From Chief to Ball

"No, someone came over there and told me. As long as we go, everything before will be punished lightly, and we haven't made a big mistake, have we? Stay one more day, sooner or later our hands will be stained with blood .”

"Well, then it's settled, five days later we will bring the cows, horses and the whole family..."

Among all the people, only Muma shook his head and said: "Go, I can't go. My woman is sick. Something happened to her a few nights ago. She caught a cold. Now no one from the medical department is here. These few days It's very hot. The child is young, less than one year old, how can he travel far?"

Several people gave Mu Ma a weird look, and Mu Ma sighed: "I won't say anything. You go away, just pretend I didn't hear."

A person patted his numb shoulder trustingly, without saying anything.

Back home, the woman was still sick, numbly guarded by the bed, talking about what happened these days, the woman sighed and said: "Why did you get sick at this time? I don't want to be in Xia City anymore, I'm afraid... …Ma, let’s not have slaves anymore, isn’t it good to live like before? Now people often die, how can this still be Xiacheng?”

"Well, drink this water, and we'll leave when you recover."

A few days later, many people left Xiacheng, leaving slaves and everything behind, only taking themselves and their families.But there are still many people who have not left, and there are always various reasons.

The fifty households in Muma's Lisi are basically from the old Xiacheng, so they were not demoted to slaves, but now there are three that are considered to be standing with those in the clan. These three families worked very hard when they were cattle, but now they are better than Muma.Twelve families fled to the fiefdom in the west, and they don't know if they have arrived now.

In the end, these remaining people are just like Muma, just alive.Some people don’t trust the people who made an appointment to escape, some are reluctant to part with the wheat they just planted, and some are thinking about repairing their houses in autumn. In short, there are always reasons for not leaving. The simplest thing is to live.

But life is not peaceful. As the autumn leaves fall day by day, more and more news comes from afar.Fortunately, there is also a woman who is a mother next door, so the child will not starve to death without milk.

After the news of Dongyi's great defeat Ji Xia's victory reached Xia City, the nobles of the city gathered those who stayed in the city.

"Ji Xia will be back soon, remember, the current Xia City is your own choice, there are no innocent people."

"Some of you may say, I didn't kill people, and I didn't take other people's land. But when we came back and shouted that the old Xiacheng people oppressed the new Xiacheng people as slaves, you didn't object. If you all Objection, how could it be like this?"

"We just spoke out what was in our hearts for you, and did things for you that you dare not do. It's like I was killing people, and you dragged that person's limbs so that I could insert a knife conveniently."

"If Jixia doesn't come back, don't you like your life being raised by slaves? No, you are as ugly, inferior, dirty, and maggots as us. It's just that we do better than you and enjoy more Much, and you're too stupid to do what we did."

"Now that the salt mine is given to you, can you say that you don't want any money, and use your own slaves to feed all the people of the city with salt? You say yes now, just because you didn't get it!"

"Now that Ji Xia might come back, you just want to get away, and you want to wash off the blood on your body? You can't, you are already tied to the clan, if you want to live, you can live together, if you want to die, you can only die together. Jixia You all know about his temperament, clan fights, killing Chinese people, hanging Chinese people... These crimes are at least exile from the city, right?"

"Jixia said, what we want, we have to fight for it with our hands. Now we want to be innocent, the best way is not to ask for forgiveness from Jixia, but to take up arms to fight. Everyone stand together, Jixia Is it really going to kill us old Xiacheng people?"

"We just need to force Jixia to swear to let us go. Xiacheng will follow Xiacheng's system, and Yucheng will follow Yucheng's rules. We will follow Jixia as the leader, and we will never waver if he goes out to join the army."

"We will also promise that once it is done, the land will be distributed to everyone, the slaves will be distributed to everyone, and the salt copper mine will be everyone's. Isn't this a better life than before?"

"Clan people, clansmen who shed the same blood as us, this is the only way you can go."

Suddenly someone in the crowd shouted: "But when you traded so much of our land with salt, and sold the salt so that we couldn't afford it, why did you forget that we are clansmen who bleed the same blood?"

"Yes, don't lie to us anymore. It's just that Jixia is coming back. What if Jixia died in Dongyi? You won't give us those land slaves. We've had enough. Already!"

"What kind of punishment we are willing to accept. What you say is wrong, we are different from you. Maybe we are also dirty, but we will accept punishment. Don't expect us to fight for you!"

"Those slaves know who is right and who is wrong. We have already been wrong once, and we will not be wrong again!"

