Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Beat the Huns to Europe

The foreign wars in the Eastern Han Dynasty were much less than those in the Western Han Dynasty, and there were few such large-scale wars as in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to wipe out the powerful Hu.However, the Eastern Han Dynasty completed a major event that almost affected the history of the entire world, especially European history-the complete expulsion of the Northern Huns. It is said that this incident has affected the history of the world because of a word familiar to Europeans-the whip of God.The entry of the Huns cavalry into Europe was a major event in the history of the European Middle Ages.The cumbersome Europeans wrapped in heavy infantry and iron armor suffered worse defeats than the Han Dynasty in the swift attack of the Huns, and they didn't even have a chance to "make peace".Almost every war was a massacre with huge casualties, countless cities were destroyed, countless villages were looted, and the mighty Huns were singled out by Attila, who even had a proud name - God's Whip .In the two thousand years from then to now, only two people have been able to receive this honor. The other one is the well-known conqueror of the Mongol Empire and the "ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty" in Chinese history books-Genghis Khan.

At that time, the Europeans were almost unprepared for the arrival of the Huns. Later, the famous European historian Zweig once said: In the face of this war, the whole of Europe fell into a long period of fear, and no one knew about it. Where did people come from, no one knows why they came here.I believe that Zweig must have never read Chinese history books, and he can find the answer after reading: These people came from the Mongolian grasslands in the land of China. The reason why they came here was because they were defeated by the Han Dynasty and drove them away. Had nowhere to go, had to come here.

The era when the Han Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu and drove them away was the Eastern Han Dynasty. After recuperating in the early years of the founding of the country, the Taiping Eastern Han Dynasty, starting with the second emperor Hanming Emperor Liu Zhuang, was determined to solve the Xiongnu—an old problem that has caused headaches for the rulers of the Central Plains.The war against the Xiongnu in the Eastern Han Dynasty began in AD 73. Although this expedition did not achieve the purpose of severely injuring the Xiongnu's vitality, a bad start was sometimes half the success.Because of the possession of Yiwu, the Eastern Han Dynasty opened up the road to the Western Regions, and the Eastern Han army could use this road to carry out long-distance raids on the former homeland of the Northern Huns.In the second year after this battle, Dou Gu once again led an army of 17,000, entered the Western Regions via Yiwu, smashed the main force of the Northern Huns entrenched in Cheshi, and beheaded nearly 10,000 people.This is the first time since the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty that the northern Xiongnu army was systematically annihilated.It was also after this battle that the Eastern Han Dynasty established the capital of the Western Regions and restored its sovereignty over the land of the Western Regions.At this time, the Eastern Han Dynasty was facing the best opportunity to completely annihilate the Northern Huns. Ban Chao, who had previously been sent to the Western Regions, had successfully persuaded most of the countries there to surrender to the Han Dynasty. The Northern Huns could no longer gain a foothold in the Western Regions. It is entirely possible to completely exterminate the Northern Huns.

But an accident happened. It was a political accident. Dou Gu suddenly received the imperial decree of the Eastern Han Dynasty: the class teacher returned to the court.For the first time in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the chance to completely wipe out the Northern Huns was ruined like this.Without this imperial decree, I am afraid that there would not be the Ban family father and son fighting alone in the Western Regions for the next half century. The reason why the Eastern Han Dynasty accepted it as soon as it was good was that most of the civil servants at that time insisted on Confucius' proposition that the barbarians should not be used if they got their land, and it would be futile to hunt and kill them, as long as they were driven away far away.The more important reason is Dou Gu's special status - a relative.Here I want to talk about Dou Gu. Although his reputation is not as good as Wei Qing, he is a person with a similar personality to Wei Qing, and he was also the most capable military general among the Eastern Han generals at that time.He was a descendant of the powerful Dou family in Hexi, and married a princess of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was also the son-in-law of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Such a special status was undoubtedly extremely sensitive at the time.The Western Han Dynasty was destroyed by foreign relatives, which made the Eastern Han Dynasty adopt a policy of suppressing foreign relatives in the early days of the founding of the country, and strictly restricted the land and property of foreign relatives.Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, father and son, appointed a large number of cruel officials to limit the expansion of the power of foreign relatives.As the son-in-law of the Eastern Han Dynasty who held military power, once Dou Gu continued to build up his military exploits, his strength would naturally be feared by Emperor Han Ming.

