Emperor Qin

In the autumn of the 20th year of Qinhuang, Qin Shangjun.

The bleak autumn wind raged across the vast grassland, pushing down the withered and yellow grass leaves.

This county located in the northernmost part of the Qin State was not polluted by the bleak autumn, but became more lively as winter approached.

Qin merchants from the south came here with a large amount of tea and grain, and carefully inspected every cow, horse, and fur brought by the grassland merchants.

Tall barns were built in the county town, and the filth excreted by the cattle and horses along the way was quickly forked into the dung basket by a soldier.

There were many other soldiers with baskets like him. After cleaning the city carefully, they returned to the barracks, poured the fertilizer they picked up into the fermentation tank, recorded the rewards, and returned to the barracks to prepare dinner.

On the school field next to it, a lot of green grass was piled up to form a high mountain, and some soldiers were washing and cutting the roots of the grass, and putting them in the basket next to it.

The soldiers sat down by the haystack, and together they began to wash the grass roots in the muddy water, and asked casually, "I can buy a copy of this gold glue at a low price later, and I want to bring a copy for my father, how about you?"

"The family is poor, so I don't want to buy it." Another soldier said indifferently.

"Under the general's rule, there are two hundred yuan a month, why cry poorly." The soldiers whispered.

Although two hundred yuan is not much, their food is managed by the military. The two hundred yuan is net income. An ordinary farmer may not be able to save two hundred yuan a year.

When he was conscripted to guard the border in the north, he was worried about the bitter cold there, but he didn't expect to get a big deal because of it.

Under the rule of General Mengtian, Shangjun is not only prosperous and not in the Central Plains, but also cares about them soldiers. There are kangs in the barracks, and the winter clothes are made of wool. They have never worn such good clothes. It is a pity that this It can only be worn for a while, and when you retire, you can either return it or buy it at a low price.

"I am from Daijun." His comrade-in-arms said indifferently, "You are a commoner, and you still want to wear gold glue? I dare not. The land of Dai is bitter, cold and barren, and it is not as rich as you in Guanzhong."

He looked at the glue grass on the water, thought about the seeds he had secretly hidden, and thought that his hometown was so close to here, he should be able to grow gold glue, if he could, his family would not have to suffer from hunger.

The two of them had their own thoughts, so they worked harder, surrounded by countless soldiers who were washing grass and rolling glue together, and they were all doing it in full swing.

An owl circled in the sky and landed on the haystack. It watched with big eyes that although the soldiers here were chatting, they were not lazy at all. They were quite satisfied, so they spread their wings and flew away.

It didn't fly very far, and it flew into a large camp panting, and landed on the arm of a handsome young man, the whole bird was very weak.

"I told you to lose weight, you don't believe me, do you regret it?" Yan Jiang chuckled, touched the bird's head, and then looked at Meng Tian who was busy with business and was going to report to him about the military situation in the Northland.

Of course Meng Tian knew this bird, he took a look at it calmly, and continued to introduce the current situation of Beidi County to Yan Jiang, feeling a little hot in his heart.

In the past few years when he was stationed in the Northland, he often went deep into the grasslands, and found out the relationship of almost all the grassland clans, and he was ready for the Northern Expedition.

But this time, Emperor Qin has been preparing for two years, preparing to sweep away the troubles of the Northland.

"...The last general thought that we should set off from Shangjun and Xiaoguan to mop up the Huns in the south of the river. After clearing the Hetao, we should cross the river to the north and attack Helan Mountain and Langshan to sweep up our ancestral home." Meng Tian pointed to the map and introduced, "Now it's just autumn, and all the ethnic groups in the grassland are relocating the grasslands and recruiting troops. We can preemptively strike. I don't know what Zhengqing wants?

Yan Jiang nodded and said: "The general is the commander-in-chief of the army. I am just following the king's order to watch the battle, so I don't need to worry about it."

Meng Tian said with a serious face: "Zhengqing is a scholar of heaven and man, and is very familiar with the tribes in the grassland. If there is any advice, I hope I can give it to you."

Yan Jiang shook his head helplessly, and changed the topic: "The general is serious. By the way, when I came earlier, I saw a large field outside the city, but no food was planted. Why?"

Meng Tian's face was reddish, and he was a little surprised: "Zhengqing mentioned that the frontier army was depressed a few years ago, it is better to use it to farm the fields, so His Majesty ordered the northern and southern frontier troops to reclaim the land, but this northern land is barren, and wheat is hard to grow. I thought about it, This kind of gold glue is used, so that the grassland is hard to plunder, and it can also attract southern merchants to exchange food."

"So that's the case, the general has a heart." Yan Jiang admired it very much.

After he unearthed the role of rubber in these years, the rich and powerful all over the world have been wearing rubber-soled shoes as a fashion. If they can wrap the wheels with rubber, it is simply a symbol of the rich and powerful. Coupled with the low production volume, the price has remained high these years.

The rubber herb grows the most in the northern desert Gobi, and it is quite suitable to be planted in the northern land. It can be regarded as a high-quality product, so it is no wonder that there are an endless stream of businessmen.

