I'm really not King Jing of Zhongshan

Chapter 369 Ten days, enough for what?
They only have the four counties of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang on Kanyu, but they can't see even a single Han in the land of these four counties.

——Of course Liu Sheng understood what Zhou Yafu said.

Later generations may or may not be clear: the most precious resources for nomadic civilizations have never been food, grass, cloth, or gold and silver treasures.

slave;

Slaves, or strong labor, are one of the most precious wealth of nomads.

What can be compared with it is the grassland as the means of production, except for the cattle and sheep herding as the production tools.

Some people may wonder: what do nomads need labor for?

They don't need to build cities, build roads, or dig ditches?
In fact, the most basic way of survival of nomadic civilization can be understood from the nomadic people's demand for labor.

——In the grasslands, the fundamental way of survival of nomadic civilization is animal husbandry.

However, unlike what most people take for granted, animal husbandry is raising cattle, sheep and horses, and then they can eat meat all year round. The main source of food for nomads is not the meat of the livestock, but the meat produced by the livestock. milk, and dairy products derived from milk.

Take the general situation controlled by the Han Dynasty today as an example: the social structure of the Huns is based on the "account" as the basic family unit.

In such a family unit, there is usually a man in his prime who exists as the 'head of the family' and needs to shoulder the obligation to protect the entire family and has the right to make decisions about all matters within the family;
There will be one to three women, as wives and concubines, who will bear the responsibilities of bearing offspring, raising children, and handling household chores;
In addition, there will be one or two siblings of the head of the family, who exist similarly to the "deputy head of the family" to help the head of the family protect the whole family, make contributions to the family within their ability, and at the same time receive the protection and support of the family.

In such a family, what is really shocking is that adult men, including the head and deputy head of the house, do not undertake the obligation to raise livestock at all.

In their spare time, the adult males in the Xiongnu family would ride horses to inspect the pastures, or invite friends to go out to shoot and hunt, or even compete with each other in terms of strength and martial arts.

When you are tired from shopping and playing outside, you will return to your own felt tent;
If you are happy, you will bring over a certain wife and concubine to be tender for a while, if you are not happy, you will bring a child over to beat him up, eat and drink enough, and then fall into a deep sleep...
Some people may say: This way of life seems to be very unsatisfactory for women. It seems that the burden of the family is placed on women?

But in fact, the responsibilities borne by men in the Hun family can almost be said to be the heaviest and most unwilling to bear in the history of human civilization.

——When the outsiders invade, the "patriarch" of the Xiongnu family will ride out the horse and gallop out without any hesitation, and fight the invaders desperately!
In the face of disasters, when cattle, sheep, herds and livestock died of illness, and food sources were in short supply, the "patriarch" of the Xiongnu family would still go out on horseback, fighting the possibility of never returning, and hunting for food by all means.

And when the tribe recruited soldiers, it was still this Hun male who enjoyed countless privileges, riding his strongest horse, equipped with all his weapons and equipment, and went to fight bloody for his tribe.

In Liu Sheng's view, the way of life of the Huns is actually very similar to lions in Africa.

——The army seems to have nothing to do, wandering around all day, or combing hair;
But in fact, the army's "walking around" is patrolling the territory and grooming their hair in order to make themselves look healthier and less "easy to mess with", so as to scare off the invading enemies as sparingly as possible.

The same reasoning: Hun men seem to have nothing to do, and they seem to go around to play and have fun on weekdays, but in fact, Hun men play archery and wrestling to hone their strength, so that they can fight when necessary. Better protect your family.

In this way, it is easy to understand that Xiongnu men "do not give birth".

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

This means that in such a Xiongnu family, those who are responsible for taking care of cattle, sheep and livestock, and obtaining milk and goat milk can only be slaves.

Or in other words, the Huns of this era actually miss the Spartans of the ancient Athenian civilization.

——From birth, a man is either fighting a war, or building up his body and honing his skills for the war;
The woman is responsible for the trivial matters inside and outside the family, and fulfills the responsibilities of a wife.

The one responsible for the production is the slave—a labor force that can work for free for a long time with only a one-time purchase.

Back to the present: As the most outstanding military expert in the Han Dynasty in the past, Zhou Yafu said in front of Bai Guang, the minister of the Manchu Dynasty, that this large-scale invasion by the Huns, if the Han Dynasty does not handle it well, it is likely to lead to wild geese. Men, Beidi, Dai, Shang 'No living Han people found'.

