Chapter 325
The emergence of Western Jin heralded the collapse of order in the Central Plains.
The other feudal lords and the foreign tribes assimilated by the Han kept a close, watchful eye on Western Jin's movements.
If the Han Dynasty failed to crush Western Jin immediately, the consequences would be glaringly obvious.
Knowing this, Wang Mang concentrated his forces and pushed into Yanzhou.
However, the Xiongnu—having publicly declared Dao Jun, the King of Western Jin, their ally—did not stand idly by.
The 50,000 soldiers sent by Wang Mang were trampled under the hooves of the warriors led personally by the Grand Chanyu, Achilles.
It was around this time that Achilles's name spread throughout the Central Plains.
Plunging the realm into terror, he became known to the people as the Calamity of the Central Plains.
Transliterated into Han characters as Acarius, his name cemented itself as a nightmare for the Han people after just a few battles.
"A-Aaagh! It's Acarius! He's here himself again!"
"Run! If we stay here, we're all dead!"
"W-Wait for me! I don't want to die for nothing!"
With the subjugation forces repeatedly crushed, no one across the Central Plains feared the imperial family anymore.
Instead, soldiers were so terrified of Achilles that they routinely deserted whenever drafted for subjugation duty.
As the Han Dynasty's control over its provinces continued to weaken, Achilles methodically helped new nations achieve independence.
In particular, he spared no support for the independence of ethnic groups the Han had tried to assimilate.
A prime example was Jiaozhou, located at the southernmost tip of the Han Dynasty.
The people living there—who would be known as the Zhuang in modern times—currently went by the name Luoyue.
The young men of Luoyue, won over by Achilles, traveled through the center of Jiaozhou and across its rural outskirts, urging the people to rise up.
"This is our only chance to escape the oppression of the Han! The Grand Chanyu has promised to aid us until we establish ourselves and build the strength to defend our own! Compatriots, now is the time to rise!"
In this era, it had not been long since these foreign tribes were first conquered by the Han.
Though nationalism had not yet been born, people still instinctively banded together with their own kind.
Achilles deliberately separated these ethnic groups from the Han, thoroughly inciting hostility between them.
"The Han view us as nothing but slaves to be exploited! Look at what they call us: Luoyue, written with a character meaning 'animal.' Those Han bastards are literally treating us like beasts! Hell, some even call us the Tong tribe, claiming we resemble wild dogs!"
"That's right! Let's slaughter every last one of those wicked bastards and build our own nation!"
"Rise, compatriots! Now is the time to reclaim our culture and our pride!"
The ethnic groups of Jiaozhou rose up like wildfire, attacking and burning down government offices.
The Han officials stationed in Jiaozhou were either killed in droves or driven out of the region, barely escaping with their lives.
Naturally, this movement did not end as an isolated event.
Right after the Luoyue rebelled in Jiaozhou, the Qiang Tribe rose up in Liangzhou at the western edge.
The Qiang Tribe, who had never been on good terms with the Han to begin with, eagerly seized the opportunity to raise their armies once again.
However, unlike original history, Rome and the Xiongnu had fanned the flames so effectively that these foreign tribes harbored far greater hostility toward the Han.
The belief that distancing themselves from Han culture and rejecting the Han people was the only way to preserve their identity became a shared consensus across entire tribes.
The Celestial Order centered on the Han people, which the dynasties of the Central Plains had worked so hard to build, was being dismantled in real time.
Wang Mang's abilities were not enough to salvage the crumbling empire.
In truth, under these circumstances, no one could have stopped the empire's downfall.
But for Wang Mang himself, such words offered no comfort.
If a rebellion broke out in Yuzhou today, it would be Yangzhou tomorrow, and Yizhou the day after.
Sometimes, messengers would storm in one after another on the exact same day.
He even felt the urge to throw everything away and flee.
Yet, this cruel era did not even allow him that luxury.
He had barely managed to return to Chang'an before urgent reports flooded in: countless surrounding factions had simultaneously begun marching on the capital.
There was nowhere to run—not east, west, south, or north.
The nations rising under the anti-Han banner had already agreed not to fight amongst themselves until they wiped out Chang'an, the symbol of the old era.
For now, their common enemy was the Han people.
It had reached the point where even someone like Dao Jun, an ethnic Han himself, cried out against the Han and founded his own nation.
Strictly speaking, this happened because Han identity had not yet entirely solidified in this era.
Throughout history, countless tribes had descended upon the Central Plains, naturally mixing with and assimilating into the Han populace.
Even the Miao people, who founded the State of Chu, once boasted a dominance surpassing that of the Han.
Strictly speaking, both Liu Bang and Han Xin also hailed from the State of Chu.
However, the Miao people who established the State of Chu naturally assimilated into the Han as they mingled with them.
The ongoing process of Han assimilation had essentially struck a sudden reef.
Dao Jun himself went around proclaiming that he was originally Miao, not Han, and that he would reclaim the identity of the State of Chu.
Whether it was true or false, the desire to cast off Han identity was already sweeping across the entire Central Plains.
It was the moment Marcus's core plan to dismantle the Central Plains took effect perfectly.
Countless foreign tribes had invaded the Central Plains throughout history, but they had ultimately reverted to a unified dynasty because they ended up assimilated by Han culture.
In truth, the foreign tribes on the frontiers held a deep yearning for the elegant and advanced civilization of the Central Plains.
That was exactly why the power of culture was so terrifying.
Marcus giving Achilles strict orders never to claim the title of Son of Heaven was precisely to prevent the Xiongnu from assimilating into the order of the Central Plains.
But for now, there was no need to worry about that.
Rome very craftily used the Tokharians to continuously spread negative perceptions of the Han people, and the Xiongnu were doing the exact same under Achilles's leadership.
