My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 302 Declaration of War?

People in later generations may or may not know this: for nomadic civilizations, the most valuable resources have never been food, cloth, or gold, silver, or treasures.

——But a slave!

Slaves, or strong laborers, are one of the most valuable assets of nomadic peoples.

The only things that can be compared to it, apart from cattle and sheep as tools of production, are pastures as means of production.

Some people may be confused;
What do nomadic people need labor for?

Don’t they need to build cities, construct roads, or dig canals?
In fact, the nomadic people’s demand for labor can help us understand the most basic way of survival of nomadic civilization.

——On the grassland, the fundamental way of survival of nomadic civilization is animal husbandry.

However, contrary to what most people take for granted, that animal husbandry means raising cattle, sheep and horses and eating meat all year round, the main source of food for nomadic people is not the meat of livestock, but the milk produced by livestock and dairy products made from milk.

Take the current situation controlled by the Han Dynasty as an example: the social structure of the Xiongnu people is based on the "tent" as the basic family unit.

In such a family unit, there is usually a male in his prime, who serves as the "head of the family" and is responsible for protecting the entire family and having the power to make decisions on all matters within the family.
There would be one to three women who, as wives or concubines, would be responsible for bearing offspring, raising children, and handling household chores;

In addition, there will be one or two brothers and sisters of the head of the family, who exist as "deputy heads of the family" to help the head of the family protect the entire family and make contributions to the family to the best of their ability, while at the same time receiving protection and support from the family.

What is truly shocking in such a Xiongnu family is that adult males, including the head of the family and the deputy head of the family, have no obligation to raise livestock.

In their spare time, adult males in Xiongnu families would ride horses to patrol the pastures, or invite friends to go hunting, or even compete with others in strength and martial arts.

When you are tired of walking around or playing outside, you can return to your own yurt;
When he was happy, he would pull one of his wives or concubines over to be affectionate with her for a while. When he was unhappy, he would pull a child over and beat him up. After eating and drinking, he would fall into a deep sleep...
Some people may say: This kind of lifestyle seems very unstable for women, as if the burden of the family is all on women?
In fact, the responsibilities borne by men in Xiongnu families can almost be said to be the heaviest and most unwilling to bear in the history of human civilization.

——When outsiders invade, the 'head' of a Xiongnu family will rush out on horseback without hesitation and fight the invaders to the death!
When disasters occurred, cattle and sheep died of disease, and food sources were running out, the "head" of a Xiongnu family would still ride out on horseback, risking the possibility of never returning, and would use any means necessary to hunt for food.

When the tribe recruited soldiers, it was still this Hun male who enjoyed countless privileges who rode his strongest horse, equipped with all his weapons and equipment, and fought bloody battles for his tribe.

In Liu Rong's opinion, the Huns' lifestyle is actually very similar to that of African lions.

——The male warrior seemed to have nothing to do, just wandering around or combing his hair all day long;
But in fact, the male army 'wanders around' to inspect the territory, and combs its hair to make itself look healthier and more 'uneasy to mess with', so as to scare off the invading enemy with as little bloodshed as possible.

The same goes for the Xiongnu men who seem to have nothing to do, and who seem to spend their days just hanging out and having fun.
But in fact, what the Xiongnu men played was archery and wrestling, which were to hone their martial arts so that they could better protect their families when necessary.

In this way, it is easy to understand why Xiongnu men "did not engage in production".

Xiongnu women, on the other hand, were responsible for processing food and taking care of children, and because of their physiological differences, they naturally did not have the physical strength required for animal husbandry.

This meant that in such a Xiongnu family, the only people responsible for taking care of cattle and sheep and obtaining cow and goat milk were slaves.

In other words, the Huns of this era were actually very similar to the Spartans of ancient Athenian civilization.

——From the moment a man is born, he is either fighting or strengthening his body and honing his skills for fighting;
Women are responsible for the trivial matters inside and outside the home and fulfill their responsibilities as wives.

Those responsible for production are slaves - laborers who only need to be purchased once and can work for free for a long time.

In fact, every time the Huns invaded the south, it was actually for the purpose of plundering people.

Men, women, children - as long as they are not very old, they can take as much as they want.

