My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 533 The Art of Marriage Alliance

In the autumn of the same year, on the grassland.

After the Xiongnu Chanyu returned from his western expedition, two major events occurred on the grasslands.

The first thing was that the Xiongnu Chanyu Junchen sent an envoy to Chang'an to seek reconciliation.

—The Xiongnu Chanyu took the initiative to request a marriage alliance!
Moreover, unlike in the past, they did not actively urge the Han family to send the princess and all the dowry.

Instead, they took the initiative to offer to send a noblewoman from the Luandi clan to represent the Xiongnu in a marriage alliance with the Han.

The news shocked everyone, both inside and outside the Great Wall!
North of the Great Wall, on the grasslands, countless nomadic people beat their chests and stamped their feet, cursing the Chanyu Junchen for disgracing the Heavenly God of the Plow and actually taking the initiative to submit and send the noblewoman of the Luandi clan to the Han people.

Most importantly, the decades-long history of marriage alliances between the Han and Xiongnu had almost completely ingrained the concept that "marrying off a daughter for peace" into the minds of both the nomadic people of the border regions and the agricultural people of the Central Plains.

To some extent, marrying off a daughter as a form of peace was a more dignified way of surrendering!
This was unacceptable to the proud nomadic people—especially when facing the Han people, the nomadic people were always inexplicably proud.

As a result, denigration and scorn of Junchen began to spring up like mushrooms after rain on the grasslands.

Several chieftains of large tribes even made dangerous remarks in informal settings, saying, "I can take his place."

Therefore, in the eighth month of autumn, the Xiongnu Chanyu Luan Di Junchen, on the grounds that "the Chanyu court was not on the grassland during the May Dailin Conference this year", held the first August Dailin Conference on the grassland.

During this period, Junchen, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, personally or through others, offered explanations for his actions of pledging allegiance to the Han people.

—A marriage alliance is equivalent to seeking peace, but that's how it is viewed from the perspective of the Han people!

We, the Great Xiongnu, are protected by the Heavenly God of the Plow, how could we possibly be like the weak Han people?
The Chanyu's marriage of his daughter to a Han Chinese was not an act of submission to the Han people, but rather an attempt to undermine the foundation of the Han Chinese society!

Upon hearing this, the tribal chiefs present all nodded in understanding.

The concept of marriage alliances was not first created between the Han and Xiongnu.

As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there was a concept similar to marriage alliances between the feudal lords of the various states within the Great Wall and the chieftains of the various tribes of the grasslands outside the Great Wall.

Although they appear very similar on the surface, their underlying logic is completely different.

Just like during the Warring States period, the Qin and Chu families intermarried for generations. Qin even had three queens and concubines who were originally from the Chu state: Mi Ba Zi, Empress Dowager Hua Yang, and Lady Mi, the mother of Prince Fusu.

However, the marriage alliance between the Qin and Chu families was not intended to make peace or to subservient to each other; it was simply a marriage alliance to strengthen ties and forge a lasting alliance.

During the Warring States period, when one power bowed to another, it was usually done by using protons.

On the grasslands, whether in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of China or in the current era of the Han-Xiongnu conflict, marriage alliances between two tribes were always initiated by the stronger tribe sending their daughters to marry. The stronger tribe attempted to control or even annex the weaker tribe through the women who married into the tribe and the accompanying guards and armed forces.

For example, if a large tribe takes the initiative to propose a marriage alliance with a small tribe, it is tantamount to holding a knife to the throat and forcing the other party: you'd better obediently take back the daughter I married off to.

Otherwise, if you don't accept the woman I marry into your tribe as my wife, then I will send men from my tribe to be the slaughterers of your tribe.

The small tribe was naturally powerless to refuse and had no choice but to agree.

The result was that the noblewoman from the great tribe who married into the tribe brought with her several thousand brave and skilled warriors, who obeyed only her orders.

In contrast, this small tribe had no more than a few thousand soldiers.

With a powerful armed force and the backing of a large maternal clan, this noblewoman who marries into a smaller tribe has a very high chance of becoming the tribe's 'mother queen,' similar to the queen dowager in the vassal states of ancient China.

Once a woman becomes the mother queen, her son naturally becomes the next leader of the tribe.

The small tribe controlled by this next generation chieftain, and the large tribe controlled by the maternal grandfather, were naturally related tribes that were not truly separated by blood.

It was precisely for this reason that the first marriage alliance between the Han and Xiongnu was marred by a major misunderstanding.

After the Battle of Pingcheng between the Han and the Xiongnu, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, who was trapped in the siege of Baideng but was eventually freed and pushed the Xiongnu back to the grasslands, decided to first deal with internal problems, namely the problems of the non-royal princes.

As for the Xiongnu, Emperor Gao's original plan was to emulate the marriage alliance between Qin and Chu during the Warring States period in order to maintain a superficial peace between the two sides, and to form a marriage alliance with the Xiongnu.

