The Han Dynasty is an earlier feudal dynasty in China's history, and if you want to say that the biggest opponent of the Han Dynasty is undoubtedly the Xiongnu in the north of the steppe. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu broke out in successive large-scale wars. During this period, many Xiongnu nobles were killed and captured, and some Han Dynasty generals surrendered to the Xiongnu, and Li Ling was one of them.
Li Ling, who was born into a famous family, was called a traitor by the world because of his surrender, but in fact, most people only know the first half of history, and know very little about the second half of history.
In the first year of Yuan Guang (134 BC), Li Ling was born in the Chengji Period of Longxi Province, that is, in the area of present-day Cheng'an County, Gansu, and his grandfather was the famous "Flying General" Li Guang, who was called a shogun.
Influenced by his family, Li Ling practiced horseback archery and marching to fight from an early age, and showed outstanding military talent.
When he grew older, Li Ling successively served as a servant and a jianzhang supervisor, and was considered by Emperor Wu of Han to have the demeanor of Li Guang, so Emperor Wu's envoys rode eight hundred horses and went deep into the Xiongnu for more than 2,000 miles, living in Yanyan to see the terrain. ''
After easily completing the topographic survey task, Li Ling was sent by Emperor Wu of Han to Jiuquan and Zhangye to train soldiers to deal with possible invasion by the Xiongnu.
In the second year of the Tianhan Dynasty (99 BC), Emperor Wu of Han assigned Li Guangli to attack the Xiongnu Right Xian, while Li Ling was appointed to escort grain and grass. After hearing his appointment, Li Ling could not accept that it would only be used as a logistics unit, so he begged: "The subject is willing to attack the crowd with less, and the infantry is 5,000 people involved in the court." ''
Hearing Li Ling's words, Emperor Wu of Han couldn't help but think of Huo's illness, who died young more than ten years ago, so he immediately agreed to Li Ling's request.
In this way, Li Ling set out from Juyan with his carefully trained 5,000 infantry and came to Junji Mountain after a thirty-day trek. However, not long after, Shan Yu led the 30,000 Xiongnu elite horsemen as the main force to Junji Mountain, and in the face of a strong enemy, Li Ling was not in danger, first surrounded the military camp with large carts, and then sent shield soldiers in front and archers and crossbowmen in the rear.
Seeing that Li Ling had few soldiers, he sent his troops to rush up unsuspectingly, but "Ling Ling fought and attacked, and thousands of crossbows were fired, and they fell in response." The captives also went up the mountain, and the Han army pursued them, killing thousands of people. Shan Yu, who had suffered a great loss, was horrified, and hastily summoned the left and right xianwangs to help, and expanded the size of the cavalry to 80,000 people. Li Ling knew that he could not defeat his opponent, so while facing the enemy, he tried to move to the border of the Han Dynasty in the south, hoping that other Han troops could find and assist him.
Li Ling and the Xiongnu army broke out three large-scale battles before and after, all three of which ended with him leading the army to kill thousands of enemies, but even if Li Ling's army was brave and good at fighting, it was difficult to resist more than ten times the number of enemies. As the days passed, the Han army led by Li Ling not only lacked food and arrows, but also suffered heavy casualties, and when shan saw that the Han army was brave and fierce, and was afraid of ambush, it had already wanted to withdraw its troops, but a man in the army named Guan Dare fled to the Xiongnu and told Shan Yu all of Li Ling's falsehood.
After learning that Li Ling had no reinforcements, Shan Yu strengthened the offensive and finally besieged Li Ling, and in desperation, Li Ling had to choose to surrender. When the news reached the Han Dynasty, emperor Wu of Han was angry, and the group of subjects fell into the well, and then Gongsun Ao informed Emperor Wu that Li Ling was training troops for the enemy, which led to the follow-up story of Emperor Wu's family.
A few years after Li Lingyuan's relatives were killed in Chang'an, the envoys of the Han Dynasty once saw Li Ling and raised the matter, and the shocked Li Ling asked: "I am a Han general who has 5,000 pawns rampaging through the Xiongnu and was defeated by death. ''
When the emissary saw the situation, he told Li Ling the news that he was training troops for the Xiongnu in the Han Realm, and Li Ling listened and replied: "It is Li Xu, not me." It can be seen that Emperor Wu of Han actually killed the loyal Li Ling's family because of a false rumor, which is really regrettable.
In the Xiongnu, Li Ling was favored by Shan Yu, who even married his daughter to him and made him the Right Colonel King, and when Emperor Wu died, Huo Guang and Shangguan Jie, who were in power, were Li Ling's former friends, and they specially sent Li Ling's friend Ren Lizheng to the Xiongnu to persuade him to return to The Xiongnu.
However, ren Lizheng, who came to the Xiongnu and successfully met Li Ling, found that Li Ling had completely become the appearance of the Xiongnu from clothing to habits. Ren Lizheng took advantage of the departure of others to convey the condolences of Huo Guang and others and their desire for Li Ling to return to Han, but Li Ling replied: "Young Gong, return to Yi'er, I am afraid of further humiliation, why not!" ''
That is to say, with his current status and status, it is easy to want to go back, but returning to the Han Dynasty will inevitably be discussed by courtiers and people, and will be insulted again, if so, then he would rather stay in the Xiongnu.
In the first year of Yuan Ping (74 BC), Li Ling, who had been in the Xiongnu for more than twenty years, died of illness at the age of sixty. He dedicated the first half of his life to the Han Dynasty, trained many excellent soldiers for the Han Dynasty, and also made contributions in the war against the Xiongnu. In the second half of his life, Li Ling was slaughtered by Emperor Wu, insulted by his courtiers, and reprimanded by the people, so he did not want to return to China even if he died in a foreign country.
In the final analysis, he was not a traitor who should be criticized, and his surrender to the Huns and his stay there were really last resorts.