The Huns, known in Rome as Huni or Huna, first lived on the northeastern steppes of Eurasia probably around the 10th century B.C. and were known to the ancient Chinese at that time. This group of people were the direct ancestors of the Huna nation, and later diverged into two major races on the plains of Asia and Europe, the Turkic and Mongol races.
The Hu people, then known to the Zhou as the "Yan tribe," are thought to have been the first Xiongnu to deal with the Chinese in the ninth to eighth centuries. At that time, they lived in what is today Ordos, Inner Mongolia, north of Shanxi and Hebei. During the Spring and Autumn period, the Xiongnu tribe, known as the "Northern Rong", began to pose a direct threat to the bordering countries of Yan and Jin.
The king of the Warring States period, Zhao Wuling (reigned around 320-295 B.C.E.), in order to deal with the northern Hsiungnu, converted their heavy caravan army into flexible cavalry (huzi jiqi) and subdued the Hsiungnu tribes in the Datong region of Shanxi and the Ordos Loop region, which have been incorporated into China since then, and are still in the hands of the Chinese today.
During the Warring States period, in order to defend themselves against the Xiongnu, the Chinese in the state of Zhao and its neighboring states, including Qin, Wei and Yan, began to build the first walls along their northern borders, which were later united and completed by the first emperor of Qin and became the Great Wall.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, around the second half of the third century B.C., around the same time that China completed its unification, the Xiongnu appear to have become a unified and powerful people, commanded by a leader named Shan Yu, and produced their own writing, which is clearly related to the Mongol and Turkic roots of the later times.
The unified Xiongnu had a vast territory, and Shan Yu lived in the mountainous region on the upper Orkhon River, where the later Mongol capital of Genghis Khan, Hara and Lin, was built, and the Left-Hyun-King (in principle, Shan Yu's successor) lived to the east, probably in the Kerulen Heights. The Right Wise King lived in the west, in the Hangai Mountains, near present-day Uliyasutai. This nomadic people, all of whom, when marching, were organized like an army, so that every one of their nomads, was a soldier, and their direction of march was always habitually towards the south, so that a conflict with China was inevitable.
The Huns were so fierce that, according to historical records, their tactics were often that, when they were being pursued, they would lure the Chinese army deeper into the Great Gobi Desert or into the desolation of the steppes, and then lie in ambush, punishing their pursuers with a thundering rain of arrows until, when the Chinese soldiers were dragged down and exhausted by hunger and thirst, they were annihilated in one fell swoop. The number of Chinese soldiers massacred in Hun ambushes during the Han Dynasty is staggering. Combined with the mobility of the Huns' cavalry and the sophistication of their bows and arrows, the Huns became a formidable enemy of the Chinese army.
In 214 BC, Qin Mengtian drove the Xiongnu out of the Ordos Yellow River Loop again. Meanwhile, Touman Shanyu of the Huns defeated the Dayuezhi in Gansu.
The son and successor of Touman, Boldun, defeated another barbarian tribe, the Donghu, on the border of Manchuria in about 209 B.C. Boldun took advantage of China's Chu-Han civil war at the time of the Qin-Han dynastic revolution to invade China's Shanxi province and besiege its capital Taiyuan in 201 B.C.. Han Gaozu went to Taiyuan to drive out the Xiong Nu, but was instead besieged by the Xiong Nu at Baideng Mountain near Pingcheng, in the area of Datong on the present-day Shanxi border. The siege was only lifted after negotiations, in which Han Gaozu granted the Xiongnu favorable treatment. A Chinese princess or courtesan was given to Shan Yu as his wife. This was the first military victory achieved by the Xiongnu over China.
Circa 177 or 176 B.C., Bolden completely conquered the Dayuezhi in western Gansu. Bolden's son and successor, Lao Shangdanyu, put an end to the threat posed by the Dayuezhi and expelled them from Gansu, forcing them to migrate westward, thus producing the first recorded migration of peoples from the Asian Plateau.
