32. The Nomad Chieftain Who Used His Defeated Enemies’ Skulls as Cups
Long before Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, there was Modu Chanyu (234 – 174 BC), a formidable Eurasian Steppe warrior and chieftain who was in the habit of turning his defeated enemies’ skulls into cups from which he drank blood. He unified the nomadic tribes of the eastern Steppe, and founded the Xiongnu Empire. Dominating the eastern Steppe from Central Asia to Manchuria, the Xiongnu menaced the Chinese to their south for centuries. They forged a complex relationship that alternated between trade and raid, marriage treaties and tribute and war.
In 200 BC, China’s Emperor Gaozu, founder of the Han Dynasty, tried to bring the Xiongnu to heel. Modu led the Chinese invaders on a merry chase through the Steppe, while harrying their supply lines and keeping them on constant edge with frequent skirmishes. When the Chinese were exhausted, Modu ambushed and trapped them in a disadvantageous locale, cut off from resupply and reinforcement.