We now often refer to the Russian nation as a militant people, because they are so brash that they are so ridiculous. But in fact, from a historical point of view, China is the real fighting nation.
In China's thousands of years of history, although on the whole, war and peace coexist, these two are like the yin and yang poles in Taiji gossip, always accompanying each other, but from a subdivision point of view, war is actually the main theme of historical development.
For ancient wars, most of the time we talk about those brave and courageous generals, such as Zhao Yun of the Three Kingdoms, or strategists who plotted behind the scenes of the war stage. Such as Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms. However, in fact, the real protagonists of the war are not them, although these people play a vital role, but the protagonists who really fight the enemy with their lives on the battlefield are ordinary soldiers who have been lost in the long river of history.
The fate of these soldiers is very miserable, and the reason why the generals and strategists can play a huge role is inseparable from the dedication of these soldiers, who use their bodies to lay the foundation for the monarch, but the glory they should have belongs to the generals.
In that feudal and dark dynasty, these soldiers were just a bunch of pawns, and there was no value beyond that.
However, not all generals do not cherish their soldiers, like Liu Bei has always treated his subordinates with benevolence and righteousness. However, compared with a major general in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Bei was a small witch. This Tang Dynasty general would rather be stripped of his official position than confront the emperor and disobey military orders, just to prevent his soldiers from making senseless sacrifices.
This general was Wang Zhongsi, a general during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.
At that time, Wang Zhongsi was at the peak of his career, and he served as the emissary of the four towns, with one-third of the entire Tang Empire's military strength, and was a general above ten thousand people under one person.
However, Wang Zhongsi was not a general who loved to fight, he actually had a far-sighted vision, and always advocated ensuring the stability of the regime of the Tang Empire, strictly guarding the border security, and if the enemy army attacked, it would give the most severe blow. But he does not advocate taking the initiative to provoke war, believing that this is the stupidest way to consume troops.
However, his immediate boss, Tang Xuanzong, did not think so.
During the tang xuanzong period, the Li Tang clique and Tubo had been fighting for many years, and both sides had their own victories and defeats, and the strategic city of Shibao city on the Tang border was under tubo's control at that time, which made Tang Xuanzong look at this small city like a fish in his throat.
Why is Stone Castle important? Because it is located on the border of Datang, and the terrain is extremely steep, except for a long path, the rest is all cliffs, and the defense is definitely the strongest in the castle. After Tubo occupied the city, it only needed to invest a few hundred soldiers to guard the city wall, which could block the tens of thousands of troops of the Tang Dynasty, and it was impossible to conquer it.
Tang Xuanzong did not think so, even though Wang Zhongsi repeatedly stressed that if a strong attack was taken to attack Shibao City, at least tens of thousands of soldiers' lives would be needed to take the city, but Tang Xuanzong only considered taking the city, what honor it would bring to himself, and what merits he would praise for later generations, so he still forced Wang Zhongsi to lead troops to attack Shibao City.
Wang Zhongsi, who was helpless, was still unwilling to achieve his meritorious name at the cost of tens of thousands of soldiers' lives, so he repeatedly refused Tang Xuanzong's orders. This behavior annoyed Tang Xuanzong, who deposed the loyal general in a fit of rage. And Wang Zhongsi, after being deposed, actually died violently at home.
Even if Wang Zhongsi died, Tang Xuanzong still wanted to capture Shibao City, so he ordered that Wang Zhongsi's original subordinate Ge Shuhan be promoted as the new Jiedu envoy and send troops to attack Shibao City.
Although Ge Shuhan was a subordinate of Wang Zhongsi, he did not have Wang Zhongsi's thoughts of thinking about the soldiers, and he wanted to make meritorious achievements. After receiving the will, he led the army to set out in a mighty way.
Facts have proved that Wang Zhongsi is worthy of being a well-known general, and although Ge Shuhan finally captured Shibao City, it was in response to Wang Zhongsi's words that he sacrificed more than 40,000 soldiers before he finally captured Shibao City. This war, said to be a victory, can only be said to be a fiasco, after all, the enemy army has only a few hundred people.
However, Ge Shuhan was overjoyed, he did not care how many subordinates he sacrificed, only that the result of this battle was the successful capture of The Stone Castle City and the successful completion of the emperor's task. After this incident, he will definitely be rewarded by the emperor.
According to the customs of the time, GeShuhan erected a stone stele on the edge of the stone castle, on which his deeds were inscribed for posterity to admire. It is only after thousands of years of time that the stele has been buried under the soil and has not been seen for many years.
Until the Qing Dynasty, a local farmer stumbled upon this stone stele originating from the Tang Dynasty while farming. But they didn't know what the stele was for, nor did they understand the words engraved on it, so they transformed it into agricultural tools for farming.
Later, an American missionary came here, found the stele, knew that it was a cultural relic, spent a lot of money to buy it, and quickly transported it to the United States.
Today, it is the treasure of the Chicago Field Museum.