Spring and Autumn I Am King

Donghu, Zhao Wuxi's only understanding of this tribe on the grasslands is from the records of later generations, as well as the few words from the documents of the Daijun border newspaper.

But in fact, this is an ancient nation, distributed in the south of the Xilamulun River (Chifeng), a tributary of the Liaohe River. The Chifeng area once gave birth to the glorious Hongshan culture and the lower Xiajiadian culture. However, during the climate change from 2,000 to 1,000 BC, it gradually became unsuitable for farming, and the dividing line between agriculture and animal husbandry began to appear. Therefore, the lower Xiajiadian culture was replaced by the upper Xiajiadian culture. Donghu, the indigenous or foreign people's way of life changed from farming to animal husbandry. They should be one of the earliest nomads in East Asia.

From the classics, the records of the Donghu in the Central Plains are also very early. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, after the Duke was called to the north to conquer Yan and Hao, there were Donghu tribes who paid tribute to the Zhou Dynasty. However, at that time, there was still a Shanrong between Donghu and Zhuxia. After Duke Huan of Qi went north to break the Shanrong, the Donghu tribe multiplied, and then gradually went south to the homeland of Shanrong, that is, the western Liaoning area, and began to be neighbors with the State of Yan. The tribes of Xi and Donghu also chased the migration of water plants and approached Daibei.

Although the distribution range is relatively wide, the Donghu is still a loosely divided tribe. Although they have the same origin, they are independent. Dozens of tribes are scattered in the vast Yan and Daizhibei, and are enemies of Dai and Tuhe. Before the Zhao clan's battle to destroy Daiguo, Yu Xi and Yi Dun went to spy on the military situation. They once met a small tribe of Donghu, and a conflict broke out.

From the limited information, Zhao Wuxi knew that the Donghu people were typical nomads, living on animal husbandry, migrating by water and grass, and had no fixed residence. They used felt tents for their houses, and the doors opened eastward toward the sun. They ate meat, drank cheese, and made clothes from the hairs of birds and animals. They despise the old and value the young, and almost every boy can ride a horse and draw a bow before he grows up, and shoot birds and beasts for food.

Although Donghu has entered the Bronze Age and can cast simple weapons and utensils, its system is still very primitive. The most basic unit is Yiluo, with dozens to hundreds of people. The leaders of the townships are not inherited from generation to generation, and whoever is the most courageous and strong, and who can decide things such as legal battles and lawsuits, will be elected by the clansmen as the leaders of the townships. Each town has its own small leader, and dozens of blood-related towns form a tribe, and then elect a big leader. Therefore, the Donghu tribe often has a population of several thousand. Relying on blood ties and obeying the orders of the big leader, it occupies a grassland of more than 100 miles.

However, when cattle and sheep on the grassland die of illness, or when the water and grass are not plump enough, dozens of Donghu tribes north of Yanshan will attack the surrounding cities and states in groups, plundering their food and population, and generally concentrate on them. In autumn and winter, the scumbags and filthy people in the Liaodong area of ​​western Liaoning suffered from it. Donghu also followed Shanrong and became a major frontier of the Yan state. The reason why the Yan state was basically a soy sauce in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, except for its location in the north, required a lot of energy to deal with the intrusion of the Hu people.

However, the loose tribal organization of Donghu basically looted near the eastern section of Yanshan, and it was difficult to pose a threat to Daijun in the west. It can be said that until ten years ago, Donghu and Zhao only conducted a small amount of trade. Zhao Houzhi was in the unification of the Central Plains, and he had no interest in Donghu for the time being, and Donghu was also afraid of Zhao's power and did not dare to intrude.

The two sides should have lived together in peace and harmony. However, a butterfly named Zhao Wuxi slowly flapped its wings in Lu and Jizhou, affecting not only the Central Plains, but after ten years, it finally reached the grasslands. .

It is both accidental and inevitable. In the increasingly frequent communication with Daijun, a tribe of Donghu, located in the west, secretly learned stirrups and saddles from Zhao people...

They can't imitate Zhao people's fine armor, but stirrups and saddles are not complicated. They can be imitated at a glance. Copper and iron are not enough, so wood and leather can be used instead.

However, in the beginning, these two types of harnesses were not quickly accepted. The Donghu people have experienced a long period of **** riding. At most, there are cushions called "鞯". As for the stirrups, they are also unheard of. At most, children learn to ride horses. Comes with foot buckles. Therefore, at the Chishan ancestor worship meeting ten years ago, they ridiculed the leader of the Liuhe Department who was equipped with a saddle and stepped on a stirrup.

In the face of everyone's ridicule, however, this small tribe leader named Liuhe returned from humiliation, but he created a miracle by relying on these two things.

