Chapter 884

The Jingguan was piled up before dawn.

Six hundred and ninety-three heads were piled on the side of the official road ten miles outside the trade fair, large at the bottom and pointed at the top, layered into a cone-shaped earth mound. Frozen earth was used to fill the gaps between the heads, and the one at the very top was Qiushangtou's, whose eyes hadn't closed, staring at the direction of Great Zhou in the south.

Blood seeped out from the gaps in the mound, congealing into a dark red ice shell on the alkaline road surface.

Passing merchant caravans detoured far away from that area, and the man driving the donkey turned his head to look once before turning his face away.

Seven days later.

Yun Geti sat in the great tent of the Rouran Royal Court, modeled after the Jinyang Palace. On the low table in front of him was a frozen sheep brain the size of a fist, and his fingers stayed on the rim of the bowl for a long time without moving.

Seven generals stood in the tent, and not a single person spoke.

When Batu walked in from outside the tent curtain, his iron boots crushed the frozen earth at the tent entrance, making a crisp sound, and the gazes of everyone in the tent swept over.

Batu's iron armor was covered with a gray leather robe, the edges of the leather robe stained with alkaline ash, and the boot shafts were full of horse manure stains.

He walked to a position three paces in front of Yun Geti and bent his waist to perform a salute.

"Great Khan, the news from the south has been verified."

Yun Geti's fingers moved on the rim of the bowl.

"Speak."

Batu straightened his waist.

"Qiushangtou's one thousand men were completely wiped out."

The generals in the tent looked at each other.

Batu continued to speak, his voice flat without a trace of fluctuation.

"More than four hundred were beheaded in battle, more than two hundred were disposed of in batches after being captured. All those wearing armor were beheaded and piled into a Jingguan, and more than one hundred wearing cloth clothes were released. These people have already scattered to the surrounding tribes, and their mouths are all spreading the news about the Jingguan outside the Great Zhou trade fair."

Yun Geti's palm clapped on the low table, and the frozen sheep brain jumped in the bowl.

"Qiushangtou, this idiot!"

He stood up from the throne and walked back and forth three times in the tent.

"I told him not to take action, not to take action! He wouldn't listen, taking a thousand people to their deaths!"

Batu stood in place without moving.

Yun Geti turned around and glared at him.

"Where is Qiushangtou?"

Batu's voice dropped by half a notch.

"Dead. The head is at the very top of the Jingguan."

Yun Geti's chest heaved twice, and the flesh on his lips trembled for two or three rounds.

He walked back to the side of the throne, not sitting down, his hands supporting himself on the armrests.

"Jingguan? Great Zhou's hairy kid used the head of my general to pile a Jingguan?"

Batu nodded.

"Those who were released all saw it with their own eyes. More than six hundred heads were piled in six layers from bottom to top, and the one at the top is Qiushangtou's. There is news that a wooden sign was also erected outside the Jingguan, with words written on it."

Yun Geti's hands squeezed blue veins on the armrests.

"What was written?"

Batu took a piece of cowhide the size of a palm out of his bosom.

"One of the people who were released is literate and copied the content on the wooden sign."

He unfolded the cowhide piece and read it once.

"Whoever reaches out to invade my border will leave their head but not their person."

The tent was quiet for a full ten breaths.

Yun Geti's hands loosened from the armrests, his fingers pinching in the air once before letting go.

He sat back on the throne, and when his buttocks sank into the wolf skin mattress, it was as if a section of his bones had been pulled out.

"Batu."

Batu walked forward one step.

Yun Geti's voice retracted to a level that only the few people in the front row of the tent could hear clearly.

"Where is Qiushangtou's family?"

Batu's fingers tapped on the belt of his iron armor.

"Qiushangtou's wife and two sons are still waiting for news in the tent."

Yun Geti's fingers tapped three times on his knees.

