Han Khan

Chapter 28: New Believers

Zhang Sheng also showed his gentleness and cruelty, the stick and the carrot, and the combination of kindness and severity to make people feel fear and respect.

It is impossible to allow everyone to receive the same treatment, as that would disappoint the many tribes and people who have already received Zhang Sheng's amnesty.

As a human being, we all desire to be treated differently.

Yin Shanxiong waved his arm and the slaves came up carrying the prepared food.

There was life in the eyes of these chiefs.

From this we can see that they can survive.

"Come one by one, everyone has one."

The meat porridge was more convincing than any words. As they drank the porridge, there was a little more warmth in their eyes, and the look they gave Zhang Sheng was no longer filled with fear.

On the contrary, it was the same fanatical state as before, yearning for the mysterious tribesmen.

Zhang Sheng looked at the prisoners on the other side. Something in his mind moved. He held the meat porridge in one hand and the sword in the other, pointing at one of them, "Come out."

The prisoner was startled and shrank back into the crowd.

But he was soon brought up by the soldiers.

"As a defeated prisoner, do you want to die or live?" Zhang Sheng said with narrowed eyes.

The prisoners looked very tall, strong and sturdy. They were wrapped in sheepskin, animal hair and other things. The leather boots on the soles of their feet were torn, revealing two black big toes.

"Alive..." The prisoner answered hurriedly in Uighur without any hesitation.

Zhang Sheng asked the captive, "What is your name? Who is your leader or centurion?"

The strong prisoner hesitated for a moment and then said, "Tomon, sir, my name is Tomon, they call me Grizzly, and he is my centurion." The prisoner nicknamed Grizzly pointed to the prisoner at the front of the sixth row and said.

Zhang Sheng signaled his guards to hand him a knife and pointed at his centurion who was kneeling on the ground.

"He is a person who opposes the emperor appointed by the gods. He is a heretic despised by the gods. Kill him and you can have porridge."

In the face of survival, no matter how wild a nature is, it can be tamed, not to mention that these people have just received such a mysterious miracle.

The grizzly bear's terrified eyes wandered between the sword and the meat, and then he looked at the other prisoners who were pinned to the ground and shaking.

The wizards, chiefs, and Jinhan people who had been pardoned looked at him quietly.

And many prisoners of war, some angry, some pleading, looked at him.

The strong prisoner "Grizzly"'s eyes changed several times and his stomach rumbled.

Finally, his eyes became fierce, he took the horizontal sword and walked in front of his leader.

The leader cursed angrily and tremblingly, and the grizzly bear Tomon raised the sword in his hand and swung it down...

Perhaps he had been hungry for too long, and he was too weak to swing his sword, and the blade got stuck in the neck of his centurion. Immediately, the centurion let out a shrill scream that echoed throughout the valley.

Tormon drew his sword and swung it down with all his might...

The scream stopped abruptly, blood spurted all over him, and then slowly flowed on the ground.

"Okay!" Zhang Sheng handed over the warm meat porridge and a huge piece of roasted horse leg. He drank the meat porridge in one gulp and began to tear the roasted horse leg greedily.

After a while, Tuomeng knelt on the ground with his head pressed against the grass, kneeling in front of Zhang Sheng, "Tuomeng, thank you for your reward, sir. I beg you to forgive my sins and let me become your subject. I will leave my life to you from now on."

The Uighurs addressed their leader as "Sir", a respectful title.

Ordinary Uighurs did not have names. Their fathers gave their children whatever they saw, not to mention surnames and clan names which only the great nobles had.

Once there was one, there would be two, and the other prisoners would scramble for it.

Excluding the tribal leaders and shamans who swore to surrender, the number of more than 900 prisoners of war was instantly reduced by half, and they were still not enough to kill, so they were prepared to kill the ordinary tribal captives.

However, the effect of a letter of surrender is indeed more effective than killing one person to warn the rest.

Looking at the numerous captives and their hungry eyes, Zhang Sheng would not be soft-hearted. He had to let them starve for a night and beat up one group at a time so that he could control them.

The 400 or so prisoners who had eaten meat and drank porridge became Zhang Sheng's most loyal supporters, replacing some of the Jinhan soldiers to supervise the prisoners. "Grizzly, where are you from?" Zhang Sheng sat on a rock and drank a bowl of meat porridge. He asked Grizzly, who was kneeling on the ground, in confusion.

"I am a Sai person from Yuni City at the foot of the Qilian Mountains in the west. Our leader said we are Zhongyun people."

He is from Zhongyun, how could Zhang Sheng not know about it.

Yuni City is located on the vast desert west of Qilian Mountains. However, in this era, Yuni City has more convenient transportation and is slightly more prosperous than later generations.

After the Uighurs migrated westward, they occupied this place and lived together with the descendants of the Yuezhi people in Loulan. After that, when the Guiyi Army expelled the Tubo, the Silk Road was slightly restored.