Dou Gu was also very sensible, and he didn't complain after receiving the edict. After returning to Luoyang, he continued to behave with his tail between his legs.He is modest and cautious at ordinary times, but he is bold and generous in dealing with things, and he is willing to do good. He is very popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty.After his class teacher returned to the court, he never talked about fighting again, and even ignored Ban Chao who was sent to the Western Regions by him, and allowed Ban Chao to fight alone there for many years.Because of this battle, his official position was promoted steadily. After the military power was handed over, he was given a lot of honorary positions. Finally, he finally came home in 88 AD and was given the posthumous title of Marquis Wen.

However, the arrogance of the Northern Huns did not subside because of Dou Gu's departure, on the contrary, it intensified.After realizing that the Eastern Han Dynasty would not act rashly, the Northern Huns began to boldly wipe out the forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the Western Regions.Facts have proved that the Northern Huns at this time were indeed no longer as brave as they used to be. Facing the Western Regions where only a few thousand soldiers stood firm in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Northern Huns fought very hard. Often tens of thousands of Huns besieged thousands of Han troops, but Often get knocked back.Every time the Han army conquered a strategic location, the casualties of the Northern Huns were several times that of the Han army.It is commendable that although the Eastern Han Empire adopted an "inaction" attitude in the battle for the Western Regions, the resistance of the remaining Han troops was extremely tragic.For example, Shule City, where Geng Gong led 2,000 soldiers to stand firm, faced the siege of the Xiongnu army several times his own under the desperate situation of exhausted arrowheads and water and food shortages.He was so generous and heroic that even the Northern Huns admired Shanyu, who once took the initiative to persuade him to surrender, promising to marry his daughter to him.But Geng Gong was not Li Ling. Not only did he sternly reject the Huns' attempts, he even killed those who persuaded him to surrender to express his determination to fight to the death.Annoyed, the Northern Huns launched a brutal attack on Shule City.But what is ridiculous is that when the soldiers on the front lines of the Eastern Han Dynasty were fighting to the death, the civil servants in the Eastern Han court were fighting. Rescue this Han army, let them be loyal to the country in the Western Regions, and let them fend for themselves.Fortunately, his proposal was reprimanded by many ministers of the court, and it was rare for Emperor Hanzhang, who had just ascended the throne, to be a "man" once, and said angrily, "If such loyal soldiers suffer disaster, it will be a crime of fainting the emperor"!The emperor didn't want to be a fool, so things were easy to handle. The Eastern Han Empire then launched the famous "Save the Soldier Geng Gong" operation, and asked Duan Peng, the prefect of Jiuquan who had made great achievements in the war against the Qiang people, to bring 7,000 people to the Western Regions for rescue.The Han army progressed smoothly, and captured more than 3,000 Northern Huns along the way.Facts have proved that the military strength and combat quality of the Northern Huns, who have lingered in the Western Regions for many years, are far from what they were in the Western Han Dynasty. At the end of the Xiongnu's crossbow, it was completely destroyed.The accident happened again. The Wangmeng troops who were ordered to rescue were cowards. After entering the Western Regions, they refused to advance any further. The reason was that they were worried about being encircled by the Northern Huns. Most of the Han troops who did not know the enemy's situation also agreed to do so, let alone being besieged. After so long, who knows whether this Han army is alive or dead?At a critical moment, Fan Qiang, a small official in the army who had served as a guard for Geng Gong, stood up. He objected to this division, and asked to bring 2,000 soldiers and horses to rescue him. Under his insistence, the main force of the Han army was left for him After 2,000 people, they pulled out their horses in a panic and retreated south.With this cavalry unit, Fan Qiang crossed mountains and ridges, and finally arrived at Shule City, where he successfully defeated the Xiongnu's siege troops. After the two Han armies joined forces, they exchanged tears on the spot.After several days of trekking, Fan Qiang escorted this heroic unit back to the Central Plains. After entering the Han area, there were only 13 of Geng Gong’s original 2,000 Han troops left. Spielberg's artistic processing, and the Chinese soldier's "Save Private Geng Gong" are the facts of Iron Blood China's strong ambitions.

