Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 205 Shepherd Slaves
Time, after another eight days had passed.

At around nine o'clock in the morning of this day, when Hu Biao and his group of envoys were about to leave the Taklamakan Desert completely, they were not far from Dunhuang.

Yang Dongli and the others, who were hurrying along the way, finally appeared in the capital of Khotan, seven or eight miles away from the west city.

Seeing this small town with a lot of farmland outside the city and many people working in the fields, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not that they came all the way, and they encountered some unsettling things on the way.

The main reason is that they are almost exhausted just by traveling.

no way!The Western Regions are really too vast and sparsely populated. Even in the modern plane, it would take a lot of time to drive from Lop Nur to the Hotan area, more than 1000 kilometers away.

Not to mention this kind of years without roads, let alone the concept of cars.

Even along the way, Yang Dongli and others didn't even have a guide, so they could only rely on a general direction and keep asking people to go on their way.

As a result, in many cases, even a person who asked for directions could not be found, or because of the language barrier, I took a lot of wrong roads on the way.

Fortunately, it's finally here now.

What needs to be explained is that they have long since replaced the modern clothes that were clearly disguised as big Han people by the system.

What I changed back into was the tattered robe I bought from a barbarian on the way.

In short, they dressed up as people from the Western Regions as much as possible, and now they used this image to approach the capital of Khotan.

It was also at this time that they realized that they had to pay poll tax when entering the city, copper coins, leather, livestock, grain, anyway, as long as they were worth something.

So the group of people entered the city after paying a handful of copper coins as the city entry tax...

Even though the current season is only early summer, there is still some time before the hottest period at noon.

But the scorching sun above his head was still severely exposed to the sun. With his head dizzy from the sun, Fan Lie moved his body and retracted as much as possible into the small shadow under the eaves.

I hope that my head will not be directly fainted by the scorching sun at the same time.

By the way, with his own hands, he tightened a straw rope around his waist, and tied a big knot again.

This approach is not to worry that a pair of tattered trousers under him will suddenly fall from his waist and make him look ugly.

He didn't care about such a shame at all.

The action of tightening the straw rope around his waist is just because such an approach will make his now hungry stomach feel a little better after being physically tightened.

Fan Lie, male, should be 17 years old.

The previous identity is a shepherd slave who helps herd sheep in a small tribe of Wusun people.

As for his current identity, he is just a slave waiting to be sold in the hands of a slave merchant named Han Er in the western city of Khotan.

If it is more specific, he was originally a child of a herdsman in Pishan country.

But when he was seven or eight years old, his family suffered a catastrophe, and a group of horse bandits appeared; his family was killed in the resistance, and he was captured by the horse bandits and sold out, becoming a shepherd of a small Wusun tribe. slave.

Although I was a shepherd, it was very hard to help people herd the sheep. I ate the worst and least food, and I could only live with the sheep at ordinary times, and I didn’t even have a tent of my own.

Often a slightly larger blizzard in winter would have the danger of freezing him to death or starving to death.

But how?It is also more comfortable than the current slave life.

It is a pity that another horse bandit raided their tribe about two months ago, and the warriors in the tribe were quickly defeated in a hurry.

The rest, including him, were reduced to slaves waiting to be sold.

If it's just that, it doesn't matter much.

Because such attacks and being trafficked are too common in places like the Western Regions; either you rob me, or I rob you.

Just like their tribe, they are docile herdsmen in the face of powerful opponents, otherwise they are horse bandits with swords and arrows.

Morality, dignity, honor?
In the words of the tribal leader, only those wealthy Han people on the legendary fertile land of the Central Plains would pay attention to these useless things.

In fact, as long as he can survive, Fan Lie doesn't really care whether he is herding sheep for the tribe or for his master.

Anyway, for such a lowly shepherd slave like him, there is no chance of marrying a woman; in the tribe, which woman would fall in love with him?
In this life, I can only be like other shepherds. In those lonely nights, it is estimated that only relying on those round and soft sheep's buttocks in the sheepfold can get some happiness.

However, Fan Lie seems to be unable to count on even such a simple happiness.

Because of long-term lack of food, poor sleep, and too much work, Fan Lie, who is already 17 years old and considered an adult, looks very thin.

So much so that after the other men and women in the small tribe of Wusun people who were captured together were bought away, he never had any new owners.

A few days ago, one of Master Haner's subordinates was in charge of the affairs here, and he had already told his warriors.

Fan Lie started to halve the small amount of food every day. If he didn't sell it for another pair of fingers, he would rather starve to death than waste his master's food.

So Fan Lie began to pray to the gods and men in the sky from nine days ago, hoping that within ten days, a kind master would come and buy him.

He swore that if such a master really appeared, he would give all his loyalty.

Even in this life, don't touch the ass of the master's sheep.

It's a pity that such prayers and oaths seem to be of no use, because today is the last day, and no one still takes a fancy to him, a weak shepherd slave who can't use knives and arrows and can only herd sheep.

But things are so miraculous, at such a time when Fan Lie was almost completely desperate, some people appeared.

It not only allowed Fan Lie to survive, but also changed the fate of his life, making the whole life of such a shepherd slave completely different from then on.

*******
Even after many years, in the entire Western Regions, and even in some areas to the west, many Hu people's children would be so frightened that they stopped crying after hearing his name.

He still clearly remembers every detail of the first time he met those adults:
On that scorching afternoon, a group of powerful warriors were tall and strong like mountains, their eyes were full of wisdom like wise men, they had no eyebrows, and their heads were bald.

With a white-haired maid, she appeared outside the slave market in the west city.

The white-haired maid had a very beautiful face, her skin was as smooth as milk and as white as a snow mountain, and her eyes of two different colors were as beautiful as gems.

The only pity is that his body is too thin, and he is not fierce at all.

After noticing such a detail, Fan Lie sighed regretfully.

If it were placed in the small tribe of Wusun people where he originally belonged to, this kind of woman who looked like she couldn't do much work would only be wanted by members of the tribe who couldn't get a wife, right?

But this is not important, what is important is that these people look like rich masters; the reason is very simple, only rich people would like this kind of woman who is not only good-looking, but can't work.

So when I saw those bald men, I walked into their fence.

Fan Lie knew whether he could survive, these bald heads were his last hope...

(End of this chapter)