MHNEB 17 (1/2)

Book 1: Now we don’t hear the loom shuttle; we only hear our daughter sighing.

第17章 卢水胡人

Chapter 17: The Lushuihus [Part 1 of 2]

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The Lushuihus (0), refers to non-Han people that live around the lake waters.

The Lu Shuihus are brave and warlike. The males practised Martial Arts since they were young. The Lushuihus were known for their unruliness and war-like personalities, and they were also known to make up a high population among the non-Han people. Those Lushuihus were easily distinguished by their curly hair and eye-catching appearance. Particularly for those with brown hair and green eyes was a key distinguisher for the Lushuihus. 

The Liang Kingdom that was overthrown by the Wei was mostly composed of the LuShuihus.

For He Mulan to say what she had said, naturally, she was not being arrogant.

Hua Mulan was a soldier who was enlisted under the post of Tuoba Tao's conscription in the first year of Shenjia (AD 428). In that year, Tuoba Tao's major enforcement of conscription was to fight a war against the Rourans in the North.

The Rourans is mainly a khanate composed of many nationalities and tribes such as Xianbei, Tule, Xiongnu, and the Turks. The former rulers of the Wei empire adopted a passive defence policy towards the Rourans in the north. They built a high outer wall to defend against the Rourans’ attacks. After the current Wei Emperor Tuoba Tao ascended to the throne, the national policy began to shift from an active defence first to he took an active offence next.

In the second year of Shenjia (AD 429), Tuoba Tao, who had just turned 22, led the Wei army to conduct a foray against the Rourans. The Rouran Khan led his army out subsequently to meet his enemy head-on. He surrounded Tuoba Tao with more than 50 encirclements of his troops. But because of Tuoba Tao’s valour and his bravery in battle, it greatly boosted the morale of the Wei army. Later, Tuoba Tao had the help of his left and right garrison who risked their lives in aiding him to break out of the encirclements. Tuoba Tao then personally shot the arrows to the Rouran’s commander at the battle and Yu Zhijin (1), killing them. This scene made the Rouran soldiers flee in fright. 

Hua Mulan was involved in the battle that year as a part of the right garrison, and it was in this battle that she emerged from the ranks, and she started to rise from an ordinary cavalry step by step to greater heights.

The battle in the second year of Shenjia had severely taken its toll in the Rourans. The people of different ethnic groups who had been conquered by the Rourans also took the opportunity to revolt. With the Rouran regime was attacked externally and internally, its might was greatly weakened. With the Khan fretting over this issue constantly, the fret slowly weakened his body and he developed an illness. He died due to his sickness in July of that year.

Seeing that the Rouran Khan was dead, Tuoba Tao heeded to the opinions of his Han appointed counsellors and decided to pursue complete victory in the battle. He led the tens of thousands of soldiers in the left and right garrisons to continue to head on a punitive expedition to all the tribes under the jurisdiction under the rule of the Rourans.

That year, the Gaoches (2) who were good in rearing animals had surrendered completely. They removed their weapons and thrown their armours away. They had their royal family abolished, and the Gaoches became people of the Wei empire. The Wei emperor conquered and united various units of the Gaoches. Hundreds and thousands of them moved into DaWei. They moved into the Inner Mongolia area to rear horses and raise sheep for Dawei. 

After more than ten years of Mulan's joining the army, if there was no war in the army, they were stationed in six towns to resist the Rourans who occasionally swept the side of the thief. When the emperor began to recruit, their left and right troops would take turns to follow the emperor East to West.

As most of the people in Hua Mulan ’s regiment are Xianbei-ren, and the regiment is mainly involved in mobile cavalry work, in the past 12 years, whether it was the battle against the Xia Empire, or conducting a foray with Northern Yan and Beiliang, Hua Mulan had not been defeated. Her military merits had continued accumulating slowly. She rose up the ranks from an unknown recruit up to the fifth ranking General, titled Huwei. 

