When the envoys of Xia Cheng approached the nearby cities, the black and white banners caused the gates of those cities to be closed, causing some chaos. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The sound of the wind thought that the arrows were diluted, and the geese chirped to make golden drums, and even the crimson leaves of the mountains had a touch of blood.

Ten days ago, Mu Hu brought them the suggestion that they were not allowed to send troops to strictly defend the city, and also brought the news that the 3,000 people in Mu City were destroyed, and it was precisely because of these news that those Xia City envoys brought panic after they appeared.

The young messenger and the slaves of the tribes of the Great River, who had been attached or freed, stood outside the walls where arrows could not reach, and cried out that they were messengers and that they had something to tell them. Only then did ropes stretch out of the city walls, and bamboo baskets were hung to pull these people up.

When I pulled it up, I was disarmed by the way. The weapon was gone, these people still had mouths, and when they got down the city wall and walked to the crowd, they suddenly shouted at the top of their voices: "Ji Xia broke through Moucheng and captured more than 10,000 people under Mouhu." ”

The sudden voice startled the Dongyi people who were escorting them next to them, and by the time they reacted and covered their mouths, the news had already scattered like dandelion seeds blown by the autumn wind, making the city panic.

The soldiers escorting them did not know what to do and hurried to find their leader. The leader and the clan nobles in the city learned the news and showed an incredible expression.

"Impossible! It has only been a dozen days since Mu Hu sent us the news, and there are many people in the tall city of Mu City, even if Ji Xia set up an ambush to make Mu Cheng lightly damaged, it will not be broken so quickly. ”

"Could it be that these Xia Cheng people are lying?"

"I think they're just here to spread these words to make the people panic, just kill them."

It was hard for people to believe that something had never happened, even though Firmey had breached the cities of the Great River Tribes in a similar way not long ago, but they were far away in the hinterland and did not know about it.

A year ago and in the wars long ago, it took a long time to break through a city, and there were even cases where besiegers farmed outside the city. The reason why a city is called a city is because it can give people a sense of security, even if it is a decisive battle in the field, sometimes a battle needs to be fought for three or five days, how can it be so easy to capture a city?

After the soldier who could report the news took out some jade, the leader's face suddenly changed drastically. The soldiers didn't know that the jade that the Xia Cheng people had brought to the leader was a god, but the leader recognized it clearly and began to believe what the Xia Cheng people said.

Because if the city is not broken, those things that are responsible for sacrifices, rituals, and symbolic rights will not appear in the hands of these Xia people. People can die, but these utensils will be passed down and never lost to outsiders.

In an instant, the atmosphere became solemn and uneasy, and the panic spread like a corn field dyed with smut mushrooms, and the words that originally shouted to kill those Xia Cheng people did not appear again.

They didn't know what these Xia Cheng people were going to talk about, so they were very nervous, and they had to hide the fear and murderous intent in their hearts, and they were even a little afraid when facing those young Xia City envoys.

These young Xia Cheng people were not strong enough to kill people in ten steps without anyone stopping, and some of them had even just grown fluffy beards, and although they were tall, they were still a little thin. But behind their not strong bodies, standing were thousands of troops who had just broken through Mu City, so these cities did not dare to slack off.

Convinced that after the capture of Mucheng, the leaders of these cities did not bring humiliation on themselves or give these Xiacheng people a chance to brag, so naturally they did not ask how to break through Mucheng.

"What news did Ji Xia let you bring?"

Ji Xia said that this time he went to Dongyi unexpectedly. Originally, Xia Cheng was far away in the northwest and far away from Dongyi, but Qiongxi first led a large army to break through the two cities of the Great River Tribes. Ji Xia persuaded him to withdraw from the army, but he said that the defeated are slaves, and this has been the case since ancient times. ”

"Now is the harvest season, but the cities have to gather Chinese to defend the cities, I hope you can understand these losses, not because of Ji Xia, but because of the dome."

"It was precisely because of the dome that Ji Xia led the army deep into Dongyi; The reason for attacking Mucheng is because there is a marriage between Mucheng and Qiongxi, and there are many warriors from Mucheng in the Qiongxi army. ”

"Ji Xia captured Mucheng, and will continue to attack the rest of the cities in the near future, until Qiongxi admits his mistake and surrenders, apologizes to Ji Xia in public, and goes to the Dahe tribes with gifts to mourn the dead clansmen, otherwise he will continue to attack. And these people who were captured and reduced to slavery were all because of the words of the firmament. ”

"Before attacking Mucheng, Ji Xia and the people in Mucheng said that as long as Kaicheng surrendered to show submission, Ji Xia might not capture them all as slaves, but since he didn't surrender in Kaicheng, he had to make them all slaves. Blame those who resisted, and it was their resistance that led to their own people becoming slaves. ”

Xia Cheng's envoy spoke so naturally and with a smile on his face that it was evident that even he didn't believe these words at all.

This logic made the leader of the city feel a burst of anger in his heart, and he couldn't help but ask: "Could it be that one day when the army attacks under the Xia city wall, will the people of Xia City also open the city and surrender?" ”

"Of course not. Because we are very clear-headed, we know that if we surrender or not, we will be treated as slaves, otherwise why would we attack us? Did they come to us as slaves when they conquered the cities? This is what we learned in the academy, so we don't believe it. It's just that you don't have to, because some of the captured Mucheng people do resent those who rose up to resist, and Ji Xia thinks maybe you also believe in this truth......"

