Chapter 135: The Impossible "Long-distance Attack" (II)

Let's not talk about the distance and proximity, in the surrounding forces of the Xiongnu, the nomadic forces as the main force are not in the minority.

In this regard, Zhang Jiashi did not want to drag down the Huns by that time and have to face a situation of driving the wolf and devouring the tiger.

The fact that the nomads of the steppes attach very little importance to the covenant aspect is very low.

After all, compared with the Ming of the farming system, they tend to have a greater understanding of interests when they are more fighting for their own right to survive in the grassland.

This is related to the choice orientation of nomads in many cases.

And from the known information, if you really choose a force around the Huns to form an alliance with it against the Huns, Dawan, Kangju and even Daxia are not the first choice for this choice, and what exists north of the Huns......

Well, this question has not been considered correct even in later generations.

In a video called "The Evolution of the World Historical Map" made in later generations, it is described that there is no existence of forces north of the Huns.

Zhang Jiashi was not aware of this, he did not believe that there was any force that could threaten the Huns here.

Because even in later generations, the north of the Mongolian Plateau, where the Xiongnu were located, was also the southern region of Eastern Siberia in later generations, and they were in a situation where there were basically not many developed areas.

To the northwest of the Huns, the Scythian race system still had a certain strength.

As for this race, Zhang Jiashi is more wary of it.

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The Scythians, including the East Iranian language group in the 8th century BC, ranged from the Scythians. The ancient Persians called it Saka, divided into the Cypriots who wore pointed hats, the Cypriots who drank the juice, and the Cypriots who were on the other side of the sea, the ancient Assyrians called it Ashkuzai, the ancient Persians and ancient Indians called it Saka, and the ancient Greeks called it Skuthoi or Sacae.

The "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" of the country call them "Sai" or "Sai Species", and the Sharp-hat Sai people or Sakya people, who were a nomadic people of the East Iranian language family located in the Indo-European language family of the Asian and South Russian steppes from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century BC.

The Scythians originated in the steppes of Eastern Europe, between the Don River and the Danube, north of the Black Sea, and had been living in the Volga River basin before, constantly migrating, from Europe to Inner Mongolia and the Ordos Desert, they were the earliest nomadic people in history, and they were good at raising horses, they were in constant contact with the Arabs and Celts, absorbing the characteristics of diversification, including Hellenism, and established their own countries in the conquered lands. In the 7th century B.C., the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Armenia, the Medes, and the Assyrian Empire threatened Western Asia for nearly 70 years, and its cavalry galloped between Cappadocia and the Medes, and the Caucasus to Syria in search of plunder.

During the great migration of ethnic groups in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the Alans invaded Europe with the Huns.

The Scythians in a broad sense should also include a number of tribes stranded in Asia, Western Siberia, and the Altai region, whose culture, art, and way of life were very similar to those of the Scythians in South Russia and Iran.

The Scythians were short in stature, blue-eyed and bearded, ethnically close to the Sarmats, Serbs, and Massags, and were broadly similar in language, social life, traditions, and religion. The Scythians had no words. Objects about the Scythians were excavated from Ukraine and South Russia.

The lineage of the Scythians in the East is described as about the Spring and Autumn Period of the 7th century BC or earlier, in the west of the Yellow River in Gansu and Qinghai provinces in today's northwest China, that is, in the Hexi Corridor and the Huangshui Basin, and in the northern steppe area, there were many nomadic tribes. These northern nomadic tribes had been active in the Hexi Corridor, the Huangshui Basin, and the northern grasslands for a long time, and they relied on strong bows and horses to gallop across the area, often clashing with the settled people in the eastern part of the river.

By the time of Qin Mugong, in order to completely solve the infestation of the nomadic tribes from the Hexi region, with the wisdom of the capable people Yuyu, in 623 BC, he sent troops to attack King Rong and occupied the areas of many nomadic tribes.

This eventually led to the migration of these defeated tribes to the north and west. Among these tribes were the Yun surnamed Zhirong, Daxia, Yueshi, and Shache, and by the end of the 7th century BC, these people began to appear in the Saidi, that is, the valley of the Ili and Chu rivers.

