My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 529 Dramatic Changes on the Grassland
Before Junchen could finish speaking, Yizhixie's eyes widened in shock!

Go to the West!
As the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu, even if he was referred to as a "Di chieftain" or "barbarian king" by the Han people, Yizhixie could not possibly be unaware of what this meant.

—Strategic abandonment!
Abandon the Hetao region, which has already been devoured by the Han people and is being rapidly digested!

Abandon Hexi, which is about to be invaded by the Han people and which the Chanyu court is unlikely to be able to stop!

Then, with Gaoque as the boundary, they confronted the Han people for a long time, turning the intermittent and sporadic local wars into a full-scale tug-of-war that lasted for several years, ten years, or even decades!

As the current Right Wise King and the son of the former Right Wise King, Ijixie understood all too well what this meant.

—According to the Han Chinese calendar, around the third year of Emperor Xiaowen of the Han Dynasty, the Han and Xiongnu sides almost engaged in a protracted war.

At that time, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen of the Han Dynasty, with great determination and perseverance, almost exhausted the Han people's money, grain, supplies, generals and soldiers, to fight a decisive battle against the deceased Lao Shang Jizhou Chanyu!

The wise Old Chanyu knew the advantages of the Han people, as well as the advantages of the nomadic people.

Therefore, in response to Emperor Taizong of Han's invitation to a decisive battle, Laoshang Chanyu wisely decided to deploy a large army on the border but not to rush into action.

drag.

Let's see who gives up first.

Ultimately, the old Chanyu was fortunate enough to encounter the Han people, and was the first to succumb to his weakness.

—It was not because the Han people lacked willpower, or because, like the Zhao army in the Battle of Changping, their logistics and supplies could not be maintained.

Instead, it was in the Han people's rear that a rebel king named Liu Xingju disrupted their plans.

One rebellious king forced Emperor Taizong of Han to halt the protracted war between the Han and Xiongnu, and he had no choice but to make a humiliating marriage alliance in order to turn around and quell the rebellion of Liu Xingju, the King of Jibei.

After that battle, both the Han and the Xiongnu understood a principle.

The Han people understood that before all the vassal kings in the Guandong region were dealt with, and it was ensured that no vassal king would rebel during the decisive battle between Han and Xiongnu, the Han dynasty must not provoke another decisive battle between Han and Xiongnu.

Otherwise, we would repeat the mistakes of Emperor Taizong's reign, where, after three years of hardship, the Han people had to sell their possessions and still had to resort to marriage alliances and quell rebellions.

Therefore, for the next twenty-three years of Emperor Taizong's reign, and for more than six years of Emperor Xiaojing's reign—nearly thirty years in total—the Han dynasty never again took the initiative to raise an army to invite the Xiongnu to a decisive battle.

It was during these thirty-odd years that the Han people were finally able to resolve the problems of the fragmentation and fickle rule of the warlords in the east, and to acquire the internal conditions necessary to wage a decisive battle against the Xiongnu.

It was probably after the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled that the Han dynasty’s attitude toward the Xiongnu became noticeably tougher.

Just three years after the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled, in the first year of Emperor Rong's reign, the Han and Xiongnu forces clashed in the Battle of Chaona.

The following year, the Han dynasty took advantage of the situation and launched the Han-Xiongnu Hetao-Mayi Campaign, gaining control of the Hetao region in one battle!

As for the Xiongnu, they learned from that protracted war that as long as there were 'vassal kings' in Han territory, they could always gain an advantage over the Han people.

The Han people dared not fight—at least they dared not fight openly.

Although the Han people were incredibly stubborn, when pushed to the limit, they ultimately had no choice but to give in to the Xiongnu envoys' demands.

Thus began a thirty-year period of intermittent raids and daily extortion by the Xiongnu.

Every year, the various tribes in the southern part of the Mu region would harass the borders of the Han Dynasty. Every three to five years, multiple tribes would unite, and sometimes even the Right Wise King or the Chanyu Court would lead organized invasions of the northern borders of the Han Dynasty.

The purpose of doing this, besides robbing things from the territories of the Han people, was to remind the Han people through bloodshed: open the door, freedom and marriage are possible!

For thirty years, the Han people endured hardship, receiving only meager dowries and gifts, when their daughters were married off to foreign powers for political reasons.

If we include the Battle of Pingcheng between the Han and the Xiongnu, the seven years after Emperor Gaozu was besieged at Baideng, and the fifteen years during which Emperor Hui and the two young emperors—that is, Empress Lü—held power;
All things considered, the Xiongnu people enjoyed this comfortable life of having the Han people take whatever they wanted for a full fifty years!

