My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 425 Hexi~
"Stop butchering people..."

"Evil man..."

Weiyang Palace, Xuanshi Palace.

During the brief intervals while handling state affairs, Liu Rong's gaze subconsciously fell on the huge feng shui table that was hung not far from him every day.

This divination is very special.

It was even different from any feng shui map commonly used by the Han Dynasty in the past fifty years.

——At the beginning of the country, the geomancy used in the Han Dynasty court was generally the topography and relief maps of local areas.

For example, before Emperor Taizu Gaozu conquered the Three Qins, he used a partial map of the Guanzhong and Weinan areas when discussing strategies with generals such as Han Xin and Lu Ze.

Another example is the Battle of Pengcheng, where Emperor Taizu Gao almost lost everything, and the map used was that of the Chu State.
The subsequent tug-of-war in Xingyang used the map of Xingyang-Suiyang.

The Han Dynasty naturally also had a complete map of its territory.

But the scope covered is limited to: the absolute territory starting from Longyou in the west, to the East China Sea in winter, to Yanmen in the north, and to the Wuling Mountains in the south.

Many neighboring countries and forces, such as the southwestern barbarians, the Baiyue in Lingnan, the Korean Peninsula in the northeast, the Hetao and Hexi in the northwest, and the great grasslands in the north, rarely appear on the geomancy maps commonly used by the Han family.

Going to the top of the sky, that is, in the northeast of Yan State, a general "Korean States" was marked, and a circle was drawn in the southwest to indicate "Southwest Barbarians";
The south was roughly divided into Nanyue, Minyue and Dongyue.

As for the north, if you pay close attention, you can mark out several Xiongnu tribes adjacent to the border wall.

If one goes a bit too far, one might even simply summarize it with the word "Munan".

In fact, in the past fifty years or so, the reason why the Han Dynasty repeatedly fell into the embarrassing situation of being unable to catch up or escape when facing the Xiongnu army was largely because the Han Dynasty's control over the terrain outside the Great Wall was unbelievably poor.

Take the battle in the 14th year of Emperor Taizong's reign, when the army of Laoshang Chanyu marched straight into the border and almost burned down the city of Chang'an.

——Before that, the Han Dynasty’s knowledge and control of the outside world was limited to Longyou and Beidi, which only bordered the Yuezhi people who controlled the Hetao and Hexi regions;
More than half of Shangjun borders Hetao, and the rest to the north borders the Xiongnu, with the isolated Yunzhong City outside the Great Wall serving as a sentry tower.

It was precisely because of this understanding, as well as the information that "the Yuezhi people were preoccupied with their own affairs and could not pose a threat to the Han family", that the Han family was caught off guard in that battle and had no power to fight back.

When did the Yuezhi people lose and when did they escape?

When did the Huns take control of Hetao and Hexi?

This is all obviously an intelligence issue.

But where did the Yuezhi people flee from and where did they flee to?

Did you cause any trouble to the Huns during your escape?
After losing Hetao and Hexi, did they just run away without looking back?

Or was he able to turn around and, relying on some advantageous terrain, threaten the Hetao and Hexi territories newly occupied by the Xiongnu from two different directions from the Han Dynasty?

So: After obtaining Hetao and Hexi, how did the Xiongnu people distribute themselves in this area and how did they deploy their troops?
If they invaded the Han Dynasty, where would they come from and from which direction?

These are real geographical issues.

To put it bluntly, the reason why the Han Dynasty repeatedly encountered the embarrassing situation of "even if they could win the battle, they could not catch up with the Xiongnu army, let alone dare to chase them" in the past few years was because once they left the border, the Han Dynasty was completely in the dark.

The endless grassland has no mountains and no water.

Even if there are, they have no obvious features at all, just the same hills, slopes, and crooked streams.

In fact, according to the grassland geography of this era, not to mention that the Han Dynasty had no topographic maps for reference;

Even if there is, it has little reference value.

——A map with grassland on top and grassland below;

It is divided by a desert belt in the middle to distinguish between up and down, or north and south.

What's the point of this?
Not to mention the Han soldiers - on the grassland, even the native Huns often suffered from the situation where the entire tribe went astray during migration and got lost on the grassland.

There are no landmarks or reference points in the grassland, so it is impossible to draw a topographic map with reference value;
At the same time, the Han people had no channels to understand the topography and landforms deep in the heart of the grassland - how could they draw a map if they couldn't even get there?

