85Chapter 85 Young Talent, Iron-Known Assertions
This character is called Huo Qubing.
He was Wei Qing, or rather, the "nephew" of Wei Zifu.
Of course, at the beginning, this person did not stand alongside the two pillars of the Han Dynasty, Chen Ding and Wei Qing, because he was too young.
When Wei Zifu came into Emperor Wu's sight, it was the autumn and winter of the sixth year of Emperor Wu's reign. At that time, Huo Qubing was only three or four years old. To Wei Qing and Wei Zifu, he was just a "burden" or "load".
But when Wei Zifu became successful, she no longer felt that Huo Qubing was a burden, because Huo Qubing was younger than Wei Qing and Wei Zifu. This was a disadvantage, but also an advantage.
Wei Zifu knew that she would definitely have children in the future, and even that a boy would be born - because her husband's family really had a throne to inherit.
The child must be accompanied by someone of similar age, who must be reliable and have no powerful background.
This was impossible for Wei Qing's children to achieve.
Because as Wei Qing's talents became apparent, the emperor would definitely arrange a marriage for him in order to tie him down, and the person he arranged the marriage to would definitely be of royal blood. Such offspring would naturally stand with the royal family, and they could even be given a high position.
But Huo Qubing was different.
Huo Qubing's father's family was just a minor official, or even a clerk. Such a person was deeply bound to the Wei family, and he could only rely on his mother's family, that is, the Wei family, to continue to climb up and move forward.
This is true even though he has endless talent.
Therefore, cultivating such a person, whether as her son's future "study companion" or confidant, is a profitable thing with no investment.
This is how Huo Qubing came into the eyes of Emperor Wu.
Because at this time Emperor Wu also thought of what Wei Zifu and others had thought, and he thought more - no matter whether Wei Zifu's children could succeed in winning the throne, Huo Qubing could become the Wei family's retreat.
All we can say is that when Emperor Liu favors someone, he will definitely do his best to consider everything for her.
Although when love is no longer there, it is very likely that you will take action to dismantle all these thoughts - but this does not affect the arrangement at this time.
So, with mutual consent, the child Huo Qubing could even enter and leave the palace on a regular basis.
At the end of winter in the ninth year of Emperor Wu's reign, the Huns were temporarily defeated. Due to the cold weather, they could no longer invade the borders of the Han Dynasty and could only use their savings from previous years to try to survive the winter.
Of course, most of those who survived were nobles - a small number were the common people.
The rich will get richer, and the powerful will get more powerful. The rich will not share their wealth with the poor, and the powerful will not share their power with the powerless.
This is a very simple truth that anyone can understand.
If someone pretends not to understand this most basic and unchangeable truth and puts forward a truth that contradicts it, then this person must have no good intentions and must be pretending to be stupid in order to gain personal benefits.
This was true for both the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu.
Therefore, after a cold winter, the Huns did not actually lose many elite soldiers. After all, those elite soldiers could not be poor and powerless people.
In the spring of the tenth year of Emperor Wu's reign, the Huns were already eager to launch an attack on the Han Dynasty.
They understood that it was unrealistic to rely on their savings to survive the winter - they were not a farming nation like the people in the Central Plains like the Han people, and most of their things could not be preserved.
This is the shortcoming of nomadic people.
So they had to start a war and obtain enough food from the Han Dynasty to survive the winter.
... ....
Weiyang Palace
Emperor Wu was wearing a simple long gown with ice cubes in front of him. In the scorching hot weather, only these few ice cubes could make him feel a little cool.
The Chen family did offer to modify the "Ziliang Pavilion" and "Ziliang Room", but Emperor Wu did not want to make such a big fuss - Emperor Wu during this period was actually quite frugal, of course, in terms of his daily life.
His greater expenditure and extravagance were in the field of war.
Life also became luxurious after the war and after the Han Dynasty implemented "many great unification measures."
During the great unification measures, the wealth of the world continued to flow into Chang'an City, so he did not have such luxury.
"Do you think the Huns will launch an attack in the near future?"
Emperor Wu raised his eyebrows and looked at the young man in front of him.
The young man sitting cross-legged in front of him looked to be about seven or eight years old, with a serious look on his face, like a little adult.
This person is Huo Qubing!
Huo Qubing had a stern face. This was because his aunt told him that the emperor did not like those kind of lively people, so she asked him to act as serious and steady as possible in front of the emperor.
Looking at Huo Qubing's expression, Emperor Wu also had a slight smile in his eyes.
Of course he knew why Huo Qubing behaved like this, but he didn't care - who wouldn't want to see a fair, cute and handsome young man pretending to be serious in front of him?
Even though he is the Emperor, he still likes this "cute" young man.
Moreover, during this period, Emperor Wu was in a state of "a loving father's heart with nowhere to place it"? He wanted a child, but until now, no good news had been received from the harem.
Huo Qubing nodded slightly, his expression becoming even more serious: "Yes, Your Majesty."
He looked at the feng shui map in front of him, pointed to a certain spot and said, "The Xiongnu are nomadic. Before this winter, they were unable to plunder food from the border areas to survive the winter. I'm afraid this has already damaged their vitality."
"They must prepare for war in advance so that they can have a better winter."
"This is the only place where the Han army has fewer troops deployed. Only by attacking from this place can we plunder enough food."
"Because of last year's war, they must have believed that the Han would have preconceived notions and would launch a hasty war in the autumn and winter. Therefore, they would break with their usual practice and begin looting in the summer and autumn, catching the Han off guard."
"Therefore, I assert that the Xiongnu will definitely launch an attack this summer!"