Among the Snow Sea Cavalry, there were already quite a few Barbarians, and Jin Shuke was the highest-ranking and most influential one among them.
As for the other Barbarian beside Jin Shuke, wearing a different type of armor and with very long hair, everyone found him somewhat unfamiliar.
Keyan Dongge was a bit nervous. On one hand, the oppressive walls of the Snow Sea Gate gave him a sense of pressure. After all, apart from the Royal City at the location of the Royal Court, there were basically no cities in the desert. On the other hand, the previous scene of military and civilians kneeling made his mind waver.
The Keyan Division wasn't a small tribe. By gritting their teeth, they could forcefully muster ten thousand bowmen. However, the hierarchical culture of the Barbarians was strict, yet it absolutely lacked the refinement of Eastern countries, especially here at the Snow Sea Gate, where efforts were made long ago in matters of etiquette to satisfy Lord Zheng's personal tastes and enjoyment.
It's like all being kings. On your side, during meetings, everyone drinks and eats meat together and even personally wrestles while on the other side is a dragon throne above, below which civil and military officials neatly kowtow, and this feeling really is different.
Because of Lord Zheng's direct entrance into the city, Jin Shuke didn't dare to make any excessive movements towards the kneeling military and civilians around, just controlled the speed of his horse and followed Lord Zheng into the city gate.
Afterwards,
the warriors of the Keyan Division rode in,
and since Lord Zheng had already entered the city, the people on both sides of the official road stood up, and everyone couldn't help but start commenting on this new-faced army.
"Where did these beggar soldiers come from?"
A boy named Li Erniu beside Liu Dahu laughed and said.
Liu Dahu replied to him:
"They are barbarian soldiers, Barbarian troops that came from the western desert."
Desert, Barbarians,
the Jin people were actually quite unfamiliar with them.
Because between Jin State and the desert, there was a Yan State blocking them.
However, what Li Erniu said was indeed right. This cavalry troop entering the city before their eyes really looked like a beggar army.
The tribes of the Keyan Division were actually still behind, more than ten miles away from the Snow Sea Gate. These seven thousand warriors were specifically ordered by Zheng Fan for Keyan Dongge to assemble in a short time.
These tribal warriors were previously basically accompanying their families in migration, perhaps even holding their children. As a result, at the sound of a military call, they immediately put down everything in hand and rushed to gather, without a shred of preparation.
Naturally, it couldn't be expected for them to groom themselves appropriately for their debut. The dust accumulated from the long migration was so clear.
Simultaneously, during that time many generals had analyzed the Northern Border Army's ability to suppress the desert for a hundred years, and these analyses essentially didn't avoid two elements.
One was the military equipment of the Northern Border Army, and the other was its military discipline.
Since the decline of the Royal Court, the desert could be said to be a loose sand. Even if forced multiple tribes gathered troops, in reality, each fought their own battles;
As for military equipment, this was truly an unresolvable issue.
Over a hundred years ago, the desert barbarians weren't as destitute as now. During their peak, the Royal Court of the Barbarians led the desert tribal warriors eastwards, pushing Yan State back. If not for Yan State steadfastly resisting, risking several generations of emperors' lives in personal battle, they might have already pierced Yan State and stepped into the East with their iron hooves;
To the west, they crushed the western countries, even once had a large number of western countries as their vassal state, providing grain, military equipment, and other benefits that only urbanization and agrarian civilizations could offer.
That period was indeed the most prosperous time for the Barbarians.
But nothing lasts forever. After the failure of the Royal Court's western campaign, its status plummeted. Western countries led by the Roman Empire rose, starting to proactively compress the Barbarians' living space eastwards;
To the east, since the founding of the Northern Border Army by the first Earl of the North, the Yan and Barbarians' contention saw Yan State gradually gaining the upper hand.
For a time, the Barbarians' eastern and western neighbors both started to press them hard, making their days increasingly difficult, with embargoes on iron products, military equipment, and technology, which became a mutual policy of the East and West against the Barbarians.
That's how the beggar army came about.
Within the Keyan Division, except for a few warriors who were eligible to wear armor, the rest mostly wore leather clothing, and quite a few had arrowheads made from animal bones.
This impoverished state really was, compared to the wild people who had yet to enter the pass, a big brother not laughing at a second brother.
And Lord Zheng, ever since the founding of an army from hundreds of barbarians, had been investing heavily in military equipment, sparing no expense, and later upon developing and strengthening, consistently adhered to a policy of elite troops.
Therefore, the military and civilians at Snow Sea Gate were long accustomed to such excellent military attire.
Furthermore, people always need some sense of superiority to increase their daily happiness, let alone these civilians. Even the Snow Sea Army officers and soldiers of barbarian origin, upon seeing the 'beggar attire' of their Keyan Division brethren, immediately cast disdainful smiles at their 'poor relatives.'
And the warriors of the Keyan Division also clearly felt the abnormal atmosphere around. You could see they wanted to march in more orderly lines, but since there was no prior rehearsal, the more they wanted order, the more disorderly it became.
At the same time, their identity here was also somewhat awkward, because they knew that the Snow Sea Gate would be the place where they and their families would live and survive in the future, which led to a complex emotion towards the locals.
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