My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 281 The Nomads’ Nightmare

South of the Great Wall, the entire Chinese civilization was busy harvesting old wheat and ploughing corn in the spring, which had already been delayed.
In the Guanzhong region, mainly near Chang'an, people can use the wedding ceremony of the current emperor as a topic of conversation before and after meals.

But in the grasslands north of the Great Wall, the nomadic civilization faced an extremely difficult year.

——The winter two years ago, the grassland was extremely cold and suffered a white disaster.

The so-called "white disaster", as the name suggests, is the rare heavy snow - or extremely cold weather, which caused a disaster for the nomadic people on the grassland.

Whenever there is a white disaster in winter, the grassland will always be bloody the following year.

The survivors who have lost some or even most of their cattle and sheep as means of production will always plunder the production tools from other survivors in order to survive.

For thousands of years, wars between nomadic civilizations have been operating according to such a simple underlying logic, repeating over and over again.

My neighbor on the left, the entire tribe was buried in the snow;
The neighbor on the right was luckier, some cattle and sheep died, but not many people died, I couldn't beat him;

The neighbor in front of me suffered heavy losses. Although he has little resistance, he only has a few cattle and sheep left. I have to be prepared for him to attack me unexpectedly.

And you, my neighbor behind me;
So many people died, but they still had so many cattle, sheep and livestock?

You can't control so many livestock...

As a result, the grassland was filled with war and conflict throughout last year.

——People are dying everywhere!
War-like burning, killing and looting are happening everywhere!

More than 99% of women are possessed by three or more men in one year;

Large areas of grass were stained red with blood, and large areas of grassland were filled with rotting corpses.

This year's grassland should have been a year with unprecedentedly lush pastures and unprecedentedly abundant resources.

But last winter, Shan Yuting personally came to Munan, remotely controlling the Right Wise King's tribe and fighting with the Han people...

Shan Yuting's early arrival and late departure turned the originally beautiful and lush grasslands of Munan into a barren muddy area.

Mountains of human and animal excrement;
The degraded turf that is visible everywhere - that is, the bare dirt exposed after the grass is lost;

This year, the nomadic people in Munan had a hard time surviving...

"how?"

"Have you calculated the losses and population of each tribe?"

Munan, 150 miles south of Longcheng, is the tent of King Youxian.

Luandi Yizhixie, who had just lost a battle at Chaonasai half a year ago and was now troubled by the endless disputes among the tribes, was sitting on a tiger-skin wooden stool at the head of the group, holding his forehead with his hand, looking haggard.
Not far in front of Yizhixie, a Han man dressed like a Hu person, with metal rings embedded in his nose, lip corners, and even cheeks, nodded with a sad face.

"To reply to Tushe's words;"

"Ever since the snow began to melt, the various tribes of Mu Nan have begun to have frictions and disputes of varying degrees with the surrounding tribes."

"——The big tribes like Baiyang and Loufan, perhaps because of the power of Tushe, or perhaps because life was not that difficult, did not have conflicts with other tribes with more than a thousand people."

"But the rest of the small tribes have never stopped fighting since the day the earth warmed up again."

"Moreover, the smaller the tribe, the more fierce and tragic the fights with other tribes..."

···
"The right general sent back news: of the original nineteen tribes in the west, only seven remain;"

"And among these seven tribes, four are fighting each other in pairs."

"By the time the Chanyu's tent returns to Munan, there should only be five tribes left in the west..."

"In the north, near the Great Curtain, there were originally forty-five tribes, but after the White Disaster, only thirty-two remained."

"Due to Tushe's order, the northern tribes did not attack each other."

“—Because even if they defeat other tribes, they won’t be able to steal anything.”

"So, most of them left their own pastures and began to scatter."

"It is said that a few days ago, in the area around Yanchi, a northern tribe that was originally near the Great Curtain also sold its warriors as slaves..."

The words of the Han man in Hu clothing undoubtedly made Yizhixie's expression even uglier.

The West naturally does not refer to the western end of the world, but the area under the control of Yizhixie: the west of the Munan region.

Yizhixie knew very well: there - further west of the "west" of Munan, was a place called the Western Regions.

