I have a drinker instead of drinking, and I open a letter to see all the ghosts go. The world has not forgotten to take the plunge, and the head of the strong king of the moon branch is in hand.
In the last years of the Warring States, the nomadic tribes in the north once jointly invaded the Central Plains, but hundreds of thousands of troops were successfully defeated by Li Mu, a famous general of the Zhao state. In the decades since, the calm of this powerful force's departure has been rarely seen except for small-scale frictions, and large-scale wars with the Central Plains regime have been basically missing.
Above - Mo Dun single in the film and television image
However, as Recorded by Tai Shi Gong, the nomadic tribes' adventurous nature was not changed by defeat, and the real reason for their dormancy was the strong rise of the Xiongnu leader Mao Dundan, who was leading the tribesmen to complete the military conquest of the steppe tribes.
After a long struggle, Mo Dundan succeeded in achieving this goal, but to his surprise, although the Xiongnu had a strong military force, it was difficult to establish prestige among the various ministries, so it was difficult to effectively implement the decree.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > What is the lifeline of the steppe tribe? </h1>
In fact, from the perspective of the whole world, military conquest is indeed a means of rapid realization of domination, after all, everyone's life is only once, no one is born bent on death, survival and reproduction are the choices of most people.
Above – livestock roaming the mountains
However, the reason why Mao Dundan, who had a strong force guarantee, could not effectively establish his prestige was entirely because his threat of force touched the lifeline of the steppe tribes, so he could not continue to go deeper.
What is the lifeline of the steppe tribe? The answer is livestock. For nomadic herders, the more livestock there are, the richer their lives become, and if the number of livestock is insufficient, they are likely to be unable to guarantee even the most basic survival.
If a tribe happens to occupy a fertile pasture of aquatic grass, their grazing ability will definitely surprise many people:
Three thousand and seventy-one level listeners were ambushed, the executions were ugly, and the horses, cattle and sheep were driven by more than a hundred thousand.
In fact, the main contradiction between the tribes on the grassland is the competition for water and grass, and the essence of this competition is to accumulate the means of production of their own tribes and expand the scale of production.
Above - Distribution of Xiongnu power
After the Xiongnu unified the grasslands, they allocated more desert land in the west and more land in the mountains in the east to other tribes, and the headquarters occupied the central grassland with the best grazing environment, and this unfair distribution method was naturally regarded as trampling on the interests of other tribes.
However, under the threat of force from the Xiongnu headquarters, other tribes could only dare to be angry and dare not speak, so they put away their fronts and tried their best to maintain the lifeline of their own clans in the secondary survival environment. In this insistence, the threat of force can approach the lifeline indefinitely, but it cannot completely break through this line.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > ii. How tribal chiefs established their positions</h1>
For the leaders of other steppe tribes, they were theoretically the subjects of Mao Dun Shan Yu, so the tribesmen in their tribes were naturally equivalent to the xiongnu tribesmen, and ultimately accepted the leadership of Mo Dun Shan Yu, which was similar to the feudal class ideology of the Chinese nation:
Under the whole world, there can be no royal land; the coast of the land, can not be the king's subject.
However, as mentioned above, for nomadic herders, who is the co-owner of the steppe does not mean much, the key is who can maintain their own lifeline.
And this experience is basically in the hands of the tribal leaders.
Above – Livestock frozen to death during a snowstorm
Due to the difference in geographical location, the living environment faced by different tribes is also very different, so the people have adapted and adapted to the climatic factors and natural conditions in their own living areas, and have accumulated certain laws. However, since nomadic tribes did not develop writing, these laws can only be passed on by word of mouth. This form of transmission often ends because of the death of the individual, which is not conducive to overall mastery.
If you want to integrate as many such resources as possible, you need to release a lot of energy from the heavy grazing life, and the people with this ability (surplus resources) can only be the tribal leaders, because only they can engage in less or no production, and correspondingly, in return, they have to solve the problems arising from grazing for the tribesmen.
At the national level, the individual herders, who constituted the smallest unit of Xiongnu society, had livestock growth that was not worth mentioning, but from the herdsmen's point of view, the matter was bigger than the sky, and the people who could meet their needs were not ethereal shan yu, but tribal leaders who lived together.
Because of this, the status of the tribal chiefs in the hearts of the tribesmen was much higher than that of the steppe co-lord Mao Dun Shan Yu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, why can't the military-dependent Modun Alone be able to convince the public</h1>
So, if Mao Dun alone has mastered these experiences, can he successfully win the hearts and minds of the people? Theoretically, it may be achievable, but reality defeats this ideal.
First of all, the main contradiction that Mo Dun alone faces is the threat from different forces around him, and his biggest challenge is how to maintain the hard-established regime, so he cannot turn his attention to the bottom of the people's livelihood, and the excessively high level makes it impossible for him to see the basic problems, so he will not pay attention to the maintenance of the lifeline.
Above – staple food on the prairie
Secondly, the natural environment of the grassland is too complex, often adjacent to the two areas not far away, the climatic environment and natural conditions have a huge difference, how to survive in this environment, are the annex tribes after paying a huge amount of sacrifice to find the way, for outsiders, it is not a short time to understand clearly.
In the face of natural disasters, every tribe must be responsible for the survival of its own tribe according to its own specific situation! Every warrior on the steppe has to shoulder the life and death of his own family! This form of life organization also greatly promotes the connection between people in the tribe, condenses the members of the same tribe into a monolithic piece, and makes it difficult for external forces to invade.
In other words, the breakthrough of the lifeline is even more harmful to the people than the threat of force of the ruler, which may weaken or even disappear temporarily in a good year, but it is extremely obvious in the year of disaster. When the most immediate survival pressures outweigh the potential threat of force, the horrors of this military power are inconspicuous.
Above – The image of the Huns
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >4</h1>
It is undeniable that Mo Dundan was indeed an important leader in the rise of the Xiongnu, and his strong personal charm, cunning character, excellent judgment ability and divine luck helped him complete the unification of the steppe tribes for the first time, and from the perspective of the development of human society, this merit should not be denied.
However, this great unification can only be called a formal unification, and the fact that it has lost the need to unify ideas and win the hearts and minds of the people simply by excessively advocating and superstitiously believing in force makes the strength of the Xiongnu only illusory, although the steppe tribes are huge in population and territory, but they are deeply rifted, and each tribe fights for itself, and when faced with a powerful enemy, it has no ability to fight back.
Under the potential threat of natural disasters, Mo Dundan could have hoped to consolidate his rule by maintaining the lifeline of his people, but the cost of this practice was too high, and he himself did not realize the seriousness of the problem, so after his death, the powerful Xiongnu immediately fell into decline.
bibliography:
【1】"Moon Branch King's Head Drinking Instrument Song"
[2] "History of the Seventy Columns, Biography of General Wei's Horse Riding Column"
[3] "Xunzi Junzi"