
Li Ming examined their choices, satisfied with their selection, and with a nod of approval, turned around, leading them out of the palace with the guidance of the guards and left the Imperial Palace.
Five of the ten beautiful girls occupied one carriage, and under the carriage’s pull, they headed out of the Imperial Palace and arrived at Li Ming’s residence.
Little He and Yu’er, who had already beco Li Ming’s two concubines, had long prepared the rooms. They, along with several other maids from the residence, led this group of lovely servant girls into their rooms.
Naturally, the servant girls of Zhao Xiu, Wang Guangyun, Liu Wu, and Liu Zhuang did not need their arrangents, as they were all taken by them to be kept in their own rooms.
That very night, Li Ming assigned his six servant girls to his two concubines, two for each, and kept for himself the fifteen-year-old girl and the girl in red to enjoy.
Of course, although they were servant girls, they were not mistreated in terms of clothing, food, accommodation, or transportation, and this brought the girls great relief.
Having allocated the servant girls, Li Ming had them first familiarize themselves with the household, then, along with his four followers, rode to the hunting grounds on horseback.
Since he could not yet reveal the saddle and stirrups, Li Ming always rode a horse without them, only equipped with a bridle. Fortunately, all four of them possessed internal true energy, which allowed them to learn to ride at an astonishingly rapid pace, as if flying.
Arriving at the hunting grounds, Li Ming led them to a small military camp, and upon his arrival, the soldiers assigned under his command sprang into action, swiftly assembling on the training field.
Three hundred in total, they ford ranks of twenty-five, totaling twelve ranks that stood in a neat and standardized formation on the training field.
Yes, three hundred n. Although Li Ming already had the authority to command five thousand troops in battle, he wanted to handpick his own soldiers, which was not sothing that could be done quickly; it required ti. At the mont, everything still centered around the grand competition among the states.
Therefore, before the grand competition among the states concluded, he would begin training these three hundred n, continuing until the competition’s end, thereafter formally preparing his own force of five thousand.
In fact, the Emperor had given him the opportunity to directly conscript soldiers to form his own troops, but he preferred to choose his own, believing only such soldiers could be truly reliable.
"There are thirteen days left until the competition..."
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