Therefore, in the past few decades, the Han army did not dare to go out of the border to fight.

Not only was they afraid that the Hun cavalry would attack their infantry groups in the open field;

What worried them even more was that they got lost on the grassland and could not find the way back to the interior regardless of whether they encountered danger or not.

But when this problem came to Liu Rong, he got a rather tricky solution.

——There is really no way around the Munan area;
But the Hexi region is not without landmark references!
Question: Why is the Hexi region called 'Hexi'?
Because the great river, which is the Yellow River in later generations, flows from west to east, and is in the shape of a "one" on the map;
But when it reached the Hetao area, it was forced to turn upwards due to the towering plateau, becoming a "J" shape.

The area inside this "几" character, which is surrounded by the bypassing river like a sheath, is called: Hetao.

Because this area, called "Hetao", is located on the south side of the horizontal line above the character "几", it is also called: Henan...

According to this logic, the south of the river is "Henan land", so Hexi refers to the west of the river, right?
Yes, not right.

The reason why Hexi is called "Hexi" is indeed because this area is located west of the large river basin.

But it is not the entire west of the river, but the west side of the left stroke of the word "几" in Hetao.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the name Hexi should not be interpreted as "west of the river", but should be called: west of the Hetao, which is more rigorous and accurate.

In this way, the problem becomes simple.

——Taking the left stroke of the "J"-shaped river basin of Hetao, or the entire Hetao area as a reference, Hexi should indeed be called "Hexi".

But if we take the river basin that flows in an east-west "one" shape from its source to the Hetao as a reference, today's Hexi should actually be called: Hebei.

North of the river.
To the south of the opposite bank is the Loess Plateau.

This meant that Liu Rong found a barely sufficient reference point for the Hexi region, which, like other areas of the grassland, had no effective reference points before.

——Big river.

The Yellow River is also the mother river of the Chinese nation. The relationship between the upper reaches of the river and the Hexi region is roughly like a flat shoe box on the "一" character.

Without any reference points, it is almost impossible for the Han family to reach their destination along the predetermined route in this endless shoebox.

But what if we use the river under the shoe box as a reference?

For example: In a certain war, the Han army went west out of the Hetao area, intending to attack a certain point in the Hexi region, or raid a strategic location, such as a freshwater lake.

Then, this army can just follow the map and march along the river first.

Keep following the river until you reach a point where the line connecting your destination and the river is perpendicular, then turn 90 degrees and head straight north!
Although you still have to walk hundreds of miles without any reference or comparison system, it is better than walking thousands or even tens of thousands of miles once you leave Hetao.

So, there is this huge feng shui statue placed in front of Liu Rong’s imperial couch, which is usually hung up but rarely noticed by anyone.

The special thing about this geomancy map is that it is most likely the first non-partial map of the Han Dynasty, which includes the entire Han Dynasty and accurately marks the surrounding forces and civilizations. In a sense, it is the first "Asian map" in history.

At least it's a map of East Asia.

On this map, there are several strategic points in the Munan region, such as Longcheng, Gaoque, Nanchi, Yanchi, as well as Helan Mountain, Qilian Mountain, and Langjuxu Mountain;
Our own forces on the Korean Peninsula, such as Mahan Joseon, Wei Joseon, Zhenfan, and Lintun;
Even the Southwestern Yi, which has always been known as "small countries full of sesame seeds", such as Yelang, Mimo, Dian, Qiong and other small countries, have been marked out with their approximate sphere of influence and areas of control.

The most accurate and precise of them is roughly the Hexi region.

——In just over a year, the Han Dynasty has sent dozens of "merchant caravans" through the Hetao area to gather intelligence in the Hexi region.

It is said to be gathering intelligence, but in fact it is just a few simple items.

First, find out the temperaments of the leaders of several major tribes in the Hexi region, as well as the internal conditions of these tribes and the "diplomatic" status between them.

Second, determine as accurately as possible the fixed ancestral lands of these tribes in the Hexi region, as well as the areas and scopes of their habitual nomadic migration.

Finally, the most important one is to calculate the specific locations of all important strategic locations in the Hexi region, including Xiutu Lake and Juting Lake.

The method used is what was mentioned above: using the river as the horizontal axis, and then based on the distance between each strategic point and the river, a quasi-coordinate system is barely established to more accurately mark important strategic locations.