A direct consequence of the westward migration of the Dayuezhi was the end of the Greek kingdom of Bactria in Afghanistan, (which had been founded by Alexander's successors as Greek princes). Around the period 140-130 BCE, the nomadic tribes had actually captured Bactria from the Greek king Hericles and established the state of Daxia. The state of Daxia soon became subordinate to the state of Dayuezhi, which was established by the Dayuezhi north of the "Gui Water" (i.e., north of the present-day Amu Darya River and between the Syr Darya River and the Syr Darya River). It was annexed by the Dayuezhi around 126 BC. Around the 1st century A.D., the Great Yuezhi united the tribes and established the Kushan dynasty, which is very famous in ancient history, in these places. Its boundaries expanded from Afghanistan to the Punjab in North India. A noteworthy event in this context was the visit of the Han envoy Zhang Qian to the Greater Yuezhi in 128 BC.
Getting back to the topic, let's move on to the Huns.
In 167 B.C.E., the Xiongnu, Lao Shang Shan Yu, entered Shaanxi as far as Pangyang (west of the capital Chang'an) and set fire to a palace here.
In 158 BC, they returned north of the Wei River, directly threatening Chang'an.
In 142 BC, they attacked the Great Wall in the direction of Yanmen near Datong in northern Shanxi.
In 140 B.C.E., at the time of Emperor Wu's accession to the throne of Han Dynasty, all parts of China's borders were under threat from the Xiongnu.
After assuming the throne, Emperor Wu immediately made an ambitious plan to drive the Xiongnu back to the north of the desert (the so-called north of the desert generally refers to the Xiongnu's original residence (the area north of the line of the Hangai Mountains, the Orkhon River, and the Kelulun River). Therefore, he sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions to deal with the Xiongnu together with the Great Lunar Clan. Zhang Qian's two missions to the Western Regions lasted 20 years, and he traveled throughout the Western Regions of the Dayuezhi, Dawan, Kangju, and Wusun, and although he failed to persuade the Western Regions to use military force against the Xiongnu, he made a great contribution to the connection between China and Central Asia.
Beginning in 129 B.C., Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began a sustained campaign against the Xiongnu.
In 129 B.C., the great general Wei Qing drove the Xiongnu away from the northern region of Shanxi by marching across the Gobi to Longting on the banks of the Wengjin River.
In 127 B.C.E., China conducted a cantonment of troops in Shuo Fang, between Ordos and Alashan and on the banks of the Yellow River, to defend the Loop.
In 124 BC, the Xiongnu invaded the border of Shuo Fang and Wei Qing drove them away.
In 121 B.C.E., Huo Daizi, a young hero and general of the Hussars, led 10,000 cavalrymen to drive the Huns away from parts of Gansu not far from present-day Liangzhou, Ganzhou and Guazhou, which had been occupied by the former Dayuezhi and Wusun people. and completed the occupation.
In 119 B.C., the Han army won a decisive victory over the Xiongnu. Wei Qing and Huo Zhaoyi - the former from the Kukukhetun area in northern Shanxi, the latter from Shanggu, northwest of Beijing and near present-day Xuanhua - crossed the Gobi and penetrated deep into the heart of the Xiongnu empire. She surprised and attacked Izhi Shan Yu, forcing the Huns to flee, and Weiqing destroyed or captured 20,000 people. (This number probably amounted to 5% of the total Hun population at the time). Huo Zaiwei undertook an even bolder expedition, penetrating 2,000 miles into the northern desert, reaching as far as the upper reaches of the Orkhon River. He captured more than 80 Xiongnu leaders. Shortly after his return, Huo Zaiwei, one of the greatest military generals in Chinese history, died in 117 BC.
The battle left the Xiongnu no longer a threat to the foot of the Great Wall or the southern desert region throughout the Western Han Dynasty, and the campaign was arguably the most successful counterattack campaign against the northern barbarians in Chinese history. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty then proceeded to establish four military counties in Gansu, namely Wuwei County, Zhangye County, Jiuquan County and Dunhuang County, between 127-111 B.C. From then on, the Silk Road, which stretched from Lanzhou to the Yumen Pass, was formally established and permanently returned to China.
