WI: China conquers Xiongnu in 59 BC

During that time, Xiongnu was hit by a major civil war in 59 BC's. Many generals in that time advocated using that opportunity to completely annihilate Xiongnu. However, Emperor Xuan of Han didn't take that opportunity and instead he advocated a peace between Xiongnu princes instead. If he does take THAT opportunity, what happens? Does China will annex Xiongnu territory? Or what others? I want to know about it.
 
During that time, Xiongnu was hit by a major civil war in 59 BC's. Many generals in that time advocated using that opportunity to completely annihilate Xiongnu. However, Emperor Xuan of Han didn't take that opportunity and instead he advocated a peace between Xiongnu princes instead. If he does take THAT opportunity, what happens? Does China will annex Xiongnu territory? Or what others? I want to know about it.
I don't think they can annex Xiongnu territory.The Han Dynasty has won decisive battles against the Xiongnus before,but the fact remains that it cannot hope to directly rule over Xiongnu territory as it would be extremely expensive to keep the steppes garrisoned and that there's no way of settling the steppes unless they have their own Cossacks/Cowboys to raise cattle on the steppes.The most they could hope for was to fragment the Xiongnu tribes--which they managed to accomplish without actually intervening.Emperor Xuan's decision was actually praised as a wise one in reflection of the incident.
 
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I don't think they can annex Xiongnu territory.The Han Dynasty has won decisive battles against the Xiongnus before,but the fact remains that it cannot hope to directly rule over Xiongnu territory as it would be extremely expensive to keep the steppes garrisoned and that there's no way of settling the steppes unless they have theire own Cossacks/Cowboys to raise cattle on the steppes.The most they could hope for was to fragment the Xiongnu tribes--which they managed to accomplish without actually intervening.Emperor Xuan's decision was actually praised as a wise one in reflection of the incident.

Even with Chinese equivalents to the Cossacks/cowboys (which kinda did exist, in terms of frontier populations which occupied a niche between Mongols and sedentary Chinese in terms of lifestyle), the Chinese state wouldn't be able to project power into the frontier. The Qing were successful in doing so, and this was very difficult (and they had a number of structural advantages that gave them an advantage in doing so over the Han). For more info on this, check out China Marches West by Perdue.
 
Even with Chinese equivalents to the Cossacks/cowboys (which kinda did exist, in terms of frontier populations which occupied a niche between Mongols and sedentary Chinese in terms of lifestyle), the Chinese state wouldn't be able to project power into the frontier. The Qing were successful in doing so, and this was very difficult (and they had a number of structural advantages that gave them an advantage in doing so over the Han). For more info on this, check out China Marches West by Perdue.
The Han and Tang Dynasties did,but it was prohibitively expensive and the state gained very little profit as a result.
 
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