My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 360: Things are changing~
Liu Rong had a lot to say, and his thoughts were full of thoughts, but in fact his mind was working very fast.

Only a moment later, a smile full of disdain was revealed.

"If your Excellency Chanyu only has this little sincerity~"

"Um……"

"——Don't wait until tomorrow."

"After leaving the palace and returning to the posthouse, the envoy should pack his luggage immediately and set off to the grassland to report immediately."

···
"If your Lord Chanyu asks, I will tell him that I already know his intentions.

"This autumn, my Han army of one million elite soldiers will fight against your lord, the Great Chanyu's four hundred thousand soldiers in the south of the wall."

"——I solemnly promise: Your sacred place, Longcheng, will never be violated by my Han family."

"If the Chanyu is interested, I don't mind inviting him to stay in Chang'an for a few days after the war..."

As soon as Liu Rong said this, all the officials in the hall smiled, but they couldn't help feeling a surge of blood and dry mouth.

--Cool!

——It feels so fucking good!
Once upon a time, the Huns kept talking about "400,000 soldiers under their command", and they took away cartloads of dowry from the Han families without spending a single soldier, just relying on this threat and intimidation.

The original words are even more infuriating!

What? Although our great Xiongnu army is small, we still have 400,000 soldiers who can shoot arrows. If they all draw their bows together, their arrows can cover the sky and the sun, making the day as dark as night.
What? Although our Hun country is small, we still have tens of thousands of miles of grazing area. Even if one cavalry raids the grassland for three years, it still cannot see the entire picture.

This sentence was always mentioned over and over again - even every time a Hun envoy came to Chang'an, he would talk about it in the Xuanshi Hall.

Not only did the ears of the Han emperor and his ministers become calloused after hearing this, but it also repeatedly evoked the humiliation in the hearts of the Han emperor and his ministers, and even the people of the world.

Are you the only one who has soldiers?
what?
You have a vast territory?
Until today, after Liu Rong made this seemingly euphemistic but actually sharp threat and intimidation in front of the Xiongnu envoys, the Han officials, the nobles and the nobles, these nobles and bureaucrats who were at the top of the Han power pyramid finally reacted belatedly.

——The offense and defense have changed!

Those who keep saying "How many soldiers do I have?", "How much territory do I have?", and "If we can't reach an agreement, we will fight" are no longer the once arrogant Huns!

Once, when the Xiongnu envoy said "400,000 soldiers", the Han emperor and his ministers would immediately suppress their humiliation and anger and start planning for marriage and dowry.
But now, the emperor of the Han Dynasty did not wait for the Xiongnu to speak, and took the initiative to say: If the negotiations fail, let the Chanyu recruit the 400,000 "army soldiers" and we will set up a battle!
As a token of respect to the four hundred thousand soldiers, I, the Han family, will also give them—are one million elite troops enough?

However, this battlefield could no longer be the Chaonasai of Beidi County of the Han Dynasty or the Wuzhousai of Yanmen County of the Dai Dynasty.

——Munan!
As long as the Huns want to fight, the Han Dynasty has the ability to directly choose the Huns' base: Munnan as the battlefield for the next Han-Hun war!
At the very least, it should be the southern gateway of the Munan region and the dividing line between the grassland and the Hetao region: the Gaoque line...

"My Lord Chanyu sent foreign ministers here because he was full of hope for peace."

"Your Majesty, it seems that he doesn't..."

Huyan Qiedang stopped talking halfway and looked towards the top of the imperial couch with a slightly gloomy expression.

——This was Hu Yanqie's first visit to Chang'an.

It was also the first time that Hu Yanqie met the legendary little Han emperor.

Huyan Qiedang originally thought that since he was the 'little emperor', Liu Rong would definitely have some inevitable character flaws of a teenager.

For example, being reckless, shallow, or acting on impulse.

But just this brief moment of contact made Hu Yanqie Dang realize that this Han "little emperor" already possessed the characteristics that all Han emperors had.

——Stinky and hard!
Moreover, compared with the previous two generations of Han emperors, this young emperor was more outspoken;
At the same time, he is not simply tough. His every move and every word always exudes the maturity that a qualified politician should possess.

After discovering this, Huyan Qiedang no longer had any hope for this mission.

As one of the four most prominent and noble clans of the Xiongnu besides the royal family of the Luandi clan, the Huyan clan is a contemporary "talent". Huyan Qiedang naturally knows what the grassland is like today.

——The Hetao Campaign dealt a heavy blow to the prestige of the current Junchen Chanyu!
In just a few months, more than one-third of the tribal leaders expressed, either explicitly or implicitly, that the great Chenglitian (god of heaven) should send a new Gutu (child) to lead the nomadic people to become strong again.

