Liaodi is bitterly cold, especially in this year, the situation is even more so. Nearly half of the year is covered with heavy snow, frost and frozen soil, and the real suitable cultivation time is only three or four months, and some crops with too long growth cycles cannot survive at all.

At present, the people living in this area are mainly the eastern Xianbei such as the Duan clan, Yuwen and Murong clan, the so-called Wuhuan hometown. For example, Murong Xianbei, one of the three departments, was able to gain a foothold in Liaodong as Hu Buyi, who followed King Xuan Sima Yi to crusade against Gongsun Yuan during the Cao Wei period.

For a long time after that, Murong Xianbei was the weakest of the three, and it was difficult to survive. The real strength of its tribe lies in the previous generation of Liaodong Duke Murong Diao.

Murong Diao can indeed be called a rare man of great talent in the border area of Donghu, especially his people moved the tribe from the remote Liaodong to the Da Thorn City, which is closer to the Jin border, and carried out a fruitful Sinicization reform here, and the system imitated the Chinese and North Koreas, and the production gradually developed from the original fishing and hunting to agriculture and mulberry.

During the Murong Diao period, it was the chaotic situation between China and North Korea, and the two Zhao attacked, and the Xianbei of the western Liaoxi section, which was originally more powerful than him, was inevitably involved, and the infighting in the clan continued, and a large number of Jin people fled to Liaodi, and then attached to the wings of the Murong tribe.

In the early years of Murong Diao, there were only 10,000 households in Xianbei Murong, but in his twilight years, the number of people under his rule reached more than 100,000. In particular, the Great Thorn City, where the core of its tribe is located, gathers tens of thousands of households, and can be said to be one of the largest cities in Liao since Sima Yi's scorched earth felling Liao.

Among them, naturally most of them were the Jin people who fled north and the many miscellaneous people who were annexed by the Murong clan. The reason why the Jin people chose to rely on the Murong clan was not only because of Murong Diao's own enlightened policies, but also because his tribe was deeply sinicized, which naturally gave those Jin people a sense of closeness that other Donghu tribes could not give.

There is even an anecdote about Murong De's surname, saying that Mo Huba, the leader who followed Sima Yi to conquer Liao, wore a crown of step shaking, and Bu shook the sound of Murong because he got his surname. Mo Hubao is Murong Diao's great-grandfather, and his deeds are no longer traceable, but it can also be seen that the Murong family has a long tradition of looking up to Zhuxia clothes.

After the death of Murong Diao, his son Murong Hao succeeded to the throne, and then the Murong tribe had the most common infighting between the brothers of the Donghu tribe, Murong Ren occupied the original Liaodong old clan settlement, and the entire Murong tribe was divided into two parts.

Originally, this was supposed to be a major crisis related to the survival of the entire tribe, both before and since, many Donghu tribes have gone from prosperity to decline and even finally died out because of this reason, including the Duan clan and the Yuwen clan.

However, the foundation left by Murong Diao is very strong, even if they have split and are hostile to each other, but the strength of these two parties is not something that some small tribes can provoke at will.

And at this time, there was also turmoil within Shizhao in the Central Plains, and Shi Hu gathered a large number of troops to encircle and suppress Liaodi Zahu, and collected his subordinates to drive them. Among the Xianbei ministries, the Duan Department and the Yuwen Department originally had the strength to provoke the Murong Ministry, and even part of the infighting in the Murong Ministry was due to the provocation of the Duan Ministry, and Murong Hao's brother Murong Han defected to the Duan Ministry.

However, under Shi Hu's relentless attack, the Duan clan was the first to bear it, and its leader Duan Liao was defeated and fled eastward, but he was rebelled by Murong Han, who had been accepted before, and swallowed most of the rest of the Duan clan together with Murong Hao.

As for the Yuwen Ministry, whose sphere of influence is more northeast, the leader of this term, Yuwen Yidougui, is also a tyrant, and he is not attached to the group, and the strength of the Yuwen Ministry itself is not as good as the Duan family, so when facing the fierce Shihu army, he can only choose to surrender.

Therefore, in today's Liaodi, in addition to Shi Zhaotun's army guarding Duan's hometown, Murong is still the strongest. And after Murong Hao swallowed the remnants of the section, his momentum gradually recovered, offsetting the bad effects of this division to a certain extent.

However, without the buffer existence of the Western Liaoxi Division, Murong Hao needed to directly face the points pointed out by Shi Zhao Bingfeng, and also had to face the frequent harassment of the Northern Yuwen Department.

Originally, when the Duan Department first died, Murong Hao's forces had already explored western Liao, but with Shi Hu's continued advance and the promotion of other forces in Liaodi, all the land in western Liaoxi that Murong Hao had originally swallowed was spit out, and even Changli, one of the base camps, was threatened by Shi Zhao's soldiers, forcing Murong Hao to retreat to the Great Thorn City.

Murong Hao is indeed a rare British lord in Hu, but the opponent he faces is no longer a regional enemy like Liaodi Zahu, but Shi Zhao, who once dominated the north. Although Shi Zhao also experienced civil strife, and the northern expedition of the Jin army to the south of the Yellow River, only the territory of Hebei was retained.

But even so, Shi Zhao's background and the ability to assemble the war are by no means comparable to the Murong clan, which is still trapped in internal strife and division.

