Great Han Empire

Chapter 1013 Chapter [-]
The fourth year of Yuanping in the Han Dynasty (206 AD), the first month.

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The first month, Youzhou, Jicheng.

General Hussars was rarely overworked, fell ill and was bedridden.

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the little emperor and the great general Li Hong led the Huben Yulin battalion across Juyongguan Pass and arrived at Jicheng.That night, Li Hong, Yushi, Yan Rou, Xian Yuyin, Wei Jun, Lei Zi and other generals rushed to General Hushi's mansion to visit Xian Yufu.

"20 years..." Xian Yufu leaned on the couch, looking at the people sitting around, feeling deeply moved, "It has been 20 years since the people brought us out of Youzhou together. In the past 20 years, we There are wars all the time, and we are still fighting on the battlefield until today. I really want to know now, when will we be able to calm down the world and sit at home safely?"

"It's difficult..." Li Hong reached out to the brazier and rubbed it lightly, "Maybe three to five years, maybe we will never wait for that day."

Everyone was silent, and the atmosphere in the room was a little sad and desolate.

"Since Junyi (Zhang Yun) reversed the situation in northern Xinjiang in the first battle in Liaodong, there is no longer a big battle to fight in northern Xinjiang, and the army can immediately go south to fight." Yushi asked suspiciously, "Why is the general so pessimistic?"

"The imperial court changed the system twice in a row. Doesn't that explain the problem?" Li Hong smiled wryly, and sighed softly, "The people are suffering, the people are suffering too much, we can't fight anymore, we have to fight with To improve the cultivation of the people, let the people see hope, and let the people live a life of food and clothing."

"Today the imperial court has hundreds of thousands of troops. As long as the general gives an order, we can sweep the world like a broken bamboo." Wei Jun curled his lips disdainfully, "General, you seem to take rebels too seriously. Survival was too important."

"Hundreds of thousands of troops?" Li Hong shook his head. "Does the northern border need to be heavily guarded? Does the western border need an army? Does the capital need a garrison? Where do I get hundreds of thousands of troops to go south?"

"The momentum is like a broken bamboo?" Li Hong smiled helplessly. "Back then, the Great Qin State had an army of one million, with the aura of unifying the six kingdoms, and was invincible in the world. What happened? From the beginning of the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising, to the collapse of the Great Qin State, but in a short period of time, the First Emperor may I can't even dream of it, his fortune is only 15 years, right?"

"Emperor Gaozu and the Overlord of Western Chu competed for the world. Within five years, they fought and lost repeatedly. At that time, who would have thought that the Overlord of Western Chu, with an army of 40 and seventy percent of the world, would be wiped out in the next battle?"

"Wang Mang usurped the country and established a new dynasty. With strong strength, he went south to attack Kunyang with an army of 43, while Emperor Guangwu charged with only 3000 troops and wiped out the rebels in World War I. As a result, Wang Mang's new dynasty fell apart 15 years later."

"Since ancient times, the few have won the many, the weak have defeated the strong, and there are many people who lost in one battle." Li Hong looked serious, and his eyes swept over everyone's faces, "We have won too many battles, From the emperor to the common people, they have forgotten the taste of failure, and even the bloody lessons in history. This is a precursor to our failure. This is an important reason why we should not go south to counter the rebellion. I don’t want the big man The great cause of ZTE was ruined in my hands."

The expressions of all the generals were different, some suddenly woke up suddenly, some didn't take it seriously, and some slightly restrained the arrogance on their faces.

"The expedition to the northwest and the two frontiers cost an astonishing amount of money, and pushed the imperial court into a financial crisis. This is the reason for the continuous reform of the prime minister."

"Every system reform has advantages and disadvantages. It is difficult for us to get benefits from the reform in the short term. We can only see its disadvantages. Since the reform directly damaged the interests of some people, the contradictions between the government and the opposition suddenly intensified. This contradiction will definitely affect When the army goes south to fight the rebellion, as long as there is a problem in any link, the fight against the rebellion may fail, and the whole army may even be wiped out. If we lose, we need to spend more time to restore our vitality, morale and confidence. In comparison, we might as well fight steadily, wait until the policy of restructuring is fully implemented and see initial results, and when the contradictions between the government and the opposition gradually ease, we will then concentrate our efforts to counter the rebellion in the south.”

"It took Emperor Guangwu ten years to fight Bashu. Why can't we wait? Do we have to choose this inappropriate time to fight a battle that we are not sure about?"

"Another issue is the stability of the two northwestern borders. The issue of the two northwestern borders is very complicated, and you cannot simply regard it as a kind of conquest by force. Conquest by force is only temporary stability, and the frontier cannot be achieved by forced suppression. Stability for a long time. The Qiang chaos in western Xinjiang for the past hundred years has made the big Han miserable. Isn’t this lesson profound enough? We conquered the desert, but more than ten years later, the Xianbei people made a comeback. Isn’t this lesson enough to make you sober Can you fully understand the key to Dahan Zhongxing?"

