Way of Overlord
Chapter 402: The Three Reasons

Chapter 402: The Three Reasons

Norgai went silent for a second. And then he narrows his eyes and question Jayeux.

"What if he doesn’t win? Right now, he seems unstoppable but there is many people who have tried to do what he is trying to do. And there is more story of failures than of success"

Norgai paused for a second and ask

"What if he failed later?"

Jayeux could explain to him that this time Aeryon really picked the right time to unite the people of the Steppe and the people outside the wall.

The Yan is in a civil upheaval, Roma has its own problem, Western Zhou has a succession crisis and Yindu has never been able to penetrate toward the Steppe in a military manner.

All the circumstances is there for Aeryon to take advantage of. In the past, each time a chief of the great Steppe tries to unite the tribe, there is always foreign interference.

Yan would send people to strengthen one tribe and weaken the other and when this tribe has become stronger, they seduce them with benefits

None of these chief has long range vision and could only chase the immediate interest.

If not Yan, the Zhou people would also do such a thing.

Roma on the other hand is more interested in other parts of their dominion and usually they have their own legions guarding on the north.

That legion itself has become weaker after repeated internal problems in Roma.

All of this indicate that Aeryon has a great possibility of uniting Southern Great Steppe.

As long as he subdue powerful tribes he would be able to control the Southern Great Steppe and then begins his conquest to all four direction of the Steppe

And he might even achieve the long-held desire to unite the entire Great Steppe.

But, this is something that he did not ned to say too much to Norgai.

Because it almost seems like he is advocating for Brolgadhr tribe instead of the Nogai tribe.

Smiling Jayeux simply said

"Then at that time you could rebel. At that time, you probably would have consolidated the tribe and have your own influence and you could always rebel. However, if you are right and the Brolgadhr really conquers the entire Southern Great Steppe, then you would be one of its beneficiary"

"Hmm" Norgai seems to be thinking and now is the time for him to say the third reason.

"Third reason. It is because you are the first that Aeryon would treat you extremely well"

"The first? The first of what?"

"the first to surrender" Smiling Jayeux explain

"In all the battles that the Kan had fought, he had to fight them one by one. For an overlord like him who wanted to unify the Steppe, he could not fight each battle one by one. And he did not have that much time"

"Even if he does have much time, I think he prefers to do thing swiftly. One look at the way he attacks people, isn’t this a testament of his own demeanour that like things to be done fast"

He paused for a second and then added

"If the enemy tribe quickly surrender to him, wouldn’t it be the fastest way for him to unify the Steppe? It would not sacrifice his men, preserve his resources and there is all kinds of benefits towards him. He wanted people to surrender but the culture of the Steppe did not allow people to surrender. Because there is example in the past"

The example of the past that Jayeux is talking about is when the Great Chief in the past won a battle.

The power of this Great Chief was so great that no tribe around this tribe could stop him.

So, they surrender.

But who would have thought that those who surrender is executed because of cowardice but those who fight and defeated could maintain their power.

It is from this battle that this new culture of fighting even though the situation is lopsided begins to spread among the people of the Steppe.

However, for Aeryon this is a bad thing.

Aeryon himself is not like the typical chief of the Steppe.

He is one that is quiet eccentric and balk at some of the culture of the Steppe like not accepting surrender and killing all of the tribe population.

"But no one is willing to surrender" Hearing this Norgai could not help but nodded.

"All of the chief believe that if they surrender without a fight, they would not be appreciated by the Kan. This creates a vicious cycle. The Kan wanted swift victory and he would like it if these chiefs all put down their pride and quickly surrender. But no one is going to give him this step. But if you give him this step, he would reward you like no any other chief"

Because it would change the culture, this is what Jayeux thought but did not say.

Norgai frowned

He still have some question

"And why would he gave me such treatment? Just because I surrender?" Norgai is still thinking like a warrior and this thinking is not wrong.

In the steppe culture, how could a person that did not fight wins any respect

So, he did not understand what Jayeux said that if he surrenders like this, he would get rewarded even more

"Aeryon would be buying bones with a thousand gold"

"Buying bones with a thousand gold?"

Jayeux knows he has to provide an example. After all, he is using the story in Yan dynasty. Norgai is a people of the Steppe and he did not know this example.

So, he begins speaking

"During the Warring States period, there was once a king named Yan Zhao, who ruled over the state of Yan.

Due to military conflict, Yan had lost considerable territory to the neighbouring enemy state of Qi. Yan Zhao needed the best talent in the land to help revitalize the state and retake the ceded territory, but few people took up the offer"

He did not know what was wrong and why these people did not come"

"It was at this point when Yan Zhao sought the advice of his trusted advisor, Guo Wei, who told him a lesson from history on how to recruit top talent:

There was once a king who was determined to obtain a ’Thousand Li Horse.

The king was willing to pay 1000 gold for such a horse, but after three years of waiting, not a single horse was brought before him.

One advisor tasked himself with accomplishing the task, and after three months, had found a suitable steed for the king.

However, when the advisor arrived at the seller’s home to purchase the horse, he found that the animal had already died.

He then spent five hundred gold to purchase the bones of the horse, and made his way back to the palace.

When the advisor returned to the palace, the king was furious to learn that five hundred gold had been spent on mere bones.

However, the advisor quickly explained his reasoning, "The reason I have done this is to let everyone under heaven know that if the king is willing to pay such a fair and lofty price for the mere bones of a ’Thousand Li Horse’, then he must be offering an even greater price for a real, living steed."

The king immediately realized the brilliance of the advisor’s stratagem.

Shortly after the advisor’s return, horse trainers from every corner of the land came to the palace looking to sell their ’Thousand Li Horses’, and the king became spoiled for choice.

Having learned a valuable lesson from the story, Yan Zhao then began to treat Guo Wei in the same way that the king from the story treated the bones of the ’Thousand Li Horse’.

He provided Guo Wei with an excellent salary, a large residence, and installed him as a high-ranking official with critically important responsibilities.

Soon, news of King Yan Zhao’s beneficent actions and magnanimous treatment of his advisor Guo Wei spread across the entire nation, attracting the best talent in the land who now also sought to serve the state.

In both stories, it was near impossible for the kings to recruit the talent they were seeking until they began to provide evidence that they truly valued the level of talent they claimed to be looking for"

Jayeux paused for a second, smiles, look at Norgai and pointed at him thumb finger and said

"You are the bones. And the Kan would lavish you with riches and power to show to the world that if you surrender sincerely without waiting for him to knock on your door, your privileges will not be revoked and you could still serve your tribe."

Smiling, Jayeux pointed out

"I believe that if you ask to lead your tribe to attack Dayan or to cooperate with the Kan, the Kan would not transfer you or deprive you of your power and influence. Instead, you would be even more honoured than tribes like the Zlata and Duhai tribe that had surrendered after they were beaten"

"You would be the example and a signboard for people who wanted to surrender. The more he treated you well, the more people would believe him. The more people believe him, the more he would treat you well. A virtuous cycle, all gains and no loss."

"Now, these are the three reason. One surrender, and you would not only be able to save your tribe, you would also be able to fulfill your dreams of becoming a general. With tens of thousands of soldiers, how could the Kan not appoint you as one of the Ten Thousand men leader. You also would have the backing of the Kan"

"If the Kan succeeds, you would have share of his victory. When he moves to conquer the Steppe, would you not recommend yourself to lead an army and compete for immortal merit?"

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