Tiger Guards

Chapter 349 Unrivaled
Xihe Commandery, with its capital at Lishi.

Before last year, this was also the location of the Shanyu royal court of the former Shanyu Yufuluo.

After Yufuluo died suddenly from an illness, his younger brother Huchuquan succeeded him. However, due to the power of the Tuge Xiongnu, he took the initiative to move the royal court to the southwest of Taiyuan Commandery.

He was subsequently placed under house arrest by Zhao Ji, and the Shanyu royal court existed in name only.

Therefore, the Tu Ge Xiongnu, who had gained control of the former royal court, temporarily lost the suppression from the three royal courts and instead showed a tendency to grow stronger.

Zhao Ji viewed the Tu Ge Xiongnu's intervention in the succession of the Xianzhi tribe's throne as a test.

Even the growth of the Tu Ge Xiongnu in the past six months was partly due to the tacit approval of the three royal courts.

The existence of the three royal courts only became meaningful when the Tu Ge Xiongnu became too powerful and difficult to control.

The royal court had many purposes, the most crucial being to suppress and check the various Xiongnu tribes on behalf of the Han dynasty, preventing them from becoming too powerful.

Objectively speaking, the existence of the Xiongnu Chanyu royal family suppressed internal reforms within the Xiongnu.

As a result, the accumulated problems became increasingly severe, and the Xianbei people, with a smaller population, eventually surpassed and suppressed them.

Some Xiongnu tribal leaders were thus actively or passively assimilated into the Xianbei; those whose fathers were Xiongnu and mothers were Xianbei were called Yuwen; those whose fathers were Xianbei and mothers were Xiongnu were called Tuoba.

The most distinctive feature of the Yuwen tribe was that they shaved their heads, just like the Xiongnu; while the Xianbei tribes wore their heads in braids.

The decline of the Xiongnu royal court was due to its support for various conscriptions by the Han court, which resulted in the loss of young and able-bodied men and women who could not be replenished. They also failed to obtain spoils of war or resources from the Han court.

The Tuge Xiongnu opposed conscription, thus indirectly preserving their able-bodied population.

The resources ceded by the decline of the royal court fell into the hands of the Tu Ge Xiongnu.

Between the increase and the decrease, the Tu Ge Xiongnu grew stronger day by day, and even the previous generation supported another royal branch as the Chanyu.

After the death of this Chanyu, Yufuluo, who had been wandering abroad, returned to succeed him.

In terms of ethnicity, the leaders of the various Tu Ge Xiongnu tribes were also of the Shanyu royal family, which is the key reason why the three royal courts could never suppress the Tu Ge Xiongnu.

In Zhao Ji's view, dealing with the current dispute is more of a formal negotiation.

When Emperor Ling campaigned against the Xianbei, Qiangqu Chanyu was defeated and seriously wounded, while his son Yufuluo led troops to assist the Han Dynasty in the war and was not in the Xiongnu territory.

This allowed the Tu Ge Xiongnu to seize the opportunity and forcibly install a puppet Chanyu.

The problem lies in the fact that this Chanyu did not sweep away the overall decline of the Xiongnu during his term of office. Instead, he had to abandon Wuyuan and Shuofang and begin to migrate into the interior of the country.

As the various tribes migrated one after another, various conflicts over grasslands arose one after another, exhausting the authority of this puppet Chanyu.

This also caused the Tu Ge Xiongnu to suffer criticism from various tribes. After losing the support of these tribes, the Tu Ge Xiongnu had no choice but to acknowledge Yufuluo's right of succession.

But this does not mean that the Tu Ge Xiongnu have given up the fight. From the perspective of an outsider, Zhao Ji felt that the Tu Ge Xiongnu were just missing a true hero, and fortunately, such a hero had not yet been born.

The Tu Ge Xiongnu are now simply seeking greater opportunities for development; this is the survival instinct of any organization.

Under the blue sky and white clouds, Zhao Ji, dressed in gleaming gold fish-scale armor, wearing a flying saucer helmet, and covered with scarlet and purple sleeves, rode on horseback.

Behind them, chariots and cavalry filed in, with three hundred riders carrying banners in front. The entire marching force consisted of more than three thousand riders, with another four or five thousand horses following, and more than a thousand carts transporting grain, weapons and household items.

The entire procession arrived at the outskirts of Lishi City in a grand procession. Ten miles outside the city, Liu Xuan, the governor of Xihe County, set up a tent and led seven or eight hundred officials, soldiers, and civilians to wait on both sides of the road.

A dozen miles southeast of Shicheng, Qu Beili has set up camp here, having already gathered knights from various tribes and joined forces with the eldest prince of the Xianzhi tribe, with ten thousand cavalry, to await Zhao Ji's arrival.

At the same time, the Tu Ge Xiongnu occupied the former Xiongnu royal court, located north of Lishi City, and had more than 30,000 infantry and cavalry.

At this moment, the seven chieftains of the Tu Ge Xiongnu each led their trusted followers and gathered more than a thousand cavalrymen to observe Zhao Ji's marching troops.

They lived on high ground, gazing out from three or four miles away.

Seeing that Zhao Ji's army had more than two thousand vehicles with flags, the entire army was well-organized, with bright armor and flags like a forest.

Especially the hundred or so iron cavalrymen behind Zhao Ji, whose armor was all gilded with silver, looked awe-inspiring from afar.

One of the righteous warriors who had retreated from Lü Bu pointed to the iron cavalry: "That is the most elite armored iron cavalry under the Grand Marshal. During the Battle of the Central Plains, they changed horses five times and launched a fierce attack on Cao Cao's camp at dawn. They used ropes to grab the fences and deer antlers, and more than a hundred men pulled with their horses to destroy Cao Cao's fortifications. That day, they destroyed three fortifications of Cao Cao's army on three separate occasions."

