People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 254 The Value of Peace

“Your Excellency should know that the alliance was established only a little over a year ago, but now it already has six member states, and no less than twenty nomadic tribes like yours have joined. Now there are 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, all of whom are well-trained elite soldiers in armor.

As long as the alliance is willing, we can completely flatten the grassland all the way. Then what I bring to you today is not a covenant, but death and blood."

Zhao Yun and the chief sat opposite each other. On the table between them were placed milk wine and cooked beef and mutton. On a small plate on the side were placed tea and fine salt. In the middle of the big tent, a young shepherdess was dancing to the music, showing off her graceful figure.

Although the chief treated him to a banquet with sincerity, he completely ignored it.

Zhao Yun just wanted to complete the alliance as soon as possible, then return to the allied camp with the results and start his next mission.

After more than half a year of conquering the grasslands and making continuous achievements, he eventually rose from a small centurion to a military academy commanding 3,000 allied troops.

Although this military position is not a military position of Xuanxia, ​​but an independent military position of the allied forces, after returning to Xuanxia in the future, since the military rank can be transferred horizontally, making achievements on the grassland is a real future. Zhao Yun has enough motivation to continue working hard.

Of course, as an officer of the Allied Forces, his duties are not just to lead troops to fight. Fighting is only a means. The real goal is to expand the Allied Forces, and now he is implementing the Allied Forces' philosophy.

The allied forces had seen countless such tribes when they marched to the grasslands, and Zhao Yun had long been accustomed to the other side going from being unwilling to being forced to submit, and finally becoming willing.

Just as the leader said before the expedition, the mission of the Allied Forces is to turn hostility into friendship, completely end the hatred and conflict between the grassland and the Central Plains, and achieve lasting peace, and the alliance is the foundation for achieving these.

"With the strength of the alliance, they are willing to release this kind of goodwill. You should cherish it." Zhao Yun finally picked up the tea on the table and took a sip, then quietly waited for the other party's decision.

Everything that needs to be said has been said. If the other party still refuses to repent, then Zhao Yun, who already has actual control of the tribe, doesn't mind having a new leader agree to this matter.

The leader's face was gloomy and uncertain. After a long time, he took a deep breath and nodded.

This nod was not made willingly, but was a choice the leader had to make under the coercion of force. Zhao Yun was well aware of this. In fact, those tribes and small countries had almost been forced to nod before.

But it doesn’t matter. This kind of frustration is only temporary. Once they accept it, they will soon enjoy it.

Trade is a luxury on the grasslands, and now nomadic tribes no longer need to fight to the death to snatch products from the Central Plains. The Alliance will spontaneously bring them what they consider to be luxuries.

"Your Excellency is indeed a wise man. After signing this treaty, your tribe will become a part of my alliance." Zhao Yun smiled slightly and pointed to a treaty in front of the leader.

The leader picked up the pen expressionlessly and wrote his name on the covenant. Then he cut his finger with a knife and pressed a bloody handprint upwards.

This is a temporary covenant. Every year, the alliance will organize an alliance conference, and all new member states will come forward to formally exchange and sign the covenant. Only then will they be officially accepted by all alliance members.

This form of alliance may not be unfamiliar to tribal leaders.

Because the grassland is maintained by the alliance system, whether it is the Xiongnu or the Xianbei and Wuhuan, they are essentially a tribal alliance.

The names of ethnic groups on the grassland always change over time. In fact, there is no clear ethnic division. These tribes may be Xianbei, Wuhuan, and Xiongnu now, but they may become Turks, Jurchens, and Mongols in the future.

Whenever a powerful ethnic group rises, the scattered tribes on the grassland will naturally gather together to form a new large ethnic group.

For these ethnic groups, the significance of this matter is that they are jumping from one alliance to another. Everything depends on strength, and this alliance with Xuanxia as the overlord country is indeed very strong.

Moreover, many of the things that the alliance can bring to his tribe may be things that the Xianbei, Xiongnu and Wuhuan could not originally provide.

After the leader signed the alliance, Zhao Yun's attitude changed accordingly. He was no longer as tough and cold as before, but smiled naturally. After all, from then on, this tribe was a member of the alliance.

After the alliance, although the leader felt unhappy, he had no choice but to accept it. He was about to drink with Zhao Yun when he saw Zhao Yun stand up.

"General, why are you leaving when the banquet isn't over yet?" the leader asked in confusion.

Zhao Yun glanced at him and said with a smile: "Chief, please follow me. Today we have formed an alliance of brothers. The alliance will naturally offer a great gift to establish a long-term friendship."

The leader suddenly became curious. After waving his hand to clear the banquet, he left the tent with Zhao Yun.

