"Saving Private Ryan" is a 1998 American film that depicts the 4 sons of the Ryan family who fought on the front line after the Normandy landings, except for james Ryan, the younger son of the 101st Airborne Division, who is still missing, and the other 3 sons have been killed in various places within two weeks. When U.S. Army Chief of Staff Admiral Marshall learned of this, for humanitarian reasons, he ordered the front to organize an 8-man squad to find James Ryan, a second-class soldier whose life and death were uncertain, in the vast sea of people and the rain of bullets, and send him safely back to the rear.
After the release of the movie, many people were touched by the humane behavior of the United States using national power to find an ordinary soldier, but today, we want to tell you that this kind of behavior existed as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty 2000 years ago, and the Chinese Han Dynasty government before 2000 also used the power of the state to rescue a Chinese army that was isolated and isolated, and the performance of this army when it was besieged outside the country is still full of anger and song and tears.
The Shichengzi site is located in the hilly area of Magou Liang Village, Bandugou Town, Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, south of the village along the river dam, and northwest of the Magou River. Because there are a large number of rocks on the east side of the mountain stream, it is called "Shichengzi" by the masses. In 2013, the Shichengzi site was announced by the State Council as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In April 2020, it was shortlisted for the final evaluation project of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2019. The story that happened here 2,000 years ago goes like this:
Geng Gong (耿恭), a general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was a native of present-day Xingping, Shaanxi. He is the no. 1 male protagonist in this blockbuster.
According to the Book of Han, in 74 AD, the Eastern Han Dynasty re-established the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, and Geng Gong and Guan Yu were appointed as lieutenants of the Peng Dynasty. The following year, the Northern Xiongnu Sent 20,000 Elite Soldiers to attack Cheshi, killing the Queen of Cheshi, and instead attacking Geng Gong's garrison, which had hundreds of troops stationed there, and besieging it into the city. This city is the site of today's Shichengzi.
The city of several hundred people was surrounded by 20,000 Xiongnu elite soldiers, what to do? Geng Gong observed the terrain and saw that there was a river outside Shichengzi that could supply the troops with water. As the saying goes, water is the source of life, with the water force can survive, even if the lack of food and clothing can be overcome, even if it does not matter. Therefore, Geng Gong decided to defend the city, even if there are many enemy soldiers outside the city and the situation is critical, the soldiers should have the responsibility of defending the country's territory.
At the beginning of the battle, Geng Gong smeared poison on the arrow and sent a message to the Northern Xiongnu, saying: "This is the sacred arrow of the Han Dynasty, and those who hit the arrow will have something strange." So he shot an arrow with a hard bow. The Northern Huns who were hit by the arrow were greatly alarmed when they saw the blood boiling at the wound. At that time, there was a fierce storm, and Geng Gong's army attacked the Northern Xiongnu by taking advantage of the rain, killing and wounding many Northern Xiongnu. The Northern Xiongnu were very frightened and said to each other, "The Han army has divine power, it is really terrible!" So the siege was lifted and retreated.
Fighting back once is not the same as retreating forever, and the retreating Huns quickly made a comeback, could not attack for a long time, and quickly thought of a trick - cut off the water source in the city, thirst for the Han soldiers, and force the Han soldiers to surrender. What should I do if I run out of water? Ban Gu, the author of the Book of Han, said that these Han Dynasty soldiers "drank from horse dung", and at this time there was no food in the city, so the soldiers had to "cook armor and crossbows to eat their tendons and leather". When the Xiongnu saw the appearance of the Han Dynasty soldiers, they laughed arrogantly: You will be starved to death by thirst, will you surrender? Subsequently, emissaries of the negotiations were sent.
The messenger entered the city and said to Geng Gong and his soldiers, "Surrender, we Xiongnu have cattle, sheep and women, and if you surrender, you will have meat to eat, and we can also marry you a daughter-in-law. General Geng, you can marry our Xiongnu princess and enjoy endless glory and wealth! Geng Gong was very angry, killed the Xiongnu emissaries, and put them in the city as a barbecue, so that many years later Yue Fei wrote the famous sentence in "Manjiang Hong, Angry Hair Chong Guan": Zhuangzhi starved of meat, laughed and talked about thirst for Xiongnu blood.
The Xiongnu were trembling with anger and attacked the city again, shouting one by one to cut off the heads of the Han people who did not know good villains, but they were quickly beaten back by Geng Gong. Subsequently, Geng Gong thought that it was not a matter of going on like this, there was no grain to eat the armored crossbow to eat the saddle, there was no water to drink, even if it could "drink the horse dung juice", but the horses could not pull out the dung, what to do? So he decided to dig a well, well-fed, self-sufficient.
Some of the soldiers were dispatched down to dig wells, and the Book of Han records that in May of the eighteenth year of Yongping, the soldiers dug wells in the city for fifteen years, still did not produce water, were thirsty and sleepy, and when they saw the well digging, they turned off the fire, and there was no hope, but Geng Gong was not discouraged, and personally led the soldiers to dig wells and transport soil, and soon, the spring water gushed out, and everyone shouted long live. The soldiers were full of drinks and were all excited. Geng Gong asked them to take the water to the city tower, and then poured the water down from the city tower to show the Huns: "Aren't you going to die of thirst for us?" Now that we have water, come up and take a shower! The Huns were very surprised to see it, thinking that there were gods helping the Han army, so they led the troops to retreat.