"The key to the rejuvenation of the Great Han Dynasty is not when we put down the rebellion in the south, but in the stability of the two northwestern borders."

"If we can't solve the problem of foreigners in the two northwestern borders, even if we pacify the world, even if we temporarily stabilize the country, how many years can we maintain it? The population of foreigners is constantly increasing, and their strength is constantly increasing. The living conditions of foreigners It's getting more and more difficult. If we can't take advantage of this rare opportunity to quickly solve the problem of the survival of foreigners in the frontier, the frontier will not be stable. If the frontier cannot be stabilized, the country will fall into lasting turmoil. Let me ask if the country is in constant turmoil. Can the big man still have a day of ZTE?"

"One of the important reasons why Emperor Guangwu was able to rejuvenate the Han Dynasty was due to the split of the Huns. Without Hu Hanxie Chanyu's surrender and the continued stability of northern Xinjiang, it would have been difficult for the Han Dynasty to survive within a few decades. It is even more impossible to have the strength to go on an expedition to the Western Regions once you regain your strength. Emperor Guangwu’s policies on foreign nationalities, Emperor Guangwu’s self-cultivation with the people, and his policies on quickly restoring national power are all worthy of our reference and study.”

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Li Hong sighed softly, looking intently at the hot charcoal fire in the brazier, with deep worry on his face, "Besides fighting, you should read more books, especially history books, not only to read, but also to think, otherwise read It's useless."

"Now that the two frontiers in the Northwest and the Northwest are basically settled down, only the rebels in the south are left, so you want to fight, because only the south is left to fight and you can gain military exploits; wealthy families, bureaucrats, and merchants also want to fight, because only The land and wealth of the southern states and counties can still be plundered; the people also want to fight, because after the recovery of the southern states and counties, there will be no wars in the world, and they can live a stable life without having to conquer a large number of people year after year. You can farm the land with peace of mind."

"But I don't want to fight, why? Because I can't afford to lose. I have fought for more than 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died on the battlefield, and millions of people died in the war. I don't want to fight for more than 20 years because of one defeat, let hundreds of thousands of soldiers fall on the battlefield, and let millions of people die in the wilderness. If you want to fight, you must win, and you must have absolute I'm sure, but I don't have absolute certainty to win this battle right now."

"When will I be absolutely sure? The court is stable, the frontier is stable, the wealth is abundant, the people can eat and wear warm clothes, and the morale of hundreds of thousands of troops is like a rainbow. Only then will I be absolutely sure to win this battle , I will lead the army to fight this battle, otherwise, I will never send troops, I will never put the safety of the country at risk, and fight this battle with blind confidence and arrogance."

All the generals bowed their heads and remained silent.

"The general has changed..." Lei Zi whispered suddenly, "You are no longer the general you used to be."

"Yes, I have changed." Li Hong nodded and said, "I am now shouldering the responsibility of ZTE, and I want to protect the lives of more than 2000 million people. I cannot take the slightest risk to do anything that may cause ZTE The damage to the great cause. I am the general of the great Han. When I make any decision, I must first consider the safety of the country and the survival of the people. Even if this decision may violate conscience and morality, and violate the way of using troops, I will I have to do it. I can’t stop doing it, and I dare not not do it. If one day you sit in my position, maybe you can understand my current thoughts and practices.”

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Xian Yufu covered his mouth and coughed a few times, and then said worriedly: "The general's words are right. For the big man at present, the most important thing is not to go south to suppress the rebellion, but to stabilize the frontier. Do you have any good strategies?" ?”

"We are all from northern Xinjiang, and we have fought in northern Xinjiang for many years. You guys have been guarding northern Xinjiang for more than ten years..." Li Hong pointed to Xian Yuyin, Wei Jun and Lei Zi, "Tell me, use What is the best way to stabilize the northwestern borders to the greatest extent so as to solve the court's worries and help the court devote all its energy to the two major tasks of restoring national strength and going south to counter the rebellion?"

Several people looked at each other, all focusing on Yan Rou.Among the generals from Youzhou, apart from Xu Rong and Xian Yufu, even Yan Rou was the best at handling relations with foreign tribes.Li Hong recommended him as the Great General of Zhenbei to guard the northern border in Jinyang, not because of Yan Rou's illustrious military exploits, but because Yan Rou had a good way of dealing with foreign relations.The year before last, the Han army successfully recaptured Hexi, and Yan Rou made the most of the contribution.

