To the north of the Han Dynasty, the vast prairie has gradually taken on the appearance of early spring.

Because they could not eat delicious aquatic plants throughout the winter, the skinny cattle, sheep and horses were also driven out of the mound and basin by the slaves, moving their muscles and bones.

In Munan, where the climate is relatively mild, most of the frozen ponds and rivers have thawed; There are even a few pastures that have grown to the point where they can barely graze.

Even in Mubei, the steppe in the northeast of the Mongolian Desert in later generations has gradually ushered in the breath of early spring.

However, with the arrival of a desperately large tribe, this year's Mubei grassland is destined not to be peaceful.

——There is still more than a month before the dài Lin Conference in May, and the king's tent in Yuting alone has already appeared in Dragon City (1)!

According to the situation of previous years, after spending the winter in the warm Munan, Shan Yuting should have arrived north in Longcheng in mid-April at the earliest, and then migrated all the way north after the end of the Gulin Conference in early May.

But this year, Shan Yuting appeared in the Longcheng area a month ahead of schedule with tens of thousands of warriors from his headquarters, as well as hundreds of thousands of subordinates and millions of cattle, sheep and livestock.

This has brought a huge burden to Dragon City and the surrounding grasslands for hundreds of miles!

——The tribes near Longcheng are not only responsible for all the material supplies of Shan Yuting, but also bear the damage to the pasture caused by Shan Yuting, his own subordinates, and livestock!

In the words of later generations: in the Longcheng area, 450 kilometers west of Ulaanbaatar, the already poor life of the herders has since worsened...

But this kind of remark means that the nobles of the tribe can secretly slander in their hearts, and then mumble and beat the slaves, drive them to grazing, and then lie back in the warm felt tent burned with cow dung.

Today, however, it is different: Shan Yuting's royal tent has been officially stationed in the Dragon City, and according to the custom, the adult men of all the surrounding tribes, that is, the Xiongnu 'warriors' in the popular sense, have to rush to the Dragon City to worship the gods with Shan Yu.

As a regime established by a nomadic people, the Xiongnu is more like a **** regime based on animal husbandry, supplemented by hunting, religion as the criterion, and the law of the jungle as the order from the perspective of later researchers.

According to the customs of the Xiongnu people, in January every year, the heads of all tribes need to gather in Shan Yuting to hold a small sacrifice; In this sacrificial activity, the Huns mainly worshiped the god of their faith: the plough sky.

In addition to the festival, this festival will also hold a 'plan' meeting for the year under the auspices of Shan Yu to discuss the general strategy of the country for the year, such as a certain tribe attacking an enemy in a certain direction.

Compared with the small sacrifice in January, the Qilin Conference held in May in Longcheng, the permanent residence of Shan Yuting, is undoubtedly the most solemn sacrificial activity of the Xiongnu.

When the Julin Conference arrived, the nobles of the Xiongnu headquarters in Shan Yuting, the leaders of the tribes and the warriors of the small half of the tribes, and even the vast majority of the tribes attached to the Xiongnu would rush to Longcheng to hold a large-scale sacrifice to worship heaven and earth, ancestors, and ghosts.

Like the January festival, the festival was a grand gathering between the Xiongnu and the nobles of the various tribes, and it could not escape the politicized process of the festival in which the tribes would flex their muscles to the leading tribes through 'friendly exchanges' including but not limited to mounted archery and wrestling.

This kind of sports event-like activity will ultimately indirectly determine the division of pastures between the two neighboring tribes this year.

If the warriors of tribe A win over tribe B in riding and shooting, and they don't lose in wrestling, then the grassland that originally belonged to tribe B will inevitably be taken away by tribe A!

In this regard, the B tribe will not be dissatisfied in the slightest, and will only force training, and strive to win in next year's forest conference and regain the lost grassland.

The tribal warriors who won more pastures for the tribe could be favored by women after returning to the tribe, and the head was valued by the head, so he was promoted to the position of condor archer, married Bai Fumei, and reached the pinnacle of life.

If he is strong enough to be valued by a big man like King Zuo Xian, it is even more likely to become a glorious warrior of Shan Yuting's headquarters, and from then on, he no longer needs to worry about survival and animal husbandry, he only needs to concentrate on fighting and killing the enemy bravely, and he can get everything he wants.

