My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 498: Change of battle!

In fact, the development history of the Han and Xiongnu sides is highly overlapping at a certain level.

——At the beginning, almost at the same time, each of them had a wise and brave founding monarch: Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Maodun, the Chanyu of the Xiongnu.

After this first founding monarch, the second Khan of the Xiongnu and the second emperor of the Han Dynasty in the true sense were also hexagonal omnipotent monsters and wise monarchs who set rules and established systems for their respective organizations.

Emperor Taizong of Han, Xiaowen, Liu Heng, and the old Chanyu of the Xiongnu: Luandi Jiju.

Later, each side produced a monarch who was of average appearance and barely decent enough to win the prize: Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi, and Junchen Chanyu.

In the original historical timeline, the fourth monarchs of both sides also had highly similar "lofty ambitions": Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, and the Xiongnu Chanyu Yizhixie.

Of course, in the current timeline, the one who inherited the throne of the Han Dynasty after Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi, became the current Emperor Rong.

On the grassland, Junchen Chanyu was still alive, and the historical Xiongnu 'Wu Chanyu': Luanti Yizhixie, was only the Right Wise King.

But after all, he was a powerful ruler in history who was as famous as Emperor Wu of Han. Although he was defeated by Emperor Wu of Han, he also created many troubles and tests for Emperor Wu of Han.

Even now, he is still only the Right Wise King and has not yet grown into the future Yizhixie Chanyu, but Yizhixie has already begun to show a grand pattern that is quite rare on the grassland.

——As a native nomadic people and a member of the royal family of the grassland's co-leader: the Luanti clan, Yizhixie certainly understood the current situation of the grassland.

But he was different from other Xiongnu nobles who went with the flow and even enjoyed it.

Yizhixie had already realized that the grassland ruled by the Chanyu court of the Luanti clan was lagging behind in many aspects, from systems and institutions to the process of civilization, when facing the Han people.

Junchen Chanyu could utter such mysterious and confident words as "My great Xiongnu is invincible in the world and will never be defeated by the Han people."

But Yizhixie would say: If we, the Great Xiongnu, want to avoid being defeated by the Han people, we should make progress and become stronger.

In fact, there are many things that are reminding the nomadic people on the grassland: Don’t let the Han people develop anymore!
Kill the Han people quickly!
If we really want to let the Han people develop, you nomadic people won’t even be able to find a place to play with mud on the grassland!
But in the past, almost all of the Xiongnu ruling class chose to turn a blind eye to this objective reality.

Maodun Chanyu said: It is impossible to exterminate the Han people, and our great Xiongnu is invincible.

Therefore, there is no need to target the Han people too much. It is only necessary to invade and plunder from time to time to flex muscles and prevent the Han people from following the example of the Qin people decades ago and making the grassland "no royal court".

Laoshang Chanyu, as one of the best, even the only, "smart" and "politically wise" monarchs in the entire history of nomadic civilization, had established many systems and institutions for the chaotic Xiongnu Empire that could strengthen itself and last for future generations.

But on the issue of the Han people, Laoshang Chanyu said: The best way to deal with the Han people is to make them run around behind the border walls.

Until one day, the Han people accepted the reality that "the grassland is a forbidden land" and regarded the invasion and looting of the grassland nomads against the Han border as normal, it was possible for the two sides to use the Great Wall as a boundary and keep to themselves.

By the time of Junchen Chanyu, things were even worse.

——There is no benefit to be gained from attacking the Han people, and you will even lose a bunch of teeth. This is what Junchen once said in person in the Shanyu’s court, in front of the Eight Pillars!

In Junchen's opinion, the nomadic people's strategy of attacking the Han people was to invest time, manpower and other costs, and bear quite horrific casualties as a price, in exchange for one "undoubted" result: the Han people became honest.

But in fact, are the Han people really honest?
Will the Han people really be suppressed and subdued by the use of force, because they cannot win, and will they never have the thought of resisting again?
Naturally not.

Those who bark when they are beaten severely and worship the other party from then on are the people of Sanitary Napkin Country.

Since the ancient times when Yugong moved the mountains and Dayu controlled the floods, the temperament of the Chinese nation has been thoroughly fixed.

The mountain blocks the road?
Move mountains!

Water blocking the road?
bridge!

Worse still, when the Yellow River flooded and brought disaster to its own descendants, the first thing the Chinese nation thought of was not sacrifice, submission or migration to escape.

