Han Khan

Chapter 155, Inventory (Part )
Although the weather is bitterly cold, the surrounding mountains block most of the cold winds, making the climate relatively mild. The Great Lakes Basin is not affected by blizzards, and even if there is snow, it will not cover the pasture.

However, out of vigilance against possible attacks, many tribesmen did not dare to set up tents too far away from the camp, so densely packed tents could be seen outside the stone walls of the temple camp.

The subjects and slaves still maintained a routine of getting up early and going to bed late, riding horses every day and driving cattle, sheep, horses and camels to graze around the Great Lakes basin.

Those subjects of the upper and middle-class households who obtained slaves because of their military merits chose to set up their own felt tents about fifty miles away from the camp.

And haystacks as tall as hills were piled up around the area to meet the fodder needs of livestock.

This arrangement was a decision made by Yin Shanxiong in order to prevent fire and avoid the enemy from using fire attacks to set the entire camp on fire.

Of course, as mentioned above, there are quite a lot of subjects in the entire Jinhan tribe who own many slaves and livestock.

At present, there are about 6,000 households of subjects in the Jinhan tribe, most of whom are Sai people, Uighurs and Tibetans who were conquered by the Jinhan tribe in the early days, as well as more than 10,000 Tang people.

There are also some Tatars and Kyrgyz people from the Dunhuang area, who have now become vested interests of the Jinhan tribe and are all loyal followers of Zhang Sheng.

They have long converted to the Holy Religion and worshipped the God of Heaven. Except for the Tang people, not many of them can speak elegant language, but they can still say basic words such as "Bless you, Great is Haotian, Long live Haotian, Long live the Son of Heaven", and some prayers... etc!"

For surviving the war and participating in military operations, these subjects were given distributions of livestock and slaves.

Almost every upper-class family owned their own slaves.

The situations of the subjects of middle and lower class households were different; some had slaves at home, while others did not.

However, what is certain is that each of their families owns a considerable number of livestock, including roughly two to three hundred sheep, dozens of cows, ten to twenty horses, camels, and so on.

In the Jinhan tribe, since the war was mainly participated in by men, when the men went out to fight, the management of the felt tents, housework, and livestock and slaves at home fell on their wives or female relatives.

Therefore, in the Jinhan tribe today, the status of women is very important, not inferior to that of men.

These subjects became excellent candidates for conscription and taxation.

They needed to pay a certain number of livestock as taxes to the Jinhan tribe every year, and they were also an important source of soldiers for every expedition.

In this way, the Jinhan tribe was able to maintain a strong military force and ensure the stability of the Jinhan tribe.

In this huge tribe, there lived more than 6,000 slave households. They were assigned to various subjects, warriors, and officers at all levels, and worked diligently for them.

These slaves undertook heavy physical labor such as farming, animal husbandry, weaving ropes and blankets, etc. to meet the needs of the entire Jinhan.

In addition to the slaves, there were four groups of 3600 households of guards.

These guards owned more livestock and slaves than ordinary subjects and lived a relatively wealthy life.

Because they have accumulated a lot of wealth, they hardly need to personally participate in hard work such as grazing.

Their livestock, slaves, and yurts were usually managed by their wives, while they themselves focused on fighting and military training.

If a samurai died, his samurai title would be inherited by his son. These young heirs began to receive strict martial arts and archery training from an early age to prepare them to become excellent warriors in the future.

At the same time, their livestock and slaves were managed by their mothers, ensuring the continuation and development of the family's property.

In the future, as time goes by, these young warriors will always grow up to be warriors who continue to be responsible for fighting for Zhang Sheng. They will fight with Zhang Sheng and take turns to guard Zhang Sheng's tent.

Today, there are nearly 3600 such samurai families. Although more and more people join the Guards, the actual number of combatants remains at around .

This means that many members of the Guards have not yet achieved the rank of corporal, sergeant or staff sergeant because they have not yet performed enough military exploits to be promoted.

However, they are still working hard, hoping to win higher honors and status through outstanding performance.

Even someone like Yan Zhi, who holds the hereditary position of group leader, is just a warrior. This shows that the fourteen levels of nobility created by Zhang Sheng are more difficult to obtain than one could imagine.

In addition to the thousand households and hundred households mentioned above, there were about one hundred hundred households, that is to say, there were about ten thousand households of labor slaves.

These labor slaves were not assigned specific tasks but were reorganized. They came from different tribes, including Guchuwuti, Jiluo, Dubo, Ubili, etc., and were all prisoners of war.

These slaves were directly under Zhang Sheng's command and were responsible for various tasks for him, including herding, mining, collecting cow dung and firewood, etc.

Among these slaves, some relatively clever ones would be selected to serve as slave officers at the ten-household, hundred-household and battalion levels.

In this way, letting slaves manage slaves is very effective.

Once there was any disturbance among the slaves, these slave officials would immediately come forward to report and seek credit.

It can be said that this hierarchy does play a certain role.

This is actually a kind of weakness of human nature. What is worrying is not the lack of wealth but the inequality of wealth. When a person feels that he is not treated as well as others, he will feel dissatisfied and resist.

But if he feels that his status is higher than others, even just a little bit, he will feel satisfied and proud.

This mentality is particularly evident in slaves. They were originally the lowest class in society, without any dignity or rights. But once there is a comparison, they will begin to care about their status and even work hard to maintain it.

In this way, not only will they no longer rebel against the slave owners, but they will be grateful to the slave owners and do their best to help the slave owners manage other slaves.

Of course, not all slaves were willing to accept such a fate, and there were always some who chose to resist.

These people are often those who are stubborn and unwilling to succumb to fate. They always think about escaping and even want to force other slaves to rebel.

Zhang Sheng adopted harsh measures to suppress these people, but he did not kill them. Instead, he cut off their thumbs so that they could not draw bows or use swords, and they could only work as slaves in the future.

As a result, they lost the ability to resist, and could no longer escape or join other tribes. They could only obey the orders of the slave owners and become loyal slaves.

(End of this chapter)