My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 584 I'm afraid a thief will have his eye on me.
At the beginning, the Han court was quite proud of the high level of cooperation from the Hetao region.

—Look at this! Look at this!
Even the Hetao region, where life is best and most prosperous on the grasslands, will still welcome the king's army with food and drink when it comes into the hands of the Han people!

What does this mean?
This shows that before the Han dynasty took control of the Hetao region, even the nomadic peoples of the grasslands, who lived the best lives in the Hetao region, still could not forget the Han people's superiority!

Once the Han dynasty takes control of the Hetao region, wouldn't the nomadic people there be eager to become Han citizens?
But as time went on, and with Liu Rong's intentional or unintentional reminders, people inside and outside the court finally realized belatedly that something was amiss.

Nomadic peoples do believe in the law of the jungle and adhere to a realistic value system of "whoever provides the benefits is the mother";

At the same time, however, nomadic peoples had extremely strong xenophobic sentiments toward other different civilizations, and even other tribes that were also nomadic.

Among them, the agricultural civilization of China stands out as the 'best'.

—From the perspective of nomadic peoples, the purpose of agricultural peoples is to provide unlimited room for error for nomadic peoples who have low risk resistance and are always on the verge of bankruptcy or even death.

How to provide it?

In short, it was a time when the conditions on the grasslands were not favorable and resources were insufficient, allowing nomadic people to plunder southwards to replenish their supplies for the winter.

Furthermore, the Xiongnu people, who now control the grasslands, and the Xiongnu Chanyu court, strongly advocate that the men on the grasslands hone their martial arts skills from a young age, which is quite in line with the later saying: "My neighbor stores grain, I store guns; my neighbor is my granary."

In the eyes of the Xiongnu, having every herdsman hone his martial arts skills from childhood and master superb horsemanship and archery was called "training spears".
The Han people worked diligently, cultivating the land for their livelihood, which undoubtedly constituted 'grain storage'.

This has led to a strange sense of superiority among nomadic peoples of the grasslands when they face the agricultural civilization of China.

—Han Chinese?
—Oh, the slaves responsible for cultivating the land and growing grain for us nomads…

--What?
—You say they are not slaves of my Great Xiongnu?
—What's the difference?
—Anyway, we can rob their food whenever we need it…

Therefore, on the grasslands, Han Chinese caravans and missions never received enough respect from the nomadic people.

Whenever Han Chinese faces appear on the grasslands, the nomadic people's first reaction is always to watch with curiosity.

The second reaction was to recall his heroic figure 'galloping' across the Hanbei border.

Against this historical backdrop, the reactions of the nomadic peoples in the Hetao region, the future Hexi region, and even the southern and northern parts of the Mu region, when faced with the imminent control of a certain territory by the Han dynasty, should have been extremely intense.

The Huns' reaction should have been: What?!

Han Chinese?!
He's gone too far!!
The slaves who till the land for us nomads dare to seize our ancestral land?!
It’s totally the opposite of Tian Gang!!!

Such intense resistance will inevitably evolve into firm and strong acts of resistance, including but not limited to military, public opinion, and public security measures.

Even if the Han dynasty eventually suppressed all forms of resistance and the nomadic people had to accept the objective reality of being ruled by the Han people, they would certainly not be too compliant.

The nomadic people would not speak of it, but the nomadic people living north of the Great Wall and on the grasslands were informed by the agricultural people south of the Great Wall.
Instead, they would think that the nomadic people who once "ruled" and "dominated" the agricultural people had, due to bad luck or the injustice of fate, ultimately ridden over their former masters because of an uncontrollable factor.

then what should we do?

There's really no way to do it in the short term.

Even if they are unwilling, they can only obediently bow their heads in the face of survival—being able to bend and stretch, and sacrificing everything for the instinct of survival, is an unchanging law on the grassland.

But at the same time, the nomads will constantly remind themselves: Never forget that we were once the rulers!
Even now, with Tiangang's shoes and hat switched places, this is definitely not normal!
Sooner or later, the shoes will be put back on the feet, the hat back on the head, and everything will return to normal!
What is commonplace?

The nomadic people own and control everything, while the hardworking farmers ultimately benefit the nomads—this is the most normal way the world operates…

Under such an extreme and narrow understanding, nomadic peoples always become a destabilizing factor for regimes when they are ruled.

Even within nomadic regimes, nomadic peoples can become a destabilizing factor!

