After leaving that small tribe, Yang Feng led a thousand vanguard soldiers and continued to march in the direction that Zhang Qiao's troops had taken.

Over the past two days, they have passed through about a dozen tribes, large and small, and have been warmly welcomed by the local Qiang people. This made Yang Feng and his soldiers feel as if they were visiting as guests, rather than fighting a war.

Even more, some men brought their own able-bodied men and weapons, wanting to join the Han army and follow them to fight against the Ma Yi, but Yang Feng refused them all.

Yang Feng knew that their primary purpose in this trip was to intimidate those people; fighting was secondary.

Suddenly, a scout on horseback galloped rapidly toward Yang Feng's group from not far ahead.

"Report!!"

Yang Feng looked at the scout and asked, "What have you found?"

"Reporting to the captain, a medium-sized tribe has been discovered thirty miles ahead!"

"Captain! If it's not working out, let's bypass this tribe!"

Upon hearing the scout's report, one of Yang Feng's personal guards looked at Yang Feng with a bitter expression.

Yang Feng frowned and glanced at the guard beside him.

The guards and their horses were laden with dozens of wine sachets, and their ration bags were stuffed full.

Then Yang Feng looked back and saw that the other soldiers were almost all in the same situation.

They were already overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the Qiang people.

Yang Feng then nodded, "Okay! Let's go around there then!"

Upon hearing the order to take a detour, the soldiers couldn't help but cheer.

After narrowly avoiding the tribe and confirming their direction again, Yang Feng led his men to continue towards Zhang Qiao's forces.

........

In the Shaodang tribe, Ma Yi, a powerful figure, was pacing anxiously inside the house, just as his name suggested, his eyes frequently glancing towards the door.

The female slaves inside the room stood with their heads bowed, not daring to make the slightest noise. They vaguely remembered that yesterday, one of their companions had been dragged out and beaten to death by the furious Ma Yi simply because she couldn't help but cough lightly.

At that moment, the door was wide open, and a gust of cold wind suddenly rushed in. A female slave couldn't help but shiver, and her face turned pale instantly, whether from the cold or from fright, it was hard to tell.

Fortunately, Ma Yi did not notice the female slave's abnormality at this time and continued to pace back and forth. Although the temperature inside the room was extremely low, fine beads of sweat appeared on Ma Yi's forehead.

Several days ago, Zhang Qiao's vanguard of 5,000 Han soldiers had set up camp at the Yuanshaohe tribe, 80 li southeast of the Mayi tribe, and sent messengers to demand the return of the several hundred escaped slaves.

Ma Yi treated the Han envoy politely, and at the same time, he somehow obtained several hundred heads and told the Han envoy directly that he had killed the two or three hundred slaves.

The Han envoy had no suspicions and returned to the Han army's camp the next day with the heads.

Just when Ma Yi thought the Han army would retreat, Zhang Qiao not only did not retreat, but also ordered his men to throw the hundreds of heads to a place twenty miles away from Ma Yi's tribe.

Zhang Qiao's actions were clearly a message to Ma Yi: "I've seen through your trick of switching things out; you'd better send those criminals back as soon as possible!"

Helpless, Ma Yi had no choice but to have his soldiers secretly raid a tribe of Baihu people again, and then send several hundred heads to Zhang Qiao yesterday in an attempt to deceive them.

That's why Ma Yi was pacing back and forth in the room, restless, waiting for news from his subordinates.

"A tycoon! A tycoon..."

A panicked shout shattered the tranquility of the room. Upon hearing the shout, Ma Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked outside.

One of Ma Yi's men stumbled in, his head wrapped in a white cloth, with a trace of crimson seeping from the area around his right ear.

"What happened? How did you get into this state?"

Seeing that his subordinate's right ear had obviously been cut off, Ma Yi's heart skipped a beat, sensing that something was wrong.

"Waaaah... Great sir... those Han soldiers are going too far! Not only did they humiliate me and cut off one of my ears, but they also made the outrageous claim that you, my lord, must kneel before them and beg for forgiveness in person!..."

Upon hearing Ma Yi's question, One-Ear immediately knelt down in front of Ma Yi, and began to cry and recount his ordeal to Ma Yi, with snot and tears streaming down his face.

"I asked you why things turned out this way? What kind of nonsense are you spouting??"

Hearing One-Ear's cries, Ma Yi, enraged, kicked him hard to the ground and then glared at him fiercely.

"Great sir, spare my life!!"

One-Ear, who had been kicked to the ground, quickly rolled over and knelt down in front of Ma Yi again.

Sensing his master's murderous intent, One-Ear hurriedly kowtowed and begged for mercy, saying in a trembling voice, "Master... I was ordered to deliver those heads to the Han army. This time, Zhang Qiao didn't say anything and admitted that those heads were indeed the heads of the fugitives!"

"Um?"

Ma Yi glared at One-Ear and said fiercely, "Since they admitted it, why did they cut off one of your ears? Did you offend them by speaking rudely?"

"No...no..."

One-Ear quickly shook his head in denial, then explained, "It's not that I spoke rudely, but that Zhang Qiao said that the escaped slaves looted the property of several powerful families in the Han territory, totaling about ten billion coins."

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