"Patriarch, it's almost winter, and the tribe's rations ......" On the grassland, a small tribe of more than 100 people had just set up camp, and the patriarch of the tribe heard a not very good news.

Datang has just passed the height of summer, the weather is turning to autumn, and the ethnic groups on the prairie are located in the north, and the climate is about to enter winter. They had to move south. Because the grasslands in the north are already about to snow, the cattle and sheep have no grass to eat, so they have to look south for fresh grassland.

And it is also necessary to prepare food and grass for the cattle and horses for the winter, otherwise many cattle and horses will not survive this winter. For these small tribes, cattle, horses and sheep are all their possessions, and they even value their lives more than their own lives.

A young man in the tribe worriedly reported the grain and grass reserves to the patriarch, and his face was very ugly.

Seeing that winter is approaching, but they are not ready enough food and grass for the tribe to survive a winter, if the situation is not good, I am afraid that a large number of cattle and sheep will be slaughtered at that time, which is like blood dripping from their hearts.

There is almost no grain to eat on the grasslands, and the most they eat is meat or milk from cattle and sheep. There are more than 100 people in a tribe, and the daily ration needs at least two or three cattle and sheep, and at the end of the year, thousands of cattle and sheep are eaten. Therefore, in order to ensure food rations every year, a tribe often has to raise thousands of cattle and sheep.

Forage is definitely a big problem for thousands of cattle and sheep during the winter.

Some people may say that cutting grass is not easy, isn't it? There is so much grass on the grassland, can't you just cut it?

Then let me tell you a specific number, the amount of grass eaten by a cow in a day is about three percent of its body weight, that is, a 1,000-kilogram cow should eat 30 catties of grass a day, in other words, how much forage should be prepared for 1,000 cows and 150 days of reserve food?

That's 4,500 tons! This is not counting the amount of grass eaten by sheep, so you can just cut one and take a look?

Of course, it is impossible for a small tribe to raise so many cattle, about a hundred or so cattle, and the vast majority of the others are sheep. Even so, fodder for sheep is not a small burden, and various tribes are robbing each other of pasture.

If you break into the pastures occupied by other tribes, they will explain the situation to you politely, please change places, and it is normal to fight directly without being polite.

This tribe was very unlucky, all the way south, they came one step late, the place where the grass grew fertile was occupied by other tribes, their tribe had few people, and they could not rob people, so they had to keep going south, looking for pastures that had not yet been occupied.

There is no endless road to heaven, and when they were about to reach the place where they handed over to the Tang Dynasty, they finally occupied a fairly fertile grassland.

But... The meadow was too small to prepare for the winter, causing a deep sorrow on the face of the tribal chief.

He trembled and took out a sheepskin blanket, spread it on the ground, and then knelt on the sheepskin blanket and prayed to the heavens that they would survive this winter.

On the grassland, whether you can survive the winter really depends on the will of God.

The young men behind the patriarch also knelt down and prayed with the patriarch. After the prayer was over, the young man behind him was a little indignant and said: "If the Khan hadn't gone south to attack the Tang Dynasty, then the Khan should have gathered the warriors of the tribe and prepared to go to the small villages and towns on the border of the Tang Dynasty to grab food, as long as there are rations, it will be okay to kill a batch of sheep!" Life will be much better for the tribe! ”

The patriarch shook his head after hearing this, and sighed: "Don't think so, the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty are not vegetarians, and we will definitely suffer when we encounter the Tang Army, and it is still a question of whether we can come back alive at that time, now it is just a loss of some cattle and sheep, forget it." ”

"Patriarch, how can you think that? How can we bow down to the weak Tang people? They are definitely no match for us! The young man was a little angry, and his face turned red.

The patriarch glanced at him lightly, shook his head and said softly: "The Khan has been defeated, and none of the 150,000 troops have returned, the Tang people... Stronger than us. ”

"Patriarch!"

"That's it! Say no more! Defeat is defeat, we are not as good as the Tang people, this is a fact. More than ten years ago, we were defeated once, and the country was destroyed by the Tang army, and now, there is another big defeat, and the Tang army has been stationed in our territory, and there have been two major defeats, do you still think that the Tang army is weak? I don't know how thick the sky is! If you want to go to the Don Army to find death, you can! Don't bother your people! Hum! ”

The young man's fists were clenched, but the fact that he was sure in front of him made him speechless.

At this moment, several fast horses approached the tribe from a distance, and the sharp-eyed man had already spotted the rider. "Look, patriarch, someone is coming! Hey, there's a flag behind you, Don? Is it someone from the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate? ”

The patriarch and the idle people in the clan looked at the figure one after another, and after a while, a person with a flag printed with the word "Tang" on his back came to this small tribe.

It has been almost a year since the establishment of the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate, and the herdsmen all know that the people dressed up like this are the Tang people who belong to the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate.

However, the two ethnic groups have enmity, so the people of the tribe did not have much good impression when they saw this Tang people, but they held weapons in their hands and were a little nervous in the face of the Tang people.

"We are from the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate, and there is something to convey, the patriarch of the tribe is here?" The attitude of this Tang tribe was good, and they dismounted while there was still some way to go, and asked the herdsmen in the tribe loudly.

Well, probably because the other party is holding weapons, and the attitude has to be good.

"I am, what do the officials have to convey?" The patriarch walked out of the tribe and greeted the Tang people.

The leading Tang man bowed his hand to the patriarch, and then handed him a roll of parchment. "Patriarch, the court has issued an order, the two clans are open to business, under the mountain range that goes to the east for sixty miles, the court has just built a small town, and now the first group of merchants has arrived, they have brought a large amount of grain and other items, the parchment paper is the type of goods and the corresponding price, if you are interested, you can go and see."

When the patriarch heard this, he quickly spread out the rolled parchment, which listed the types and prices of each commodity in their language. When the patriarch saw the end, his breathing became rapid.

"This official, in which direction is the town?" The patriarch raised his hand and asked with some uneasiness pointing in one direction.

Tang Ren smiled and replied: "Yes, there is a mountain range over there, you can see it from afar, and the town is at the foot of the mountain range, so it is easy to find." By the way, I heard that the merchants who came here are also planning to set up workshops here and recruit workers, if you..."

"What to do?" The patriarch didn't understand and interrupted the Tang people's speech.

"Oh, they're going to set up a place in town to make clothes, and if you know how to do it, you can go to them and help make clothes, and distribute rations every day."

"Rations by the day? Really? This sounded like a great thing to the patriarch, and he couldn't believe it.

"Really, we're not going to lie to you. Also, are there literate people in the tribe? If there is, you can go to the town to report, the court to select the first batch of officials, the requirements are not high, literacy is enough, if there are eligible, you can try. ”

"Good, good! Thanks to a few officials, the old man will send someone to take a look. ”

Tang Ren smiled and arched his hand: "Then we won't bother, and we will rush to the next tribe." Patriarch, remind you that this group of merchants does not bring many things, if you want to change them, you should prepare to leave quickly, and if you are late, they may be gone. With that, the Tang people rode away and headed for the next tribe.

And the patriarch of this tribe turned around sharply and shouted to the people behind: "Everyone go and prepare the cattle and sheep, and we will go to the town at once!" ”，

(End of chapter)