The Grasslands lay barren, faintly scorched yellow, the mountain slopes all stained with autumn hues. The upheaval across All Under Heaven raged like fire through dry grass. For ten years, Liaodong had drunk snow and bitter frost sweeping down from the far north, and the Grasslands, too, suffered relentless freezing. In the snowy Northern Desert, livestock froze to death in great numbers. Herders wailed and wept blood, and many died beside the rivers. Animal hides wrapped around their bodies could not keep out the cold. Countless people prayed to Tengri, to the Sage King Sovereign and Tengri, and even to the gods of the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, but none ever answered.
Felt tents stretched beneath the Yin Mountains, and the Golden Tent of the Grasslands stood among them. The Chanyu ruled the most powerful country on the Grasslands, the Xianbei Xia State. The guards outside the Golden Tent were all imposing men. The Xianbei Chanyu was the chief of the Yan Tribe, the strongest of the dozens of Xianbei tribes. There were also four other comparatively powerful tribes: the Tuoba Tribe, the Yuwen Tribe, the Murong Tribe, and the Dugu Tribe.
The reason the Hu People of Liaodong regarded Yan State as Hu as well was that both Yan State and the Xianbei had risen in Great Xianbei Mountain in Liaodong, and their bloodlines were far too closely intermingled. The custom of carrying off women was widespread on the Grasslands, and bloodlines were already complicated, leaving certain remnants of matrilineal clans. Among the Hu tribes, people often conflated the Xianbei Yan Tribe with Yan State's imperial family, and the Murong Xianbei with Yan State's Murong Clan. In truth, even these two clans could not clearly trace their own bloodlines. After all, in those first years after their exile