CHAPTER 552: THE POWER OF TIME

Paper, this small thing could help immensely once it is popularized and become low cost.

And the government would become efficient because they could now maintain vast archives, census data, tax records, military rosters and laws without the burden of weight or cost, cutting god knows how many redundancies and free up money

Communication across province would be improved, it would also be easier to standardize the laws and procedures, which would only gave an immense advantage over nomadic societies in terms of governance, stability and policy enforcement

And that is only a few of the benefit of paper.

There is many more.

And it is because Aeryon knows this, he extinguishes the idea of making paper or even sharing it.

This world does not allow him to become benevolent and generous to the enemy.

The Yan people is like the Han people, always swearing and always wanting to kill people that is different from them

Does Aeryon wanted to be understanding and try to broker peace? Yes, but the Yan are arrogant race.

That is because victory had made them arrogant.

But the Yan forget.

There is no eternal dynasty

They look down on the other races believing themselves to be superior to others.

They forget to give themselves an out.

A chance to ease and a chance for them to step down.

There is a reason why smart people is politics always leave a way out for their opponent. Because it also means a way out for them

Ministers when they finished their job and had to come down from their high position, if they only have enemies when they are in office, then their future life would surely be a precarious one.

A wise minister is not only the kind of minister that could give good advice to the monarch but also someone who knows how come down from their position...safely.

It is the same for dynasties.

If you leave people with no way out, and revel in your victory and look down and torture your people, do not be surprised that when it is time for your empire to fall, the fate that befalls your people would be one that is not full of mercy

The Han people in his time lament the fall of the empire, but they did not know how many people cheer and sing of happiness in the mountains, jungles and the grasslands.

Huo Qubing killing, the Han killings of minorities, how could those people forget.

But scholars of that time could easily change anything they wanted. Even if its turbulent ra, the scholars of that time could still cover the truth and describe it as prosperous times.

The funny thing was, in his time when Genghis Khan swept the world with his army, his court and his military was even more egalitarian than every empire in the four directions of the world

That shows how the empires that he brought down is spurned by their own people. It is the same for the Abbasids and it is the same for the Song dynasty

They were Han in Mongolian army, there were Russians, they were Turkic, they were many of such people from different lands, different ethnicities serving under the Khan army

Aeryon however is not yet that kind of Khan who commands the world and even though he is confident of himself to fight against the tribes of the Southern Great Steppe and won, he also knows how to assess his fighting force objectively. It is still too much for him to fight against empires with his army

Yan dynasty is not like the Song dynasty where martial virtues was extinguished by their own rulers so it would need more than just a lot of people

Song dynasty itself lasted many years under the siege of the Mongols. Genghis Khan descendant had to learn the hard way of how hard it is to siege a walled city.

Right now, Aeryon did not need such weapons since most settlements in the Steppe did not really have a walled cities and the creation of siege weapons is not really necessary considering the circumstances

But he knew that one day, if he were to attack the cities of Yan or Roma or Western Zhou, he needs to have knowledge about siege weapons and have a stockpile of weapons and strategies to take walled cities.

So, Aeryon could only be a petty man and hide the secret of paper.

Once he had enough strength, once his people is ready to settle down and rule, then he would release this technology.

At that time, he hoped that his dynasty could create a prosperous era if he was not alive to see it.

Would Aeryon be a stupid man to strengthen his enemies to a point that it could threaten him?

Not to mention, that Aeron is still a small shark compared to the empires around him. He did not even yet unify the Southern Steppe, so how could he be considered a great shark?

He looks at the map.

"This is the best comprehensive map that I have seen since I come to this world"

Now, it is clearer to him which tribes is on a certain area and what area of influence they command.

The map is made by trackers, scouts and people that have gone to this land.

Some landmarks is also added to the map and even now, there is people noting the new changes, making a new map

Large map like this is more to give a representation and it is a map he uses when he wanted to show his general the grand plan

The tactical map is different from the grand strategy map

If he has an even larger place and throne room, he would even make the map of the Steppe and the empires around it on the throne room floor so that one could see his ambition to rule the world.

But for now, there is no need for such ostentatious means.

He did not want to alert some other tribes to his ambition.

This kind of ambition of wanting to swallow the entire great Steppe would alarm some people and because of that he only shares such thoughts with his trusted people.

The good thing about making a simple map of the steppe is that there is not many mountains

There is lakes, swamps and rivers but there is not many mountains.

This is an upgrade of his last map. There is another map that is being made by his mapmakers, a job that he had created to serve the tribe.

That one would be a map that determine the topographic of an area, which would make any hills, any structure around a certain tribe to be recorded.

There is precision and artists in this new map that displays the lands of the great Steppe.

There is sweeping brown hills, winding rivers, clusters of black tents representing nomadic tribes

Painted in natural dyes, ochre, charcoal, lapis blue, and rust red, each tribal territories is symbolized not only by names but by their totems

This is a treatment reserved for those famous tribes.

Kingdoms and empires beyond the Steppes are painted with more structured symbols, block fortress for walled cities, and rows of banners fluttering above named provinces.

He looks at the map and frowned.

He look at the west. Chagai tribe could ride to their southern area and attack Zlata and Duhai tribe.

Nergui could attack the territory of Wustkazan and Khulun that he had taken cutting off the northern route

But Nogai is still there. Since he is a secret agent, Ultar would not attack Nogai tribe without reason. Not to mention that provoking Nogai tribe is probably not in the interest of the Cha Ner Ul alliance.

Attacking Nogai probably would make that entire region feel threatened.

"Ultar" he mutters to himself as his eyes narrowed. That is a weak spot of the alliance, Aeryon thought to himself.

Ultar itself has a feud with the Nergui tribe. If not for Chadha, this tripartite alliance probably would not have been formed.

Chadha was the glue for this alliance.

"If he was ten years younger, Chadha with the current situation could truly have the capital to the fight for the world"

Sometimes, it is like this.

One is born in the wrong era.

During Chadha time, the time was not ripe for Chadha to act like he did.

The circumstances and the people and the things they wanted and desire was different

There is some people who believe if you return to the past, and then helped the victor of a certain war, you are destined to succeed. But sometimes, success and failure depends on the time

Not all victories are like this. But there are many victories like this. Change something and you might change the course of the entire history.

Certain people for example have different thoughts when they were young and when they were old.

Some acquired wisdom they did not have when they were young and they laughed at themselves of the past. Sometimes, only when you are young, you dare to do something.

And what is the common factor for all of this? Nothing else but time.