My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 540 Winter

In terms of internal governance, Liu Rong completed the reform of the court officials and subordinate agencies in Chang'an before the tenth month of the new year, and basically completed the increase of salaries for the bureaucratic system.

Externally, the Battle of Gaoque allowed the Han Dynasty to reverse its disadvantage in external military strategy and gain more strategic offensive opportunities.

As time goes by, winter will quietly arrive.

The time came to the eleventh month of winter in the fifth year of Emperor Liu Rong's reign (1520).

Chang'an was unusually cold that year.

It was so cold that even though Liu Rong had moved to the side hall of the Xuan Shi Hall's greenhouse, he still had to wear a rather thick robe.

The unusually cold weather made Liu Rong think of many things.

For example, even the Xuan Shi Hall's greenhouse side hall, with its hollow walls and fireplace, was so cold that Liu Rong couldn't stand it. What about Chang'an City?
What about the common people of Chang'an, and even the farmers and commoners outside Chang'an?
Even further—to the northern regions of Longyou, the northern regions of Dai and Yan, and even the far north of Yunzhong.
The Gaoque Pass, which the Han dynasty had just acquired, and the Hetao region, which was protected by the Gaoque Pass.
And of course, there are grasslands.

If it's this cold in Chang'an, the north must be incredibly bitterly cold.

What kind of life are the Xiongnu people living on the grasslands at this moment?
Clearly, the Xiongnu people are not going to have a good winter.

Although the Xiongnu Chanyu's westward expedition over the past two years has brought back much wealth from the Western Regions and Central Asian countries such as Dayuan and Daqin, it still cannot change the fact that this winter is extremely difficult for the nomadic people.

The reason is very simple.

No matter how 'wise and brave' Junchen was, and no matter how rampant the Xiongnu cavalry were in the Western Regions and Central Asia, all they could plunder were precious metals, tools and equipment, as well as skilled craftsmen and strong slave girls.

It was impossible for the Xiongnu Chanyu court under Junchen's control to have seized enough grain to be left over and brought back to Munan during the past two years of western expeditions.

Even if you manage to snag one several times, it's impossible to bring it back or store it safely.

The only food preservation techniques that the Huns, and indeed nomadic peoples, could boast of were dehydrating dairy products to make cheese and dehydrating and air-drying meat.

Aside from dairy products, including cheese, and dried meat products, including jerky, the Huns could hardly store any other food.

In the past, even if the Xiongnu people plundered a lot of grain from the northern border of Han and brought it back to the grasslands after the autumn harvest each year, it was only enough for them to survive the winter.

It wasn't because they didn't plunder enough, but because only the cold of winter allowed the Xiongnu to store their grain as efficiently as possible without having to do anything.

Once spring arrives, all the grain stored by the Xiongnu people faces a great risk of spoilage.

In the past few decades, countless nobles on the grasslands have died from a series of infectious complications caused by consuming spoiled meat and dairy products during years of scarcity.

This is a predicament that nomadic peoples find difficult to change, and a lack of advanced civilization that they have to face.

The reason why the Xiongnu people will have an extremely difficult winter this year is not only because the Chanyu's westward expeditions over the past two years will inevitably not bring back much food that can be stored, but also because there are problems in the southern base camp.

—The change of power at Gaoque was not merely a military upheaval!
For the Xiongnu, the loss of Gaoque triggered a series of chain reactions that caused immense suffering for both the Xiongnu and the nomadic people.

After the loss of Gaoque, the first reaction of the Right Wise King Yizhixie was to summon a large army to launch a counterattack.

When their counterattack failed, they turned their attention to attacking Yunzhong, only to suffer a bloody defeat.

Although the Xiongnu did not require the central government, the Chanyu, to be responsible for the supply of provisions when mobilizing their troops, even if the soldiers brought their own rations, those rations were originally intended to feed the tribe.

Like a warrior who, after the change of rulers of Gaoque, answered the call with fifteen days' worth of provisions and came to the tent of the Right Wise King Yizhixie to receive orders.

However, if it weren't for Gao Que's mess, the soldiers' rations for fifteen days could have been enough for a man, a woman, and a child, if they ate sparingly, for a month.

The situation gets even worse when you shift your perspective from the micro to the macro level.

—The food that was originally enough to feed an entire tribe for four or five months was taken away by the warriors, who made up less than one-tenth of the population, to serve as their food for the next month or two.

If it's just a one-time, drastic reduction, then that's fine.

If production capacity remains, things will eventually recover.