The subsequent struggle between the Western Han and the Xiongnu basically centered around this sovereignty over the Western Regions. During the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, in 67 B.C., general Zheng Ji subdued Turfan; in 65 B.C., another general, Feng Fengshi, subdued the Ye'erqiang; and in 60 B.C., Zheng Ji formally took over Turfan, and from then on, the Western Han Dynasty established absolute control over the Tarim Basin.
In 60 B.C., there was a civil war in Xiongnu, and two monarchs, Hohanxie and Zhi Zhi, fought with each other for the throne. In 51 B.C., Hohanxie submitted to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and with the help of the Western Han army, he defeated Zhi Zhi monarch, and occupied the former territory of Xiongnu, which was called the Eastern Xiongnu.
Chi Zhi Shan Yu, on the other hand, attacked to the west, defeating the Wusuns and Kangju in the Aral Sea basin and establishing his own state, known as the Western Xiongnu. However this reluctant Huns still did not escape China's meritorious attack. In 36 B.C., Chen Tang, a lieutenant of the Western Regions, reached the banks of the Chu River and attacked and killed Zhi Zhi in an unusually daring raid. Western Xiongnu quickly disintegrated and fled westward.
This westward migration of the Huns, because of their lack of contact with other civilizing forces, went unrecorded for the next 400 years, and it was not until the end of the 4th century A.D., when they invaded Europe by crossing the Volga and Don Rivers, that these Huns, and their chiefs, Baramir and Attila, once again shocked the world.
Again, the Eastern Huns.
Because of the absolute dominance of the Western Han over the Eastern Huns, the Eastern Huns were not only unable to pose a threat to China's northern border, but were also powerless to compete with the Western Han for control of the Western Regions.
But when the new Han Dynasty changed, China lost control of the Western Regions, and the Xiongnu took the opportunity to seize control of Turpan and the Western Regions.
But the Xiongnu's luck was never very good, as China quickly recovered from the chaos, and the rapid stabilization and strength of the Eastern Han regime was quite fatal to the Xiongnu.
In 48 A.D., the Eastern Xiongnu split, and eight Xiongnu tribes in the south, led by their chiefs, rose up against Pu Nu Shan Yu and submitted to China. Emperor Guangwu settled them as allies in Inner Mongolia, on the southern border of the Gobi, and on the border between Shanxi and Gansu. The state of South Xiongnu was established, and South Xiongnu was actually a protected territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty, taking orders from the border officials of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and no longer a threat to the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The Northern Xiongnu, on the other hand, continued to be an enemy of the Eastern Han. At this time, the Eastern Han government began to support the Xianbei tribes in Liaodong to deal with the Northern Xiongnu, and from then on, the Xianbei began to appear on the stage of Chinese history.
The Eastern Han Dynasty began a full-scale campaign against the Northern Xiongnu in 73 A.D. In the Western Region, Ban Chao and Geng Gong, generals of the Chezhi general Dou Xian, utilized a very small number of troops to travel thousands of miles across the country and penetrate deep into the tiger's lair, breaking up ütepan, taking Kashgar, destroying Kuqa, and leveling the Cheshi, and continually repelling the many rebellions in the Western Regions instigated by the Xiongnu, and in ten years allowed the Eastern Han empire to regain absolute control in the Western Region. Ban Chao and Geng Gong deserve to be recognized as the most outstanding special operations heroes in Chinese history.
And Dou Xian led the main force of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in 89 CE, defeated the Northern Xiongnu in the Ji Lu Mountain, and pursued the Xiongnu ministries to the north, out of the plug for more than 3,000 miles, the Xiongnu descended more than eighty ministries, and ordered Ban Gu to make the memory of the Han's prowess and virtue, engraved a stone in the Yanran Mountain (present-day Hang Ai Mountain) and returned.
