Chapter 16: The Escape of Han Slaves (Part 1)

  Thanks to "Zhao Wu Xu 2014" and "Bei Wei Xia Tong" for their support.

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  "Mother... save me!"

  The boy who was running tripped and fell, crying out in pain, and crawled forward on all fours.

  Whoosh! An arrow shot out, flying over the young man's head, and landed three steps in front of him, half buried in the ground, with its feathers quivering violently.

  Ma Hu certainly did not miss his shot, but it was the young man's mournful cry that caused him to shoot off target.

  The young man spoke in Mandarin with a standard and rounded Hebei accent, which was in stark contrast to the previous rough and awkward Chinese spoken by that person.

  Ma Xiang patted the horse and rode up to the young man, looked down and saw a face about eleven or twelve years old, thin and dark, with several lines of tears that had washed away streaks of mud. Because his face was small, his eyes seemed especially large.

  "Aren't you from Wuman?"

  The young man wiped away his tears with his sleeve and shook his head vigorously: "I am a Han."

  "Han people, why are you wearing the attire of a Wuhuan?" Ma Xun seemed to recall something and blurted out, "Are you one of those escaped slaves being pursued by the Wuhuans everywhere?"

  The young man's face changed greatly, and he crawled in front of Ma Yun, saying sorrowfully: "Don't hand me over to the Wuhuan people, they will tie me to the horse's tail and drag me to death."

  Ma Xun pulled out the arrow stuck in the ground, wiped it clean on his boots and put it back in his quiver. He smiled faintly: "Hand it over to the Wuhuan people? What's the benefit? Is there a reward? A string of money? A bag of salt? Or a sheep?"

  The young man shook his head: "A Su is not worth a sheep, only enough for a lamb."

  Ma Xun furrowed his brow and said: "That's it, what do I want a lamb for? Hmm, you're not the only escaped slave, are there? How many are there? Ten or twenty?"

  Young Asu raised his head vigilantly: "No... I'm the only one..."

  Ma Xun lost his smile and shook his head: "You're also too proud of yourself, aren't you? With only you alone, the Wuhuan people would mobilize so many people to chase after you? Alright, considering we are all Han people, I won't make things difficult for you, you can leave."

  A Su burst into tears and laughed, heavily knocking his head: "Thank you!" He raised his head, looking at the tall horse in front of him with a mix of admiration and fear, turned around and ran away.

  "Wait!"

  Ma Huan let out a loud shout, and Asu suddenly froze in place, not daring to move.

  "You can tell your fellow fugitive friends that the search party led by a Wuman with an earring, thirteen people in total, are all dead. Take advantage of the fact that their other search party hasn't arrived yet and hurry up!" Ma Xian said, then patted his horse and left.

  A Su stood still for a while, then suddenly rushed up the mountain slope and asked loudly: "The one you mentioned with golden earrings, is it called Wu Ma?"

  Ma Huan had already galloped up the slope and turned back, waving his hand and shouting loudly: "I don't know what he was called either, I didn't even have time to ask, and then he died."

  A Su panted as he climbed up, calling out as he climbed: "Can you tell me where to find them? I want to see for myself, or my friends won't believe me."

  Ma Xun pointed his whip westward: "In that forest over there, I reckon wolves are now gnawing on the corpses. If you don't want to feed the wolves, it's best not to go past. I'll give you something that your friend will believe."

  As Ma Huan waved his hand, a yellowish thing rolled down the mountain slope with a rumbling sound. Asu picked it up and exclaimed in surprise: "This is the golden hoop of Wuma Touling!"

  "Not bad eyesight. This is what I pulled down from his ear, giving it to you as a keepsake." Ma Han laughed loudly and rode off eastward along the mountain ridge.

  But before long, a loud shout came from afar, "Wait! Please wait!"

  "What's wrong?" Ma Xun didn't want to bother with him, but the young man kept shouting for nearly a mile, his voice hoarse, and even rolled down from the mountain, enduring the pain to chase after. This determination made Ma Xun unable to help but admire him, so he stopped to feed his horse some bean cakes while patiently waiting.

  When Ah Su approached within ten or more steps, he had no strength to run and fell to the ground on all fours, panting like a broken windbox, unable to say half a sentence. Ma Hong did not hurry, untied the horse's belly band, took out the map from the package, looked at it while constantly comparing with the compass.

  The map was obtained by chance on the day of Yuan Shao's capture. It is a topographic map of Hebei, including the four states of Youzhou, Jizhou, Bingzhou and Qingzhou. It is estimated that it was taken from the imperial palace when Yuan Shao went east to Luoyang and plotted against Jizhou.

