Chapter 270 The Huns Want to Be Beaten
The tenth year of the Han Dynasty.
The political center of the Han Empire had shifted from Luoyang to Guanzhong. This city built by Luo Yi was less than three years old and was full of vigor and vitality, just like the newborn Han Empire.
The most magnificent buildings in the city are naturally the Changle Palace and the Weiyang Palace, but due to the dilapidated economic conditions, they are far inferior to the palaces of the Qin Dynasty.
Luo Yi walked into the palace quietly. After moving to Chang'an City in the eighth year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang granted Luo Yi an additional fief of 500 households for his great contribution in building the city. He also appointed Xiao He as the left prime minister and Luo Yi as the right prime minister.
But everyone knew that Luo Yi's actual status was higher than Xiao He's, because Luo Yi was a close minister serving Liu Bang and could enter and leave the palace more freely. Liu Bang would discuss matters with Luo Yi, and would only summon Xiao He and others to discuss matters after he had a general idea of the items.
After the incident of the King of Qi surrendering to the Duke in the Luoyang Palace, the other kings of different surnames were naturally in a state of panic. The King of Changsha was afraid and wrote a letter requesting to be stripped of his title. He had no power to begin with, so Liu Bang agreed directly and conferred him the title of Marquis of Changsha with ten thousand households.
Luo Yi walked outside the hall, took off his shoes, untied the sharp sword, and quietly walked into the hall. Liu Bang was sitting there, and when he saw Luo Yi walk in, he smiled and said, "Zi Yu, this is the news from Ying Bu's country that has just been delivered."
Luo Yi took it and read it. There were only a few words on it, which said that Ying Bu trained his army day and night to eliminate bandits and barbarians in Huainan. So he said, "Ying Bu is worried about himself because he sees the misfortune of the king of a different surname."
Liu Bang asked: "Zi Yu, Ying Bu is training his soldiers. Is this a sign of rebellion?"
Luo Yi replied: “You divided the land for Ying Bu, granted him the title of king, and made him a prisoner and a ruler. This is your kindness to him.
You are an outstanding commander, and there are many famous generals in the court. This is what he fears. Without provocation, he will not rebel."
Of course Ying Bu did not dare to rebel. There were military geniuses like Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, in the court. Even if he was given two heads, he would not dare to rebel.
Liu Bang was a little disappointed, but then he cheered up. Luo Yi said that there would be no rebellion without provocation.
That is to say, it is still possible. Rebellion is sometimes beyond human control. You either wait for death or struggle to the death. There is no third option.
The King of Qi was saved by the Luo and Lu families, and the King of Changsha escaped death because he was too useless.
Ying Bu is powerful but has a bad reputation, no background, is suspicious, and power-hungry, so it is difficult for him to survive.
Luo Yi knew that Liu Bang wanted to eliminate the kings of other surnames before his death to ensure the stability of the Liu family's kingdom, and Luo Yi had been offering advice on this matter.
But now a big problem has arisen, and I'm afraid I have to put the matter of clearing out the kings of different surnames aside for the time being.
"Your Majesty, a hero has emerged from the Hu people north of the Great Wall. The tribe named Xiongnu has unified the tribes on the grasslands, and they have been making frequent moves recently. It is likely that they will move south. The Han Dynasty is in trouble."
Liu Bang immediately sat up and asked in a deep voice, "What? Ziyu, where did you get the news?"
Luo Yi said: "Several years ago, my elder brother discovered the war in the grassland through the unusual movements of the caravan. At that time, the Central Plains was also in chaos.
It was during this time that the Xiongnu quickly completed their unification, as if they were blessed by God just like you."
The Huns have always been the enemy of the Central Plains, but the Luo family has not paid attention to these Hu people for many years because the Xia people were too prosperous and did not take them seriously at all.
Border countries such as Qin, Zhao and Yan had all defeated the Huns, and many famous generals started their careers by fighting the Huns.
The country had been in a state of division before, but now it was suddenly unified, which really surprised and angered Liu Bang.
The mere unification of the Hu people would naturally not move the Luo family. Even if they were unified, there would only be a few million people at most. What could they use to fight against the Xia people with a population of tens of millions?
What really troubled the Luo family was that after he began to understand the Hu people again, Luo Ling discovered that many of them might be fake Hu people.
In recent years, Luo Ling has been investigating the situation of the Xiongnu, and then he found that there are quite a lot of people from the Xia Dynasty on the grassland, perhaps they should be called Han people now.
Since the end of the Qin Dynasty, a large number of people within the Great Wall have defected to the Huns. Even after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, this phenomenon still existed.
Moreover, among the so-called Hu people, there were many losers in the Central Plains who fled to the grassland. Among them were even descendants of Ji Jiang who failed in the Warring States Period. These people brought some technology and culture to the Hu people.
Regarding the difference between Xia and Yi, King Su had long ago said that those who believed in the rites of Zhou were Xia, and those who did not were Yi. This is what is meant by "if you enter Xia, you become Xia, and if you enter Yi, you become Yi."
However, King Su made a comment on these words. The reason why etiquette was used as a symbol to distinguish the Xia and the Yi was because the barbarians in the Central Plains looked no different from the Xia people.
