The White Horse Raids the Three Kingdoms

Regarding this nation, Lu Bu had dealt with them a lot, and in his heart there was nothing but killing intent.

However, in the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu was an unavoidable problem. It was also during the Han Dynasty. Among the many large and small ethnic groups around the country, the Xiongnu was the most powerful.

The Huns, at first, were a nomadic tribe that arose around the 3rd century BC.

From weak to strong, from small to large, becoming stronger bit by bit, during the heyday of the Xiongnu Empire, from 176 BC to 128 BC, the Huns were mainly distributed in the Ordos Plateau east of the Altai Mountains.

The Xiong character in the Xiongnu is actually equivalent to the fierce fierce. Dating back to the period of oracle bone inscriptions, the hieroglyphs of these two characters are the images of bows and arrows.

Horseback riding and archery are indispensable skills for the Huns, so the people in the Central Plains took the word Xiong to represent them.

Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Rong tribe began to threaten the Central Plains dynasty. After King You of Zhou made a show of fighting with the princes, the Quanrong tribe captured Haojing and forced King Ping to move eastward.During the Warring States Period, Lin Hu and Lou Fan invaded the State of Zhao many times, Zhao Wuling Wang Hufu drove away Lin Hu and Lou Fan on horseback, and set up Yunzhong and other counties in the newly opened area in the north.Lin Hu and Lou Fan moved north to integrate into the newly rising Xiongnu.

At the end of the Warring States Period, General Li Mu of the State of Zhao once defeated the Xiongnu. He dispatched 1300 chariots, 13000 cavalry, 5 infantry, and 10 archers to fight the Xiongnu. South offender.

After Qin Shihuang unified China, in 215 BC, he even ordered Meng Tian to lead 30 Qin troops to attack the Xiongnu in the north, capture Hetao, and station troops in Shangjun.

There is also the saying "but the Huns are more than [-] miles away, and the Hu people dare not go south and graze horses" which is widely circulated in later generations.

Mengtian built a fortress from Yuzhong along the Yellow River to Yinshan, connecting the old Great Walls of Qin, Zhao, and Yan for more than 5000 miles. According to Yangshan, it winds north, and builds a straight road from Jiuyuan in the north and Yunyang in the south, forming a long defense in the north. Wire.

Later, Meng Tian guarded the northern defense for more than ten years, and the Xiongnu frightened him of his might and did not dare to commit another crime.

Until the mighty Qin Empire collapsed in the tide of peasant uprisings, the Qin Great Wall Army, which was originally stationed in the Hetao area under the order of Qin Shihuang to monitor and attack the Xiongnu, Donghu and other nomadic peoples, was also destroyed in the Battle of Julu. .

A huge vacuum appeared in the entire northern grassland.

The Huns took advantage of the situation and seized the territory, camps, and pastures left by the Qin army. Then, under the leadership of Mao Dun Shanyu, they defeated Donghu and gained the supremacy of the grassland.

Through the efforts of Mao Dun and the old Chanyu, the territory of the Xiongnu Empire expanded like never before. From the Great Wall of Han Dynasty to the remote Western Regions, the Huns established a huge empire with an area of ​​tens of thousands of miles.

Obviously, with the civilization and political level of the Huns, it is impossible to effectively rule such a huge territory.

Therefore, during the reign of Lao Shangchanyu, the Huns determined a double-headed eagle strategy similar to that of the later Lao Maozi.

There are left and right wise kings, left and right Guli kings, left and right big households, left and right bone capitals, etc.

The ones with the left expand to the west, and the ones with the right penetrate into the Han area.

In the tradition of the Huns, the left is the most respected, and the Zuoxian King of the Huns is not only the leader responsible for the expansion of the West, but also the heir.

As a nomadic people on the ancient Mongolian plateau, the Huns arose in the foothills of the Yinshan Mountains in Inner Mongolia today. They wear left lapels.

Around 215 BC, the Huns were driven out of Hetao and the Hexi Corridor by Qin general Meng Tian.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu became stronger and invaded repeatedly, posing a great threat to the Western Han Dynasty and controlling the Western Regions.

After experiencing the siege of Baideng, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, clearly realized the power gap between the weak Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, so he decided to marry the princess of the Han royal family to the Xiongnu, and pay tribute to the Xiongnu every year. Gold, silver, silk and other treasures , so as to ease the relationship with the Huns.

But even so, the Xiongnu often sent cavalry to attack and plunder the border areas of the Western Han Dynasty.

Due to the poor and weak national strength, the Han Dynasty began to recuperate and develop the agricultural economy.

Then, through the efforts of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the country's economy has been greatly developed and its economic strength has been greatly strengthened.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che ascended the throne, the Western Han Dynasty began to gradually change its long-standing attitude of showing weakness towards the Huns.