So much so that in later generations, when nomadic peoples entered the Central Plains, they never forgot to send people back to the grasslands to thoroughly plow through these unruly and impoverished relatives.

Against this backdrop, when the Han dynasty took control of the Hetao region, the most appropriate and natural reaction from the various tribes in the region would be roughly as follows.

Initially, the people of the Hetao region were outraged because "the Han people not only refused to surrender, but also dared to launch an attack." This was followed by fierce resistance!

After the rebellion failed and the Han people forcibly ruled them, they should have made headlines every now and then.

Not for any other reason than to cause trouble for the Han people out of resentment.

After some time, when the established facts became clear and unchangeable, and they had no choice but to accept reality, they would reluctantly and grumble as they began to discuss how to negotiate with the Han people and how to ensure that they could live a comfortable aristocratic life under Han rule.

In any case, if the Han people are not sincere enough, these "remnants of the past" will not be obediently ruled, or even cooperate with the Han people in governing the Hetao region.

Finally, the Han dynasty made a small concession, granting these former nobles of the Hetao region titles, then relocating them to the Han interior to be kept in captivity, and then establishing a new order in the Hetao region, thus completing the task.

However, the reality is that, regarding the established fact of Han rule over the Hetao region, the entire Hetao region has consistently and unconditionally cooperated with the Han people from the beginning of the war until today, without any delay.

It's like two equally matched countries, clearly sworn enemies for centuries, irreconcilable.

As a result, as soon as one side occupied a town of the other side, the local townspeople immediately knelt down in submission to the enemy's army.

What does this mean?
—Or perhaps these people are all spineless cowards, traitors, born to be collaborators and traitors;
Either these people are 'pretending to surrender,' with the aim of either seizing an opportunity to riot or waiting for their own troops to return so that they can coordinate with their own forces to regain control of the town.

So at the very beginning, when the Hetao region had just come under the control of the Han dynasty and the situation was unclear, when the military report that "the various tribes in the Hetao region have been settled by issuing proclamations" was sent back to Chang'an, Liu Rong had already made a conclusion: something was wrong!
Something's 12 out of 10 wrong!

The Xiongnu people simply did not believe that the Han dynasty's rule in the Hetao region could be deeply rooted and maintained for a long time.
Therefore, bowing down and surrendering to the Han Dynasty in the short term was merely a temporary expedient for the various tribes in the Hetao region to preserve their strength and protect themselves. Once the Xiongnu recovered and returned to the Hetao region, these so-called "surrendered to the Han Dynasty" nomadic tribes in the Hetao region would become the most crucial and indispensable force for the Xiongnu to retake the Hetao region.

After all, a bunker can only be breached from the inside.

With such a clear understanding, Liu Rong was extremely cautious in his approach to controlling the Hetao region.

The troops stationed in the Hetao region alone consisted of the Shuofang Commandery of Bowang City, the Beidi Cavalry Commandery, and the former Chaona Sai garrison: the Beidi Commandery, totaling 15,000 soldiers.

In addition, there are 5,000 troops of the Wuyuan Commandant in the southern part of the Hetao region, and 10,000 troops of the Western Commandant and the Northern Commandant, who are separated from Hexi by the great river in the west.
All things considered, in the small Hetao region, with only two commanderies, the Han army managed to station five field commanders and one cavalry commander—a total of 30,000 standing field troops!

It should be noted that from the beginning of the Han Dynasty to the present, for nearly sixty years, and for at least fifty of those years, the total strength of the Han Dynasty's standing field army never reached the number of 30,000!

The entire field army of the whole country and the entire Han Dynasty never reached 30,000!
Even now, under Liu Rong's intention to "exhaust the army and pursue militarism," the Han dynasty has rapidly produced more than a dozen standing field armies in a short period of time. However, after deducting the capital's garrison forces, including the Northern and Southern Armies and the Feathered Forest and Tiger Guards, the remaining force is only about 70,000 to 80,000—the total strength is definitely less than 100,000!
In other words, the Han dynasty deployed a massive army—30,000 regular field troops—that it had never possessed in the past fifty years to the Hetao region, which only occupied the two commanderies of Shuofang and Wuyuan.

Taking the current situation of the Han dynasty as an example, there are more than a dozen standing field armies and about twenty standing field commandant units, totaling more than 100,000 people. The Han dynasty has left about 30,000 in Chang'an.

Of the remaining 70,000 to 80,000, nearly half were sent to the Hetao region.