In the battle for the Western Regions, the Northern Huns once again won a temporary victory, but then they lost forever. The irony is that the continued decline of the power of the Northern Huns was precisely after the recapture of the Western Regions from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The cause of the decline was natural disasters. In AD 75, when the Northern Xiongnu re-occupied the Western Regions, the Western Regions encountered "extreme weather". For the next eight consecutive years, the Western Regions experienced drought every spring, extremely cold winters, and even frequent blizzards.God seems to be fulfilling the Han Empire that abandoned the Western Regions.

Such extreme weather undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the northern Xiongnu, especially their nomadic economy. A large number of cattle, sheep and livestock were frozen to death, and they had no food and clothing. If they wanted to squeeze the countries of the Western Regions, they could belong to the countries of the Western Regions. , and they were all so poor that many people even began to miss the Han Empire.When the Han Empire was in power, once they encountered such a situation, they would distribute a large amount of rice and grain to relieve disasters. They regarded the people of the Western Regions as their own people, but the Northern Huns regarded them as slaves. The loss caused by "extreme weather", the northern Xiongnu spared no expense, risked annihilation of the whole army and started a long-distance raid, intending to plunder the Han land, but unfortunately this move was miscalculated. They first wanted to plunder Liaodong, but they did not expect that the eastern grassland lived They were the Xianbei and Wuhuan people who had become the subjects of the Han Empire. They wanted to plunder Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Unexpectedly, the people living in the southern grasslands were the Southern Huns who were driven away by them and wanted to plunder. In the Hexi Corridor, the elite Hexi Army of the Han Dynasty has been here for a long time.The successive harassments ended in disastrous failure.The Northern Huns, who had betrayed their relatives, were getting closer and closer to the end.

During this period, a political change in the Han Empire that seemed to be irrelevant to the Northern Huns also accelerated the end of the Northern Huns.In April 88 AD, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, who had never been interested in expanding the territory, died of illness. His fourth son Liu Zhao came to the throne, and he was the Emperor Hanhe in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Liu Zhao was originally not qualified to ascend the throne, but he was adopted as an adopted son by the empress Dou of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, which conformed to the imperial succession system of the Central Plains Dynasty "establishing a descendant but not establishing an elder", so his ascension to the throne was a matter of course.At this time, Liu Zhao was only 9 years old, and I am afraid that even the Huns still don't know where they are.At this time, the power of the country fell into the hands of her adoptive mother, the Empress Dowager Dou, and the powerful official whom the Empress Dowager Dou relied on was the main combat figure who had always advocated a tough policy against the Huns—General Dou Xian.He is the elder brother of Empress Dowager Dou, and he is also a figure under one person and above ten thousand in the Han Empire at this time.His coming to power marked that the Han Empire's attack on the Xiongnu would enter the final stage of general offensive.

In the political arena of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, compared with his relative Dou Gu in the early years, Dou Xian was an extremely arrogant and domineering person. When Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty was in power, he was almost pulled out by Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty and chopped off because he encroached on the princess's land.After the power came to power, Dou Xian became even more defiant, to the point where he was bound to take revenge, and those who had offended him before would find a reason to take revenge.But this person is also a good fighter, especially when he is in power recently, of course he has to use his military exploits to establish his prestige, and the target of attack is the Northern Huns.For Dou Xian, there is only one way to subdue the opposition in the ruling and opposition parties - and that is to completely wipe out the lingering Northern Huns.