It wasn't to bow down to the Xiongnu, nor was it to control the Xiongnu through marriage; it was simply a purely familial alliance to ease tensions.

To show his sincerity, Emperor Gao even considered marrying his eldest daughter, Liu Le, to the Xiongnu, just to let them know that he truly wanted to become relatives with them.

As a result, this well-intentioned act was completely misinterpreted by the Xiongnu.

--What?!

—A marriage alliance!
—The Han people are simply going too far!
—Isn't he just the old emperor who failed to besiege the Han people at Baideng?!

—How dare they look down on us like this? They actually want to marry their daughter to us and make her the mother queen of my Great Xiongnu?!

—Do you really think that I, the Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu, born of heaven and earth and placed by the sun and moon, am some lowly tribal chief?!

In the end, it was only after Han Xin, who had defected to the grasslands, gave a good explanation that the Xiongnu Chanyu Luandi Modu reluctantly believed that the Han people did not intend to send a mother queen, but genuinely intended to establish friendly relations between the Han and Xiongnu.

Just then, Modu Chanyu was also annoyed by his unauthorized attack on the Han people and his failure to win. He was afraid that the Han people would retaliate and did not know how to deal with the situation.

When the old emperor of the Han people wanted to form a marriage alliance, he naturally agreed and thus became related to the Han people through marriage.

In fact, for a considerable period of time, the marriage alliances between the Han and Xiongnu were based on the Chinese custom of forming marriage alliances to maintain lasting good relations.

Whether it was the dowry sent by the Han people or the return gifts from the Xiongnu, they were all symbolic: the Han people sent a few bolts of cloth and tea, and the Xiongnu people returned a few horses and fine oxen.

It was a genuine political marriage between equals, not a poverty alleviation program by one party for the other, or a so-called compensation payment disguised as marrying off a daughter.

The turning point came during the reign of Emperor Taizong.

As everyone knows, Emperor Taizong was benevolent and loved his people. During his 27-year reign, he brought the Han people, who were originally poor and destitute, to the beginnings of a prosperous era.

But few people know that all of this was achieved by losing a protracted war, being driven to the foot of the capital by the Xiongnu in a defensive battle, and paying almost no price in reparations and marriage alliances.

In order to thoroughly implement the overall strategic policy of recuperation, allowing the people to rest and recuperate, and accumulating strength, Emperor Taizong adopted the maximum concessions in response to the increasingly greedy and frequent incursions of the Xiongnu, in order to obtain a relatively peaceful external environment.

It was during this period that, when the Han and Xiongnu made peace through marriage, the dowry given by the Han court gradually changed from a few items symbolizing new wealth to a massive amount of material "indemnity".

Whether this is right or wrong is hard to say.

At least from the outcome, Emperor Wu of Han was able to finally avenge his previous humiliation and drive the northern barbarians back, which was inseparable from the shameless marriage alliances during the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, and the resulting reign of Emperors Wen and Jing.

No one in the Han dynasty forgets this humiliating history of marriage alliances. Even more than two thousand years later, descendants of the Chinese people still lament this history and cannot find peace.

This time, when the Xiongnu Chanyu Junchen took the initiative to propose a marriage alliance, the nomadic people instinctively thought: They, too, were to be subjected to a humiliating marriage alliance. Only after Junchen explained did the nomadic people realize: Oh~

It's like the kind of marriage alliances we nomadic peoples have.

Send a capable noblewoman from the Luan Di clan to become the Han people's 'mother', that is, the so-called empress dowager?
If in the future, the Han emperors will call the Xiongnu Chanyu their maternal grandfather, then what will be the point of the Han and Xiongnu fighting each other?

In stark contrast was the attitude of the Han people towards this sensational news.

—The nomadic people of the grasslands were initially angry but later pleased when Junchen took the initiative to request a marriage alliance with his daughter.

The people of the Han dynasty, however, experienced the complete opposite: they were initially happy but later became worried.

Like the nomadic people, the first reaction of the Chinese people upon hearing this news was that the Xiongnu were about to commit a humiliating marriage alliance.

The humiliation that the Han dynasty had suffered for so many years was finally being experienced by the Xiongnu.

I wonder what the Xiongnu would bring as dowry?
Livestock herding, or warhorses...?

But soon, people began to realize that marriage alliances were not just about dowry; they also involved a woman who came to marry into the country as a vehicle for the alliance.

This woman was a princess of the Han imperial family who was temporarily granted the title of princess and then married off to the grasslands—it would not be an exaggeration to say that she sacrificed herself for her country.

However, the women who married into the Xiongnu family were to enter the Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty and become concubines of Emperor Liu Rong.

Even out of basic respect for the Xiongnu people—one of the only two great monsters in East Asia at present—and recognition of the Xiongnu people's initiative to make peace through marriage, this noblewoman of the Xiongnu Luandi clan who came to Chang'an from the grasslands should at least be given the title of Lady.

