The Chishui River meanders through the green grassland like a silver snake. After heavy rains, the section of the river in the Tru Valley turns red, hence the name Chishui.
At this time, the settlements on the grasslands on the southern slope of the Tru Valley, where the herders had just migrated according to tradition, had not yet recovered from the busyness of moving to new pastures, but had already been thrown into panic by the sudden appearance of the Montenegrin armed forces.
The Tru Valley Pasture is located more than 50 kilometers east of Chishui City.
It is now October and the long dry season has begun, and all nomadic settlements are moving to new pastures.
As usual, the settlements of the Tru Valley migrated to their traditional winter grazing grounds where the grass and water were better and warmer during the dry season.
The Tru tribe has more than 500 households and nearly 5,000 people, but they are divided into more than a dozen settlements of different sizes. They move together, heading north to the maple grassland 200 miles away during the rainy season, and returning to the Tru Valley during the long dry season. There are more than a dozen settlements distributed within a radius of dozens of miles.
The largest settlement is on the grassland on the south slope of the Tru Valley, with more than a hundred households and thousands of people. It is the clan of the patriarchs of the Tru tribe and the "Katabu" households.
The so-called "Katab" is the class in the tribe whose status is lower than that of the nobles. Generally speaking, they undertake fewer production tasks and more combat tasks. According to the understanding of the people of Central Asia, they are traditional warrior families.
Nearly four-fifths of the population of the remaining ten or so settlements were "Kasaka", which were actually slave households. These herdsmen did not have any means of production of their own, but only helped the patriarch's clan to graze and support the patriarch's clan and the warriors' families.
The Montenegrin armed forces that arrived at the Tru Valley are now stationed in the most marginal Kasaka settlement, which has dozens of households and hundreds of people.
The Kasaka settlement was more than ten kilometers away from their main settlement on the Nanpo slope, but when the Montenegrin armed forces arrived, all the settlements of the entire Tru tribe received the news.
Two armored vehicles, a truck, a cavalry company of the Grassland Escort Regiment, and a cavalry squadron of the Chishui Security Inspection Brigade formed the force of the Black Mountain Armed Forces that came here to maintain order.
In fact, the Grassland Escort Regiment was the original Aoyue Brigade, which has now been transformed into two Grassland Escort Regiments, each with three to four thousand people, stationed in Chishui and Kori respectively. They have become the private mercenaries of Prince Heishanbao, helping him maintain law and order on the prairie.
The public security inspection team is composed of recruited local young and strong men. From a certain perspective, if the Montenegrins are regarded as invaders, the public security army is a recruited local puppet army.
…
The felt tents of the Kasaka slaves are all tattered. Of course, in fact, felt tents and the like should be traditional buildings that were built thousands of years ago when there was still a snowy season here to resist the wind and cold. In fact, in today's climate, even in winter, wooden houses and thatched houses are enough to keep out the cold. However, winter is indeed getting colder and colder.
Lu Ming sat in front of a felt tent with wind chimes hanging on it. Generally speaking, hanging wind chimes means that there will be happy events for this herdsman's family.
Indeed, the girl of this family was favored by a "Katab" and will be sent to the "Katab" tomorrow to be a "Jita". From the perspective of Middle-earth culture, this means a slave concubine, and her status is lower than that of the slave concubines of Middle-earth people. Even if they give birth to children, they are all "Kasaka" and are not considered to be the children of the Katab warrior at all. When the "Jita" grows old and ugly, she will usually be driven back to the Kasaka slave settlement with her children. From the grassland tradition, people are accustomed to this and do not think that the children born by "Jita" have any blood relationship with the Katab family.
From the perspective of the social class structure of the grassland, this can prevent the upper class population from expanding unlimitedly and causing the collapse of its support system.
From a biological perspective, it maintains the underlying genetic diversity and avoids the phenomenon of pure inbreeding.
But from the perspective of civilized society, this custom will undoubtedly be considered absurd.
At this moment, Lu Ming looked at the girl in front of him who was only a little over ten years old and shook his head. Her miserable life was doomed. She would soon become a tool for the upper class to vent their lust and reproduce. Seeing her anxious look, it seemed that she was terrified and confused about the future.
The girl's grandfather and fathers all stood in front of Lu Ming with fear and trepidation. The grandfather was probably in his fifties, but he was very old. The heavy and hard life had left too many marks on him. He had a hunched back, his face was covered with orange peels, and he coughed from time to time.
Strictly speaking, the girl's father is three brothers, who married one wife, which is very common for Kasakana families.
Even in today's civilized society, there is no DNA testing. In polyandrous families in grassland tribes, it is even more difficult to tell which father the children have. We can only look at their appearance, and if the difference in appearance is not obvious, it is just a misunderstanding.
"Are you really willing to send such a young daughter out to suffer?" Lu Ming looked at the three fathers.
There are three brothers, the oldest is 35 years old and the youngest is 27 years old, all of them are dark-skinned men.
"She, she went there to enjoy herself, the food is better than at home!" The eldest brother was very surprised at what the Central Plains official said.
The three brothers who survived had four children, and their wives were pregnant again. Giving one away would also reduce the family's food burden.
Lu Ming looked at his second and third brothers. He could see that the youngest brother had a gloomy face and looked at his daughter from time to time with some pity in his eyes.
Judging from the appearance, the girl seems to look more like the third child, especially her thin lips and cheekbones, they look like they were carved from the same mold.
Lu Ming shook his head, stood up, took two steps to the side, and looked at Tuoba Khan who was standing in the shadows. Her face was covered with a thin white veil, revealing only her deep black eyes.
"Do you think it's normal to go on like this forever, Madam Tuoba?"
Tuoba Lan didn't say anything.
At this time, there was the sound of horse hooves, and a horse came galloping. A dozen steps away, the man jumped off the horse, walked up a few steps quickly and reported: "Sir, Matru is coming!"
Matru is the chieftain of the Tru tribe. No matter what his real name is, when he succeeds as the chieftain, he will be the Matru of this generation.
Lu Ming nodded: "Bring him here!" Looking at the Kasakanu settlement, his eyes gradually became firm.
In fact, during this period, as an "invader", I was gradually confused about my actions here, and began to doubt whether I was doing the right thing. Perhaps when I first entered the grassland, I should have surrendered various tribes and allowed the grassland to operate according to the traditional structure. This would be stable and orderly, without wasting my energy or causing rivers of bloodshed. That would be the right thing to do
But now, everything is relieved.
A few minutes later, Matru hurried to Lu Ming. He was a middle-aged man in his forties. His father died suddenly of illness last year. He inherited the family business and was a white fat man.
"Gather the people from all the settlements, and each household must have a representative, to hold a meeting in front of your settlement on the south slope. I have something to say!" Lu Ming stared at him, "Before that, all the Katabu households in your tribe must surrender all their weapons, including bows and arrows and spears! Send them here."
"Yes, yes..." Matruh smiled apologetically.
Lu Ming looked at him deeply: "I know that your army sometimes has to defend against wolves and fierce beasts, so this is only a temporary measure."
"Don't worry, sir. I understand!" Matru's chubby face was full of smiles.
Lu Ming nodded, looking at this seemingly harmless guy, and then glanced at his grandfather, eldest brother, and second brother, who were all silent and fearful in front of Matrou, and seemed to be thinking about something.