Why did the Han Dynasty successfully surrender to the Huns?

Why did the Han Dynasty successfully surrender to the Huns?

There is an unchangeable theme in the history of China, that is, how the Central Plains dynasty, which was farming, handled the relationship with the nomadic people in the north. In terms of culture, population and economy, the Central Plains dynasty far surpassed the nomadic people in the north. However, due to the fierce constitution of nomadic people, they are natural warriors, and the number and quality of horses far exceed that of the Central Plains. Many times, northern nomads surpassed or even ran over the Central Plains dynasty in force. Therefore, how to correctly handle the relationship with the nomadic people in the north is related to the rise and fall of the Central Plains dynasty.

Since the Han Dynasty, among the orthodox unified Central Plains dynasties, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the northern nomadic people (Mongolia at that time) was the worst, and the relationship between the Qing Dynasty (Mongolia at that time) was the best. The Tang Dynasty (Turkic, Uighur) and the Song Dynasty (Khitan, Nuzhen and Mongolia) each had their own gains and losses, and the Han Dynasty (Xiongnu) handled it fairly well. During the Han Dynasty, the nomadic people in the north were tough Huns. After the unremitting efforts of emperors in the Han Dynasty and later Wei and Jin Dynasties, and more than 400 years of pro-Canadian war, the Huns finally merged into the China family and became a member of the Han nationality. Now let's take a look at how the emperor of the Han Dynasty handled the relationship with the Huns. The relationship between Han Dynasty and Xiongnu experienced three stages.

First, force and pro-phase.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu in the north conquered the East Lake, annexed Loufan and Aries, and attacked the Yue people to the west, forcing them to migrate to Central Asia. The Huns also took advantage of the turmoil in the Central Plains at the end of Qin Dynasty to recover the land of the Huns Hetao captured by Meng Tian in Qin Dynasty, and plundered Yan and Dai Jin in Han Dynasty. The situation at that time was that the Xiongnu's force far exceeded that of the Central Plains and the Han Dynasty.

After Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, he did not understand the strength comparison between the two sides. In the seventh year of Emperor Gaozu (200 BC), Liu Bang led 330,000 troops to attack Xiongnu in the north. As a result, he was besieged in Deng Baishan and almost captured.

After the clearance, Minister Lou Jing put forward the idea of getting close to Xiongnu to Liu Bang. Its main contents are as follows: ① Marry the daughter of the imperial clan to the Xiongnu as his wife, and make the emperor and become relatives. (2) "Eating Huns" means giving a lot of property, especially silk and yellow wine that Huns lack. The two sides signed a non-aggression treaty. After marriage, the two sides maintained peace for more than 60 years.

Second, the stage of war.

After Emperor Wudi ascended the throne, after several generations of emperors' recuperation, the national strength of the Han Dynasty was unprecedentedly strong, with horses among buildings, grain piled up in Taicang, and the treasury copper coins piled up into mountains, which was immeasurable, and it had the military and financial resources to launch a large-scale war. In the second year of Yuanguang (BC 133), Mayi people suggested to Emperor Wu that they set up five ambushes in Mayi (Shuozhou, Shanxi) to lure Huns into Khan's invasion in an attempt to encircle them at one stroke. At that time, Minister of Military Affairs Khan led more than 100,000 troops south and entered Wuzhousai (Zuoyun County, Datong, Shanxi). After seeing through the tricks of the Han Dynasty, the whole army retreated and fled to the north. Since then, the two sides and their relatives broke up and started a war for more than 70 years.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the two sides fought for 44 years, the most important of which were the Battle of Monan, the Battle of Hexi and the Battle of Mobei. The Han army finally defeated the Xiongnu main force and burned Wang Ting, the Xiongnu city south of the desert. During the war, the Han army successively captured Hexi Corridor (now Gansu) and Monan (now Inner Mongolia), and the Huns fled to the north of the desert. "There is no Wang Ting in the desert", but they refused to submit. In the Sino-Hungarian War of more than 70 years, both sides suffered heavy losses. The household registration in Han dynasty was halved. The Xiongnu side pursued deeply because of the "Han soldiers." . . . . . . . Pregnant and lazy? , "extremely bitter", issued "losing my Qilian Mountain, making my six animals not sweet; I lost my rouge mountain and made my married wife colorless. Neither side is a winner.

Third, take the initiative and be close to each other.

By the time of Xuan Di, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were constant internal disputes among the Huns, and the five countries fought against each other. The defeated Uhaanyehe led his troops back to Han and made three obeisances to the Emperor Chang 'an. He invited himself as a son-in-law for the sake of the southern Xiongnu. The Han Dynasty attached great importance to the southern Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty, betrothed Wang Zhaojun, a palace maid, to him as his wife, and regularly gave him a large amount of millet and silk to live in the north of the Great Wall and guard the border for the Han Dynasty. With the cooperation of the southern Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty recruited and killed the northern Xiongnu to support Khan in Kangju (present-day Central Asia). From then on, Xiongnu became a vassal state of the Han Dynasty.