The angry people clenched their fists and left one after another, returning to their homes.

By mid-December, relatives and nobles had already fled, and the city became more and more unstable. Every day, there were slaves' rebellion and Xinxia people's revenge, and blood was shed every day.

So in mid-December when the situation in Caohe became clearer, Muma's house became Lisi's house again, and finally someone left the clan to find him to discuss something.

They recalled all that happened this year and thought about possible futures.

"The city is going to be messed up, those maggots are running north, we won't go with them."

"Yeah, the city is about to be in chaos. Yesterday, people from Xinguo killed the entire family of those members of our clan, even the children."

"Child? When they buried the hundreds of people alive, did they let the 12-year-old child go?"

"What shall we do?"

"Run away, at least wait until the city settles down."

"That's right, let's run away. Those people are like crazy, killing people everywhere. Besides, we don't know how Jixia will treat us. If you ask me, let's hide in the woods and wait until the city is stabilized. Let’s come back when the news comes out.”

"If it's a small crime, everyone will come back. If it's a capital crime, then hide in the woods for the rest of your life."

"Even if we weren't afraid of Jixia, those slaves would kill us. Even though I treat them well, do you know? Yesterday I asked them to do something, but they didn't do it. I wanted to beat them, but I held them My whip..."

"It's terrible. I wish I had known that I would flee to the wolf fur fief... Those people seem to be fine."

"Muma, come with us. Anyway, I won't go to the grassland with those maggots. Jixia said a long time ago that fleeing to the grassland is a capital crime, an unforgivable capital crime. Do you remember that when the miners rioted, they fled to the grassland?" Is it to the east? There is a big reed marsh over there, let’s hide there and come back when the city is stabilized.”

"And you have blood on your body. I heard that those Xin Guo people hated you very much, because when those people resisted, you led us to resist them, and you whistled for the people of the clan, and took the lead in arresting a few people .”

Muma shook her head, her eyes were already a little dazed.

"My woman may be dying. She is very sick and I can't go. You go, I can't go."

After finishing speaking, he stood up and said with a wry smile: "I am your Lisi. Normally, it would be a serious crime for you to run away, but what can I do if this is the case? I don't want to raise dozens of slaves and do nothing. I don't want to run away with them, I just want to live with my women and children. Let's go... let's go."

After the final farewell, Mu Ma closed the door, sat on the edge of the kang, looked at the unconscious woman and the crying child next to her, didn't think about anything, just sat quietly.

The city was getting more and more chaotic, and there were shouts everywhere, but Mu Ma didn't seem to hear it, and just stayed by the side of the women and children.

At noon the next day, the woman had passed out emaciated, and there was a roar outside.

"Get out! Muma!"

"You wolf that kills and eats people!"

The child was so frightened that he was crying on the kang, Mu Ma drew out the dagger, asked the child to boil some water for the mother to stop crying, and went outside by himself.

The angry Xinxia Chengguo people were just outside the house. They were reduced to slaves before, and now they smashed the shackles by themselves.

"It's you! Muma! My brother was knocked over by you with a stick and sent to those maggots, and he was buried alive!"

"During the fight in the mill, you were the most ruthless one!"

"People like dogs, I never thought you would be here today, right?"

Mu Ma stood up straight and shouted: "What's wrong with me? The workshop couldn't continue, and they wanted to eat. Should I give them food? My family, my women and children still want to eat. , they wanted to grab my food, we fought, who knew they would be buried alive?"

The brother of the man who was buried alive cried: "Is it our fault? My brother has land and cattle, but because he is not from people with the same surnames as you, the land, grain and cattle were all taken away. Otherwise, I Brother, do you need to ask you for food? And my younger brother, who was only twelve, was buried in the sand and suffocated to death! At that time, you led people to block their back, and you took the head to arrest them. Six people, and got a lot of salt. You exchanged their lives for salt, food, and land! They are all dead!"

"I didn't eat that salt! I didn't eat that food! I didn't move that money, and I didn't move it when my family was in the most difficult time!"

"What a kind man, shouldn't we cry and tell you that we were wrong? Did you grab my brother and send him to the council? He had already run to the river!"

The numb hands trembled a little, nodded and said: "It's me, but I didn't know they would be buried alive."

"I know, you want to say that someone supported your resistance and was even sent to the gallows, but I'm not him, I'm just an ordinary person, I don't want to bully you, but I won't go to the gallows for you, I It's just for my woman and child...my woman is very sick, maybe she won't be able to survive tonight..."