A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

In the same year, after several years of recuperation, with the help of Lou Jing, the strength of Lao Shang Chanyu's royal court finally recovered.

With Lou Jing's help, he completely integrated the power of all the tribes under the royal court.

"Imperial Preceptor, the weather is not good today; it started snowing two months earlier than last year."

"I wonder how many people will freeze to death this year!"

Lou Jing was dressed in the noble attire of the Xiongnu, and had become quite plump.

The northern grasslands are a harsh and cold place, but the hardship doesn't affect him, the national advisor.

As a man of exceptional talent and stature from the Chinese nation, he has condescended to come to the northern grasslands. It is only right that he be provided with plenty of beef and mutton!

"Chanyu, how did the Xiongnu survive such harsh winters before?"

"Southern Expedition".

"In the past, when we encountered such a situation, we would launch a southern expedition, then drive the elderly away to fend for themselves. With the deaths of a number of people, the food consumption would decrease, and with the food plundered from the south, many people could survive."

"But the demon of the Han Dynasty is still around. The southern expedition is not a quest for survival, but a suicide mission."

The old Chanyu's eyes widened in fear when he mentioned Wei Ping, who single-handedly led 20,000 troops to break the backs of hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu archers.

"Since we cannot march south, why not march west?"

Lou Jing suggested.

"It's time to unify the entire Xiongnu, Chanyu."

The old Chanyu also revealed an ambitious look, but then his expression turned troubled again.

"Grand Preceptor, we don't have many livestock to begin with, and we also need food supplies to wage war against those noble alliances."

"Too many livestock have died in this snow disaster, and the royal court's reserves are simply insufficient."

Under Lou Jing's tutelage, the current Xiongnu Chanyu has learned many principles of governing a country.

"Chanyu, raise taxes. We can only make the people suffer even more."

"Moreover, we should also increase taxes on those unsubmissive nobles. If they pay, they will starve; if they don't, we can justifiably attack them."

Lou Jing replied without hesitation.

What? You're saying that raising taxes will cause many of them to die?

What does that have to do with me?

After this battle, the Xiongnu were unified. I was able to become a sage like Zhou Gongdan in the later history books of the Xiongnu. It was an honor for these lowly people to contribute to the great cause of the Xiongnu unification.

"good!"

The old Chanyu thought about the achievements of Qin Shi Huang that Lou Jing had taught him, and gritted his teeth.

Soon after, the Xiongnu noble alliance led by the Left and Right Wise Kings clashed with the royal court led by the Xiongnu Chanyu in several battles.

Laoshang Chanyu demanded that all the major noble forces completely relinquish their power, so that the royal court could unify the command of the entire Xiongnu.

The noble alliance led by the Left and Right Wise Kings was naturally unwilling. They were doing well as local emperors, and even when the Chanyu needed them to send troops, they had to be polite and respectful. Why should they have to be subservient to him?

In particular, the ambush at Daqingshan outside Yanmen Pass resulted in heavy losses for both them and the royal court.

The royal court suffered even greater losses, as the noble alliance had left behind a considerable number of troops, far exceeding the number of troops that the royal court had suffered during the Han army's attack.

While you've been recovering all these years, so have we!

Why should we listen to you?

They even wanted to kill the old Chanyu and become the new Chanyu.

On the other side, with Lou Jing's help, Lao Shang Chanyu completely integrated the power of all the tribes under his command. Although their numbers were not as large as the noble alliance, their advanced system, technology and unified cohesion made them more powerful than the Xiongnu noble alliance.

In battles against the Noble Alliance, they repeatedly emerged victorious, driving them into retreat.

The grasslands are now divided into two parts, east and west. The eastern part is led by the royal court, while the western part is a tribal alliance led by the left and right wise kings.

According to Lou Jing's estimate, a war was unlikely, but in two or three years, it would be enough to unify the entire grassland and establish the Xiongnu Empire.

After several battles, the tribes that suffered heavy losses became unwilling to continue.

The nobles, led by King Loufan and King Xiutu, who had suffered heavy losses in these wars, expressed their dissatisfaction at the alliance meeting in front of the Left and Right Wise Kings.

"We always suffer the greatest losses, while your forces, the Left and Right Wise Kings, hide behind us."

"If we continue to suffer losses like this, we might as well seek refuge with the old Chanyu!"

"To seek refuge with the old Chanyu?"

"Haven't you heard that all the military power of the tribes under the royal court has been confiscated? They already suffered heavy losses due to the heavy snow, and the royal court has also confiscated most of their livestock."

"It looks like I won't survive this winter."

King Xiutu and King Loufan remained silent. Of course they knew, otherwise they wouldn't have willingly joined the noble alliance.

Ever since Lou Jing joined the royal court as the Grand Preceptor, he has been constantly coming up with crooked ideas.

They created some kind of imperial seal, demanded that all the tribes pay taxes to the Chanyu, dispatched officials from the royal court to various tribes to seize power, and mobilized troops from each tribe, with the entire Xiongnu providing funds and supplies to form a full-time cavalry...

If this continues, they'll all become ordinary herders!

If they could tolerate this, what kind of situation is this year? A lot of livestock have frozen to death, and countless people in the tribes are going to die. The royal court is even raising taxes!

They are the kings of the tribe, and are responsible for the life and death of the tribe!

The Left and Right Wise Kings took advantage of this point, which is why they exploited these nobles with impunity.

When winter officially arrived, the Xiongnu were forced to cease their military operations.

The old Shang Chanyu's territory occupied the central and eastern grasslands, while the noble alliance occupied the southern and western grasslands.

Countless small Xiongnu tribes disappeared in this cold winter.

......

A burly man from the south.

The human pig incident occurred ahead of schedule.

Empress Lü arrested Consort Qi and used her as a servant.

Then they plucked out her hair, chained her feet, dressed her in tattered clothes, and locked her in a dark, damp room.

She was made to pound rice all day long, and if she didn't pound a certain amount of rice, she wouldn't be given food.

Later, she summoned Liu Ruyi to the palace with the intention of harming him, but Liu Ying stopped her. They ate and slept together, preventing Empress Lü from finding an opportunity.

One day, while Liu Ying was out hunting early in the morning and Liu Ruyi was still sleeping, Empress Lü poisoned Liu Ruyi to death.

Filled with resentment, Liu Ying went to find Empress Lü, only to discover that she was not there. He then asked one of the maids in Empress Lü's palace where she had gone.

The maid replied, "Empress Lü has gone to see the human pig."

Liu Ying had never heard of the term "human pig" before, and was very curious about it. So he followed the maid to see the human pig.

Liu Ying followed the maid to Yongxiang, entered a toilet, opened the door, and found Empress Lü there.

"Why is my son here?"

Empress Lü turned around and saw Liu Ying, and asked.

Because Empress Lü blocked the view inside, Emperor Hui could not see what was inside.

So he said, "I heard from the palace maids that the Empress Dowager was looking at human pigs, so I came to take a look out of curiosity."

Empress Lü covered her mouth and laughed, stepping aside and pointing to a human body inside, saying, "This is a human pig."

Liu Ying looked inside and saw a human body with a painted face, no hair, no hands, no legs, no eyes, no nose, no ears, no tongue, and holes all over its head.

The person was still able to move, and kept humming, but couldn't utter a single word.

Liu Ying was startled and quickly turned his gaze back to Empress Lü, asking, "What is this?"

"This is Lady Qi."

Empress Lü said coldly.

Lady Qi!

A mother who brings you joy!

Recalling the humanoid creature she had just seen, Liu Ying felt somewhat dazed.