"Either you and your tribe obey, or you all die. Choose one."
Huo Xiaolong couldn't understand any of the grassland language, but Erhei could understand some of it, though he had forgotten it after not using it for many years. However, the man could guess the general meaning, so he translated for the girl in red armor.
"Is this how you negotiate, Da Ni'er?" Huo Xiaolong asked.
"Yeah, isn't that how she always talks? She even got into an argument with the other side, and then they started fighting," Erhei replied.
The strategy is far more complicated than I imagined. The difficulty isn't in typing the words, but in getting them to accept it.
Even if you allow them to be self-sufficient, have enough to eat, and wear warm clothes, the prerequisite is that they are willing to accept it.
Seeing that the bearded tribal chief across from them was never one to admit defeat, two white horses galloped over from a distance, carrying a girl in a neat dress and a chubby boy behind her.
He said in the grassland language as he ran.
"etc."
"Sun Zixi," Huo Xiaolong called out as he turned around.
The white-horse girl arrived at the front of the battle, put away the reins, and went straight to the tribal chief, saying...
"I hope you've forgotten what happened earlier. Now I'd like to talk to you."
Da Ni'er, seeing that the professional had arrived, happily rode her horse over to Huo Xiaolong and said...
"How was it? No fight broke out today."
"..."
"If Sun Zixi hadn't come, Gao would have had to fight again." Hou Xiangxiang didn't even need to look at Huo Xiaolong's expression to know that her friend was already numb.
“Isn’t that how we were when we fought in the red-light district? If we can fight, we won’t fight. Don’t you want to beat them into submission, Long’er?” Da Ni’er said confidently.
"I'll never let you do this again," Huo Xiaolong sighed, then said.
The girl in black on a white horse, her hair tied high, walked proudly before the tribal chief and spoke.
"As you have probably heard, many tribes have died by the swords of the Great Yan people, but that is not our purpose in coming here."
“When you are starving in the winter, you always lead a group of people to burn, kill and plunder our villages in Pingyang County. You should know this yourself. Don’t say that your tribe has never produced anyone.”
"Therefore, we are not here to take revenge for our invasion and conquest, but to teach you how to survive."
The tribal chief sneered and asked
"The Central Plains and the grasslands have been enemies for centuries. How will you teach us to survive?"
Sun Zixi tightened the reins, the horse stood still, and the girl looked at him seriously and with a sense of pressure, saying...
“As long as you are not alive, we border residents will live in constant fear.”
"We're not helping you, we're helping ourselves."
The tribal chief was old, his beard and hair completely white, and he had no excess fat on his body. They were not doing well. They not only had to worry about how to survive, but also about how to deal with invasions from other tribes.
"Over the years, the Grand Preceptor has twice sent men to raid the border of Great Yan, but both attempts failed. You are strong and well-equipped; you could have attacked us directly. Even if you had killed us all, so what?" the tribal chief said.
"And then the descendants of the grasslands will continue to take revenge on us? And so on, forever?"
"I suggest you go back and think it over carefully, and consider what I'm about to say in a few days."
"As long as you lead your tribe to submit to our Great Yan, that general will teach you how to cultivate the land, enabling you to be self-sufficient, well-fed and clothed, and even allowing the tribe's shaman to learn medicine from our Great Yan physicians."
Sun Zixi solemnly addressed the leader.
"You want us to be slaves?"
On the grasslands, the only ones who were inexplicably kind to them were the nobles who lacked slaves for labor.
"We want you to be human."
"Be a person of the Great Yan Dynasty."
"To be a person of the Great Yan who can eat their fill and stay warm."
The old man didn't ask any more questions, only saying that they would have a few days to go back and think about it.
"What if they don't agree?" Dani asked Sun Zixi from the side.
"Didn't you say that if they disagreed, we'd kill them all?" the girl in black replied.
“I thought you had some good ideas,” Dani said with a smile.
"That's how negotiations are; there's no easy way. It's either fight or make peace."
It was the first time Sun Zixi had seen a sunset on the grassland; it was incredibly red and dazzling. She was grateful for her childhood obsession; if she hadn't been so fixated on Hou Xiangxiang, she might never have met Huo Xiaolong.
Memories swirl in my mind like autumn leaves: Sun Ziyang is holding a large bowl filled with rice and braised pork, with very few green vegetables.
"What are you thinking about? Haven't you eaten yet?"
The atmosphere was broken. The girl glanced at her brother with a hint of disappointment, then lifted the curtain of the command tent and went inside.
"General."
Sun Zixi was the most well-behaved among them. The older women in the military camp would call Huo Xiaolong "General" but their eyes were always different.
The soldiers looked at their general with a kind and maternal gaze.
Hou Xiangxiang is even more of a handful. Since the fighting started, we hardly ever see her. Xiao Lanyi said that a talent like Sister Xiaohai would be treated like royalty in any military camp.
The girl in black knelt on one knee and bowed to Huo Xiaolong. Long'er, secretly pleased, didn't show it on her face and waved her hand, saying...
"Get up and sit down."
"Thank you, General Xie," Sun Zixi said, standing up.
"How likely do you think the Windstone Tribe will submit to us this time?" The red-armored girl closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
Having been on the grasslands for almost a month, all we've been doing is traveling or fighting, which is completely different from what we expected. If things continue like this, even if we take down Da Ni'er's family, it won't make any difference.
“Sixty percent,” Sun Zixi replied.
"Why?" the girl in front of the desk asked.
"They are almost out of energy."
Huo Xiaolong lowered his hand, opened his eyes, and asked in detail.
"What's the meaning?"
Sun Zixi sat below Huo Xiaolong, picked up her rice bowl, and ate while talking.
“You might not have seen it clearly from behind, but logically speaking, we’ve been on the grassland for a month and wiped out so many tribes, the Fengshi tribe must have heard about it.”
"The grassland people who are always ready to resist and die, especially the tribal leaders, should wear the glory of their tribe on their bodies. To put it bluntly, it's something like wolf skin or tiger skin. A tribe of a few hundred people doesn't even have these things?"
"But they didn't; even the lining of their coats was made of withered grass."
"The only possibility is that they exchanged all the good things they had for food and winter supplies."
"Since we're already at our wits' end, why not give it a try?"
"The result is death anyway."
Huo Xiaolong nodded, then continued to ask.
"When you came, you passed through the border between Pingyang and the grasslands. How are the areas we conquered doing?"
"Marshal Xiao has already dispatched troops to guard the area, and it's airtight. Don't worry, we can transport as much grain as we need," the girl in black replied.
Although they can now send messages by carrier pigeon, Huo Xiaolong is still a little uneasy because he can't see them.
War requires food, and so does winning these people over.
Food is the most important thing for people; eating is always the most important thing.
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