Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 128 I Wish I Could Caress Your Back

In Zuoguo City, the leaders of various tribes looked distraught and whispered to each other.

After Zhang Yu attacked and killed Xubu Chanyu, together with Qiangqu Chanyu who was killed by everyone, the Xiongnu lost two Chanyus in a short period of time. This caused undercurrents to surge within the Xiongnu regime, which was already full of contradictions.

Now the leaders of all tribes have withdrawn to Zuoguo City and gathered in the royal court in order to elect a new Chanyu, or a new person in charge.

"Now that the Chanyu has been killed by the Han army, the country is without a leader. I don't know what to do?" Wuchanmu, the King of Ruju, said sadly, wiping his tears.

The status of King Ruju in the Xiongnu was similar to that of a prime minister in the Central Plains dynasty. He was not a descendant of the Luan Ti clan, but a person of a different surname.

Luan Timoche pretended to be sad and said, "Xubu Chanyu was respected by our people. Now he is being killed by the Han people. Our country should regroup its troops and avenge Xubu Chanyu."

"Correct!"

"Avenge Shanyu!"

Liang Yuanhe looked angry and said, "For the past hundred years, the Han people have been driving our people away. Now they are killing our Chanyu. How can I tolerate this humiliation?"

After a pause, Liang Yuanhe's tone slowed down and he said, "Since we want to take revenge on the Han people, we need a new Chanyu to lead us. So I think it would be better to select the King of Zuo Guli as Chanyu and let him lead our people."

Revenge for Xubu Chanyu was just a slogan, and now everyone was naturally aiming at the vacant Chanyu position.

Seeing that someone nominated Luan Timoche as the Chanyu, Qu Bei couldn't help but feel anxious. He looked at Shi Zhou Zhuxie and signaled him to speak with his eyes.

Shi Zhou Zhuxie understood and said in a deep voice: "Although King Guli has the blood of Chanyu, his power and virtue are not as good as King Youxian, and his blood is not as good as King Wenyudi (son of Xubu Chanyu). So if you want to choose Chanyu based on power and virtue, I think King Youxian can succeed. If you want to choose Chanyu based on blood distance, you can choose King Wenyudi as Chanyu now."

Hearing this, Luan Timoche's face became uncertain. As Shi Zhou Zhuxie said, although he has the blood of Luan Ti clan and has the right to inherit the position of Chanyu, he needs to trace back to the previous two Hu Zheng Chanyu.

Now, more than ten years have passed, and the country has experienced two Chanyus. His right of succession is pitifully weak. Therefore, if the bloodline inheritance system is used, Xubu Chanyu's descendants have more rights; if the prestige is used to select people, his prestige is not as good as Qubei, who was born in Xiutuhu.

After a long silence, Luan Timoche said, "The Right Wise King is a different race of the Xiongnu, not a descendant of our Luan Ti clan. If we were to elect a Chanyu, how could the Right Wise King be included in the list?"

All the leaders of the tribes sitting in the seats nodded, agreeing with what Luan Timoche said. In the history of the Xiongnu, Xiutuhu was a tribe of a different surname, and surrendered to the Han Dynasty three hundred years ago. It was really unreasonable for him to want to be the Khan of the Xiongnu now.

Qubei saw that Luan Timoche wanted to eliminate his inheritance rights so that he could be selected as Chanyu, so he said coldly: "I am not blessed enough and my virtue is not good enough, so I dare not covet the position of Chanyu. But I would like to recommend King Wen Yudi as Chanyu to succeed Xubu Chanyu."

King Wenyudi was the second most powerful Xiongnu king after the Left and Right Wise Kings and King Guli. After Xubu Chanyu took office, due to various factors he was unable to directly appoint his son as the Left Wise King and could only appoint him as the Left Wenyudi King.

Now Qubei knew that due to his blood relationship, it would be difficult for him to inherit the position of Chanyu, so he simply gave up the succession and chose Xubu Chanyu's son as Chanyu instead. He was unwilling to see Luan Timoche succeed to the throne smoothly.

Luan Timoche glared at Qubei fiercely and said, "Although King Wen Yudi is the son of the Chanyu, he does not have the prestige and virtue of the Chanyu. I will never choose him as the Chanyu."

