Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 538 - 99 Monsoon_4

Chapter 538: Chapter 99 Monsoon_4 Chapter 538: Chapter 99 Monsoon_4 The Green Plumed Feathers exchanged glances, some bewildered, but someone broke the silence, cheerily saying, “The Great Shaman stands with us, what do we have to fear?”

“Third, this autumn, I don’t plan to call up the warbands to advance east into the pastures.”

The tent fell quiet, with some expressing regret, “Can’t we send at least a few? It’s such a waste not to eat meat that’s there for the taking.”

“Not only will we not go, but we will also persuade the three great tribes not to go,” White Lion pondered. “The Paratu are already a boiling pot internally, their stress relieved only by continuous victories. Having suffered a great loss, they are likely to face turmoil. If we rashly send troops over, it would only unite them again.”

When it came to strategic matters, everyone had unlimited trust in White Lion. Despite some disappointment, they shouted in unison, “Woo!”

“Fourth, we must think of a way to unite the surrounding medium and small tribes. Although the three great tribes are powerful, if the smaller tribes are bound together, they are no weaker than them. The chiefs of the Dog Soldiers and the Blackwater are willing to do our bidding and persuade the other tribes.”

“Woo!”

...

“And there’s one last thing.” White Lion said with a smile, “Let’s distribute the spoils according to the old rules.”

“Woo!!!” Cheers erupted, piercing the tent and reaching for the skies.

For the Herders’ wars—or rather, their raids, as in Herder language the two were one and the same—the most important thing was the spoils of war.

Next only to the death penalty was the grave punishment of being deprived of war spoils.

What exactly were the Herders’ spoils of war?

Everything.

Carts? Fine goods!

Tents? Fine goods!

Iron tools? Fine goods!

Armor and weapons? Even better!

Everything the Paratu People abandoned was considered fine goods to the Herders.

But the only things that truly counted in the ledgers were three: captives, horses, and armor.

The war songs of the Herder tribes didn’t sing of the gold and fabrics looted, but they always recorded the number of captives, horses, and armor taken.

After the battle at The Styx, the allied tribes essentially disbanded.

White Lion didn’t want to cross the river to pursue the enemy, and without him, the rest had no ability to organize a pursuit. Even if he had wanted to, he lacked the means to do so.

The Herders failed to capture mules or horses, as they had all been taken by Sekler.

As for armor, there was plenty, with over ten thousand suits of scale and lamellar armor.

The lamellar armor belonged to the Paratu army, all previously captured from the Herder tribes by the Paratu.

There were many cold and hot weapons as well, muskets, blades, more than enough for all.

For the Herder tribes still in the age of cold weapons, the difference in combat effectiveness between an armored soldier and one without armor was day and night.

Armor, therefore, was precious; a suit of armor could be passed down for generations, traveling from one tribe to another. Lamellar armor was a treasure among treasures.

Following the pre-agreed arrangements, tribes returned each other’s armor—the scale pieces were marked—while the Paratu lamellar armor was divided according to the effort contributed.

Together, the Red River Tribe acquired nearly three thousand suits of armor; they had also shed the most blood.

The other tribes were envious, but not to the point where one second they were allies and the next, swords were drawn against each other.

Besides the armor and weapons, there were also slaves.

Although the Paratu People destroyed the great bridge to temporarily block pursuit, they also stranded those who hadn’t crossed the river, on the west bank.

The tribes captured more than two thousand six hundred prisoners, mostly auxiliary troops and injured.

According to the usual rates, Paratu slaves were highly valued because for thirty years, the Herders seldom had the chance to capture Paratu slaves.

And when the Herder tribes captured Paratu slaves, apart from everyday work, they were primarily used for farming.

Indeed, even the wasteland had cultivated land, and the Herders also needed crops to supplement their food sources.

To prevent Paratu slaves from escaping, tribal chiefs would even arrange marriages between Paratu slaves and Herder slave women.

If the slave had skills like blacksmithing, masonry, or carpentry, their value increased even further.

However, the season was not in favor; the Herders captured Paratu slaves for farming, but the planting season had already passed.

Having captured too many at once, the value of Paratu slaves rapidly diminished.

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The Herder tribes simply stopped distinguishing between craftsmen and laborers and shared them out on a per-capita basis.

The Red River Tribe still had over a thousand sheepskin bags, so White Lion organized a fleet on The Styx, taking captives as a fare for crossing—there were still tribes unsatisfied with their loot, eager to cross the river to pursue the enemy.

Each tribal chief was shrewd; they knew that the cream of the Paratu army was on the East Bank.

Chasing down one person meant one suit of lamellar armor—the Paratu were certainly too exhausted to carry away the corpses and their armor.

And precisely because of this, in the hundred-kilometer stretch of no man’s land, the pursuit by the Herders occurred at the tribal level, not as the “allied forces” as before.

Perhaps other tribes didn’t need captives, but the Red River Tribe, having lost many of its own, was in urgent need of replenishing its labor force.

Thus, the Red River Tribe was allotted about a thousand captives, whom they needed to bring back alive, avoiding deaths during the journey if possible.

All these allocations were made at the allied level. Within the tribes, the distribution was handled differently.

Many leaders didn’t share war spoils with their followers, especially when the spoils mainly consisted of military supplies.

However, the Red River Tribe would distribute the spoils as equitably as possible among everyone, regardless of the amount.

Each tribe member received their share, and the families of the fallen were compensated.

This could result in a slave having multiple owners, and by the established custom of the Red River Tribe, one of the owners could redeem the slave.

If they couldn’t afford the redemption, the slave would be shared by all.

The will of the Red River Tribe’s armed forces was far more resolute than other tribes’, in part because White Lion dealt fairly, willing to share the spoils of war with everyone.