This is precisely because the Huns value population, slaves, or labor force more than anything else.

As far as the Huns were concerned, the Han people had no cattle, sheep and livestock, nor did they have fertile pastures;

Even if the grain, grass, and cloth are snatched back, the meaning is not very great - transporting the looted grain back to the grassland, the food consumed along the way will most likely not be much less than the looted grain;
As for cloth and silk, it was a hard currency in the Han Dynasty, but that was the case for the Huns—anyway, the Huns didn’t pay much attention to “decency”. In terms of keeping out the cold, animal fur was much better than textile cloth.

In fact, every time the Huns invaded south, it was actually to plunder the population.

Men, women, children—as long as you are not a very old man, you can take as much as you want.

Needless to say, men, ready-made strong labor, whether it is kept for use or sold, is quite a fortune;

Not to mention women: not to mention being a slave, but still giving birth to one slave after another, it is simply a cash cow!

As for children, although their physical strength is weaker, they also have their advantages-the three views have not yet been finalized.

As long as he puts in enough effort, it may not be impossible to cultivate a tall and powerful man, but he is extremely loyal to his personal servant.

Therefore, even if Zhou Yafu felt angry because of Zhou Yafu's words, Liu Sheng must admit: Zhou Yafu was right.

The Huns came fiercely, obviously knowing that the Han Dynasty had undergone drastic changes-the old emperor passed away, the new king stood without the crown, and the lord was less suspicious;
The large-scale invasion at this point in time is, firstly, to seize the opportunity of the handover of the Han Dynasty regime and to seek stability inside and outside, and secondly, there are also military officials of the Xiongnu Shanyu, who meant to "greeting" Liu Sheng, a rookie emperor. .

—From now on, we are rivals.

In addition, from the timing of the Huns' invasion this time, it is not difficult for Liu Sheng to draw such a guess: the past winter, the life of the Huns may not have been very good.

You know now, it is spring and February.

Both the nomadic civilization north of the Great Wall and the farming civilization south of the Great Wall are preparing for production in the coming year.

——The Han people need to prepare grain, remove weeds in the fields, and clear ditches to prepare for spring plowing;

The Huns, on the other hand, need to go northward from the warm Hetao Basin after the beginning of spring, follow the aquatic plants all the way until late autumn, and then return to the relatively warm Hetao Basin and the place close to the Great Wall of Hanbei.

It is precisely because of this that almost every invasion of the Huns in the past was after autumn.

Because after autumn, it means that after a whole year of breeding, the horses of the Huns have been fattened and are in the best condition;
After a year of nomadism, most of the Huns returned to the relatively warm southern grasslands, not far from the Han side.

In the south of the Great Wall, after a year of hard work, the Han farmers have also reaped a lot, filling their granaries with grain to prepare for the food needed for the winter.

Going south at this time, the Huns can easily obtain a large amount of supplies, and return to the grassland without any effort, and at the same time, it will not affect the law of life of "winter in the south in winter, and start to go north in spring".

But this year, the Huns launched such a large-scale invasion at the beginning of spring, when they were about to go north to nomad.

It was precisely because of the 'surprise' at this point in time that the border soldiers were unable to cope, and the battle situation developed in a direction that was extremely unfavorable to the Han Dynasty.

Perhaps, when the Huns invaded at the beginning of spring, they really had the consideration of "beating the Han people by surprise";

But Liu Sheng is very sure: If it hadn't been for what happened this past winter, the Huns would never have chosen to go south on a large scale in the beginning of spring just to "say hello to the little emperor of the Han people".

Because it is an absolutely unacceptable huge loss for the Huns to start a war in the early spring and disrupt the nomadic route and time planning for the whole year...

"The four prefectures of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang are almost the most important defense lines of the northern wall of my Han family."

"Except for Yan, Dai, and Zhao, which are guarded by the clan princes, and the border gates directly under the jurisdiction of the Chang'an court, except for the above four counties, there is only Longyou left."

"——Chang'an is responsible for four of the five counties on the northern wall that have been destroyed by the Huns. Except for the soldiers and civilians hidden in the city, I am afraid that in these four counties, it is impossible to see anything other than the Huns cavalry outside the city. something."

"As for Longyou's survival, I'm afraid it's only because the Huns didn't need to go through Longyou to go to Xiaoguan, and Longyou is located further south and farther away from the south of the screen..."