To put it bluntly, I just have some different little thoughts.

After noticing this change, the grassland's number one destabilizing factor, Right Wise King Yizhixie, quickly took action. With almost no effort, he obtained the private surrender of nearly 30% of the tribes!
You should know that this 30% does not refer to the Mu'nan area under the control of Yizhixie, but the entire prairie!
Including the tribes in Munan under the control of Yizhixie, as well as Mubei, Hexi, and even the west, all added together, the total is 30%!
What concept?
Needless to say, there is nothing else!

——Thinking back to the time when Maodun Chanyu Mingdi killed his father, killed the previous Chanyu Luanditouman, and completely controlled the entire Xiongnu tribe, the territory occupied by the Xiongnu tribe and the military force they controlled were not even one tenth of the territory on the prairie, or even less than half of it!
After years of continuous wars and conquests, Maodun Chanyu finally brought a number of grassland tribes under his command, and made the once insignificant small tribe: the Xiongnu, grow into a force that could not be underestimated.

Then, Maodun Chanyu, with this seemingly huge force, which actually only accounted for 20% of the total force of the prairie, charged head-on at the overlord who occupied more than half of the power of the prairie: Donghu!
The upstart Xiongnu, who controlled 20% of the grassland's power, took the initiative to attack the overlord Donghu, who controlled more than 50% of the power - more than half of the power;

At the same time, the Yuezhi people, who controlled the remaining 30% of the power on the grassland, were watching covetously, waiting for the Xiongnu and Donghu people to fight to the death, with both sides suffering losses, so that they could reap the benefits.

This is the reason why Maodun Chanyu was so "great" and why he was so worshipped by the nomadic people of the grassland.

Under these conditions, Maodun Chanyu managed to defeat the tough enemy Donghu with less than half the strength of the enemy!

He overthrew the hegemony of the Donghu people, completely laid the foundation of the Xiongnu Empire, and not only twisted off the head of the Donghu king and used it as a wine vessel, but also defeated the Yuezhi people again shortly afterwards, almost completely unifying the grassland!
And now, a "wise leader" has appeared again on the grassland.

The power this man holds is even greater than that of Maodun Chanyu back then;
Moreover, unlike Maodun Chanyu who "overthrew the old overlord" and lived towards death, this new "wise leader" was precisely the current grassland overlord: the royal family of Luandi within the Xiongnu.

Luandi Yizhixie!
After the Hetao Campaign ended, this name became the most eye-catching and at the same time the most "unmentionable" word on the grassland.

When the situation was at its worst, the Munan tribe had already begun to recruit troops and spontaneously assembled in the direction of Nanchi where Yizhixie was stationed, so that they could be dispatched by Yizhixie.

But later, the great Right Wise King Luandi Yizhixie took the initiative to find his half-brother: Junchen Chanyu.

According to the information obtained by Huyan Qiedang, Yizhixie and Junchen had an extremely long discussion.

After the discussion, the Right Wise King Yizhixie stood up and took the blame for the failure of the Hetao Campaign on his own head. Yizhixie took the blame for the failure of the war, and Junchen Chanyu took advantage of the situation to beat the fallen dog.

Instead, he stood up at the same time and pardoned Yizhixie with the "will of supporting the sky".

Everything that happened afterwards was somewhat ridiculous.

——In front of the chiefs and princes of various tribes on the grassland, Junchen swore to the god Chengli: As long as the Left Wise King Yu Shan fails to grow into a leader braver and wiser than Yizhixie, the next Chanyu of the Great Xiongnu will be the Right Wise King Luandi Yizhixie!

Junchen said that this was the will of the God of the Plow.

Yizhixie said that he also felt Cheng Litian's intention.

Then, the two brothers said together: In addition to this, the God of the Plow has another decree, which points out the direction for the future of the Great Xiongnu;
This "imperial edict" is what Liu Rong said: the strategic focus should be shifted westwards, and temporary appeasement and compromise should be adopted towards the Han Dynasty...

Obviously, this was a deal between Junchen and Yizhixie.

In order to quickly erase the impact of the failure of the Hetao Campaign, Junchen exchanged the right to inherit the throne of Chanyu for the support of Yizhixie, the biggest destabilizing factor within Chanyu's court and Luandi clan.

And Yizhixie also gained the respect of more people because of this - because of his spirit of "the interests of the Huns are above everything else" and "I can sacrifice everything for the Huns".

It is no exaggeration to say that under the current circumstances, Zuo Xian Wang Yu Shan will never be able to grow into an excellent leader.

