Chapter 22 [The Road to Freedom]
(On the first day of the month, the alliance appeared, and the thunder attack was red all over the sky!! Thank you very much! "Zhao Wuxiu 2014", rewards and support, not falling for a day, and I am impressed within five! Two updates this week, to repay the two of you with full enthusiasm.)
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It was dark and a bloody body was hanging high on the branches of a big tree, swaying in the wind, and the ropes creaked. At dusk, in the wilderness, lonely trees, hanging corpses, this scene... is creepy.
Under the big tree, fifty or sixty Han escaped slaves wearing torn jackets and black-faced faces stood wandering.
They were so familiar with this hanging corpse. It was their former master. This terrible master who was once high and riding on them, driving them as cows and horses for a long time, abused father and son as he pleased, and was unscrupulous. He finally died.
The heavy mountain pressing on their heads moved away, they were free and liberated... However, none of the Han slaves showed a happy smile on their faces, and they looked over them, all of whom were panic, heavy, depressed, fearful, and in tears.
They were just escaped slaves before, and only one of the Bone Tribes was hunted for them, but when the master died suddenly, their nature completely changed, and they became slaves and rebelled. Their tribes were searched and expanded to all the Wuhuan tribes. Their journey to the south would be ten times or a hundred times difficult.
Is there still a way out? Can I return to my hometown in this life?
The old man Muji, who had lived in the Wuhuan tribe for nearly twenty years, even knew that in order to avoid attracting revenge from the Hu people, the border guards of the Han Dynasty even prohibited them from passing the pass. Such examples occurred more than once in decades.
"Uncle Muji, what should we do?"
When all the escaped slaves focused on the old man Muji, the old man Muji's eyes were bent on Ma Han who was watching the wall.
"Yishi Ma, all of us are saved by your strength. According to the rules of the grassland, we are all your spoils. From this moment on, all of us belong to you. You are our new master." The old man Muji looked back and glanced around and asked loudly, "Listen, from now on, Yishi Ma is our new master. The master is the tiger from the Central Plains and the nemesis of the evil wolf of Wuhuan. He will definitely bring us back to the Central Plains."
"Please take us back to the Central Plains. We are willing to repay us as cows and horses."
The fugitives were shouting in a mess. The performance of the young men such as Tangnu, who originally worried the most of the old man Muji, was shocked to his chin. These young men acted more simply than many old and weak, and went forward to crawl and express their convincingness.
In fact, Tang Nu and others were dissatisfied. The three of them held strong bows and equipped with exquisite armor and saddle tools provided by Ma Han. With three battles and five, they took the boss's strength to kill five Wuwan people, and they were injured. Ma Han killed ten times more than this number of Wuwan people alone, and even captured bones even more alive, allowing this evil tribe leader to personally taste the feeling of being dragged to death.
How can such a brave man not be impressed in the grassland outside the border where courage is proud of and force is paramount?
The old man Muji, Tangnu and others knelt down, and the rest followed, and the black crows fell to their knees.
Ma Han glanced at the old man Muji and touched a pair of turbid old eyes of guilt and begging. Ma Han smiled faintly and did not react too much to the "moral kidnapping" behavior of old man Muji. In fact, this was exactly what he wanted. However, his plan was only a certain difference from what the old man Muji asked for.
Ma Han sat upright on his horse, looked down at everyone from a high place, spoke calmly, and did not deliberately make loud noises, but the voice echoed in the valley: "I have good news and bad news to tell you, which one do you want to listen to first?"
The fugitives looked at each other for a long time before they heard a weak voice saying, "Listen to the good news first..."
Ma Han smiled and glanced at Niannu, who blushed and lowered his head. Ma Han nodded and said, "Okay, let's say good news first. The good news is - you are not slaves anymore, you are free. I am not, and I will not be your new master. From now on, you are no longer Han slaves, but Han people."
The old man Muji was anxious: "But the master..."
"I said it's not your master."
"Uh, Yi Shi Ma, we..."
Ma Han ignored it and continued: "I will talk about the bad news next - I did come from Central Plains, to be precise, from Hebei. But, unfortunately, I cannot go back to Central Plains for the time being, so I can't help you."
The scene was silent as if dead, Tangnu looked sore, his fists were tightly pinched, revealing hatred for his incompetence; the old man Muji closed his eyes in pain, and two lines of turbid old tears rolled down into the dust; Niannu's beautiful face was hung with two lines of clear tears, and he cried softly.