"Then I must raise King Wen Yudi!"

Qu Bei stood up from his chair, holding the sword in his hand, and said in a deep voice.

"Then I would rather choose Yufuluo, the Left Wise King, as Chanyu!"

Luan Timo Che stood up with his sword drawn, looked at Qu Bei and sneered.

Although the people rebelled and killed Qiangqu Chanyu, they did not deprive Yufuluo of his position as Zuoxian King. Therefore, according to the Xiongnu succession law, Yufuluo was indeed qualified to be Chanyu.

"You cannot make Zuo Xian Wang the Chanyu!"

Some Hu people who participated in the rebellion said in fear: "If Zuo Xian Wang comes to power and avenges his father without saying anything, he may become close to the Han Dynasty, which will be disadvantageous to us Xiongnu."

Luan Timoche shrugged and said indifferently: "Since the Chanyu is chosen by bloodline, King Wen Yudi is fine, so why can't King Zuoxian be chosen?"

Qubei's eyes were cold. He had made great efforts in the rebellion and the killing of the Chanyu of Qiangqu. Luan Timoche was desperate and chose to make Yufuluo the Chanyu, which was obviously against him.

Seeing that everyone was arguing, Wuchanmu was in a headache. In order to avoid division and ease the atmosphere, he said: "The country is in turmoil, and the Han people are spying. For the sake of state affairs, it is better to follow the old practice and let the eight ministries discuss politics and temporarily take over the power of the Chanyu."

The eight kings' political system during the Qing Dynasty was not created by Nurhaci alone, but can be traced back to the Xiongnu. For example, Huhanye Chanyu was recommended by the eight kings.

During the Xianbei period, the Tuoba Xianbei continued the Xiongnu system and established the system of eight elders, who participated in military decision-making and commanded troops in combat. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the Khitan, Western Xia, and Jin ethnic groups also adopted the system of eight elders.

Now that we cannot elect a Chanyu, we might as well use a parliamentary system to temporarily replace the Chanyu in order to avoid internal division within the Xiongnu.

With Wuchanmu's words, the atmosphere that was previously filled with gunpowder completely dissipated in that instant. Without electing a Chanyu, everyone had a chance, and everyone could even make their own decisions and express their opinions.

"I have no objection!" Luan Timoche said as he sat back in his chair.

"I have no objection!" Qubei said with a kind smile. "Okay!"

Through the mediation of the Ruju King Wuchanmu, everyone reached an agreement to use the nobles of the six ministries to discuss politics until the emergence of a new Chanyu.

As for the strategy against the Han Dynasty, due to the disagreement among the people and the heavy casualties from the battle, it was decided to temporarily withdraw the troops for rest, and abandon the land east of Lishi as a buffer zone with the Han Dynasty, with the Qiangqu tribe allowed to graze and farm in Lishi.

After the Xiongnu tribes left, the Qiangqu tribe, fearing an attack by the Han army, took the initiative to return nearly a thousand Han people in their tribe to Bingzhou, as a gesture of goodwill to Bingzhou, hoping that the Han army would not invade westward.

After consultation between Zhang Yu and everyone else, the Han army left several hundred people to guard Yu Li, and the troops from various counties withdrew to Zi Shi to await new orders from the Han Dynasty.

While waiting for the government order, Zhang Yu temporarily took charge of the county affairs in the name of the commander-in-chief on the grounds that Xihe County had no leader.

Xihe County was a border county. After giving up its northern territory during the Yonghe period, there were not many people left in the county, with only more than 5,000 registered households and about 20,000 people.

During the Southern Xiongnu rebellion, the prefect Xing Ji was killed, and the four counties around Zuoguo City, including Lishi, Gaolang, Lin, and Zhongyang, were looted on a large scale by the Southern Xiongnu, triggering a wave of refugees. The refugees went down the Luliang Mountains, rebelled in Baibo Valley, and looted Hedong County to the south.

Although Xihe County was invaded by the Southern Xiongnu, not all of the county towns were destroyed. There was only one remaining county, Pingzhou County.

Pingzhou County was originally in Hexi, and later became Mizhi County. After Yonghe moved eastward, Pingzhou County of Xihe County was moved to the west of Luliang Mountain, located in the Fenshui River Valley, approximately in the later Jiexiu City.