Because of this situation, Murong Haozhi was tempted by Shi Hu's position of power earlier and chose to throw himself into Shi Zhao, but he was attacked by Shi Hu and lost a considerable part of his elite troops, and even his son was abolished.

If it weren't for the harsh regional and climatic environment of Liaodi, Shi Zhao could only launch an offensive in a fixed and limited time, and Murong Ren, who was independent in Liaodong, did not take the opportunity to fall into the ground, Murong Hao would be able to keep an area of Great Thorn City and not follow in the footsteps of Duan Liao.

The current Great Thorn City is where the Murong clan's nominal base camp is located, and it is also where the temple is located.

Thanks to the decades-long operation of the Murong clan, especially Murong Diao, the location of the Great Thorn City can be said to be the most prosperous area in Liaodi, the original dense forest wilderness has reclaimed a large area of farmland and mulberry gardens, as many as 100,000 people live here, and the Great Thorn City is located in the center of this area.

If you come here in the middle of summer, you can also see the peaceful picture of men and women weaving, chickens and dogs, and there is not much difference from some cities in the Central Plains, and it is not obvious that it is a Hu tribe settlement.

And it is true that although it is Murong Xianbei who rules this area, it is the Jin people who have fled to create this Liaobian paradise and maintain it for a long time. Cultivation and weaving is the main business of the Jin people, and the Xianbei Murong Department, which has the name of Bailu, has settled here a long time ago, but it has achieved little in terms of construction.

The arrival of a large number of Jin people brought advanced farming and weaving skills and experience, and the Murong Department benefited from this, and gradually got rid of the previous main business of fishing and hunting for a living.

Liaodi is very undeveloped, and there are almost no large areas of farmland and mulberry orchards like the one around Great Thorn City. Without stable farming operations, if you rely solely on fishing and hunting, the materials produced in the unit area are really not enough to feed too many people, so the original Murong clan is also like other miscellaneous hus, and the entire tribe is divided into pieces, and forages in small groups between the mountains and rivers.

From this point of view, Murong Diao led his subordinates to migrate to the Great Thorn City to formally settle down and make a living from farming and weaving, which was of great significance to the entire Murong Ministry, and it was possible to establish a stable and effective rule from then on.

Otherwise, the Murong tribe would inevitably have to be like the other Zahu tribes, either they could not gather together in a plate of scattered sand, or they could only survive through frequent raids, and then their strength was lost due to a large number of young and strong people killed in battle, and they were finally annexed and assimilated by other more powerful tribes.

However, even so, the Murong Department did not completely transform into an agricultural form, and still retained its original tribal habits to a considerable extent. Murong Hao inherited the greatest inheritance of Great Thorn City, and his other brothers also had their own tribes, with their own people and troops.

It is precisely because of this that infighting has become the norm in the transfer of power. Murong Diao's other sons all retain a lot of independence, such as the powerful Murong Ren can choose to be directly independent, and a matrilineal concubine like Murong Han is also attracted by other clans because of his outstanding talent.

It's July, which is the best time of the year for farming, so the suburbs around Big Thorn City are full of farmers, and the fields are full of crops such as corn and millet.

The Murong Ministry's decrees on cultivation can be described as lenient, and the people who reclaim their own land, no matter how much they cultivate, are all classified under their own names, and there are almost no taxes.

But this does not mean that these Jin people are happy and content, living in a paradise-like world. Liaobian has been lacking in reclamation for a long time, dense forests are abundant, and the annual season suitable for cultivation is too short, so it is very difficult to reclaim the land. It often takes four or five years or even longer for a piece of farmland to be sent away from wasteland to grow into a tree field.

In the midst of this reclamation, the income from the fields is not enough to make ends meet, and other labor is needed to supplement it. Even if the land under the name is cultivated into a mature field, it does not mean that there will be a stable output, deducting the harsh weather environment such as drought and cold, there are also a large number of wild beasts in the suburbs, and tigers and wolves roaming and injuring people frequently.

Although there were almost no taxes under the rule of the Murong Ministry, it was because of the lack of means of taxation. Another way they exploit the people is to hunt the countryside on a large scale every autumn, especially at the beginning of the autumn harvest, which is called protecting the people and protecting the fields, which is actually requisitioning people's capital.

Most of the year's harvest of the people had to be surrendered to the army during this period, otherwise it would mean that they would be completely exposed to the tigers and wolves, and there would be no one to protect their lives and property.

Moreover, the Murong clan is not only lenient to the small people, but also almost indulgent to the powerful people in the headquarters. More than half of the farmland around the city of Great Thorn is the private estates of the powerful, and the peasants who work are serfs who belong to their property. The encroachment of fertile land and the expropriation of private households are not restricted at all.

In the countryside on the meadow near a ravine, a group of knights were galloping to hunt, chasing a group of frightened deer beasts, led by a teenager wearing a hood made of white wolf skin, and the whole person looked in high spirits.

Although he was not very old, he was extremely skilled in his bow and horse, holding a two-stone strong bow, and every time he had a bolt, his prey would fall to the ground. With such exquisite riding and archery skills, even the archers around him are far behind.

And this young man is Murong Ba, the beloved son of Murong Hao, the Duke of Liaodong.