The three cities are at each other's horns, which is convenient for self-preservation, but it also restricts the development of the strongest side. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After Wei He proposed an alliance, E Yue added that anyone who violated the oath would be attacked by the other two parties.

Now the three cities have their own advantages, but Xia Cheng's advantage is the greatest in the short term, and the conditions proposed by E Yue are also a constraint. If it really came to the point when Xia Cheng could capture two cities with the strength of one city, this oath would naturally be meaningless, but it would be enough for Jian Chen to keep a clear head within a few years.

Jian Chen didn't ask for more, now the relationship between the three cities has just become close, and they have the experience of fighting together, but it is not enough to become a real alliance of cities with a common leader.

And now there are only some roads near Xia Cheng, and the connection to Echeng is mainly by the grass river and the frozen ice and snow, and the place connected to the Acropolis is only a thing that can be called a road that has just appeared ruts, and it is difficult to control even if the two cities are captured.

Moreover, the way of thinking of the current era and the cities connected by clan blood cannot be annexed without cultural aggression. In the previous life, when Shang destroyed Xia and Zhou destroyed Shang, they all needed to retain the titles and fiefs of Xia and Shang, and have their own leaders, otherwise the people who were annexed to Fang Guo would not identify with the nominal ruler.

The rudimentary countries of the Fangguo Alliance in this era, even if they were unified, would only be unified in the form of feuds due to poor transportation and the constraints of productivity. Take the woman of the Shang Dynasty in the previous life, as the high priest of Yin Shang, and at the same time the wife of the king of Shang, but she is a tribal leader with independent fiefs and clans, and became a priest of the Shang Dynasty as a tribal leader.

All kinds of ways that later generations find ridiculous or incomprehensible are the mainstream of this barbaric and regressing era, and all systems are being explored.

Chen Jian is not a person who is ambitious, if he can live for sixty or seventy years in this life, even if he achieves nominal unification, it will be considered complete, and if he eats a fat man and conquers it by force, he will inevitably encounter a huge backlash.

In the short term, except for the alliance and hundreds of thousands of catties of grain, Xia Cheng did not get too many benefits, but in the long run, Xia Cheng's advantages will become bigger and bigger. Military is only auxiliary, politics and culture can also be used as a means of aggression and assimilation, when the same language, the same beliefs, the same habits, who wins, who loses, who rules is not the same result? For the individualized ruler, the man and the thief are not separated; For the grouped ethnic groups, before the all-out war led to the industrial age and acquired the status of "people", most of the people were soldiers and paid for the same species, and who was the "Han" and who was the "thief" was just a lie of the ruling class.

Since Jian Chen understood this, and was confident in the cultural and political invasion of Xia City, he was also very satisfied with this alliance.

There are nearly four hundred miles of non-grassland areas north of Xia City, and there are many small settlements in it, and it is difficult for the grassland tribes to turn over in a few years, and these small settlements living in the mountains are the short-term goals of Xia City, to expand the population and land, and they need to recuperate, and there will be no large-scale battles in the near future.

As for going to participate in the winter hunt invited by Su Yue before the winter solstice, Chen Jian had already made up his mind, this was a must-go, and whether it was bribery, marriage, and any way he could think of, as long as he could get the approval of the rest of the tribes and get the identity of a brother and relative, he was willing to pay any price.

If you don't have an identity, you are not qualified to become the public leader of the Great Tribal Alliance, no matter how strong your power is, you will be labeled as Xirong and Dongyi as you did twenty years ago.

Su Yue's clan is far away in the east, and it is difficult to have contact with Xia Cheng, and the two cities cannot threaten each other, and there are not many clans that support Su Yue to become the leader of the alliance.

Taking advantage of this battle, Jian Chen believed that Su He, who was watching the battle, would pass on what he had seen and heard back, and Xia Cheng's reputation would be even louder at that time.

After asking about the Wei River, Chen Jian learned that there were still seven or eight cities within eight hundred miles in the northwest direction of the entire Great River, but the three cities of Xia, E, and Wei were already the most powerful of these cities.

Since he asked about the surrounding situation, Wei He naturally talked about the second thing Wei Yuan discussed with him.

"Ji and E, since you have all agreed to the matter of the three-city oath, there is one thing to discuss with you. Before the Acropolis was besieged by the Sijon people, I first sent people to the three cities in the lower reaches of the river to ask for help, and the messengers of Sijon also went, threatening them that the Acropolis would be breached within a month, and whoever dared to send troops to rescue them would take their cities after a month. ”

"The three cities did not dare to send troops after hearing this, and broke the oath they had made back then, and I asked the two of them to send troops together to punish them."

