With the last hope of survival, Fan Lie mustered up the greatest courage and shouted loudly to those distinguished bald heads:
"Rich masters, please kindly buy me. I only need to eat the minimum amount of food every day to graze the fattest sheep for you."
But it was a pity, because the other party had a blank expression on his face, and it was obvious that he could not understand the Wusun words he shouted.
When Fan Lie planned to try his luck by switching to another language he spoke, such as Chinese or Serbian.
The stick behind him hit him hard on the back, knocking him to the ground and destroying all his efforts to survive.
Then, he could see Master Haner's steward greeting him with a bright smile on his face.
It looked like a shepherd dog that was flattering its owner.
When the leader of the bald warrior saw this, he raised his head high and ignored the manager's smiling face, and actually asked in Chinese:
"Listen clearly, I don't want to talk nonsense a second time
We want to buy the strongest slaves, as well as craftsmen who can make weapons and armor; don't tell me that the price is expensive, money is not an issue at all, as long as you meet my requirements, you can get as much as you want."
After hearing the Chinese spoken by the bald man, Fan Lie suddenly felt a sense of intimacy in his heart.
Because he is from the Pishan country and has the same bloodline as the Han people in front of him.
He has been told by his parents since he was a child that the Pishan people are not Hu people, but Zhou people.
Hundreds of years ago, because they needed to avoid a powerful leader named King Hui of Zhou, they fled from the Central Plains to the Western Regions and established the Pishan Kingdom.
But in my hometown in the Central Plains, there were no white disasters or so many bandits.
It was only with the inexplicable feeling of closeness in his heart that Fan Lie could say something. The warrior behind him hit him with a stick again, so that he could not disturb these nobles.
More importantly, after understanding what these Han people said, his last glimmer of hope was cut off.
Because these people have no intention of getting a shepherd slave at all, they only want warriors...
In the time that followed, his heart seemed to be that of the shepherd slave who died one step ahead of his body. Fan Lie, lying on the ground like a dead dog, watched the steward entertain these wealthy guests with the greatest enthusiasm.
All the strong slaves were brought out and let these people choose.
In the end, those baldheads actually bought a total of 31 slaves, one by one.
What's even more amazing is that when paying, a fat and bald man took out a bead that was purer than the best gemstones and extremely round from his pocket and paid the bill.
And is such a bead enough to exchange for 31 strong slaves?
Of course it is possible. When the steward saw the beads, he looked so excited that he even knelt down and kissed the boots of the fat, bald man.
But what does all of the above have to do with him, Fan Lie?
But just when he was at his most desperate, the white-haired woman he originally thought was a maid, no! She must be a goddess, first snatched the beads from the hand of the fat, bald man.
Then he walked over and asked Fan Lie, "Can you speak Chinese?"
"Yes, I can speak Chinese, and I can also speak Wusun, Serbian, and some Xiongnu~"
Fan Lie, who felt a little hope of survival, yelled out some of these answers in an excited voice that was almost like a roar.
After hearing this, the white-haired goddess just nodded.
Then, holding up the precious bead with one hand and pointing at Fan Lie, a useless shepherd slave, with the other hand, he said to the steward:
"This slave is considered a gift to us, right?"
"Of course, distinguished guests."
I was thinking about it in my head, after handing over this gem that is worthy enough to be set in the crown of the King of Khotan.
The steward, who wanted to be well rewarded by Master Haner, agreed without any hesitation.
It feels like in the modern dimension, buying half a fan of pork and then asking the boss for a worthless pig lung is not a thing at all...
****
The group of bald heads that appeared in the Nuli market in the west city of Khotan, the capital, and a group of people with a white-haired maid, no! a goddess.
There is no doubt that it is Yang Dongli and the others.
After entering the city, I just asked where there were slaves for sale in the city. I immediately ran over here in a hurry, without even finding a place to improve the food or wash myself up from the dust.
Why are they here and in such a hurry?
Of course, it is also for the subsequent series of plans, so we need to seize the time and take action.
Speaking of which! How can we pull together a team of at least several hundred people in a limited few months and give them a certain amount of combat effectiveness that can be used in subsequent missions?
When we were in that Shanshan country, during the initial discussions between Hu Biao and others.
They all agreed that recruiting troops step by step would be completely impossible and would not be in line with the actual situation in the Western Region at all.
Currently, or perhaps a thousand years from now, the Western Region is still a chaotic place.
Just like in the Central Plains, it is unrealistic to raise a banner to recruit soldiers and then let people come to serve as soldiers and feed them. You will be targeted and destroyed before you even get stronger.
And like the one in later generations that first emancipates the mind and then forms an army of poor people?
Not to mention that it would take a lot of time to do so, and they simply did not dare to release some of the related thoughts.
Why? Only future generations will know how terrifying these thoughts are.
To put it mildly, it might change the history of this planet beyond recognition in the next two thousand years, and they would not dare to bet on the changes that have occurred.
This may not be the best, but a relatively practical plan was formulated.
The plan to first purchase a small number of slaves, train them and form a basic team, and then expand the scale was unanimously approved by everyone.
Even with this approach, there is still a certain risk of being cheated.
However, Yang Dongli patted his chest and assured that as long as the initial number of people was controlled to a certain number, then nothing would happen at all.
So, this scene happened.
It can be said that everything was according to their plan and implemented relatively smoothly.
If there was any surprise during this period, it would be that the heads of many gentlemen had been burnt by a fire, but now their hair and eyebrows have not grown at all, as if they had been cut off.
Fortunately, such a thing does not affect the combat effectiveness at all. On the contrary, it is quite cool in the current season in the Western Region.
As for Ali suddenly speaking up and asking the slave trader to use that skinny slave as a companion, the reason is simple to say.
That's because in the future, they need to solve the internal communication problem.
There is no way! These days, there are too many tribes and barbarians in the Western Regions, and their languages are all kinds of strange.
In order to control them in the future, the slaves purchased cannot be from the same tribe, but can only be from each tribe, so that they cannot work together.
Among the ten people left behind such as Yang Dongli, Lao She knew some Uighur language, which belongs to the Altaic language family like the current Xiongnu language, and could not solve the fundamental problem.
Therefore, it is very necessary to have some translators in the team.
Since this kid can speak several languages, he can just bring it with him, and he won’t be short of the food he gave him...
