At about nine o'clock in the morning that day, when Hu Biao and his envoys were about to leave the Taklimakan Desert completely, they were not far from Dunhuang.
Yang Dongli and the others, who had been hurrying slowly along the way, finally appeared in the capital of Khotan, seven or eight miles outside the West City.
When they saw 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 encountered any uneven things along the way.
The main reason is that just walking on the road is almost exhausting them.
There is no way! The Western Region is too vast and sparsely populated. Even in the modern dimension, driving from Lop Nur to the Hotan area, a distance of more than a thousand kilometers, would take a long time.
Not to mention the days when there were no roads, let alone 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 for help.
As a result, many times, we couldn't even find anyone asking for directions, or because we didn't understand the language, we made a lot of mistakes along the way.
Fortunately, now, I finally got here.
It should be noted that they had long ago changed out of the modern clothes that were obviously systematically disguised as Han Chinese.
What I put on again was a tattered robe I bought from a barbarian on the way.
In short, these people dressed up like 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 a poll tax before entering the city, including copper coins, leathers, livestock, and grain, as long as they were worth something.
So after paying a handful of copper coins as the city entry tax, the group entered the city...
Even though the season now is considered early summer, there is still some time before the hottest period at noon.
But the scorching sun above his head was still very intense. With his head feeling dizzy from the sun, Fan Lie moved his body and shrank as much as possible into the small shadow under the eaves.
I hope that my head will not be fainted by the scorching sun.
By the way, he used his own hands to tighten a straw rope around his waist and tied it into a big knot.
This approach is not because he is worried that a pair of tattered trousers underneath him will suddenly fall from his waist and make him look embarrassed.
He didn't care at all about making a fool of himself like this.
The action of tightening the straw rope around his waist was just because such an action would make his hungry belly feel a little better after being physically tightened.
Fan Lie, male, should be 17 years old.
The previous identity is that of a shepherd slave who helps shepherd 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 Haner in the western city of Khotan.
To be more specific, he was originally a child of a herdsman family in the Pishan Kingdom.
But when he was seven or eight years old, his family suffered a catastrophe. A group of horse bandits appeared. His family was killed during the resistance. He was captured by the horse bandits and sold out, becoming a herder of a small Wusun tribe.
slave.
Although working as a shepherd slave and helping people herd sheep was very hard, they ate the worst and least food, and could only live with the sheep without even a tent of their own.
Often a slightly heavier snowstorm in winter would risk freezing or starving him to death.
But what can I say? It is more comfortable than the current slave life.
Unfortunately, another band of horse bandits raided their tribe about two months ago, and the warriors in the tribe were quickly defeated in a hurry.
The remaining people, including him, were reduced to slaves waiting to be sold.
If that's all it is, it doesn't really matter.
Because attacks and being trafficked like this are too common in places like the Western Region; either you rob me, or I rob you.
Just like their tribe, they are docile herdsmen when facing powerful opponents, otherwise they become horse bandits if they pick up swords and arrows.
Morality, dignity, honor?
In the words of the tribal leader, only the wealthy Han people in the legendary fertile land of the Central Plains would pay attention to these useless things.
In fact, as long as he could survive, Fan Lie didn't care whether he was herding sheep for the tribe or for his master.
Anyway, for a lowly herdsman 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 shepherd slaves. In those lonely nights, I guess I can only get some happiness by relying on the round and soft sheep butts in the sheep pen.
However, it seems that Fan Lie will no longer be able to count on even such a simple happiness.
Fan Lie, who is already seventeen years old and can be considered an adult, looks very thin because he doesn't eat enough for a long time, doesn't sleep well, and has to do too much work.
So much so that after all the other men and women in the small Wusun tribe who were captured together were bought away, no new owner was interested in him.
A few days ago, one of the stewards under Master Haner who was in charge of this place had told the warriors under him.
Fan Lie's small amount of food every day began to be halved. If he had another pair of fingers left without selling them, he would rather starve to death than waste his master's food.
Therefore, Fan Lie began to pray to the gods in the sky nine days ago, hoping that a kind-hearted owner would buy him within ten days.
He swore that if such a master really appeared, he would be willing to devote all his loyalty.
Even in this life, he will not touch the butts of his master's sheep.
Unfortunately, such prayers and oaths seemed to be of no use, because today was already the last day, and still no one looked at him, a thin, thin, shepherd slave who couldn't use swords and arrows and could only herd sheep.
But things were so magical. Just when Fan Lie was almost in despair, some people appeared.
Not only did it allow Fan Lie to survive, but it also changed his life's destiny, making the entire life of such a shepherd slave completely different from now on.
*******
Even many years later, in the entire Western Region and even some areas further west, many Hu people's children would be frightened to stop crying after hearing his name.
He still clearly remembers every detail of the first time he met those adults:
On that afternoon with the scorching sun, a group of powerful warriors were as tall and strong as mountains, with eyes as full of wisdom as wise men, no eyebrows, and bare heads.
With a white-haired maid, she appeared outside the slave market in Xicheng.
The white-haired maid has a very beautiful face, her skin is as smooth as milk, as white as snow-capped mountains, and her two eyes of different colors are as beautiful as gems.
The only pity is that my body is too thin and I don't have any fierceness at all.
After noticing such a detail, Fan Lie sighed with regret.
If she were placed in the small Wusun tribe where he originally belonged, this kind of woman who looked like she couldn't do much work would only be wanted by tribe members who couldn't find a wife, right?
But this is not important. What is important is that these people look like wealthy owners. The reason is very simple. Only rich people will like this kind of women who are good-looking but cannot work.
So when I saw those bald warriors and walked into their fence.
Fan Lie knew whether he could survive or not. These bald heads were his last hope...
