My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 362: No Matter What
That battle did not last long.

Before the other party in the three-way balance of power, the Yuezhi, had time to react, the Xiongnu completely overthrew the hegemony of the Donghu and replaced it to become the new overlord of the grassland.

——And he is a more powerful overlord than the Donghu people!

But at the same time, the brutality of that war was unprecedented on the grassland.

In that battle, both sides chased and moved against each other, and the battlefield once expanded to an area of ​​thousands of miles!

Of all the brothers and uncles who were blood relatives of Maodun Chanyu, the undisputed pillars of the royal family of the Luandi clan in the court of the Xiongnu Chanyu, only Maodun's youngest brother was left alive;

The Baiyang and Zhelan tribes, which had already surrendered to the Xiongnu, had even fewer living people left after the war than enough to carry away the dead bodies!
Especially in the last battle, the Donghu royal court relied on its last elite troops: the Loufan archers and cavalry, to inflict extremely heavy casualties on the Xiongnu.

If the Zhelan people had not been fearless and brave enough to launch a death charge on the Donghu king's tent under the personal leadership of the Zhelan King, with a casualty ratio of three to one or even four to one, which would have frightened the stubborn Loufan people into submission, the ultimate winner of that battle might not even have been the Huns.

That battle made the whole grassland tremble with fear!
It also completely established the lofty status of the "three horses" of Zhelan and Baiyang.

As for the Loufan people, because of their heroic performance in the last stop, after surrendering and submitting, they were taken into the service of Maodun Chanyu. Together with the Xiongnu's "founding fathers": Zhelan and Baiyang, they became the three horses of the Xiongnu Chanyu court to suppress Munan.

This is why, even today, the bravery and even madness of the Zhelan people still frightens the people of the grasslands;
The Aries’s horse-drawn shooting still frightens the nomadic people, who dare not easily pursue the scattered cavalry who are fleeing;

Also: Until now, Lou Fanren has never dared to raise his head and speak in front of any Zhelan person.

Even King Loufan would be three points lower in posture when facing an ordinary Zhelan soldier.

--no way;

The psychological trauma that battle left on Lou Fanren was too great.

The psychological shadow is so great that it seems to no longer be an individual's memory, but more like an instinctive fear deep in the genes of the population...

After overthrowing the hegemony of the Donghu people, the Xiongnu people, who inherited most of the Donghu people's heritage, naturally found it much easier to face the Yuezhi people.

First, there was a great war, which compressed the Yuezhi people's range of activities from the southern half of Munan to the present-day Hexi region;

Later, during the reign of Laoshang Chanyu, the Yuezhi people were completely driven out of the grassland, driven to the Western Regions, and even to the farther west.

Now, after the defeat in the Hetao Campaign, the Xiongnu want to shift their strategic focus westwards, and the slogan they have raised to the lower classes is "The God of the Plow has sent down His will, and the remnants of the Yuezhi have all fled to the west."

At this point, this period of history has finally returned to its original appearance.

——Is Maodun Chanyu powerful?

very powerful.

Extraordinary military force, as well as military and strategic qualities, enabled the Xiongnu tribe to grow rapidly under the leadership of Maodun Chanyu.

But did the Huns’ dominance over the grasslands really rely entirely on the power of Maodun Chanyu?

Not really.

If before the Xiongnu became powerful and became another new upstart on the grassland, there was no opposition between the Donghu and the Yuezhi on the grassland, but there was only one overlord, the final outcome of the Xiongnu would probably not be much better than that of the Yuezhi.

The three-way balance of power, rather than the struggle for supremacy between two powers, was an important reason why the Xiongnu were able to gain a foothold on the grassland during that period.

Furthermore, after the three-legged tripod is formed, if there is no external interference, this form will also last for a considerable period of time.

Looking at the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty a few hundred years later, it is not difficult to find that in a three-way confrontation, it is always the case that two relatively weaker ones unite to fight against the most powerful one.

The same principle applies: if there were no external interference, then after the three-way balance of power among Donghu, Yuezhi and Xiongnu was formed, the main theme on the grassland would be the relatively weak Yuezhi and Xiongnu uniting to fight against the dominant Donghu.

In the following decades, these three forces took turns to appear on the stage: when the Xiongnu became strong, the Donghu and Yuezhi would unite; when the Yuezhi became strong, the Donghu and Xiongnu would unite;

The main point is that a triangle has stability.

However, the collapse of the Qin Dynasty left the Chinese civilization in the Central Plains with no time to look north, bringing peace to the grassland that it had not experienced in the past hundred years.

Moreover, the chain reaction caused by the collapse of the dynasty made the Huns rich overnight, and in an almost dreamlike way, they raised the grassland nomadic civilization to the bronze civilization.

