My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 365: Theory of Things
"Well……"

"I need to find a scribe to write a letter and send it to the old man..."

Soon, all the descendants of Yiqiu in the entire Chang'an city thought of their distant cousins ​​who lived far away in the north and whom they had not contacted for several generations.

Nomadism was the way of life that the Yiqu people once relied on, but it was by no means a skill that was inherent in their genes.

Especially after submitting to the Qin Dynasty, most of the Yiqiu people who voluntarily went south and entered Qinzhong gave up their nomadic life of nomadic residence and turned to the embrace of agricultural civilization.

no way;
Compared with the nomadic life which was more dependent on the weather and more unstable - in the words of later generations, it was a more "unstable" life, the natural advantages of agricultural civilization were almost endless before the Industrial Revolution liberated productivity.

This is something that is easy to understand.

If you lived more than 2,000 years ago, you would have led a turbulent life of raising livestock and roaming the grasslands, where you could be killed at any time by natural disasters, man-made disasters, or diseases;

Suddenly one day, the head of your tribe said: We have joined a Chinese 'tribe' and they make farming their living.

With curiosity, you followed the chief to the Han people's territory, and soon learned that the so-called "farming" is indeed the greatest invention in the world.

——People who work as farmers do not need to wander around the grassland all year round like nomads.

They can live in a fixed place for a long time and own a piece of land that belongs to them permanently.

All you need to do is sow the seeds in the spring every year and then after half a year of careful care, the originally inconspicuous seeds can grow hundreds or thousands of times more crops in the farmland.

In this process, there will be no unknown beasts threatening your farmland;
Even if there is, there will be something called "government" that will step forward to help eliminate the threat, rather than leaving all the dangers to you to deal with on your own.

In addition to this "government" that does things for money and never takes taxes for nothing, your neighbors will also help each other like relatives and brothers of a tribe on the grassland.

Although everyone lives their own life on weekdays, if there is a threat to the entire village, neighbors will unite like the tribes on the grassland to resist the external threat together.

At first, you're a little confused.

——What is the government?
——How could the nobles care about the lives of the poor people at the bottom of society?
But soon, you accept this new way of life.

The Han people’s government is very much like the royal court on the grassland.

The big tribes have big royal courts, the small tribes have small royal courts;
The only difference is that on the grassland, all tribes, big or small, are directly governed by the supreme ruler of the grassland: the Han people's government is organized like trees, spreading layer by layer to the bottom.

The highest level of "official government" is called the court. There is only one of them, and it is led by the supreme ruler of the Central Plains: the emperor.

Under the emperor were nobles whose ancestors had made great contributions, and capable and wise men who had improved their status through their own strength.

This supreme royal court, called "the imperial court", would take 30% of all taxes collected in the Central Plains.

Like the supreme ruler on the grassland, who receives support from all over the Central Plains, the members of the Supreme Royal Court, including the supreme ruler, lead a life that is beyond the imagination of the poor people at the bottom.

They used golden hoes to plow the fields, wore golden boots to walk, and ate corn porridge from golden bowls.

But the slight difference is: in addition to their extravagant life, they will also devote a considerable amount of energy to worrying about the problems faced by the vast majority of the poor people at the bottom of the Central Plains.

When a disaster strikes somewhere, the Supreme Court will dispatch troops to maintain order and send supplies to help the victims.

If a dispute breaks out somewhere, the Supreme Royal Court does not even need to send out the army - it only needs to send an envoy from the Supreme Ruler to inquire about the dispute, and the dispute can be settled.

The Supreme Court of the Central Plains people was not thinking about how to exploit the poor people at the bottom, or starting another war or conflict;
Quite the opposite: people in the Central Plains naturally resist conflict.

Because their land requires almost constant care;

During almost all the time of human activity in a year, people in the Central Plains devote most of their energy to taking care of their farmlands and the crops growing in them.

They hate anyone interfering or disrupting their farming rhythm.

Almost every war they launched was because of an enemy that made it impossible for them to continue farming in peace.

After realizing this, you fell silent.

As a nomadic people, although you are not very wise, it is not difficult for you to understand: the Han people would rather start a war to defend their land, and at the same time they are very unwilling to get involved in disputes - they do not yearn for or desire the plunder that war can bring them, but instead regard farming as more important than their lives;
This could only mean one jaw-dropping fact.

