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"A-da, that... um... the one..." Ba Da hemmed and hawed for a long time, forgetting how to address Fei Qian from the Beiqu camp. He stammered for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "That's right! The Han man with the three-colored banner is recruiting soldiers! Are you going?"
"Recruiting soldiers?" A-da stopped what he was doing and looked up. "Did that Han man say who he's going to fight?"
"Yes! Um..." Ba Da rolled his eyes upward, trying hard to recall. After a while, he said, "...But I forgot..."
"Tsk!" A-da rolled his eyes.
Ba Da hastily explained, "Can't blame me for that! Han names are so weird, and their speech is hard to understand. How could I remember?"
A-da took off his hat and scratched his itchy scalp. "Seems to me Han people are pretty much like us—always fighting this one or that one, hardly ever stopping..."
"Never mind that. Anyway, the pay for this one is pretty good. One month they give... um... forgot again. Han people's way of counting is so complicated, I just don't get it..."
Ba Da's forgetfulness was acting up again, and A-da was helpless.
But Ba Da blinked hard over there and suddenly remembered. He laughed heartily, "Haha! I remember now! It's one sheep per month! A big sheep!"
"One big sheep? Per month?" A-da couldn't quite believe it and wanted confirmation.
Ba Da suddenly slapped his head, fished out a small wooden token from inside his greasy sheepskin coat, and said, "Almost forgot! This is the token that Han man with the three-colored banner gave. It's written on here!"
"You can't read Han writing either. What good is it if it's written..." Though A-da couldn't read Han characters himself, he took it anyway...
This time, however, to A-da's surprise, he could understand it...
Because besides the Han characters, there were also a few simple pictures. Though the strokes were simple, their meaning was clear:
A small person standing on the ground holding a knife, next to a small sheep without horns...
A small person riding a horse holding a knife, next to a slightly larger sheep with horns...
Ba Da enthusiastically used both hands to mimic horns on his head, then pointed at the character for 'sheep' on the wooden token, saying excitedly, "Look! A-da! Look! This Han character is 'sheep'—it has two horns on top, see? Doesn't it look a bit like that? Hahaha, I'm someone who understands Han writing now!"
"With horse, get big sheep. Without horse, get small sheep..." A-da muttered.
Ba Da nodded. "I think this Han man isn't trying to cheat us! Before, it was always the leaders who understood Han speech who went to negotiate, and in the end, we always got less than originally agreed... Those Han coins they gave us before, I could never count them anyway. Giving a sheep is simple. One sheep per month, two sheep for two months, three sheep for three months... um... if we fought for a year, that'd be ten sheep... um, that doesn't seem right... A-da, how high can you count?"
A-da stared at the wooden token, still weighing the decision in his mind, not really paying attention to what Ba Da was muttering. He answered offhandedly, "Anyway, higher than you can count... Hey, Ba Da, why haven't any leaders notified us about this this time?"
Normally, matters like this were usually discussed directly with the tribal leaders first. Then the leaders would bring their tribesmen to participate. Spoils and military pay were settled collectively with the leaders, who then distributed them among the tribe members.
This was the consistent model Han people used when recruiting Hu people for combat—simple and easier to manage. But this time, it was clearly directly targeting all classes of Hu people...
Ba Da went "Ah," smacked his lips, and said, "How would I know? I'm not a leader. So, what do you say, A-da? Want to go together? I heard that Han man with the three colors is only recruiting... um... um... ah, whatever, not many anyway. If we're late, they won't take us anymore..."
××××××××××××××
That Han man with the three colors, as referred to by many Hu people—well, at least it's fortunate there's no green, right?—was currently in the camp, watching the Hu people who came to join the ranks one after another...
Since the Southern Xiongnu submitted to Han rule during the Han Dynasty, a unique practice of recruiting soldiers emerged: enlisting Hu people for combat, referred to as "Victory Troops."
Back when Grand General Dou Xian eventually drove the Northern Xiongnu to Europe to wreak havoc on those white-skinned people, he recruited Southern Xiongnu Hu people, and even the Wuhuan people, who had long been ground into the dust by the Xiongnu.
Leaving aside those Southern Xiongnu Hu who turned their blades against their own brethren, even the Wuhuan, who had long been forced into every conceivable position by the Xiongnu, suddenly became coquettish and alluring once they had Han backing. Under the cover of the main battlefield, relying on their... flamboyant maneuvers, they managed to trek over a thousand li, fighting all the way from the northeast to the northwest, raiding the Northern Xiongnu's homeland. The Wuhuan leader even received official titles and rewards from the Han for this, genuinely enjoying both fame and fortune, finally holding their heads high...
Afterwards, the Han repeatedly conscripted Hu people for military operations, even using them to suppress internal peasant uprisings and rebellions. The most recent instance was when Emperor Ling of Han ordered the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu Qiangqu to conscript troops to suppress Zhang Chun's rebellion. The first campaign went poorly, resulting in heavy losses. Emperor Ling then issued a second conscription, which ultimately led to internal strife among the Southern Xiongnu.
Of course, there were certainly other factors involved; it wasn't solely due to this external cause from Emperor Ling. But it also illustrates one point: regarding the matter of Hu people participating in warfare, most Han people didn't hold any particularly strong negative views...
Except for Du Yuan...
Du Yuan, styled Wenzheng, had been so busy lately he was practically flying off his feet, almost to the point where the back of his head was touching his heels.
Originally, among the civilian officials Fei Qian had at Beiqu, Du Yuan was the only one. Few in number, but the workload was by no means light. He needed to organize the daily market transaction records, tally the goods coming and going with Anyi, distribute provisions to the soldiers in the camp, etc...
This series of tasks was already quite substantial. And with the market transactions becoming increasingly prosperous, the volume of goods handled daily was enormous. Which items needed to be stockpiled, which needed to be shipped out, which needed to be brought in—these big and small matters had basically exhausted Du Yuan. One could say that even if a peerless beauty were stripped naked and placed before Du Yuan right now, he'd most likely ignore her and opt to sleep first.
If not for Du Yuan witnessing the Beiqu camp's daily growth and prosperity, the camp's boundaries expanding at a visible pace, the wooden walls around the camp gradually being replaced by earthen ones, the increasingly complete weapons and armor on the soldiers, the black smoke rising day and night from the iron smelting furnaces by the riverbank, the dizzying sums of money seen just from the account books, the various livestock constantly increasing inside the pens...
If not for the fact that dreams his father's generation couldn't achieve were now being realized step by step in his own hands, turning into reality—that sense of fulfillment and honor supporting him—Du Yuan would probably have completely collapsed from exhaustion by now.
But now, on top of all that, there was the management and placement of the recruited Hu people...
If Du Yuan had watched modern TV dramas, what he'd most want to shout right now would probably be: "It's not that this humble servant is unwilling, but this humble servant truly cannot do it..."
Therefore, Du Yuan now stood before Fei Qian with dark circles under his eyes, a face full of resentful gloom and haggard exhaustion...