"Where do we still have Han slaves..."
Kunbuha followed up with a question, and then he thought of it: "They are the ones who looted the three states of Changhuan and Fu when the army just went south in the Year of the Rooster!"
The Year of the Rooster in the Mongolian calendar is the third year of Da'an in Dajin. During this year, Genghis Khan led his troops southward and officially launched an attack on the Kingdom of Jin. The first target of the attack was the three states of Chang, Huan, and Fu, which were the outermost edges of the northern boundary trench defense line.
At that time, these three states were not only the military support points that Daikin had operated for decades, but also the most important animal husbandry and handicraft centers on the defense line, where horses and ordnance were produced. After Genghis Khan quickly captured these three states by running a horse and conquering the city, he not only seized the horses and ordnance accumulated by the Jin Kingdom over the years, but also robbed all the craftsmen in the area.
The total number of these craftsmen is about 5,000, and including their families, the number exceeds 20,000.
After obtaining these craftsmen, the Mongolian army made up for the final shortcomings in the production and maintenance of weapons and armor, and invaded the Central Plains with an invincible attitude. Most of these craftsmen also received preferential treatment from Genghis Khan. After being brought to the grasslands, they were generally regarded as "halachus", that is, civilians rather than slaves.
Some people were once allocated yurts, cattle and sheep, and were allowed to marry and have children. In terms of treatment, I'm afraid it's better than at Dajin Frontier Fortress. With these people as the core, they were continuously filled with Han slaves captured over the years. At the most, there were at least hundreds of thousands of Han people on the grasslands serving the Mongolian Nayans.
But this situation completely changed after the Mongolian army suffered a setback in the war and turned to the Western Expedition.
On the one hand, most of the skilled young laborers among the Han'er craftsmen were ordered to accompany the army; on the other hand, the old, weak or ordinary people with little skills left behind were regarded as slaves, even if some had a slightly higher status. , with the sharp shortage of living resources on the grassland, it was soon impossible to maintain the status of civilians.
There's nothing you can do about it, there's a lot less meat on the plate, and thousands of ordinary Mongolian tribes are already divided into three, six or nine, so who can care about Han'er?
After many Mongolians followed Genghis Khan and invaded the Central Plains, they did not plan to occupy it for a long time, so they massacred a large number of Han people in the places where the army passed, and captured every ten of the people who accompanied the army, and they were all regarded as the most humble Boul.
After returning to the grassland, the humiliation of being defeated by Han'er aroused terrible hostility in the hearts of the Mongols. They vented their anger on the Han people in the grasslands and inflicted ten times the brutality on them, as if this was revenge for the Han regime in the Central Plains.
Abel roughly estimates that at least 30,000 to 40,000 people were killed or tortured to death of freezing and starvation in the past two years.
Therefore, when the Great Zhou Dynasty began to restore the defense line in northern Xinjiang two years ago, a large number of Han slaves belonging to the tribes behind the Monan Mountains fled southward at all costs. Some even took their families and crossed hundreds of miles of uninhabited mountains, just to return home. The territory of the Han family. .
This move did not attract the attention of the Mongols at first. After all, people on the grasslands were panicked at that time. There were more than three or five Mongolian households in the entire thousand households who went south to join the Zhou Dynasty. Who would care about those humble Han slaves.
But soon the Mongols discovered that without hard-working men, even herding cattle and sheep would not be smooth enough. Most of the Han people from thousands of households on the southern edge of the grassland fled and could only cry out for help. However, the tribes in the depths of the grassland had a firm grasp on the Han people. They used knives and whips to drive them away like cattle and horses, and used continuous threats and insults to force them. Running around and working hard.
Now it seems that these cattle and horses have begun to escape, or is it such a large-scale escape?
Where could they escape to? There is nothing nearby, only a long-abandoned Usha Castle?
Abel and his companions drove their horses away from the deserted dirt road and looked from a little distance.
Soon, he saw a group of Mongolian cavalry chasing after him.
This group of people should come from the Qianhu tribe in a remote place in the north. Judging from their appearance, they are Na Ke'er from Qianhu. There are not many people, twenty or thirty riders.