Gradually, all kinds of sorrows came one after another, and everyone was afraid of their uncertain tragic fate.
Ma Han saw it, shook his head, took a deep breath, and suddenly shouted: "You have been slaves for too long. Are you free in your body and still enslaved in your heart? Why do you always put your destiny in the hands of others? Why can't you save yourself? Only you can save you!"
All the Han people were stunned and looked at the man riding the white horse in a daze, at a loss.
Ma Han whipped the air and shouted loudly: "I ask you, how many Han slaves are there in the Boneli Division?"
"five hundred."
"No, four hundred."
"It's four hundred and seventy-three. After we escaped, there were still four hundred and sixteen people." The person who spoke was the old man Muji. He was a slave for the longest time. He usually dealt with Hu and Han people in the Guli tribe because of his career. He knew the population of Han slaves in the Guli tribe the best.
"So how many young and strong are there in the Guli Department now?"
"At most... six or seventy people." Old man Muji thought about it again and again and answered with certainty.
"If we kill a resurgence now, and then attack the unprepared Boneli tribe after dark, kill all the Wuwan green and strong slaves, and seize all the food, livestock, forage, and wealth of the Boneli tribe, we can lift off the master who was riding on his head as a mighty and blessed person and turn it over as a master. When you become a new tribe with nearly a thousand people, and the surrounding Wuwan tribes with insufficient strength, who dares to touch you easily?"
Ma Han's words were deafening, which made the old man Muji stunned, while Tang Nu and other young men had their eyes lit up. However, more Han people were at a loss.
Over the past thousands of years, there have been countless Han slaves who have been captured and plundered into this vast grassland. There have been many masters in this rich and fertile land in the north: Donghu people, Xiongnu people, Xianbei people, and Wuwan people, coming and going, coming back and forth. The only thing that remains unchanged is to use blood, sweat and even life to keep this land changing to the slaves who have taken the initiative! More than 70% of them are Han slaves!
These men act as cattle and dogs, women act as "chicken" and "horse" slaves. Most of them live in the worst cattle and sheep pens and stables. Only a few craftsmen are qualified to live in broken felt tents. Eat the meat and deteriorated dry food that died of illness. They suffer double abuses from their spirit and body, and most of them cannot survive in middle age.
The cruel survival situation made the Han slaves resist. The most common resistance is slacking off: the sheep are lost, the horses are thin, and the cows are less milk... Of course, the result of this slacking off is to be beaten. The strongest resistance is to escape.
Slaves escape means betting on their own life and death. If they succeed, they will live, and if they fail, they will die. There are unwritten regulations on the grassland. If you arrest the fugitive slave, you will be tortured and executed.
For thousands of years, no matter how cruel the punishment the Han slaves faced, no matter how cruel the punishment they had faced. Some of them succeeded, but more of them failed.
All Han slaves and escaped slaves have only one hope in this life: to return to their hometown. Even if they die, they don’t want to bury their bones in a foreign land.
However, no one or a group of escaped slaves had ever had the idea of resisting! Take off the flesh-filled whip and sucking the ugly face hard; resist! For the sake of the abused wife, daughter and sister; resist! Take back everything you have lost; resist! Declare war on the master who abuses them like animals!
This, this is really crazy!
Pang!
A fire lit up in the darkness, shining on Ma Han's cold face.
Ma Han raised his torch high, frightened the flames, dancing wildly in the night wind, his voice echoed under the night sky: "What I can help you is the killer of Wuwan, and what you can help yourself is the killer of Wuwan. You have no choice now, either fleeing around like a dog, and finally being hung, dragged to death by the Wuwan people caught from all directions, skinned, and boiled oil... or erect your chest and fight to the death! Death, stand up! Death, head facing south!"
Donnu couldn't help it anymore, so he jumped up suddenly, raised his arms and shouted: "Tangnu must die even if he dies!"
The young and strong Han people also shouted excitedly: "Stand to die! Head to the south!"
The old man Muji stood up with Niannu's support, took a long breath, and resolutely said: "Yi Shi Ma has nothing to do with us, and they are willing to sacrifice their lives to help us. How can we survive and be the confused pig and dog? Please ask the Yi Shi to lead us and other Han people to repay the blood debt from the Wuwan people!"
The horse general threw a torch into the ground for five minutes, and raised his leopard bow in his hand: "I will pay back the blood debt tonight!"
Chapter completed!