It is reasonable to say that the Huns were gone, and the Han army abandoned the city and returned home, but Geng Gong did not do so. He said: "If we choose to leave, why wait until now?" And if we do that, can we be worthy of the imperial court and the country? Then, he thought of rescue and sent a small detachment to Turpan to move the rescue troops. The leader is a man named Fan Qiang, who is the no. 2 male protagonist in this blockbuster. He first arrived at the Red Willow City in Turpan, where Guan's troops were guarded, but in front of him was an empty city and the corpses of his comrades-in-arms, the Huns had already swept away this place, and Guan's troops had all been killed!
Fan Qiang wiped away his tears and led his squad all the way east, through the vast desert, and finally reached Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, thousands of miles away. The news of Geng Gong's siege reached the emperor's ears, and the civil and military officials began to discuss in the court, and some people said, "I'm afraid it won't work?" When our reinforcements arrived, Geng Gong was afraid that they would have long since lost their bones! Everyone thought the man was right: "If you go to save a bunch of bones, what can be the point?" Listening to the words of these people, Situ Bao Yu stood up and said: "Now people are in a place of danger, and they are abandoned in a hurry, and on the outside they indulge in barbarism, and inside they hurt and die." If they are not saved at this time, if the Xiongnu re-offend Sai Wei Kou, what will His Majesty do? ”
This means: We, the Great Han, should be generous in our deeds, and when we are on expeditions, when we are in danger, we ignore them, but externally we have connived at the brutal barbarians, and internally we have hurt the hearts of those loyal and good generals. If they are not saved now, and the Xiongnu make a comeback in the future, who will still serve the Great Han? So be sure to save your own heroes! When the emperor heard this, he clapped on the spot: "Save people!" So, 2,000 years ago, the Dahan version of the rescue plan was launched! Fan Qiang galloped to the frontier in winter, and with the emperor's order, he gathered the three counties of Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, and shanshanguo totaling 7,000 troops and marched towards Shichengzi.
It was snowing heavily that winter, and the snow was about to bury people. The Book of Han does not record how Fan Qiang bravely crossed the Tianshan Mountains and came to save people. It is only said that Geng Gong and his soldiers suddenly heard the sound of soldiers and horses in the middle of the night, thinking that the Xiongnu had come again, and one by one they passed on the words and prepared to fight. Fan Qiang shouted at them, "I am Fan Qiang, I am here to save you!" Geng Gong and his soldiers relaxed their tight strings. Regarding this paragraph, we still appreciate the original text of the ancient Chinese: "The city heard the sound of soldiers and horses at night, thinking that it was captured, and was frightened." Nai Yao: I Fan Qiangye. Han Dispatch Army greets the lieutenant's ear! ”
The next scene is something everyone can imagine: the city is called Long Live. Open the door and weep together. Tomorrow, it will be all together. The soldiers chased after them and fought and fought. The officials were hungry, there were twenty-six people in the fashion, and they died with the road, and they went to Yumen in March... There were only thirteen left. Zheng Zhong, the defender of the Jade Gate, saw that these people were "dressed in clothes and decisively, describing them as dry", personally bathed and changed their clothes, and the Emperor Shangshu said: "Geng Gong stubbornly defended the isolated city with a single soldier, and when the Xiongnu rushed, tens of thousands of people, for more than a month, their hearts were exhausted." Digging mountains into wells, boiling crossbows for food, out of the hope of death and lifelessness. Thousands of ugly people were killed and injured before and after, and all the pawns were loyal and brave, and they were not ashamed of the big Han. The righteousness of the festival has never existed in ancient times. Yi Mengxian, to be a strong general. ”
Back safely, Geng Gong behind them was the banner of the Great Han that did not fall. Our story seems to have been told here, but how can a film without a female Number 1 work? In fact, in this film, female No. 1 is also there, she is the queen of Cheshiguo, the history books say that although she is a minority, but the degree of Sinicization is very high, in the days when the Han army was besieged, she not only sent food and drink to the Han army, but also provided military intelligence to the Han army. But I don't know why, in the later history books, she was rarely mentioned, so her beautiful image can only be imagined by today's people.
Finally, we weakly say that the reason why the Shichengzi site is famous in history is because Geng Gong led his army to make immortal achievements here in the battle against the Xiongnu, fighting against the Xiongnu with a very small number of troops, and defeating the enemy's siege for more than 7 months. The bravery of the soldiers of the Han Dynasty and the fierceness of the battles will be remembered by future generations. In the end, it created a miracle in the history of our country in which the weak won the strong and the lone army won. For Shule City in the long history of pacifying the western region, he wrote a strong and colorful stroke. Today's archaeological historical materials show that the Shichengzi site has gone through the Han, Wei, Jin, Sui, and Tang dynasties. Archaeologists have collected barrel tiles, plate tiles, square bricks and a large number of sand and gray pottery pieces on the surface of the city, with pots, pots, urns, bowls, etc., as well as charcoal tiger ornaments and complete pottery, which have a more typical Han Dynasty style.
References: 1. Book of the Later Han Dynasty, vol. 19, The Ninth Biography of Geng Ti lie;
2． Xinjiang Qitai Shichengzi Site won the "Field Archaeology Award", the highest award in the Chinese archaeological community, China Broadcasting Network, 2020-03-31;
3. 2019 National Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries Preliminary Evaluation Results Announced 20 Projects Shortlisted for Final Evaluation, State Administration of Cultural Heritage Website2020-04-06;
4. Tracing Shule City: New Archaeological Discoveries at Shichengzi Ruins in 2017, Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau, 2020-03-31. wait.
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