Emperor Shuang: The counterattack started from the Gaopingling Incident Chapter 355: Slowly planning, a struggle that lasts for more than a thousand years
Chapter 355: Slowly planning, a struggle that lasts for more than a thousand years
Bai Lingjun said with a smile: "It is really a blessing for the people of Wei Dynasty that my husband has such a heart, but we should not be too impatient about this matter. After all, this disaster to the Xiongnu has been around for a long time. From the time when the beacon fire played on the princes in the Western Zhou Dynasty to now,
So many generations of emperors and generals have not been able to completely solve the problem, so we have to gradually develop a good strategy."
Cao Shuang nodded and replied: "Lingyun is right, this is a struggle that has lasted for more than a thousand years, and we still can't rush it."
The Huns have been causing trouble for a long time. When did the Huns begin to invade the Central Plains? Most people think of the Qin Dynasty, because the Great Wall built by Qin Shihuang was not to resist them.
In the 32nd year of the First Emperor of Qin, General Meng Tian of the Qin Army drove the Xiongnu out of the Hetao and Hexi Corridor areas.
Why is there no record of Xiongnu invasion before Qin?
In fact, before the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu had already existed, but at that time, they were not called the Xiongnu, but Rongdi.
For example, during the Western Zhou Dynasty, King You of Zhou, who was playing tricks on the princes with beacon fire, died at the hands of the Dog Rong. The property of the Zhou royal family was also plundered by the Dog Rong.
Dog Rong raids on the borders of northern countries happened from time to time, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. Until the Warring States and Qin Dynasty, Zhao and Qin twice defeated the invading Huns on the northern border. For a time, this group
The fierce barbarians in the north do not dare to go south easily. Of course, this is only temporary.
In the north, the vast grasslands and natural vastness have never been able to conceal the ambition of the king of the grasslands.
They fought on horseback and killed all directions. On this vast stage, various tribes fought and life and death were at stake. Both the living environment and the battles between tribes were much crueler than those in the Central Plains. After all, the Huns did not have Zhou rites.
In this regard, Tai Shigong said in "Historical Records: The Chronicles of the Five Emperors": "It is in line with Busan to pursue the meat porridge in the north, and the city will be in the wilderness of Zhuolu."
Note in "Historical Records Suoyin": "The Xiongnu also had other names. In the Tang and Yu Dynasties, they were called Shanrong, also called Xunzhou, in Xia they were called Chunwei, in Yin they were called Guifang, in Zhou they were called Yanxi, and in Han they were called Xiongnu."
With the development of social history, different clans and tribes active in northern my country, such as Xunzhou, Guifang, Yixuan, "Rong", "Di", etc., through constant wars with each other, the various clans were able to integrate, and finally they became Made the Huns successful.
There is a reason why the Huns have been going south to invade the Central Plains for generations.
Since the 3rd century BC, that is, during the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu gradually emerged. At that time, they were mainly distributed in the Ordos Plateau east of the Altai Mountains (called "Henan Land" or "New Qinzhong" at the time).
The Ordos Plateau is embraced by the "ji" shape of the Yellow River. It borders the Loess Plateau in the southeast and the desert in the north. Although the latitude is not high, it is above the plateau, resulting in lower temperatures.
The Xiongnu continued to multiply, develop, and grow on this land, and reached their peak period from 176 BC to 128 BC, which was the Han Dynasty.
As a nomadic people, the Xiongnu can only be described as "depending on the sky for food". Because the land where the Xiongnu is located is not suitable for farming, they can only make a living by raising animals.
Wherever the grass is luxuriant, it needs to be moved there to provide a good environment for the cattle, horses, and sheep that are being raised.
In winter, the climate was cold and there was a lack of food for the winter. Under such harsh natural conditions, the Huns' life was not easy. After all, they did not farm like the people in the Central Plains.
Because they have to move back and forth with the changes of the seasons and cannot settle down, it is difficult to develop urban settlements and remain in a tribal state, making it difficult to accumulate wealth.
