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The Qin Dynasty destroyed the Qing Dynasty, which was at its peak, in one fell swoop, and it was destroyed so thoroughly that the shock it caused to the Mongolian tribes south of the desert was unimaginable.
In addition, the various tribes had suffered serious losses during the period of entering the Shanhai Pass with the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, although Meng Ke's strength in Khorchin was not very strong, when he summoned the surrounding tribes to Khorchin, none of the seven tribes including Balin dared not come.
Now he ordered the seven tribes to attack Qitate together, and no one dared to disobey.
However, from the perspective of each tribe, there are frequent wars on the grassland now, and it is also beneficial for them to unite in this way, so the tribes are so active.
This time, Aobai was in charge, and each of the seven Mongolian tribes sent out 1,500 people, plus Niu Wanchuan's 500 and the Khorchin tribe's 1,500. Of course, Khorchin is now under the rule of the Qin Dynasty, and all Khorchin soldiers have changed into Qin military uniforms.
This "coalition of eight forces" has a total of 12,500 troops, which can definitely make them move freely in the present-day southern desert grasslands.
This was not the first time that Aobai led the Mongol army to fight, but he had previously led the Qing army and now he was under a different banner. The work was still the same, and he was very familiar with it, just like walking in his own backyard.
In the autumn, the horses were fat, the men were strong and the swords were sharp. This army set out from Khorchin and marched northward. As a result, before they had time to fight the Chitats, they frightened some nearby tribes.
For example, Geersang, the leader of the Zhalai tribe, was so frightened that he packed gifts and headed straight to Khorchin overnight, asking to see Mengke in great fear and trepidation.
Even Teng Jitai of the Sutni tribe, who was far outside the border wall of Datong, could no longer sit still.
This doesn't seem right. We were the first to form an alliance with the Qin Dynasty. How come Meng Ke, the commander-in-chief of the front army, is now summoning all the tribes to form an alliance and holding such a grand "hunting" activity, but the Sutni tribe is not included
A sense of crisis spread throughout Teng Jitai's body, as if millions of ants were crawling on his body, making him uncomfortable. He thought about it and felt that he could no longer sit idly by and watch being marginalized.
So he hurriedly prepared gifts and took a two-pronged approach. He sent an envoy to Khorchin to ask for an audience with Mengke, while at the same time sending his son Tolhuan to Beijing to meet the King of Qin.
In addition, after learning that Gannan, the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple of the Qin Dynasty, was on a diplomatic mission to the nearby Xitumed tribe, he personally rushed to the Xitumed Left Banner to ask for a meeting with Gannan. In short, Teng Jitai used every trick he could think of.
This sense of crisis was definitely not felt only by Teng Jitai. The deterrent power of the "Eight-Tribe Alliance" on the various tribes was extremely shocking. If the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Qing Dynasty before, it made everyone feel the terrible power of the Qin Dynasty;
The "Eight-Army Alliance" is now a knife on their necks. This is a real threat. It is no longer a powerful and invisible pressure, but a force that can exterminate your clan at any time.
This time, Mengke did not personally lead the army to conquer Qitate because he had more important tasks.
On the south bank of the Xiliao River, 10,000 Korean soldiers and 10,000 Jurchen young men were busy building a city.
Layer upon layer of cement was compacted by the efforts of strong men with bare chests. The city wall was three zhang wide at the bottom, twenty-two zhang wide at the top, and two zhang high. A four-zhang wide trench was dug outside the city wall. The water of the Xiliao River was used as a moat.
On the flat grassland, a new city was rising from the ground, and everywhere there were the sounds of laborers shouting and yelling, people roaring and horses neighing. Various cranes and pulleys lifted the excavated soil and rocks into large baskets and lifted them to the top of the city.
Ten miles away, huge explosions were heard from time to time on a rocky mountain. It was the Qin army that was digging up the mountain to get stones, piling them up in the kilns at the foot of the mountain to burn lime.
When the commander-in-chief of the vanguard army, Meng Ke, was inspecting the construction site, his soldiers and officials kept coming to him with documents for his signature. The personal soldier beside him was holding a small porcelain bottle, which looked somewhat like the pure bottle in the hand of Guanyin Bodhisattva, except that the small porcelain bottle was not used to hold nectar, but ground ink.
After reading the document, Meng Ke took the goose feather pen handed to him by another personal soldier, dipped it into the porcelain bottle, and signed his name neatly, which stunned the nearby Korean soldiers.
Is this ok
Isn't the era of "We met on horseback, but there is no paper or pen, so I ask you to pass on the message to let everyone know that I am safe" over
In short, including the crane on the construction site, the discus operated by a pulley system for ramming the city wall, the use of explosives to blast the mountain, etc., all of these made the Korean soldiers deeply feel the advanced nature of the Celestial Empire.
The Qin soldiers said that the King of Qin also ordered people to develop some kind of cement, which, after being mixed with sand and gravel, was harder than boulders when laid down.
Although the Koreans didn't know what this thing was, they heard the Qin soldiers sighing and saying that if this thing was made, they could build an indestructible city in ten days or half a month.
In addition, there are many other novel things. I heard that the Qin Dynasty has developed a steam engine. Some Qin soldiers call it an iron donkey. It is much more useful than a real donkey or horse. It is used to drive a loom. It doesn't feel tired all day long and does not need to eat grass. It only needs to be fed with water.
Alas, it is indeed the Celestial Empire. It seems that being able to come to the Celestial Empire to do some hard labor can be considered an eye-opener for us.