"Since Emperor Gaozu implemented the 'peace' policy towards the Xiongnu, conquest and appeasement have become the two main methods used by the Han Dynasty to deal with foreign tribes." Yan Rou said, "Currently, conquest has achieved the purpose of severely attacking and suppressing foreign tribes. It’s time to use comforting methods when we come down.”

"How to appease?" Wei Jun teased, "Marriage? Gift? King? Move south?"

Yan Rou laughed off Wei Jun's ridicule, "It is indeed a solution to the problem to move in a large number of Hu tribes, because the primary purpose of the Hu people's invasion is to survive, but moving a large number of Hu tribes into border counties will cause A series of problems, the most serious is the issue of frontier security. However, for hundreds of years, the most fundamental problem that has hindered the migration of Hu people to border counties is not the security of the frontier, but the incompatibility between Han people and Hu people of various ethnic groups.”

"The reason for the incompatibility is not only because of the hatred between the two parties, but also because the language, culture, customs, etc. between the two parties are too different."

"To give the most obvious example. The Xiongnu, Karasuma, Xianbei, Qiang and other countries in the Western Regions all have the marriage custom of accepting successive marriages or continued marriages, that is, 'if the father dies, the son's wife will be the stepmother, and if the brother dies, choose the best one. Wives and wives.' This custom has something to do with the fact that the Hu people live by animal husbandry. For the Hu people, the livestock are easy to be lost as living property. It has become the living property of the patriarch, and it is only natural for the children to inherit it directly, but in the eyes of the Han people, this is incest, an extremely barbaric custom, inhumane and moral, so they extremely despise the barbarians and resolutely refuse to intermarry with barbarians .”

"How did the imperial court handle this matter? Let's take a look at the fate of the 'marriage' princesses in the past."

"After this dynasty made peace with the Xiongnu, most of the clan women who married the Xiongnu Da Shanyu as the Yan family (after the Da Shanyu) could not escape this bad luck, even Wang Zhaojun who voluntarily asked to marry Huhan Xie Shanyu far away. After the death of Huhanxie Chanyu, according to the marriage customs of the Huns, Zhaojun would be transferred to the son of Da Shanyu as his wife. She thought it was incest, and she wrote to Emperor Xiaocheng asking to return to her homeland, but Emperor Xiaocheng refused and forced her to obey. Hu Ya, she had no choice but to marry the eldest son of Huhanxie Shanyu as the Yan family. During Emperor Xiaowu, Xijun, the daughter of Liu Jian, the king of Jiangdu, married Kunmo, the king of Wusun in the Western Regions, as his wife as a princess. Married to her grandson Cen Zou. The princess refused, so she wrote to Emperor Xiaowu, who ordered her to follow the Wusun marriage customs. Xijun had to make a compromise and married Kunmo's grandson."

"There is an emperor above the princess, so it's okay if you don't listen, but ordinary people don't care, they don't want to. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and the emperor can't care about their marriage." Yan Rou spread her hands and said helplessly, "Han and Hu Tong marriage is An important aspect of the integration of various ethnic groups, if there is no intermarriage, the relationship between the various ethnic groups cannot be harmonious, and this internal migration will become a bad thing.”

"Secondly, the court's appeasement policy has a big flaw, which is also caused by the extreme contempt of the Han people for the Hu people. In the eyes of the court, moving the Hu people to live in border counties is a kind of pity and a This is why the imperial court treats Hu people worse than beggars, not to mention equality and fairness, even the most basic respect. In the past, Master Liu Yu treated Hu people well and treated them as 'human beings', but What about Lord Gongsun? Lord Gongsun treats them like a pack of dogs, who will burn, kill and loot them whenever they are unhappy. When Lord Gongsun is happy, the barbarians are unhappy, and the dogs immediately turn into wolves."

"Therefore, the court's appeasement policy needs to make major adjustments. For example, intermarriage, intermarriage is fine, but the Hu tribes must first change their customs and follow the marriage customs of the Han people. The Hu people are now also the people of the Han people, and they must obey unconditionally. The laws of the Han Dynasty, abandon those stereotypes and bad habits. Another example is how to change the unfair treatment received by the Hu people? This issue is very complicated, but I think that the status of the Hu people must be improved first. General Du Liao of the Han Dynasty will be able to serve as ministers in the imperial court in the future, and Mustafa and Jifeng will be able to serve as prefects of border counties in the future, and there are also big and small soldiers like Loulu, Huding, Qishen, Sheyingtong, and Lu Huanyang. A king can be a general, and he can command a large army to guard the territory for the great Han."

"To appease them is not just to let them eat their stomachs. We must fully trust them, treat them fairly, give them the opportunity to make contributions to the big man, and make them feel that they are big Han people. Only in this way can the Han and Hu be integrated quickly. , the frontier can truly move toward stability.”

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(To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please visit www.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)
(End of this chapter)