They made only a few hundred copper coins a month.
Yes, even when they worked, they were not paid much.
At most, it was barely enough to keep them fed, and they still had to find work on their own.
They had only one thought, and that was to stay alive.
And this capital was located right in the middle of the entire basin.
When the capital could not quickly suppress rebellions in various regions, the capital's army lost its deterrent power.
More and more people rose in revolt on all sides.
Among those who rebelled first were the nomads who had been forced to migrate into the desert.
In truth, they had once been people of the plains, farmers.
They had been people of the basin.
They had become desert nomads entirely because they could not survive inside the basin and had been forced to move into the mountains.
In the mountains, they were driven out again and could only head into the surrounding desert.
In the surrounding desert, with the occasional moisture that drifted in, there were a few scattered oases.
They relied on those oases, as well as robbery and caravans, to scrape out a hard living.
How did merchants travel?
In truth, it was to avoid all kinds of checkpoints by detouring through the desert.
The entire basin was surrounded by desert.
Their caravans set out from within the basin, passed directly through the great mountains, and entered the desert.
Then they circled around through the desert.
In the desert, there was no way to set up checkpoints.
This was another real example of how harsh rule was fiercer than a tiger.
To avoid those heavy taxes, they would rather cross the desert and take enormous risks.
For example, great storms, or quicksand.
An entire caravan