However, all the changes that have occurred on the grasslands in the past few years have caused the fate of nomadic peoples to deteriorate in a way that is unfavorable to them, and can even be described as rapidly spiraling out of control.

—The Hetao region has been lost.

Along with them, nearly one-eighth of the Xiongnu population and their tribes were lost, as well as at least one-fifth of their cattle and sheep livestock!
The severing of ties with Hexi meant that the Hexi region could no longer pay tribute to the Chanyu court, which enriched the total amount of resources in the Munan region.

Furthermore, the last resort that had always provided a safety net for nomadic peoples in recent years—robbing the Han people—has become increasingly impossible.

All these factors combined have resulted in the nomadic peoples of the grasslands losing many sources of income and incurring many additional expenses this year.

—Shanyuting is back.

Not only did he return, but he also brought back a great many slaves.

Although in this era, slaves were generally not treated as human beings, whether south or north of the Great Wall, they were still a form of wealth.

Even cattle and sheep need to graze and are herded;

Not to mention slaves, who were more useful than cattle and sheep, yet cheaper and easier to feed.

Since it is wealth, the slaves should not be allowed to go hungry—at least they should not starve to death in vain.

This has led to an unprecedented food shortage in the grassland regions, especially in the southern part of the Mu region, this winter.

At first, the Chanyu court, led by Junchen, didn't take it seriously.

They simply followed the established procedure, instructing the various tribes of Munan to deliver the tribute they were supposed to pay over the past two years to Longcheng, to provide for the Shanyu's main force to get through the winter.

Even after vaguely realizing that there would be a shortage of food on the grasslands this winter, Junchen still didn't take it too seriously. He sent people to transport grain from the Western Regions back to Munan, while actively contacting Han Chinese merchants, hoping to exchange the wealth he had plundered during his western expedition for a batch of grain from the Han Chinese merchants to get through this difficult winter.

But what happened next made it impossible for Gunchen to relax.

The Western Regions are too far away.

It wasn't originally this far.

If the Hexi Corridor still existed, the journey from Munan to the Western Regions shouldn't have been so long.

But with the Hexi Corridor gone, the envoys sent by the Chanyu court to collect grain had to take a long detour northward to reach the Western Regions from Munan.

As is well known, the further north you go in the Northern Hemisphere, the colder it gets.

Not only did taking such a long detour increase the distance, but the harsh weather along the way also significantly slowed down the team's progress and greatly increased the danger.

It was only then that Junchen seemed to realize, almost belatedly, that the once vast and boundless territory of the Xiongnu Empire had become incredibly delicate after the Han people's expansion through several wars.

The North Sea in the north was the northernmost place where prisoners were exiled, and it had no value to the Xiongnu people.

The east is also the sea, and the area near the northeast of the Han Dynasty is even colder than most of the grasslands further north!
The Han Chinese in the south are not to be trifled with. The Hexi Corridor in the southwest is no longer under the control of the Xiongnu.

The only 'way out' left for the Xiongnu seems to be the route taken by the main force of the Xiongnu Chanyu's court on its westward expedition over the past two years, namely the Western Regions and Central Asia.

Of course, neither the Xiongnu nor the Han people had the concept of Asia or Central Asia during this era.

Both the Han and Xiongnu tacitly referred to Central Asia as the "far west" region, which was even further west than the Western Regions.

Previously, when the strategic contraction was made and the strategic focus was shifted westward, moving the main battlefield of the Han-Xiongnu rivalry to the Western Regions, Junchen had vaguely sensed that this was the only way out for the nomadic people.

We'll wear down the Han people in the Western Regions, even if it results in mutual destruction!

When the Han people could no longer hold out and retreated dejectedly to the Central Plains, even if the nomadic peoples were exhausted and barely breathing, they would always be able to recover.

The grasslands possess a set of natural laws that, while perhaps not perfect, are absolutely fair, allowing any species to fluctuate between being 'on the verge of extinction' and 'overpopulation,' yet always maintaining the continuation of the species.

Once the Han people retreat to the Central Plains, the nomadic people will eventually return to the grasslands.

But that winter, when he discovered that even the Munan region—which the Xiongnu considered their stronghold and paradise—was facing a shortage of supplies, Junchen finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

The Hetao region is gone;

Hexi is practically gone too;

The plan to plunder from the Han people was essentially no longer feasible.

Even the Western Regions, which served as a blood bank, became more remote and difficult to access due to the loss of Hexi.

The loss of the Hetao and Hexi regions meant that the Shanyu court and the southern region where it was located lost two major production bases.