"Call his wife over, and say that Qiushangtou disobeyed the Great Khan's order and acted without authorization, leading to the total destruction of one thousand elites. According to the Royal Court's military law, what crime should this be?"

Batu's lips moved.

"Great Khan, Qiushangtou sent troops for the sake of the Royal Court; everyone below knows this."

Yun Geti raised his head and stared at him.

"For the sake of the Royal Court? Did I let him go?"

Batu didn't respond.

Yun Geti's palm clapped on his knees.

"I didn't let him go! He took a thousand people to their deaths on his own, and after sending them to their deaths, he compensated the able-bodied men of one thousand families on the alkaline land in the south. Is this for the sake of the Royal Court?"

His voice raised.

"This is slapping this Khan's face!"

The generals in the tent lowered their heads.

Yun Geti took three breaths, and his voice sank again.

"Qiushangtou's family members are fined three hundred horses and one thousand sheep to be confiscated. His two sons are stripped of their positions in the army and demoted to ordinary herdsmen."

Batu's hand loosened from his belt.

"Great Khan, this subordinate has one more thing to report."

Yun Geti looked at him.

Batu's voice dropped to the lowest.

"Those one hundred-plus people who were released scattered to various tribes, and their mouths are not just talking about the Jingguan."

Yun Geti's eyebrows twisted.

"What else are they saying?"

Batu's fingers rubbed on the chest position of his iron armor.

"They are talking about the Great Zhou trade fair, saying that the millet in the trade fair is ten times better than the alkaline grain issued by the Royal Court, and the fine salt is as white as snow. They also say that Great Zhou is selling houses and household registrations, and grassland herdsmen can settle down after going there."

Yun Geti's fingers stopped.

Batu continued.

"Several tribes have already been privately spreading these words. The news I heard is that at least the leaders of five marginal tribes are discussing whether to move south."

Yun Geti stood up.

"Five tribes?"

Batu nodded.

"I've investigated. Of these five tribes, three were crushed the hardest by the doubled tax order, one had all its able-bodied men die in the Battle of Jinshan leaving only women and children, and another is a small tribe adjacent to Qifugu, which was squeezed to the marginal area after Qifugu swallowed the Helan Clan, losing its good pastures."

Yun Geti stood up.

He paced five steps in front of the throne, the sound of his leather boots stepping on the fur rug becoming heavier with every step.

"Blockade the border."

Batu's fingers clenched.

"Great Khan, the border is thousands of miles—"

Yun Geti turned around.

"I said blockade the border! Block all the roads going south, set up checkpoints at the river valley entrances, set up sentries on the post roads, find herdsmen guides to find every small path on the alkaline land, and send people to watch them to death."

His palm chopped in the air.

"From today on, no one from any tribe is allowed to take a step south without the Royal Court's approval. Violators will be treated as rebels, and if caught, they will be dealt with along with their families."

Batu stood in place without moving.

Yun Geti stared at him.

"What else do you have to say?"

Batu's voice slowed by half a beat.

"Great Khan, blockading the border requires troops. I made a rough calculation: to block all the main road entrances and river valleys on the border line of thousands of miles, it requires at least pulling eight thousand to ten thousand people to guard in segments."

Yun Geti walked back to the side of the throne, his hands supporting himself on the armrests.

"Where to pull them from?"

Batu swept a circle around the other generals in the tent.

"Pull them from various vassal tribes, allocated according to the size of the tribe. Large tribes send two hundred people, medium tribes send one hundred people, and small tribes send fifty people."

Yun Geti thought for two breaths.

"Do as you say. Issue a conscription order in this Khan's name. Within ten days, every tribe must send people to the border assembly point."

Batu bent his waist.

"This subordinate obeys."

When he turned to walk toward the outside of the tent, he stopped at the door curtain and turned his head.

"Great Khan, there is one more thing."

Yun Geti looked at him.

"After this conscription order goes down, those tribes that were already hesitating about whether to move south will probably speed up their steps."