Men are needless to say - the ready-made strong laborers, whether kept or sold, are a considerable fortune;

Not to mention women: not only are they slaves themselves, but they also give birth to slaves one after another. They are simply human cash cows!
As for children, although they have less physical strength, they also have their advantages - their values ​​have not yet been formed.

As long as you put in enough effort, you may be able to train a tall and strong but extremely loyal personal servant to you.

Almost every invasion by the Huns in the past took place after autumn.

Because after autumn, the Xiongnu horses were well-fed and in the best condition after a whole year of feeding.
After a year of nomadism, most of the Huns returned to the relatively warm southern grassland, not far from the Han border.

South of the Great Wall, after a year of hard work, the Han farmers also had a good harvest and filled their granaries with grain to prepare for the winter.

If they went south at this point in time, the Xiongnu could easily obtain a large amount of supplies and return to the grassland without any effort;

At the same time, it does not affect the life pattern of nomadic people, who hibernate in the southern part of the grassland in winter and start to migrate northward in spring.

In this way, the northern Huns, a nomadic people, and the Han people, an agricultural civilization, actually had a fundamental conflict of interests.

——The Xiongnu Empire needed to continuously siphon off people from the surrounding areas to serve as slaves to perform labor;

The territory of the Xiongnu was basically the same as that of the later Da Mao, with the North Pole to the north and the sea to the east.
Only the Central Asian region in the west and the Han Dynasty in the south could provide a sufficient number of slaves for the Xiongnu Empire.

The Huns needed slaves and needed to plunder people from the Han. Naturally, the Han could not give them everything they wanted and allowed the Huns to abduct farmers who originally farmed in the Han and take them to the grasslands to graze.

As a result, a top-down population plundering/defense war began between the Han and the Huns.

The Huns wanted to rob people;
The Han family wants a guarantor.

As long as the Huns failed to capture people, or the population they captured was not enough to make up for the casualties, the Huns' lower-class people would vote with their feet and conclude that "Han people are not easy to capture" and "it is not cost-effective to capture Han people", and then turn their attention to the West.

However, at the national level, the conflict between the Han and Xiongnu was more than a simple grab for population;
But I will not allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed...

"The Han people are becoming more and more powerful..."

On the grassland, in an endless stretch of felt tents, the chiefs of the various tribes in the south of Mun gathered in a royal tent, their faces showing an indescribably heavy expression.

Under the overall shape of the Xiongnu's unique double-headed eagle, the already loose nomadic tribal alliance was clearly divided into the south and north of the curtain, and the Wei and Jing were clearly separated.

After the current Junchen Chanyu ascended the throne, the Mubei tribe lived a relatively good life under the leadership of the former Zuoxian King and current Chanyu.

Although the grasslands occupied by the Mubei tribes cannot be compared with the relatively warmer climate and relatively fertile grasslands of Munan because of their geographical location further north and colder, the "income" of the Mubei tribes is by no means comparable to that of the Munan tribes. - Under the Double-Headed Eagle political system, the strategic tendency of the Mubei tribes is to move westward;

The blood transfusion bags for the various tribes in the north of the Mukuei were the Thirty-Six Kingdoms in the Western Regions, including the dependent and weak countries such as Dayuan and Daqin in the west.

On the other hand, among the tribes in the south of Mu, the only one that could be used as a source of blood transfusion and a reservoir for population plunder was the Han people south of the Great Wall.

It is obvious that for most of the history of human civilization, the Chinese agricultural civilization was by no means the best target of plunder by the northern nomadic peoples.

The Han people are certainly rich;

But it is also unexpectedly powerful.

Moreover, with the operation of the dynasty cycle, except for the period of dynasty change when the Han dynasty changed, which might leave some opportunities for the northern nomadic peoples to take advantage of, the nomadic peoples did not dare to plot against them in most of the other times.

Today, the Han Dynasty is on the path of rapidly growing stronger, and in the foreseeable future, it will no longer fear invasions from nomadic peoples in the north.

The strength of the Han Dynasty naturally made the various tribes in the south of the Mu Dynasty feel tremendous pressure to survive - they were unable to advance westward, unable to plunder people and materials from the Western Regions, and could only bite the flesh and blood of the Han Dynasty.

