Chapter 312 Internal Conflicts
After teaching these people and leaving them with the homemade bombs he had brought, Marquis Dingbei led his men back to the prefectural city via the same route.
As for the other passes that, like Zijing Pass, were the first to bear the brunt of the pressure, the Marquis of Dingbei also sent the same number of homemade bombs to them through his trusted subordinates.
As a result, the Tatars outside those two passes soon experienced the immense power of these homemade bombs that were naturally their weakness.
As mentioned before, this thing is actually of limited power and cannot kill many people at once, but the huge noise it produces and the fragments that fly everywhere after the explosion pose a huge threat to horses.
One of the two advantages the Tatars had over the Han Chinese was their horses. Depriving them of their horses was tantamount to taking away half of their strength.
As for their advantage of being tall and strong, no matter how tall and strong they are, they are still flesh and blood. Whether it's a homemade bomb or being trampled by a horse, it can still cause them harm.
In other words, with the powerful combination of city walls and earthen bombs, the two advantages of the Tatars were completely suppressed.
This was undoubtedly great news for the Great Wei, but for the Tatars it was like a bolt from the blue.
If they hadn't ordered their spies to capture Xie Wanniang before, they might still be able to order their spies to find out what that thing that could make such a loud noise was. But now, most of the spies they had painstakingly planted have already been lured out by Xie Wanniang.
Although the few small fish managed to survive due to their low activity level, they were also outnumbered and outmatched, and could no longer efficiently and systematically spy on and transmit intelligence for the Tatars as before.
With repeated setbacks on the battlefield and their intelligence network almost completely paralyzed, the Tatars' initially high morale plummeted. The internal conflicts that had been temporarily suppressed by the major event of their southward raids resurfaced due to the continuous defeats and their inability to devise a coping strategy.
People from several large tribes got into arguments due to their bad moods, and these arguments quickly escalated into mutual hostility due to previously unspoken internal conflicts.
Although they did not immediately take action due to the influence of the royal court, the atmosphere in the army became more and more tense each day.
The smaller tribes below each had their own agendas. Most of the smaller tribes had already pledged allegiance to a larger tribe, so they naturally had to act according to the wishes of the tribes they were affiliated with. However, many of the medium-sized tribes had secret ambitions to replace the larger tribes.
This was certainly not an easy task to accomplish. The reason why large tribes were large was not only because they had strong armies and occupied excellent pastures, but also because they had the closest relationship with the Tatar royal court.
The frequent marriages between them closely linked them with the Tatar royal family. Except when there was a change of Khan in the royal court, when these large tribes would step in to support the princes they favored, they generally did not have any conflicts with the Tatar royal family.
Even once the struggle for the throne comes to an end, they will know when to stop in order to minimize the losses to the tribe.
The newly enthroned Tatar Khans, constrained by the current situation, generally do not dwell on past issues. They tend to follow established practices and select marriage partners from former enemy tribes.
With the rise of a new generation replacing the old, those tribes that had supported the losing side in the struggle for the throne could now begin a new round of power struggles.
This time, however, they are fighting for the right to inherit the throne after the victor dies.
Of course, there were other twists and turns and conflicts along the way. After all, not everyone can weigh and choose based solely on interests. In any place and in any era, there will always be some people who value blood ties, gratitude, and hatred more.
These people can sometimes stir up some trouble, but more often than not, they can only be wiped out with regret and hatred.
Only in extremely rare circumstances can they, after a long period of forbearance and scheming, turn the tide and avenge their great grudge.
In this situation, while large tribes may experience a temporary setback, this setback is far from crippling them.
As a result, it becomes very difficult for those ambitious medium-sized tribes to take over.
Even because their growth and strength might make larger tribes feel threatened, leading them to unite against or even divide them up, they dare not reveal their full strength.
While it is true that moderately concealing one's shortcomings and showing weakness is for the purpose of better self-preservation, it is difficult for them to control their burgeoning ambitions whenever they are ridiculed, mocked, or bullied for being "inferior" to others.
This is why these medium-sized tribes dream of replacing the large tribes.
Each time the throne changed hands, and each time they fought against the Han people, the leaders of these medium-sized tribes secretly prayed that one or even two large tribes not far from their own pastures would suffer a crushing defeat in the struggle or war.
After all these years, this is arguably the closest these leaders of medium-sized tribes have ever come to their dreams.
However, the troublesome thing is that the new weapon of the Great Wei can not only harm those large tribes, but also harm those medium-sized tribes.
Undoubtedly, once these large tribes and royal nobles realize that the upcoming war will be very disadvantageous to the Tatars, they will no longer be scrambling to send their own troops as they were a few days ago. Instead, they will continue to use these medium-sized tribes and the more numerous small tribes, just as they have done long ago.
Yes, although the war has been going on for a long time, the Tatar royal court and the armies of those large tribes have never served as cannon fodder to wear down the weapons, energy and even lives of the Wei defenders.
The only ones who paid a heavy price for this war were the small and medium-sized tribes, who were powerless against the larger forces.
Therefore, these small and medium-sized tribes harbored resentment towards the royal court and the large tribes.
No matter how much resentment they harbored, when those major tribes united and tacitly cooperated with the royal court and nobles to push them out as cannon fodder, they had no other choice but to obey orders.
The reason their people were replaced a few days ago is that the royal nobles and leaders of several large tribes believed that the weapons and energy of the Wei garrison should have been almost exhausted, and it would be their time to make a name for themselves.
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