Yun Geti clapped his hands on the armrests.

"Then blockade it fast! Block the road before they run! If one runs away, I will hold you accountable!"

Batu's iron boots ground the frozen earth outside the door curtain, and the curtain swayed twice behind him.

The conscription order was sent out from the Royal Court that afternoon, and the messengers on fast horses galloped away in separate directions along the eight post roads toward the various vassal tribes.

Three days later, the first batch of conscription orders was delivered to the six tribes closest to the Royal Court.

After the leader of the Sele Tribe finished reading the conscription order, he threw the cowhide roll onto the tent floor.

His manager bent his waist to pick it up.

"Leader, the Great Khan wants us to send one hundred and fifty able-bodied men."

The voice of the Sele Tribe leader sprayed out from his nasal cavity with scalding heat.

"One hundred and fifty? Two hundred were conscripted last year and not a single one has come back yet, and this year he wants another one hundred and fifty. Does he think the people of my Sele Tribe are grasshoppers on the grassland, growing a new batch after one is plucked?"

The manager squatted on the ground, his voice pressed down until it was broken.

"Leader, the Great Khan says it's for blockading the border, to be sent to the assembly point within ten days."

The Sele Tribe leader kicked over the low table in front of him, and the tea bowl on the table fell to the ground and broke in two.

"Blockade the border? Blockade whose border? Whose road is he blocking? Why do those who want to run south want to run? Isn't it because he, Yun Geti, doubled the taxes and drained the able-bodied men?"

The manager swept the broken tea bowl into the corner.

"Leader, keep your voice down."

The Sele Tribe leader turned three circles in the tent.

"Old Cheng, tell me a solid truth. How many able-bodied men does our tribe have now?"

The manager's lips moved.

"Counting the half-grown boys, we can barely scrape together six hundred, but more than one hundred of them are those who froze their hands and feet after last year's white disaster and can't do heavy work or ride horses."

The Sele Tribe leader stood still in the center of the tent.

"Pull another one hundred and fifty out of six hundred. After deducting the one hundred-plus wounded and disabled, only three hundred-plus are left who can work. With three hundred people looking after more than one thousand old, weak, women, and children plus several thousand head of livestock, how will we herd next spring?"

The manager didn't speak.

The Sele Tribe leader walked to the tent door and lifted the curtain to look out.

The sky outside the tent was gray, and several herdsmen in the distance were walking slowly on the withered yellow alkaline grassland while driving a small group of thin cattle.

He let the curtain down, returned to the tent, squatted on the ground, and his voice broke into several sections.

"Old Cheng, have you heard about that trade fair in the south?"

The manager's eyeballs jumped back and forth on his face twice.

"I've heard of it. One of the people who were released passed by our territory and stayed for a night, and his mouth was full of that trade fair."

The Sele Tribe leader tapped his fingers on his knees twice.

"Trading millet for horses, trading houses for household registrations—is that how it is?"

The manager nodded.

"I heard that person say that on the Great Zhou side, as long as you bring cattle and horses, you can trade for anything—grain, salt, houses, household registrations, all available."

The Sele Tribe leader clapped his palms on his knees.

"The price he said, one strong horse for five shi of millet and ten jin of fine salt, is more than twice as good as the price in the Royal Court market."

The manager's voice lowered again.

"Leader, you wouldn't be thinking—"

The Sele Tribe leader stood up.

"Thinking what? I'm not thinking anything."

He walked to the pile of sundries in the corner of the tent, fished out an old leather pouch from the bottom, and patted the dust off it.

"Old Cheng, help me do one thing."

The manager looked at him.

"Go find Tagige of the Tuhai Tribe and Morigen of the Puchang Tribe, and have them meet me under the old elm tree by the salt lake the night after tomorrow."

The manager's hand rubbed on his robe twice.

"Leader, these two people also received the conscription order, right?"

The Sele Tribe leader tied the old leather pouch to his waist.

