"Your Majesty, I heard that the snow north of the Great Wall is even heavier, even up to the neck. The Huns' cattle, sheep, horses and slaves froze to death in large numbers. When spring comes, there will be a massacre on the grassland, and the Huns may even
Go south and attack my country, Zhao." Wei Wuji reminded.
Under normal circumstances, the northern Hu people like to go south to plunder when autumn is high and their horses are fat, because this is the period when their fighting power is strongest.
After a summer of feeding, the war horses have grown a thick layer of fat, and their swords and arrows have been polished to be very sharp. The strong tribesmen are gearing up.
At this time, it was the harvest season of Zhao State. Going south could plunder more money and food to help them survive the bitter cold winter.
In spring, the tribesmen had been hungry all winter, their combat effectiveness was low, their horses had lost all their fat, and their cattle and sheep were as skinny as wood. The Xiongnu would try their best to avoid war with the Zhao people.
However, there is one exception, that is, a large-scale snowstorm occurs on the grassland, a large number of livestock freeze to death, and the tribesmen have no food to eat, and the tribes continue to fight for limited resources.
At this time, the Xiongnu Chanyu would call on all the tribes to go south. The purpose was not to plunder, but to reduce the number of tribes.
Let the people under his command continue to die in battle when attacking Zhao. Only when the population is almost reduced, will they turn around and return to the grassland.
In the end, it not only achieved the goal of reducing the number of soldiers, but also weakened the strength of Zhao State, and by the way, carried out another wave of robberies.
The Zhao State also organized a large army to go north to plunder the Xiongnu, and finally returned with a great victory. However, the territory captured could not be occupied for a long time, and the cattle and sheep plundered were not enough for military expenses.
After a few times, you can only switch from strategic offense to strategic defense.
"I will ask Li Mu to pay attention." Zhao Kuo nodded, "Have all the workers been placed?"
"They have all been placed in Congtai, and everyone is constantly praising the king. Even if there is heavy snow and the roads are blocked, there are still people coming from all over the past few days." Wei Wuji said with a smile.
This is the power of fame. Everyone chooses to believe in Zhao Kuo.
Even though all countries have openly and covertly prevented people from migrating, and even set up checkpoints at the borders, people still keep coming from all over the place.
Not only to be a guest of King Zhao, but also to have a piece of land of my own, it would be far better than it is now.
This kind of thing is not uncommon in later generations, not to mention this era. The long border cannot be stopped by just a few checkpoints.
…
Yanmen County, Woyang County.
Zhanmu used to be a leader of the Linhu tribe, but now he often calls himself a Zhao and is proud of it.
Although he was sometimes ridiculed by other Zhao people, he didn't care because his son was studying at Handan Academy and worshiped a great Confucian as his teacher and learned the purest Zhao characters and language. This is what many Zhao people
Neither had a chance.
He originally wanted to kill a cow and bring the beef to visit his son's teacher some time ago. He heard that people from Zhao who wanted to become teachers would send money to Shu Xiu, but he didn't know if his son had given it to him at that time. He wanted to make up for it for him.
.
He also heard that beef is not allowed to be eaten in the Central Plains, and even nobles find it difficult to eat it. The same must be true for the Confucian scholars. Giving beef to himself will definitely win the favor of the Confucian scholars.
By the way, let's take a look at King Zhao. It was him who gave his children the opportunity to go to school. Zeng Mu has always been very grateful to him in his heart.
However, a snowstorm interrupted all Zhanmu's plans. Most of the tribe's cattle and sheep froze to death, and even several tribesmen froze to death.
In the morning, Zhanmu put his luggage on his back and hung a big knife on his waist. He got on his horse and prepared to go to the city to ask for help. He didn't know whether those high-ranking officials would care about them, but at this time, he could only treat the horse as a living horse.
.
Without support, they may not survive this winter.
As soon as Zangmu opened the gate of the tribe, he suddenly saw a group of Zhao soldiers walking in his direction not far away, and he suddenly trembled with fright.
"General...general, what are you doing?" Zhan Mu asked in fear. Is the Zhao Kingdom going to kill everyone?
"Disaster relief." Li Mu pointed to the carriage behind him and said, "Stop talking nonsense, these are coal and winter clothes to assist you.
Distribute it to everyone immediately. The food is at the back. The snow is too slippery and the vehicles cannot get on. You can take your clan members to move it."
"Disaster relief? Save us?" Zang Mu's eyes widened, pointing at himself, and said in disbelief.
This news is even more unbelievable than Zhao Guolai killing them.
Over the years, no matter how severe the snow disaster was, how could Zhao Guo take care of them?
"Are you from Zhao country?" Li Mu asked in a deep voice.
"Yes." Zhan Mu said immediately without any hesitation.
"Then I will save you." Li Mu said loudly.
"Subordinate... I would like to thank you, General." Zhanmu trembled with excitement, and then performed a non-standard Zhao etiquette, "You haven't asked the general for his name yet?"
"Li Mu." Li Mu strode inside, "Are there any other tribes nearby?"
"There are two small tribes to the east and one tribe to the west." Zhan Mu said immediately.
"Send two people to lead our people there. It took us two full hours to find your tribe." Li Mu said as he walked forward.
After walking a few steps, he saw a collapsed tent. He swept away the snow on it with a long spear. When he got in, Li Mu's face instantly darkened. He saw an old man who had frozen to death lying in the tent.
.
"Didn't your tribe buy coal?" Li Mu took his finger back from under the old man's nose and asked in a deep voice.
"We want to buy it, but we can't." Zengmu shook his head bitterly.
Although Zhao Kuo limited the price of coal, the output was not enough. Even if the price was limited, most people would still not be able to buy it.
Although Zhao State has many open-pit coal mines and has drilling technology, it has limited manpower and it is still unrealistic to supply it to the whole country.
"Hasn't the king already decreed that coal can be exchanged for work? And there is a coal mine in Yanmen. For every ten kilograms of coal dug, one kilogram can be taken home." Li Mu said.
This is another order issued by Zhao Kuo.
In order to encourage nearby people to dig coal, as long as they hand over nine kilograms of coal, they can take home one kilogram. Even the poorest families can save enough coal for the winter if they dig coal for a few days.
Of course, this benefit can only be enjoyed by a few areas with coal mines such as Yanmen and Taiyuan.
"It's not that my subordinates have never led the tribe to do work, but every time after building a road, the officials said that the coal has been distributed and asked us to wait. Until now, we have not received the coal, but we have paid a lot of money for the work.
We are here, so we don’t have any grievances.”
Zhanmu said that according to the previous practices of these officials, being able to get wages was beyond his expectation.
"Later, my subordinates led some tribesmen to dig in the mines, but the officials in charge of the mines told us that although this policy exists, it requires the approval of the local county magistrate. My subordinates went to the county magistrate again, but the county magistrate kept asking in various ways.
Excuses to decline.”
"Could it be that the county magistrate is targeting the leader because of his identity?" one person speculated.
Zhan Mu understood what the other party meant. He suspected that the county magistrate looked down on his Hu origin. He shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be the case. The Tiege tribe and us not far away are both Hu people. But they can not only get a lot of money by helping the government build roads."
Coal can also lead people to mine in the mountains."