On the grassland at the foot of Helan Mountain, a Hun woman held down a goat while a man with a knife neatly cut its trachea and arteries. The goat kept struggling, and its blood spattered on the ground, turning crimson in the brown soil.
After convulsing for a while, he finally became motionless and completely dead.
A group of people were busy picking up the dead sheep. They quickly cut a small hole in the sheep's skin and blew air in until the sheep was as loud as a puffer fish. Chen Ping was very surprised to see it.
This is the first time in his life that he has seen this method of tidying up sheep. At this time, the skin and meat of the dead sheep have been basically separated, making it much easier to peel off the skin. The man who killed the sheep peeled off the entire sheepskin in three strokes.
, then turned it inside out, then began to remove the internal organs and chop the meat...
When the Huns were killing cattle and sheep, Chen Ping stood by and watched with his hands in his sleeves. At first, the Huns did not welcome this pretty boy with a strange smile on his face and looking around curiously.
But when Chen Ping took out a piece of salt, or even more rare, a small grain of brown sugar as a gift, the Huns, regardless of gender, old or young, put on warm smiles, and allowed Chen Ping to look around, and even tried their best to invite him to Qionglu.
Sit inside.
Chen Ping did not reject their kindness. He remembered his mission: only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win a hundred battles! He is the eyes and ears of the county captain Heifu, so he must observe every detail of the Huns, and if possible, try
Learn their language.
This is the pasture of the local "Xiao Qiequ". The translator arranged by Wu Shi Yan for Chen Ping could not explain the original meaning of Qiequ. According to Chen Ping's understanding, it is probably similar to the Qiang Rong's "Jun Chang".
Chen Ping came to Helan Mountain for a few days. Although this place was just one of the many grazing areas of the Xiongnu, it was the time when the Xiongnu prince Mo Dun was getting married. There were quite a few Xiongnu nobles gathered here, so Chen Ping finally sorted out the various titles within the Xiongnu.
:
The Shanyu was the supreme leader of the Xiongnu tribe, who combined military and political power. He was hereditary from the Luutang clan. Who was the first generation of Shanyu? The Huns themselves couldn’t tell clearly. Anyway, the Xiongnu had been a country for decades, starting from Yinshan and Hetao.
It started in one area and gradually grew, and now Touman Chanyu rules the Huns.
Under the Chanyu, the Xiongnu also had left and right Danghu, left and right Guduhou, etc. These were high-status nobles who could command "ten thousand cavalry". Small tribes had thousands of people, and the ruler was called Danghu.
The small tribes were called Qiequ, Qianchang, Baichang, Shichang.
Based on this calculation, the Xiongnu implemented a feudal system. From the Chanyu to the Wanqi, each household and Qiqu had their own fiefdom and subjects. During the war, they had to lead the troops to follow the Chanyu...
Since he was a minor nobleman, the Xiongnu family was from a good family, as can be seen from the large amount of milky yellow cheese drying on the grass outside the dome.
The method of making this kind of dairy product is to simmer goat's milk or cow's milk for several hours until it becomes a paste, then put it into a container or shape it into pieces by hand, and then put it in the sun to dry
.After a few days, it will be as hard as a rock, and it will not be a problem to store it for a year and a half.
As far as Chen Ping saw, each of the Huns had a few pieces of cheese in their bags to satisfy their hunger and thirst. They could be heated and melted for consumption, or they could be put directly into their mouths and held in their mouths for an hour. When talking,
Almost everyone has a sour taste.
Seeing this scene, Chen Ping suddenly realized: "No wonder Wu Shiluo once said that the Chinese people are not as good as the Xiongnu when they are tired from wind and rain, but not hungry or thirsty. In fact, it is not that the Huns can really endure hunger and thirst, maybe because they eat cheese
, dried meat is easy to carry and can be put into the mouth at any time. It is really an excellent marching food..."
When it comes to long-distance marches and thousands-mile attacks, the Huns have a huge advantage.
But Chen Ping didn't have to worry, because before he came, Beidi County Lieutenant Heifu had purchased a lot of wheat flour from Guanzhong and planned to tinker with a new type of dry food called "Guokui"...
Chen Ping's first reaction was to ask Heifu: "What is a pot?"
Finally, it was Chen Ping's wife who took him into the kitchen and pointed at the new cooking utensils in the kitchen of Mr. Hei's house. Only then did Chen Ping understand.
While thinking about it, Chen Ping was invited into the Qionglu by Xiaoqiequ of the Xiongnu.
The so-called Qionglu is a felt tent with walls woven with wicker and sheepskin felt cloth sewed in the gaps. The top is raised in the middle and the sides are drooping. The shape is like the sky, so it is called Qionglu.
This kind of living room is not big, and the whole family is squeezed into it, so it will not be very comfortable. It can only provide protection from wind and rain. Its advantage is that it is easy to disassemble and move.
Chen Ping began to think again: "That's why the Xiongnu people did not have to work in the fields all the time in the city. They moved in pursuit of water and grass. They dismantled the domes and put them on the bullock carts. The whole family mounted their horses, drove the cattle and sheep, and ate cheese.
Going hundreds of miles or thousands of miles away. Because this happens every year, he marches and fights and breaks out of camp very quickly..."
Compared with the Central Plains army, which could only travel thirty miles in one day and spend another two hours setting up camp, digging stoves and cooking, the Huns' customs were really suitable for fighting.
The Xiongnu Xiao Qiequ didn't know what Chen Ping was planning, so he enthusiastically asked his wife and daughter to bring fresh hot milk. The Huns usually added some salt from Huamachi to the hot milk. But this time, Chen Ping
Ping gave him a pound of brown sugar as a gift, and Xiao Qiequ's wife and daughter cut half of it into hot milk. After trying to taste it, Xiao Qiequ's eyes lit up and he raised his thumbs and praised loudly!