"It's good that they received it."

He lifted the tent curtain and walked out.

The manager squatted in the tent, watching the curtain sway twice and stop.

The old elm tree by the salt lake is the boundary of the pastures of the three tribes. It's remote, and usually, not even the herdsmen go there.

The night two days later, three human shadows met under the old elm tree.

The Sele Tribe leader, Tagige of the Tuhai Tribe, and Morigen of the Puchang Tribe.

The three of them squatted next to the tree roots, and the wind blowing across the salt lake surface carried a salty astringency.

The Sele Tribe leader spoke first.

"Did you two also receive the conscription order?"

Tagige spat a mouthful of saliva.

"One hundred people. Yun Geti acts as if my Tuhai Tribe hasn't died enough."

Morigen's voice was even duller.

"My Puchang Tribe has only four hundred-plus people left, and he still wants fifty able-bodied men. After pulling them out, I won't even be able to scrape together people to watch the cattle."

The Sele Tribe leader fished that old leather pouch out of his waist, unscrewed the lid, and took a sip of the sour mare's milk inside.

"You two, I asked you to meet me today not to complain."

Tagige and Morigen looked at him.

The Sele Tribe leader handed the pouch to Tagige, his voice pressed down to a level only the three of them could hear.

"The trade fair in the south, your people know about it too, right?"

Tagige took a gulp of sour mare's milk and handed it to Morigen.

"I know. The women and old people in my tent whisper about this all day long."

Morigen took the pouch but didn't drink, holding it in his hand.

"Sele Brother, what do you mean?"

The Sele Tribe leader clapped his palms on his knees.

"My meaning is very simple."

His voice was broken into the wind blowing on the salt lake.

"Move south."

Tagige's hand stopped on the knot of the pouch.

Morigen's hand holding the pouch tightened by a notch.

The Sele Tribe leader's voice was pressed down until it couldn't be lower.

"Yun Geti uses us like cattle, collecting taxes and conscripting soldiers every year. This year, after the doubled tax order came down, I don't even have enough grain to survive the winter after paying taxes, and your two families' days aren't much better."

His fingers bent one by one on his knees.

"Now comes the conscription order again, wanting to pull away our last able-bodied men to help him blockade the border. Blockade what? Blockade the road for herdsmen to run south? But why doesn't he think about why herdsmen want to run south?"

The corners of Tagige's mouth pulled down a notch.

"Running south is because we can't live anymore."

The Sele Tribe leader patted Tagige on the shoulder.

"Well said. We can't live anymore, so we run south. But Yun Geti doesn't care about the life or death of the herdsmen; he only cares about collecting taxes and soldiers, collecting, then adding more, then adding, then collecting."

His hand withdrew from Tagige's shoulder.

"If this continues, our three tribes will have the same end as the Helan Clan within two years."

Morigen finally took a sip of sour mare's milk and wiped the corners of his mouth.

"Sele Brother, moving south isn't something you can just say. If more than one thousand people herd cattle and horses and walk eight days south, what if we run into the Royal Court's patrol cavalry on the road?"

The Sele Tribe leader fished a piece of paper with two folded marks out of his robe.

"Look at this."

Tagige took it and leaned it under the moonlight to take a look.

"Where did this come from?"

The Sele Tribe leader's voice pressed down by another half.

"It was passed over from the trade fair side the day before yesterday, something left behind by a Han merchant passing through my territory."

Morigen leaned over to look.

There were a few lines of Rouran characters written on the paper.

Any grassland tribe willing to move south as a whole can send people to the trade fair for registration first, and the Great Zhou Xiazhou Governor's Office will arrange for support along the way and resettlement camps.

The Sele Tribe leader took the paper back, folded it, and stuffed it back into his robe.

"There are people on the Great Zhou side to support us."

Tagige and Morigen looked at each other.

The Sele Tribe leader stood up and patted the trunk of the old elm tree.