So, what lessons did the all-out war of attrition between the Han and the Xiongnu, which took place in the third year of Emperor Taizong's reign, teach Yizhixie, who was then just the son of the Right Wise King?

The answer is that, ever since then, Yizhixie has understood that a protracted war, a war of attrition, will not ultimately result in a winner-takes-all scenario, as is common on the grasslands, but rather in a lose-lose situation.

Yizhixie clearly remembers that the protracted war, which lasted for less than a year, brought about earth-shattering changes to the grassland.

—The herds of cattle and sheep are gone.

Instead, cow heads and sheep bones can be seen everywhere.

—The well-fed and strong warhorse has vanished.

Instead, there were thin, bony horses with foam at the corners of their mouths, looking as if they could barely walk if they were riding on top of a person.

The burly, strong warrior had turned into a skinny, starving 'ghost';
The milk wine and cheese that were filled with water sacs and cloth bags turned into sewage and rotting flesh.

In that battle, the Han dynasty mobilized all its resources, only to find its own backyard on fire.

But the Xiongnu were also decimated.

Yi Zhixie was quite certain: back then, if the Han people had held on for just one more month—no more, just one month!

If this drags on for another month, the Xiongnu warriors will have to eat their starving tribesmen.

Ijishai had also asked this question to his deceased father, the previous Right Wise King.

Yizhixie asked his father: If the Han people had really held on back then, what would have been the fate of the nomadic people?
Yi Zhixie would never forget her father's answer.

--escape.

They fled north and west, traversing the grasslands and following the water sources.

The grasslands are vast, and there is always a place for nomadic people to settle down and make a living.

As for the Han people, not to mention that protracted war, the Han people were also severely injured and nearly exhausted—even in their normal state, the Han people would never have ventured deep into the grasslands to pursue them.

The grasslands are like a gift from heaven, a place where nomadic people are bound by blood ties and kinship.

When the Han people came to the grasslands, all they could take with them were the heads of the nomadic people and their cattle and sheep.

But the Han people could not take away the grasslands.

The Han people would not stay on the grasslands.

Once the Han people retreated back inside the Great Wall, the grasslands would once again become the birthplace for nomadic peoples to lick their wounds and rise again.

At that time, the young Yi Zhixie seemed to understand but not quite, and was deep in thought, but he did his best to remember his father's answer word for word.

Over the next thirty years, Yi Zhixie grew up, matured, and became increasingly wise.

Her father's answer back then also gave Yi Zhixie more and more insights.

Today, Yizhixie has reached a firm understanding and conclusion regarding that protracted war between the Han and the Xiongnu: Such a protracted war would have severely weakened both sides!

Han Chinese farmers would be unable to grow enough food, or would be too busy to grow enough food, and would starve to death in droves.

But as long as they survived the hunger, the Han people could usually recover their strength in just one to two years after the war ended.

As long as the seeds are planted in the spring and things go smoothly until autumn, the harvest from the fields will be enough to allow the Han people to recover.

Of course, this only applies to when you've recovered.

Those who starved to death or died in battle also needed many years to recover. The money and grain accumulated by the Han Chinese court over the years also needed to be collected through taxes year after year to be accumulated again.

Compared to the Han people, the nomadic people of the grasslands suffered even more.

Not only will the herders starve to death, but even the cattle and sheep will starve to death!

Having lost their cattle and sheep, even if the herders were lucky enough to survive until the end of the war, they had already lost the right to be self-reliant.

Even when it comes to enslaving someone, they have to use every trick in the book.

Unless the Han people are defeated!
Just like back then, when the Han and Xiongnu were locked in a stalemate, the grasslands were littered with corpses, and there was not a single intact pasture or clean water source to be found.

But the Han people were defeated.

In order to stop the war, the Han people paid reparations—or rather, gave a dowry of many things, which instantly brought the nomadic people back to their senses.

Naturally, many people died;

Many cattle and sheep also died, leaving many herders without their means of survival.

But the compensation from the Han people made all of this disappear in an instant—the wounds caused by the protracted war were quickly filled by the massive amount of supplies sent by the Han people.

That winter, very few people starved to death on the grasslands, and very few cattle and sheep froze to death.

The herdsmen ate Han Chinese food, and the nobles wore Han Chinese clothes, and they safely passed through that winter.

The following spring, cattle and sheep began to give birth, and calves and lambs became the most sought-after commodities.

Those herders and even tribes who lost their cattle and sheep exchanged calves, lambs, and even foals from the larger tribes for the wealth brought by the Han people.

In just a few years, the nomadic people, like the Han farmers, miraculously recovered and came back to life!
Yi Zhixie's realization was that unless the Han people were defeated, or took the initiative to stop the war and were willing to pay a huge amount of resources for it.