Therefore, in AD 88, the Han Empire once again discussed the use of troops against the Northern Huns. The generals of the military all advocated sending troops, but the civil servants firmly opposed it. For those few points, you don’t need to hunt down the barbarians, just drive them away, and it costs money to fight. Of course, what they are more worried about is that continuous foreign wars will cause the power of the military group to grow and the power of foreign relatives to expand. The life of civil servants is quite difficult. But the Empress Dowager Dou didn't care whether they had a good time or not. War can give Dou Xian prestige, which means it can give the Dou family's relatives a group of prestige. Besides, the Northern Huns have reached the late stage, so they have made great achievements, so naturally they can't give up.That's how things settled down.Dou Xian commanded the army, joined forces with the Southern Huns, and launched a large-scale counterattack against the Northern Huns.In June of that year, the Han army came out of Shuofang and fought fiercely with the Northern Huns in Zhuoshan.The dispatch of troops this time was a devastating blow to the northern Huns, and the triumphant Dou Xian was also very happy. He recorded his meritorious deeds in Hang'ai Mountain and returned it.This hearty victory was the "Le Yanran Mountain" that Fan Zhongyan, a famous official of the Song Dynasty, yearned for later. The Battle of Yanran Mountain was a devastating blow to the Northern Huns. At that time, the entire population of the Northern Huns was only a few hundred thousand people. After a fight and even surrendered and captured, the Northern Huns almost lost more than half of their population. The catastrophe of the blow even surpassed Wei Qinghuo Qubing's Battle of Mobei in the Western Han Dynasty, and the war with the Eastern Han Dynasty really cannot continue.In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Situ Yuan An, who had previously opposed sending troops, quickly put forward a proposal to surrender after Dou Xian's victory, thinking that this would be a good opportunity to solve the Xiongnu issue once and for all.According to Yuan An's suggestion, the Han Dynasty sent Liang Xiongnu and others as envoys to surrender to the Balkhash Lake area where the Northern Huns were hiding. Under Liang Xiong's persuasion, the hopeless Northern Huns were finally moved. surrendered to the Han Dynasty.If this is done, I am afraid that the great war in which the Huns cavalry ravaged Europe will no longer exist. The accident happened at this time. The courtiers were very happy about the surrender, the Queen Mother was very happy, and the Northern Huns were also very happy, but Dou Xian was not happy. In his opinion, this was clearly a way of competing with him.At the same time, the Southern Huns were not happy. The Southern Huns and the Northern Huns were deadly enemies. In their eyes, tribal conflicts were always greater than ethnic conflicts.Therefore, Dou Xian and the Southern Huns hit it off immediately, and simply took advantage of the opportunity that the Northern Huns accepted the surrender and neglected to take precautions, and launched another large-scale attack to solve the Northern Huns problem once and for all.In July 90 A.D., the Han army and the Southern Huns attacked from two directions and entered the royal court of the Northern Huns. The Northern Huns army, which was neglected to guard against it, suddenly collapsed. The Xiongnu Chanyu’s wife, Yanshi, and more than 15,000 people were captured. .The irony is that Liang Xi and Ban Gu, the envoys of the Han Dynasty, were on their way to enshrine the Northern Huns at this time. When they arrived, they saw dead bodies all over the place. From then on, the Northern Huns could not fight, nor could they surrender. The only way left was to move westward.In February 91 AD, Dou Xian sent troops again to surround the remnants of the Northern Huns in Jinwei Mountain (Altai Mountain) and captured Shan Yu's mother. Shan Yu led thousands of people to break through and flee north.This was the last large-scale battle in the history of the Han-Hungarian War. Since then, the Northern Huns have embarked on a tragic westward journey, bypassing the Aral Sea, migrating to the far west, settling down in the Volga River Basin, and becoming The ancestors of the Huns who were active in the Volga River Basin in the first half of the 4th century may have continued to realize the dream of rebuilding the Hun Empire that had been broken on the desert.They appeared in Europe more than a century later, which is another story.