That place was called "Chengli God's gift to the Huns" by Chengli Gutu!
There was the Shache Kingdom, which cultivated fruits and vegetables for the Chanyu's court and presented beautiful women to him;
There were loyal servants who contributed warriors to the Chanyu’s court and were even willing to lick the toes of the Chanyu’s servants: the Cheshi people.

There were also many small countries that were jealous of Shache and Cheshi but at the same time tried hard to emulate them. They spared no effort to offer their own specialties to the court of the Chanyu, just to get the protection of the great Chengligutu, that is, the tiny country of the Xiongnu Chanyu.

The western part of Munan is very close to the Western Regions;
Therefore, most of the tribes that occupied that grassland lived a very prosperous life.

Although the order from the Chanyu Court prevented them from launching large-scale attacks on the Western Regions, it did not affect their ability to obtain whatever they wanted from the weak yet wealthy countries in the Western Regions under the banner of the Chanyu Court.

Moreover, the Western Regions is a place where commerce is extremely developed.

Even if they don't have a business mind, just by sending some warriors to the Western Regions to live a fairy-like life for a few months and protect the Western Regions' caravans, those tribes can live a rich life that even the Chanyu Ting would envy.

And now, even the tribes in that rich land have to compete with the surrounding tribes for the limited right to survive.

——Seventeen tribes, only five left in the end!
This not only meant that twelve tribes had disappeared between heaven and earth after the white disaster the year before last and the splendor of the Chanyu Court last year;

If Yizhixie's prediction is correct: among these five tribes, there will not be a larger tribe with more people, larger size, and more powerful than the previous seventeen tribes.

The original seventeen tribes included two large tribes with tens of thousands of people, five or six medium-sized tribes with more than ten thousand people, plus a dozen small tribes with one thousand to ten thousand people.

The remaining seven tribes - or the last five tribes left in the west after autumn - are likely to be medium-sized tribes with more than 10,000 people, and none of them can do anything to the other. They will be respectful to the Chanyu Court and give them whatever they ask for;

But the contributions that these five tribes could make, whether it was the tribute of cattle and sheep, cheese and fur, or the number of warriors in wartime, were probably not able to reach the level that any of the two major western tribes could achieve in the past.

In summary: the "Pan-Western region" of Munan under the control of Yizhixie was reduced from the original two large tribes, five or six medium-sized tribes, and a dozen small tribes to five medium-sized tribes.

In the west alone, Yizhixie lost two large tribes that could each contribute nearly 10,000 troops in wartime, as well as a dozen small tribes that could provide a total of more than 10,000 troops!

And this is the final answer given by the western tribe which is the richest in Munan, closest to the Western Regions, and least affected...

"Near the curtain, there were originally large tribes such as the Qiequ clan, the Rulin clan, and even the Huyan clan!"

"From the current situation, I'm afraid only the three or five large tribes can still retain their own 'tribes';"

"The remaining small tribes can only survive by selling themselves into slavery."

"Being alive is a luxury, not to mention preserving the tribe, faith, and totem..."

The melancholy sigh made the Han man's eyes redden, and he was obviously even sadder than Yizhixie.
On the other hand, Yizhixie just sighed for a while, and then started to worry about his future in Munan.

Of the seventeen Western books, five are extant;
Of the forty-five tribes in the north near the Great Curtain, only thirty-two remained after the winter, and most of them were migrating and scattered all over the grassland on their way.

If there were only ten tribes left, Yizhixie would prepare a special meal for Chenglitian and offer him a pious sacrifice.

This is the case in the West and the North. As for the more distant and cold East, Yizhixie no longer wants to ask.

Or rather, I dare not ask.

According to Yizhixie's estimation, in that barren Far East land, perhaps only the remnants of the former Donghu, the Xianbei and Wuheng people who were exiled to that place to fend for themselves, still retained their own beliefs and totems.

Even if the remaining tribes survived until this winter, they would probably have become zombies or sheep thieves like the Qiang people.

But the key question is: Are there really any living sheep in that piece of ice and snow?
Even if a genuine Qiang person went there, I'm afraid he would have all the skills but no way to display them...

"The situation in the East is much better."

"All the original thirty-odd tribes actually survived the white plague;"

"And this year, only three or five tribes attacked each other, and then the big tribe came out to stop it."