In addition, Shan Yu will also explain the established strategy to the leaders of the participating tribes at the Qilin Conference, and accept the offerings of each tribe - every tribe that submits to the Xiongnu will without exception contribute a considerable part of the tribe's livestock output to Shan Yuting; The difference is just a matter of how much.

In other words, in this seemingly entertaining competition, the various tribes 'friendly' divide the pasture resources, and the young and strong rely on force to marry more respect and status, while Shan Yuting absorbs the best of them into the royal court's troops, and through the results of the competition, the 'offerings' for the next year are formulated.

- In the Xiongnu, only the strong can be respected!

The strong tribes can naturally be allowed to worship at a lower level, while the weak ones will inevitably not be able to escape the punishment of the court to set a super high worship ratio.

This is what makes the tribes around Longcheng feel dissatisfied - Shan Yuting rushed to Longcheng nearly a month in advance, and it won't be long before countless tribal leaders with their own soldiers and horses, as well as cattle and sheep worship, will rush to Longcheng from all directions.

The forest conference will not be advanced because of this!

As long as they think of the previous year's Julin Conference, the herds of cattle, sheep and horses that were stuffed around Longcheng, and the human and animal manure that finally stayed in Mubei, like a small mountain high, the nearby tribes felt a sudden twitch in their chests...

The reason why the Xiongnu was regarded as a **** regime by later researchers is that every Xiongnu will worship the sun in the early morning and worship the moon at night - from the lowest slave to the highest single deity, without exception.

The status of the two gods of the sun and the moon in the religious culture of the Xiongnu is second only to the highest status of the plough heaven - or, strictly speaking, in the Xiongnu teachings, the sun and the moon are the two eyes of the gods.

The god opened his right eye and cast warm sunlight on the earth, illuminating the path of the herdsmen so that the grass could grow; The god opened his left eye, and the grassland was shrouded in darkness, and the moonlight still illuminated the herdsmen.

Therefore, in the belief of the Huns, the loss of the moon and even the 'no moon' and the lunar eclipse are serious bad omens!

The moon no longer illuminates the way for the devout believers, and the gods must be angry and want to inflict sin on the believers!

Therefore, when the Huns went out to fight, they strictly followed the law of 'marching with the full moon and chirping, and retreating quietly after the moon was waning' to avoid the wrath of the gods.

The time from the full moon to the waning moon is exactly about half a month, which is basically consistent with the available time of the rations carried by the Huns; Therefore, after the withdrawal of the army, the Huns, who found that they had 'really nothing to eat', would fall to their knees on the ground and offer all their piety to the kind reminder of the gods.

At this time, it is the time of the 'festival day' every morning.

Each member of the Xiongnu tribe walked out of the tent with a hot breath, wrapped in a leather jacket, and under the leadership of the leader, offered his piety to the sun that gradually appeared in the sky, praying that the sun could shine on the grassland forever and bring warmth and light to the believers.

Compared with these small tribes with as little as five or six people and as large as hundreds of people, or not enough to be called a tribe, they can only be called family sacrifice scenes, the Dragon City is undoubtedly more spectacular.

Thousands of Hun warriors, dressed in thick coats made of various animal skins, with thick and sturdy bodies and braided hair, stuck their foreheads tightly against the cold soil and prostrate on the ground.

An old man with a white beard, a languid face, and a little crooked back, carefully supported by a middle-aged man, knelt down surrounded by thousands of Hun warriors, and presided over this daily routine, but there are few such a large-scale 'Chen Festival'.

Logically speaking, the Huns would not respect such an old man at all - the custom of the Huns, all food is given priority to adult men with combat effectiveness, then young boys, then adult women, girls...

And the old man, especially the old man standing in the center of the crowd at this time, who was so old that he almost completely lost the ability to work, whether male or female, belonged to the objects that the Huns could give up at any time.

Due to the harsh living environment of the grasslands, the lack of resources, and the extremely unscientific eating habits, the life expectancy of the Xiongnu generally did not exceed 30 years.

It's not because the Huns will die young when they reach their thirties, but that among the vast majority of Xiongnu tribes, those who have not contributed to the tribe will be abandoned.

At the age of thirty, it happened to be the time when the physical functions of the Huns began to decline sharply and suffered from various diseases.

The Xiongnu tribes, who were already short of materials, needed to chase water and grass all year round to raise livestock, and even had to rely on desperately plundering the Han border to barely ensure their survival, naturally would not take out excess materials to support an 'old man' who had lost his ability to work, no longer contributed to the tribe, and might even die violently at any time to cause the plague.

