My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 303: The Will to Support the Sky
On the Mu'nan prairie, hundreds of miles away from the Hetao area, the leaders of the various Mu'nan tribes were discussing whether to give those familiar "old friends" on the Han-Xiongnu border a surprise or a small shock.

However, in Longcheng, the political center of the loose nomadic tribal alliance of the Xiongnu, and the tent of the Xiongnu Chanyu where Junchen was located, the scene was quite different.

——Every May, the Zhulin Conference held in Longcheng finally came to an end after more than a month of competition.

Just like every year before: after the annual Forest Conference, many tribes gained more and better pastures thanks to the outstanding performance of their warriors in various events.

Of course, this is also because the climate conditions on the grassland have not been very good in the past few years. Many tribes have been eliminated by nature and have completely disappeared on the grassland.

There are fewer wolves, and even if there is not much meat, it can still allow the surviving wolves to eat more.

Furthermore, the Xiongnu Chanyu Court promised, or rather "granted," the grasslands and resources to the various tribes at the May meeting, but they were not simply chewed up and stuffed into people's mouths;

Instead, it was the same as the feudal system of Zhou Dynasty, where you just took a big map and drew it.

——Look, here, here, and there, the Shanyu Court is all given to your tribe!
what?
You said this grassland has an owner?

Just go for it boldly!

Shanyu Ting will provide your tribe with all possible support except for practical help such as dispatching troops and transferring supplies!
If you can conquer it, that piece of land will be the Chanyu Court - it is the land bestowed upon your tribe by the heaven.
If you can't defeat it, you can only blame yourself for not being strong enough.

But having said that, even though the pasture they 'got' was on the map and not in reality, the leaders of each tribe were all grinning from ear to ear.

The reason behind this is the same as the feudal system of Zhou Dynasty.

——It is true that most of the pastures that the tribes "obtained" were not unowned land;
In order to actually take over these nominal territories, each tribe needs to make a lot of efforts and invest a lot of costs including but not limited to manpower, materials, and time.

But as long as we conquer it, unless it is taken away by a more powerful tribe, this land will belong to this tribe for generations!
Although the endorsement of the Chanyu Court cannot prevent this land from facing conquest by powerful tribes in the future, at least it will not attract the covetousness of the Chanyu Court or even a military conquest.

In some extreme cases, in order to maintain the balance of power in a certain area, the Chanyu Court may even provide diplomatic or even military support to a tribe that is under attack!
Taking all these into consideration, it is foreseeable that the heads of various tribes would be filled with happy smiles.

The Zhulin Conference made all the tribes in the south and north of Mu rich, and Shanyu Ting naturally also had his own gains.

——At the Zhulin Conference, the way each tribe "obtained" new territories and pastures was by sending its own warriors to participate in events such as horseback archery and wrestling, and to achieve good results.

And these warriors who helped the tribe achieve good results and win pastures were the harvest of the Chanyu Court.

South of the Great Wall, the Han dynasty had a national policy of "moving heroes from all over the world to the Guanzhong Pass to strengthen Guanzhong and consolidate the foundation of the country" to ensure the Han dynasty's basic base: Guanzhong, which maintained the siphoning of talents from outside the Guanzhong Pass, especially the Guandong area, all year round;
This move ensured that Guanzhong of the Han Dynasty always had more talents and more wealth.

The people of the grasslands live a nomadic life and have no fixed place to live, so it is obviously impossible for them to take similar measures.

But like the "living saint" of the Han Dynasty - Emperor Taizong Xiaowen of Han, the Xiongnu also had a Chanyu with great talent and strategy a few decades ago.

Lao Shang Ji Zhou Chanyu.

Under the rule of this wise and capable Chanyu, the Xiongnu Empire accomplished the strategic goal that Maodun Chanyu failed to fully achieve: completely wiping out the Yuezhi people, achieving absolute unification of the grassland, and entering its heyday.

It was also under the rule of Laoshang Chanyu that the loose nomadic alliance regime of the Xiongnu began to have some national policies that could help the Xiongnu people embark on the road to "empire".

The most amazing one is the Zhulin Conference held in Longcheng every May, which is directly organized and hosted by the Shanyu Court.

Before Laoshang Chanyu, the Zhulin Conference on the grassland was not a large-scale political rally, but more like a traditional festival.

——Every May, each tribe on the grassland would hold a forest gathering within the tribe on a random day based on their own circumstances.

The warriors within the tribe competed with each other in martial arts, archery and horsemanship, and thereby won the right to speak within the tribe.