The sound of bells jingled as a large number of caravans, no slower than the Qin army, drove camels and horses from the interior of the country, bringing with them daily necessities that were in short supply on the grasslands, such as tea and salt, which were indispensable on the grasslands.
However, due to the war blocking the trade routes in recent years, there was a shortage of everything except cattle and sheep on the grassland, and money could not buy anything. The prices of cattle, sheep, furs, medicinal materials, etc. outside the Great Wall were also very low due to poor sales.
There are endless business opportunities here, and merchants flock here like sharks smelling blood. The entire grassland is now raging with war, and only Korqin is safe, so merchants naturally flock here.
Before the construction of Korchin City was completed, large tents had been set up outside the city for trading, stretching for miles and filled with popular commodities, attracting herdsmen from far and near. They were endless, pulling furs and driving horses, cattle and sheep to exchange for commodities from inside the city.
The area outside Horqin City had become a bustling trading place. Both the merchants inside the pass and the herdsmen outside the pass were smiling and laughing, and both sides took what they needed and exchanged what they had.
Huang Mingshan, the newly appointed governor of Korchin, managed the market in an orderly manner and sent officials to strictly collect taxes. At the peak, the tax revenue in one day was as high as 10,000 taels. What a concept. This is equivalent to the total tax revenue of many states in the interior in one year.
This was something Huang Mingshan had never thought of before he took office. Who said this was a wild place? This was truly a treasure trove!
Huang Mingshan secretly hoped that other tribes on the grassland would continue to be in chaos, so that Khorchin could continue to prosper. Once the grassland was peaceful, merchants would definitely not flock to Khorchin to trade.
On the lush plain near the Xiliao River, Qin soldier Mu Ling held a long rope, slapped his horse and galloped away, while another soldier Li Rui stood there holding the other end of the rope;
Seeing that Mu Ling was riding his horse happily and the rope was almost pulled to the end, Li Rui hurriedly blew the whistle. At the same time, he waved the red flag in his hand and shouted: "Mu Ling, hurry up... No, slow down, we're here, we're here, stop..."
Mu Ling, who was far away, could no longer hear his shouts, but he could hear the whistles and see the waving flags, so he stopped immediately. The Qin soldiers nearby also rode over and quickly drove the wooden stakes down along the taut rope.
The matter was settled. Military deputy Jiang Yihan wrote and drew on the blueprint and made careful records while saying to the herdsmen around him: "Okay. Abuler, this will be your pasture from now on. You must remember what I said, that you should graze in moderation. The more cattle and sheep you have, the cheaper they will be. Not only will you not be able to sell them at a good price, but they will also eat your pasture into a desert. Then there will be no hope for your family in the future."
The Khorchin herdsman named Abul said cautiously, "Sir, didn't you use two ropes to measure the distance of Durle's pasture? How come my pasture is only one rope long?"
Jiang Yihan smiled and said patiently, "Abuler, you have to know that the Durle family has two more people than yours. The pasture is divided according to the number of people in each family. Moreover, the Durle family's pasture is relatively high, not as fertile as your low-lying pasture. If you don't want this one, choose a slightly higher pasture like the Durle family's. According to the regulations, you can also be allocated more. Do you want to exchange?"
Abule thought about it and realized that it was true. This grassland was low-lying and the grass grew lushly every year. He quickly responded, "No, no, sir, I want this one."
Jiang Yihan thought that the matter had been resolved, but he did not expect that some herders were unwilling to do so and wanted to fight for the grassland allocated to the Abuler family.
When everyone started arguing, they all used Mongolian, a lot of gibberish, and Jiang Yihan was overwhelmed. Well, it seems that this really won't work.
"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me. How about this? All the pastures will be divided up first, and then everyone will draw lots. The decision of which family draws which plot will be made by Changshengtian. No one can regret it, otherwise it would be disrespectful to Changshengtian."
"This is a good idea, sir. It will be decided by Changshengtian."
"Yes, let's do it this way. Let Changshengtian decide. This is the fairest way."
"No, there are six people in my family. If I draw a pasture for four people, is that fair?"
Jiang Yihan said quickly: "Don't worry, families of four will draw with families of four, and families of eight will draw with families of eight. This way, no family of eight will draw the pasture of a family of four..."
Jiang Yihan felt a little dry in the mouth and almost fainted.
At first, when the herders heard that they were going to divide the pastures and turn the ownerless things into their own private property, they were very happy;
But when it comes to actually doing this, there are quite a few problems. If one is not handled properly, it will cause dissatisfaction among all the herdsmen.
But people always come up with solutions, and as long as you are patient and meticulous, you can still get it done. The key is to privatize the pasture. In Jiang Yihan's view, this is simply a stroke of genius. I don't know how much wisdom King Qin has in his mind to come up with such a plan.
Judging from the reactions of the herdsmen now, they value the grasslands as much as the people in the interior value the farmland. They regard it as their lifeblood. If anyone dares to touch their grasslands in the future, they will probably fight you to the death... ... ...
This time, the herders can keep their own cattle and sheep in pens.
And the Qin Dynasty has imprisoned all the herdsmen.
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ps: These two days, it's been quiet, and some people are still urging me to finish the book quickly. Actually, what I want to say is that there are more difficult enemies and more grand scenes later. These ten or eight chapters are just a transitional foreshadowing. I hope everyone can continue to support me. Brothers, as the old saying goes, you are not a hero if you haven't been to the Great Wall. What I want to say is, what's the point of going to the Great Wall? The world is so big, how can it be limited to the Great Wall
But to continue writing, I need your support, subscriptions, monthly tickets, and rewards. I look forward to your support!
.(To be continued..)
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