will only have the four counties of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai and Shang on Kanyu, but they will not be able to see even a single Han person in the land of these four counties.

- Of course, Liu Sheng understands what Zhou Yafu means by this.

Later generations may or may not know: the most valuable resource for nomadic civilization has never been grain, grass, cloth, or gold and silver treasures.

Slave;

Slaves, or strong labor, are one of the most valuable assets of the nomads.

It is comparable to cattle, sheep and livestock as production tools, and pastures as means of production.

Some people may wonder: nomads, what do they need labor for?

They didn't need to build cities, roads, or dig aqueducts?

In fact, from the demand for labor of nomadic people, we can understand the most basic way of survival of nomadic civilization.

-- In the grasslands, the fundamental mode of survival of nomadic civilization is animal husbandry.

However, unlike the vast majority of people who take for granted that animal husbandry is to raise cattle, sheep and horses, and then eat meat all year round, the main source of food for nomads is not the meat of the herds, but the milk produced by the animals and the dairy products that use milk as the raw material.

Take the general situation controlled by the Han family today: the social composition of the Xiongnu people is based on the 'account' as the basic family unit.

In such a family unit, there is usually a man in the prime of life, who exists as the 'head of the family', who needs to shoulder the obligation to protect the whole family and has the right to decide on all things within the family;

There will be one to three women, as wives and concubines, who will shoulder the obligation of bearing offspring, raising children, and handling trivial matters in the family;

In addition, there will be one or two siblings of the head of the family, who will exist as a 'deputy head of the family' to help the head of the family protect the whole family, make contributions to the family to the best of their ability, and at the same time receive protection and support from the family.

And in such a family, what is really shocking is that adult males, including the head of the house and the deputy head of the house, are completely free from the obligation to keep livestock at all.

In their spare time, adult males in Xiongnu families would ride horses to patrol the pastures, or invite friends to go out hunting, or compete with others in strength and martial arts.

When you are tired of walking outside and playing, you will return to your own felt tent;

When he was happy, he pulled a wife and concubine to stay warm for a while, and when he was unhappy, he pulled a child over and beat him, and then he ate and drank enough, and then fell asleep······

Some people may say: This kind of lifestyle seems to be very unstable for women, and it seems that the burden of the family is pressed on women?

But in fact, the responsibility borne by the men in the Xiongnu family can almost be said to be the heaviest and most unwilling to bear in the history of human civilization.

——When outsiders invade, the 'head of the Hun family' will gallop out without distraction and fight the invaders!

In the event of a disaster, the death of cattle and sheep herdsmen, and the source of food is urgent, the 'head of the family' of the Xiongnu family will still ride out of the horse, desperately fighting for the possibility of never coming back, to hunt for food by unscrupulous means.

And when the tribe recruited soldiers, it was still this Hun male who enjoyed countless privileges to ride his strongest horse, equip himself with all his weapons and equipment, and go to fight bloodily for his tribe.

In Liu Sheng's view, the way of life of the Huns is actually very similar to that of African lions.

- The male master seems to have nothing to do, wandering around all day long, or grooming his hair;

But in fact, the Xiongshi 'wandering around' is patrolling the territory and grooming his hair, in order to make himself look healthier and more 'not easy to mess with', so as to scare off the incoming enemy as bloodless as possible.

The same reason: Xiongnu men seem to have nothing to do, and they seem to be playing and hi everywhere on weekdays, but in fact, Xiongnu men play archery and wrestling, and they are honing their martial arts, in order to better protect their families when necessary.

In this way, it is easy to understand that Xiongnu men 'do not produce'.

Xiongnu women, on the other hand, need to be responsible for processing food, taking care of children and other heavy burdens, but because of physiological differences, they naturally do not have the physical strength required for animal husbandry.

This makes it so that in such a Xiongnu family, those who are responsible for taking care of cattle, sheep and livestock, and obtaining milk and goat's milk can only be slaves.

Or, in other words, the Huns of this era actually think very much about the Spartans during the ancient Athenian civilization.

- From birth, men are either fighting wars, or they are strengthening their bodies and honing their skills for the sake of fighting;

The woman is responsible for the chores inside and outside the home, and does her duty as a wife.

And in charge of production are slaves - labor who only need to buy a lump sum and can work for themselves for a long time for free.

Looking back at the present: as the most outstanding military expert in the Han Dynasty in the past, and also today, Zhou Yafu said in front of the Manchu Dynasty Minister Bai Guang that the Huns' large-scale invasion, once the Han Dynasty does not handle it well, it is likely to cause Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang to 'find no living Han people'.