Especially at the beginning of this year, the major military failure suffered on the northwest border of the Han people cast a heavy shadow on the hearts of the leaders of the various tribes in the south of Mu.

Was it an accident?

Or the Han people, they are really so powerful that even if the entire Munan were united as one, they would not be able to break through the outermost line of defense...

"The horse farms built by the Han people 20 or even 30 years ago have already started to produce war horses."

"If we continue to leave it alone, once the Han people have a large cavalry force, I'm afraid our Munan tribes will never be able to make a breakthrough..."

"—— Shan Yuting, I, Mu Nan, cannot count on you."

"If we can count on it, then those horse farms of the Han people still alive in the north would have been trampled down by the warriors of our Great Xiongnu as early as the time of Laoshang Chanyu?"

The atmosphere in the tent was a bit solemn.

Any one of the chiefs present would be a powerful figure that Munan cannot ignore!
Each chief controls a powerful force with a population of over 100,000 and no less than 10,000 soldiers!
But even if these people united, when facing the increasingly powerful Han family, they still felt a growing sense of powerlessness and helplessness...

"We can't let the Han people go like this any longer!"

Someone pointed out clearly: If we don’t take action to curb it, the Han family’s power will really be unstoppable;

"The Right Wise King...really didn't say anything?"

As the leader of the Munan tribe, some people naturally have expectations for the person in charge of Munan: the Right Wise King Yizhixie.

It’s just that after the big defeat at the beginning of this year - yes, a big defeat.

For the Huns, any failed attack, any attack that failed to achieve the intended goal, could be considered a major failure.

After the great defeat at the beginning of this year, the Right Wise King Yizhixie seemed to have disappeared in Munan.

The leaders of various tribes have not received any news or orders from the headquarters of the Right Wise King - even the usual invitations to banquets have not been received so far this year.

Of course, some people were disappointed with Yizhixie.

But more people are deeply worried and secretly looking forward to it...

"We gathered together like this, and the Right Wise King received our message in advance."

"But if the Chanyu Ting knew about this, he would use it as evidence of our evil intentions..."

"Ugh……"

···
"Ever since the Right Wise King was tragically killed in the Chanyu Court, my tribes in the south of the Mu have been in the Chanyu Court, but there is not even one person who can speak up."

"just in case……"

Naturally, some people were worried that this "meeting" might cause the Chanyu court to be wary.

——The current Xiongnu Chanyu: Luandi Junchen. The only ability that can be compared with his father and grandfather is probably his insane suspicion.

Perhaps it was his increasing age, or perhaps it was his lack of ability—especially his serious lack of ability compared to his fathers and grandfathers, which made Junchen feel inferior;
The military officials' suspicion of the various tribes on the grassland, especially the Munan tribe led by the Right Wise King, can only be described as insane.

The three tribes directly under the Chanyu Court, which were responsible for suppressing the grassland for the Chanyu Court: Zhelan, Loufan and Baiyang, patrolled in the south of Mu for many years.

It was said that it was to warn the Han people in the south to prevent the southern tribes from suffering heavy losses, but in fact everyone knew that these three carriages were not so much a weapon for the nomadic people of the grassland to deal with the Han people, but rather a military supervisor to suppress the southern tribes.

If a war really breaks out, the three horses may not charge in the front;

But if any tribe dares to retreat, or has other thoughts, the cowards and traitors will surely be greeted with the most brutal massacre by the Zhelan people!
Today, the leaders of the various tribes in Munan gathered here to discuss the strategic plan for the south in the absence of their co-leader, the Chanyu, and their immediate superior, the Right Wise King.

If the three leaders knew about this, I'm afraid it would be hard to end it peacefully...

"The Zhelan tribe went on a tour to the west, and went to the Western Regions to forage for food;"

"The Baiyang and Loufan tribes were invited to Nanchi by the Right Wise King to prepare for the war in the autumn."

"——Although he did not come here upon invitation, the Right Wise King's move is also helping us."

"I think the Right Wise King also hopes that we can do something to gain some say for our Munan tribe in the Chanyu Court."

"However, after a great defeat at the beginning of the year, the Right Wise King is having a hard time in the Chanyu Court. Even if he is willing, he can only use this method to 'save the country'..."

(End of this chapter)