My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 537 War, to End War

As Wei Qing finished speaking, all the high-ranking generals and commanders in the hall fell into deep thought.

It wasn't that Wei Qing's words revealed some groundbreaking strategy, or some ingenious plan that no one had previously thought of or could have imagined;
It is not that Wei Qing, at such a young age, was able to propose such a ruthless policy in a discussion concerning the strategic level of two great civilizations.

Wei Qing is right.

The reason why the Han Dynasty was always at the mercy of the Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples was not only because the nomadic peoples' naturally highly mobile cavalry made it difficult for the Han Dynasty to slowly deploy its troops and advance step by step, but the main reason was that the Xiongnu had no roots.

There's a saying that goes: "You can run away from the monk, but you can't run away from the temple."

However, this statement only applies to the Han people and their soldiers, and it has no bearing on the Xiongnu people.

When the Xiongnu attacked, the Han generals, soldiers, and even the local people all fought to the death.

Even if they don't want to back out, they can't.

No one is willing to abandon their family and home, and with the enemy at the gates, they may not be able to leave even if they wanted to.

In contrast, the Han dynasty took the initiative to attack, saying that "the monks may run away, but the temples can't"—sorry, we Xiongnu people are all wandering monks, we don't have temples at all!

Whether it's the Han army of today or the armies of the powerful states of the Warring States period, whenever they appear on the grasslands, the first choice of nomadic peoples is always to run, not to fight.

Because fighting could result in either winning or losing, and regardless of the outcome, there would inevitably be casualties and losses.

But running is different; at most, it just takes a little effort.

In short, the grasslands are just too vast.

The vast grasslands only support a few million nomadic people, allowing them to not only migrate and graze on a large scale, but also roam freely across this land.

If nomadic peoples are a jackal, then the grasslands are an endless sheepfold.

—When the sheepfold reaches a certain size, it can no longer help the shepherd catch the sheep more easily.

The same logic applies: for nomadic peoples, the grasslands are so vast that there is no need to discuss their exact size—after all, no one can enclose them.

If it can't be contained, then it's infinitely large—or at least not much different from infinitely large.

This has led to a really messed up situation.

The Han dynasty took the initiative to venture beyond the Great Wall, expending considerable effort, time, and energy to finally send an army of tens of thousands of men thousands of miles away.

We've traveled a thousand miles; we're already deep in the heart of the grasslands!

Moreover, even disregarding any objective factors such as direction finding and water access—just considering speed alone—this journey of a thousand miles would require the Han Dynasty's most elite field army to take at least fifteen days.

It took fifteen days to travel a thousand miles, finally reaching the heart of the grasslands;
What's the result?

The Xiongnu saw you from a great distance, and in the time it took to catch their breath, they had already packed up their tents!

By the time you arrive at the bustling Xiongnu tribal camp that was there just an hour or two ago, the people there have already walked more than ten miles away.

If one were to abandon the baggage and gallop at full speed, even a skilled adult male could cover a hundred or two miles in just an hour or two!

Then you killed him.

Fifteen days later, tens of thousands of troops ventured deep into the heart of the grasslands at great risk, finally encountering a tribe, only to have their prey slip away.

Okay, here comes the question.

What's next?
Chase?
Or should we retreat?
Or should we stay put?
They couldn't possibly catch up—the speed of the Han infantry's march, coupled with the construction of their logistical support lines, meant that the Han army, when fighting beyond the Great Wall, couldn't even catch up with nomadic youths riding ponies, or even the elderly, weak, women, and children riding in oxcarts.

Retreat was out of the question—not to mention the terrible negative public opinion that would result from such a arduous and fruitless trip, but the very crime of cowardice would be enough to make the commander of this army suffer a terrible fate.

Staying put is the dumbest of the three options.

—If you chase after them, even if you can't catch up, it will at least serve as a deterrent, and they will be afraid of you.

—If you retreat, even if you are followed, the nomads are unlikely to try to persuade you to stay too forcefully.

But if you stay where you are, it will be too late.

It's like you stumbled upon a wolf pack's den by chance, but as soon as you arrived, the wolves ran away.

Are you really going to stay in the wolf den and wait for the wolves to come back and die?

More likely, the wolves that were originally trapped in the den have unexpectedly escaped their cage because you have "occupied the den".