E Yue did not answer immediately, but waited for Chen Jian to say first, after this battle, at least in terms of war, E Yue trusted Chen Jian's judgment very much.

"Where are these three cities?"

"Three hundred miles east along the river, we were all exchanging salt there before Xia City didn't exist."

There was no map in this era, and Chen Jian judged from the news brought back by Song that the Acropolis was three hundred miles to the east, and it should be about five hundred miles south of Echeng, which was far beyond his control.

"What are the populations of those three cities?"

"Thousands, there are not many soldiers who can fight, they are all small towns."

When Jian Chen heard that the city was not big, his heart was at ease, and he nodded: "The city is small, but I don't know the truth that it will be cold without lips and teeth, and their leader is dull; Breaking the oath and being timid in the intimidation of the Sijon people was not disliked by the ancestors. That's why we can send troops. But this expedition must not be rushed, and there is no need for the three of us leaders to go together. ”

Since it is necessary to justify the name and use the pretext of the brotherly alliance to knock on the surrounding tribal cities to gain hegemony, it must be justified.

Wei He and E Yue are not very good at this method, Chen Jian said with a smile: "We can send someone to tell them the result of this battle with the Xirong people, and send the head of the Xirong leader, and spread the head of the Xirong leader to the surrounding tribes who have been oppressed and paid tribute." Xia Cheng can send a sharp-tongued man to interrogate the leaders of those cities, and if they know their stupidity, they can offer slaves and tribute, then we can forgive them. If they can't recognize their stupidity, they need us to send troops. ”

Wei He and E Yue thought so, nodded yes, and Chen Jian said again: "This time the Xirong tribe is defeated, the rest of the Xirong settlements will be shocked, and those relatives who are allied with the Xirong people will also hesitate, this is the time to restore the Siyi tribute when the relatives swore an oath." ”

"To the west of the Acropolis, there are some Xirong settlements, and those who are three hundred miles away can be captured as slaves, and those within three hundred miles can be forced to pay tribute."

Speaking of this, Wei He's face changed slightly, Wei Yuan had discussed with him that he wanted to take advantage of the new defeat of the Xirong people to develop westward and expand the land population to capture slaves, but he didn't expect that Chen Jian also thought of this, and it was obvious that he also wanted to intervene.

However, after thinking about it, he felt that this place was close to the Acropolis after all, and maybe even if Xia Cheng had the heart, he would be able to capture a handful of slaves at most, most of them were his own.

Eyue didn't have much interest in this matter, because Echeng was too far away from here.

Chen Jian motioned for the two of them to wait, and went out to call his herald, who carried some silk and wolf brushes, pine oil charcoal, E Yue had already seen these things, and Wei He had seen them for the first time.

After the simple charcoal ink condensed by pine putty and gum was ground in water, Chen Jian held the brush with chopsticks and drew a rough sketch of the three cities on the silk.

There is no measurement, everything is based on feeling, and the few references are the river of grass and the great river.

He pointed to the simple map and asked, "Leader of the Weihe, if this is the Acropolis, what else is there to the west?" ”

Wei He looked at the map and thought for a moment: "To the west, there are mountains, and there are many trees on the mountains, and there are flaming birds living there. Two hundred miles west beyond the mountains is the plain, where there are two tributaries of great rivers and a great deal of Xijon settlements. ”

Jian Chen turned around and asked, "Leader Eyue, what about Echeng to the east?" ”

"There is a city four hundred miles to the east, and to the northeast are the settlements of the Beidi people, who are scattered everywhere, and after the last conquest, the various clans also have a tendency to unite together, but there are still many ...... among each other Well, contradictory. ”

Unconsciously using a new word for Xia Cheng, thinking that this word could summarize the essence of the problem concisely, Chen Jian smiled secretly, pinched the brush and drew a few strokes on the map.

"Whether it is the Xijon people or Beidi, they can only compete with one of our three cities, if our three cities are united, they will not be opponents."

"Yes, although there are many of them, the clans are still fighting with each other, and they have just learned to grow corn, so it is difficult to fight for a long time. The former Acropolis can compete with the Xirong people, plus the two cities of Xia and E, they can't beat them. It's just that...... Too far away, the clansmen also need to rest after this great war. ”

Wei He was well aware of the consequences of the three cities joining forces, and these Xijon slaves would definitely be divided among the three cities, so that he would have much less.

Jian Chen shook his head and said, "I didn't say that I would send troops immediately. ”

He stretched out his hand and drew two circles on the west side of the Acropolis and the east side of the city of E, and said, "Our three cities can build two cities together here, and they don't need to be too big, and occupy the best flat land and rivers. Three to five hundred men were stationed in each city, and anyone in the city who broke the law was exiled there. ”

"These settlements of the Xirong and Beidi people have been fighting for many years, and after we build a city here, some small settlements will come close to us for our help, and we can also conquer those larger settlements to make the rest of the settlements afraid, and use their contradictions to make them fight endlessly, so that they know that only by relying on us can they survive."