Since the 7th century B.C., the primitive commune system of the nomadic tribes of the substeppe oasis agricultural inhabitants began to disintegrate, and the earliest form of state in the sub-steppe gradually took shape.

In the history books of the country, the "King of Sai" appeared, which probably marked the establishment of a slave country by the Sai species. The Cypriots are a predominantly nomadic people, with only a small number of people engaged in agriculture, cultivating millet, barley and wheat. The Scythians used yurts, which were cylindrical in shape, made of wood latticework, divided into 6 to 10 compartments, which could be stretched and contracted so that they could be carried, and the top ring was lined with light rafters. This kind of wooden lattice and yu, which is easy to disassemble and fold, is easy to carry away on the back of a cart or horse, and is a wisdom creation to adapt to the nomadic life. The Sai people built the canopy in large carts, which were two-wheeled, four-wheeled, and six-wheeled, drawn by two or three oxen, and some were driven by camels. During the migration, the Cypriots transported their wives, children, and household belongings and utensils by car. This canopy can also be moved down from a car and built on the ground. In winter, they also live in houses made of mud and grass.

The Cypriots, who are often recorded in the history books of our country, are also tribes that speak East Iranian language.

Later scholars believed that the language of the Cypriots belonged to the East Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, and the Pamir region was one of the main areas of ancient Cypriot activity. The vast Pamir region is still predominantly inhabited by East Iranian speakers. The Tajik language of the Tashkurgan region in our country also belongs to the East Iranian branch. The historical link between them is a matter of note.

According to historical materials such as "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" and "New Tang Dynasty Books" and some scattered unearthed books, the inhabitants of Khotan and Bachu in the Tang Dynasty used East Iranian language, and even the residents of Kashgar also used East Iranian language. In addition, the Selkur language is also closely related to Sogdian and Tocharian languages, because Sogdian and Tocharian languages belong to the same East Iranian language.

Because the Pamir belongs to the plateau area, the mountains are high and the road is far away, and the transportation is inconvenient, which brings inconvenience to the economic exchanges, coupled with the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, the Pamir section of the Silk Road traffic artery has been left out in the cold, making the social development of the ancient Tashkurgan Tajiks extremely slow, it is in this environment that the Selkul Tajik language, which is not widely spoken, has almost no development, and it also maintains a unique state of simplicity, retaining the elements of ancient languages such as ancient Asean, Sogdian, and Tocharian.

Because of this, some experts believe that the surviving language of the ancient language of Asia and southern Xinjiang is a living Serbian language.

On the military side, the Scythians or Cypriots were considered brave and warlike. The spoils of each of their battles were distributed by the king to the warriors. They reward victory over the enemy and kill the enemy, and cut off the enemy's head as a proof of the spoils. At the same time, the enemy's head was used as a drinking vessel, and the part below the eyebrows of the head was sawed off, and the rest was cleaned. The rich people wrapped cowhide on the outside, gilded on the inside, and then used it as a cup. The poor just wrapped the outside with raw cowhide to use. A man may also make such a cup from the head of his own people, but only if he is a member of a tribe who is not in harmony with him and has overcome himself before the king.

As for the war, Herodotus records that it was their custom to drink the blood of the first man he killed in battle, and to bring to his king the heads of all the dead killed in the war, and to receive a share of the catch, otherwise they could not get it.

He made a loop around his head along both ears, then pulled his scalp and shook the skull out. Then he scraped off the skull with a rib and softened the scalp with his hands, kept it as a handkerchief, and hung it on the horse of his own horse to boast of. Whoever has the most of these handkerchiefs made of the scalp is considered to be the most courageous.

The weapons used by the Cypriots consisted of defensive armor and offensive battle axes, spears, swords, and bows. The armor is made of leather, and then the leather armor is sewn with a hard piece made of animal bones or horseshoe to make it stronger. Later, it was made of bronze and iron into hard sheets, which were attached to the outside and were called fish scale armor. At the same time, the Cypriots also wore fish scale armor on their horses, so that they could defend themselves against enemy swords, spears, and arrows on the battlefield. Even the horses of the Cypriots had cuirasses made of copper, horses made of gold, and horses chewed. There are slight differences in the form of offensive tomahawks, knives, swords, spears, etc.

