From Chief to Ball

In E Yue's eyes, many strange things were extremely precious gifts, but Chen Jian only focused on food, livestock and slaves.

One million catties of corn, for a coalition force of 100 troops, is only 2000 catties per person, which may not be enough to feed for a year, and it is not too much.

However, Chen Jian also knew that Acropolis could only give so much now, and if he asked for more, it would inevitably arouse the resentment of the people in Acropolis.

E Yue didn't object either, so the matter of sending troops to thank him was settled.

After dealing with all this, Wei He hastily said according to what Wei Yuan had talked to him before: "The two leaders of E and Xia, our three cities are like the horns of a herd of cattle. If the three cows stand like our three cities, The wolves will not be able to speak, this is the advantage given to us by God and our ancestors."

"There is Xirong to the west of the Acropolis, and the grassland to the north of Xiacheng. To the northeast of Echeng is the settlement of Beidi. Neither Xirong, Beidi nor the people on the grassland are our race. We must unite to fight against them. Take away their population, rob their cattle and sheep. Our three cities cannot attack each other, this will leave opportunities for those alien races."

"Although the Acropolis was besieged by Xirong, there are still many warriors, women and children. I, Weihe, swear to my ancestors and heaven and earth here that as long as I am the leader, I will never attack the two cities of Xia'e; if the two cities of Xia'e The city was attacked by other clan cities, and I will use the soldiers of the entire acropolis to help the two cities. If I violate the oath, let me be executed by bull... no, by wooden cannons."

Chapter 96 Tri-Cities Alliance ([-])

The three cities are the horns of each other, which is convenient for self-protection, but it also limits the development of the most powerful side.

After Weihe proposed an alliance, E Yue added that any party that violated the oath would be attacked by the other two parties.

Now the three cities have their own advantages, but Xia City has the greatest advantage in the short term, and the conditions proposed by E Yue are also a constraint.If it really came to the time when Xiacheng could conquer two cities with one city, this oath would naturally be meaningless, but within a few years it would be enough for Chen Jian to keep a clear head.

Chen Jian didn't make any more demands either. Now that the relationship between the three cities has just become closer and they have experienced fighting together, it is not enough to become a true alliance of cities with a common leader.

And now there are only some roads near Xiacheng. The connection to Echeng mainly depends on the grass river and the frozen ice and snow. The city is also difficult to control.

What's more, the way of thinking in this era and the cities connected by clan blood kinship cannot be annexed without cultural aggression as a foreshadowing.In the previous life, when Shang destroyed Xia and Zhou destroyed Shang, they both needed to retain the titles and fiefdoms of Xia and Shang, and have their own leaders, otherwise the people who were annexed to the country would not recognize the ruler in name.

Even if the rudimentary country of the Fang Kingdom Alliance in this era is unified, it will only be unified in the name of enfeoffment due to poor transportation and constraints on productivity.Take Fu Hao from the previous Shang Dynasty as an example. As the high priest of the Yin Shang Dynasty and the wife of the King of Shang, she was a tribal leader with independent fiefdoms and clans. As a tribal leader, she became a priest of the Shang Dynasty. When there are no court meetings and sacrifices, she lives in her own fief, even if they are husband and wife, she and Wu Ding do not live together on weekdays.

All kinds of methods that later generations find ridiculous or incomprehensible are the mainstream of this era of desolation and retreat, and all systems are being explored.

Chen Jian is not a person who is too ambitious. If he can live for 70 or [-] years in this life, even if he achieves a nominal unity, he will be considered complete. If he eats a fat man and conquers it by force, he will inevitably suffer a huge backlash.

In the short term, except for the alliance and hundreds of thousands of catties of grain, Xiacheng did not get much benefit, but in the long run, Xiacheng's advantages will become bigger and bigger.The military is only auxiliary, and politics and culture can also be used as a means of aggression and assimilation. When speaking the same language, having the same beliefs, and the same living habits, whoever wins and who loses who rules who is not the same result?For individualized rulers, Han and traitors are not at odds; for grouped ethnic groups, most of them served as soldiers and paid food before gaining the status of "human" in the all-out war caused by the industrial age. Who is a "Han" and who is a "thief" is just a lie of the ruling class.

