At noon on August 26, after a few days, Zhao Hongrun once again gathered the chiefs of the tribes near Luo and Gong.

Unlike the first military meeting held on the eve of the arrival of the Karma army, today, the mood of the patriarchs of the Zhujiao tribe is very peaceful.

It is no wonder, after all, in the past three days, the poor record of the Horned Army in three battles and three defeats has made the tribal patriarchs clearly see the dawn of winning this war.

Although the tribes and the merchant army have suffered heavy losses, they have not diminished their excitement in the slightest, because everyone can see it: the Qiangjiao tribe, the defeat is decided!

Because Zhao Hongrun's felt tent is carved with the relationship of "war mud plate", he placed the meeting place in another large felt tent.

Anyway, the people of the Qi tribe who are busy with this matter will treat today's military meeting as a celebration banquet, and have prepared a lot of meat, sheep cakes and goat milk wine.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun simply invited Wu Ji of the Shang Shui Army and several 3,000 generals under his command, anyway, until now, he didn't think that this battle would be lost.

The twenty-three tribal patriarchs, plus the two brothers and sisters Wuwu and Una who represent the Qingyang tribe, this is the current ally of Wei in the "Luoshui Alliance", although none of these tribes are big tribes, but it is undeniable that these twenty-three tribes are twisted together, and they will never be inferior to the four big tribes of "Karma", "Antelope", "Qiang", and "Karma".

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Zhao Hongrun ended the previous chats with the patriarchs, and gradually brought the topic into the current battle situation.

"Fortunately, with the strong support of the tribes, now that the defeat of the Karma Horn has been decided, there is only a glimmer of anger left, and what this king wants to discuss with you this time is not how to defeat the Karma people, but how to end this battle with the minimum loss."

Hearing this, the patriarchs present were slightly stunned, because listening to the tone of His Royal Highness King Su in front of him, he seemed to have a plan.

"His Royal Highness King Su has already thought of a clever plan?"

Lu Balon, the patriarch of the Lun clan of the Qiang clan, cheered at the right time.

"It's not a good idea." Zhao Hongrun waved his hand and said with a smile: "This king thought to himself, now the army of the Qiangjiao in the western suburbs of Luocheng still has about 150,000 or 60,000 people, or even more, but according to what this king heard when he attacked my Luocheng in the past few days, the number of cavalry in the Qiangjiao seems to be a lot less than before, and this king guesses that most of the Dangshan Army and Chenggao Army have led away some of the Qiangjiao cavalry......"

Because he was not sure, Zhao Hongrun chose the word "lead away", but in fact, the Dangshan Army and the Chenggao Army had solved seven or eight thousand or even nearly 10,000 Horn Cavalry for him respectively, so it is no wonder that when Zhao Hongrun was watching from the city wall, he found that the number of Horn Cavalry outside the city was significantly less.

“…… The king estimated that among the 150,000 or 60,000 men and horses, there were about 30,000 or 40,000 cavalry in the corner, and the rest as many as 1120,000 were slave soldiers. ”

"......" The patriarchs present looked at each other.

After a long time, the patriarch of the Aries tribe of the Qiang tribe, Halgohe, asked cautiously: "Dare to ask His Royal Highness King Su, I don't know how to make those Hu slaves turn against him?" ”

"It's easy." Zhao Hongrun picked up the croissant cup and said casually: "This king is thinking about how to inform those slaves of this king's decision, 'Any slave who comes to my city with the head of a Horned cavalry to surrender, this king will grant him permission to restore his freedom, and after this king has captured the tribal camp of the Horned people, he and his family will be allowed to return to the North." ”

It has to be said that if this strategy works well, it can definitely be called a "desperate plan" for the Qiangjiao people, and under the temptation of "regaining freedom", those Qiangjiao slave army, who have gradually lost the belief in defeating the Wei army, are very likely to rebel and try to kill a Karma cavalry for the sake of their own and their families' freedom.

Thirty or forty thousand Horned Cavalry, one hundred and twenty thousand slave soldiers, no one can guarantee that those proud Horned Cavalry on weekdays will not be killed by the slave soldiers they have always looked down upon.

Of course, even if those slave soldiers are not the opponents of the thirty or forty thousand carangular cavalry, Zhao Hongrun doesn't care, because as long as there are no carangular slave soldiers, those so-called carangular cavalry are just moving targets in front of the crossbows of the Shangshui army.

But what made Zhao Hongrun a little puzzled was that this strategy was obviously quite good in his opinion, but the tribal patriarchs present had strange faces one by one, and no one echoed it.

"This ...... What's the situation?'

Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but be a little surprised, after all, in his opinion, this was indeed a good idea, but why didn't anyone support it?

He looked around the tent and found that the tribal patriarchs all looked like they were about to speak, and even the people who had the best relationship with him, Wuwu, Halegohe, Lubaron, Meng Liang, and others, seemed to have some concerns, and did not dare to say what was in their hearts.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun set his eyes on Lu Balon and asked, "Patriarch Lu Balon, what do you want to say?" ”

Hearing this, Lu Balon subconsciously glanced at the other tribal patriarchs present, and saw that they were all looking at him with earnest eyes, and secretly smiled bitterly in his heart.