"The Cao army in the Central Plains had powerful crossbows and bows, but they couldn't pierce their armor, nor could they kill their horses. Later, when the horses were tired, they were replaced with new ones." The little chieftain's tone was full of envy: "When they charged in formation, the cavalry's lances couldn't pierce their armor, and the scouts' arrows were like raindrops to them."

"If it weren't for the time spent changing the horses' armor that day, they could have charged back and forth more than ten times. With the Grand Marshal's wisdom, the army would certainly be equipped with more horse armor now. If we were to fight him now, the Grand Marshal's heavily armored cavalry could charge more than ten times a day, which would be very difficult for us to withstand."

"You explained it in great detail. Don't speak so loudly next time. The Grand Marshal you mentioned can't hear you."

Helan Lizheng, one of the chieftains of the Tuge tribe, interrupted with a smile. His tribe originally roamed the Helan Mountains in the northern region, but abandoned the royal Luan Ti clan and changed their surname to Helan.

The royal Luanti clan, when translated, means that they took Luanti Mountain as their surname. Today, the Luanti Mountain of the Xiongnu people is called Qilian Mountain.

Therefore, translating the surname of the Xiongnu royal family as Qilian is also acceptable.

The Helan Lizheng tribe had long resided in the Helan Mountains area. To simplify their names, the Xiongnu people referred to them as "Luan Ti clan member from the Helan Mountains" to "Helan clan member".

Even the name Lizheng was a Han name he chose himself after he came of age, not his original Xiongnu name.

If other Xiongnu tribes settle in Helan in the future, their leaders and families will also be referred to as Helan by the other tribes.

Taking place names as surnames is a tradition of the Chinese people and the pre-Qin period.

When the Xiongnu migrated inland as a whole, Helan Lizheng's tribe also migrated inland, as did the Beidi Commandery. Now, that area has become directly under the jurisdiction of the Xianbei royal court, and there may already be Helan tribes within the Xianbei territory.

Helan Lizheng teased the young chieftain for a bit, then asked the other chieftains with a smile, "Now that wolf cub Qubei is determined to serve this Grand Marshal, what do you all think?"

Another leader, Hutu Dada, had a dark red face, a thick beard, and a smiling expression: "What else can we do? He's not even nineteen yet, maybe even only eighteen."

He suppressed his smile, his tone full of helplessness: "The timing is in his hands, not in ours. If we antagonize him and can't kill him, we'll have no future, unless we become servants to the Xianbei, tending their horses and cleaning their bottoms."

At this moment, a tribal chief named Lie Riguang spoke up: "Since you are destined to be a servant, why not be his servant? The Xianbei will forcibly take our wives and daughters and make our sons and daughters into slavery. And all he wants are cattle, horses, and slaves. Do you think he would even want our female slaves?"

Apart from ewes, cows, mares, and female slaves, other animals and livestock are merely consumables, and can be bred and multiplied every year.

For nobles and tribal leaders, feeding large herds of animals and people was a problem that needed to be considered frequently.

By using war to deplete a portion of the disobedient population and capturing some slaves, they can continue to live their comfortable lives.

As long as the grasslands exist, and there are still impoverished and fierce nomadic tribes, these nobles will have a reason to exist.

They either led these humanoid beasts to plunder, or they suppressed these humanoid beasts.

The Xiongnu nobles have long been assimilated into Han culture, and although they do not yet have a chieftain system, they have already developed the necessary understanding.

The Tu Ge Xiongnu is short for the Xiu Tu Ge Xiongnu. They were able to grow strong and become the largest of the Xiongnu tribes because their ancestor surrendered to Huo Qubing very quickly.

However, they did not completely surrender. In any case, the lineage of Prince Jin Ridi of the Xiutuge Xiongnu held power in the Han court, indirectly supporting the Xiongnu and allowing them to escape the fierce war between the Han and the Xiongnu.

Subsequently, the Xiongnu of the Xiutu tribes grew stronger by virtue of their large population.

The only downside was that it was too domineering, and it was never able to elect a Xiutu king from within; other Xiongnu tribes also did not want to see the birth of a Xiutu king.

According to the genealogy of King Xiutu, the Xiongnu right wing was located there.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu consisted of only two tribes, the Left and the Right. The Left tribe was considered superior, and succession was based on the principle of father to son and brother to brother.

According to Jin Ridi's records, it was his ancestors who defeated the Yuezhi people's Zhaowu City, expanding the Xiongnu people's territory.

However, they then defeated the Donghu. To prevent his younger brother from succeeding to the throne, the cunning Chanyu established a new Left Wing in the former territory of the Donghu and appointed his son as the Left Wise King.

From then on, the Xiongnu were divided into three parts, and the lineage of Xiutu King, also known as the Right Wise King, was suppressed by the lineage of the Chanyu King after uniting with the old Donghu tribes.

Then came the decisive battle between the Han and the Xiongnu. After suffering heavy losses, the right wing of the Xiongnu, unwilling to take the blame for the Chanyu, decided to surrender to the Han army.

Therefore, when they were arranging their genealogy, the seven chieftains of the Tu Ge Xiongnu were not afraid of the three royal courts at all.

If a civil war were to break out, each of the Hutu tribes could become independent and form their own race.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Xianbei and Han people, the Tu Ge Xiongnu were just one branch of the Xiongnu, and they did not recognize their internal kings such as Helan King and Lie Ri King, but regarded them all as chieftains.

(End of this chapter)