After Zhang Yu stationed his troops in Pingzhou, he immediately sent Zhang Liao to lead his cavalry westward to see if he could gather the people from Xihe River and settle them in Pingzhou County.

Inside the military tent, Zhang Yu was sitting on the tent.

Zhang Liao stood in the tent, clasped his hands and said, "Sir, I led the cavalry to Pingyang, raised the flag to gather the people, searched the mountains and ridges, and only found 753 old and weak people. According to the people, there were more than 2,000 people before, but the county official Yang Feng led more than a thousand old and weak villagers to rebel against the Baibo Army, and most of those who did not want to follow stayed in the mountains."

"Yang Feng?"

Zhang Yu muttered to himself without saying anything, as if he was thinking about something else.

Seeing this, Zhang Liao asked, "Do you intend to attack the Baibo Army?"

"Hedong is a large county in Sili. Without the order of the imperial court, we cannot go south for the time being!" said Zhang Yu.

After a pause, Zhang Yu asked Zhang Liao to sit down and said with a sigh: "There are not many people in Xihe County. It is not easy to gather more than 700 refugees. Now, with the nearly 1,000 people sent by Qiangqu tribe, there will be about 1,600 people. Our army has left a small population for Xihe County."

The registered population of Pingzhou is about 4,000 people. Now there are 1,600 refugees, which is about 5,000 people. If converted into households, there may be nearly 1,000 households.

"The Qiangqu tribe returned nearly a thousand Han people?"

Zhang Liao was surprised and said, "The Qiangqu tribe was once a subordinate of the Xiongnu. Why are they sending Han people now? Are they afraid of your reputation?"

"Wen Yuan went west to gather the people without knowing it!"

Yu Yi explained on behalf of Zhang Yu, saying: "Your Excellency's reputation is one of the reasons, and the other reason is that the Xiongnu has no Chanyu."

"Since Xubu Chanyu was beheaded by you, Qubei and Moche have been arguing over the position of Chanyu. The nobles of their tribes ruled the six tribes to prevent the Xiongnu from splitting. Now the Xiongnu has no Chanyu, only the nobles and elders rule the country. The people's hearts are not united, and the Qiangqu are afraid of our army's invasion, so they have sent the people away."

Zhang Liao pondered for a moment and asked, "The Qiangqu tribe is under the jurisdiction of the Qiangqu Chanyu. Now the Xiongnu are scattered. I wonder if we can conquer them?"

"You can't conquer!"

Zhang Yu said immediately: "The Xiongnu are governed by the six tribes. Although their hearts are divided, if our army marches, they will certainly unite. So as I expected, unless the Xiongnu are worried about hunger and cold, they will have no intention of attacking us in the next few years."

The Xiongnu used six tribes to govern the country because of internal strife, so it was difficult for them to reach a consensus on sending troops. However, if they were attacked, everyone would send troops to protect themselves.

Under the current circumstances, as long as the Han army has no intention of attacking the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu will fall into internal strife, and it will be difficult to send troops in the short term, unless the Han area is free of internal strife and the Xiongnu see an opportunity and may unite forces.

"Now the six tribes of the Xiongnu are ruling their own country, and our army is stationed in Zhou to pacify Zhou. I wonder if the court has issued an edict?" Zhang Liao asked.

Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "The court issued an edict a few days ago to imprison the Shangdang governor Wei Xuan. As for the deployment of troops or the issue of rewards, the court has not issued any orders yet, and it is probably still under discussion. We can station troops here and temporarily appease the people living in Xihe River."

After receiving the military report, the imperial court immediately imprisoned and punished Wei Xuan, and based on the recommendation of the army, temporarily appointed Zhang Yu as the commander-in-chief.

After Zhang Yu defeated the Xiongnu, Liu Hong immediately issued an edict to commend the generals in the army. In the edict to Zhang Yu, Liu Hong not only praised Zhang Yu's military exploits, but also said with emotion, "I wish I could touch your back in person." This shows how happy Liu Hong was at that time.

But after that, the court did not issue any decrees. It was probably discussing the issue of rewards or the next plan.

(End of this chapter)