Chapter 556: The Story of Qoridai
The Ogtaz tribe on the other hand was weakened during those years and had to migrate toward the north and leave Southern Great Steppe
Maybe they settled in the Central Great Steppe or maybe they continue moving and reaches far north or maybe they went west or east.
Not many knows what happens to the Ogtaz tribe but Qoridai and his mother lives in the Korun tribe
From a young age, Qoridai showered a rare blend of cunning and bravery. He learned the bow by the age of three, rode his first horse at five and by twelve he had already hunted snow leopards and wolves that had stalked the tribe livestock.
He fought against the Zuldar and Tuvar horse raiders when he was thirteen.
And now as people look at him, they nodded and understand why the Kan gives him such a title and promotion
Sometimes the reputation is enough for it to convince people.
Aeryon smiles at this as he looks at his general.
He is all about merits but he is also quite eclectic in sometimes appointing people
Aeryon knows that if one did not have the reputation Aeryon would not suddenly promote people like this
But Aeryon needed men. Not just soldiers but people who could lead.
And when he first met this person, he could not help but test him
A few conversations with this Qoridai and Aeryon is convinced that this person is capable.
Aeryon did not expect one to be a genius but as long as one could lead the men and is smarter than some soldiers that is enough
It is easy to find warriors and soldiers in the Steppe, it is hard to find a general.
This Qoridai however was nurtured to be a leader since he was young.
The Korun chief himself recommended this warrior to him and said that he had always led the men of Korun to attack and Tuvar and Zuldar tribe in the past
Qoridai is older than Aeryon. Aeryon is now fifteen nearly reaching sixteen years old.
And he is now six feet one.
He has grown a bit but even then Qoridai is still taller than almost everyone in this tent.
He is towering above everyone else, long limbs and broad chest.
His hair is coal black, tied in a single braid that reached his back. His eyes is pale grey
And there is a deep scar that runs from the right side of his jaw to his neck which added to his ferocity
He wore a heavy wolf pelt cloak, fastened with a carved bone clasp, and he wears a lacquered leather amour etched with swirling patterns that represented wind and wolves
As for weapon, he is known to have a recovered bow of horn and sinew, and a curved saber named Silent Fang
Aeryon had seen the bow.
But the bow is not as important as the man itself.
There is only a few people in the tribe that Aeryon would considered prodigious in the use of bow and Qoridai is one of them
Tuoba He suddenly said
"Was the story true? That you fought in the Three Winding Valleys near the Askhadar tribe?"
Some of them look at Qoridai who have never spoken a word since he enter this tent.
Aeryon did not urge these commanders instead he let this questioning session to begin.
They would work together later and it is only right for them to question and ask things so that if one day they fight alongside each other, they could trust their allies.
When the Kan gives them an order, they would do all of their best to complete it regardless of whether the teammate is a stupid as pig or as smart as an owl but that does not mean that the commanders did not hope that they would get a smart teammate
Sometimes, in a war, having a pig teammate would be more terrible than having a smart opponent.
Aeryon did not stop his men and after hearing the news that Mayeux had given him, he also changes some of his thoughts.
In a way, he called for this meeting to announce Korun inclusion into the kingdom.
Yes, kingdom.
By now even if Aeryon did not claim it is a kingdom, to the eyes of many, the current size of Aeryon tribe and influence is now already reaching the level of kingdoms in the Steppe.
Most of the small tribes all relinquished their men.
Those who surrendered got to keep tehri lands but every land is under the Kan rules.
So, theoretically, Aeryon could always take back the land that he had given back.
It is very much like the centralized authority of the Yan dynasty.
At the same time, he mixes it a bit.
Those who did not surrender had their tribe destroyed, their men who could fight assimilated into the fighting force and those who could do work to do work.
The land hold by the chief would then be divvied up by the new nobles that Aeryon had created.
But land is not that important for Steppe people.
Because the Steppe people could always migrate and it is the same for small tribes and small clans.
Even some big tribe could migrate away if they could not stand the competition.
This is one of the reasons why the Steppe people continue surviving even after so many empires try to break them down.
They could just run away. Unlike the settled societies, which treated land as the most precious commodity, the nomadic societies could settle wherever they wanted and could adapt
The only way Aeryon could motivate his men is through punishment and rewards, but the rewards must not be the same kind of reward that the Yan people would give
Land is everywhere in the Great Steppe
If there is one thing that is lacking in the Great Steppe, it would not be land.
This did not mean that the people of the Steppe did not care about land at all.
It is just that the land that the people of the Steppe cares about would be the fertile land.
And fertile land here refers to the land where one could plant
Here in the southern Great Steppe, there is still many trees and there is still land that one could plant and cultivate food from
But in many parts of the Western great Steppe, there is deserts there and the kind of plants and trees that could be planted here could not be planted there
Then there is the northern Great Steppe which had a different kind of climate, cold that could even freeze trees
So, what the Steppe people pay importance to is livestock, gold and silver, things that could be traded for in other lands and horses
Horses is a guarantee of strength.
Tribes with a lot of horses is a tribe that could win many warriors to their sides
And winning warriors to your side would create a virtuous cycle.
Having more warriors make you strong and the stronger you are the easier it is to take food.
Aeryon look at all of these men inside the tent. And his desire to stop the questioning has already faded
Aeryon himself did not know what is the story that the Tuoba warrior just said
"What story?" Aeryon said. One of the commanders raised his hand
Aeryon smiles
"tell it to us. Let share it"
"But, the meeting?"
Aeryon laughed
"The tribes would not run away" The commander laughed.
Aeryon is quite casual when he is in a war tent.
This is his casualness.
But when in the battlefield, any mistake would not be tolerated.
This is the Kan that instill discipline. In the ancient times, a disciplined army is already an elite army
And Aeryon had molded his men to become disciplined armies thought punishment and rewards.
It is the same with Genghis Khan in his world but he is also quite different from Genghis Khan.
There is some humanity to his method precisely because he had lived in a peaceful era.
Just because he had adapted to this era cruelty did not mean he would also become cruel
Aeryon gesture his hand and one of the Brolgadhr commander then said
"I heard this story from one of the caravans that was in the Korun tribe a few years ago. A group of children of the Korun tribe was kidnapped by Tuvar tribe. Heard they were going to ransom them for horses, furs and Tayak of the Korun."
"Heard you went after them" The man said looking at Qoridai
Qoridai nodded
The man continued
"heard you killed seven of them, three with your bows and arrow, another three with your spear, and another one with curved saber"
"They retreated to the Three Winding Valley"
Aeryon look at the map and he did not see this represented in the map
"What is the Three Winding Valley?"
"It is a valley near the Tuvar and Askadar tribe area. They are around the border of these two tribes. In the past some bandits would make that place their bandit hideout when they hide or run away if they do their banditry in the East. The place is easy to defend and hard to attack perkily because it is a narrow canyon"
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