Huo went ill, and at the age of 18, he was already a general and a marquis, and at the age of 21, he was a very popular subject, but he died at the age of 23. The cause of death of Hodge's disease has always been the talk of many people to use their imagination space. The most famous is the so-called "Huo Tou died of a plague made by the Huns".
This erroneous claim has been widely circulated, and has even been quoted in TV dramas, misleading a large number of ordinary people. So, who invented this rumor? In fact, the source is not a modern person, but precisely the Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty himself.
Could Hodge disease have died of the plague?
The first thing that needs to be clear is whether Hodge disease may have died of a plague created by the Huns? From the time of Hodge's death, it can be seen that this statement is wrong.
According to rumors, during the Battle of Mobei (119 BC), the Huns discarded a large number of sick and dead livestock into the water source during their retreat, thus deliberately infecting the Han army with the plague. The TV series "Emperor Wu of Han" put this legend into the plot (the film made up many historical paragraphs).
However, Huo died in the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (117 BC), two years after the end of the Battle of Mobei. With the backward medical technology of more than two thousand years ago, it is absolutely impossible that after suffering from the plague, it will last for two years before dying.
Plague itself is a generic term for acute infectious diseases, and chronic infectious diseases will definitely not be regarded as plagues by the ancients. Plagues created by the Huns polluting water sources may include plague, cholera, anthrax, dysentery, brucellosis, etc., each of which will quickly develop in a short period of time, and if the disease causes death, it is also very fast. But if it is not a lethal disease, then it will also seriously reduce the physical strength of the human body in the short term, and it is absolutely impossible to continue fighting, but conversely, it is even more impossible to die after two years.
After the Battle of Mobei, Huo's life was very comfortable. Emperor Wu of Han made him a knight, and both the rank and the rank of Feng Lu were equal to those of the general Wei Qing, and Wei Qing's power was reduced, prompting Wei Qing's old friends and disciples to leave him and serve Huo instead. If Huo was infected with a serious infectious disease, he would never have lived these two years easily, and it would not have been possible for so many people to risk being infected to pursue him.
It can be seen that the cause of death of Hodge disease, even if infected with the plague, can never be caused by two years ago.
But where did this rumor come from? When we trace the historical data, the earliest source we find is actually Emperor Wu of Han himself.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was full of superstitions about the Han-Hungarian war
The claim that the Xiongnu discarded sick and dead cattle and sheep comes from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "Luntai Sin Self-Commandment". This article, written in the later years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (89 BC), is considered a reflection on the excessive use of troops by the Han Dynasty.
The publication of this edict is 30 years from the Battle of Mobei, and it is full of superstition:
Coinciding with Hou De's waitress, he said: When the Han army came, the Xiongnu made the witch bury the sheep and cattle in the various roads and on the water to curse the army. Shan Yu Tianzi Ma Qiu often makes Wu Zhuzhi. Horse-bound, cursed military also. And bu Hanjun was not lucky. The Xiongnu often said: Han is great, but it cannot be hungry and thirsty, lose a wolf, and walk a thousand sheep.
In it, the reason for the several defeats of the Han army is attributed to the curse of the Xiongnu shaman, such as the Huns who tied the four legs of the horse and threw it under the Han Dynasty city, "it is very ominous to tie up their horses." It is also attributed to the failure of the general Li Guangli in battle to the inaccurate divination of the Taishi and Fangshi in the Han Dynasty. It can be seen that the factors for winning or losing a war summarized in the "Wheel of Taiwan Commandment" are completely unreliable.
The "Luntai Edict" mentions that "the Xiongnu made the witches bury sheep and cattle in the various roads and on the water to curse the army" is the source of the so-called "Huns polluting the water source with dead cattle and sheep". It is indeed very likely that this deed existed, but it is not confirmed that it occurred 30 years before the Battle of Mobei, which was 30 years before the Luntai Zhao, and there is no record of a large-scale plague caused by the Han army. Most importantly, the Han Dynasty, including the emperor himself, believed that the Huns buried cattle and sheep only for curses, and never linked to the plague.
If the Han army had a serious plague in the war, the history books would not be without any record (for example, the plague encountered at the Battle of Chibi was recorded), and the wisdom of Emperor Wu of Han in his youth would not be ignored. However, after thirty years, Emperor Wu of Han only paid attention to the absurdity of the Xiongnu people's curse on horses and furs, which led to the poor luck of the Han army. It can be seen that the plague did not have much impact at all, even if the dead cattle and sheep of the Xiongnu people polluted the water source, but the Han army is more likely to have successfully avoided the harm of these plagues, after all, everyone is not a fool.
Even so, later generations subjectively identified the matter of "the Xiongnu burying the sheep and cattle in the various ways and on the water to curse the army", and even made up a "Huo to die of the plague created by the Xiongnu". It has to be said that the superstitions of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty need to pay a certain amount of responsibility, otherwise the curse farce of the Xiongnu would not have been openly written into the history books. (Author: Tao Mujian)