After leaving the big tent, you can see that the tribe has been controlled by teams of armored warriors, and the herdsmen in the tribe are all terrified. Although these allied soldiers only patrol and guard, and do not interfere with the herdsmen's daily life, this still makes the herdsmen tremble with fear. Of course, everyone in the tribe also knows that if someone makes trouble, then they will definitely be met with thunderous suppression from the allied forces.

These people who claim to bring peace do not have excessive compassion in order to achieve their goals.

"General, what's going on?" After the leader came out of the tent, he looked at Zhao Yun in confusion.

Zhao Yun just smiled slightly, then whispered a few words to the soldiers around him. After seeing that the soldiers obeyed his orders, he turned back and said, "Since your army has joined the alliance, we can start the alliance's first trade now."

"Trade." The leader looked around the tribe but did not see any caravan available for trade. It was not until he saw the soldier who had just received the order riding away on horseback that he came to his senses.

Could it be that the allied forces are being followed by a caravan from the Central Plains?
The leader's guess was not wrong. Soon after, a black line appeared in the distant sky. It was a huge caravan.

When the caravan approached, the tribesmen saw a long team of horse-drawn carriages and camels. The caravan stretched for more than a mile and had more than 200 people, so it was quite a large team.

When the tribal herdsmen saw the entire caravan, they suddenly exclaimed and said excited words to each other. If there were no allied soldiers watching over them, they would have probably come to welcome the caravan with singing and dancing.

Not to mention the herdsmen, even the leader was smiling and exclaiming "good, good, good" when he saw the caravan.

When Zhao Yun saw this scene, the corners of his mouth curled up. He had seen this kind of scene too many times, and it was the same in almost every tribe.

As he had said before, trade was an extremely luxurious thing for the grassland tribes. The grassland was vast and there were numerous tribes. It was really not worth it to travel thousands of miles for a few small things for the grassland tribes and take all kinds of risks of getting lost and being robbed. Merchants from the Central Plains were rarely willing to do this thankless job.

No matter which tribe it is, as long as a group of merchants from the Central Plains appear in their tribe, they will definitely become their guests of honor.

Without merchants from the Central Plains, if the grassland tribes wanted to obtain important commodities such as salt, sugar, silk, tea, etc., they would have to go to the border fortresses of the Central Plains for trade, or directly go south to plunder.

As long as the grassland tribes are willing to take the risk to trade, it will not be excessive to provide for them.

Absolute bargaining power is the only driving force for merchants from the Central Plains to run to the grasslands. It is not an exaggeration to exchange a bag of tea for a cow or a sheep.

Now, the allied advance provided convenience to both sides. The caravans reduced the risks of traveling, while the grassland tribes had more opportunities for trade.

Soon, the caravan arrived at the outskirts of the tribe, and the herdsmen rushed there in groups with great joy, for there was everything they desired.

However, when they got closer, they found that there were not only the traditional salt, sugar, silk, tea, porcelain and other high-tech products of the Central Plains Dynasty, but also many new and interesting things.

At this time, the caravan had already asked the workers to display their respective goods, and soon the herdsmen were dazzled by the dazzling array of goods.

In addition to salt, sugar, cloth, tea, and ceramics, you can also see many woolen clothes of various styles and sizes, crystal clear glassware, reading glasses that can help with vision, and various iron tools.

You can even see many paper books on it. It doesn’t matter if they don’t know Chinese characters, the pictures can convey intuitive information.

These books include exquisitely printed picture books that show the urban scenes, plants, animals, and natural scenery of the Central Plains. This allows the vast number of herdsmen who may never see the Central Plains in their lifetime to get a glimpse of the charm of the Central Plains through the picture books.

Or some stories presented entirely in pictures can convey some of the culture of the Central Plains.

In just a moment, the temporary market formed by the caravan was bustling with people. The herdsmen rushed to take off the gold and silver jewelry in their hands to exchange for the small bags of salt and sugar in front of them, or hurriedly led a few cattle and sheep to exchange for silk sweaters and books.

This tribe of about 20,000 people has a huge demand for these goods. Even if the caravan is large enough, they are still worried that these goods will not be enough for them to trade. If the transaction is not successful this time, it will take who knows when the next time will be.

The tense and panic-stricken atmosphere in the tribe due to the three thousand allied troops was instantly dispersed with the arrival of the caravan. Both the leaders and the herdsmen could feel the goodwill released by the alliance. As long as enough trade could be provided, it would be an unparalleled attraction to the tribe.

When Zhao Yun saw the warm and friendly atmosphere before him, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

The leader is indeed an extraordinary person. Compared with suppressing others by force, perhaps bringing peace is a more effective solution to historical grievances.

(End of this chapter)