Tanshihuai Declares to the Khagan
In the dim light inside the tent, a group of Han Chinese spies were laughing like wolves.
In Yuzhou, the northern borderlands of Dai Commandery. There, too, the border county of Gaoliu.
Facing Gaoliu County, a place where the reach of Han’s hand no longer extended.
There stood Tanhan Mountain.
And at the foot of Tanhan Mountain, mocking the very existence of the Great Wall, stood the royal court of the Xianbei chieftain Tanshihuai.
It was in this royal court that such Han Chinese spies found themselves.
They were turning over the wooden slips that had just arrived from Tanhan Mountain and chuckling.
The slips read something like this:
- The situation is going well. The Emperor has decided to launch a campaign. He will strike from three directions. We will report more detailed information at an early date.
Ah, the Han who abandoned us, whom we abandoned, how foolish a den this is.
The Emperor who sends soldiers out to solve internal problems.
The fool who deliberately creates crises to reclaim his own position.
They matched each other perfectly.
“Lord!”
A loud voice in Xianbei language made the Han Chinese spies stop laughing and bow.
Lord.
Tanshihuai entered the tent.
Short-cropped hair, unkempt beard.
But his eyes, gleaming like a wolf that has tasted blood, were the very majesty of a ruler that the Han Chinese spies could not help but revere.
It was because of those eyes that the Han Chinese spies had left their homeland and come here.
Thinking that even if he was Hu, Tanshihuai was far more lordly than the petty Liu Hong.
Some had been captured as prisoners and then employed as spies, but not voluntarily.
However, even those eventually came to accept Tanshihuai and willingly lent him their wisdom.
Because the rough masculinity of the steppe warrior had captivated their hearts, rather than the elegant manners of the Han.
One of the spies approached Tanshihuai on his knees.
“Lord! You have already subjugated the various other lords of the Xianbei, and you have conquered the northern and western lands, the Dingling and the Xiongnu. You deserve to receive a distinct title!”
“Again with that story.”
Tanshihuai gave a bitter smile that seemed almost benevolent, contrary to his expression.
“Your lordship’s achievements are no less than those of the late Moke Te Chanyu! Since the Southern Xiongnu have long been dogs of Han, you rightly deserve to be called Chanyu and to make known who is the master of the world! If your intention is to make the Emperor kneel and call you subject, then accept it!”
“I have clearly stated that I will not call myself Chanyu.”
Tanshihuai raised his hand to stop the Han Chinese spy who was trying to argue again.
“Whether Chanyu or Da Chanyu, it was a glorious name in the time when Moke Te and his descendants were fighting against Han.”
But now it was not.
“The Xiongnu Chanyu went twice to the Emperor to submit.”
Once when divided into Western and Eastern Xiongnu, and again when divided into Northern and Southern Xiongnu.
The second submission was still ongoing. The Southern Xiongnu showed no sign of escaping that situation.
“Is that all? Wang Mang gave the title of Chanyu to anyone who surrendered from the Xiongnu, even if there were more than ten Chanyus.”
Tanshihuai pointed east with his hand.
“Not just the Southern Xiongnu. The Wuhuan are also full of those who have decided to become dogs of Han. Han gave them the title of Chanyu as if it were nothing. That Qiu Liju is a Chanyu! Even Goguryeo and Buyeo would call themselves Chanyu.”
Tanshihuai slowly shook his head.
“I do not wish to take such a cheap name as my glorious title.”
The spy who had suggested calling him Da Chanyu asked with a slightly bewildered face.
“Then, my lord, what title would you use to distinguish yourself from the other lords? If you are about to confront the Emperor of Han…”
“I have something in mind.”
The rumor of the title ‘Khan’ or ‘Khagan’ starting to be used beyond the northwestern border.
In Han Chinese writing, it would be something like Kehan.
“However, it is not the time to use it yet.”
Tanshihuai turned his eyes from the Han Chinese spies lined up on his right and looked at the other ministers standing on his left.
