My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 496: Riding a tiger and being unable to get off?

In the third year of Emperor Rong’s reign, it was the end of March in spring.

The Han people within the Great Wall have basically completed their spring ploughing.

A new crop of millet has been planted, and the winter wheat that was replanted last fall will also grow in the summer two months later.

The new year begins with an overwhelming sense of vigor and vitality.

However, seventy miles north of Gaoque, in the central military tent of the Xiongnu Munan coalition - that is, in the tent of the Right Wise King: Maodun Yizhixie, the atmosphere was extremely solemn.

The grassland suffered no disaster this past winter.

Although there were still some small and poor tribes that could not survive the winter, the vast majority of tribes, especially the medium and large tribes, had a peaceful winter.

——There were people and animals who froze to death or starved to death.

But the number is very small.

On the grassland, this is a very minor loss that is absolutely acceptable and even worth celebrating.

According to the usual practice, after such a peaceful winter, the tribes of Munan would begin the new year's nomadic journey with great ease at the beginning of spring.

In autumn, when the cattle, sheep and horses were fattened up, they would go to the Han people's territory to hunt for food.

If they could grab some food, cloth, and strong Han slaves, they could have another good winter.

But the situation this year obviously does not allow the tribes in the Munan area to have such a "good" year.

——Gao Que, lost.

What does this mean for the tribes in the Munan region?
It means that decades ago, the people of Qin State were farming well in Guanzhong, but Hangu Pass was broken.

Not only was it broken, but it couldn't be easily taken back!

Hangu Pass, which was originally used to guard the gateway to Guanzhong for the Qin people and keep the Guandong countries out of the pass, has become a gate lock that guards the gateway to the Guandong countries and locks the Qin people in Guanzhong!

Before that, the Qin people never worried about any problems in Guanzhong. Only the countries in Guandong would keep an eye on Hangu Pass, fearing that at any time, Qin's fierce army would come out of Hangu Pass again and wreak havoc in Guandong.

After losing Hangu Pass, the Qin people in Guanzhong would be in constant anxiety, praying that the troops from the eastern countries would not pour out of Hangu Pass to harm the Qin people in Guanzhong...

This is the situation of the various tribes in the south of Mu after Gaoque changed its owner.

——Munan is no longer safe!
If they wanted, the Han people could go north from Gaoque at any time and carry out an unscrupulous sweep of the Munan area.

Just as the Huns had done in previous years on the border of Han territory - burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of atrocities, turning the lives of the Huns upside down.

Nomadic people have absolutely no ability to resist risks.

Nomadic life on the grassland is like dancing on the edge of a knife.

Let me give you a very intuitive example.

You are a Han Chinese, living on the Han-Xiongnu border.

After a whole year of hard work, the crops you sowed in the spring finally grow in the fall.

But before you could reap the harvest, the Huns invaded the border.

You feel very uncomfortable.

You want to hurry up and harvest, but you are worried that the Huns will reach the outskirts of the city where your fields are located before you finish harvesting the crops.

There is no other way, you can only take your family and hide in the nearest county town.

When you heard that the Huns had indeed come and all the farmland outside the city had been cleared out, you felt like crying but had no tears.

A whole year's hard work has all gone to waste. Your wife and children will have no means of survival for the next year, let alone the entire next year - you don't know what to do in the coming winter.

Even if you survive this winter, where will you and your family get the grain for next spring and food before the autumn harvest?

You feel hopeless.

This year, you were miserable.

Your whole family is miserable.

With the relief from the court, you managed to survive the winter.

After the spring, you sold your daughter to a rich man as a slave, and used the money to buy grain seeds and use it as food payment for your family before autumn.

But the Huns came early, and there is a shortage of food everywhere. The price of food has skyrocketed. Your family has to eat coarse food. You can only hope that this year will pass quickly.

Not having enough to eat makes your hands and feet weak and your eyes dizzy, but you still have to go to the fields to work.

Because you know that whether you can survive this year - whether you can put an end to this dark period of life after the autumn harvest and let your family welcome a new dawn, depends on how much food you can grow from your hundred acres of thin land.

Finally, another autumn has arrived.

Looking at the fruits of crops falling heavily in the fields, your eyes turn red with mixed feelings.

Because at this time last year, you had an elderly mother, a virtuous wife, three sons and two daughters, and a family of eight from three generations living together.