The remaining 30,000 to 40,000 troops were stationed in various northern border regions, such as Feihujing, Jimen, Juzhu, and Yanmen, to defend the northern frontier.

It is only natural that Chang'an would retain the Northern and Southern Armies, the Imperial Guards and the Tiger Guards, with more than twenty colonels and over 30,000 troops.

—After all, it's for the defense of the capital, Chang'an!
Chang'an, in particular, had a history of almost being besieged by the Xiongnu, so it was understandable that they were being cautious.

However, the Hetao region received similar treatment to Chang'an, with nearly 30,000 regular field troops stationed there.

Especially considering that the entire Han dynasty only had about 100,000 standing field troops, and more than 30,000 of them had already been transferred to Chang'an, another 30,000 were transferred to the Hetao region.
This troop deployment itself speaks volumes.

Is the Hetao region important? Of course it is, but it is clearly not as important as the capital city of Chang'an.

After all, if Chang'an were to fall, the country would perish.

And the Hetao region was lost?
—Chinese civilization has lost the Hetao region before.

From the death of the First Emperor until the Han-Xiongnu Hetao-Mayi Campaign led by Liu Rong, the Hetao region was controlled by nomadic tribes on the grasslands for sixty or seventy years, and the Han dynasty was doing just fine.
Therefore, the claim that the strategic importance of the Hetao region was comparable to that of Chang'an, the capital of the Han Dynasty, is fundamentally unfounded.

The importance of the Hetao region is self-evident;

But compared to the imperial capital Chang'an, it's better to just stay away from any attempts to extort money.

So, if the Hetao region was not 'as important as Chang'an,' then why was it able to maintain a large field army with the same strength as Chang'an for a long period of time?

If it's not that the strategic position and importance have reached this level, then there's only one explanation left.

Alternatively, the Han dynasty may have a short-term military strategic objective that requires an attack from the Hetao region.

For example, in the Battle of Gaoque last year, and the Hexi War which may break out in the next few years, the Han Dynasty can rely most on the local field army that has been stationed in the Hetao region for a long time and is relatively more familiar with the local area.

However, even from this perspective, it still cannot explain the large number of standing field troops, exceeding 30,000, stationed in the Hetao region.

—In the Battle of Gaoque, the vanguard of Zhi Du and the main force of Cheng Bushi who came to support them together numbered only tens of thousands!

Moreover, at least half of the troops involved in the Battle of Gaoque were secretly transferred by the Han Dynasty from the inland regions.

Cheng Bushi ultimately mobilized less than a quarter of the three armies of Bowang City, including the Shuofang Commandant and the Beidi Cavalry Commandant. The rest remained stationed in their original positions even after the Battle of Gaoque broke out.

As for the Wuyuan Commandant in the southern part of the Hetao region, as well as the Western Commandant and Northern Commandant in the western region, they didn't even get a single military merit in the Battle of Gaoque.

At this point, the problem becomes very clear.

Bowang City was the northern outpost of the Hetao region, located only a few dozen miles from the river that separated the northern part of the Hetao region from the Munan region, and less than a hundred miles from Gaoque on the opposite bank.

After the outbreak of the Battle of Gaoque, unless there was an extremely critical and life-threatening mission that would cause great chaos if the slightest mistake was made, the three field armies of Bowang City could all go and take a trip to Gaoque.

Why don't they go?
Is it that conquering Gaoque has no allure?

Or is the military merit you've already earned not appealing enough?

Apparently neither.

In fact, whether it was the Shuofang Commandant and the Beidi Cavalry Commandant stationed in Bowang City in the north of the Hetao region, or the Wuyuan Commandant stationed in the south of the Hetao region;
Even the standing field armies in western Hetao, such as the Western Commandant and the Northern Commandant—at most only two were established due to 'external factors' as a necessity.

—In the western region, a commandery is needed to defend against the Hexi Corridor;
—In the northern region, a commandery is also needed to defend against Gaoque.

The remaining four commanders were supposedly there to protect the Hetao region, but in reality, they were there to ensure that the Hetao region would not quickly become an internal threat should an external military threat arise.

As the old saying goes: It's not the thief you should fear, but the one who has his eye on you.

Unfortunately, the 'thieves' in the Hetao region are all unrecognizable; they look like traitors with thick eyebrows and big eyes, but are always ready to turn against you.

They couldn't kill him, and they couldn't catch him;

Therefore, the only way to ensure security was through the most primitive and brutal method: stationing troops.

(End of this chapter)