If the Han dynasty was a regime that valued etiquette and strictly adhered to the primogeniture system, then that would be fine.

Unfortunately, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Han family has had seven emperors. Apart from the founding emperor, Emperor Gaozu, who is beyond discussion, only Emperor Xiaohui, the second emperor, was the eldest son born to the empress.

Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty (the first of the three emperors) was Liu Gong, and Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty (the fourth emperor) was Liu Hong, who was the eldest son and fourth son of Emperor Hui of Han, respectively.

Emperor Taizong Liu Heng, the fifth emperor, was the fourth son of Emperor Gaozong.

Emperor Xiaojing, Liu Qi, was, strictly speaking, also an illegitimate son of Emperor Taizong. Above the late emperor, Emperor Taizong had four other disciples who died suddenly on the eve of the Lü Clan Rebellion.

Liu Rong is also the eldest son of the late Emperor Xiaojing.

What makes it impossible not to connect the dots is that during the reign of the late emperor, Liu Rong's birth mother, Empress Dowager Li, held the title of Lady!

This made the people of the Han dynasty, who had calmed down, somewhat restless.

—If a Xiongnu princess of the Luandi clan were to marry into the Han family and become a lady of the Han dynasty;
By any chance, she would give birth to another son for Liu Rong.

By the absolute certainty that, when Liu Rong passes away, only this son of foreign blood might remain, and he could barely possibly inherit the throne...

Absolutely not!

The first to step forward was Empress Dowager Dou of the Eastern Palace.

In recent years, especially with the successive victories of the Han dynasty in its foreign wars, Empress Dowager Dou's restrictions on Liu Rong have become increasingly non-existent.

Basically, as long as Liu Rong did not do anything that would obviously harm the ancestral temple, the state, or the virtues left by the ancestors, or fail to take care of the dignity of Empress Dowager Dou and the Dou clan, the Empress Dowager basically adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards Liu Rong.

Especially after Wei Qihou Dou Ying successfully became prime minister, the Empress Dowager almost stopped interfering in matters inside and outside the court.

But this time, the Empress Dowager resolutely stepped forward and clearly expressed to Liu Rong the hidden dangers of this marriage alliance plan.

Liu Rong went to great lengths to repeatedly assure the Xiongnu princess of the Luan Di clan that she would not give birth to his own son. Even if it came to that, Liu Rong would never appoint a son from a collateral branch as the crown prince.

That wasn't even enough—Liu Rong also promised to carefully consider the matter and use the harshest terms of the marriage alliance to scare away the Xiongnu, which finally calmed the Empress Dowager down.

Immediately following, officials and nobles from both inside and outside the court came together to see Liu Rong, urging him not to accept the Xiongnu's treacherous sweet-coated bullets.

Liu Rong had to offer a lot of reassurance before the situation was temporarily stabilized.

But before the public opinion in Chang'an could completely subside, a second major piece of news from the grasslands left Liu Rong stunned.

—The Right Wise King of the Xiongnu: Luan Di Yi Zhi Xie, was granted the title of Rizhu King by Chanyu Junchen!

Although no more specific news came, the title of King of Rizhu alone was enough for Liu Rong to see through Junchen's intentions through the long river of history.

In the original history, after being repeatedly ravaged by Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, the Xiongnu people, at the end of Emperor Wu of Han's reign, relied on the Rizhu King, who controlled the military and political affairs of the Western Regions, to fight against Emperor Wu's ill-fated lottery ticket: General Li Guangli.

The final result left future generations of Chinese people with a profound sense of emotion.

Now, the historical term "King of Rizhu" has appeared before Liu Rong not only decades earlier than the original historical record, but it is also held concurrently by Yizhixie, the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu!

The Right Wise King concurrently serves as the King of Rizhu!

Moreover, this Xiongnu "Right Crown Prince," who also served as the King of Rizhu, was a historically renowned figure who had withstood several rounds of attacks from Emperor Wu of Han: Yizhixie Chanyu...

"A protracted battle..."

"Junchen, what great courage you have..."

Amidst his emotions and sighs, Liu Rong's brows involuntarily furrowed.

In the end, it all turned into a long, helpless sigh.

"Someone is coming."

"Summon Wei Qing, a member of the Imperial Guard and concurrently a Cavalry Commander, to an audience!"

"Furthermore, Marquis of Gonggao, Han Tuidang; Marquis of Quzhou, Li Ji; Marquis of Yu, Luan Bu, and others shall proceed to the Martial Arts Hall of the Xuan Shi Palace for a meeting!"

Junchen has already made a decision.

Next, Liu Rong must strive to secure the maximum possible benefits for the Han family under the current circumstances.

A protracted battle is something Liu Rong really doesn't want to see.

And vaguely, Liu Rong could sense that, besides a protracted war, the Han family seemed to have a second option to thwart Junchen's open scheme.

(End of this chapter)