However, Zhao Hongrun asked him personally, and he just had to open his mouth.

"Before discussing this matter, Lu Baron dared to ask His Royal Highness King Su what he thought of it...... What do you think of 'slavery'? ”

"Slave ......"

Zhao Hongrun pondered this word for a while, and then glanced around at the tribal patriarchs present, and had some understanding in his heart, and said with a smile: "I'm afraid what Patriarch Lu Baron wants to ask is not 'how does this king view slavery', but 'how does this king view the existence of slaves', right?" ”

Seeing that Zhao Hongrun had broken through this matter, the tribal patriarchs present couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive in their hearts.

"Enslaving the loser", that is, two tribes or two forces break out into a war, after one side defeats the other, all the men and women of the latter are reduced to slaves, making cattle and horses for the victorious side, which is a common thing in Sanchuan, Bashu, Beidi and other places far away from the Central Plains.

That's the difference between cultures.

For example, in the Wei State, when the Wei army captured the Liang State, the Zheng State and even the Song State in the past ten years, they did not reduce the people of these dead countries to slaves, but committed to absorbing them into the big family of the Wei people, but its essence is still the royal family and the nobles ruling the commoners, and the people of the Song State will still be exploited by the Wei nobles, the difference is only that these people were exploited by the Song nobles at the beginning, and now they are replaced by the nobles of Wei Guo.

Therefore, some Song people who do not have much sense of belonging to their country actually do not care about changing the dynasty.

Among them, why did the Wei state absorb the Song people into the Wei people, instead of drumming up some kind of identity such as "second-class citizens" to the Song people? The reason for this is nothing more than the unique idea of "benevolence and righteousness" in the Central Plains.

Among the countries of the Central Plains, "benevolence and righteousness" is a weapon of great destruction, and its power is immeasurable.

For example, if a small country is rich in people, and the royal family and nobles in the country are also visible, but Wei sends troops to occupy it, this is called "invasion", and it will be resisted by the other big countries, and even take the opportunity to form a coalition to attack Wei. But on the other hand, if the monarch of this small country is mediocre and greedy, causing the people to live in poverty, at this time the Wei State sends troops to capture it, which is called "rescue", and other countries have nothing to do except secretly envy that the Wei State has another piece of territory, but can only stare dryly.

But in fact, is there any fundamental difference between the two?

Actually, no, this is just Wei's external expansion.

But it is undeniable that because of the "great righteousness", it occupies the highest point of "morality", which makes the annexation of the small country by Wei justified.

This is a common phenomenon in the Central Plains: in fact, the vast majority of kings want to expand abroad and win the world, but due to public opinion in terms of benevolence and morality, they can only use righteousness as a fig leaf for external expansion.

However, the people in Sanchuan and Bashu do not have the benevolent and Confucian ideas that are admired by the Central Plains countries, and they should do things more simply and straightforwardly: aggression is aggression, my fist is big, and if I win you, you are my slave.

Therefore, slavery is very common in Sanchuan, Bashu, Beidi and other places, not at all like the Central Plains countries, in fact, they are eager to catch millions of slaves to build national infrastructure, but because of the evaluation of the world and public opinion, they pretend not to recognize the existence of slaves.

In fact, in the Central Plains countries, even in the Wei State, slave forms such as domestic slaves abound.

"Slavery, ......"

Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun was a little hesitant.

Man, enslaving people, this is a very barbaric act, and Zhao Hongrun also supports this concept.

But the problem is that slavery is a very important part of the culture, including the people who were once enslaved by the two tribes, and they have gradually been assimilated by the people, and they have changed from slaves in the past to slave owners.

Slaves, this is the inevitable product of the Sanchuan tribe in the process of development.

As the small tribe gradually evolves into a large tribe, there are more and more miscellaneous things in the clan, and those who feel more and more superior are expected to work as before? Wish for the moon!

This is the same as when the Wei people became developed, they would also buy a few properties and buy some house slaves to clean the yard and handle trivial chores.

Don't be surprised, in this day and age, this phenomenon is 'common sense'!

And if you forcibly resist this phenomenon, you can only say that you are an enemy in this era.

This is also the reason why Zhao Hongrun mentioned the "free slaves", and the patriarchs of the tribes present looked strange one by one, after all, the Wei State is also one of the Central Plains countries that "refuse to admit the existence of slaves".

After pondering for a long time, Zhao Hongrun said as if talking to himself: "Slaves are also one of the wealth. ”

This sentence is tantamount to acquiescing in the continued existence of slavery.

Hearing this, the tribal patriarchs who were always paying attention to the expression of His Royal Highness King Su breathed a sigh of relief.

It is no wonder, after all, that the scholars in the Central Plains countries, including the Wei State, have always regarded "slavery" as an ugly act of barbaric and uncivilized barbarians.

The tension caused by a small episode disappeared in an instant, and everyone present happily discussed the "final victory" proposed by Zhao Hongrun. (To be continued.) )