The leaders are often very generous to the warriors of their own tribe who have achieved good results in such tribal forest competitions, and will recruit those warriors they like into their own elite troops.

This is also the origin of the famous "Eagle Shooter" on the grassland.

The so-called eagle shooter is a master archer who wins the first prize in the horseback archery event at the Zhulin Conference and successfully shoots down an eagle in the sky in the subsequent performance segment.

In this way, each tribe on the grassland can always ensure that the men in the tribe, whether children or teenagers, always yearn for powerful military force.

It was at the Zhulin Conference that he amazed everyone with his skills, made a name for himself, and was accepted into the ranks of the royal army, pledging allegiance to the chieftain.

Laoshang Chanyu naturally knew that this was the foundation of the strength of the Xiongnu and even the entire nomadic civilization.

But Laoshang Chanyu also clearly realized that such a Chulin Conference - the Chulin Conference held within each tribe - could only make each tribe stronger, but could not make the Xiongnu stronger.

Or it should be said that the strength of each tribe can only make the Xiongnu's political system stronger indirectly, but cannot make the Chanyu court stronger directly.

Therefore, Laoshang Chanyu decided to change the Zhulin Conference, which was originally held within each tribe, to be held in Longcheng in May of each year, where each tribe on the grassland would send out warriors.

In this way, those warriors who performed well and demonstrated superb fighting skills at the Zhulin Conference will no longer be the elite guards of the chiefs of each tribe, but can be incorporated into the Chanyu Court and become elite armed forces directly under the Chanyu Court.

The benefits of doing so are obvious.

——Before the reform of the Xulin Conference, on average, there were at least five assassinations and coups against the Chanyu in the Chanyu Court every year!
Although Maodun Chanyu and Laoshang Chanyu were not overthrown by coups in the end, the Chanyu court was in a state of panic during that period. The court was always in a state of tension, fearing that if they were not careful, they would be massacred by some madman who was "blessed by the heaven".

The reasons are nothing more than two.

First: As the highest ruling unit of the grassland, there was only extremely pure rule and a hierarchical and subordinate relationship between the Chanyu Court and the various tribes on the grassland.

The Chanyu Court ruled the grassland unconditionally and legally owned everything on the grassland, including but not limited to cattle and sheep, pastures and water sources - all living and dead things existing on the grassland.

To the Chanyu's court, each tribe was required to pay tribute of cattle, sheep, livestock, and young girls annually;

In return, all the tribes could get was the protection of the Chanyu court.

To be more precise, the Chanyu court would not attack these tribes that offered their loyalty.

For later generations, this kind of subordinate relationship is clear at a glance. - Isn't this just the protection fee collected by the underworld?
It is called protection money, but what they are protecting you from is not being bullied by others. Instead, after you pay the protection money, these gangsters will not bully you.

This kind of relationship is naturally not very harmonious, let alone how willing the ruled are.

As long as there is an opportunity, the ruled will naturally want to break away from or even replace the ruling party.

So at that time - before the Zhulin Conference was reformed, the attitude of the tribes towards the Chanyu Court was similar to the attitude of the males in the wolf pack towards the wolf king.

——As long as I have the chance, I will fuck you!
If you lose, you lose. The worst that can happen is death. Maybe you don’t even have to die!
But once I win, I will be the new wolf king...

The lack of binding of interests, or the inconsistency of interests, was the first reason why Shanyu Tingchang could not relax his vigilance for years in that era.

The second reason is that compared to today, the Chanyu Court at that time did not have an absolutely overwhelming military advantage when facing other tribes on the grassland.

As we all know, the Xiongnu was originally just a small tribe living at the junction of the grassland and the Central Plains. They became strong by taking advantage of the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and eventually overthrew the grassland overlord Donghu and the upstart Yuezhi, thus unifying the grassland.

But after unifying the grasslands, the Xiongnu, like every grassland overlord in the past, did not force all nomadic people to become "Xiongnu", but allowed the various tribes on the grasslands to retain their past culture, beliefs, and even tribal names.

——When the Donghu informed the grasslands, the Loufan, Zhelan, Baiyang and other tribes already existed;
After the Xiongnu defeated the Donghu and became the new overlord of the grassland, tribes that had existed in the past, such as the Loufan and Zhelan, still existed on the grassland.

The only difference is that these tribes used to be loyal to the Donghu royal court, but now they are loyal to the Xiongnu Chanyu court.

Apart from that, the songs are still sung, the dances are still performed, the gods of the past are still worshipped, and people live on the land of the past. The only difference is that there is a new "master" who can mobilize most of the grassland at any time with a single order.