Otherwise, such a protracted war would be far beyond the capacity of the fragile nomadic people of the grasslands to withstand.

The current strategic situation between the Han and the Xiongnu led Yizhixie to conclude that if such a protracted war were to break out, the Han would definitely not be the side more likely to be defeated or to take the initiative to stop the war.

—The little emperor of the Han people was very warlike!
In less than four years since his ascension to the throne, he has completely reversed the strategic situation between the Han and the Xiongnu, even seizing the Hetao region and breaking through Gaoque. His ambition for the Hexi Corridor is imminent!
Under such circumstances, even if the young emperor of the Han people were to squander the wealth accumulated by his father and grandfather, he would never again do what his grandfather did: to benefit the nomadic people in order to stop the war.

Moreover, in the Han lands today, there will never be another Liu Xingju, the King of Jibei, who would have helped the Xiongnu to "attack the main force of the Han people from both sides" without expecting anything in return during the Han-Xiongnu War.

At the same time, the solution her father had given her back then—if she lost, she should run away to the depths of the grasslands—gave Yizhixie her second insight.

—Strategic depth.

Although Yizhixie couldn't say the word or know how to describe it specifically, a concept similar to strategic depth had already formed in his mind.

Yi Zhixie understood that after such a fierce tug-of-war that was entirely a test of comprehensive national strength, whether the defeated side would perish or merely survive depended on whether its territory had sufficient strategic depth.

Like a grassland.

It is wide enough and vast enough.

This allows nomadic peoples of the grasslands to retreat into the vast grasslands after losing any type of war other than a civil war, and then slowly recover their health, much like in a modern game, by diving into a spring.

In contrast, the Han people—in the fourteenth year of Emperor Taizong of Han, the Xiongnu chieftain Laoshang advanced triumphantly all the way to the Han capital, yet he still failed to bring about the destruction and extermination of the Han people, which proves that the Han people also possess this kind of strategic depth.

The Han people were afraid that if they went deep into the grasslands, they would lose their long supply lines, so they dared not go deep into the grasslands. This is the strategic depth of the grasslands.

The nomadic peoples of the grasslands, fearing that if they ventured deep into the heartland of the Han people, they would be besieged within the Great Wall, most of them dared not emulate the bold actions of the old Chanyu. This was the strategic depth of the Han territory.

Both sides have considerable strategic depth and the practical conditions to 'retreat if they can't win, develop slowly, accumulate strength, and then make a comeback.'

This means that if a protracted war were to break out between the two sides—especially a full-scale protracted war—unless one side could no longer hold out and actively sought to end the war, the war would endlessly deplete the strength of both sides and even shake their foundations.

If the people of the grasslands cannot survive, the Chanyu court will likely be in a state of panic, and many self-important warriors who believe they have received divine revelation from the god of the plow will approach the Chanyu's tent with hidden weapons.

If Han Chinese farmers cannot survive, the question "Are kings and nobles born with a special destiny?" will reappear on the land of China, completely shaking the foundation of Han Chinese rule.

If there were a choice, if there were a second option, Ichisai would definitely tell Junchen firmly: whatever the other option is, never choose the protracted war option!

But after much deliberation, no matter how unwilling she was to admit it, Yi Zhixie had to convince herself to accept reality.

With the loss of the Hetao and Gaoque regions, exposing the southern part of the Mu region to the military threat of the Han people, and the Hexi Corridor about to fall out of control, the Xiongnu Chanyu court no longer holds the strategic initiative between the Han and Xiongnu.

From now on, whether or not to fight will be decided by the Han people.

In contrast, the Xiongnu Chanyu court could no longer decide whether to fight or not, or even whether to stop!

From then on, the only thing the Xiongnu Chanyu court could decide was to keep going.

As long as the Xiongnu court does not cease hostilities, the war between the Han and Xiongnu will continue indefinitely.

In other words, the Xiongnu Chanyu court is now left with only a protracted war, a mode of warfare in which they can barely maintain the initiative.

Nothing else.

—Whether it was the swift raids and blitzkriegs that the Xiongnu had repeatedly used successfully in recent years, or the siege warfare that they were not particularly good at but had achieved results in the past.

From now on, it will be up to the Xiongnu Chanyu's court to guess from which direction the Han people might launch an attack and how they should respond.

"The King of the Sun..."

"To the Western Regions?"

Izhixie asked a question in murmurs, but did not receive a reply from Junchen.

At this moment, Junchen felt a mix of emotions.

Especially when looking at the equally forlorn face of Yizhixie before him, the Xiongnu Chanyu, Luandi Junchen, felt a surge of sorrow welling up within him…

(End of this chapter)