Ok?
When Yizhixie heard the Han Chinese in Hu clothing talking about the East, he instinctively frowned.

Who asked you?

But when the Han people dressed in Hu clothes and said that the situation in the East was relatively better - there were not even many attacks and lootings between tribes, Yizhixie sat on the throne in disbelief.

East?

The Yan area close to the Han people, or even farther and colder in the east where only savages appear in the ice and snow?
How can it be?

After coming to his senses, Yizhixie’s first reaction was that it was impossible!

Although Munan is warmer than Mubei as a whole, the eastern part of Munan, which is the area adjacent to the northeastern territory of the Han people, is an extremely cold place compared to the North Sea of ​​Mubei!

The fact that people can survive in that icy and snowy place is a miracle in itself!
Being able to feed cattle, sheep and other livestock is even more god-like than holding up the plow to plow the sky!

Especially after the white disaster the year before last, and the whole Munan area was "made bankrupt" by Shanyu Ting this past winter, that area was surprisingly not affected much?

For a moment, Yizhixie even doubted whether he had not yet woken up from his sleep.

——You should know that last winter, Shanyu Ting came to Munan earlier than in previous years. When he came to Yizhisha's Nanchi, Yizhisha didn't even let the eastern tribes offer cattle, sheep and livestock!

Of course it’s not because Yizhixie is kind, but because they are poor!
It’s not just ordinary poverty!
Long before Yizhixie's father was tricked by Xianjunchen Chanyu into Longcheng and killed, the tribes in the east would always cry poor to Yizhixie's father, the previous Youxian King, and pray that he would grant them some cattle and sheep, and even ready-made food: cheese.

But that area was a key area to block the Han people from going north, so there had to be tribes - and many tribes - to set up defenses and keep a close eye on the Han people's every move at all times;
With no other options, the former Right Wise King had to take the tribes to the Han people's territory and to the south of the Great Wall to plunder from time to time.

If there are enough things to grab, just take a symbolic portion;

Not only did they not rob enough, they also did not want anything at all. They just brought the warriors back to Yanchi the same way they had led the army out.

When Yizhixie inherited the throne of Right Wise King, those shameless people came again.

As his father had been deceived to death by Chanyu Ting, Junchen issued a death order to Youxian King: without Chenglitian's will - that is, Chanyu's order, no tribe in Munan could cross the Great Wall!
It seemed that Junchen had rarely behaved like a human being and was going to abide by the agreement he had made with the Han people.
But in fact, this was nothing more than a political tactic to restrict Yizhixie, the common leader of Munan: the Right Wise King, to prevent Yizhixie from strengthening himself by plundering the Han people and establishing prestige in the hearts of the Munan tribes.

He could not lead those Eastern tribes to plunder the Han people like his father had done before, but he could not sit idly by and watch those tribes starve to death.
In desperation, Yizhixie could only pick out a small portion of the tribute materials he received from the western and northern tribes every year and give it to the eastern tribes as compensation for their "guarding the border" and "facing powerful enemies".

The year before last, there was a white disaster on the grassland, and wars were going on everywhere. Yizhixie's Right Wise King's main force was tightening their belts to make ends meet.
Then last winter, after the incident at the Chanyu court where he was said to be "going to eat Mu'nan out of money", Yizhixie naturally had no energy to care about the lives of those eastern tribes.

Therefore, when Shan Yuting arrived at Nanchi, Yizhixie, as the Right Wise King, did not ask the eastern tribes to pay tribute. In fact, he was afraid that those tribes would pester him and ask for things in return...

But unexpectedly, the Eastern tribes that had long been extinct were actually doing quite well?

Yizhixie was very sure: the Han Chinese man in front of him - the loyal slave he brought back from the Han Chinese land of Dai many years ago, would never deceive him.

Especially I won't deceive myself on such a big matter.

So, Yizhixie naturally asked the questions in his mind.

"them……"

"How is it done?"

"——Could it be that the Han merchants brought them food?"

"But even if that's the case, what can they exchange with the Han merchants?"

"Could it be that those Han merchants have finally shown some conscience, and not only do they not cheat our nomadic people, but they are also willing to buy on credit, or even directly lend food to those tribes?"

(End of this chapter)