After the Huns attached to the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains successively experienced the new dynasties of Wang Mang usurping the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms and the Western Jin Dynasty. Although the relationship between the two sides has experienced many twists and turns, it is still based on close relationship. In the following 400 years, Xiongnu became the vassal state and professional border guards of the Han Empire (and later the Cao Wei Empire and the Western Jin Empire). Xiongnu Khan changed his surname to Liu, calling himself the nephew of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty. After the rebellion of the Eight Kings in the Western Jin Dynasty, the Xiongnu, led by the leader Liu Yuan and others, joined the civil war in the Central Plains under the banner of restoring the Han Dynasty. Finally, after the great civil strife and integration of the five Hu and sixteen countries, the Huns were integrated into the Han nationality as a whole.

Looking back at the relationship between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, there are three successes:

First, when you can't beat each other, lower your social status, take the initiative to kiss, and buy peace with wealth. We usually have a wrong view, that is, when the nomadic people in the north are strong, they will definitely attack the Han people in the south of the Central Plains. For nomadic people, Han people can only answer blows with blows, otherwise they will suffer endless aggression from nomadic people.

In fact, the reason why these nomads attacked the Central Plains south was not to seek the throne of the Central Plains, nor to rule the Han people. It is mainly due to the abnormal climate in the northern grassland area. When suffering from white hair wind (snowstorm), black hair wind (sandstorm) and horse plague, a large number of animals died and had to rob the Central Plains. As long as there is enough food, they will not attack the Central Plains easily. After all, fighting will kill people, and even if they win in agricultural areas far from the grassland, the fatigue of long-distance fighting is not acceptable to these nomadic people. In addition, these nomads are not interested in the land and farming methods in the Central Plains.

Knowing this, we can see the cleverness and intimacy of the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty used only a little millet silk and several maids pretending to be princesses to get rid of the Xiongnu, which can be said to be a win-win situation. The most subtle thing is that, because of the envy of the Great Han Dynasty, Huns often regard the married women of the imperial clan of the Han Dynasty as E Shi (wife), and most of their sons inherit the throne. In the long run, the Xiongnu king became the grandson of the Han dynasty, and the relationship between the two sides was much easier to handle.

Second, when you are strong, you only take the other side's key points and don't seek to completely occupy the Xiongnu. After the Han Dynasty defeated the Huns, it seized the desert land in the south. These places are rich in aquatic plants and have a mild climate, which is suitable for nomadic and farming. In the Han dynasty, a large number of immigrants moved to these newly conquered places, and a number of counties and counties such as Shuofang and Wuyuan were established. For the bitter and cold land north of the desert, after winning the in-depth battle, the Han army only engaged in the occupation ceremony at most, and then retreated, and never missed. For example, Huo Qubing led the northern expedition, wiped out 70,000 enemy troops and chased them to the vast sea (now Lake Baikal). Only in Xushan (now Kent Mountain in outer Mongolia), where the wolf lives, and in Gu Yan Mountain (now Motbokdoula Mountain in outer Mongolia), did the sacrifice ceremony, and then quickly retreated. The advantage of this is that you only eat meat and don't chew bones, which not only gains, but also won't pay more occupation costs. You know, those bitter and cold places in Mobei (today's outer Mongolia and Siberia) are not suitable for human life and survival at all, at least not for the Han people who farm land. It is impossible to hold these places by force, which will only consume more manpower and material resources. Today, many people complain why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not completely occupy the north of the desert like the later Qing Dynasty, which is a serious misunderstanding of the ancient emperors.

The third is to take advantage of the opportunity of the other party's civil strife, fight separately and finally win. After Uhaanyehe surrendered to the Han Dynasty from the southern Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty refused to accept the invitation of the northern Xiongnu to support Khan, but pulled him over one by one, joined hands with the southern Xiongnu and drove him to the western regions. Then, the Han Dynasty joined forces with the southern Xiongnu and other countries in the western regions to destroy Zhi Zhi in Kangju area, and finally achieved a comprehensive victory over Xiongnu.

After the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei and Jin Dynasties used their strategic advantages to buy and carve up the Xiongnu. On the one hand, we rewarded them, turned them into high-priced mercenaries, and conquered Xianbei, Wu Heng, Xiqiang and other nomadic peoples for the Han people. On the other hand, the Huns were divided into several tribes and ruled separately. For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, the Cao Wei Empire divided the Xiongnu into five parts: the left, the right, the south, the north and the middle, and placed them in the border areas of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei. The nobles of each part were the captains, and the Han people supervised Sima. In this way, under the long-term policy of partition and assimilation of the Central Plains regime, most Huns changed their Chinese surnames, spoke Chinese and merged into the Han people.