After Zhou Yafu expressed his opinion, Liu Sheng was silent for a long time before saying so.

After all the officials in the hall bowed their heads in shame, Liu Sheng suppressed the anger in his chest, looked at Zhou Yafu again and raised his head.

"In Tiaohou's opinion, what should my Han family do next?"

"I've already said it."

"—Those who dare to make peace, beheaded!"

"I still hope Tiaohou, think twice before speaking..."

With just this one sentence, Liu Sheng has expressed his attitude: I am asking you how to fight, not whether you should fight!

But it's a pity: this is still Liu Sheng's wishful thinking.

At least in Zhou Yafu's view, Liu Sheng's statement has no practical significance at all...
"Since Your Majesty has said so, then, I dare to speak out..."

···
"Whoo~"

···
"It's been six days since the Huns knocked on their side."

"Pioneer Sanqi set fire to Ganquan Palace, and it happened last night."

"According to the customs of the Huns, when going out to fight, the Huns cavalry will only bring enough food for fifteen days, and will attack when the moon is full and retreat when the moon is waning."

"From the full moon to the waning of the moon is exactly fifteen days, the time when the rations carried by the soldiers run out."

···
"The reason why I said this is to tell His Majesty: Unless there are more important goals that are not achieved, or the retreat is forcibly cut off, the Huns going south will only stay within the side wall for fifteen days at most."

"Most of the time, starting from No.12 or three days after the start of the war, the Huns will start to retreat slowly."

"Today is the sixth day of the war, and there are at most ten days left before the Huns retreat."

"Since your majesty asked me how to deal with it, I dared to ask your majesty back."

"——In these ten days, what can my Han family do?"

"——These ten days are enough for Chang'an court to do, what is enough for His Majesty to do???"

···
Quiet.

There was another silence.

What can you do in ten days?
How can we deal with it?

With just this one sentence, dozens of heads in the entire Xuanshi hall, without exception, were deeply lowered.

Except for Liu Sheng who still stubbornly raised his head and looked straight at Zhou Yafu, and Zhou Yafu who met Liu Sheng's eyes without fear, there was no third person who raised his head in the whole hall of Xuanshi. people.

--not enough.

— not enough at all.

Ten days is not enough time for Chang'an court to make any effective response.

It can even be said that no matter what decision the Chang'an court makes, in the end, they can only get a result of "the Huns go away at ease, leaving the northern land in a mess".

And under such a premise, it seems that all the responses made by the Chang'an court are nothing but a waste of money, food and materials...

"Emperor Grandmother, do you know this is the result..."

"Is it because you know the result that you gave me the right to decide 'whatever you want'..."

"Emperor Grandmother knows that I can't and can't do anything, so she allows me to make any decision..."

"Because I can't make a decision at all..."

Until this moment, Liu Sheng finally realized something.

Or it should be said: Until this moment, Liu Sheng brought back the possibility that he had subconsciously forgotten in his mind.

Gazing deeply into the depths of Zhou Yafu's eyes, what he saw was full of determination and determination;
Turning my eyes to the palace, I saw all the 'big men' who are usually majestic and majestic, but at this moment, without exception, they are full of shame and resentment, but they can only bow their heads lonely...
"I agree."

"Immediately dispatch the Flying Fox Captain's troops out of the Flying Fox Path to aid the four northern counties."

"Yan, Dai, and Zhao each dispatched soldiers from their prefectures and traveled far away in starry nights to quickly solve the difficulties of the four counties of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang."

"—The most important thing in the battle: to drive Hu Beili away."

"As for the Shaofu, it no longer prepares the ordnance needed for the war, but allocates the materials for post-war reconstruction from the treasury."

"The prime minister's mansion conscripts prisoners, tentatively scheduled to start in spring and March, and rebuild in the four counties of the Northland."

"The rest of the chores will be discussed later."

I don't know how long it took, how much effort, and how much determination, Liu Sheng finally calmed down;

If the order had been issued, after everyone in the hall took a peek at each other, and each bowed to accept the order, the childish emperor suddenly stood up from the couch, and left the announcement room as if angrily, but also as if fleeing. temple.

—— On this day, Liu Sheng will never forget it until his death.

But what is unforgettable is definitely not Zhou Yafu's persistence, nor the helplessness of the court.

What Liu Sheng can't forget is the humiliation directed at the depths of his soul;
And after being humiliated again, I can only force myself to swallow this humiliating reality with hatred...

(End of this chapter)