Qin Shi Huang ordered General Meng Tian to attack Xiongnu groups in the Ordos region, driving them north and helping spur wider steppe consolidation in the following decades.
Modu (Màodùn) seized power by having his father Touman killed and took the title chanyu, widely treated as the founding moment of the Xiongnu imperial confederation.
Han founder Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu) was trapped and forced into retreat/negotiation after a major Xiongnu victory at Baideng, shaping early Han reliance on diplomacy and tribute.
A peace arrangement recognizing a negotiated relationship between Han and Xiongnu—commonly described as heqin (marriage alliance plus gifts/tribute)—was concluded early in Gaozu’s reign and became a recurring framework for decades.
After Modu’s death, his son Laoshang became chanyu, continuing Xiongnu expansion and pressure on frontier regions and Inner Asian routes.
A failed Han ambush at Mayi marked the end of de jure peace and is conventionally taken as the opening of sustained large-scale Han offensives against the Xiongnu.
In the major 119 BCE northern offensive, Han forces under Wei Qing and Huo Qubing struck deep into the steppe and defeated Xiongnu armies in the Mobei campaign, severely weakening Xiongnu power in the south Gobi/Ordos sphere.
Internal struggles intensified, and the confederation’s leadership fragmented—first among multiple claimants—setting conditions for enduring division between southern-aligned and northern/western-aligned factions.
Huhanye, leading the southern faction, submitted to Han and entered a vassal-style relationship that brought Han support into Xiongnu succession politics and frontier security.
Huhanye made a formal visit to the Han capital, publicly enacting the new hierarchy and alliance that underpinned Southern Xiongnu dependence on Han backing.
Han forces defeated and killed the rival chanyu Zhizhi in Central Asia near the Talas valley, an episode often noted as among the westernmost major Han–Xiongnu clashes.
Amid renewed instability, the Xiongnu split into two durable political groupings—Northern and Southern Xiongnu—reshaping the confederation into competing steppe polities with different relationships to Han China.
The Southern Xiongnu relocated into areas north of China under Han oversight, deepening a client/auxiliary relationship and creating long-lived Xiongnu populations inside Han borders.
Han forces won at Yiwulu (Hami/Kumul area) as part of renewed Eastern Han campaigns, helping reassert pressure on the Northern Xiongnu and reestablish routes and influence toward the Tarim Basin.
A major Xianbei attack killed the Northern Xiongnu chanyu Youliu, throwing the northern court into crisis and accelerating the confederation’s late-1st-century collapse.
Han general Dou Xian led a decisive expedition against the Northern Xiongnu, defeating their main forces near the Altai region and triggering flight, fragmentation, and large-scale surrenders.
Xiongnu Confederation (c. 3rd century BCE–89 CE)
