Smoke and flames rose across the battlefield at the front.
Behind the lines, Xiqi lay quiet and still.
Zhang Youren was covered in dust and grime, followed by more than a hundred thousand equally grimy, raggedly dressed slaves.
Back then, he had been ordered to go to Xiqi, rescue its slaves, and bring them to Chaoge to abolish their slave status.
The outcome hardly needed recounting. He had not even met Ji Fa before the men below him sent him packing-and even reduced him to slavery.
Zhang Youren still remembered what that junior official had told him: "Since you love slaves so much, go stay with them!"
What did his position as a Great Shang official have to do with Xiqi? An official in Shang was a slave in Zhou!
Zhang Youren had endured it all this time.
He never forgot his mission to rescue the slaves. He would never betray the king's command.
He ate, slept, and worked alongside the slaves. He had mined on Mount Qi, picked vegetables in the fields, drunk urine, and eaten dirt. Everything the slaves had endured, he had endured too.
He also had to bear the strange looks and unequal treatment.
On the streets, a slave who approached a shopkeeper would be deemed a thief-and lose their head the next moment.
Some slaves who found clothing to cover themselves had to tear it before wearing it. If a noble saw a properly dressed slave, they were perfectly entitled to draw a sword and cut them down.
What was this called? Emergency self-defense. With a slave covered up so thoroughly, who knew whether they had hidden blades in their clothes?
This was neither freedom nor democracy.
Zhang Youren endured everything and stubbornly survived. He even gained something from it.
He grew close to the