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Because back when Yu Shan was still old enough to ride a sheep and couldn't even chew a sheep's ribs clean with his teeth, Yu Shan's uncle Yizhixie already had a high reputation that even the former Zuo Xian Wang Junchen had never had.

The next Xiongnu Chanyu will almost certainly be Yizhixie.

However, the situation did not improve much because of the great actions of this great man Yizhixie.

——The strategic focus shifted westwards, and there was indeed no resistance within the Chanyu Court.

The Chanyu Court easily wiped out the negative impact of the failure of the Hetao Campaign without changing the Chanyu or experiencing a bloodbath or violent suppression.

But if we really want to change the strategic focus from the previous "East and West advance together" double-headed eagle policy to focusing on attacking the West and stabilizing the East as much as possible, we still need the approval of the Han people.

That’s right;

The Han people, who once had to beg the Xiongnu to "maintain peace", have now become the ones who decide whether peace can be maintained between the Han and Xiongnu...

After Hu Yanqie gave a "response" that was neither soft nor hard, Liu Rong fell into a long silence.

Liu Rong knew very well who would benefit more from the current situation.

——After most of the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the Han Dynasty, although not strong in military power, at least had a full treasury.

Unless Liu Rong follows the example of Emperor Wu of Han in history, who frequently built large-scale projects or toured the country to spend money everywhere;

Otherwise, the treasury left to Liu Rong by his father and grandfather would be enough to support the Han Dynasty and fight at least ten medium to large-scale battles of the same scale as the Hetao Campaign with the Huns.

Coupled with the victory in the Hetao Campaign and the acquisition of Hetao, the morale of the Han people, whether they were the emperor and his ministers in the court, the generals in the army, or even the common people, was ignited to an unprecedented high!

If they want to fight, the Han family will have no scruples at all - just fight!

Strike while the iron is hot, conquer Hexi and even Munan, and see how you, the Huns, can continue to dominate the grassland!

Of course, it’s okay not to fight for the time being.

Just maintain the status quo, slowly digest the Hetao area, and continue to recuperate and accumulate strength;
In the face of the powerful development capabilities of agricultural civilization, the natural development disadvantages of nomadic civilization will cause the balance of victory between the Han and the Xiongnu to tilt towards the Han Dynasty more and more quickly.

If there is no war between the Han and the Xiongnu in the next fifty years, the Han Dynasty, which has been recuperating for fifty years, will become incredibly powerful.

At least Liu Rong was sure: if that were the case, even if the next Han emperor was a dog, the Han family would be able to completely drive the Huns out of the Asian continent under the control of the Empress Dowager Cao, who was quite capable - or at least not stupid!
Therefore, for the Han family, the current situation is that it doesn't matter whether they fight or not - fighting has its advantages, and not fighting has its advantages;

But for the Huns, the only choice was to go to the West to replenish their blood and strengthen themselves so as to regain the ability to crush the Han Dynasty again - at least to control and suppress the Han Dynasty as easily as possible.

This is the reason why Liu Rong sighed that "attack and defense are easy to change."

——It is no longer the Han people who pray for peace!

——It is no longer the Han people who need peace!

Well, as the party that needed peace more, the Huns wanted the Han Dynasty - if they wanted the Han Dynasty, who believed that "it doesn't matter whether they fight or not", to make a decision that was obviously beneficial to the Huns: not to fight, then they would naturally have to pay a price.

Moreover, the price cannot be the Henan land that has been occupied by the Han family, the invisible and intangible Beihai land, or a Ferghana horse, ten smelly Xiongnu beauties, etc.

Indeed, the Hetao region and East and West Siberia have been quite valuable bargaining chips for Liu Rong since ancient times.

But the Huns didn’t know the value of this chip!
Only Liu Rong, a time traveler, would care about the so-called "since ancient times".

For the Han Dynasty today, Hetao is already the Han Dynasty's Hetao;
Beihai will never be the Beihai of the Han Dynasty - even if the Han Dynasty really conquers this place one day, it will never be possible for the Han Dynasty to develop and build it.

In other words, for the natives of this era, the value of the "sincerity" brought by Hu Yanqie Dang is infinitely close to zero.

Even the Ferghana horse from Dayuan, only Liu Rong could conclude that it was "somewhat valuable, at least good-looking";

For the Han emperor and his subjects, Dayuan horses?

Even if you are a flying fairy horse or a unicorn, there is only one of you!

Aren’t the gifts given between countries in the single digits just symbolic courtesies?
Do you think you can exchange such a horse for the peace that the Han people once had to endure humiliating marriages and offer millions of dowries?
Do you use this to test cadres?

What kind of cadre can't stand such a test?

(End of this chapter)