sweeping the world

Chapter 979 Where there is a will, there is a way!
There is no doubt that the invasion of Xigaoche by the Han Empire failed this time.

Xigaoche may have expected that the Han Empire would march westward after defeating Rouran and Donggaoche. They moved the tribes in the east. As a result, the Han army went hundreds of miles away without finding anyone they could call The medium-sized tribes only wiped out some small tribes.

"Their preparation time must be very long." Li Tan pondered for a moment, and continued: "Otherwise, with the vastness of the grassland and the lack of convenient contact methods, it would be impossible to achieve this level."

Xigaoche was able to evacuate most of the tribes in a timely manner. In a way, it also showed that Xigaoche was a relatively stable social system, at least there was an efficient ruling class, otherwise some things would not be possible.

"Let's withdraw the troops." Dou'a had been staring at the map of mountains and rivers, and said, "The ice and snow are showing signs of melting."

According to some Rouran nobles, the plain where Xigaoche lives is covered with ice and snow from mid-autumn to winter and until late spring.After waiting for the ice and snow to melt, it will enter the long rainy season, and it will be muddy everywhere in the middle of summer, and even swamps will form.

"It's a pity." Li Tan was somewhat unwilling: "Come here, but we only wiped out less than [-] people, and we didn't get many livestock."

It’s time to withdraw the troops. They dispatched troops in September of the 13th year of Yuanshuo. It is now May of the 14th year of Yuanshuo. Most of the time they were active in the ice and snow. As time went by, the number of non-combat casualties increased. serious.

If entering the Xigaoche can achieve good results, it is not unacceptable that the non-combat casualties are not catastrophic. The key is that they have only achieved so many victories after going deep into the Xigaoche for hundreds of miles, and there is really no point in continuing.

"This is a ghostly place..." Li Tan already has a general understanding of the local situation: "It has been snowing since the middle of autumn, and it will not thaw until late spring next year. After the ice and snow melt, a large swamp will form..."

Most of the territory of West Siberia is in modern Russia's Western Siberia, where the latitude is high, the temperature is low, the evaporation is weak, and the precipitation is greater than the evaporation.Next, there is a thick layer of permafrost underground, which makes it difficult for surface water to seep down. The groundwater level is high, the terrain is low, and drainage is poor. It is true that it is a ghost place.

The Han army arrived during the snowfall season, and the ground had a thick layer of snow, and even formed an icy surface.

If the Han army comes in the summer, the scenery they will see will be very beautiful, but it is just a beautiful scenery. If you really want to enter, you will see wetlands everywhere, and there will be swamps blocking the road at every turn.

According to legend, the Huns retreated westward. When they reached Siberia in modern Russia and were about to move forward, it happened to be the summer season, but they were blocked by swamps all over the place.

It was because the Huns couldn't get away that they turned south and approached the Western Regions again. Otherwise, the incident of Chen Tang holding the flag of Shehou and beheading the head of Zhizhi would not have happened. will not appear.

Perhaps it is because this area is a ghostly place that there are not many Xigaoche tribes inhabiting it. It is not because the Xigaoche ruling class has much restraint on the tribes below, and they waited to realize that the Han army was coming before relocating those tribes.

For the invasion of Xigaoche this time, the troubles faced by the Han army were the natural environment and wild animals.

"The bears here are bigger than ours."

"That's right!"

"Standing up close to three meters, no matter how fierce a warrior is, it will be difficult to fight with it."

"I heard that four strong men killed a bear at close range."

The person who spoke was sorting out the furs. The most furs were actually the furs of some lynxes and squirrels. The furs of tigers, brown bears, leopards, wolves, wolverines, sables, and red foxes combined were also extremely large.

No matter what kind of beast it is, ordinary people will definitely be frightened if they encounter it. It will be troublesome for ordinary troops to kill it, but if elite troops come to kill it, it really shouldn't be too easy.

Most of the fur they were dealing with was full of holes, which were shot by a large number of arrows.

Fur that is damaged too much will have a low value, while fur that is intact will have a high price, and the value will vary depending on the species.

