"Now that the winter moon has passed, my subordinates urgently need to build accommodation felt tents and warm clothes, both of which Yan must solve as soon as possible. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Yan Bei drew down, stretched out his palm facing upwards and said to Su Li and the people in the tent: "Felt tent, my subordinates don't know where there is wood here, and they don't know how to build a strong felt tent. As for the warm clothes, as you can see, my subordinates on this expedition are all samurai and do not know how to make clothes. ”

"So these two things need the help of all the tribesmen."

In fact, Yanbei is very reluctant to call the people in the tent 'adults', in fact, the Han family and the Hu people have similar meanings to adults, they are all elders, venerables, and even fathers, and the head of the family, but the Hu people will also call the people in charge of the tribe adults. But at the moment, he really needs the help of the Xianbei people, so he can only follow the local customs.

As soon as Yan Bei's words came out, at first the expressions of Su Li and Tu Fu Gu changed, and then when the two of them told the meaning of Yan Bei to the leaders of the various tribes in the tent in Xianbei language, everyone began to talk in Xianbei language, and then they shouted to each other with red faces and thick necks.

It seems that everyone is divided into two factions, a few people agree to help Yanbei, and more people oppose this matter.

Obviously, just now, it was not easy for these foreign races to erect a very good sense of Yanbei, but now it suddenly disappeared into invisibility.

After a while, the noise subsided, Su Li looked at Yan Bei with a somewhat embarrassed face, and said slowly: "General Yan, now that winter is approaching, our people are probably not so willing to go out of the warm felt tent to build a camp for you, but if you can provide the fur needed to make winter clothes, my department can let more than 2,000 women make winter clothes for you, and I believe that we can make 20,000 pieces of clothing for you before the first snow, but ...... Do you have that much fur? ”

Yan Bei smiled, although he has been good and bad all these years, he has been a rebel and a Han army for a few days, he has been a merchant and a horse, he has killed people and robbed the aisles...... But in the end, no matter what he did, he never wasted his ability to be a businessman.

Nodding slightly, he looked at Su Li and said with a smile: "The tribal adults don't have to worry about this, it may be that Yan didn't make it clear, this is not an order, you are not Yan's subordinates, Yan is not your general, what Yan wants is only an ally or a friend...... Therefore, the tribal adults can temporarily regard Yan as a Han merchant, only when Yan wants to do something with the entire tribe, of course, the most important thing is to make a deal with the tribe. ”

"Oh? Doing business? Su Li repeated the word, he didn't understand the meaning of Chinese, but he understood that Yanbei asked him to treat himself as a businessman, and felt that things might not be what they began to think, so he said, "Please continue." ”

"Since you tribesmen are willing to make winter clothes for my men, I won't talk about this for now. To build a camp, I roughly calculated, in addition to the necessary herdsmen in your tribe, there are about 3,000 people who can build a camp for Yan and find materials, so I will count 3,000 people...... Before the first snow arrived. Yan Bei raised a finger and said to Su Li: "Before the first snow comes, more than 3,000 people have built the camp for me, and I will give the tribe lord 1,500 arc knives!" ”

The arc knife, also known as the scimitar, is all made by the Xianbei people outside the Saiwai with the ancient bronze method, which is more than 300 years behind the science and technology of the Han Dynasty. The biggest difficulty is that they do not have iron and steel, and in the period when the Han people's weapons are being converted from iron weapons to steel, the Hu people outside the Saiwai still generally use bronze weapons because of lack of resources, lack of craftsmen, and most importantly, lack of mining technology.

Of course, Yanbei plundered nearly twenty tribes outside the Saiwai and obtained a lot of iron weapons, but he didn't plan to leave these things to Su Li, he kept them all for himself.

As soon as he heard fifteen hundred arc knives, Su Li's eyes lit up! Immediately afterwards, unlike what Yan Bei expected, this guy actually raised his hand and stretched out five fingers, and said to Yan Bei word by word: "Five hundred iron knives, ring knives, just like you use, five hundred handles will do!" ”

Good guy, Yan Beile is happy, this Su Li is not stupid, he knows that the iron knife is easy to use, and he also knows how to bargain!

"A hundred, a hundred iron knives at most, I need these to equip my own army." Yan Bei pretended to be very embarrassed and pondered for a moment, then raised his head and said: "One hundred iron knives, there may be thirty ring knives in it, plus six hundred bronze arc knives, and three hundred pairs of bows and arrows...... I have to pay such a big price. ”

"Good!" Almost as soon as Yan Bei finished saying a hundred iron knives, Su Li was anxious to nod, and it could be seen that he had a lot of patience to listen to Yan Bei after speaking, so he was afraid that Yan Bei would regret Yan Bei said eagerly: "That's it, a hundred iron knives!" ”

To tell the truth, Su Li really doesn't care about the three hundred pairs of bows and arrows, there are enough animal bones and tendons in the tribe, although there is no good wood for the Han land to make bow arms, but it can be used improvised, and it is enough to shoot him thirty or fifty steps with a bow left and right, and it is not accurate for people to ride on horses far away. What really cared about him was the knife, whether it was a bronze knife or an iron knife, they were all things he urgently needed.