In 91 CE, the Chinese general Geng Kui inflicted another decisive defeat on the Xiongnu. He marched to Outer Mongolia, probably reaching the Orkhon River, where he captured Shan Gan's mother and all the members of her family at Jin Weishan, and made Shan Yu's younger brother, Yu Dai Gao Li, his successor.
When Yu Dugong rebelled against China in 93, China sent against him a force of Xianbei from the borders of Manchuria, who defeated and killed the new Shan-yu, and the northern Xiongnu never recovered and gradually died out, finally being completely subjugated by the Xianbei in the year of the 2nd century CE. Its history as a nation and tribe was basically over. After the defeat of the Northern Xiongnu, the Xianbei ministries occupied the lands of the former Xiongnu empire, but they were far from being a threat to China until the great migration of peoples in the 4th century.
Let's return to the fate of another group of Huns, the inwardly attached Southern Huns.
The Southern Huns, as vassals of the Eastern Han, were basically at peace with the Eastern Han, except for a modest rebellion in 144 CE. However, at the end of the Han Dynasty, due to the further rise of the Xianbei people, the Southern Xiongnu had to flee the Inner Mongolian grasslands, further internalization, and migrated south to within the river loop. They even settled within the Great Wall, and Huqi Quan Shan Yu of the Southern Xiongnu took up residence in Pingyang, in the hinterland of Shanxi, around the time of the Battle of Guandu (202), changing his surname to Liu. (Probably because he wanted to follow the surname of the Han princess of his distant ancestor). And gradually became powerful.
In 304, Liu Yuan, the leader of the Xiongnu in Taiyuan, received the title of Monarch of the Five Tribes from the Western Jin Dynasty, and in 308, he led an army of 50,000 Xiongnu under the pretense of being the rightful heir to the Han Dynasty and claimed the title of Emperor of Taiyuan, the former Zhao.
In 311 Liu Cong, son of Liu Yuan, captured the Jin capital, Luoyang, set fire to the imperial palace, captured Emperor Huai of Jin, and then pressed on to Chang'an, where he massacred half the inhabitants (312). The Huns' ferocious side exploded again after 200 years of dormancy.
The captured Emperor Pu Huai was sent to Pingyang, Liu Cong's residence, where he was forced to serve as Liu Cong's wine-pouring attendant until he was killed in 313.
In 316, Liu Cong made a comeback and besieged Chang'an again, forcing Emperor Jinmin to surrender. When the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed, the Xiongnu emperor once again received the captured Chinese emperor in Pingyang, forcing him to wash dishes at a banquet, and finally, in 318, he was put to death.
But the short-lived Xiongnu regime was destroyed by the Capricorn Houzhao in 329.
But the southern Xiongnu tribes still existed until 350 AD, when Ran Min, a Han general of the Later Zhao, set up a state and massacred the Hu people, killing those with high noses and deep eyes, resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 people in the field (mainly Xiongnu and Capricorns, as well as part of the Xianbei, and the dizi, Qiang, and Ba dizi), and the remaining Xiongnu people were almost exterminated. From then on, the history of the Huns in Asia and as a people ended.
The history of the Huns is not yet finished, and its finale is as dazzling and brutal as a supernova explosion.
After the Huns were largely wiped out in Asia, they were not yet forgotten by the world. In 375 A.D., an even tougher Hun suddenly appeared on the left bank of the Don River, and from then on embarked on a journey of conquest that stunned Europe.
The origin of this group of Huns, we can now basically guess that it is the Western Huns conquered by the Western Han Dynasty in 36 B.C., the descendants of the Western Hun Zhi Shan Yu, as for their history during the 400 years, because they did not contact with any civilization of the power of the time and recorded, so it is no longer available.
Once the Huns entered Europe, the civilized and semi-civilized nations of Europe, which had not been subjected to the barbaric onslaught of the Eurasian plains, were almost helpless against them.
In 375 A.D. the Huns conquered the Alans between the Don and the Terek rivers. The surviving Alans were displaced to southern Gaul and became the ancestors of the modern Catalans.
In 376 CE, the Huns defeated the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which was then west of the Dnieper River, and brought most of the Ostrogoths into submission. The remaining Ostrogothic tribes, entered the Balkans.