The great and small lords of the Xianbei, each leading their own tribes.
Tanshihuai had divided the front into left, center, and right for the confrontation with Han.
Thinking that the left was east and the right was west, because looking south from the north.
On the left wing were the tribes that had surrendered first among the Northern Xiongnu and were now almost indistinguishable from the Xianbei.
Tanshihuai entrusted this to his second son Helian. The boy was not lacking in ability to take the place of the dead eldest son.
The center was personally led by him, with the two lords Gacao and Queju acting as his hands.
The right wing was the place incorporated last, where he had to govern the immigrants who still retained the identity of the Northern Xiongnu, such as Ge Kun and Ding Ling.
Tanshihuai used the lords Yilü Chuyan, Zhijian Luoluo, and Yanli You to appease the conquered, while conscripting them for the war with Han.
Not only Xianbei lords were here.
Some Wuhuan lords who had decided not to submit to Han were also there, and the lords of the Northern Xiongnu, Ge Kun, and Ding Ling who had achieved some merits under Tanshihuai were allowed to enter the royal court.
At Tanhan Mountain, for the first time in a long time, the northern forces capable of facing Han head-on had gathered in great numbers.
Tanshihuai stood up abruptly from his seat.
He needed to show the various lords of the north an intense war beyond the petty disputes over grazing lands between tribes and small raids.
To the Han Chinese who had come from the south, he needed to show that choosing Tanshihuai as their lord had not been a mistake.
“Since I raised my army, it has been over twenty years!”
Those who did not know Tanshihuai from twenty years ago trembled at the steadfastness of Tanshihuai who had held the lord position for so long.
Those who knew the Tanshihuai of twenty years ago recalled the hardships they had endured together to unify the north and shook their heads in resignation.
“I have unified the north! My ministers, praise my achievement as being equal to that of the late Moke Te Chanyu! However, I will not yet ascend above the lords!”
A look of bewilderment appeared in everyone’s eyes.
If it was ‘yet’, then until when would he speak of it.
And if he would not use the title ‘Chanyu’, then what would he use.
“The reason I use a title higher than that of the lords is when I surpass Moke Te!”
Tanshihuai drew his sword. Looking at the light reflecting on the blade, he muttered.
“I will accomplish what neither Moke Te nor any of his descendants could.”
Tanshihuai pointed the tip of his sword straight south.
“I will burn Luoyang! I will scatter the walls of Han without leaving a single clod of earth! I will mock the Emperor while traveling a thousand li with him tied up!”
Luoyang.
The city that no northern cavalry had ever invaded until now, and even those who believed in Tengri revered the sanctity of the Emperor.
Who among the Xianbei, with hearts not racing at the declaration to conquer that city, could there be.
The Xianbei and the lords of the various tribes below them shouted.
The Han Chinese spies also revealed their hidden wildness as if they had become northern cavalry and shouted.
At this moment, all of them had become one united Xianbei.
After the excitement subsided, Tanshihuai summoned a few Han Chinese spies and several lords to serve as generals.
“Interesting wooden slips came from the south?”
“It was Zhang Xiu, who was the previous Zhonglangjiang Protecting the Xiongnu, who sent it.”
“The one who came to me without hesitation, bowing his head to me to regain his own position…”
Tanshihuai recalled the wooden slip Zhang Xiu had sent last time, which contained truly trifling content.
- If the Han prepares for a campaign, I will send detailed information to the lord.
- The lord will defeat the Han army and gain fame, and the commandery that is in chaos due to defeat will seek me out again.
- I will secretly open markets on the border and supply the materials the lord needs.
“By driving the country into crisis, the country in crisis will seek itself… ha. Our Xianbei’s horse hooves will trample both him and the Emperor, but who could imagine that.”
“Greedy ones are those who overly trust their own abilities. That is the foolishness of the greedy.”
“Yes, how exactly did the Emperor of Han, Liu Hong, plan to strike us?”
