In modern times, no one in the Central Plains knows how the Rouran people rose to prominence, or who their ancestors were.

In later generations, since the Rouran people had no written language, there were no written records, and if they wanted to understand Rouran, they could only explore this suddenly rising grassland tribal alliance from some records of the Central Plains regime.

Liu Yan's approximate guess about Rouran is that just as the Donghu and Yueshi people were replaced by the Xiongnu after they weakened, and after the Xiongnu weakened, they were seized by Xianbei to seize the opportunity to rise, and the vacuum caused by the large southward movement of the Xianbei tribes would inevitably produce a new overlord, and the Rouran people would become the new overlords of the grassland in that way.

In contemporary or previous terms, only the former Huns established an empire, and the rest of the steppe overlords did not form a real state, but a system of alliances that formed a coercive relationship between tribes.

Compared with the state system, the tribal alliance system has many congenital shortcomings, the more obvious is that although they are subordinate, the supreme leader does not complete their rule from the system, and the rule is based on brutal force.

In fact, controlling violence and then ruling is a necessary "procedure", no matter which nation or country is no exception, and it is basically non-existent to want to rule without using force, the difference is that after mastering violence, you get the right to rule, and what kind of means does the person in power use to rule.

Leaving aside the rest of the ethnic groups, the ruling methods of the nomads have not changed, and the royal court must have half or more of the entire ethnic group in order to deter and subdue the rest of the tribes. In this way, it is natural that their social system is destined not to be just a certain group of people to have the power of force, but to have arms as long as tribes are formed.

The way of life of nomadic people is fundamentally different from that of agrarian peoples. The farming people have a fixed habitat, while the nomadic people do not have a fixed habitat, and the people are in a state of movement for a long time, and many times it is difficult for the royal court to know where a certain tribe is, so how to carry out close surveillance, and even close monitoring can not be done, and there is no space for supervision.

"They can't just come out of nowhere." Li Tan has his own speculation about Rouran: "Although it is now becoming Rouran, it should be the Huns, Xianbei people, Ding Ling people, Qiang people, ...... before, and many other ethnic groups such as Guifang, Dog Rong, and Beidi later changed to other names. ”

There has never been more than one ethnic group on the grassland, but after a certain ethnic group is strong enough, people with no national concept take the initiative to attach themselves to the past, that is also the relationship between the grassland people who love to divide the "golden bloodline" and the rest of the bloodline, once the so-called "golden bloodline" is weakened, soon the grassland should "change" a considerable number of tribes, and then win a new overlord, and then have a new ethnic group name.

What are Liu Yan and others discussing? It was Yu Jiulu Bati who asked Han for supplies in the name of aid, and guessed what kind of existence Rouran was.

Rouran's current territory is not small, but in terms of territorial area, their territory is actually much smaller than that of Gaoche, which is dominated by Ding Lingren, and there is an intuitive impression that it is about the same as the land area of Outer Mongolia in later generations.

Like many nomadic peoples, their productivity determines the size of their population, and without enough food to support them, they will certainly not be able to produce a population explosion. According to Han Guo's guess, the Rouran people should be between 600,000 and 700,000.

That is based on the guess of how many warriors Rouran can summon, with the military system of the nomads, at least one warrior is produced in one account, and the phenomenon of more than one warrior in one tent cannot be ruled out, and the number of warriors that Yu Jiulu Bati can recruit is about 120,000.

Of course, don't expect the so-called army of the Rouran people to be a real army, they, like all nomads, only draw young or strong women from various tribes when there is a military operation, those people are naturally herding in ordinary times, basically they have not been properly trained, and their weapons and equipment are also infinitely close to the Stone Age, and they only have very few metal weapons, and most of them are bronze weapons.

After the Han State formed contact with Rouran, the first time they met was to say "hello" to each other in the form of war, and it was the Han State that defeated Rouran's army, so that Rouran people could communicate with the Han people calmly, otherwise with the urine of the nomads, if Rouran won the battle, Rouran would not communicate with the Han people on an equal footing.

The Han army defeated the Rouran army, and the relationship between the two sides was naturally such that the Han people were in an advantageous position, and in some ways the Rouran people would also obey some assignments from the Han center, such as asking them to find Ding Ling and Xianbei people unhappy.

After the establishment of diplomatic relations, Rouran obtained goods from the Han State in the form of transactions, including but not limited to civilian and military materials, but they were all sold in the form of finished products, and did not provide any raw materials or other goods.