On the contrary, you are now trapped in the wolf den that was originally filled with wolves, but the wolves are now outside the den, lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on you.

This is very troublesome.

You can't catch up, and you'll only get deeper into trouble.

We can't retreat; we'll at least lose a piece of our flesh.

Staying was a way to survive for them, and they didn't see the nomads as terrifying upright apes at all.

This won't work, that won't work, nothing will work.

Even the slightest accident could lead to a devastating blow, or even the annihilation of the entire army, with their bones buried in the borderlands.

In contrast, the Xiongnu people's southward migration was characterized by a relaxed and carefree approach.

When the Han dynasty ventured beyond the Great Wall, its logistical supply lines stretched for thousands of miles.
When the Xiongnu moved south, their only logistical support was the dry rations they carried. If that wasn't enough, they would rob the Han people.

Such an asymmetrical war situation resulted in vastly different war costs for the Han and Xiongnu sides—whether in initiating, promoting, or expecting the gains from the war, or incurring the cost of ending it.

The Han dynasty emphasized the Chinese civilization principle of "supplies first, troops second," meaning that massive amounts of supplies had to be sent to the front lines even before the army set off.

Then came the conscription of troops, their temporary reorganization and training, and their deployment to the battlefield.

Before the battle even began, it was already a case of "a thousand taels of gold before the cannons even fired."

Needless to say, once the war really starts, supplies will be continuously replenished, and even troops will be sent to the front lines in a steady stream.

After the war was finally over, disbanding the troops was a troublesome matter, and the post-war rewards and compensation were a huge expense no less than the war itself.

So Liu Rong would privately complain: The Han army fights like a three-year-old child swimming for the first time—they bring everything they can, like life rings and inflatable collars.

In contrast, when the Xiongnu wanted to fight, they did it as casually as going out for a spring outing, packing their meager rations and mounting their horses.

They fought and looted along the way, requiring neither the Chanyu Court to handle logistics nor post-battle rewards or compensation. —All they plundered were supplies!

—What's left over is the spoils of war!

Even if you don't manage to steal anything, you can still legally inherit the estate of the fallen by retrieving their bodies.

Compared to the Han dynasty's "poor student with lots of stationery" style of swimming, the Xiongnu's large-scale battle method was more like a village child stripping naked and diving headfirst into the ditch without caring about cleanliness or safety.

Therefore, the strategic balance between the Han and the Xiongnu often does not mean that their strengths were similar.

Instead, the Han forces need to gain certain advantages to compensate for the constraints and suppression caused by logistical support methods and troop types before a dynamic balance can be achieved.

To put it bluntly: if the strength of the Han and the Xiongnu were evenly matched, then the Han would inevitably be at a strategic disadvantage.
If the two sides are strategically evenly matched, then the Han dynasty must be significantly stronger than the Xiongnu.

As for the strategic advantage held by the Han Dynasty—even if it is only a slight advantage—it means that the Han Dynasty is at least eighteen streets ahead of the Xiongnu in terms of hard power.

This asymmetrical warfare pattern was not particularly evident when the Xiongnu were powerful.

—Because during their powerful period, the Xiongnu did not need to rely on the high cost-effectiveness of their warfare model to achieve a strategic advantage over the Han Dynasty in order to achieve their strategic goals.

They could plunder wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and however they wanted; it was all up to the Xiongnu.

However, if the positions of the two sides were reversed, and it were a period of Han Dynasty strength, the Xiongnu, who were in a strategic disadvantage position, could use this cost-effective warfare model to prevent the Han Dynasty from leveraging its strategic advantages.

Thus, the Xiongnu Chanyu Junchen decided to shift his strategic focus westward.

If the same thing happened in China, it would shake the very foundation of dynastic rule!
But for nomadic peoples, this is no big deal.

Because nomadic people spend their entire lives 'nomadic', wandering the grasslands on an annual cycle.

In the minds of nomadic people, there has never been a concept of a fixed dwelling, a stable life, or even peace and tranquility.

Specifically, in the battles between the Han and the Xiongnu, the Han were like "the monks can run away but the temple cannot," while the Xiongnu came and went like the wind—whether as cavalry on the battlefield or as tribes on the grasslands.