“He seems to be dividing the army into three prongs and attacking us all at once. It is said that Ha Yu, the Colonel Protecting the Wuhuan, will appear first from Yuzhou’s Dai Commandery.”
“Ha Yu? Ho.”
As if hearing a pleasant name, Tanshihuai sighed with admiration.
“The one who blocked the lord’s attack from Beidi Commandery.”
“From Liangzhou to Yuzhou Commandery. Where is he now in Dai Commandery?”
“Gaoliu County.”
“From here at Tanhan Mountain to Gaoliu County is over three hundred li. He has come right in front of me.”
“He seems to think that by defending Beidi Commandery, he has become a match for the lord.”
The spies chuckled. Tanshihuai smiled too.
“We should teach them that battles outside the city walls are different. What about the other two prongs?”
“The army commanded by Zhonglangjiang Protecting the Xiongnu Zhang Min and the Xiongnu army are gathering in Yanmen Commandery.”
“While Ha Yu faces me head-on, he intends to strike from the right. What about the last prong?”
“A man named Tian Yan is gathering the army in Yunzhong Commandery by bringing the army from Luoyang. The Emperor told Tian Yan to…”
“It is embarrassing to say, but…”
“Say it. If the Emperor has such resolve, I should be prepared to bear some humiliation as well.”
“…He has named him ‘Zhonglangjiang Defeating the Xianbei’.”
The Zhonglangjiang who defeats the Xianbei.
Tanshihuai let out a contemptuous laugh, but his subordinates broke out in cold sweat.
Because in his mocking laugh, one could see the anger.
Soon, from Tanshihuai who stopped laughing, a voice flowed with the will to burn Han with anger.
“This is no different from when Liu Bei attacked the Xiongnu.”
Tanshihuai did not call him by the posthumous name of the Emperor.
Just as he called the current Han Emperor Liu Hong by that name, Liu Bei was only the former lord of the conquered country.
“A strategy where we strike from three directions, and we, not knowing what to do, run around and destroy ourselves.”
“Exactly. It is something thought up by someone who knows that one success can lead to two successes.”
“Or perhaps Zhang Xiu has offered more Han armies as tribute to me.”
Even if there is a traitor, how to utilize the intelligence sent is entirely up to Tanshihuai.
“Even though I know today’s strategy is the same as Liu Bei’s strategy of the past, it is difficult to deal with. Han is rich in goods and people, so they could muster three large armies like this.”
“However, the old Xiongnu did not know such strategies and suffered. Since we know in advance, no matter how cunning the enemy’s strategies, we can block them.”
Tanshihuai nodded.
“What if we wait for the enemy’s attack and defeat the three one by one?”
“There is some truth, but the distance between the three armies is too close. If the one from the Western Regions strikes the right wing, it would be different, but the Yunzhong, Yanmen, Gaoliu… this arrangement is to besiege Tanhan Mountain by targeting it.”
Ha Yu’s Yuzhou army departing from Dai Commandery Gaoliu to attack the front of Tanhan Mountain.
Zhang Min’s Bingzhou army probing the gap from Yanmen Commandery to attack the side of Tanhan Mountain, blocking Tanshihuai’s movements.
Tian Yan’s frontier army departing from Yunzhong Commandery, making a large detour to attack the rear of Tanhan Mountain, blocking Tanshihuai’s retreat.
With such a strategy, before the Xianbei army could cut between the three, the enemy would have a greater chance to respond nimbly.
“Then, by handing over Tanhan Mountain and retreating to Mobei, while the three armies unite to consume supplies, how about that?”
“It will take too much time. Originally, retreating from Tanhan Mountain itself could be seen as ‘defeat’ by the other tribes that the Xianbei have subjugated.”
Having said that, Tanshihuai looked at his subordinate lords and smiled grimly.
“Since when have we northerners, the Xianbei, discussed defense.”
The lords, including his son Helian, laughed along.
Tanshihuai clenched his fist.
“The strength of cavalry lies only in attack. We must surpass the enemy’s expectations. We attack the front army of Dai Commandery first!”