——Before that, whether it was the Xiongnu, Yuezhi, or the overlord Donghu on the grassland, the weapons and armaments equipped by the army were still mainly stone, bone, and even wooden tools.

To this day, the Huns, who have worn out and rotten the bronze weapons left by the Qin Great Wall Army but have no idea how to repair them, have also inevitably ushered in a "civilizational regression."

Nowadays, the only ones who can use bronze weapons on the grassland are the Shanyu court, the left and right wise kings, the left and right Guli kings, and the headquarters of the four major families: Huyan, Xubu, Qiulin, and Lan.

Even these "Xiongnu nobles" could only ensure that some of the elite troops in their army were equipped with standard bronze equipment, while the remaining regular troops were only equipped with non-standard bronze equipment sporadically.

As for the other tribes - Zhelan, Baiyang and Loufan - they were granted some standard bronze wares by the Chanyu court, and also owned a batch of non-standard bronze wares on their own.

As for the remaining ordinary tribes, whenever a standard bronze ware from the Shaofu of Qin and Han dynasties appeared, it would basically be taken away immediately by the headman or the prince and worshipped as a family heirloom.

A lower-level warrior who is truly outstanding in combat might be given a non-standard bronze weapon;
If you are not that good, you can only go into the battlefield with wooden spears, stone axes, or even long weapons with bone or stone tips and wooden poles.

What is non-standard bronze ware?

Bronze weapons that were not made by the Shaofu of the Qin and Han dynasties, were not registered in the arsenal of the Chinese regime, were made by some rural craftsmen, and were smuggled to the grasslands by Han merchants. They are of uneven quality and do not have universal parts like standard weapons. They are collectively referred to as: non-standard bronzes.

To put it in terms that are more understandable to future generations, the standard weapons produced by the Shaofu of the Qin and Han dynasties were like the Type 38 and Type rifles during World War II.

The non-standard weapons made by rural craftsmen and smuggled into the grasslands were like the badly worn Hanyang-made rifles, or even simply miscellaneous brand rifles imitated by small workshops.

As for bone tools, stone tools, and even wooden tools, they are basically equivalent to cold weapons such as spears and hunting bows.

That’s right;

Before the Qin Great Wall Army marched south to quell the rebellion and left enough weapons and armaments to equip more than 100,000 people to the Huns outside the Great Wall, the weapons in the nomadic peoples' arsenal remained at such a backward stage.

To this day, the Huns have still not been able to conquer, or have not found a way to conquer, the bronze smelting technology.

Those craftsmen abducted from the Western Regions, Central Asia, and even the northern border of the Han Dynasty could help the Xiongnu to forge statues of gods and vessels.
If we try our best, we can make some simple non-standard weapons, such as bronze blades, blunt instruments, and the tips of long pole weapons.

But the Huns have not been able to master anything more complex, such as the integrated bronze sword or even the complex crossbow.

The reason why the Han Dynasty could not defeat the Xiongnu in the past few years was, firstly, the natural restraint of infantry over cavalry;
The second is the batch of standard weapons left behind by the Qin Great Wall Corps, which basically eliminated the weapons and equipment advantages of the Chinese agricultural civilization over the nomadic people in the north.

——The Han people have standard weapons, and so do the Xiongnu!

But the Huns had cavalry, while the Han had very few.

With basically the same weapons and equipment, and natural restraint between the two arms, it was foreseeable that the Han could not defeat the Huns.

In fact, it’s not that I can’t beat him;

It was just that they could not escape when the situation was unfavorable, and could not catch up when the situation was favorable. The initiative of whether to fight or where to fight was not in the hands of the Han army - the Huns came and left as they pleased, fought and retreated as they pleased.

But things are different now.

With Henan, the Han Dynasty will have a considerable number of cavalry units in the next few years, and the existing restraint between the Han and the Xiongnu will no longer exist.

As for the level of weapons and armaments, the Qin weapons in the hands of the Xiongnu were already exhausted, and were severely aged and worn out.
On the other hand, the Han Dynasty is still continuously producing and equipping standard weapons, and is even steadily promoting the updating and iteration of weapons and equipment.

As one side gains, the other loses, and it is possible that the level of weapons and armaments between the Han and Xiongnu sides will return to the state of "hot weapons beating primitive people" during the Qin Dynasty...

Closer to home.

The Huns still abide by and believe in Maodun Chanyu's domineering declaration that "the head can be cut off, the blood can be shed, but the land cannot be ceded."

But this was not because the Xiongnu were ambitious and principled, or because they listened to the words of Maodun Chanyu;

Rather, in the past few decades, no civilization in the known world could force the Huns to the point where they had to consider whether to cede land.

