After that, both sides continued with a series of negotiations over many detailed issues.
Huzheng of the Southern Xiongnu knew that they were already making a great profit from this deal, so he readily agreed to some of Mengde’s smaller requests without any hesitation—such as allowing the Cao family’s merchant caravans to trade directly with individual tribes.
When the girl received Huzheng’s promise, the corners of her lips curved ever so slightly in an almost imperceptible smile.
‘Everything according to plan!’
With this clause in place, the Cao family’s caravans would be able to find ways to divide the Southern Xiongnu tribes in the future.
With both sides satisfied, the negotiations proceeded smoothly.
Before long, nearly all the terms had been settled.
Just then, a short but sturdy man, who had been silent for most of the meeting inside the royal tent, suddenly stood up with a sullen expression.
“Wait! Miss! Isn’t forty thousand fine horses too much? If our Xiongnu lose these horses, how will we hunt on the grasslands this autumn? Could you take fewer? How about only twenty thousand?”
Mengde raised an eyebrow at his words, but before she could speak Huzheng slammed the table and barked angrily.
“Xiutu Ge! Don’t be ungrateful! You should know that the price Lady Cao has offered is already extremely generous!”
“If we took forty thousand fine horses and sold them in the Central Plains, the money we’d get for them would barely be enough to buy even one-tenth of the grain she’s offering us right now! What more do you expect from Lady Cao?!”
“…”
Chastised by Huzheng, the man named Xiutu Ge was momentarily at a loss for words.
***
After a few minutes of silent brooding, his expression darkened.
He cast a hostile glance at Mengde and her companions before bowing slightly to the Tute Chanyu.
“Chanyu, may we speak in private?”
“You still have something to discuss?”
The twenty-something, hot-blooded Huzheng frowned in displeasure at Xiutu Ge’s request.
But before he could say more, Tute shook his head to cut him off and turned to Xiutu Ge.
“Since you wish to talk, then let us talk…”
Then he looked toward Mengde.
“Miss from the Upper State, would it be possible for me to step away for a moment to speak privately with Xiutu Ge?”
“Of course.”
Mengde smiled faintly in reply.
After receiving the girl’s permission, Tute Chanyu left the royal tent together with Xiutu Ge to converse in private.
Mengde took the opportunity to ask Huzheng curiously, “May I ask, who was that man just now—the one called Xiutu Ge?”
Huzheng gave a wry smile.
“That’s our Xiongnu Left Wise King. He has a bit of a bad temper on most days, so his words just now were a little rude. I hope Lady from the Upper State won’t take offense…”
“Alright, I don’t mind.”
Mengde smiled as she spoke.
While Huzheng let out a sigh of relief, Miss Mengde’s mind was already working rapidly.
Xiu Tuoge, Zuo Xian wang…
The Zuo Xian wang was the second-highest position in the Xiongnu, only below the Chanyu.
According to the Xiongnu political system, the Chanyu was assisted by the Left and Right Wise Kings (Zuo Xian wang and You Xian wang) as well as the Left and Right Guli Kings.
These four were called the “Four Corners.”
During the Western Han, when the Xiongnu were powerful, the Chanyu would usually appoint the son he favored most as the Zuo Xian wang, building his influence in advance so that he could inherit the throne in the future.
At that time, the Zuo Xian wang was essentially the Crown Prince of the Xiongnu.
However, in the current Eastern Han, the Chanyu had pledged allegiance to the Han court, gaining the Han’s military support to ensure his son’s succession rights.
Thus, there was no longer a need to appoint his son as Zuo Xian wang to prepare for the future succession.
The position instead became a tool for the Chanyu to pacify and manage his subordinate tribes, usually given to the chiefs of large clans.
Xiu Tuoge was the chief of one such major tribe within the Southern Xiongnu.
In Miss Mengde’s memories, there had been an internal rebellion among the Southern Xiongnu during the reign of Emperor Liu Hong at the end of the Han dynasty…
And the leader of that rebellion… was likely Xiu Tuoge?
This event was so obscure in history that Mengde had to think for a long time before recalling it.
The Southern Xiongnu rebellion was, in fact, connected to the cheap senior martial brother of Liu Bei—Gongsun Zan.
***
In the fourth year of Zhongping (187 CE), the Han court summoned Xiongnu cavalry to suppress the Yellow Turban rebellion in Bingzhou.
Later that August, Grand Commandant Zhang Wen recruited 3,000 Wuhuan light cavalry from Youzhou to quell a Qiang uprising in Liangzhou.
At the time, Zhang Chun, the former Chancellor of Zhongshan, volunteered to lead the army, but Zhang Wen refused.
Instead, he allowed Gongsun Zan, who was merely the County Magistrate of Zhuo, to command troops.
However, when the army reached Ji County, many Wuhuan cavalry deserted and returned to their tribes due to the court’s long-standing delay in paying rations and salaries.
Resentful over being denied command of the Wuhuan troops, Zhang Chun allied with his fellow native Zhang Ju, the former Governor of Taishan, as well as Qiu Liju, a Wuhuan tribal leader also angered by the unpaid rations.
They raised a rebellion against the Han, amassing over 100,000 followers.
Zhang Chun’s rebellion set off a chain reaction.
First, Gongsun Zan and his 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry could no longer march to Liangzhou, and instead had to suppress Zhang Chun’s revolt nearby.
At the same time, the court planned to recruit Southern Xiongnu forces to help.
The Southern Xiongnu Chanyu, Qiang Qu—Huzheng’s son—agreed, sending the Zuo Xian wang, Xiu Tuoge, to lead cavalry into Youzhou.
However, by that time, the Han court had been repeatedly calling upon Southern Xiongnu troops to fight in various internal rebellions—and had often failed to pay their wages.
Even before the previous Yellow Turban suppression army had returned, the court was once again ordering the Southern Xiongnu to march against Zhang Chun’s rebels.
This caused great discontent within the Southern Xiongnu.
Xiu Tuoge, along with other Xiongnu nobles, feared that the Han court would keep conscripting them for endless campaigns.
They gathered forces in revolt, and the following year killed the Chanyu Qiang Qu, installing Xubu Guduhou as the new Chanyu.
At that time, Qiang Qu’s son, Yufuluo, was leading an army south to suppress the Yellow Turbans.
Upon hearing the news, he immediately traveled to Luoyang to request aid from Emperor Liu Hong to restore his rule.
But Liu Hong was already on the brink of death and could do nothing.
***
As chaos swept the land, Yufuluo was forced to remain in Han territory for many years, unable to return to the Southern Xiongnu homeland.
Incidentally, during the later turmoil in Chang’an, Yufuluo seized the chance to lead troops in plundering the city.
His son, Liu Bao, managed to snatch a beautiful woman in the chaos—a woman named Cai…
The moment Mengde thought of Cai Yan’s fate in actual history, she could not help but sigh at the power of the butterfly effect.
Who could have imagined that a rebellion in Youzhou during Liu Hong’s reign would, ten years later, lead to such a tragic destiny for a woman named Cai Yan?
And in the late Han chaos, there were countless men and women who met fates even worse than hers.
At least Cai Yan survived in the end, living out her later years peacefully with her third husband, Dong Si.
But this time, the outcome would be different.
***
Miss Mengde had arrived.
She would change the tragic second half of her teacher’s daughter’s life—that is, Cai Yan.
Likewise, she would go on to change the fates of countless others in this chaotic age, people whose lives were as tragic as Cai Yan’s, and some even more so.
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