Chapter 340

By the time later eras arrived, the Han Dynasty fell and the Jin Dynasty weakened; centuries ago, those grassland people who had been spared directly began to turn against the Central Plains!

This gave rise to the Five Barbarians' devastation of China, a historical tragedy of unparalleled horror!

After breaking into the Central Plains, they directly restored the cruel nature of the Xiongnu.

The term "two-legged sheep" was once again pinned upon the Han people!

Men were killed outright, while women were used purely for amusement!

Under such various tortures and massacres, the original twenty-plus million Han people of the Western Jin were slaughtered until only five million remained!

During the most brutal phase of the massacre, the vast Han ethnic group was reduced to fewer than one million people!

The entire Central Plains continent truly achieved a state where there was not a single household within ten li, nor a single village within a hundred li!

This was simply taking cruelty to its absolute extreme!

By the later Jingkang Humiliation, empresses and princesses were led on ropes by grassland people and treated like dogs!

Furthermore, there was the later incident where Chongzhen killed Yuan Chonghuan, leading to the Manchu Qing entering the pass and causing the Ten Days of Yangzhou!

Although forcing all of this onto the head of Emperor Wu of Han is a bit hard to justify!

But if Emperor Wu of Han had been a bit more ruthless back then, truly able to slaughter all the Xiongnu people and carry out a massacre of unparalleled horror, it is very likely those events would never have happened.

But regardless of how Emperor Wu of Han was, the current Ying Su is determined to commit this act of extermination!

To slaughter all the Xiongnu people!

Men, women, old, and young—leave not a single one!

As Ying Su thought this, Li Yuanba and Li Cunxiao over there were also all engaging in frenzied slaughter!

Han Xin, Wang Jian, and all the Qin Army were likewise engaging in frenzied slaughter!

Even when facing unarmed commoners, even when facing the elderly, weak, women, and children, they showed not the slightest hesitation in their massacre!

Why?

Because... they knew the cruelty of the Xiongnu even better than Zhang Liang and Ying Su!

After all, the cruelty of the Xiongnu that Zhang Liang and Ying Su knew was only through written descriptions or verbal reports!

But... they had actually witnessed this scene with their own eyes!

Wang Jian would not forget the cruel scene he saw when he and Han Xin conquered a Xiongnu pasture.

In the biting cold, Han men stood naked, tied like dogs beside cattle sheds, used to guard flocks of sheep!

When they entered the tent, fire was being lit to roast meat; Fan Kuai, who had been starving for several days, originally wanted to eat that piece of meat, but Lu Wan kicked him away!

He pointed directly at the corpses in the corner; there were dismembered bodies, and a woman's head was placed in a boiling pot, seemingly being boiled to remove the hair!

This scene terrified Fan Kuai to the point of trembling fear, and then, in a rage, he drew his blade and split the tent apart!

From then on, every time he saw a Xiongnu person, he would kill them with insane frenzy!

All of this, Wang Jian and Han Xin had witnessed with their own eyes, so they never felt that slaughtering Xiongnu commoners in such a way was cruel!

At the very least, this was how they treated the Han people of the Central Plains!

Moreover, this was not an isolated case; the vast majority of Xiongnu people did this!

They had even come to regard it as a habit!

If any Xiongnu person treated a plundered Han person kindly, they would be despised by all other Xiongnu!

So, what more is there to say?

Kill!

The Qin Army's butcher knives were waving!

Li Yuanba's hammers were smashing fiercely, and Li Cunxiao's Yu Wang Su was dancing up and down!

After a full day and night, finally, the Xiongnu people in this camp were all slaughtered.

As for whether any escaped, there probably were some!

After all, there were over a million people; how could they possibly be all killed?

Yet, in this area, as far as the eye could see, there was not a single Xiongnu person left who could stand.

Similarly, the ground within a radius of over ten li was also dyed blood-red by the slaughter!

As for rivers of blood?

That did not happen!

The main reason was the winter!

The winter on the grasslands was exceptionally cold!

It was almost cold enough to freeze water into ice!

The blood of these people was also frozen solid!

As for these bones...

No one cared; they were either fed to the wolf packs on the grasslands or left right there...

In any case, no one would care!

At this moment, the great army set up camp, and after resting for two days, they would continue their journey!

Passing through Langjuxu Mountain, then heading north towards the Great Snow Mountain!

North of Langjuxu Mountain!

This place was only over three hundred li away from the Snow Mountain!

Similarly, the snow here was even heavier!

Chanyu Modu Chanyu Chanyu Modu, Fan Zeng, Seeing Xiang Yu, Weizhuang, Gai Nie, and many others were all advancing towards the Great Snow Mountain!

Along this journey, Chanyu Modu Chanyu Chanyu Modu was utterly despondent!

In that battle, out of over three hundred thousand people, fewer than twenty thousand escaped!

How tragic, how heroic!

But what troubled him even more was having to leave the grasslands.

Cross the snow mountains, then lead all the Xiongnu people in migration!

Migrate to the Roman Empire, roughly ten thousand li away, and plunder there to preserve the Xiongnu's spark!

"Sigh!"

Along this journey, Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu sighed constantly!

At this very moment, he couldn't help but think again and again: if only he had led everyone to abandon the grasslands early on, how much better that would have been!

If that had happened, surely so many people wouldn't have died!

He thought this again and again in his heart, again and again filled with regret!

And again and again he bitterly complained to Fan Zeng, expressing his remorse!

Fan Zeng waved his hand and said, "This is correct!"

"Why?"

Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu did not understand!

Fan Zeng said, "If no one had blocked Han Xin, then Han Xin cutting off the river would have faced no resistance at all; his speed would only have been faster!"

"In that case, how could the Xiongnu people have all retreated?"

"They would have killed even more Xiongnu people!"

"And it was precisely because we delayed Han Xin for over two months at Hulun Pasture that we secured a chance for the many Xiongnu people to retreat!"

"Now, the number of people who have already reached the snow mountains should be over two million, right?"

"The number of people still on the road should also be over one million, right?"

"Once all these people have crossed the snow mountains, we can preserve our strength and leave a spark by plundering Rome!"

"Once Li Yuanba, Li Cunxiao, and Facing Ying Su and all those people are dead, we will return to destroy the Great Qin and then take revenge!"

He spoke these words, and as soon as such words left his mouth, Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu's eyes couldn't help but light up!

Finally, he nodded toward Fan Zeng and said, "You are right!"

However, just shortly after their conversation ended, suddenly, a fast horse galloped toward Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu from behind:

"Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu, bad news, bad news! Refugees who escaped say that over one million Xiongnu people behind us have been slaughtered by Han Xin's army!"

"What?"

The moment the words were spoken, Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu's eyes widened in sheer disbelief as he looked at the Xiongnu soldier before him with astonishment: "You... what did you say? Say it again!"

That soldier began to weep, and at the same time, brought over some Xiongnu refugees who had escaped!

And the moment they saw Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu, those Xiongnu refugees burst into tears:

"Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu! Chanyu Modu Chanyu Modu Chanyu!"