But now, times have changed and the past is no longer the same.

The Huns no longer had their former hegemony, and the Hun Empire’s invincibility was no longer in the world.

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When it really came to the point of "either ceding land or cutting off flesh", the Xiongnu people were probably not thinking about the Xiongnu training group left by Maodun Chanyu;

Instead, it is the genetic instinct that has been deeply engraved in the souls of nomadic peoples thousands of years ago.

--Survive.

In order to survive, nomadic people have always had no bottom line.

They can be slaves and maids, and can be used as cattle and horses;
As long as they can stay alive, they are willing to give up everything except their lives!
The "everything" here can be courage, perseverance, and fearlessness of death;

It can be to move forward courageously and face death head on.

But when all the above options are no longer effective and have no rewards, nomads will never give up the last option.

——Bow your head and surrender.

At this stage, the Xiongnu Empire has certainly not reached the point where it can ensure its survival through surrender.

After all, a lean camel is bigger than a horse;

The Huns only suffered a defeat, and the foundation of the Hun Empire was not greatly undermined by this Hetao War.

But letting the Xiongnu people learn to give in and bow their heads is in line with the current strategic situation between the Han and Xiongnu...

"Your Excellency's words are somewhat insincere."

After a brief silence, Liu Rong finally raised his head with a smile, facing Huyan Qie Dang, but his finger was pointing at the Xiongnu national letter not far from him.

"Your Excellency, are you really forgetful?"

"——You should know that your Lord Chanyu has just ceded Henan and Beihai to our Han family in a letter of credence."

"Although my Han family does not want it, your Excellency the Chanyu still has to cede the land."

...

"If you really don't want to cede the land, your Lord Chanyu threatened to cede Henan and Beihai in the letter. Isn't that just making fun of me - of my Han family?"

"If not, then since your Lord Chanyu can take Henan and Beihai, why can't he take Hexi and Donghai?"

Such words naturally caused Hu Yanqie to complain in his heart.

——What difference does it make whether the land in Henan is harvested or not?
Anyway, it has been occupied by you cunning Han people. We Xiongnu people are just talking and gathering a bargaining chip that is not a bargaining chip.

As for Beihai - we are willing to cede it, but you Han people must also occupy it, right?

Giving you such an enclave is just a superficial concession and a face-saving measure for you.

Isn't it said that Han people care about face? As long as you give Han people enough face, they won't care too much about the inside story?
How come this little Han emperor is as shrewd as a Western merchant...

Although he was grumbling secretly, Huyan Qiedang couldn't say a word.

say what?
What else can be said?
The little emperor of the Han people forced the Xiongnu to cede Hexi!

Not to mention whether Huyan Qiedang had the authority or not - even if he had the authority, Huyan Qiedang would not dare to bear the noble surname of "Huyan" and become the sinner who ceded the Hexi land!

Furthermore: The Han people already have Henan Province. Whether it is raising horses or cattle, Henan Province is enough to meet all the Han people’s needs for grasslands and pastures.

We already have Henan, and we want to further own Hexi?

Han people, what do you want to do?
Hu Yanqie could figure it out with his knees: the Han people are so greedy that they want to swallow an elephant. They have set their sights on the fat piece of meat in the Western Regions!

This time, the strategic focus of the Chanyu Court shifted westward. What was the purpose?
Isn't it just to conquer the West, consolidate the Western Regions, accumulate enough wealth, and then turn back to avenge the Han people in Henan?

If we really want to give Hexi to the Han people, then there is no point in moving westward. We might as well just surrender!

"Your Majesty wants Hexi. Forgive me for being blunt, but this is impossible."

"My Lord Chanyu certainly doesn't want to lose Henan, but the matter is done. Even if my Lord Chanyu is resentful, he is still willing to accept it reluctantly."

"But Hexi is the lifeline of the Xiongnu.

“——Don’t talk about ceding it. Even if it is really occupied by the army sent by His Majesty the Emperor, my Lord Chanyu will do everything he can to retake Hexi!”

"Even if we really can't take it back, my Lord Chanyu will tell the warriors on the grassland: Even if we have to destroy Hexi, we must never let the Han people occupy it!"

...

"Foreign ministers have indeed come here for peace."

"But it's not to pray for peace, but to negotiate for peace."

"If Your Majesty also has this intention, then please stop making fun of the foreign ministers with such fantastic words."

"If you have no intention, although I feel regretful, I dare not disobey my Lord Chanyu's previous instructions."

"Even if we return empty-handed and are punished by the Chanyu court, there is nothing we can do, nothing we can do..."

(End of this chapter)