"I'm not waiting."

He turned to look at the two people.

"The conscription order requires people to be sent to the assembly point within ten days. My Sele Tribe won't send a single person. Within ten days, I'm taking the whole tribe south."

Tagige stood up from the ground.

"If you leave, Yun Geti will send people to pursue you."

The corners of the Sele Tribe leader's mouth twisted.

"What will he use to pursue? His troops are all sent to blockade the border. The border line is thousands of miles long. Does he know which road I'm taking?"

Morigen also stood up.

The wind blowing from the salt lake surface rolled the corners of the three people's robes twice.

"Sele Brother, if you leave, my Puchang Tribe won't stay either."

Tagige gripped that old leather pouch, his voice broken until even he himself couldn't hear it clearly.

"The Tuhai Tribe will follow."

The three people stood under the old elm tree for a breath.

The Sele Tribe leader stretched out his right hand.

Tagige stacked his hand on top.

Morigen's hand was the last one to be placed on top.

Three rough palms gripped together under the moonlight.

In the direction of the Royal Court in the distance, the sound of the fast horses of the conscription order was still echoing on the post road.

And in the main hall of the Xiazhou Governor's Office, Chen Yan stood in front of the sand table, his fingers pointing in turn at the marks of several tribes in the southeast direction of the grassland.

Zhang Wenqian entered from the hall entrance, clutching an urgent letter that had just been unsealed.

"Zhuguo, news from the hidden post: Yun Geti issued an order to blockade the border and simultaneously issued a conscription order to various vassal tribes, wanting to pull together nearly ten thousand people to guard the border line."

Chen Yan's fingers stopped on the sand table.

He pulled that small red flag chess piece from the position of the Rouran Royal Court, squeezed it in his palm, and inserted it back into its original place.

"Conscription order."

He turned around to look at Zhang Wenqian.

"Yun Geti is pulling able-bodied men from those vassal tribes that are already almost starving to death to guard the border line."

Zhang Wenqian placed the urgent letter on the desk.

"Zhuguo, this move happens to correspond to what you said before."

Chen Yan walked back behind the desk and sat down, tapping the desk surface for the last time.

"The more he blockades, the more the herdsmen want to run. The more the herdsmen want to run, the more he has to add troops to watch. The more troops he adds, the more able-bodied men he pulls from the tribes. The more able-bodied men are pulled, the weaker the tribes become. The weaker the tribes, the less they can pay taxes and the less they can survive. The people who can't survive want to run south even more."

His fingers drew a circle on the desk surface.

"Deadlock."

Zhang Wenqian stood in front of the desk.

"Zhuguo, two more groups of new tribe leaders came to register to trade for houses at the trade fair today."

Chen Yan picked up the bowl of water that had cooled on the corner of the desk and took a gulp.

"Which two?"

Zhang Wenqian fished the registration book out of his bosom and flipped a page.

"One is named Suhe, a leader in charge of herding for the Shibo Tribe. He came once before, and this time he brought three elders of the Shibo Tribe with him. The other is a manager of the Lin Yuan Tribe, saying their tribe of five hundred households wants to move south as a whole, and he came to scout the path first."

Chen Yan placed the water bowl on the corner of the desk.

"Let them come."

He stood up from the chair, walked to the front of the sand table, and his gaze fell on the old locust tree at the entrance of the main hall that had already begun to sprout, passing over the dense chess pieces on the sand table.

"Zhang Wenqian, this Duke's trade fair doesn't need to make any changes. Sell millet when it's time to sell millet, and trade for houses when it's time to trade for houses."

His hand lifted from the frame of the sand table and pointed toward the direction outside the hall entrance.

"Yun Geti did for this Duke what this Duke originally wanted to do."

Zhang Wenqian followed his finger to look outside the hall entrance.

Chen Yan's hand withdrew and tucked into his sleeves.

"He personally pushed the herdsmen into this Duke's embrace."