Now that Chen Jian understands this and is confident in Xiacheng's cultural and political aggression, he is also very satisfied with this alliance.

There are nearly [-] miles of non-grassland area to the north of Xiacheng, and there are many small settlements in it. It is difficult for the tribes of the grassland to recover within a few years. These small settlements living in the mountains are Xiacheng's short-term goal. In order to expand the population and land, it is necessary to recuperate, and there will be no large-scale battles in the near future.

As for going to the winter solstice to participate in the winter hunt invited by Suyue, Chen Jian has already made up his mind that he must go, and it doesn’t matter whether it is through bribery, friendship, or any other conceivable method, as long as he can get the rest of the tribe. He is willing to pay any price to get the identity of a brother and relative.

Without an identity, you are not qualified to be the publicly elected leader of the Great Tribal Alliance. No matter how powerful you are, you will still be labeled as Xirong and Dongyi just like 20 years ago.

Suyue's tribe is far in the east, and it is difficult to have contact with Xiacheng, and the two cities cannot threaten each other, and there are not many clans that support Suyue to become the leader of the alliance. With many conflicts, Chen Jian estimates that Suyue also needs to A tribe that is capable of fighting but will not threaten Sucheng is an example.

With this battle, Chen Jian believed that Su He, who was watching the battle, would pass on what he had seen and heard, and Xia Cheng's reputation would be even louder by then.

After asking about the Wei River, Chen Jian knew that there were seven or eight cities within [-] miles to the northwest of the entire river, but the three cities of Xia, E, and Wei were considered the most powerful of these cities.

Now that he asked about the situation around him, Wei He naturally talked about the second thing Wei Yuan discussed with him.

"Ji, E, since you all agree with the three-city oath, I have one thing to discuss with you. Before the Acropolis was besieged by the Xirong people, I first sent people to the three cities in the lower reaches of the river to ask for help. Xirong The envoys also went there, threatening them that the acropolis would be taken within a month, and whoever dared to send troops to rescue them would take their city within a month."

"The three cities didn't dare to send troops after hearing this. They violated the oath of the year. I ask the two of you to send troops to punish them together."

E Yue did not answer immediately, but waited for Chen Jian to say that after this battle, at least in terms of war, E Yue trusted Chen Jian's judgment.

"Where are these three cities?"

"Three hundred miles to the east along the river, before Xia City didn't exist, we used to exchange salt there."

There was no map in this era. According to the information brought back by Songdai, Chen Jian judged that the three hundred miles to the east of the Acropolis should be about five hundred miles to the south of E City, which is far beyond his control.

"What is the population of those three cities?"

"Thousands, there are not many soldiers who can fight, and they are all small towns."

Chen Jian felt relieved when he heard that the city was not big, nodded and said: "The city is small but they don't know the reason that their lips and teeth will be cold without it. Their leaders are dull; they violated their oath and were afraid of the threats of the Xirong people. The ancestors didn't like it. This is the reason why we can send troops. But this expedition cannot be rushed, and we don't need the three leaders to go together."

Since the name is to be justified, and the excuse of the alliance of brothers is used to beat the surrounding tribal cities to gain hegemony, it must be justified.

Weihe and Eyue are not very good at this kind of method yet, Chen Jian said with a smile: "We can send people there first, tell them the result of this battle with the Xirong people, and send the head of the leader of Xirong, take the head of the leader of Xirong Spread the word to those tribes who were oppressed to pay tribute. Xiacheng can send a sharp-tongued person to question the leaders of those cities. If they know their stupidity and can offer slaves and tribute, then we can forgive them. If they can’t Recognizing our own stupidity requires us to send troops."

Weihe and Eyue agreed deeply, nodded in agreement, and Chen Jian said again: "This time the Xirong tribe is defeated, the rest of the Xirong settlements will be shocked, and those relatives who ally with the Xirong people will also be hesitant. The oath of kinship is the time when the four barbarians pay tribute."

"To the west of the Acropolis, there are some Xirong settlements. Those who are three hundred miles away can capture them as slaves, and those within three hundred miles can force them to pay tribute."

