Chapter 18 Di people’s village

"Go to the place where the Han people are in the east?" Duole opened his eyes wide and said for a long time: "I have never been to the place where the Han people are, but I heard from the elders in the village that we were driven here by the Han people."

Adou nodded slightly. Indeed, the decades of war in the Central Plains have caused not only the Han people to be hurt, but also the surrounding ethnic minorities have been affected.

The Di people are farming people, and their farming skills are not inferior to those of the Han people. This is considered an alien among the ethnic minorities around the Han Dynasty.

The farming nations represent stable productivity. After decades of war in the Central Plains, the people were displaced and a large amount of farmland was deserted, so farming nations like the Di people were very popular. Before, both Liu Bei and Cao Cao had moved the Di people to live in the Central Plains, and what they valued was the ability of the Di people to farm.

However, there were not many Di people moved to Cao Cao and Liu Bei at that time. Cao Cao moved 10,000 Di families to Yongzhou to farm, while Liu Bei moved 5,000 Di families to Hanzhong. If the old and weak people were deducted from the old and weak, there were not many Di people who could actually produce them.

Over the years, the Di people have developed rapidly in Liangzhou. Now there are about 100,000 households in Liangzhou, and the number is no less than that of the Qiang people. It’s just that these Di people are scattered everywhere and cannot form a unified combat power, so they are oppressed by the Qiang people.

The Central Plains needed population, especially Yongzhou, which was privateed by the Xianbei Xiongnu army for a year, and then suffered another flood, with at least 40% of the population. At this time, Yongzhou needed population the most. So Adou took the idea to attack the Di people.

According to the current situation, it will take at least ten to fifteen years for Yongzhou to restore its pre-war level. If it can move 100,000 Di households to Yongzhou, it can replenish the population lost by Yongzhou in the past one or two years, so that Yongzhou can restore its previous level within three years.

But Adou was still worried.

In history, the Di people once established a powerful empire - the Former Qin. When the Former Qin was the most powerful, not only did it unify northern China, but even the Xianbei and other tribes had to obey the orders of the Former Qin emperor. If it weren't for Fu Jian's loss of the critical Battle of Feishui, the Former Qin might have unified China.

Although history has changed a lot today, the wars of the Three Kingdoms continue, and the Han people in the Central Plains are still bleeding. The powerful Former Qin Empire in history is also likely to appear. According to Adou's knowledge, the founding monarch of the Former Qin Empire made his fortune in Yongzhou. So Adou was very worried that if migrating the Di people into Yongzhou, it would lead a wolf into the house.

"My benefactor, we are in our village ahead!" Duole's voice interrupted A Dou's thoughts. A Dou looked forward and could see smoke rising from a distance. Then he went up a gentle slope and a village appeared in front of A Dou.

This is a small village with small earthen houses tied on the ground. A Dou roughly counts that there are about forty or fifty families in this village. The outside of the village is full of cultivated farmland, and nearly half of the farmland has been harvested, and some people are working in the farmland that has not yet been harvested.

"My benefactor, this is our village." Dorey said, driving the horses toward the village.

The sound of horse hooves of dozens of horses alarmed the villagers in the village. Everyone stopped their work and looked towards the entrance of the village. They happened to see Duolei coming towards the horses.

"Isn't that howre?"

"Yes, it's Dorey, where did he get so many horses?"

As soon as the people looked like Duolei, everyone in the village surrounded him.

An old man walked out of the crowd and shouted at Duolei: "Duolei, why are you back so soon! Those Qiang people may come here one day before they left, why don't you stay in the mountains for a few more days? Have you finished the food you brought?"

"Yes, Doray, why did you come back so quickly? And where did you get such a horse?"

"Dorai, what about the others? Are they okay in the mountains?"

"Doray, why are you the only one coming back, what about the others?"

The villagers asked in a verbal way, making Duolei not sure who to answer first.