——The profits from farming are greater than the plundering after victory in a war!

With this spirit of exploration, you begin to try farming.

After working hard throughout the year, you find that the results you have harvested are not as good as you imagined.

But soon, you will understand why the temptation of the word "farming" is more attractive to these people in the Central Plains than plundering after victory in a war.

--Stablize!
Different from the grasslands, where nomadic people wander without a fixed place to live and face risks at any time;
It is also different from the threat to one's life and property that one needs to endure in order to win the war;
Farming is so stable.

As long as you plant seeds in spring, you will definitely harvest in autumn!
The only difference is how much the harvest is, and whether the whole family will be 80% full or 60% full next year, not whether the whole family will starve to death or freeze to death next year!

You don't need to compete with others for water and pasture like on the grasslands - you have a fixed territory for farming, and you can't take it away from others, and others can't take it away from you either;
Even if some extreme individual situations really occur, such as natural disasters, man-made disasters, and crop failures, the Han people's supreme royal court will not turn a blind eye and let you fend for yourself.

It is not until then that you finally understand: the Han people like farming, and are even willing to start a war they don't want to fight in order to farm in peace, not because farming can make everyone rich.

Quite the opposite: farming can only allow the vast majority of people to eke out a living as barely as possible.

But for the people of this era, especially for the nomadic people on the grasslands who have spent their entire lives fighting against the world and just seeking the word "survival", such a low-risk lifestyle that can guarantee survival with a high probability is already a miracle!

When the Han people farm the land, what they want is not to get rich overnight, but a stable life with no end in sight.

It is the peace of mind that comes from investing with a high probability of getting a return, without having to take too much risk.

The upper limit is extremely low, so low that your family cannot change its status from generation to generation. At the same time, the lower limit is extremely high, so high that you don’t have to worry about starving to death throughout your entire life.

Once you understand this, you quickly accept this concept.

——For any nomadic people on the grassland, a life that can be seen at a glance is as beautiful as heaven!
Because you can see the end, which means there is an end.

However, the vast majority of people on the grassland are unlikely to live to the end of their lives.

Such a wonderful life is indeed worthy of the Central Plains people's protection at all costs.

As for life on the grassland, you quickly forget about it. After experiencing the hardships of farming, you no longer want to return to the embrace of a backward civilization with a very low standard, so low that people can harvest lives at any time...

All of the above are probably the whole process of the Yiqiu people, a nomadic people who had just surrendered to the Qin Dynasty from the Hexi and Hetao regions more than a hundred years ago, integrating into the agricultural civilization in a short period of time.

After that, after five to seven generations of inheritance, it came to the current Han Dynasty and the current Liu Rong is in power.

The Yiqiu people of the past may still have retained some physical features of nomadic peoples, such as relatively short stature, relatively sturdier lower limbs, higher cheekbones, flatter noses, and smaller eyes.

However, from the perspective of lifestyle and cultural identity, there are no longer many Yiqiu people who can be distinguished at a glance in the Han Dynasty today.

Even in Beidi County, the descendants of the former Yiqu nobles who still retained the nomadic production and living patterns to a certain extent basically relied on farming as the main occupation and animal husbandry as the secondary occupation.

To be more precise, farming is the family's main industry, animal husbandry is used as a channel to obtain war horses, and animal husbandry investment is relatively high-risk.

Above the two, what these people really desire and pursue is to exchange the excellent horsemanship passed down from generation to generation, as well as the experience and ability of fighting on horseback, for a higher social status and greater wealth.

About twenty years ago, they were given a new name by Emperor Taizong Xiaowen: The Knights of the North.

Most of them learned horse riding, bow drawing, and other cavalry tactics such as charging at a young age and possessed extremely high combat qualities.

At the same time, their family was well-off - they were able to provide dry food, weapons, and horses for the children of the clan, at least some of the outstanding children, and to train them carefully from an early age.

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As the saying goes: The poor are good at literature, but the rich are good at martial arts.

On the one hand, this refers to the investment required in the two major directions of culture and military.

——It doesn’t cost much to learn literature. All you need are pens, ink, paper, and an inkstone, plus tuition for a teacher.

To learn martial arts, however, one must strengthen one's muscles and bones from a young age, purchase a huge amount of external medicines, and consume a large amount of meat;

On this basis, the necessary equipment such as swords, spears, halberds, bows, horses, armor, etc., plus guidance from famous teachers.