The leader gritted his teeth angrily, but at this time, he could only hold back and asked, "What else did Ji Xia say?" ”

The envoy said indifferently: "Ji Xia said that now he will only attack those cities that are very close to Qiongxi, after all, the words of the defeated as a slave were said by Qiongxi, and as the leader, you have to pay the price for what you have said." ”

"As for you, Ji Xia doesn't want to grudge with you. So I don't want you to send troops to disrupt the army of Xia City. ”

"If Qiongxi comes back, that's another matter, Qiongxi must be brutal and unprovoked, you may not be convinced in your hearts but have to abide by it, Ji Xia also understands, so when he comes back, you will not blame you for sending troops Ji Xia, you will only resent Qiongxi."

"Ji Xia asked me to tell the leaders that the soldiers of Xia City have the ability to capture Mu City in ten days, and they have the ability to capture your city in three or five days."

"Whoever sends troops first, will attack first! The whole city is reduced to slavery! ”

"Qiongxi has captured more than 10,000 of our relatives, and Ji Xia has also plundered more than 10,000 Dongyi people, just in exchange. If you break through your cities, don't you know that the city will change people? Or will it change you? ”

"It's still a long time before Qiongxi returns to the army, which is enough for Ji Xia to capture two cities. Ji Xia hoped that the leaders would think about their cities and not do stupid things. That's it. ”

This aggressive remark aroused the anger of the men, but the leader suppressed the anger of the crowd and did not immediately take a stand, telling the envoys of Xia Cheng that they needed to discuss again.

Ji Xia said that there were only two days to consider. I hope you don't have to discuss it for too long. ”

The leader understood that this was not an opportunity to delay them, and only said that he would answer within two days, so he led the people to disperse and asked for a meal to be arranged with the messenger of Xia City.

At the council in the city, some people were indignant and said angrily: "What kind of words are these? The Great River tribes are attacking each other, so when this summer city becomes stronger, there is no reason why they won't attack us? Isn't it ridiculous that a wolf wants to eat a sheep and accuses the head sheep of not plucking its horns so that it might stab it? ”

"The current people of Xiacheng can capture Mucheng in ten days, and now after plundering so many slaves, they are more fledged and their prestige is growing, how can we resist in the future?"

The leader reluctantly listened to these impassioned words, and said helplessly: "This is how it is said, if the sheep all have their horns pointed at the wolf, the wolf will not be able to speak, and will starve to death." ”

"But the truth is that there are only sheep that are eaten, how can there be wolves that are starved to death?"

"Sheep never put their horns together with the wolf. And those who are eaten are often the first to stand up and aim their horns at the wolves, because everyone else has run away. ”

"What can I do now? How can you be sure that other cities will rebel instead of agreeing to Jixia's proposal? If everyone else agrees with us but we oppose it, and Ji Xia's army comes, will our city be stronger than Mu City? ”

"The truth is always right, but those who do not practice the truth always live better than those who practice it. It's the same with the city, unless the dome has returned now, we still don't want to provoke the people of Xiacheng. ”

This old remark was approved by everyone, and those people sighed helplessly, the situation was like this, it was really helpless.

"These Xia City people are saying these things because the Qiongxi army is about to return, and they want to attack other cities, and they will worry that we will attack from behind. But why should we trade the people of the whole city for the safety of other cities? ”

Someone else stood up and said, "But in this way, what is the difference between the sheep and the weakest sheep to raise the wolves?" One day other sheep will be eaten, and one day it will be our turn, and the wolf will be extremely strong by then, so what can we do to resist? ”

The leader spread his hands and said: "At least it is not us who are being eaten now, as for the future, who knows what will become of it?" ”

There was silence below, and everyone, including the chief, knew that this was feeding the wolf, but no one wanted to be the wolf's next bite of food - if you didn't want to feed someone else to the wolf, someone else might sacrifice you.

"Qiongxi sent troops because Su Yue led a large army north, but no one thought that a city that had rarely been heard of before would break through Mucheng with the power of a city and force Qiongxi to retreat. This is unthinkable, even when the old leader was still alive, with his wisdom he did not expect it, let alone us stupid people? ”

"Many years ago, when Huasu first formed an alliance, they also attacked each other. Some small clan towns in the north form an alliance with Hua when the sun rises, and worship the sky when the sun sets. Because of this, some large cities have been destroyed and sacrifices have been cut off, but those small cities have multiplied to this day, isn't this kind of wisdom that we need to learn? ”

"In the past, those cities that were in the morning and sunset were only in places where the armies of both sides could reach in more than ten days, and there was no need to worry about ten days away. But the current ten days, is it still the past ten days? ”

Yiganren sighed with a gloomy face, this kind of change that was different from the past was quietly coming, making them deeply uneasy and helpless, and after discussing for a long time, they finally decided to agree to the request of these Xia Cheng people.

A similar debate unfolds among the other five cities, none of which share common features that are not the basis of the Dome, so there is room for negotiation and deterrence.

The clan alliance is different from the county state or feudal state, the independence of the clan city will not let them be killed and dismembered because they are afraid of the enemy, the rudimentary form of the state is only the prototype after all, and there is still a long way to go before a powerful ruling tool that can unify hundreds of thousands of people.

Four of the six cities near Xiacheng's foothold in Dongyi, which might have hindered the next move of the Xia Cheng army, said that they would abide by this agreement, and the other two did not explicitly send Xia Cheng's envoy away.

A few days later, a procession of dozens of men escorted six or seven hundred slaves bound with ropes through simple paths near the towns, whose gates were closed and undisturbed, and which kept a terrible peace, whose palms were soaked with sweat, and whose bowstrings remained tight, but which in the end did not shoot arrows.