"Cough cough..." A cough came from behind the crowd, and then someone shouted, "Get out of the way, the village chief is here!"

The villagers consciously gave up a path, and an old man over 60 walked out. Although the old man had wrinkles on his face, he did not use crutches. He was very agile and had a big step. It can be seen that the old man was not very tall.

"Village Chief!" Duole immediately met.

The village chief nodded and said, "Everyone is quiet and quiet. You talk so much, and Duole only opens his mouth. How do you ask him to answer?"

When the village chief spoke, the villagers around him immediately calmed down, but their expressions were still a little curious.

"Duole, let me first talk about it. Shouldn't you hide in the mountains now? Why are you back?" the village chief asked.

"We were accidentally caught by a horse thief, just a few days ago, there were dozens of people in total... Thanks to this benefactor's rescue, otherwise I would have been killed by a horse thief!"

"Dorai, you just said 'we'. Besides you, are there anyone else being arrested?"

Duole nodded: "Besides me, there are seven other people who were caught by horse thieves!"

"What about them?"

"They were all killed by horse thieves..."

"Wow..." The villagers suddenly became panicked. For such a small village with only forty or fifty households, seven strong men died in one go, and the losses were huge. Moreover, almost every family in the village had strong men hiding in the mountains, so everyone began to worry about their relatives.

The village chief took a deep breath and then asked, "Where did you get these horses?"

"These are all horse thieves," Dorey said.

"All of them are horse thieves?" The village took a breath and looked at the horses in front of them in surprise.

Dorey just said that there were dozens of horse thieves, and judging from the dozens of horses in front of him, Dorey was right.

How much skill does Duolei have? The village knows that it would be good to deal with a horse thief. It seems that the dozens of horse thieves were killed by the young man in front of him who seemed to be less than twenty years old. But when the village thinks about it again, this young man looks less than twenty years old and doesn't look very strong. How can he kill dozens of horse thieves?

Could it be that Duole had just exaggerated the words? Then the old village chief denied this idea. Duole was always honest and should not talk nonsense. Besides, the dozens of war horses in front of him were saddles on them, which shows that each of them had a knight riding, and those dozens of horse thieves should be facts.

But how could such a young man defeat dozens of bandits? At this time, the old village chief was full of doubts, but he could not find the answer.

"By the way, village chief, this benefactor wants to go to the royal tribe to find Lord Pu Lin. In our village, you have been to the royal tribe, so I took my benefactor back to our village." Duolei said.

Hearing the word "Pu Lin", the village chief trembled slightly, looked at A Dou carefully, then bowed slightly, and said, "This gentleman is a Han Chinese!"

The village chief obviously had seen the world. He saw that Adou was a Han Chinese and knew that no matter what his identity among the Han Chinese people, it was absolutely right to call Mr.

Adou nodded: "No, old man, I am a Han person."

"Then may I ask if this gentleman has a great name?" the village chief continued.

"I'm the next surname Liu..." Adou said hesitantly, considering whether to say his name.

The village chief also saw A Dou's hesitation. Liangzhou was located in the border of the Han Dynasty. Many Han people often made trouble in the Central Plains and were wanted and ran to Liangzhou to avoid disaster. Therefore, the village chief was not surprised by A Dou's hesitation.

"Mr. Liu, please sit in there first." The village chief said to change the topic and made a gesture of invitation.

Just as Adou was about to follow the village chief, at this moment, the sound of horse hooves sounded from afar attracted everyone's attention.

From afar, six horses appeared in everyone's sight, and each horse was sitting alone.

"No, it's Qiang people! Qiang people are here!" The villagers were suddenly in a panic.

The six Qiang people also saw dozens of war horses in front of the Di people's village in front of them, and these Qiang people were stunned. These Di people were all so poor that they were jingling. It was logical that there was no war horse. In addition, all the Di people happened to gather at the entrance of the village, which made the Qiang people even more strange.

Several Qiang people stopped unknowingly and looked at the Di village ahead.