More importantly, grassland people don't have sulfur, and they don't know how to make rubber. They grab it for nothing, unlike growing food, which is what nomads like to grab most.

Meng Tian also praised that it was all due to Zhengqing, and the two exchanged business ideas. Meng Tian also mentioned that because of the hard work of the army, in order to make the soldiers pay more, he gave each soldier part of the food money. It is sent directly to their hometown by post station.

Yan Jiang exclaimed: "No wonder I saw that the general's morale is high, it is so."

This can all be written into the history books. For the first time in history, soldiers are paid, right?

The two then boasted to each other again.

After boasting, Yan Jiang asked about the food again.

Then Meng Tian admired again: "Back then, Zhengqing made the north-south commercial roads used to be open, and now Xianyang has a road from Jiuyuan. The food and grass accumulated over the past few years are enough for 20 troops for half a year."

As far as he has seen in the army over the years, merchants are really the hardest-working people. Not only do they have to work hard to deliver and transport food, but they also walk the entire road from Xianyang to Shangjun. The Cheng family and other giant merchants invested in repairing the roads. When Qin Huangzhun marched north this year, it took three to five months to re-expand the straight roads, and the grain and grass were slowly saved by relying on the merchants over the years.

"Since that's the case, I can rest assured," Yan Jiang smiled slightly, "The matter of the Northern Expedition depends entirely on the general."

……

On the prairie in autumn, the sun is setting slowly, and the smoke rising slowly from a small tribe in Henan is blown away by the autumn wind. A healthy woman wrapped in old fur carefully cleans the clay pot, lowers her head and carefully takes it out of her arms. Take out a small piece of tea brick wrapped in sheepskin, pry off the big one, put it in a mortar and grind it finely, then put it in a jar, boil it with water, add a little salt, a jar of goat milk, Stirring it carefully with a wooden spoon, she put in the corn and boiled it, and then put some air-dried meat in, and the strong milky smell spread in all directions.

"It smells good." The grazing man and the children walked into the yurt, took the wooden bowl handed by his wife, took a sip, and felt that the fatigue of the day had been dispelled.

"The corn is almost gone." The woman said in a low voice, "But the caravan has not met. Do you want to go to the south to get some before winter this year?"

The grassland commoners don’t eat meat every single day. Except for some milk, fresh milk, and lake fish and wild vegetables, they also eat rice. The food is exchanged with these small tribes for cattle and sheep, but the price is very expensive, but they still have to change, because it is difficult for livestock to survive the winter, because milk alone is not enough, because eating livestock is not enough for them to live for a whole year, because they need tea .

Since the first pot of tea brought back by Wu Shiluo eight years ago, tea has invaded the lives of grassland people like a plague. After drinking tea, the teeth do not bleed, people are energetic, and the stomach is comfortable. It is easy to carry and save, and it can also eliminate hunger. Apart from being too expensive, it is simply a gift from heaven.A piece of the family was a gift from the man when he married her.

The man was silent for a while, and said calmly: "Today I received a message that Shanyu asked our tribe to produce a hundred men and go south to collect grain. Then I will bring you millet and tea back."

The woman was also silent, and said after a while: "Are you going to fight Qin?"

The man responded in a low voice.

The two three- and four-year-old children did not understand the communication of their parents. They drank milk tea quickly and licked the wooden bowl clean.

"It will be fine," the man reassured her, "There are corn and tea as high as mountains in the county, and I heard there are iron cans. You watched that for a long time at the Shanyu League Meeting last time. Shanyu said that as long as you open In the county town, for two or three years, rice tea is enough for us to eat freely."

"Well, I'll wait for you to come back."

The next day, the man took a hundred sons, the most powerful men in the tribe, and rode on horses to the most majestic Touman City on the grassland.

The woman watched him leave with her child, a little worried and a little proud.

Her man is a famous warrior on the prairie. A few years ago, he followed Touman Shanyu to fight against Zhao State, and he snatched dozens of southern slaves for the tribe. He returned a large amount of corn and distributed them to a pasture that originally belonged to Zhao State. Here The water and grass are abundant, and there are many lakes. With these, their tribe no longer has to abandon the elderly and children who cannot support them for food. If they can take down Shangjun City, their tribe may have dozens more southern slaves to plant millet by the river , feed more warriors...

Just when she was fantasizing about a better life in the future, three days later, countless horseshoes sounded from afar.

Almost at the same time, Qin's 20 troops began to send troops from the east and west sides, and raided Manchester City.

They did not attack by force, but divided into dozens of thousands of elite soldiers, and pulled out small tribes in Henan like nails. These small tribes were not only the tentacles of the Huns, but also their source of soldiers. They were entrenched in the south of the Yellow River, often dozens of people Small groups attacked the scattered villages of the Qin State, plundering people and food. Whenever the Qin State army moved, they would quickly report the news and disappear into the vast grassland.