The Han State sold some ordnance to Rouran, most of which were some weapons eliminated by the Han military, and a very small amount of new goods were transferred from the warehouse.

The weapons that were eliminated by the Han army may have been derailed from the times, such as the Han Kingdom researched better weapons, the original ones were already inferior, or those weapons were damaged and repaired. Even so, the Rouran people were still elated after receiving the goods, but they were even short of bronze weapons before, so they would not be happy to be able to hold iron weapons.

The batch of brand-new weapons sold by the Han Kingdom to Rouran was extremely rare, just enough to arm the five hundred guards of Yu Jiulu Bati. The types of that batch of standard equipment are from weapons from near and far to armor, if it weren't for the group of Rouran people who wore their own national characteristics to serve and changed into the red robes of the Han army, it would not be any different from the Han army.

In the trade between the Han State and Rouran, it is the status quo of the Han State that makes a lot of money, and the Rouran people not only spend a lot of precious metals, but also the number of livestock is extremely large, and it is more meaningful for the Han State to determine the stable supply of wool by the various Rouran tribes.

The purchase of wool from Rouran was a strategic national policy of the Han State, not to take care of any trade surplus. The purpose of this policy was, of course, to manipulate the Rouran people from an economic point of view, and once a long-term relationship was formed, even if the wool sales of the Rouran people became the only means of subsistence, the Han Kingdom really determined the rise and fall of Rouran.

"The total amount of military supplies we sold to Rouran is not more than 20,000, what makes them have the courage to propose such an amount of aid?" Sang Yu doesn't need to stay in New Chang'an, as the country's supreme justice (imperial envoy doctor), he usually has few opportunities to perform his duties, and he has to be a big case to show his skills: "Is it like Xianbei people say, Rouran people don't have brains at all?" ”

The statement that the Rouran people are "worms" did not wait for the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Tuoba Dynasty, which has always had military conflicts with Rouran, has long had relevant evaluations. And the Northern Wei Dynasty happened to be established by Tuoba Xianbei, and it is not surprising that they left a "worm" for the Rouran people in the history books.

"I shouldn't be able to stand the military pressure on multiple fronts." Li Tan explained a little about the current situation that Rouran people are facing, and then said: "Dahan and Rouran do have the same interests at present, maybe because of this, they have a request, even if they can't do it completely, we will be moderately satisfied, and wait for some impressions?" ”

The Rouran people had fully understood the strength of the Han State, and they did not dare to show aggression to the Han State as if they had accepted their fate, and were even willing to cooperate in attacking the enemies of the Han State. In terms of diplomatic relations, Rouran has become a vassal state of the Han State to some extent, that is, the two sides have not clarified that relationship at all.

"Dahan needs to be supported by Rouran." Liu Yan seems to be more accustomed to staying in a tent than living in a palace, which has a fundamental relationship with his perennial southern and northern wars. He said: "What the widow asks is that they should not be made to think that they have achieved what they wanted to do in the first place. ”

Of course, the Han Kingdom needs the thug Rou Ran to continue to be active, which is based on the outbreak of large-scale natural disasters in the Han Kingdom, and the troops have been used in the Asan Continent and the Western Regions, so it really shouldn't be in another direction. In this way, it is most appropriate to deal with Ding Lingren and the remnants of Tuoba and Murong to the Rouran people.

However, while the Han Kingdom needs Rou Ran to be a thug, it must also beware that Rou Ran is overly strengthened in the process of attacking Ding Lingren, Tuoba Remnants and Murong Remnants, which really requires superb manipulation skills.

The current way of war of the Rouran people is completely dependent on physical fitness, although the Ding Ling people are in a similar situation, but the Tuoba remnants and Murong remnants they have to deal with have been "nourished" by the Central Plains.

Tuoba Xianbei and Murong Xianbei were no longer nomadic people, in fact, they had completed their evolution to semi-farming, and at the same time they had acquired a lot of knowledge and technology from the Central Plains, which was clearly reflected in the fact that their soldiers had a very large number of iron weapons.