This resulted in the Xiongnu regime becoming an extremely loose tribal alliance entity.

——When you were fighting the Donghu people, my Loufan, Zhelan, and Baiyang tribes all sent troops to help you. You had a huge force of more than 100,000 or 200,000 cavalrymen, and seemed to be a strong group;
But when the battle was over, everyone knelt down and shouted "Chengligutu", then went back to their homes and their mothers.

Let’s take another look at the new grassland overlord: the Xiongnu tribe?
Wow—the title of the grassland overlord is so famous, so he has only 400,000 people?

yes;
There is no tribe on the grassland more powerful than your Xiongnu tribe.

But no matter how powerful your Xiongnu headquarters is, you are not strong enough to deal with all the other tribes on your own, right?
Let alone fighting one against a hundred - if just three or five large tribes unite, your Xiongnu headquarters will feel a chill down your spine and your position as overlord will be in jeopardy!

In the past, Maodun Chanyu dominated the grasslands, and no one dared to move;

As for the current Lao Shang Chanyu, okay, we can’t afford to offend him.

What's next?
When a stupid Chanyu appears, how many tribal leaders will emerge on the grassland who want to be overlords and satisfy their desire to be Chanyu?
Military strength - The lack of direct military strength, or the inability to gain an overwhelming advantage over the rest of the grassland tribes, is the second reason why the Chanyu court in the past was always caught up in turmoil such as coups and assassinations.

But after Laoshang Chanyu reformed the Zhulin Conference, everything changed.

——Through the Zhulin Conference, the Xiongnu tribes not only expressed their loyalty to the Chanyu court and offered cattle, sheep and livestock, but also began to receive a certain degree of favors.

Although it is a nominal favor, it is better than nothing.

The relationship between the Chanyu Court and the various tribes also gradually changed from the simple underworld collecting protection fees in the past to a model more like that of the Central Plains feudal dynasty, where local areas paid taxes to the central government.

And through the Zhulin Conference, the Chanyu court began to legitimately obtain a steady stream of high-quality soldiers from various tribes.

In the past, each tribe held its own forest meeting and obtained excellent soldiers.

The Xiongnu Chanyu's court could only get outstanding warriors from his own tribe.

But after Laoshang Chanyu's reform, all the nomadic people on the grassland and the most outstanding warriors in every tribe had only one destiny: to "join the Chanyu court."

This is a process of ebb and flow.

The tribes can no longer select outstanding people through the Julin Conference and use this to strengthen themselves;
However, the Chanyu Court was able to gather the best people from all the tribes through the Xulin Conference and make them the armed support for the Chanyu Court to suppress and rule the grassland.

It has to be said that as a leader of nomadic peoples, the Xiongnu leader Jizhou Chanyu deserves the praise of a "politician".

However, this year, the fresh blood selected by Shanyu Ting at the Zhulin Conference has encountered a fate that is completely different from previous years.

"The will of heaven has been sent down!"

"At this year's Zhulin Conference, Chenglitian sent down eighteen immortal and invincible warriors for Chengligutu of the Great Xiongnu, who swore to be loyal to the Great Xiongnu and to Chenglitian until death!"

"They will help our Great Xiongnu to trample the Han people - the cunning and despicable Han people - under our feet forever and ever!"

"After they return to the arms of the sky, they will go to heaven..."

Under the altar, countless people prostrated themselves on the ground devoutly, offering all their loyalty to the Chanyu on the altar: Junchen.

On the altar, Junchen, surrounded by several elderly priests, looked solemnly at the hundreds of burly men standing not far in front of him.

At this moment, the faces of these hundreds of men turned red, their breathing became heavy, and their eyes looking at Junchen were filled with undisguised fanaticism!

In a sense, the Xiongnu was a nomadic regime that combined politics and religion.

The Xiongnu Chanyu, as the supreme leader of the regime, was often also the supreme religious leader of the Xiongnu state religion: fundamentalist shamanism.

On the grassland, the Chanyu's orders are not only the instructions of the grassland leader, but also the will of Chengligutu, the "Son of God".

In a sense, it is both an edict from the emperor of the grassland and a decree from the god of the plow.

Now, Chenglitian's son, the Khan of the Great Xiongnu, said: Among these hundreds of people, there are eighteen people who were sent down from heaven by Chenglitian specifically to help the Great Xiongnu defeat the Han people;
Then, there must be eighteen such people!
But who are these eighteen people?
Among these hundreds of people, which eighteen people have such a glorious identity and can return to the embrace of Cheng Litian and go to heaven after dying bravely in battle...

(End of this chapter)