But cure!
When Dayu was controlling the floods, he passed by his home three times without entering. In the ancient times when people in China were still wearing animal skins, he was able to effectively control the flooding of the Yellow River!

That’s why that saying came into being in later generations.

——The Chinese nation has never surrendered.

Anyway, just fight if you can win.

If you can’t beat him, fight him again tomorrow!

If you can’t beat him tomorrow, fight him again the day after tomorrow!

Anyway, just beat him until he’s scared!
For five thousand years, we have been in a state of battle every year!
This is the ideological logic of the Chinese nation.

If you can beat him, beat him!
If you can’t beat them, develop secretly and then fight again!

If you still can’t beat the opponent, just keep growing until you can beat the opponent, and then kill him!
This time span can be ten, twenty, or even fifty or one hundred years.

The Chinese nation is developing secretly, just waiting to deal with you when it is fully grown. If you destroy yourself, the Chinese nation will be even more furious!
The saying "I will not return until I have conquered Loulan" and the fact that he was unable to personally settle accounts with the people of Loulan have made the Chinese nation go to waste for more than two thousand years, and they still feel uneasy about it.

In later generations, the five thousand years were simply passed over in one stroke, and the century of humiliation was divided into two volumes.

The Chinese nation has always been the most vengeful, but it is also the only fighting nation that truly spans the history of human civilization.

Maodun Chanyu did not notice this, Laoshang Chanyu did not believe it, and Junchen Chanyu even sneered at it.

But Yizhixie had already gained more and more understanding.

——Yizhixie still remembers that when he was young, he once asked his father, the former Right Wise King.

Yizhixie asked: We nomadic people invade and bully the Han people so frequently and without getting tired of it. Don’t the Han people know how to resist?

My father replied: Of course the Han people will resist.

But the prerequisite for resistance is to have strong enough strength.

The Han people do not have the strength to resist our Great Xiongnu.

Yizhixie asked again: What should we do if one day the Han people have the strength to resist?

The father replied: That day will never come.

The existence of the Right Wise King is to prevent that day from ever coming.

It was precisely to prevent the Han people from ever having the ability to resist the Huns that there was the Right Wise King, who was specifically responsible for the anti-Han strategy and the perennial invasions, as well as the Chanyu Tingyou Four Pillars and the various tribes south of the Mu who obeyed the Right Wise King's orders.

Yizhixie still did not give up, and finally asked: If, one day, the Han people still have the ability to resist, how should our great Xiongnu respond?
This question did not get a direct answer from my father. My father only said: If you practice martial arts well and strive to become the Right Wise King who will scare the Han people, you can avoid that day.

Therefore, Yizhixie buried all the doubts in his heart deep in his heart.

But whenever it was late at night and his thoughts were wandering, Yizhixie would always wonder: Will the Han people really never become completely powerful?

If the Han people were not on the path to becoming increasingly powerful, then why did more and more horse farms appear in the Han border areas, and why did more and more cavalry appear in the Han army?
Why are Han cities becoming increasingly difficult to attack? Why are Han people becoming increasingly difficult to abduct? Why do more and more Han people prefer to be killed in their hometowns rather than follow the Xiongnu warriors to the grasslands and become slaves?
For a considerable period of time, Yizhixie's doubts and anxieties were covered up by the continuous military victories over the Han Dynasty.

Yizhixia thought to himself: Perhaps the Han people really cannot become strong.

At least now, it is far from strong.

It was not until the year before last that the war between the Han and Xiongnu dynasties was like a wake-up call to Yizhixie - it awakened Yizhixie from his fantasy that 'the Xiongnu is invincible in the world' and at the same time, it re-evoked the doubts that had been in his mind for many years.

The Han people are now able to resist the fierce attack of the Huns!
The Han people can now completely block the Xiongnu warriors outside the Great Wall!
In a war, the warriors of the Great Huns failed to snatch back even a grain of rice, a foot of cloth, or a Han slave!
Yizhixie realized the seriousness of the situation, but he did not get the opportunity to tell the entire Xiongnu Chanyu court about his discovery and let the entire Xiongnu Empire's top leaders recognize this objective reality.

Because the defeat in the Battle of Chaona did not cause any of the Xiongnu nobles to think about it.

From Chanyu Junchen onwards, everyone blamed the outcome of the war on Yizhixie's "ineffective fighting".

Yizhixie was in a "criminal position", and he could not even offer suggestions or set a plan - even he had to work very hard to pull himself out of the whirlpool of public opinion and the accusations of the entire grassland.