Originally, Su Li didn't plan that Yanbei could really agree to give up a hundred iron knives, in Su Li's opinion, which iron knife secretly smuggled by Han merchants who occasionally passed through the Xianbei land also had to be exchanged for many animal tendons and animal skins and other objects, and it was necessary to exchange it for money, an iron knife was worth a gold, and just sending the men in the tribe to do some forced labor could be exchanged for weapons that armed seven hundred people, in his opinion, there was nothing more worthwhile.

Su Li and Yanbei finalized this matter, and then relayed it to the rest of the tribal leaders, and when they were agreed.

At this time, Yan Beicai smiled and said to Su Li: "Actually, you have taken a great advantage in this matter, because after I left, these camps are all yours, in fact, it is just that you are looking for materials for yourself, but I asked the soldiers to help you build and borrow them for a few months." ”

"No, no, no!" As soon as Su Li heard Yan Bei say this, he immediately shook his head and smiled bitterly: "General Yan, I'm afraid that it won't be as easy as you think, let alone a few months, even if it is a few years, I'm afraid my tribe won't be able to have the number of 30,000 people, and those camps will be empty in the end." ”

"That's another piece of advice from me." Yan Bei raised two fingers and gestured between the two, raised his finger to the sky with a solemn face and said: "You and I, under the witness of the gods, swear to conclude an alliance in the land of Hanxian, and from now on attack and defend each other, my blade is your enemy, and your mortal enemy will also be cut down by our army...... Sully, do you dare? ”

For Yan Bei, this suggestion has been widely circulated among his subordinates, and even at the very beginning, all his henchmen were advised together. It's just that this covenant is still ...... for Su Li and others It's too abrupt. He never believed in swearing to the gods to bind people's hearts, as he always did, he only believed that as long as the benefits were sufficient, people would get what they wanted from him, and that would stumble people's hearts. The so-called oath of the gods is just an excuse.

But it is clear that at all times, the pretext of the gods is more important than the direct benefit of the people.

"This ...... General Yan, I'm afraid I have to think about it again at this time, right? ”

Su Li didn't directly refuse, but what Yan Bei said was a big deal for his tribe. He couldn't help but think about it.

"I don't know if the tribesmen can find out, maybe compared to war, whether it is between you and me, or between Han and Xianbei, it is not as good as it is now." Yan Bei nodded slightly, showing an expected look at Su Li's hesitation, and then said: "I hope to seek greater benefits for my subordinates in Youzhou, which is located on the frontier in the Han Dynasty, and the most difficult thing to deal with is the relationship with Xianbei, Wuhuan and other foreigners...... If I have to deal with the Xianbei people, I hope that there will be warriors among the Xianbei people who have the same interests as me and conspire with life and death. ”

Sully smiled, all the hair in the middle of his head had been shaved off, the hair was tied in braids on both sides, and the hair at the back of his head hung back...... Most of the Wuhuan and Xianbei people are like this, they are not used to tying their hair, and the perennial horseback war makes it easy for their hair to hang down to cover their eyes during the battle, and they will be beheaded by the enemy if they are not careful, which is also a concession to nature for the survival of foreigners.

He understood what Yanbei meant, but Su Li was a little helpless at this time, and spread his hands and said to Yan Bei: "General, if you have such a plan, I think maybe Su Li is not a good choice, not to mention that it is far away on the grassland, there are still tribes such as Micah and Que Ji in Dongxian alone, far more than Su Li, alas...... Why did the general seek out Suri? ”

Yan Bei smiled, shook his head and didn't speak. Would he have told Sully that he was weak enough to be in control?

He picked up the wine jug and saluted everyone in the tent, raised his head and swallowed the turbid wine, and then said to everyone: "Since Your Excellency still needs to think about it, then I won't talk about it today, but the things we have decided will start tomorrow, the tribe will look for materials for us, and Yan will definitely present the sword on the day the camp is built...... You can think about it for a long time, whether it will be successful or not, we all have a long winter. ”

After that, Yan Bei got up and took Gao Ran and Wang Dang out of the felt tent, and behind the half-hidden tents of the felt tents in various parts of the tribe, all the children were humble and dirty, secretly looking at the three Han people who looked completely different from the clansmen.

War is a means; Mutual benefit in trade is also a means; Even everything is a means, all in the service of the 'Tao' to which one's heart is loyal.

If this is politics, then war and persuasion are one of the political methods. If this is survival, then war and persuasion are a means of survival.