  The map is very simple and abstract, it's worrying to get lost when traveling, let alone marching and fighting, it's better to find a guide. This map is not perfect, after leaving the Great Wall in the north, there is a blank space in today's Inner Mongolia area. Obviously, this has already exceeded the actual control area of the Han Dynasty.

  Ma Xun was at this moment on the edge of this blank space, and he had no idea what was to the north.

  Just as he was hesitating, a timid voice came from behind him: "This... gentleman, I'm so sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to ask... are these armor and bows for sale?"

  "It was my equipment that caught your eye." Ma Xun rolled up the map, raised an eyebrow and said, "These are not for sale, but since you're so sincere, I can sell some to you. The question is, do you have money? Oh, don't even think about using the gold ring I gave you as payment."

  "A Su dare not." A Su said with a mix of joy and worry, "We don't have much money, food and salt are also scarce, but we do have some horses and cattle, can these be used for exchange?"

  "Horses are not wanted, the meat is not good to eat." Ma Hong directly rejected the horses, "Cattle are difficult to drive, can be exchanged for sheep, but I alone cannot accept too many sheep, it's better to use money, grain, salt and other easy-to-carry things."

  "Really... then I'll have to ask Old Man Muji, see how much stuff we can buy. Asu looked at Ma Hong with pleading eyes, "You, can you go with me to our camp for a trip?"

  Ma Xun smiled: "What? Are you no longer afraid that I will be unfavorable to you?"

  A Su's face turned red: "You are also a Han, and you helped us kill that wicked U Ma, just for this, Mu Ji old father and everyone will certainly be very grateful to you."

  Ma Xian waved his hand: "I killed Wu Ma because he was looking for trouble with me, not to help you. Alright, I'll go with you."

  Ma Huan transferred some supplies from a war horse and let Ah Su ride on it. As they walked, they chatted and roughly understood what had happened.

  The Wū Huán originated from a branch of the Donghu and sometimes fought and sometimes surrendered to the Xiongnu. During the Yuanshou period of the Western Han dynasty, the Wū Huán internally surrendered and were moved by the Han court to the areas of Liaodong Commandery, Liaoxi Commandery and Youbeiping Commandery to serve as a shield against the Xiongnu, thus forming the "Three Commanderies of Wuwan".

  At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, after the Xiongnu moved westward, the vacant region in the north of the desert was quickly filled by emerging forces such as the Xianbei and Wuhuan. These barbarians, although not as powerful as the Xiongnu, did the same things as the Xiongnu people in the past. When the Han Dynasty was strong, they were obedient and submissive, offering tribute and serving as vassals; when the Han court was weak, they showed their ferocity, raiding and plundering, kidnapping and enslaving people. In the past few decades, more than a million Han civilians in the border counties of the Han Dynasty had been kidnapped and enslaved.

  A Su is eleven years old this year, his parents were both Han slaves who were kidnapped, so from the moment he was born, he was a slave. His mother was from Zhongshan, Hebei Province, and taught him the local accent when he was young, telling him not to forget his hometown, but unexpectedly, today he picked up a life because of his accent.

  These runaway slaves all belong to the Right Beiping Wudang, self-proclaimed Khanlu Wang Wuyan's tribe, under a Uwan leader named Guli. Unable to bear the long-term oppression and abuse by the Wudang people, they joined forces with more than 20 tribes, about 50 or so Han slaves, led by Mujilao, and collectively escaped on a stormy night, it has been five days now.

  "More than fifty people? How many of you are able-bodied young men?"

  "There are twelve, no, thirteen. Tanu big brother is the best warrior." It's clear that this little guy has also counted himself in.

  Ma Huan nodded, no wonder Wu Ma and his gang of just over a dozen people dared to recklessly surround and capture them. It turned out that only about ten of the escaped slaves had the power to counterattack, while the rest were mostly old, weak, women and children.

  The troops of Wuma's group, Ma Han inspected, except for the mulberry bow used by Wuma himself, which was relatively good and used iron arrowheads, the rest were all rough bows and bone arrows. The troops were like this, let alone the escaped slaves. It can be said that if they could equip themselves with hard bows and sharp arrows, their combat effectiveness would have absolutely improved several levels, no wonder Ah Su desperately pursued them, even if it meant saving on food to buy equipment.

  Two people and four horses, chatting along the way, before they knew it, they had walked out of 4 or 5 miles, turned over a dense forest, and entered a mountain valley.

  Just as they were approaching the mountain valley, four horsemen suddenly rushed out of the forest beside them, two in front and two behind, blocking their path. They drew their bows and arrows, shouting loudly: "Dismount and be tied up!"