The high saddle increases the stability factor of the ride, and the rider can sit firmly on the horse. The stirrups make getting on and off the horse like walking on the ground. The rider's concentration on the stirrups on the horse increases sharply, and his hands are free to sway. They can not only hold the horse poles, grazing, drive the herds, but also open the bow and shoot arrows. For the Donghu people, who are already very skilled in horsemanship, with these two things, they can shoot arrows with a bow on horseback, swing a spear, and rotate their bodies at large angles, which greatly improves their combat effectiveness.

In a sense, nomads get stirrups and saddles, which is tantamount to adding wings to a tiger!

This technological change, which would have taken place hundreds of years later, came out ahead of schedule because of Zhao Wuxi's reasons, causing a storm on the grasslands.

The leader of the Donghu Liuhe Department once went to Tuhe County, Dai County, where he saw the majesty of the Zhao State's cavalry. In the winter of that year, when the neighboring tribes again planned to go south to plunder the Yanshan Mountains, Liuhe suddenly launched an attack, conquered and annexed this tribe!

This was just the beginning. Other tribes who had been disdainful of the Liuhe tribe were taught to be human beings in the following years. This was the beginning of the melee in the grasslands north of Yanshan.

At this time, the Zhao clan launched a war to eliminate the Wei clan, followed by a war with Qin, Qi, and Wu, and a large number of cavalrymen were transferred to the county. , the land is almost empty, and the guards left are just sticking to the borders of the city and are indifferent to what happened at the foot of Yanshan Mountain.

And the conservative and closed state of Yan did not realize how much threat this unification war within Donghu would bring to itself in the future.

It was not until three years ago (484 BC) that Yu Xi finally returned to Daidi with the Daijun cavalry. Horses were consumables, and the Central Plains were not like the grasslands, with a steady stream of war horses. In these five or six years of fierce fighting, Daiqi suffered heavy losses, more than a thousand soldiers were killed and injured, and the horses were simply not enough to fight again. Adhering to Zhao Hou's national policy of "resting and recuperating", Daijun also began to enter a slow recovery period, waiting for the foal. When they grow up, they can reproduce the scene of thousands of rides.

At this time, the Liuhe Department was far from being comparable to the past. Its leader relied on the addition of stirrups and saddles and swept north of Yanshan. He began to set his sights on the Liaohe River Basin, and led his troops to the holy mountain of the Donghu people: Chishan.

Just like what was happening in the Central Plains, this was a **** annexation. There were still tribes resisting in the east. After the war, there were many more war dead on the green grasslands. The custom of Donghu is to respect death in battle. Liuhe has people lift the corpse, sing and dance along the way, and **** the soul of the deceased back to Chishan!

Chishan is also known as Chifeng in later generations. This is the place where the Donghu people originated, and it is also the sacred mountain in the minds of various tribes.

Here, Liuhe, in the name of the conquerors of various tribes, sacrificed the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains and rivers, and declared that the goddess Chishan had ordered him to be the leader of Quandonghu!

"This is what happened last year. It took Liuhe ten years to subdue the various Donghu troops, and he was called the Donghu King in Chishan~www.wuxiaspot.com~ He traveled thousands of miles from east to west, and his troops were tens of thousands, among them young men who could draw bows to fight. As many as more than ten thousand... This spring, the grasslands at the foot of Yanshan Mountain were affected, and Liuhe began to lead his troops to move westward. Now they have entered the north of Yan and Daizhi. Tu He and Dairen who were grazing on the grasslands north of Yanshan suffered tragically. It was looted, and the country of Yan was also deeply affected, so I sent a few soldiers to attack Zhongshan, because the army had to defend in the north!"

At the end of July in the eighth year of Zhao Hou (481 BC), after the destruction of Zhongshan and turning it into a county, Zhao Wuxi had returned to Yecheng, and Yi Dun, who was very familiar with grassland affairs, reviewed the latest situation in northern Xinjiang one by one. inform him.

Yi Dun originally thought that he would need to explain the threat of a large tribe in detail before Zhao Hou could realize the seriousness of the matter, but as expected, Zhao Wuxi paid more attention to it than him.

"The wise see the danger as invisible, the wise see the calamity before the sprout, the few are busy with the war in the Central Plains, neglecting the land of the Hu raccoon, and the fault of the few... This autumn and winter, the East Hu will surely go south to loot, and the state of Yan is already in a state of emergency, if we let it go. , the East Hu will become a serious problem in the north!"

He ordered: "After three years of recuperation, the number of horses in Dai County has recovered. Quickly order Yu Xi to lead Dai, Tu He, and Wu Zhe to defeat the Hu Bian Zhi Hu!"

PS: Chapter 2 is at night