"After the construction of the city, the population gradually increased, and those who learned our language and identified with our ancestors would live near the city, and the women of Xijon were more willing to mingle with the people in the city during the annual Huaizi Festival, and the population continued to expand. As wild people, those Xijon people need to pay grain taxes and gradually integrate into us. And those who are further afield, they need to be frightened and submit to us to pay tribute. ”

"In this way, if there are some powerful tribes or wise leaders in Xijon or Beidi, we can know in advance, and unite those small settlements to destroy them. Just like a pair of chopsticks is difficult to break, and a chopstick is easy to break, within ten years, Xirong Beidi will be difficult to be strong. ”

After Chen Jian finished speaking, he pointed his hand to the southeast and said: "The three cities here have violated the oath, we must crusade, if the leader of the messenger sent to them comes with thorns on his back to confess his mistake, we can forgive them, but they must swear an oath with us, and when they go out to fight with the rest of the tribes in the future, they will also send troops to assist." Otherwise, our three cities will crush them. ”

"To the north of Xia City are the grassland tribes, different from Xirong Beidi, different from our skin color, our language is not close, even if they say the same thing after a hundred years, their skin color will still alienate them from us, this cannot be integrated, can only be eliminated."

"The grasslands don't grow food, and the vast grasslands can't be planted or deepened. Every autumn, our three cities need to send troops to the north, burn pastures, plunder sheep and horses, year after year. The steppe tribes will not plant, they will only plunder, if they are strong, they will attack us when we plant and harvest, even if we can defeat them, but we will also delay the farming time, this is the biggest enemy. ”

Chen Jian spat and explained the strategic direction of the Three Cities Alliance in the next few years, E Yue and Wei He glanced at each other, and the two of them nodded to each other involuntarily, although they agreed with Jian Chen's opinion, but this nod was a tacit understanding between the two.

The two of them couldn't help but think of how Hua and Chen Jian's approach were so similar to that of Jian Chen when relatives on both sides of the river met to elect a leader twenty years ago...... Let the weak tribes pay tribute, and when they go out on an expedition, they must send troops and build a city near the settlement of Yidi...... This is not the work of a man who is only the leader of a city!

The two nodded their heads, but they agreed with each other and felt that Jian Chen had a great plan......

In fact, Chen Jian only copied the practice of **** in his previous life, and used the concept of the previous life to be armed colonization and tributary system.

The real scope of control is very small, that is, a large tribal alliance, everyone unites to benefit, subdues those who are not convinced, intimidates those who are weak, and kills those who rebel.

Build a city and colonize, gradually expand the scope of control, and use the dominant culture to invade and assimilate, so that by the time of Zhou, it was even more extreme to bring the armed colonization to the extreme, and a few relatives were divided on the basic plate of Zhou as a screen, and the rest Even if Jiang Shang is such a meritorious marquis, he will throw you some soldiers and horses, draw on the map, build and colonize there, and there are a bunch of Fang countries nearby, whether they can fight down or not, then they will have their own destiny.

In the previous life, the Chinese ancestors were the most aggressive ethnic group, using armed colonization, national differences, cultural aggression and other means to spread civilization rapidly, so that it took hundreds of years for the ethnic group to expand from a corner on both sides of the Yellow River to the most fertile land in East Asia. The land of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period was never the basic plate of Zhou, but was grabbed by colonial expansion...... At the beginning of the founding of the country, the state of Qi did not even have a city, it was just a concept on a map; The ancestors of the Qin State ran from Penglai in Shandong to Shaanxi and were involved in the rebellion and became slaves, starting from raising horses, they became a vassal without even a title, and it was not until the time of Xianggong that they had a "name" and a title; Chu even mixed only a viscount, and felt that the title was too low and angrily did not follow the Hojing system, because the thatch of the wine was violently beaten by the Central Plains countries......

This is the reason why Jian Chen has always wanted a name, and it is also the reason why he is preparing to build a city, which is an effective means in the experience of his previous life, and can certainly be used.

The balance of the Three Cities Alliance, one strong and two weak, will not change for several years, and it is time to use this time to aggressively expand the population of the land.

It seems that any of the three cities has 20,000 or 30,000 square kilometers of land, but these are all theoretical, and in practice, the real control is only the land of thirty miles around the city.

Chen Jian looked at the scribbled map and said in his heart: "It's time to bring the fire of civilization to those 'people who are still in the wilderness', and it is still nice to say it in another way." (To be continued.) )