In 119 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent a powerful cavalry force into the territory of the Xiongnu with almost the power of the whole country to start a decisive battle with the main force of the Xiongnu cavalry.In this battle, the Han army defeated the main force of the Xiongnu cavalry, annihilating more than [-] Hun troops. Huo Qubing sealed the wolf and lived in Xushan, Zen in Guyan, and boarded Hanhai.

So far, after experiencing the Battle of Mobei, the strength of the Xiongnu was greatly damaged, and they were unable to pose a large-scale threat to the Han Dynasty.

The Xiongnu, who were defeated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, retreated to Mobei and split into five tribes.

In 53 BC, Hu Hanxie, the leader of the Southern Huns, surrendered to the Western Han Dynasty.

In 36 BC, the Western Han Dynasty punished Zhizhi Shanyu, the northern Xiongnu.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu split again into the Southern and Northern Xiongnu.

In 48 A.D., the leader of the Southern Huns, Ji Luoshi Zhuan, led his people to surrender to Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, and was placed in the Hetao area.But the Northern Huns were still rebellious, which made the Eastern Han determined to destroy the Northern Huns.

In the original history, in the first year of Emperor Liu Zhaoyong of the Han Dynasty (AD 89), Dou Xian was defeated by the Xiongnu, and Ban Gu set stones at the southern foot of Yanran Mountain and engraved the "Feng Yanran Mountain Inscription" to record his achievements.

Later, the Southern Xiongnu established the former Zhao regime during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period.

The Tiefu people, descendants of the Xiongnu and Xianbei, established the Hu Xia regime.

It can be said that the Xiongnu soldiers and horses, to a certain extent, influenced the historical process of China at that time, and even recorded it in "Historical Records" and "Hanshu".

Sima Qian quoted the saying of the Huns that "the Miao descendants of the Xia clan were also called Chunwei, Xunyu, and Xunyu). Above Tang and Yu, there were Shanrong, Xunyun, and Xunyu, who lived in the north and moved with grass and livestock."

In fact, the royal lineage of the Huns from Chunwei to Toumandanyu has no history.The above-mentioned royal family came from Chunwei, the son of Jie, which is a legend among the Huns.

Wang Guowei made a systematic summary of the evolution of the name of the Xiongnu in "Gui Fang Kun Yi Xun Kao", and believed that in the Shang Dynasty, Gui Fang, Hun Yi, and Xiong were in the Shang Dynasty, and in the Zhou Dynasty, they were Xuan Xun, and in the Spring and Autumn Period, they were Rong and Di. , Hu in the Warring States Period were all so-called Huns in later generations.

There is also a saying that the different ethnic groups seen in historical records such as Guirong, Yiqu, Yanjing, Yuwu, Loufan, and Dali are collectively referred to as the Xiongnu.

"Destroy the Yue clan of the Yi, and decree it by beheading it. Loulan, Wusun, Hujie and the 26 neighboring countries are all Huns, and all the people who lead the bow are one family, and Beizhou is determined."

The entanglement between the Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty is quite "inseparable".

940 Three Foreign Races Are Ruthless

In fact, the external dominance of the Han Dynasty is obvious to all.

Even some modern Western historical dictionaries describe the Han Dynasty in this way. The Han Empire praised the Western world for its strong national power, external expansion, and lasting strong unity!

In the eyes of many Westerners, the Han Empire was the only empire that could rival the Roman Empire when it ruled the roost!

And in our east, whether the Han Empire is strong or declining, it maintains military advantages over the surrounding countries, so that the surrounding countries dare not disrespect the Han Empire!

During the war with foreign nations, the national strength of the Han Dynasty was still very strong.

Whenever a dynasty in the Central Plains weakened, foreign invasions would follow. Many dynasties fell to foreigners, such as the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty.

But the Han Dynasty, even when the country was divided and the princes ruled one side, could still beat the barbarians in all directions, and maintained a strong international and military position.

The fall of the Han Dynasty was caused by the local powerful gentry, and the central government was weak and difficult to control.

When Wang Fuzhi, a great thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, commented on the Eastern Han Dynasty when he was studying history, he said that "the country will perish with weakness, while the Han will perish with strength!".

This sentence means that the change of regimes in the past dynasties is generally due to the weakness of the national power and the incompetence of the army, which led to the invasion of foreign enemies and perished. Only the Eastern Han Dynasty perished because the national power was too strong, and finally internal power struggled for power, resulting in a tripartite confrontation.

In fact, if we take history as a mirror, this evaluation is very accurate.

Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu in the north, and Wei Qinghuo Qubing opened up the territory, the Han Dynasty changed from being weak at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and it could only make peace with the powerful Xiongnu, and began to rise strongly.

Whether it was Huo Qubing in the Western Han Dynasty who sealed the wolf and lived in Xuxu, or Dou Xian in the Eastern Han Dynasty who broke the Northern Huns, climbed Yanran Mountain, and carved stones to record his achievements.