"Tuoba Xianbei will be less, Murong Xianbei is retreating to the Xianbei grassland in a planned way." Li Tan must have relevant information, and said, "Murong Xianbei is now the best equipped one on the grassland, and even has nearly fifteen hundred armor and cavalry equipment. The Rouran people had encountered Murong Xianbei's mink and leopard army, and more than 20,000 people were easily defeated by more than 3,000 Murong Xianbei, including 500 mink and leopard army. ”

The Han State successfully recovered Liaodong, and even marched to the Northeast Plain, in the process of marching, it wiped out a considerable number of Murong Xianbei troops, but some important clansmen and elites including Murong Xianbei were escaped.

If you count it carefully, the Hulu ethnic groups that entered the Central Plains are really the best with the vitality retained by Murong Xianbei, and the vitality they have preserved is even stronger than that of the first start, that is, compared to the Han Kingdom, which restored most of the old land of the Han family, it is definitely far inferior.

"When Murong Xianbei was at its strongest, he had nearly two million subjects, and they still have nearly fifty thousand subordinates." Lu Tai should know Murong Xianbei best, which is directly related to the military affairs he is responsible for: "The ministers have verified that even if there are only 50,000 troops, they are only stronger than Murong Xianbei at the beginning of his rise. ”

Lu Tai has just come over for a short time, first of all, he does not have too important military affairs, and then Liu Yan's inspection will pass through his jurisdiction, there is no harm in going a little farther to greet him, and staying by Liu Yan's side more has special political significance for anyone.

The rise of Murong Xianbei they are talking about is in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when the Karasuma people hugged the thighs of the Han Empire, although the Karasuma people were far less than the Xianbei people in terms of population, but the Karasuma people were still able to press the Xianbei tribes to the ground and rub them.

When Xianbei showed a rising trend, Murong Xianbei was not the strongest branch, it should be Yuwen Xianbei who was the strongest internally, but the strongest Yuwen Xianbei was forty or fifty thousand subordinates, the population was so small, and there was no way to talk about excellent military equipment or anything.

Liu Yan knows one thing, as one of the descendants of Donghu, Xianbei, no matter which tribe they are, their vitality is amazingly high, higher than any nomadic people!

The most direct embodiment is Tuoba Xianbei, Murong Xianbei, and Duan's Xianbei, who were destroyed after the founding of the country many times, but they can always seize the opportunity to restore the country again, and even change the "signboard" to continue to survive.

Yuwen Xianbei was destroyed in the initial stage of the Wuhu Chaohua, but who could have imagined that the Khitan and Xi tribes (Moku Xi) who split from Yuwen Xianbei, they were inconspicuous, and first mastered the metal smelting technology, and some of the glorious ethnic groups in the Wuhu Chaohua stage were finished one after another, but they were "unknown" for hundreds of years, and suddenly became the lord of the Central Plains when they suddenly jumped out.

Liu Yan didn't want his enemies to have a "resurgence" one day, and one of them would be endlessly hunted and killed.

The patrol team did not stay long in the Mt. Qiang, and even stopped at the Junji Mountain for only one day, but the huge contingent stopped again as soon as it came out of the Mt. Junji, because there were scouts reporting that a huge contingent of about 80,000 people was heading south from the northwest.

"The widow's trip is not a secret." Liu Yan didn't have any panicked emotions: "Is it for the widow?" ”

Yu Jiulu Bati was "hung appetite" for several days, and he took the initiative to mention it many times but did not get a positive reply, and when he learned about such a thing, he didn't know what kind of idea he had in mind, and roared: "The Son of Heaven, there is no need to dispatch the Han army, we can do it for you." ”

Liu Yan glanced at Yu Jiulu and smiled. After a few days of contact, he felt that if Yu Jiulu Bati pretended, he really played the role of a fool very successfully, but whether it was really stupid or fake stupid, it would not have any effect at all, and the established policy of Han Guo on Rouran would not change.

"Your Majesty, the Rouran people do have an army in the west." Li Tan said that the western part of the country is the territory of the Rouran country, and said very practically: "Maybe we can let that Rouran army move and complete the entrapment of that Ding Ling army with us." ”

Coming from the northwest direction of Junji Mountain, there was really no one except Ding Lingren, and the scout also gave some information, mentioning that he had seen the banner of the Di people.

"Hasn't Fu Hong died of illness yet?" Liu Yan knew that the news of Fu Hong's illness came from the Western Regions: "He thought that he could complete the beheading with 80,000 people? ”

Before patrolling the grassland, Liu Yan had already made relevant psychological preparations for attracting enemy troops, which should be said to be one of the purposes of the patrol.