The Cypriots also used lassoes and flying stone tools. But the most used are bows and arrows. Although the bow was short but strong, most of them were double-bowed, and the arrows were first made of bone or stone, and later of bronze or iron. In order to be easy to carry, bow covers and quivers are often used together, and both bow covers and quivers are beautifully decorated. It is with these strong bows and iron horses that these "horse archers" gallop across the vast grassland, and the sound of iron hooves is terrifying.

The Scythians, a branch of the Serb people, first appeared in history during the time of Darius I.

Around 512 BC, Darius I began his war against the Scythians. He conquered Thrace, crossed the Danube with pontoons, and according to Herodotus's description, the Persian army went north along the Volga.

The Scythians did not organize a large-scale resistance, they retreated slowly, destroying farmland, filling wells, leaving the enemy with nothing but white land. With a severe lack of supplies, Darius finally retreated to Asia, incurring several times the casualties in the retreat.

Later archaeologists found large quantities of Persian trophies in the Scythian tombs: composite bows, spears, javelins, axes, swords, daggers, and many pieces of iron and bronze that could be used to make scale armor. Horses draped all over were buried beside their owners, and even women's tombs were stacked with weapons. Their scales were based on leather, and the scales were layered on top of each other, each covering half the length of the lower piece, and this dense protective measure was mainly used for cuirasses, helmets, armor, and aprons of horses.

The Scythians' most popular weapon was the synthetic bow, about 80 centimeters long, made of horsehair or animal tendons. The arrows were accelerated by the tension of the string and the elasticity of the bow, so that the Scythian bow had a range of up to 400 paces. A well-trained archer can shoot ten arrows per minute, and such a dense rain of arrows and hardened arrows are extremely lethal.

However, in this respect, the Cypriots may be far inferior to the Rong Di defeated by the Zhou army and the Qin army that launched another offensive some time later, and in the battle against the westward Rong Di, the eastern lineage of the Cypriots was defeated, and then merged and annexed, and part of the remnants returned to the "homeland" along the direction of the Green Ridge.

At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, many Sai tribes fled across the Tianshan Mountains to the Green Ridge area under the pressure of the Yue Clan. However, there are also some Cypriots who remain in place and become vassals of the Yue clan. Later, the Yueshi people were defeated by the revived Wusun, and the Sai people who remained in the area north of the Tianshan Mountains became the subjects of Wusun again. Today, the blood of many ethnic groups in Asia and Xinjiang contains elements of the Cypriots.

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And the Scythians in 201 BC probably had died out of the royal system they had established.

Therefore, at this time, if Zhang Jiashi sent people to look for the Scythians, it was very likely that he would not get the results he wanted.

After integrating the information at hand, Zhang Jiashi was very helpless to find a fact, that is, the reality is very skinny, and the strategy of long-distance and close attack is not suitable for the Huns at this time.

It is very likely that the northern forces of the Xiongnu during this period have submitted to the Xiongnu, such as Ding Lingren.

The Ding Ling people first lived near Lake Baikal and belonged to the Xiongnu at the time of Maodundanyu. Ding Ling, who moved south into the original place, is called Ding Ling. The Xianbei people called it a high car because the Ding Ling people in the north used a car with tall wheels. After the Han Dynasty defeated the Northern Xiongnu, Ding Ling's territory began to move south, interacting with the original Han people.

From the end of the 4th century to the 6th century AD, following the Xiongnu and Xianbei, the Ding Ling and Rouran people were active in the vast areas of the north, south and northwest of the national desert. In the original Ding Lingren, the Zhai Wei regime was established.

In the 4th century, most of the people living in the Yinshan area were already humiliated. The famous "Ding Ling Song" is a pastoral song in the Xianbei language of Ding Ling people in the Northern Qi Dynasty, which was later translated into Chinese. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Ding Ling people participated in a large number of wars between the Xianbei and Han people, and most of them gradually integrated into the Han nationality together with the Ding Ling people.

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