"Did you see those horses?" one of the middle-aged Qiang people said.

"Well, I saw that those are all the best war horses! They look better than the horses we ride." Another person said.

These Qiang people were just herdsmen from the surrounding tribes. This time Cheliji went on the expedition, which shows that their ability was only average. The horses of these Qiang herdsmen were just ordinary horses, not as good as those of the Qiang soldiers.

As for horse thieves, they are everywhere on weekdays, and they are riding good war horses, which are much better than the horses ridden by ordinary Qiang herders.

"I think something is wrong. There are dozens of war horses! How could these villagers have so many war horses?" the middle-aged Qiang man said.

"You said that it's not that someone from another tribe is here?" said the Qiang man next to him.

"Yeah, it's possible!" The middle-aged Qiang man nodded and continued, "There are all the territory of our tribe nearby, maybe they are attracted by others! Let's go up and tent the wind."

After the middle-aged Qiang people finished speaking, they immediately rode their horses and rushed forward, while the other five Qiang people also followed them.

At the entrance of the village, when the Qiang people stopped, everyone was still wondering why these Qiang people were not coming. However, when they saw the Qiang people coming, the villagers immediately fled back to their houses.

The villagers have been bullied by the Qiang people for too long. Even the six Qiang people were enough to scare the villagers back home. For a moment, except for A Dou and the old village chief, all the others fled, and even Duolei found a place to hide.

"Mr. Liu, please hide quickly!" the village spoke to Adou.

"Hide? Why should I hide?" Adou was slightly stunned and asked.

In Adou's opinion, there are only six people on the other side. Not to mention that there are only six people on the other side, even six thousand people A Dou is not afraid of six thousand people. What's more, Adou feels that he has no grudges and no need to hide from these Qiang people. More importantly, Adou has a strong martial arts skills and is not afraid of these Qiang people at all, so he stays here without fear.

"Oh, Mr. Liu, it's too late to hide..." The village chief looked at the Qiang people in front of him getting closer, while A Dou was still standing there.

"Oh, it's too late!" The village shook his head helplessly and sighed. At this time, the Qiang people had already arrived near.

"Huh..." The middle-aged Qiang people immediately noticed Adou.

"You don't look like us, kid, where did you come from?" asked the middle-aged Qiang man.

"Sir, he is a businessman. He is lost and just passed by our village. He wants to ask for a sip of water..." The village chief hurriedly stood up and spoke to help Adou explain.

"Businessman?" The middle-aged Qiang man nodded slightly, but his expression was obviously not convinced what the village chief said.

The middle-aged Qiang man pointed to the dozens of war horses in front of him and then asked, "Where do these horses come from?"

"This..." the village chief hesitated slightly and said, "This is what we picked up..."

"Picked up? Humph..." The middle-aged Qiang man sneered, and then said, "Why don't I have such good luck to pick up these dozens of war horses!"

"Ahem...luck, luck..." The village chief also knew that the excuse was too blind and laughed dryly.

The middle-aged Qiang people got off their horses, came to the group of war horses in front, and then began to carefully check them.

The middle-aged Qiang people came to one of the war horses, lowered their heads, looked at the inside of the hind legs of the war horse, and their faces suddenly became solemn. Then they walked towards the other war horse and looked down.

"Hey, different..." The middle-aged Qiang man raised his head, waved his hand to the Qiang man behind him, and said, "Come here quickly and see this."

The Qiang people behind them dismounted, came to the front of the horses, and began to investigate the dozens of war horses.

When the village chief next to him saw this look, his face suddenly changed.

All nomadic peoples have a habit of marking their own animals. Generally speaking, horse markings are made on the inside of the horse's thighs, and the markings of each tribe and even different ethnic groups are different.

These horses were stolen from various places by horse thieves and belong to different tribes, so the marks on horses are also different.

"My marks are different! Where are yours?"

"Our side is different?"
To be continued...