Today, the descendants of the Uighurs and Loulan people, who changed their name to Zhongyun people, make a fortune every year by entertaining merchants and selling local specialties, relying on the passage of the Silk Road.

Let’s not talk about this for now, Zhang Sheng doesn’t want to know anyway. Since we know that Grizzli is not a Uighur, let’s use this guy.

"Are you full? Since you killed your leader, I will let you live. Now I ask you, do you want to continue to be a soldier or herd sheep for me?"

"Slave, I have eaten a little too much. As a herdsman, I am worried that I will not be able to eat enough. My lord, let me serve you as a soldier!!"

"Since you have submitted to me and become my subject, I will now order your weapons and horses to be returned to you for your bravery, and I will also assign 100 slave warriors to you to lead as a centurion. What do you think?"

"I bow to thank you, sir! Thank you for your trust. I will be loyal to you until death and fight for you." Tomon immediately kowtowed to Zhang Sheng.

"Okay, you go down first! My personal guards will take you to choose slaves later."

Now the Jinhan tribe has successively conquered the three tribes grazing beside the Ganquan water at the foot of the Qilian Mountains and numerous small tribes, and captured a total of nearly 1 people.

During the three attacks, a total of nearly 15 livestock were seized, including more than 13 sheep, more than 6 horses, more than 1 cattle, and nearly 700 camels, as well as a large number of other spoils, such as gold, silver, iron ingots, medicinal materials, leather, fur, weapons, armor and other miscellaneous supplies.

Some people questioned whether the prisoners were humans or pigs. How could they capture so many people with only 10 centurions and 4 guards, a total of 1354 people?

A century has 113 people, 10 of them makes 1130 people, a guardsman has 56 people, 4 of them makes 224 people, the full complement totals 1354 people.

This is like a snowball, which gets bigger and bigger. Relying on the first defeated Uighur tribesmen as slave soldiers to attack the second tribe, and then recruiting the second defeated tribe, and so on, just like Tomon who was just appointed as the centurion of the slave soldier centurion.

In this way, not only the prestige was enhanced, but also they were able to join the war and serve as cannon fodder, thereby defeating the new tribe and achieving such brilliant results.

However, after conquering many tribes, the key point is how to manage and control so many conquered tribesmen and livestock.

The Uighur Saru, who was first recruited as the leader of the slave soldier centurion, almost lost his centurion again after reorganization. It was not that there were no casualties, but the slave soldier centurion suffered heavy casualties. Now, his centurion needed to be reorganized again.

Jinhan warriors are used as the most decisive force, not as consumables that keep fighting.

In addition, Jin Han soldiers who killed enemies and made meritorious contributions in battle must also be promoted, so that the best and strongest captives and slaves can be incorporated into various slave soldiers, slave soldiers, Jin Han gangs, teams and centuries to increase the number of troops and make the conquered people unable to resist the Jin Han people.

In addition, Jinhan soldiers also suffered casualties. In the battles against Pero Dagan and Tugel Dagan, 319 Jinhan soldiers were killed or injured and withdrew from the battle. Now, there are only a thousand left.

"Saru, come here!"

Today, this Uighur, Sarul, is already an elite warrior of the Jinhan tribe and an outstanding centurion commander. He holds a spear, a sword on his waist, and wears iron armor, looking majestic.

"Your servant Salu pays homage to the present incarnation of the Lord of Heaven, His Majesty the Emperor!" Salu was extremely pious because of Zhang Sheng's "miracle".

Seeing Zhang Sheng's powerful force, like a god in the world, and the dazzling golden light, Salu has become a devout believer of Haotian God and a loyal warrior of the Son of Heaven. Today, he kept chanting the words he learned from the Jin Han people, "Haotian God bless you, the Son of Heaven bless you" and so on.

"I have witnessed your bravery and loyalty, in the presence of God.

Today, I will personally baptize you and make you a devout believer and warrior of Lord Haotian. I hope you will have a devout faith in Lord Haotian, recite His name from time to time, and pray to Him sincerely every day! If you do this in life, you will ascend to heaven after death and enjoy eternal bliss! "

"Slave, you must always remember the emperor's words and believe in God with sincerity."

Zhang Sheng nodded with satisfaction and said to him:
"Very good. Now on behalf of the Lord of Heaven, I grant you the Christian name Huitong. From now on, you will be called Sahuitong. From now on, the world will call you Jinhan, the Holy Believer, the Holy Warrior - Sahuitong."

"Thank you, the one and only Lord Haotian, thank you, my Holy Lord, the messenger of God. I will fight to the death for Haotian's will, and I will be loyal to you until death, your honorable Son of Heaven."

The Uighurs... should be called Jin Han people from now on. The Jin Han person Sa Huitong converted to Haotian and was canonized by Zhang Sheng.

In this solemn ceremony, under the gaze of everyone, he kowtowed devoutly and attentively to Zhang Sheng and the holy flag beside Zhang Sheng, and was trembling with excitement because of being accepted by the Jin Han people of Zhang Sheng's army.

He was the most fanatical of new converts.

(End of this chapter)