At the same time, the loss of Hexi greatly reduced the efficiency of supplying resources from the Western Regions to the Munan region.

If Hexi were still there, the situation wouldn't be this serious.

Even if they couldn't extract much profit from Hexi, they could still ensure that the supplies 'contributed' by the various countries of the Western Regions were transported to Munan as quickly and safely as possible.

But now, it's all in vain.

From now on, whether it is the wealthy tribes in the southern part of the Mu region, the barbaric tribes in the northern part of the Mu region, or nobles such as the Shanyu court and the Left and Right Wise Kings—if they want to continue to live in peace, they can only wait patiently for the tribute from the Western Regions countries to be sent to the southern part of the Mu region thousands of miles away, in order to continue to live in peace.

There is no third way.

Even these two remaining options were causing Junchen considerable headaches.

Production has never been a strength of nomadic peoples, nor has it been the main theme of grassland ecology.

There's a saying among the Han people: "A horse won't get fat without night grass, and a person won't get rich without unexpected wealth."

In Junchen's view, these words were perfectly suited to the grasslands and to the nomadic people.

On the grasslands, whether they are nomadic people or petty thieves like the Qiang people, they all believe in a similar value system.

That is, they honestly practiced nomadic herding and raising livestock, simply to ensure their survival as much as possible.

If one truly wants to be free from worries about food and clothing, and even to become powerful, the only way is to plunder!

Only by plundering those honest people who work diligently and conscientiously to make a living can we truly become "rich" and "fat".

Within this value system, it is difficult for nomadic peoples to form a unified, universally applicable set of values ​​that advocate for production to achieve wealth and power.

In the minds of nomadic peoples, only the weak need to engage in production in order to barely ensure their survival.

As for the strong, they should naturally dominate and possess everything of the weak, including the wealth that the weak diligently and honestly produce.

It's like the saying from later generations: "My neighbor hoards grain, I hoard guns; my neighbor is my granary."

For the past few decades, this has been the belief and the practice of nomadic peoples on the grasslands.

The Han dynasty went to great lengths to govern by non-interference, allowing the people to recuperate and rebuild their lives, avoiding war whenever possible, and refraining from engaging in armed conflict whenever possible.

Even officials, if they can use one, they won't use two; if they can receive one salary, they will never receive a second one.

In contrast, the Xiongnu people continued to expand and strengthen themselves militarily.

As for the supply and production of materials, apart from the plunder that inevitably accompanied the expansion, they were obtained continuously from the Han family, their "grain-stocking neighbor".

As the saying goes, "A small favor is appreciated, but a large one breeds resentment."

Or, to put it another way, a meal is a favor, but every meal is an enemy.

The current situation of the Xiongnu people has something to do with this.

At first, the nomadic people were incredibly excited to discover that they could plunder supplies from the Han people, especially the scarce grain on the grasslands!
Adhering to the principle of "seizing every opportunity to plunder, not knowing if they can succeed next time," the nomadic people used every means at their disposal, even digging three feet into the ground, to bring back all the supplies they could carry from the Hanbei border to the grasslands.

But as time went on, all the nomadic peoples gradually became accustomed to this distorted 'supply and demand relationship'.

So much so that for a period of time—just five or six years ago—this kind of argument circulated on the grasslands.

Han Chinese should not have an army.
The Han people are good at farming, so they should just focus on farming.
As for matters of war, they should be left to the nomadic peoples who are more adept at it.

Therefore, the Han court in Chang'an, the capital of the Xiongnu Chanyu, should try to come up with a model where Han people honestly farm the land and send the harvest to the grasslands.
Having obtained the Han people's grain, the nomadic people stopped fighting south and instead focused their energy on advancing westward to bully those blond-haired, blue-eyed western barbarians.

From the Han perspective, this argument was clearly ironic, even humiliating.

But among the nomadic peoples of that time, this argument still had quite a bit of appeal!

Now that they have lost the Han dynasty, which has been their free granary for decades, the Xiongnu are completely dumbfounded.

Wait, no?

Are we no longer able to eat the food of the Han people?

Why?

Oh, so you couldn't beat them...

Unfortunately, in the past, not a single nomadic person ever thought about what they would do if one day they could no longer defeat the Han people and could no longer get food from them.

Yes, but they said one confident sentence after another: We are all children of the Heavenly God who supports the plow, and we can never be defeated by the Han people!

The Han people are a gift from the heavenly god who holds the plow, so that we don't have to worry about having enough to eat!

(End of this chapter)