Before their riding and shooting skills, the Han'er slaves had no power to fight back. The Han who fell at the end of the crowd was chased by the Mongols like a hunter, and was shot down one by one with bows and arrows.
Due to the lack of iron materials, many Mongolian tribes have resumed their activities in the past two years.
The habit of using bone arrows and iron arrows together was restored. When the bone arrow hits, it penetrates into the body, while the heavier iron arrow breaks open bloody holes in the target's body and even breaks the bones.
The man who was hit by the arrow screamed loudly and rolled on the ground. He was immediately caught up by the knights, slashing and stabbing him with swords and guns.
Someone broke his leg while climbing up a ravine and was stuck in the ditch and stabbed repeatedly. When someone survived a blow with a knife, the Mongolians called on their young companions behind them to come up and chop them in the same manner.
In recent years, large-scale hunting has rarely been organized on the grasslands, and many fighting methods have been almost forgotten by young people. The Mongolian people are not willing to let go of this opportunity to hone their skills.
The stragglers were killed one after another, and the first hundred or so people were still fleeing. The Mongolian laughed happily and urged him to continue chasing.
Seeing the embarrassed appearance of the group of men, Kunbuha shook his head and said, "I really don't know what they are thinking. Isn't it good to live? Why do you want to seek death like this? Are all the men stupid?"
After sighing twice, he found that Abel's face next to him was serious, as if he did not agree with his words.
"I have seen a Han who just wants to live. But..."
Abel only said half of what he said.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had not only met Han'er before, but also had one of Han'er's subordinates. When Na Minfu was a hundred households, there was a man in the tribe who said he didn't spend money. He was very honest and loyal without spending money. He followed Abel to fight everywhere, and then died like a worthless ant.
When fighting without money, he worked very hard, but the harder he worked, the more Abel looked down on him. He felt that he was cowardly and incompetent and as timid as a mouse without spending money, so he followed the Dangxiang people first and then the Mongols, without daring to resist.
No matter how cowardly these guys are, at least they dare to run when the butcher's knife is wielded, dare to fight for their lives, and would rather die on the road to fight for it... This is already a step above the kind of pure slaves.
Besides, maybe after fighting for it, there will be some good results.
It is said that Guo Ning, the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the Central Plains, was an ant fleeing under the iron heel of Mongolia earlier. Didn't he fight for it and lead hundreds of millions of people to stand up? On the contrary, the Mongols lived in the grasslands and lived a hard life for several years!
Thinking of this, Abel shook his head violently.
Since his broken arm, Xu had drank too much, and it was easy for him to get distracted and have random thoughts. What does this situation have to do with tracking those two noble men? It's only right to go around this place quickly and continue chasing the hoof prints!
As soon as Abul reminded himself, Kunbuha muttered: "Where is the fire? Why is there smoke?"
Before he finished speaking, several huge grass balls suddenly flew up from several undulating ravines nearby.
The grass balls are made of thorn branches as bones and tied with withered grass. Each ball is large enough for two people to hug. The grass balls were already ignited when they were thrown up, and while they were still in the air, tongues of flame flew and burned into huge red fireballs!
The position where the fireball rose happened to be right in front of, behind, and to the left of the Mongolian cavalry.
After they hit the ground, they either bounced and rolled, or scattered into small pieces that were on fire. The sound of the fireworks became more and more terrifying.
The horses ridden by the Mongolian cavalry were obviously afraid of fire. They are not well-trained military horses, but ordinary items in the tribe. Wherever the fireballs went, everyone was frightened. They screamed like Herods and jumped wildly. Several Mongolians on horseback were violently thrown off their horses. Some of them barely managed to escape from their horses and could only hug their horses' necks and shout repeatedly.
In the ravine where the grass ball was thrown, Lu Shu squinted and looked outside, laughing and saying: "There are many ways for A Duo!"
Beside him, Ado touched his head and said, "These are all old tricks, they are written down in the book! In the chapter on ambush, on the fifth page, there are four battle rules, which you must memorize!"
In another ravine, Lu Wusi had already drawn his sword in his hand and swooped out.