Therefore, the average life expectancy of the Huns in 'more than 30 years' actually stems from the fact that as long as the Huns are more than 30 years old, they will most likely be expelled by the tribe to the grassland and fend for themselves.

In the grassland full of fierce beasts and extremely cruel, a lonely, old and frail old man could hardly survive until the dawn of the next day.

This is also the reason why the Xiongnu people are more accustomed to living in groups, and spontaneously gather to form larger tribes in order to survive - only collective strength can grab a living space in the cruel steppe before the Western Era.

But in the eyes of the thousands of middle-aged warriors in the Chen Festival, there was no disrespect for the old man; After the end of the festival, countless people cast fanatical worship for the old man and the horns tied around the old man's waist!

Even beside the old man, the middle-aged nobleman who was obviously tall and powerful was also sincerely cast out of his unreserved reverence.

Under the fanatical gaze of all things in heaven and earth without exception, the old man frowned slightly, raised his hand subconsciously, and then returned to the palatial tent as usual.

The Huns outside the tent were reluctant to leave for a long time, and after finding that the old man did not encourage the warriors as usual, they were stunned for a moment, and above the blue sky of the grassland, there was a earth-shattering cry.

"The plough is lonely! Hold the plow alone! Hold the plow alone! ”

Just looking at the same fanaticism on everyone's faces is enough to make the traffic students of later generations ashamed of themselves.

Because of the name of the old man, it belongs to the legend that no one dares to speak on the grassland.

- Fluffy!

※※※※※※※※※※

Holding on to the swollen and painful abdomen, with the support of the middle-aged people around him, he reluctantly sat on the wolf skin couch, took a long breath, and lay down.

Looking at Mao Dun's panting and frowning appearance, a trace of worry gradually appeared on the middle-aged man's face.

"Plough solitary..."

"It's fine!"

In Mao Dun's originally sluggish and fluttering gaze, a stream of light suddenly burst out, and then quietly disappeared.

But whether there is anything wrong or not, Mao Dun knows very well in his heart: he has been entangled by the curse of the grassland!

Since the end of last year, Maudun has been suffering from this curse!

Now, the effect of the curse is even stronger...

- Seven days!

As the living god in the minds of every Hun person, Maudun has been for seven days without "excretion".

The evil consequences of eating beef and mutton as the staple food all year round, Mao Dun still did not escape after all.

In the words of later generations, in addition to the serious lack of trace elements due to long-term meat consumption, the biggest problem faced by Maudun's body is constipation.

To put it mildly, the number of nomads who died of constipation was hardly less than the number of people who died in battle!

This is also the most common fatal disease of nomads, and it is also the main reason why nomads flock to tea in the Central Plains - laxative.

In the Central Plains, tea that is only used to clear heat and reduce fire is indeed a panacea for the Huns!

In the past few months, I have almost taken tea soup as the staple food!

But just from Mao Dun's pale lips, his forehead covered with cold sweat in the cold morning, and the stomach that protrudes obviously between the ribs, it is not difficult to see that tea can no longer save Mao Dun's life.

This point, whether it is Mao Dun himself, or the parents and children around him, now as the first heir of Shan Yu, King Zuo Xian, is very clear in his heart.

This is also the reason why Mao Dun recruited his son to his side before he arrived in Dragon City in the north - in case of any accident, Mao Dun can immediately summon all the heads of the tribe and the nobles of the headquarters to Shan Yuting to ensure a smooth transition of power.

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ps: There are different opinions on the location of Longcheng, which is of great political significance in the history of the Xiongnu, and there are different opinions among historical researchers, but the greatest possibility, I am fortunate to find clues in the general history of the Xiongnu sponsored by readers.

——The main reason for the disunity of the location of the Xiongnu Dragon City should be because the original Dragon City was broken by Huo Quai, and then when the Xiongnu were divided, it is likely that each part built a so-called Dragon City.

From an archaeological point of view, and from the general location and direction of the Xiongnu Dragon City in the annals, the most widely recognized location of the Dragon City should be the "ruins of the ancient Xiongnu Dragon City" unearthed 450 kilometers west of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The information about the religious beliefs, political order, and customs of the Xiongnu in this article is taken from books and documents such as "Historical Records: Biography of the Xiongnu", "Hanshu: Biography of the Xiongnu", "General History of the Xiongnu" and other books.

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