In the fifth year of Taiyan, Tuoba Tao finally unified the tribes living in the Yellow River Basin and became a true hegemon in the north. He heeded to the advice of Situ CuiHao and the other Han officials to ban all the non-Hans from addressing him as "Khan". Instead, the address was changed to "The Son of Heaven."(3) He proclaimed “Wei” as the orthodox tribe and used this to dominate the other tribes. 

This was why Mulan ’s ballad was preceded by “it’s the Khan’s Great Mass Conscription”, but it was later followed up shortly by “They return to see the Son of Heaven, sitting in the Bright Hall.”

After the period onwards, the number of tough battles to be fought has been reduced. The huge military expenditure and the arable land waste caused by many soldiers in the army have become the biggest problem for Dawei. Therefore, the officials in court all came together to warn the Wei Emperor that if he were to maintain such a huge army, DaWei would be soon in trouble. They advised that he must start to retreat his troops and start to focus on agriculture.

As such, in those few years, the Son of Heaven rewarded for the soldiers for their merit and retired some soldiers in the army for them to return to their hometown. Hua Mulan took the opportunity to make a request to remove her armour to return to the fields. After a few twists and turns, she finally returned to her hometown.

Although her life in the army may be described by a few sentences and it may seem bland, but the twelve years Mulan spent in the army hadn’t been easy. Tuoba Tao is an emperor who can manage the battlefield well. In the twelve years of Mulan's military service, he used more soldiers than enough what most people had imagined.

Whether was it the Turks, the Xiongnus, the Lushuihus, the Gaoches, the Chi Les, the Xianbeis and the Hans, Hua Mulan has "had" dealings with these people. (4)

Although "General Huwei" Hua Mulan is a low-key person, her reputation in the enemy troops was had spread far and wide.

The wandering swordsmen had dared to steal Hua Mulan's belongings because Hua Mulan has no deputy generals and no guards working under her now. If they can't steal her belongings, in the worse scenario, they will flee. It would be impossible for them to face off with her directly.

But she had never heard of a LuShuihu wandering swordsman. The LuShuihus from the Wei Empire lived in Xing city. Known for their bravery and good fighting abilities, most of them made a living through fighting. They were like a group of people similar to mercenaries. She had heard that they would murder someone and frame another, but she had never heard of them trying to steal. 

Besides, the distance from Xing city to Yu city (5) was quite a distance, and they wouldn’t travel such a long distance just to steal her belongings. Such a matter would be absolutely unimaginable. 

As Hua Mulan reported her name, several wandering swordsmen behind were taken aback. They don't understand the Xianbei language, but they understood the pronunciation of "Hua Mulan”.

The LuShuihus who was led by their leader had the same reaction. It seemed that they were also surprised that the Xianbei man in front of them was Hua Mulan.

When He Mulan confirmed her identity, the curly-haired young man jumped out with his machete. Without uttering a word, he attacked He Mulan who was standing in front of the door. 

Clink, clink! Clink, clink! Clink!

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(0) The non-Han people were referred to as ¬Hu-ren or Huns by the Chinese in ancient times. Even now, according to Baidu, the Chinese often refer to foreigners as Huns or Hu-ren. Therefore, Lushui Hu-ren referred to non-Han people living around the lakes. 

(1) Yu Zhijin is a member of the royal family of the Rourans. Full name: (郁久闾于陟斤) If I'm not wrong, he's killed in battle in history too.

(2) Gaoche: People belonging to the nomadic tribes. Also known as Chi Le or Tiele. Read more: here

As the story uses Chi Le and Gaoche interchangeably, I’ll standardize it as Gaoche for readability.

(3) I believed I have mentioned it before, in the previous chapters. “Son of Heaven” means emperor. This is because, in ancient China, rulers who could ascend to the throne are treated as the sons of the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor is a deity that rules the heavens along with other deities. 

(4) I don’t know why the author chose to separate the Gaoche and Chi Les or Lushuihus and Xiongnus. I decided to put the translation as it is. 

(5) I will standardize Yucheng as Yu city from now on. I’ll edit the passages prior to this. 

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Fleur's Corner:

Next update will be at maybe (20/12). I'm going overseas this week, so updates will take longer. But if I have time, I'll try to update more! 

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