As for Wei Qing's proposal to bind and lock the nomadic peoples to the land, to use their own methods against them, and to force them to be unable to make strategic moves at will by destroying the Xiongnu's land—that is, the grasslands—the people in the hall could not help but understand it.

For example, during the reign of the late emperor, when Liu Rong was the eldest son, he once proposed a whimsical idea.

— Cover every inch of grassland with a layer of salt that rain cannot penetrate and wind cannot blow through!
Turn every part of the grassland into barren saline-alkali land, completely severing the foundation upon which nomadic people depend for their livelihood!

Although it was just a wild idea, a fantasy with almost no feasibility, when Liu Rong first brought it up, it still startled the Xiongnu envoy.

Although in the end, the Xiongnu envoy realized that the Han dynasty simply did not have enough salt to pave the entire grassland, and even if they did, they would not be willing to use it, nor did they have enough manpower to complete all of this.
But based solely on this one "strange tale" scheme, Liu Rong quickly earned the title of "Demon Messenger" in the court of the Xiongnu Chanyu.

Now, as time goes by, based on that fantastical and unrealistic plan, a relatively cheaper and more feasible extended plan has gradually evolved.

Salt is very expensive, and its value is driven by its scarcity.

But sand and gravel are very cheap!
Laying sand and gravel on grasslands, especially around the edges of deserts, can still accelerate the desertification of grasslands!

There's also the Shaofu Moyuan and Lubanyuan. In the process of researching new things, when they originally intended to make fertilizer, they produced several counterproductive items that could also achieve similar effects.

As for whether to cover the entire grassland and actually degrade it completely, that would be similar to weapons of mass destruction in later times.

—It doesn't necessarily have to be plowing the land; as long as it serves as a deterrent, that's fine.

As for why no one had thought of this approach before, one reason is that salt or sand were merely terrifying ideas that could be verbally proposed to intimidate the Xiongnu, and were not very feasible.

On the other hand, there is a common problem among military men in feudal times: war should be stopped, so it is not advisable to go too far in harming nature and harmony.

After Wei Qing, a man of humble origins and fearless spirit, pointed this out, veteran generals like Li Ji and Luan Bu began to rethink their strategies and logic.

To stop war from going to war, that is certainly the right thing to do.

For the Han dynasty today, whether it is the internal rebellion of the princes, the war of unification against Lingnan, or the war of civilization with the Xiongnu in the north, the ultimate goal is to stop fighting.

—When feudal lords rebel, they must be defeated and killed so that there will be no more rebellions in the future;
—The Southern Yue Kingdom kept changing hands, but we still had to fight it. Once we conquered it and established prefectures and counties, the Southern Yue Kingdom would never change hands again.

The same principle applies to the Xiongnu people in the north.

Because I don't want to fight, I have to fight.

Because they didn't want to keep fighting, they had to cripple the Xiongnu and render them incapable of waging war again.

From this perspective, using some slightly cruel and low-level methods doesn't seem so bad—the ultimate goal is peace!

It is not only for the peace of the Chinese land, but also for the long-term peace of the nomadic people of the grasslands.

As for whether it is against the natural order?

Cough cough cough...

This brings us to the concept of the distinction between Chinese and barbarians, a concept universally recognized by the Chinese people during this era.

The premise of violating natural law and human rights is that many innocent people, or those who do not necessarily have to die, die under very cruel means.

In the mainstream view of this era, there are only two kinds of 'people' in the world.

The Chinese are simply 'people'.

And, barbarians, that is, 'non-humans'...

"In that case, I do have a solution."

After a brief silence, Marquis Gonggao Han Tuidang, with a strange expression, tentatively began to speak.

“Not all nomadic people on the grasslands have the opportunity to return to warmer places like Munan and Hetao during the winter.”

"And no matter where the wintering place is, it must be a bowl-shaped depression or pit that is high on all sides and sunken in the middle."

"To make these places warmer, nomadic people are accustomed to piling up unused animal manure at the bottom of these bowl-shaped basins."

···
"Uh, if..."

"I mean, if."

"If there were an area on the grassland spanning hundreds of miles, and none of the bowl-shaped basins within that area had accumulated livestock manure at their bottoms over many years..."

"When winter comes, most tribes that set foot in this area will not survive the winter."

(End of this chapter)