238: Chapter 238 This is probably the truth!

Taking advantage of a moment when the guards weren't looking, Yuwen Dali whispered a question to a herdsman from the Qinglan Tribe.

"Did you really trade wool with the Qin people for honeycomb coal and honeycomb coal heating stoves?"

"Yes!"

The herdsman from the Qinglan Tribe replied with a face full of smiles.

Seeing the man's face beaming as bright as a chrysanthemum, Yuwen Dali knew the other party wasn't faking it.

"Assemble! Assemble!"

The numerous prisoners were gathered together. Zhao Gang was to give them an ideological education lesson, with Cao Jiacheng responsible for the translation.

Zhao Gang spoke loudly, "The Xiongnu people are descendants of the Xia Dynasty. You share the same origin as Great Qin; we are all descendants of yan and huang, all part of the Huaxia People."

"Everyone should live in harmony and seek development together."

Yuwen Dali didn't think Zhao Gang's words made much sense. The premise of their 'harmonious coexistence' was that their pastures were being occupied by the Qin people.

This was quite interesting—you talk about living in harmony and seeking development together, yet you Qin people run to the Southern Desert to seize our pastures!

Yet, Yuwen Dali found himself unable to resist.

He looked at the revolver held in Zhao Gang's hand.

If anyone refused to obey, would the other party just give them a bullet?

Yuwen Dali swallowed hard.

This must be the truth!

Even after being released from the Qinglan Grassland, Yuwen Dali still couldn't believe it.

His guards felt the same way.

With excited expressions, they said, "Thousand-Rider Commander, we've been released!"

"Yes!"

Yuwen Dali said, "We've been released!"

His expression was rather complicated.

Yuwen Dali did not return to the Yuwen Tribe immediately.

He planned to investigate in secret to see if the Xiongnu people could truly obtain grain, honeycomb coal, and honeycomb coal heating stoves from the Qin people using wool.

When Yuwen Dali saw a large number of Xiongnu people taking blood-stained wool to exchange for honeycomb coal with the Qin people, he was moved. Could it be that the Qin people were for real?

Yuwen Dali and his guards conducted extensive visits.

They discovered that the herdsmen of the Qinglan Tribe, Liefeng Tribe, Chiyanju Tribe, Shuangzong Tribe, Lingyu Tribe, and Jintu Tribe were all eating millet.

They would put the millet into a cauldron, add water, and place it on a honeycomb coal heating stove to cook, making millet porridge.

The Xiongnu people only ate two meals a day.

In the morning, they ate millet porridge and sheep's cheese.

In the evening, they ate mutton sprinkled with salt—no other seasonings—and drank kumis. The alcohol allowed their bodies, exhausted from a day's work, to relax.

The vegetables they ate were native Xiongnu leeks, sand onions, sand mustard, grass ephedra, parsley onions, water plantain, and velvet grass, along with meat broth.

Overall, the diet of the Xiongnu people was vastly different from that of the people in the Central Plains.

They categorized their food into five major types based on color: white, red, yellow, green, and black.

"White" referred to white foods, which were milk and dairy products.

Milk included cow's milk, mare's milk, and sheep's milk.

Dairy products included cream, milk skin, milk tofu, cheese, yogurt, and kumis.

"Red" referred to red foods, which were the meat, blood, organs, and bones of various wild animals and livestock.

"Yellow" referred to yellow foods, mainly referring to fats and oils refined from animal fat or milk.

The fried millet used by herdsmen for milk tea was also considered a yellow food; this millet was a type of yellow grain.

"Green" referred to green foods, mainly referring to the edible native green plants of the Xiongnu plateau, such as Xiongnu leeks, sand onions, sand mustard, grass ephedra, parsley onions, water plantain, and velvet grass.

"Black" referred to black foods, mainly referring to tea without milk, meat broth, and plain water. Among these five categories, animal meat and fats accounted for nearly two-thirds.

This high-protein diet of meat and milk meant that the Xiongnu people were destined to have very thick, stout builds.

In the West, the Roman historian Weigel described the Xiongnu people like this:

Their stature was short and stout, with large round heads, broad faces, high cheekbones, wide nostrils, and thick mustaches on the upper lip, while only a small tuft of stiff beard grew below the chin. Their long earlobes were pierced and adorned with a single earring. They had thick eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, and a piercing, spirited gaze.

They wore loose robes that reached the calves with slits on both sides, fastened at the waist with a belt whose ends hung down in front. Due to the cold, the sleeves were tightened at the wrists.

A short fur wrap was draped over the shoulders, and they wore leather caps.

Their shoes were made of leather, and their wide trousers were fastened at the ankles with a leather strap.

A bow case was attached to the belt, hanging in front of the left leg, while the quiver was also tied to the belt, slung horizontally across the back with the arrowheads pointing to the right.

The short and squat image of the Xiongnu people is quite different from the tall and mighty figures often portrayed in film and television.

Many people believe that for the Xiongnu to become the 'Scourge of God' and make Westerners cry out in pain, they must have been incredibly tall.

In fact, that was not the case.

The truly difficult thing about dealing with the Xiongnu was not their height.

It was their speed!

The Roman historian Ammianus described them in his 'Res Gestae' like this: 'They grow up on horseback and can stay mounted for days and nights. When fighting, they rarely form regular ranks; they disperse and gather intermittently, coming and going like the wind. They often charge before the enemy is prepared, and after a bout of slaughter and looting, they quickly depart.'

If every cavalryman were two meters tall, their movements could not be so agile. A Xiongnu horse is only about 1.7 meters tall; it would be a miracle if it could run fast while carrying a burly man weighing three or four hundred pounds.

The Xiongnu cavalry were specifically chosen for being short and stout.

Being short meant they weren't heavy, which reduced the burden on the Xiongnu horses.

Being stout meant they had the strength to slash with blades and draw bows.

This kind of physique was better suited to maximizing the mobility of the cavalry!

Yuwen Dali was not tall.

His guards weren't tall either.

But they were all very wide.

Besides being a Thousand-Rider Commander of the Yuwen Tribe, Yuwen Dali had another important identity: he was the son of the current leader of the Yuwen Tribe!

Zhao Gang wanted him to persuade the Yuwen Tribe to join Great Qin, but he had to make sure Great Qin was serious.

After his investigation, he found that Great Qin was indeed seriously collecting wool.

Those Qin people would weigh it very carefully and record the weight.

The Qin people had even built an exchange center directly to facilitate trade.

With one hand they took the wool, and with the other, they gave out honeycomb coal.

In this deep winter, with temperatures twenty or thirty degrees below zero, this honeycomb coal was a necessity for them to survive the season!

Yuwen Dali was curious about what the Qin people actually wanted with all that wool.

He decided to go and ask Zhao Gang.

"Why are you back again?"

Zhao Gang looked at Yuwen Dali, who had returned, and asked with some confusion.

"I want to ask you a question. What is your Great Qin going to do with so much wool?"

Yuwen Dali voiced his confusion.

"Make clothes."

Zhao Gang explained patiently, "We send the wool to factories in Xianyang, process it into clothes, and sell them."

"Right now, the factories can produce ten thousand items a day!"

"Ah!"

Yuwen Dali was stunned. T-ten thousand items!

While he was shocked by the speed at which the Qin people made clothes, he also couldn't understand what they needed so many clothes for.