So Liu Rong got the map.

Perhaps others still dare not say anything final;
But as a visitor from later generations, relying on the vague memory in his mind, Liu Rong dared to guarantee: This map can allow every general of the Han Dynasty to successfully reach the target location within 50 miles in the Hexi region.

Within fifty miles, a full twenty kilometers, it sounds like a big error;

However, considering that the scout troops' exploration range on the battlefield is based on the advancing direction, it starts at 20 miles on each side, and in principle there is no upper limit;

Such a small error is actually nothing.

——At worst, the Han army will establish a rule in the future: whenever fighting in Hexi, the scouts’ exploration must be at least fifty miles!

In any case, having a map that can take you within 50 miles of your destination is much better than relying on your feelings and luck as in the past.

For example, in history, there was a general who got lost and whose fame was greater than his strength. After having such a map, even if he got lost, he would not miss the opportunity to fight or even miss the entire battle.

On this map, as long as you look at the area Liu Rong calls "Hexi", it is hard not to be attracted by the two irregular circles.

Rest Tuze;
Jutingze.

Among them, the former is not far from the Hetao region which has been incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty, only about 300 miles away;
The latter is further west, thousands of miles away from Hetao.

It is no exaggeration to say that no matter whether the Han army sets foot in Hexi in the future, or the nomadic peoples in Hexi region - as long as they are too far away from the river that gave birth to this fertile land, they must rely on these two water sources as the foundation of their survival.

For Liu Rong and the Han Dynasty, the reason was even simpler - as long as they wanted to be able to freely leave the river basin during the attack on Hexi, rather than always advancing westward and retreating eastward along the river, then these two water sources were indispensable.

Of course, the guardians of these two places are also related to whether the Han Dynasty can achieve its own goals.

For example, the Xiutu tribe of Xiutu Lake is one of the less than ten medium and large tribes in the Hexi region.

As long as they can defeat the Xiutu tribe, not only will the Xiutu Lake be within their grasp, but it will also serve as an effective deterrent to other large tribes in Hexi.

——All the Xiutu people were defeated!
——Xiu Tu Ze is gone!
Then, can we still defeat the Han people?
Otherwise, let’s lower it…

"The Hunxie tribe is probably planning to turn against us."

"At least before the Han Dynasty declines again and the Xiongnu become strong again, the Hunxie tribe can be used to leverage Hexi."

Thinking of this, Liu Rong couldn't help but admire the wisdom of his ancestors.

——What are you thinking about?
Gongsun Hunxie, a Yiqiu prince, had separated from the Xiongnu Hunxie on the grassland 800 years earlier;

As a result, after a few words of negotiation, he was given a Chinese surname of Gongsun and became a high-ranking official.

By now, as soon as Liu Rong had the idea, Gongsun Hunxie had already contacted his relatives on the grassland and basically reached an agreement.

According to what Gongsun Hunxie recounted: the descendants of Yiqiu on the grassland, also known as the Hunxie tribe of the Xiongnu, had an extremely hard life!

Hundreds of years ago, the Yiqiu people had submitted to Qin and lived a good life that they had never dared to imagine before.

However, a series of events later caused the originally united Yiqiu people to fall apart - the Han, Xiongnu, Yuezhi, and even the "sheep thieves" Qiang people on the grassland all took in some branches of the Yiqiu people.

I have long been yearning for China and the Hunxie Tribe!

As long as the king's army is willing, the Hunxie tribe is willing to set out from their base at any time and surrender in Hetao!
Of course, if necessary, the Hunxie tribe can also stay in Hexi temporarily and help the Han family achieve certain plans as an insider, as a token of their "submission".

When this news was presented to the court by Gongsun Hunxie, there was actually a lot of hesitation inside and outside the court.

In the end, it was Liu Rong who made the final decision and chose to trust the Hunxie Department.

——Because Liu Rong knew that what they said was true.

Moreover, in the original history, the Hunxie tribe did submit to the Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, and became a buffer zone between the Han Dynasty and the grassland, or in other words, guards at the national gate and soldiers guarding the border.

Moreover, before surrendering, the Hunxie tribe also offered the heads of the entire Xiutu tribe as a token of their loyalty!

In that case, what else does Liu Rong have to say?
(End of this chapter)