And in the past year, you sold two daughters;

Of his three sons, one died of starvation and another died of illness.
My old mother passed away and my wife fell ill.

The original family of eight is now left with only you, who are as skinny as a stick, your sick wife, and your little son who still wears open-crotch pants.

You don’t know how long you can hold out.

I don’t know how long my wife can live.

But at least, you can still hope that your only remaining youngest son can grow up quickly and support the family...

This is probably the true portrayal of the life that the people living on the border of the Han Dynasty have faced over the past few decades after the invasion of the Huns.

Do you think he has a high ability to withstand risks?
No.

In just one year, more than half of his family members were gone, his living standard plummeted, and the future was filled with darkness that seemed to have no end in sight.

But if you say that he has no ability to resist risks at all, that is not entirely true.

——When the Huns attacked, he could at least take his family and hide in the town.

Even if the town could not be defended, he would climb onto the wall and fight to the death to protect his family, wife, children and the elderly behind him.

When the Huns left, all the grain he had grown that year was gone, but at least the fields were still there.

The following year was difficult, even miserable, for his family.

But I finally got through it.

This family finally survived this year and welcomed the new year and even many new years.

Therefore, such Han people living in the border area actually have a certain ability to resist risks.

Although it is not much. Although it is limited to "not starving to death on the spot" and "having a chance to make a comeback", for the nomadic people on the grassland, it is already a beautiful life that can only be dreamed of.

——If the situation were reversed and the Han people were to "plunder" the nomadic people on the grasslands, the scene would be absolutely horrific!

Because they are nomadic people, they have no cities to hide in.

What the nomadic people will lose is not the "agricultural products" they produce, but directly the cattle and sheep that are the means of production themselves!

When nomadic people lose their cattle and sheep, it does not mean that Han farmers lose the crops in their farmlands; it is equivalent to losing the farmlands themselves!
What will happen if Han farmers lose their land?
Become a tenant farmer or even become a slave.

The grassland principle is even more cruel - there is no such thing as 'tenant-grazing'!
If you lose your cattle and sheep, you can only become someone else's slave and herd them for others!

Of course, if you are very capable and can snatch livestock from others, that’s another story.

But whether you rob others or others rob you - in the end there will be people who are left without livestock and have to become slaves.

To put it bluntly, compared to the extreme fragility of nomadic people, farming people naturally have a higher ability to resist risks.

Because their means of production: the fields, cannot be physically plundered.

Even if the nobles wanted to rob the land, it would always take some effort, and the Han government would not turn a blind eye. It would protect the farmers as much as possible and help them keep the land that served as a means of production.

But it is very easy for nomadic people on the grassland to lose their means of production: livestock.

A heavy snow, a plague;
A drought. Or a war.

Even three or five lost sheep-stealing bandits could cause the nomadic people to lose their means of production.

It is well known that as long as the means of production are still there, production work can be resumed.

It’s like the Han people - as long as the fields are still there, they can always grow food, and when the food is grown, everything will be fine.

But once the means of production are lost, there is no possibility of recovery.

Combining all of the above, it is not difficult to understand the situation that the various tribes in the south of Mu were in and the survival threats they felt after Gaoque changed hands.

——Although the Han people living on the Han border have a hard life, at least they still have a way to survive.

But after Gaoque was captured by the Han people, the tribes living in the Munan area, especially those near Gaoque, had no idea how they could survive.

Being driven to Mobei by Han people waving black dragon flags like they did decades ago may be a treatment only the lucky ones can enjoy!
Therefore, under the tremendous pressure and threat of survival, the leaders of various tribes in Munan spontaneously appeared in the Nanchi area before Yizhixie made up his mind.

After several days of discussion and even debate, this cavalry group consisting of 140,000 riders was finally able to appear outside Gaoque.

However, the battle situation was far beyond the expectations of the leaders of various tribes and even Yizhixie.

Even though he knew that the chances of retaking Gaoque were slim and that the Han people would never give it up easily, Yizhixie was still frightened by the glaring enemy-to-us casualties ratio and dared not act rashly again...

"In the past ten days, more than 6,000 bodies of various tribes have been sent back to their ancestral lands."

"But my henchmen said that when they counted the number of warriors from each tribe last night, at least nine thousand warriors did not return to the camp."

"I'm afraid no one will fail to understand what this means."

The long silence was finally broken by Yizhixie's words.

Inside the king's tent, the leaders of each tribe raised their heads when they heard the voice. When Yizhixie's words fell, they looked at each other, bewilderedly, and then lowered their heads again.