It was okay in stable times, but if there were some natural disasters, such as snowstorms, hail, etc., it would be very difficult for the cattle and sheep they raised to survive if they were frozen to death.
How about the Central Plains? The land is fertile and agriculture is developed. Even in winter, the grain harvested in autumn can be used to survive the winter, and the winter temperature is not as cold as in the north.
In terms of economy, the Central Plains region is relatively prosperous and rich in various materials, such as salt, iron, clothes, etc.
Generally speaking, the living conditions of the people in the Central Plains were much better than those of the Huns at that time. Therefore, the Huns wanted to go south to rob the materials and land of the Central Plains so that they could live such a life and respect their strength among the grassland tribes. If
If you don't have something, you can only grab it, and of course you have to grab something that is weaker than yourself.
The above describes how harsh the environment in which a large number of Xiongnu lived was. They needed to migrate, could not settle down, did not have enough supplies, and had low productivity. But under such circumstances, they made the rulers of Qin and Han very anxious.
Tai Shigong's "Historical Records" said: "The Huns can ride sheep and use their bows to shoot birds and mice; the young and old can shoot foxes and rabbits for food. The Xiongnu can do without bows and can be used as armored cavalry."
The general meaning is that when you are a child, you can ride sheep and shoot birds and mice with a slingshot. When you grow up, you can shoot foxes and rabbits and use them as food. When you grow up, everyone is proficient in archery.
, wearing armor and riding a war horse.
From this we can learn that the Huns practiced archery since they were young, which is one of the reasons why the Huns have strong combat effectiveness.
In ordinary food, in addition to cows, sheep, horses and their milk and dairy products, foxes and rabbits are also one of the food sources.
In order to obtain a better life, the Huns embarked on the road of foreign aggression.
But in front of them, there are two roads to choose from, one is to the west, to Central Asia, Europe and other places, and the other is to the south, to the Central Plains region.
Obviously, in addition to the close distance between the Central Plains and the terrain, it also goes from high to low from north to south, so it is more convenient to go south.
During the Han Dynasty, a remarkable figure emerged among the Xiongnu - Maodun. Under his leadership, the Xiongnu conquered more than 20 other countries on the grassland, unified the northern grassland for the first time, and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire. To the Xiongnu
It is said that his performance is comparable to that of Qin Shihuang.
In the first year of Qin II, this man killed his father and became a self-reliant man. After that, he gradually gained more than 300,000 people who controlled strings and became the most powerful country in the northern grassland. Liu Bang's embarrassing siege of Baideng was his handiwork.
,
The Xiongnu invasion can be described as an invasion, because the scale of their actions is often small, and the purpose of the invasion is usually to rob resources.
Because he was good at basics and very fast, many times the Huns had finished looting and fled, and the army just arrived.
This kind of problem has troubled the kings of all generations in the Han Dynasty, but because the government had just been established and did not have the strong strength to eliminate it, they could only adopt a peace policy to ease the relationship between the two countries.
Until the Han Dynasty became stronger and stronger, it sent out large-scale troops to conquer the Xiongnu and divided the Xiongnu into northern and southern Xiongnu. The northern Xiongnu went north, but still did not invade the Central Plains, while the southern Xiongnu went west to harm the distant west.
After the decline of the Southern Huns, other Northern Huns who migrated westward finally reached the Don and Danube river basins in Europe.
They had a great battle with the local Goths and eventually defeated them. The Goths, who fled in defeat, finally entered the Roman Empire and used the southern Russian steppe as a base to launch a war against the Roman Empire.
As its territory continued to expand, the Hun Empire, with the Hungarian plain as its center of rule, had been basically established by the time of Oktar Great Chanyu. The Chanyu royal court was stabilized near today's Budapest, Hungary, and became the eastern and western empires.
The most serious threat to the Roman Empire caused Westerners to return to the old path of the Han Dynasty.