This is precisely because the Huns put the population, slaves, or labor more than anything else.

For the Xiongnu, the Han people did not have cattle, sheep and livestock, nor did they have fertile pastures;

Even if the grain, grass and cloth are snatched back, the significance is not very great - the food needed to transport the stolen grain back to the grassland will most likely not be much less than the stolen grain;

As for cloth, it was hard currency in the Han Dynasty, and for the Huns, it was actually the same thing - anyway, the Huns didn't pay attention to anything 'decent', just to keep out the cold, animal fur was much stronger than textile cloth.

In fact, every time the Huns invaded south, they were actually to plunder the population.

Men, women, children – as long as they are not old people who are dying, they can take as much as they want.

Needless to say, the sufficiency of ready-made labor, whether kept or sold, is a considerable fortune;

Not to mention women: not to mention that they are slaves, they still give birth to one slave after another, they are simply a cash cow!

As for the children, although their physical strength is poor, they also have their advantages - the three views have not yet been finalized.

As long as you put in a lot of effort, you may not be able to cultivate a person who is tall and big, but extremely loyal to himself.

Therefore, even if he is angry because of Zhou Yafu's words, Liu Sheng must admit: What Zhou Yafu said is right.

The Huns were menacing, obviously knowing that the Han family had undergone drastic changes - the Son of Heaven died, the new monarch was established without a crown, and the lord was suspicious;

At this point in time, the large-scale invasion, firstly, was to seize the opportunity of the handover of Han power and seek stability at home and abroad, and secondly, there was also the meaning of the Xiongnu Shan Yu military ministers to 'greet' Liu Sheng, the rookie emperor.

- From now on, we will be adversaries.

In addition, from the time of the Huns' invasion, it is not difficult for Liu Sheng to guess this: In the past winter, the life of the Huns was not very good.

You know, it's spring and February.

Whether it is the nomadic civilization north of the Great Wall or the agricultural civilization south of the Great Wall, they are all preparing for the next year's production.

- The Han people need to prepare grain seeds, remove weeds from the fields, and clean ditches to prepare for spring ploughing;

The Xiongnu, on the other hand, needed to go north from the warm Hetao Basin after the beginning of spring, follow the water and grass all the way until late autumn, and then return to the relatively warm Hetao Basin and close to the Great Wall of Hanbei.

It is precisely for this reason that almost every invasion of the Huns in the past was after the autumn.

Because after autumn, it means that after a whole year of accumulation, the horses of the Huns have eaten all over the body and are in the best condition;

After a year of nomadism, the Xiongnu also mostly returned to the relatively warm southern steppe, not very far from Hanbian.

To the south of the Great Wall, after a year of hard work, Han Chinese farmers also harvested a full harvest, stuffing their granaries with grain to prepare for the winter.

At this point in time, the Huns could easily get a large amount of supplies and return to the steppe without much effort, and at the same time did not affect the life of 'winter in the south and spring in the north'.

This year, however, the Huns launched such a large-scale invasion at the beginning of spring, at the time when they were about to start their northern nomadic pastures.

It is precisely because this point in time is really 'unexpected' that the border soldiers cannot cope with it, and the battle situation is extremely unfavorable to the Han family.

Perhaps, the Huns invaded at the beginning of spring, and they did have the consideration of 'taking the Han people by surprise';

But Liu Sheng was very sure: if it weren't for what happened this past winter, then the Huns would never have chosen to gallop south on a large scale south in the beginning of spring in order to 'say hello to the little emperor of the Han people'.

Because to conduct a war in Kaichun, and from then on disrupt the nomadic route and time planning for a whole year, it is a huge loss that is absolutely unacceptable for the Huns······

"The four counties of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang are almost the most important defense line on the north wall of my Han family."

"In addition to Yan, Dai, and Zhao, who are in charge of the garrison by the princes of the clan, the border passes directly under the jurisdiction of the Chang'an court, except for the above four counties, there is only Longyou left."

"——Of the five counties on the north wall that Chang'an is responsible for, four of them have been broken by the Huns, except for the soldiers and civilians hiding in the city, in these four counties, I am afraid that they can no longer see anything other than the Hun cavalry outside the city."

"As for Longyou surviving, I'm afraid it's just because the Huns want to go to Xiaoguan, and they don't need to go through Longyou, and Longyou is located further south and farther away from the south of the curtain······"

After Zhou Yafu expressed his opinion, Liu Sheng was silent for a long time before he said so.