Nine thousand people.

After just over half a month of fighting, the losses of the coalition forces reached an appalling number of nine thousand people.

Nine thousand people, what does that mean?
——The coalition forces summoned by Yizhixie to counterattack Gaoque had a total of more than 80,000 soldiers and horses!

Nine thousand people, that’s more than one tenth!

Furthermore, these more than 80,000 soldiers and horses were formed by the most prominent medium and large tribes in Munan, each of which sent out 10,000 cavalrymen.

For some medium-sized tribes, ten thousand cavalrymen are even their entire assets!
Only 10,000 cavalry were sent to counterattack Gaoque, and these tribes could only entrust the hope of protecting the tribe to the immature boys in the tribe and the old "former warriors".

As for the tribes south of Mu, except for the Right Wise King Yizhixie, who was able to have a full complement of 8,000 cavalrymen because of his status as the Right Wise King and the second in line to the throne of the Xiongnu, the rest of the tribes had 6,000 or 4,000 people per 10,000 cavalrymen.

For example, large tribes close to the Chanyu court, such as Baiyang and Zhelan, had a full complement of 10,000 cavalry with 6,000 people.

The four major clans living in Munan, including the Huyan clan and the Qiequ clan, also have the right to have 6,000 people as one of the 10,000 cavalry.

But most of the tribes only have the ultra-low-end "Wanqi" with a full complement of only 4,000 people.

From these fourteen thousand cavalry, finally only more than 80,000 soldiers were gathered. In fact, it is not difficult to roughly infer that a considerable part of the more than 80,000 soldiers and horses that counterattacked Gaoque were low-configuration cavalry with 4,000 men as one cavalry.

If it weren't for the Right Wise King Yizhixie, who led a 'high-end 10,000 cavalry' force of 8,000 men, and if it weren't for the Huyan clan, the Qiequ clan and other tribes, who led a 'standard 10,000 cavalry' force of 6,000 men, it would have been impossible to gather 80,000 men with 14 10,000 cavalry.

Let’s take 4,000 men and 10,000 cavalry as an example - 14 times 10,000 cavalry is only 56,000 men.

Now, there are more than 80,000 people - the extra 20,000 people are Yizhixie's high-end 10,000 cavalry and the standard 10,000 cavalry of the four major clans.

Looking back, the coalition forces suffered losses in Gaoque over the past half month: nine thousand people.

——Two low-profile Wanqi were involved!
The Manchus only had 140,000 cavalrymen, and in just half a month, they had already conquered more than two dozen enemies!

If we continue to fight, by the time Shanyu Ting returns from the west in half a year, who knows how many of the fourteen thousand cavalrymen will be left!

It is true that human lives on the grassland are worthless.

Especially the nobles on the grassland, basically they don’t take human life seriously.

But not taking human life seriously does not mean that the military does not take it seriously.

The ones who are truly not taken seriously are the slaves.

The herdsmen, especially those who are skilled in archery and horse riding and have fighting ability, are important assets that are regarded as treasures by every grassland noble and tribal leader!
In the past half month, all the tribes in the south of Mu lost a total of 9,000 strong warriors who were skilled in archery and horsemanship and had rich combat experience at Gaoque.

Not to mention serious injuries, but it is already a heavy loss!
The most fatal thing is that such heavy losses not only failed to bring about the desired result - that is, to recapture Gaoque, but also failed to inflict a decent blow to the Han people in Gaoque.

At this moment, those who could gather in King Yizhixie's tent were all elites on the grassland.

We are all human beings.

Everyone has some idea as to whether Gaoque can be recaptured or not.

But even if we can't take Gaoque back, we must at least hurt and scare the Han people in Gaoque, so that they will stay in Gaoque and dare not come out to harm Munan, right?
Being blind, he couldn't even inflict a decent blow, let alone a serious injury.

When the Han people have recovered, looking north from Gaoque, will everyone still be able to survive?
How can Munan stay here?

"If we continue to fight, we will only waste the lives of our warriors, and will not be able to hurt the Han people in Gaoque at all."

Some people have already wavered and want to give up and withdraw their troops, no matter what.

"But if we retreat now, I'm afraid that before Chengligutu returns from the west, the Han people will set foot in Munan..."

Some people have realized the key point at the national strategic level.

Although I understood it, what to do about it became an unsolvable problem.

(End of this chapter)