The Han army was in a state of war, so naturally they would not do deliberate hunting, but even if they did not deliberate hunting, they would only kill when they encountered them. Looking at the piled up furs being sorted, they really did not kill less.

On this day, Liu Shen was wandering around the camp with Julian and Xeas.

As they walked, they came to the pile of furs. Seeing the piles of furs piled up like hills, Liu Shen didn't have any special feelings, but Julian and Xeas looked straight at them.

"There are so many!" Xyas saw a lot of furs and read some categories: "Are there so many tigers and bears in this place?"

Julian kept looking at the striped furs. Seeing how many there were, he swallowed subconsciously.

Europa does not have such an animal as a tiger, and it is impossible to hunt wild tigers. If you really want to experience it, you have to go to West Asia or South Asia.

Precisely because there is no such animal as a tiger in Europa, they would feel happy and even proud if they could get a tiger skin.Being like this proves that they have been to Asia on the one hand, and on the other hand, even if they have not been to Asia in person, the tentacles of the family have extended to it, which is a manifestation of strength.

"It's huge!" Xeas inspected it visually, and said, "It's at least [-] centimeters bigger than the biggest tiger over there."

Of course, the habitat of the Persians has such an animal as the tiger, but according to the category, it is the West Asian tiger.

The bodies of tigers in West Asia will appear shorter. The heaviest adult male tigers in West Asia can reach about 480 pounds. Because the body is so short and has that weight, it will look fat.

An adult male Siberian tiger weighs an average of 320 kg, with a body length of about [-] meters, a shoulder height of about [-] meters, and a tail length of more than one meter; an adult female tiger has an average weight of about [-] catties, and a body length of about [-]. Seven meters, the shoulder height is about [-] meters, and the tail length is about [-] meters.

If you put the Siberian tiger and the Siberian tiger together, you can easily distinguish the difference in physique, and you will never mistake which one comes from.

Liu Shen is not that interested in this, in his opinion it is just some fur.However, he was not stupid enough to offer to give it away when he saw Julian and Xyas coveting it. It was the trophy of the army, not his personal belongings.

Julian didn't know why his expression became a little gloomy.In fact, he was wondering a little bit, wondering how the further east he faces, the physique of people or animals are bigger than those in the west?
The average height of the Romans in ancient times was only about 1.5 meters 1.6, and the contemporary Romans can be regarded as growing to about [-] meters [-].

Around the Romans, the average height of the Gauls in ancient times reached 1.7 meters 1.7, and the Germanic people reached 1.5 meters [-]. From the perspective of physique, the Romans with an average height of only [-] meters [-] can conquer the Gauls and Suppressing the Germans is actually not easy.

It was a battle with cold weapons, and the side with a better physique must have more advantages. The Romans whose physique was completely lost to the Gauls could completely conquer the Gauls, or the Gauls were really useless, or the Romans The level of civilization has crushed the Gauls.

Now when we talk about the level of civilization, it’s not just about technology, it also includes organizational power, tactics, and tactics.The Romans were indeed superior to the Gauls in this regard.

Similarly, the Romans were able to suppress the Germanic people because of the level of civilization, or the Germanic people were not only taller than the Gauls, but also stronger than the Gauls.

It can be said that the Romans did not have the slightest advantage in Europa in terms of physique. It can even be said that the Romans lost to any of the surrounding nations in terms of physique, but they have become the well-deserved overlords of Europa.

That is a kind of gain from the level of civilization, which makes up for the disadvantages in physique to the greatest extent.

The Romans took the lead at the level of civilization, won one victory after another, cultivated the self-confidence of the whole nation, and naturally became the overlord.

However, the Romans only learned so much after encountering the Persians. When the level of civilization cannot form a crushing trend, there is no such thing as destructive confrontation. , to pick the fruits of victory.

Confused, Julian subconsciously looked around, and his mood became even more gloomy.Standing next to him, Liu Shen was 1.6 meters tall at a young age, and at least 1.9 meters tall when he was an adult. Isn't it normal for him to be over two meters tall?