It is no exaggeration to say that the total cost required to train a child to become a "warrior" in the popular sense is enough to train dozens or hundreds of children of the same age to become a "literary man" in the popular sense.

This is the stereotype of 'poor scholars and rich martial artists' in later generations - scholars spend less money, while martial artists spend more money.

But in fact, there is a second interpretation of the four words "poor in literature, rich in martial arts".

——Children from poor families are more suitable for the "literary" path, while children from rich families are more suitable for the "martial" path.

It is not only because of the financial resources required for both, and the financial pressures they bring to different classes and groups, but also because of the future development direction of both.

If a child learns literature since childhood and completes his studies when he grows up, the best development path for him is definitely to become an official.

In the officialdom - at least in the officialdom of the Han Dynasty today, a civil servant who comes from a peasant family or a good family, with no connections or background, is more favored by the overall environment than the children of academic tycoons with prominent family backgrounds and powerful backgrounds.

Because the children of the academic elites already have their own fixed social and interest circles. Outsiders can't squeeze in, and the people inside can't easily get out.

These people are often very arrogant. If you want to make friends with them, you must actively lose 30% of your self-esteem. Otherwise, it is impossible to establish a relatively friendly relationship with them.

Even if you don't make friends with them, just from the perspective of work, you will find that these people have prominent family backgrounds since childhood, and they are often very imaginative and cannot settle down at all.

To put it bluntly, it means that one is lazy and does not know the difference between grains. One is ignorant of the sufferings of the world and does not know how to resolve the situation.

It is different for farmers and children from the lower classes - they have been in poverty since childhood, and those who are able to become officials through literary studies are mostly gentle and steady in temperament.

The most important thing is: they who can endure more than ten years or even several years of hard study are particularly able to endure hardships and are particularly down-to-earth!

As for the goodwill shown by their colleagues, they will basically accept all of them based on the principle of "banding together for warmth" and "looking after each other".

Although it is not yet to the point where we can be friends with everyone, at least we try our best to ensure that we do not become enemies with anyone.

At the same time, they often do not talk much about the lofty principles of poetry and books, but they have above-average knowledge on how to deal with specific problems.

Hardworking, pragmatic, modest and open-minded - no matter what era it is, such people will not do too badly in the officialdom.

So, it is said that: Poor literature - children from poor families have better prospects for development if they start to become officials through literature;
The same principle applies in reverse.

Unlike the officialdom, the ecological environment of the military often pays more attention to the closeness of one's relationship with others.

The reason is simple: in the future, everyone in your army, from generals to grooms, will go to the battlefield without exception.

The situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, and the price of a moment of carelessness may very likely be your life!

Therefore, you have no chance to try and make mistakes - you cannot use extreme pressure to test whether the people around you are reliable in times of crisis and whether they can "share life and death with you."

Because there is only one life;
It is obviously not a wise move to risk your own life to test whether a person is worthy of your trust and whether you can safely turn your back to him on the battlefield.

Therefore, compared to risking their lives to test whether a stranger can be trusted, soldiers in the military often prefer a simpler and more direct approach: trusting someone with whom they have a close relationship.

For example, the children of comrades-in-arms.
My fellow countryman~
A distant cousin of the old boss or something like that.

So, it is said that children from wealthy families have better development prospects in the military.

Because if you use personal connections and relationships in official circles, others will say that you are colluding with cliques, being despicable and not "upright".

If you are kind, others will bully you. If you are not kind, others will be angry because they cannot bully you.

But in the military, the stronger your connections and the wider your network, the better your development prospects will often be.

The soldiers under you are willing to follow you, the comrades around you are willing to trust you, and your superiors are willing to rely on you.

Whether it is a matter of life and death or an opportunity to make great achievements, you will have the confidence to face danger or seize opportunities.

Compared to these - compared to a good family background, the connections and background it brings you, and the money your family has spent on cultivating you since childhood, seem less important.

Otherwise - if the 'rich and martial' in 'poor in literature but rich in martial arts' really means 'having money can train military men', then what role will the children of the powerful and wealthy have?

I'm afraid that among every ten people in the army, there are seven or eight sons of wealthy merchants, who are arm in arm with each other and are planning to take the troops under their command and go somewhere to do a "business"...

(End of this chapter)