Translation of the work
Mr. Liu said: The people in Yue are unkind and unkind, and they treat them as goods, regardless of whether they are boys or girls. After the children reach the age of seven or eight, their parents sell them for money. If the money they obtain cannot satisfy their greed, they will steal other people's children. After they succeeded, they put iron hoops around their necks and wooden cuffs on their hands to prevent them from escaping. Some adults were even forced to become slaves because they could not stand up to their restrainers. At that time, killing each other on the road was a common practice, and those who were lucky enough to be strong and tall would kidnap those who were smaller and weaker. Han officials took advantage of this bad habit for their own benefit. As long as they could get child servants, they would indulge without any investigation. Therefore, as the population of the country decreases, few people can escape the tragic fate of being child servants. Only Ou Ji, at the young age of eleven, defeated the robbers who kidnapped him, which was strange enough. Du Zhoushi, the governor of Guizhou, told me about this matter.
The children in the children's area are children collecting firewood and herding cattle in Liuzhou. While he was grazing cattle and collecting firewood, two bandits kidnapped him, tied his hands behind his back, blocked his mouth with a cloth, and took him to a market more than forty miles away to sell him. Ou Ji pretended to cry and acted like a child trembling with fear. Seeing this, the two powerful thieves despised him, thinking that the child was easy to deal with. The two drank face to face and got drunk. One of them went to discuss business, while the other lay down to sleep with his knife in the road. Ou Ji secretly spied on him and saw that he was asleep. He put the rope that bound his hands against the blade of the knife, rubbed it up and down, cut the rope, and then killed the sleeping robber with a knife. Not far away, he was captured by the robbers who were returning from business talks. He was shocked and wanted to kill Ou Zhi. Ou Ji hurriedly said: "Two masters and one servant are not as good as one master monopolizing one servant. He treated me badly, but if you can really save my life and treat me well, you can do whatever you want. Dispose of it." The robber thought for a long time and said, "Rather than kill the child, it is better to sell him; instead of selling him and sharing the money, it is better for me to get the child alone." So. He buried the bodies of his accomplices and took them to the market place where the thieves were harbored. Just in case, he tied Ou Zhi up even more tightly. In the middle of the night, Ou Ji turned his body, got close to the fire and burned the rope that bound his hands. He was not afraid even if his hands were burned. Then he took a knife and killed the robber. After that, he started crying and yelling loudly, which shocked everyone in the market. Ou Ji said: "I am a child of the Ou family and should not be a slave. Two robbers kidnapped me. Fortunately, I killed them all. I hope to inform the government about this."
< p>The officials in the market town reported the matter to the state official, who in turn reported it to the superior government. The government official summoned Ou Ji, and when he saw it, he unexpectedly turned out to be a young and honest child. Yan Zheng, the governor, thought the boy was great and wanted to keep him as a minor official, but Ou Ji refused. So he gave him some clothes and sent officials to escort him home. From then on, those who robbed, kidnapped, and ransacked homes in the countryside were too frightened to look at them when they passed by the district's house. Everyone said: "This kid is two years younger than Qin Wuyang, but he killed two powerful thieves. How can I provoke him?"