After this incident, Yizhixie came to the conclusion that as long as Junchen was in power, the Xiongnu would not be able to escape the fate of being gradually caught up by the Han people and eventually surpassed.

Only if he became the Chanyu and, as the supreme ruler, made the nomadic peoples on the entire grassland extremely vigilant against the Han people, would it be possible to slightly slow down the pace of the Han people's growing strength, or even completely stop it.

As a result, before Yizhixie received the news of Junchen's death, he first received the bad news that Hetao was lost and belonged to the Han people.

Watching the Han people greatly increase their speed in strengthening themselves after taking Hetao, Yizhixie was extremely angry but also felt powerless.

Military ministers, they are too defensive against Yi Zhi Xian.

Especially after the loss of Hetao, Junchen Shanyu, who suffered from paranoia, could not even fully trust his only surviving son, Zuoxian Wang Yushan.

As for Yizhixie, he was the top priority for Junchen to be on guard against, the number one traitor that Junchen was most worried about and feared!
Under such circumstances, Yizhixie was still unable to make the Han people increasingly powerful, while the Xiongnu was not becoming increasingly powerful - this fact, visible to the naked eye, was placed before the entire Chanyu Court.

As for the defeat in the Hetao War, it was attributed by these "despicable meat-eaters" in the mouths of the Han people to the treachery of the Han people, the failure of the Hetao tribes to defend their territory, and even their collusion with the Han people, which led to the control of the Hetao by the Han people.

Junchen himself was also accused of being helpless in the loss of Hetao, and there was a big question mark as to whether he could continue to be the common ruler of the grassland and the Khan of the Xiongnu.

In order to consolidate his rule and reverse the suspicion of Chanyu Court that he might not be worthy of being Chanyu, Junchen did two things.

First: He promised Yizhixie that unless the Left Wise King Yu Shan could grow up before his death, the position of Shanyu would be left to Yizhixie.

This is actually bullshit.

If Yu Shan could not grow up before Jun Chen's death, then even if Jun Chen still left a will that Yu Shan would be the Chanyu, Yizhixie would definitely be defeated by his nephew.

The most likely result is that Yizhixie will win.

do not forget.

The nomadic people of the grasslands do not have any saying such as "the will of the former Chanyu must be obeyed".

No matter who the Chanyu designates as his successor, the final Chanyu must be the most powerful candidate!

However, Yizhixie still accepted Junchen's kindness.

Because Yizhixie knew that only if he accepted this kindness, the military officials would be at ease with him and shift their attention from guarding against him as the "Right Wise King" to more meaningful and beneficial things for the Xiongnu.

It was exactly as Yizhixie had expected.

After reaching a tacit understanding with Yizhixie by promising the succession of the throne, the second thing Junchen did was to march west.

Yizhixie strongly supported Junchen's western expedition.

Not only because of this, but also because he could experience the power in advance and escape from the control of military officials.

The most important reason is: doing so is beneficial to the Huns.

The military officials will regain their prestige, the Chanyu court will be reunited, and the nomadic people of the grasslands will unite more closely to better deal with the growing threat from the Han people.

Just when everything was developing in the good direction that Yizhixie had expected, something went wrong again.

——Gaoque is lost.

At this point, even a big company like Yizhixie has reached a very difficult point...
"Withdraw troops."

Such words caused the leaders of various tribes in the king's tent to breathe heavily, and their eyes looking at Yizhixie were filled with inexplicable complexity.

But Yizhixie took a deep breath, sighed leisurely, and slowly shook his head.

"We, the Great Xiongnu, cannot continue to waste our time internally."

"Abandon Gaoque and fight in Yunzhong."

"I will bear all the responsibility for losing Gaoque, the responsibility for not insisting on counterattacking Gaoque, and the possible casualties in Yunzhong - and even the responsibility for not being able to capture Yunzhong."

"We, the Great Xiongnu, cannot afford the loss..."

···
"Even if I, Yizhixie, die, I cannot let hundreds of thousands of warriors die in vain at the arrows shot by the Han people."

"When Chengligutu returns from the Western Expedition, I will give an explanation to Shan Yuting myself."

With such words, Yizhixie can be said to have a broad vision and great courage.

Inside the king's tent, the leaders of each tribe looked at each other, then finally took a deep breath, placed their right hand on their left chest, and bent down deeply.

"Your will."

"The great You Tushe..."

(End of this chapter)