Chương 599: The Situation of the Northern Xiongnu

"Take him away," Sun Ce said coldly.

Two soldiers stepped forward, dragged Himiko up from the ground, tied her hands behind her back, and escorted her out of the main hall.

When Himiko was brought before Qi Jiguang, this queen, who had once been revered as a deity by the Japanese, had completely lost all her dignity.

She kept her head down, trembling all over, not daring to look at anyone, and muttering something under her breath.

Qi Jiguang glanced at her, his gaze sweeping over her, and then said to the personal guard beside him:

"Keep a close eye on her. After the war, escort her back to Luoyang and present her to His Majesty. Don't let her escape on the way, and don't let her commit suicide."

At this moment, Jia Xu and Cheng Yu led the civil officials into the royal city.

Cheng Yu immediately directed the civil officials to inventory the treasury, register the population, and post notices to reassure the people. They were extremely busy, but everything was done in an orderly manner.

Jia Xu then walked to Qi Jiguang's side, looked at Himiko being taken away, and smiled, a sinister smile:

"General Qi is indeed a brilliant strategist. He pacified the entire Japanese islands in less than a month. I admire him greatly."

Qi Jiguang shook his head and said modestly, "It was just because they were outdated in equipment. I'll leave the rest to you two gentlemen."

"Rest assured, Commander Qi," Jia Xu said, his eyes sinister.

"We have already sent messengers to report to His Majesty, requesting that he dispatch the first batch of immigrants and officials. At most, Yingzhou Province will be officially established within six months."

He paused, a sinister glint flashing in his eyes, and lowered his voice even further:

"As for the remaining Japanese women, we have already begun to count them. Once the immigrants arrive, they will be allocated according to military merit and household registration. In addition, for the men who have not yet been dealt with, we plan to select a group of young and strong men and send them to the Central Plains to do hard labor, such as building roads and digging canals. As for the old, weak, sick, and disabled..."

He smiled but didn't say anything more, yet that smile sent chills down one's spine.

As the sun sets, the afterglow is like blood.

On the ruins of Yamatai, a brand-new Han Dynasty dragon flag slowly rose, fluttering in the evening breeze.

Li Wenzhong's iron cavalry patrolled outside the city, their swords flashing in the setting sun, their hooves clattering.

Gan Ning and Sun Ce are counting the captured pearls and tortoiseshell...

Jia Xu and Cheng Yu sat on the steps of the main hall, writing something on a piece of paper in the light of the setting sun...

Beside them were thick stacks of experimental records and household registration books, piled high.

Qi Jiguang stood under the dragon flag, gazing at the boundless sea to the east.

The sea breeze brushed against his cheeks, carrying a salty, fishy smell, and rustled his robes.

He took a deep breath.

From this day forward, this land belongs to the Han people.

......

The western grasslands of the Western Xianbei.

The north wind whipped up sand and gravel from the Gobi Desert, pelting the tents with a crackling sound like hail, making everyone's head ache.

The Han army camp, which had just finished fighting the Xianbei in the west, still had a faint smell of blood and gunpowder mixed with the aroma of roasted mutton over cow dung fire, which was a bit intoxicating.

The ground was covered with hoofprints and discarded leather armor. In the distance, several piles of uncollected corpses were burning, with wisps of black smoke rising into the sky.

The soldiers were cleaning their muskets and sharpening their swords, their faces beaming with the excitement of a recent victory, discussing who had killed the most enemies.

Inside the commander's tent in the Central Theater Command, the candlelight flickered in the wind, casting Li Jing's shadow across the tent flap...

On the table lay a map about ten feet square. The red arrows, still wet with ink, stretched westward from the Xianbei royal court, piercing the Pamir Mountains and pointing towards the vast grasslands of Central Asia. The arrows were thick and long, as if they were about to pierce through the map.

Li Jing pointed to the two characters "Kangju" on the map.

His face was still dusty from his journey, with a bit of yellow sand stuck in the fine lines around his eyes. His beard was unkempt and messy, but his eyes were still as sharp as an eagle's, staring at the map as if he were watching his prey.

Standing beneath the tent were a uniform group of fierce generals: Guan Yu, standing to the left, stroked his magnificent beard, his phoenix eyes slightly narrowed, as if he were dozing off or perhaps plotting something...

Zhang Fei stood with his hand on his sword, his bushy beard bristling, and his armor still stained with bloodstains that hadn't been wiped clean, looking like a god of war...

Zhao Yun, still clad in his silver armor, stood tall and straight as a pine tree, polishing his Dragon Gallant Silver Spear, the tip gleaming coldly in the candlelight...

Qin Qiong stood to the side, his hands hanging limply, the double maces at his waist gleaming coldly, silent and unyielding like a stone...

Cheng Yaojin scratched the back of his head, secretly munching on beef jerky, making a crunching sound as he chewed, his cheeks puffed out high...

Li Ji stood beside Li Jing, holding a document in his hand, a half-smile on his face...

"Gentlemen," Li Jing's voice wasn't loud, but it drowned out the wind outside the tent, carrying an undeniable composure.

"Three days ago, Xu Da wiped out the remaining forces of the Xianbei in central China. We've finished our job helping the Northern Theater Command fight the Xianbei. Now it's time to head west. The real show is just beginning."

Li Ji smiled and unfolded the document in his hand, as if reciting a long-forgotten piece of history, explaining it to everyone:

"You may not know that 108 years ago, in the third year of Yongyuan, General Dou Xian defeated the Northern Xiongnu at Jinwei Mountain. He beat the Chanyu so badly that he didn't even recognize his own mother and ran away faster than a rabbit."

"That guy led his remaining troops westward, abandoning armor and weapons along the way, and fled to the territory of the Wusun Kingdom. Later, the Xianbei rose to power, and Tanshihuai unified the northern plateau, occupying the Xiongnu's homeland and cutting off their route back east."

"This pack of stray dogs ran westward all the way to the territory of Kangju Kingdom. Like stray dogs, they searched for a long time before finally finding a place to stay."

Li Jing pointed to the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River on the map, tapped his finger on it, and then said:

"That's right. For more than a hundred years, the Northern Xiongnu have been like mice, hiding and running away on the steppes of Central Asia. They would run away when they saw people, fight when they ran away, and run away again. Now their core territory is in the southeast of Kangju, from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River to the Kyrgyz Plain."

Some fled even further, to the Yan Cai Kingdom on the northwest shore of the Li Sea, which is what we call Alanliao. To the west of Wusun and north of Kucha, there were still some scattered and insignificant troops, not worth mentioning; they could be easily dealt with.

Guan Yu nodded slightly and asked in a deep voice, his voice as resonant as muffled thunder:

"How many tribes do the Northern Xiongnu still have? Who is their Chanyu? How many men are capable of fighting? We need to find out the details before we take action."

"Good question." Li Jing sighed, resting his hands on the table.

"This is also the most troublesome part. Our Han history books haven't recorded the name of the Northern Xiongnu Chanyu for almost a hundred years."

Since their Chanyu was beheaded by the Han army in the fifth year of Yongyuan (620 AD), their lineage as Chanyu has been completely severed. Let alone us, they probably can't even remember how many generations they've had; their genealogy is likely lost.

All I know is that their supreme leader is still called Shanyu, and below him are the old twenty-four chiefs, along with nobles like the Left and Right Wise Kings and the Left and Right Guli Kings, each governing their own tribe, and none of them submitting to the others.