In the same year, the Visigoths, forced to abandon their lands in the plains of central Europe to escape the invasion of the Huns, crossed the Danube River southward into the Roman Empire.
As a result of the departure of the Visigoths, the Huns, by about 405, had fully occupied the vast steppe between the Ural Mountains and the Carpathians, and began to attack Europe.
In 406, they occupied the Hungarian plains via the Carpathian openings, and they thus expanded to the right bank of the Danube and became neighbors of the Roman Empire.
For the next 30 years, the borders between the two empires remained largely quiet, although the Hunnic Empire was hungry for the great wealth of the Roman Empire, but was busy with its own internal power struggles.
Until 435, when Attila killed his brother and took the throne, Attila united the Huns and the terrible "whip of God" began to be wielded.
In 441, Attila declared war on the Eastern Roman Empire, he passed through the Danube River, crossing today's Serbia and Bulgaria, and then plundered Thrace, the Eastern Roman Empire's strong heavy infantry squares, in Attila's cavalry archer, almost unbearable, (Attila's attack basically eliminated the Roman infantry squares of the way of combat) lasted 7 years of constant attack, so that the entire Eastern Roman Empire almost collapsed. In 448, the Eastern Roman Empire, unable to fight any more, begged for peace and ceded a large area of land south of the Danube River to Attila, which included all of today's Serbia, Macedonia and most of Bulgaria. In addition to this, Eastern Rome promised a high annual tribute and allowed Attila to plunder in northern Greece.
In 451, after Attila's territorial and marriage claims to the Western Roman Empire were rejected, Attila began to attack the Western Roman Empire. At the head of a staggering 500,000 men, Attila entered Gaul, crossing the Rhine in January, burning Metz in April, and then besieging Orléans. in July, Attila retreated, fearing reinforcements from the Eastern Roman Empire.
In the spring of 452 Attila invaded Italy, capturing and burning Aquileia. He also occupied Milan and Pavia, carried out horrific massacres, and began to march on Rome, from which the Roman Emperor Valentine III fled, and in July Leo I, Bishop of Rome, promised to pay tribute and to marry the Roman imperial princess, Horolina, to him. Attila then retreated.
Attila's conquests of terror came to an abrupt end after his strange death in 453.
Attila's Hunnic empire receded like a tidal wave after his death. The submissive Ostrogoths rebelled immediately in the rear and killed his eldest son in 454. Some of his other sons retreated with their troops to the Black Sea coast, some went over to the Western Roman Empire, and others continued to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, and in 468 Attila's son, Dunjizic, was defeated by the Eastern Roman Empire on the lower Danube, and was himself killed in defeat, his head taken to Constantinople for public display.
Finally, there were those tribes of Huns who remained on the northern shores of the Black Sea. They were divided into two tribes in the northwest of the Sea of Azov and at the mouth of the Don River, and the two tribes soon became enemies as a result of the provocations of the Eastern Roman Empire. They fought amongst themselves for decades, including an attack on Constantinople, which was defeated. The two Hun tribes, declining in civil war, finally died out in the 6th century during the conquests of the Avars from the Russian plains. The last trace of the Huns that we know of is that that group of Huns in the Sea of Azov ended up merging and intermarrying with the natives to form another nomadic group, the Bulgars, who fled the plains of Southern Russia in the conquests of the Avars and entered the Balkans, one of the forefathers of the Bulgarian nation.
In the history of mankind's miraculous Xiongnu nation, thus died out, this nation left the most unforgettable memories to history is that they can actually crisscross the 10,000 miles, to the world at that time the three major pinnacle of civilization, Han, Persia, and Rome, all posed a great threat to the huge civilization in the shroud of the still do not change its national character, the resilience of its vitality, it is lamentable. It is a pity that the Huns were a bit born at the wrong time, they faced the opponents, especially the Han Empire, was the world's most dynamic empire at the time, with the strength of the Huns, is completely unable to fight, its failure is still a bit of a tragedy after all.