Speaking of this, Wei He's face changed slightly. Wei Yuan had discussed with him that he would take advantage of the new defeat of the Xirong people to develop westward, expand the land and population, and capture slaves, but he didn't expect Chen Jian to think of this, and he was very Apparently he wanted to get involved too.

But after thinking about it, he felt that this place was close to the Acropolis after all, maybe even if Xia Cheng wanted to, at most he could capture a small group of slaves, most of them were his own.

E Yue is not very interested in this matter, because E City is too far away.

Chen Jian signaled the two to wait a moment, and went out to call his orderly. The orderly carried some silk and wolf brush pine oil charcoal with him. E Yue had seen these things before, but Weihe saw them for the first time.

After the simple charcoal ink condensed with pine putty and colloid was ground with water, Chen Jian held the brush in the way of grasping chopsticks, and roughly drew a rough sketch of the three cities on the silk.

There is no measurement, everything is based on feeling, and the few reference objects are Caohe and Dahe.

Pointing to the simple map, he asked, "Chief Weihe, if this is the Acropolis, what else is there to the west?"

Weihe looked at the map, thought for a while, and said, "To the west, in Baixiali, there are mountains with many trees, and there are flaming birds living there. After crossing the mountains and going west two hundred miles, there is a plain. There are tributaries of two great rivers, and there are many Xirong settlements."

Chen Jian turned around and asked, "Leader Eyue, where is E City facing east?"

"There is a city four hundred miles to the east, and to the northeast are the settlements of Beidi people. They are scattered in various places. After the last conquest, the various clans have a tendency to unite, but there are still many... Hmm, contradictory."

Unconsciously, he used a new word in Xiacheng, and felt that this word could sum up the essence of the problem in a concise way. Chen Jian smiled secretly, and drew a few strokes on the map with a brush.

"Whether it is Xirong or Beidi, they can only compete with one of our three cities. If our three cities are united, they will not be rivals."

"Yes, although they have a large number of people, they are still fighting among clans. They have just learned how to grow corn, so it is difficult to fight for a long time. In the past, the Acropolis could fight against the Xirong people. Adding the two cities of Xia and E, they couldn't beat them. It's just...it's too far away, and the clansmen need to rest after going through this war."

Weihe is very aware of the consequences of the three cities joining forces. These slaves of the Xirong people will definitely be divided up by the three cities. In this case, they will be divided much less.

Chen Jian shook his head and said, "I didn't say to send troops immediately."

He stretched out his hand and drew two circles on the west side of the Acropolis and the east side of the E City, and said: "Our three cities can jointly build two cities here. 500 people, if anyone in the city breaks the law, he will also be exiled there."

"The settlements of these Xirong and Beidi people have been fighting for years. After we build a city here, some small settlements will approach us to ask for our help. We can also conquer those larger settlements to scare the rest of the settlements. They fought so hard that they knew they could only survive if they depended on us."

"After the city was built, the population gradually increased. Those who learned our language and identified with their ancestors would live near the city. Xirong women are more willing to have sex with people in the city every year during the Pregnancy Festival, and the population continues to expand. Those Xirong people act as The wild people need to pay food taxes and gradually integrate into us. And those tribes that are farther away need to make them feel afraid and submit to us to offer tribute."

"In this way, if there are some powerful tribes or wise leaders in Xirong or Beidi, we can know in advance and unite with those small settlements to eliminate them. Just like a chopstick is hard to break, but a chopstick is easy to break. If it is broken, within ten years, Xirong and Beidi will hardly be strong."

After Chen Jian finished speaking, he pointed to the southeast again: "The oath violated by the three cities here is something we must attack. If we send envoys and their leaders come to admit their mistakes with thorns on their backs, we can forgive them. But they must make an oath with us, and when they go out to fight other tribes in the future, they will also send troops to assist them. Otherwise, our three cities will crush them."

"To the north of Xiacheng are the tribes of the grassland. They are different from Xirong and Beidi, and their skin color is different from ours. The language is not close. Even if they say the same thing a hundred years later, their skin color will still alienate them from us. This cannot be integrated. can only be destroyed."