Zhou Bo, the commander of the Qin army, had just conquered a small tribe, which was full of young and old. The Qin army burned the food and killed all the men and women who resisted. A woman who wanted to report the news just got on the horse, and he raised the crossbow Shoot to kill, roll off the horse.

Indifferently, he asked his men to clean up the battlefield, then got off his horse, walked to the corpse of Unrepentant, pulled out the iron arrow, and inserted it back into the quiver.

The splashed blood fell on the loose sheepskin in his arms, staining a small piece of tea brick red.

Zhou Bo took out a map to identify the direction, and continued to lead his troops to the north. They needed to meet up with the army at the col of Hetao, and wipe out the Huns south of the entire river.

Their march was smooth. Touman Shanyu almost took away all the soldiers in Henan. They encountered great resistance along the way. Only a handful of tribes escaped north of the Yellow River and joined the main force of the Xiongnu.

After knowing the actions of the Qin army, Touman Shanyu took the initiative to lead an army across the river to attack the Mengtian army.

After receiving the intelligence from lurking in Toumandanyu, Meng Tian laughed three times, and immediately waited for work with ease, allowing the grassland tribes to see the power of the Qin Army's heavy weapons and the power of the Qin Army's cavalry for surprise attacks.

For the Qin army that has not fought for three years, these Huns are the few merits left.

There was no suspense in this battle. The unorganized and rampant Hun soldiers were like clay sculptures in front of Meng Tian, ​​who was able to cooperate with the army formation. Meng Tian first suppressed them with a heavy crossbow, and then used the prepared cavalry to raid the enemy's side. Touman Shanyu's various tribes saw that they could not do anything, and they were defeated one after another. Touman himself also fled across the river in a hurry, confronting the Qin army across the river.

Meng Tian then calmly continued to clean up the remaining tribes in Henan, while letting the army survive the winter, and at the same time guarding against Touman's revenge, and waiting until the early spring of 21.

He was basically sure that Touman came back to retaliate because of the warmer weather. In summer and autumn, the cattle and horses are fat, and in winter and spring, the cattle and horses are thin. This is also the reason why Meng Tian fought in autumn in the last battle. He needs the Xiongnu to take the initiative to gather the main force stand up.

After thinking about it, he resolutely led his troops across the river, and when Touman Shanyu was completely unprepared, he entered the Huns' main court and went to Yinshan Mountain, where he fought Touman. Touman Shanyu was defeated and retreated westward. When they arrived at Helan Mountain, they finally retreated into Mobei with the remnant soldiers and occupied the pastures in the isolated part of Beihai.

Meng Tian then wrote a letter to the various tribes in the grassland to form an alliance, and issued the will of Qin to rule the grassland and divide the grassland among the tribes.

Many tribes came, but many did not.

King Donghu is the largest tribe among the tribes that did not come.

They occupy the northern part of Yan State, hundreds of miles away from the Qin army.

Without hesitation, Meng Tian led his troops to flatten Donghu, and distributed its grassland to other grassland tribes who were helping.

As the news spread, various tribes in the grassland claimed the rule of Qin State one after another.

Even the Xiongnu in Mobei who hid in Mobei also sent a message, expressing their willingness to surrender to Qin State-this is the case in the grassland, whichever tribe is strong, they will listen to them, if the strongest tribe shows signs of decline, they will be wiped out by the crowd .

Since then, Qin State began his career as the lord of the grassland.

……

Mobei

Touman Chanyu took a sip of his wine in resentment, and savagely swung his horsewhip, whipping the patriarch of the small tribe he had exterminated until he screamed in pain.

Not enough, he needs more victories to wash away his defeat and fight back to Monan!

His son who had just grown up followed him with newly recruited fighters in Mobei, which made him even more irritable-at the beginning, it was his son who broke through Meng Tian's encirclement and gave him a chance to come out alive.

But this did not make him grateful to his son, on the contrary, he became more jealous. He was not good to the eldest son, not only sent him as a hostage to the Yue clan, but also took the initiative to attack the Yue clan. If Qin had not killed the Yue clan, the eldest son might have died in the In the hands of the Yuezhi people.

It is true that the eldest son has done a great job to save him, but he prefers the caring young son born to his stepwife to this ruthless and indifferent good-looking son.

Just as he was thinking, the eldest son Maodun suddenly took out a chime.

Touman was a little upset. Mingdi was a loud arrow invented by his eldest son. Anyone who did not shoot at the target of his loud arrow would be beheaded by him. He shot his beloved horse and wife with loud arrows, but he never dared to shoot All his men were killed by him, so what did he want to shoot?

In the next second, Mao Dun's Ming Di dropped his hand and shot at his father.

When ten thousand arrows pierced through the heart, Touman laughed instead.

Perhaps, this ruthless eldest son will be the strongest Shanyu of the Huns, leading their tribe to prosperity?

Mao Dun was silent for a long time, and his father was restrained, and he mounted his horse and left.

The next second, he suddenly shook his body, rolled off the horse, pressed his chest, and struggled in pain.

Yan Jiang and the others went up to watch.

The blowing pipe disguised as a piccolo was put back on his waist calmly, hiding his achievements and fame.