If the prince of a country is taller because of his excellent growing environment, it is just an exception. However, the average height of the Han soldiers that Julian saw was 1.8 meters, and there was no shortage of some strong men with a height of two meters.If he stood next to a two-meter-tall Han man, his head would just reach the Han man's chest, and he would have to look up at [-] degrees if he wanted to face each other.

"Um..." Julian was in an extremely depressed mood and asked a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "What is the staple food of the Han people?"

"Staple food?" Liu Shen was taken aback by the question, and replied: "The staple food in the Central Plains has been millet, bean, and millet since ancient times."

In recent years, Julian has spent a lot of energy to understand the Han Empire, understand those names, and know what they are.

In fact, the Romans had been observing the eating habits of the Han people for a long time. They also collected seeds of plant foods from the Han people, and even the first batch of trial plantings had been carried out in many areas of Rome.

The idea of ​​the Romans was quite simple. They thought that the Han people ate the same way to grow taller, so they would eat the same food as the Han people did.They felt that since the Han people could grow taller by eating those foods, there was no reason why the Romans could not.

Of course, the seeds of plants can't grow just by throwing them into the soil. It can even be said that the same seeds can't even germinate in different areas.

The Romans chose to plant millet, bean, and millet in Egypt, and they found that even if the seeds could grow, they looked haggard, as if they would wither and die in the next moment.

Some of the seeds selected in the Gaul region showed good signs, and the Romans were so happy that they had observed the results and began to sing and dance, cheering that the next generation of Romans would be "cracking" and jumping up.

"After five years in Yuanshuo, the staple food in the Central Plains gradually changed to rice and wheat." Liu Shen didn't think about why Julian asked this, but knew that there was no need to hide this kind of information: "You stay in Dahan It’s been a while, haven’t you noticed this?”

Naturally, the Romans also collected rice, barley, and wheat seeds in the Han Empire, and they also brought them back to Rome for trial planting.What they don't understand is that the Han people eat some staple foods such as millet, bean, and millet well, so why do they suddenly have to change their staple foods?

Another thing that the Romans need to understand is, for example, after the Han people changed to other foods, would the Han people still be so tall?
"The food we eat is similar to that of the Han people." Kexias understood what Julian was thinking: "It's just that the cooking methods are different."

The staple food of the Persians is mainly rice and wheat, and they especially love crispy rice. The original material is really not much different from that of the Han people.They also have many cooking techniques, especially some soups are very similar to Han people.

Hearing that Julian’s depressed mood didn’t improve, he became skeptical and wondered why his ancestors didn’t think about improving his eating habits. It’s fine if he didn’t encounter Han people, but he might be able to improve his height by learning from Persians. !

The Europa people mainly eat bread made of wheat, and there is really no way to cook the rest, anyway, it is boiled in plain water.

In terms of height, whether it is ancient Persians or contemporary Persians, their average height has always been about 1.7 meters five. Although there are not many people who are two meters tall, there are some, but most of them appear thin.

In fact, there are very few tall and muscular Han people. That is a problem caused by different eating habits. Simply put, Asians have different muscle fibers from Europeans because of their eating habits.

In fact, not only the Romans, but also the Persians are also exploring the eating habits of the Han people. Many nobles in the two countries have already fully adopted the eating habits of the Han people.

It’s not just eating habits. The Romans and Persians learned from the Han people in all aspects. Some Romans and Persians even made some classifications, thinking that part of the Han people’s things must be learned.

Liu Shen seemed to have thought of something, and said, "I heard that you have made a request to the Ministry of Rites, hoping that the big man can provide teaching?"

Julian and Xyas looked at each other subconsciously.They used to make requests to the Honglu Pavilion, but with the reform of the Han Empire, they changed from the Honglu Pavilion to the Ministry of Rites, and they were not discouraged by repeated rejections.

"Perhaps..." Liu Shen said with a smile, "I can convey this to Emperor Father."

This made Julian and Xeas couldn't help but look overjoyed.

(End of this chapter)