After all the officials and ministers in the palace lowered their heads in shame, Liu Shengcai forcibly suppressed the anger in his chest, looked at Zhou Yafu again and raised his head.

"According to the opinion of the Marquis, next, how should my Han family deal with it?"

"I've already said it."

"- Whoever dares to make peace, slash!"

"I still hope that the Houhou will think twice before making a statement······"

With just one sentence, Liu Sheng can be regarded as expressing his attitude: I'm asking you how to fight, not asking if you can fight!

But it's a pity: this is still Liu Sheng's wishful thinking.

At least in Zhou Yafu's view, Liu Sheng's statement has little practical significance at all······

"Since Your Majesty has said so, the minister has the courage to speak out······"

···

"Whew~"

···

"The Huns knocked on the side, it was already six days ago."

"The pioneer scattered horses to burn down Ganquan Palace, and it was last night."

"According to the custom of the Huns, when going out to fight, the Hun cavalry would only bring enough food for fifteen days, and attack when the moon is full and retreat when the moon is waning."

"From the full moon to the waning moon, it is exactly fifteen days, and the time when the rations carried by the soldiers are exhausted."

···

"The reason why the minister said this is to tell His Majesty: Unless there is a more important goal that has not been achieved, or the retreat route has been forcibly cut off, the Huns will only stay in the border wall for fifteen days at most when they go south."

"Most of the time, from the twelfth or third day after the start of the battle, the Huns will begin to retreat slowly."

"Today is the sixth day of the war, and there are only ten days left before the Huns retreat."

"Since Your Majesty asked the minister: How should I deal with it, the minister dared to ask His Majesty a word."

"——In the past ten days, what can my Han family do?"

"——These ten days are enough for the Chang'an court to do, and what is enough for Your Majesty to do???"

···

Quiet.

Silence again.

What can you do in 10 days?

What can I do?

Just this sentence made the dozens of heads in the entire Xuanshu Hall all bow deeply without exception.

Except for Liu Sheng, who was still stubbornly raising his head and looking directly at Zhou Yafu, and Zhou Yafu, who was fearlessly staring at Liu Sheng, there was no longer a third person with his head raised in the entire Xuanshu Palace.

- Not enough.

- Not enough at all.

Ten days is simply not enough for the Chang'an court to make any effective response.

It can even be said that no matter what decision the Chang'an court makes, in the end, it can only get a result of 'the Huns are free, leaving the north in a mess'.

And under such a premise, it seems that all the responses made by the Chang'an court are just wasting money and food materials······

"Imperial grandmother, do you know that this is the result······

"Is it because I know this result that I have been given the right to decide 'I can do anything'······"

"Grandmother knew that I couldn't do anything, I couldn't do anything, so she allowed me to make any decisions······"

"Because of me, I can't make a decision at all······"

It wasn't until this moment that Liu Sheng finally realized something.

Or should it be said: It was not until this moment that Liu Sheng brought back the possibility of being subconsciously forgotten by himself back into his mind.

staring deeply into the depths of Zhou Yafu's gaze, what he saw was all determined and resolute;

Moving his eyes to the hall, he saw all the majestic 'big men' on weekdays, but at this moment, without exception, he was full of shame and resentment, but he could only bow his head lonely······

"I mean."

"Immediately send the Flying Fox Commander's Department out of the Flying Fox to help the four counties in the Northland."

"The three kingdoms of Yan, Dai, and Zhao each sent county soldiers, galloping far away in the starry night, to quickly solve the difficulties of the four counties of Yanmen, Beidi, Dai, and Shang."

"——The first priority of the war: driving Hu Beili."

"As for the Shaofu, it no longer prepares the ordnance needed for the war, but transfers materials from the treasury for post-war reconstruction."

"The Prime Minister's Mansion will levy and issue prisoners, which is tentatively scheduled to start in spring and March, and be rebuilt in the four counties of the Northland."

"The rest of the chores will be discussed later."

I don't know how long it took, how much effort, and how much determination it took for Liu Sheng to finally calm down;

If the order was given, when everyone in the hall looked at each other, and each bowed down to receive the order, the immature Son of Heaven suddenly stood up from the couch, as if he was angry, and left the Xuanshu Hall as if he had fled.

——On this day, Liu Sheng was unforgettable until his death.

But what is unforgettable is by no means Zhou Yafu's insistence, or the helplessness of the court.

What Liu Sheng can't forget is the humiliation that goes straight to the depths of his soul;

and the reality that after suffering humiliation again, I can only force myself to swallow this humiliation with hatred······

(End of chapter)