Changing the taste is also a good experience for the Huns aristocrats, and brown sugar can also be sold at a good price on the grassland.
When Xiao Qiequ and Chen Ping were communicating in a language they didn't understand, the freshly cut mutton was already being cooked in the tent. Chen Ping noticed that the iron cauldron used was not the one from the Central Plains, but an ordinary four-legged pottery pot.
, this is not bad. Most herdsmen's families cannot even afford pottery, but use thick cowhide to store water for cooking.
Except for salt, no seasoning is added to the mutton. In the land of the Huns, no grains are grown, and spices can only be used by the nobles. The cooked mutton pieces will be evenly broken down and then distributed to family members and guests.
As a guest, Chen Ping was given the best food: sheep's eyes. Although he resisted a little, he still put it into his mouth with a smile. It tasted a bit chewy, like cartilage.
Xiao Qiequ's wives and children all gathered in the tent. At this time, Chen Ping discovered that Xiao Qiequ was sitting in the chairman's chair, with himself as a guest below him. Opposite him was Xiaoqiequ's almost adult son. After that,
It's other wives and children.
Only at the last table, farthest from the food and closest to the door, sat an old woman with gray hair. She carefully ate a little bit of cold leftover milk that was passed to her.
"Who is this?" Chen Ping tilted his head and asked the translator in Xia dialect.
The translator said: "It is the mother of Xiaoqiequ."
"stepmother?"
"No, it's my biological mother."
Chen Ping was a little surprised. In the Central Plains, parents have to sit at the head of the family, and the son has to choose the best food, remove the bones, and serve it himself!
"The customs of the Xiongnu are very different from those of the Central Plains."
The translator explained: "The Xiongnu value the strong and the strong, and despise the old and the weak. The strong eat fat food, and the old eat the rest. Xiaoqiequ is doing a good job for his mother. In many Xiongnu herdsmen's families, their parents are not dead until they are sixty years old.
Throw them down from the place where they were offered sacrifices to the heavens, and let them starve to death, and then be devoured by wild wolves and vultures!”
Chen Ping couldn't help but be shocked. Although he learned from Huang Lao and did not strictly follow etiquette, the meaning of filial piety and brotherhood was an ethics that all schools in the Central Plains vigorously promoted. The Qin State even made laws to punish unfilial sons. The behavior of the Huns was not allowed to the Qin Dynasty.
, every household will be accused and sentenced to death...
However, with Chen Ping's wisdom, he understood after careful consideration: The Xiongnu clearly focused on war and attack, and their old and weak were unable to fight, so they relied on their fat diet to make them strong.
After arriving at the frontier fortress, he gradually discovered that the life of animal husbandry was more cruel than farming. A snowstorm or a plague caused the death of cattle and sheep, and the herdsmen could only survive by eating grass and hunting. In this case, many people at home
Every mouth is a burden. They either choose to abandon the old man who can no longer work, or choose to kill the newborn...
Chen Ping remembered what the county captain Heifu said: "Survival of the fittest, survival of the fittest!"
This sentence is vividly reflected on the grassland: when the basic living conditions cannot be met, one must plunder outside to maintain a livelihood; to protect one's livestock and wives from outsiders, a military system must be established.
The cruel environment created a cruel nation, so besides herding and hunting, the Huns also committed robbery and plunder as a way of making a living.
Earlier, Yan, Zhao, and Qin were invaded by the Xiongnu. Later, Li Mu defeated the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu no longer dared to enter the border. So the Xiongnu targeted the Loufan, Baiyang, Linhu and other tribes in Henan.
plundered them and conquered them as slaves of their own tribe.
The man who just killed the sheep for Xiao Qiequ was an Aries man; the salt his family ate was carried by the flower horse Chi Yanrong; and on Helan Mountain, there were some Linhu people who had snatched it from hundreds of miles away.
Specialized in felling wood and splitting firewood.
Chen Ping somewhat understood why Heifu proposed the strategy of expanding to the west, and then made a key suggestion: first defeat the Xiongnu, and then conquer the Yueshi!
"I once heard that King Wuling of Zhao wanted to make his son the king of the country, but he wore Hu clothes and led the scholar-bureaucrats to attack the Hu land from the northwest. He wanted to attack Qin from the clouds and Jiuyuan to the south, so he pretended to be an envoy and entered Qin to observe Qin.
Politics..."
"Although King Zhao Wuling's mission failed and Zhao was destroyed, the Xiongnu replaced the powerful Zhao and became a serious problem in the north of Qin."
Decades of repeated plundering and conquests made the Xiongnu stronger and stronger. Taking advantage of the Qin Dynasty's unification of the Central Plains and no time to visit the north, they took the opportunity to cross the river and occupy a large area of land south of the Hetao, with hundreds of thousands of people in control.
And it is located in the north of Guanzhong. If you can break through the Great Wall with a light horse, you can go up to the county and north, and you can reach Ganquan Mountain in half a month!
If not dealt with in time, the Hu people may become a serious problem in the Central Plains.
He secretly thought: "The county captain is really far-sighted, and he is not as good as me..."
Smart people are always able to see the subtleties, and Chen Ping did not eat this meal in vain.
After finishing the meal, Chen Ping left another piece of cloth as a gift and said goodbye to Xiao Qiequ. When leaving Qionglu, Xiao Qiequ and his wife and son, whose mouths were full of oil, greeted each other warmly.
While Chen Ping was polite as he promised, he couldn't take his eyes off the old mother who was sitting on a shabby felt mat, holding a stone, knocking on the leftover sheep bones, and sucking the marrow inside with difficulty.
At her feet, several of her dogs were snatching food from her, gnawing on meaty bones...