Eight days later.

At about nine o'clock in the morning of this day, when Hu Biao and his envoy group saw that they were about to completely walk out of the Taklamakan Desert, and it was not far from Dunhuang.

Yang Dongli, who was in a hurry along the way, finally appeared in the capital of Khotan, seven or eight miles away from the west city.

Everyone was relieved to see that there was a large amount of farmland outside the city, and that there were many people working in the fields.

It's not that they came all the way, and they encountered something unpeaceful on the way.

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

No way! This place in the Western Regions is too vast and sparsely populated, even in the modern plane, it will take a long time to drive more than a thousand kilometers from Lop Nur to the Hotan area.

Not to mention the years when there were no roads, let alone cars.

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

As a result, because many times, I couldn't even find a person who asked for directions, or because of the language barrier, I took a lot of unjust roads on the way.

Fortunately, now, I finally arrived here.

It should be noted that they have already changed out of some modern clothes that were obviously disguised as Han people.

What was re-replaced was a tattered robe that I bought from Hu Ren on the way.

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

It was also at this time that they learned that they had to pay a poll tax when they entered the city, copper coins, skins, livestock, grain, and anything worth a little anyway.

So after paying a handful of copper coins as a tax to enter the city, the group entered the city......

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

But the scorching sun above his head was still very hot, and when his head was a little dizzy from the sun, Fan Hunt moved his body and shrank into the small shadow under the eaves as much as possible.

I hope that my braincase will not be directly fainted by the scorching sun.

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

This is not because he is worried that a pair of tattered pants under him will suddenly fall from his waist and make him ugly.

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

The action of tightening the straw rope around his waist was just because such a practice would make his hungry stomach feel a little better after being physically tightened.

Fan Lie, male, age should be 17 years old.

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

As for his current status, he is just a slave waiting to be sold in the hands of a slave trader called Haner in the western city of Khotan.

To be more specific, he was originally the child of a herdsman's family in Pishan Kingdom.

But at the age of seven or eight, there was a great calamity in the family, and a gang of horse bandits appeared; His family was killed in the resistance, and he was captured by horse bandits and sold to become a herdsman slave of the small tribe of Wusun.

Although he was a shepherd slave, he worked hard to help people herd sheep, and he ate the worst and least food, and he could only live with the sheep at ordinary times, and he did not even have a tent of his own.

Often a slightly heavier snowstorm in winter will put him in danger of freezing and starving to death.

But how to say it? It's also more comfortable than the current slave life.

Unfortunately, another horse bandit raided their tribe about two months earlier, and in a hurry the warriors of the tribe were quickly defeated.

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

If that's all there is to it, it doesn't matter much.

Because raids and trafficking like this are too common in places like the Western Regions; Either you rob me, or I rob you.

It's like their tribe, when facing a strong opponent, they are docile herdsmen, otherwise they are horse bandits if they pick up swords and arrows.

Morality, dignity, honor?

In the words of the tribal chief, only the rich Han people in the legendary land of the Central Plains, where the land is fertile, will pay attention to these useless things.

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

Anyway, for a lowly shepherd like him, there was no chance of marrying a woman; What woman in the tribe would take a fancy to him?

In this life, I can only be like other shepherd slaves, and in those lonely nights, it is estimated that I can only get some happiness by relying on the round, soft sheep buttocks in the sheepfold.

However, even with such a simple happiness, Fan Lie seemed to be unable to count on it immediately.

Because he couldn't eat enough for a long time, couldn't sleep well, and had to do too much work, Fan Hunt, who was seventeen years old and considered an adult, looked very thin.

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

A few days ago, one of the stewards in charge of this place had already been told to his samurai.

Fan Hunt's little food every day began to halve, and if he didn't sell it if he didn't sell it for another pair of fingers, he would rather starve him to death than waste his master's food.

Therefore, Fan Hunt began to pray to the gods in heaven nine days ago, hoping that within ten days a kind master would come and buy him.

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

Even in this life, he did not touch the buttocks of his master's sheep.

Unfortunately, such prayers and vows did not seem to be of any use, for today was the last day, and no one had taken a fancy to him, a thin shepherd slave who could not use swords and arrows, but could only herd sheep.

But things are so magical, just at such a time when Fan Hunt was almost completely desperate, some people appeared.

not only allowed Fan Lie to survive, but also changed the fate of his life, so that the whole life after such a shepherd slave has become completely different from then on.

*******

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

still clearly remembers every detail of the first time he met those adults:

On that afternoon with a scorching sun, a group of mighty warriors were as tall and strong as mountains, with eyes full of wisdom like wise men, without eyebrows and bare on the top of their heads.

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 looked as smooth as milk, as white as a snow-capped mountain, and her eyes of different colors were as beautiful as jewels.

The only pity is that the body is too thin, and there is no murder at all.

After noticing such a detail, Fan Lie sighed regretfully in his heart.

If it is placed in the small tribe of the Wusun people where he originally belongs, this kind of woman who can't do any work at first glance, only the tribesmen who can't marry a wife will want her, right?

But it doesn't matter, the important thing is that these people look like some rich masters; The reason is simple, only rich people will like this kind of woman who is not good-looking, but cannot work.

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

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

lq