With such information constantly injected from both the east and the west, hostility toward the Central Plains naturally amplified.
This information was not just vague propaganda; it came with concrete examples, making it highly credible.
"The Han call everyone but themselves barbarians and refuse to treat them with respect. They thoroughly trample any foreign tribe that doesn't assimilate, forcefully claiming other cultures as their own and obsessing over usurpation. Look at the Qiang Tribe. They greatly assisted the Zhou dynasty in establishing a new empire, but what kind of treatment have they received? Who among the foreign tribes that submitted to the Han dynasties ever reached a high position?"
"I heard from those who crossed over to the West that Rome is different. The current Roman Emperor's top two confidants are outsiders, not Romans born in Rome. Even though they are foreigners, they were allowed into Rome's highest organs of power and grew into the Emperor's closest aides. Furthermore, they supposedly respect foreign customs, cultures, and religions. Unlike certain others, they don't blindly claim other tribes' cultures as their own. Just looking at this shows how much we've been abused."
Though it harbored a clear agenda, the plausible evidence made it incredibly persuasive.
In less than a few years, many things had changed and vanished.
The vast Central Plains had now splintered into twelve different nations, and there were still regions preparing to establish their own states.
Framing themselves as guardians of freedom, the Xiongnu continuously protected these newly founded nations.
Naturally, they received tribute in exchange.
With the situation escalating to this scale, changes naturally occurred in the south and the north as well.
Yuenan, which had been under the rule of Hangu Commandery, had already achieved complete independence and declared its split from the Central Plains.
The Manchuria region was no different.
The Four Commanderies of Han, situated in Liaodong and the northern Korean peninsula, were pushed out by local nations spearheaded by Buyeo, expelled much faster than in original history.
Stripped of its authority and power, the Han Dynasty's prestige was no longer respected anywhere.
Unable to accept this reality, Wang Mang went completely off the rails.
Chased out of Chang'an, he was barely maintaining the remnants of his power in Luoyang.
In the midst of all this, he even drove out the puppet Son of Heaven, proclaimed himself Emperor, and changed the name of the dynasty from Han to Xin.
Achilles burst into raucous laughter upon hearing this news.
This was actually helping him.
"Look. The title of 'Son of Heaven' was ultimately meaningless and worthless. It was nothing more than a plausible lie fabricated by a group of power-hungry Han to justify themselves."
Achilles immediately raised an army and marched straight into Luoyang.
Naturally, Wang Mang had no power to stop this advance.
Captured without even putting up a proper fight, Wang Mang was sentenced to public execution after a month of imprisonment.
Achilles deliberately took his time preparing the execution ceremony so all outsiders could witness it.
Various foreign tribes flocked from all over to watch the spectacle.
Dragged out miserably and forced to his knees, Wang Mang ignored the curses and mockery pouring down on him.
Staring up at the sky with a pale face, he wailed.
"Oh Heavens! Why have you forsaken me?! Those wicked scoundrels desecrate the throne and seize power! Must you not send down a hero to correct this chaotic heavenly order?!"
Achilles let out a laugh.
"It's a pity, but it seems that hero wasn't you."
Already half out of his mind, Wang Mang glared at Achilles and screamed.
"Then who is it? Do you think a Semu barbarian like you can be a hero?"
"Future generations will judge that for themselves. Still, while I don't know if I'll be called a hero, I have a pretty good guess how you'll be recorded."
"You beasts who twist the heavenly order... One day, divine punishment will surely fall upon your barbaric march...!"
Wang Mang's words went no further.
Gagged, he thrashed and tried to resist, but a cold, glinting blade immediately swung down upon him.
A red line of blood was drawn across Wang Mang's body, from his shoulder to his waist.
Cut down by the sword, Wang Mang's body collapsed and rolled away into the distance.
Though he was not a legitimate Son of Heaven, he was still a man who had proclaimed himself the Son of Heaven of the Han people.
Such a man had his life snuffed out right in front of countless feudal lords and foreign tribal chiefs.
The implications of this scene were immense.
The era where any specific ethnicity ruled the Central Plains was over.
The Son of Heaven had been reduced from a title revered by all to a name symbolizing misguided greed.
At the same time, Roman culture and artifacts spread into the Central Plains through the Tokharians.
Encountering advancements far superior to those of the Han Dynasty, the people realized that the Han had been nothing but a frog in a well until now.
Repeating the process of splitting and merging, the nations of the Central Plains finally settled into sixteen distinct minor states.
They paid regular tribute to the massive northern power, the Xiongnu, or to Tokhara in the east, which was under Rome's protection.
Tokhara's own strength was not that great, but the power of Rome backing them played a massive role.
The crowning stroke that finalized this entire process was denouncing Han characters as an outdated script.
Influenced by Rome, Tokhara scoffed at Han characters, calling them obsolete hieroglyphs and claiming that such pictograms were hardly used in the West anymore.
Tokhara's ruling class began using Latin, and this strategy of making it a premium language succeeded, leading to a prominent trend in the Central Plains of gradually abandoning the pictograms.
Rather than using Latin as it was, they referenced or modified various phonetic alphabets, and some tribes even emerged trying to create their own scripts by combining them with Han characters.
The one commonality was that they no longer used Han characters in their original form.
Completely shriveled up and fragmented into several minor states themselves, the Han people could not even seize the initiative among the sixteen states.
They feared Tokhara (Rome) and the Xiongnu, calling them the Two Hura.
It was the dawn of the Era of the Two Hus and Sixteen States.
These sixteen states would rise and fall as the eras flowed on, but they would never unite into one.
Amidst that newly reorganized order.
A unified dynasty of the Han people never appeared in history again.