In particular, Ji Jiang might have come from the Western Rong, while the Shang people might have come from the Eastern Yi. So after eliminating the stubborn elements, they could intermarry a little and promote the ritual system, and they would be able to integrate together quickly.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the Di people in the north looked very different from the other Xia people. In the eyes of the Xia people, they looked like ghosts, so they had no burden at all in fighting them.
But now Luo Ling discovered that the northern Hu people might have suffered heavy losses in natural disasters. Now many of the Hu people look similar to the people in the Central Plains. It is obvious at first glance that they are mixed-race, or even originally from the Central Plains.
Luo Ling thought this was a shame.
China has great etiquette, so it is called Xia; it has beautiful clothing, so it is called Hua.
The reason why the Chinese can look down upon the barbarians with pride is because they are the only ones in the world that have civilization.
Although there are a few extremely stupid and shameless people in this world, most people are just ordinary people who seek profit and avoid harm.
Now that so many people choose to join the Huns, doesn’t it mean that the barbarians are actually better than the Chinese!
This is something that the Luo family cannot tolerate. If they can't even defeat the barbarians, what else can they talk about?
When Liu Bang heard that Heaven has blessed him, his face became even more gloomy: "King Su said that Heaven will only bless the rulers of the Chinese. If Heaven ever blesses the barbarians, it means that the rulers of the Chinese are too immoral.
Am I an immoral monarch?
I don't believe it. What does it matter if the Huns are unified? I want to use the sword in my hand to see if their bows and arrows are sharp.
Ziyu, Duke Zhao lived in seclusion, but he would not sit idly by during the war between Xia and Yi. What is his opinion?
Luo Yi said in a sonorous voice: "My elder brother's opinion is of course to fight, to severely strike the Xiongnu's intention to plunder the south, but my elder brother said that we should fight quickly and decisively.
It is best that the war does not last more than one year, and it must be ended before the spring plowing season next year.
The Central Plains is too empty right now, and every household has no food in stock. It is simply not able to sustain a protracted war with a large country that has unified the grasslands."
The end of the Qin Dynasty in this world is much better than the original time and space of Ji Zhao. Not only is the war shorter by one or two years, the population did not drop sharply due to the war. However, many people still died because the war delayed farming and led to a decrease in grain production.
Luo Yi didn't say the second half of the sentence. If the temporary threat of the Huns could not be resolved within this year, Luo Ling would go north personally and use his family's background to attack the Huns, preventing them from moving south for a while until the Han Dynasty recovered from the quagmire of war.
According to Luo Ling's estimation, the Han Dynasty would be able to recover to the point where it could sustain a major war in ten years at most.
If you want to weaken the Huns, it is not even possible to simply assassinate Maodun. In Ji Zhao's words, it is not simply to weaken the Huns, but to use cheats to delay the opening animation and postpone the entire Han-Hun war.
The price to be paid would naturally be extremely high, but in the face of such a major issue, the family's wealth naturally could not be saved.
Before Ji Zhao came, the Han Dynasty gave money to the Huns for marriage, and they suffered humiliation for decades. Now that Ji Zhao came, did the Han Dynasty still give money to the Huns for marriage?
Then Ji Zhao’s visit was in vain!
Now the whole world has not completely moved towards the unknown. The Huns were destined to rise with the rise of the Han Dynasty. Moreover, if the Han Dynasty did not fight the Huns and did not directly confront a grassland empire at the peak of its rise, could it still be called a strong Han Dynasty? How could it unite all the people in the world?
Only a war with united will can completely forge a unified community. The concept of Zhu Xia has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, but it is not enough. The war against the Huns can unify all the common people in the world under the banner of the Han Empire, and combined with the integration of ideology, completely complete the great unification.
Although Liu Bang didn't know Luo Ling well, he knew that he would not say a word unless it was a major event. This time, he actually passed a message to him through Luo Yi, which meant that the Huns' attack really posed a threat to the Xia people.
Now Zhu Xia is his Han Dynasty, so Liu Bang naturally couldn't remain calm anymore, and immediately said: "Zi Yu, ring the bell, and ask Che Hou and others in Chang'an to come to Changle Palace. The Xiongnu may go south at any time, so we must quickly prepare the troops and horses."
As the bells rang slowly, teams of palace servants knocked on the doors of the homes of these marquises, and the nobles of the entire dynasty came to the palace.
————
From the 1st to the 10th century AD, the Xia civilization, jointly established by the Zhou king and numerous noble lords, was one of the most powerful agricultural civilizations in the world.
With the domestication of horses, nomadic peoples rose on the northern grasslands. In the 11th century AD, the newly born Han Empire finally faced its destined opponent, the Xiongnu Empire, a nomadic tribal state established by the united grassland peoples.
The rise of nomadic states will always pose a serious threat to the survival of agricultural states. Although the empire is still in a state of disrepair, in the thousand-year war of civilizations, it is absolutely forbidden in the civilized world for rulers to bow down to barbarians, and no one can violate this iron rule.
According to Chinese historical records, the emperor of the Han Empire asked the Duke of Zhao for his opinion through the Marquis of Ying. The Duke of Zhao was a noble with a special status. So the emperor of the Han Empire began to recruit the high-ranking nobles of the empire to fight. According to historical records, 37 marquises participated in this national war. ——"A Global History: Farming and Nomadism"
Ask for monthly ticket~
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
