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Although Ban Chao was a great hero, he almost single-handedly fought the mighty style of the Great Han in the Western Regions, but after he returned to China, Ren Shang, who took over his position as the protector of the Western Regions, deviated from Ban Chao's strategy of governing the Western Regions, coupled with the gradual corruption of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which led to rebellions in various countries one after another, and the good situation was lost.
The Xiongnu have always been the northern frontier of the Central Kingdom, if history has arranged such a fierce nomadic people to covet the rich Central Plains at all times, then God will also give the Central Plains a few heroes specifically used to deal with the Xiongnu, just like playing games, there are back and forth to be fun.
If Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi in the Western Han Dynasty are called a sharp sword, stabbing the Xiongnu without the ability to fight back, then a great hero in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Chao of the Ban family, is more like an Aegis, subjugating more than 50 countries in the Western Regions with his own strength, so that the Xiongnu look at the south and sigh away.
Ban Chao is the one who left us with the idiom of "throwing pen from Rong".
The Ban clan is an important family in the two Han Dynasties, its ancestors are passed down as ling yin of the Chu state, and later moved to northern Saibei, living a nomadic life, Liu Bang jianguo, Guangna Xiancai, the Ban clan successively became officials in the dynasty, one of them was called Ban Guan, who was an official who served as a lieutenant of the Zuo Cao Yue Riding School, in fact, he was the Shu Wei Jing Division, and there were wars when he went out to fight, this Class had three sons, Ban Bo, Ban Shi, Ban Zhi, and a daughter, that is, the famous Ban Jieyu, the concubine of Emperor Hancheng.
Ban Zhi's son was called Ban Biao, Zhi was not an official, but wrote history, Sima Qian's "History" was written in the early years of Emperor Wu of Han, he continued to write, wrote more than sixty "Sequels", and then his son Ban Gu continued to write, determined to write a "Book of Han", but did not finish writing, he died, and then Ban Gu's sister Ban Zhao continued to write, and finally completed the famous "Book of Han".
It can be seen that this ban clan, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was born under the name of Wen.
Ban Chao is also the son of Ban Zhi, that is to say, he is ban gu's younger brother, Ban Zhao's older brother, in such a family, the cultural level is naturally not low, at the beginning Of the time Ban Chao copied documents for the official government, was a knife and pen official of the official government, but Ban Chaozhi was in a high distance, once he said, "The great doctor has no other ambitions, especially when he imitates Fu Jiezi Zhang Qian's meritorious foreign land, in order to take the title of marquis, An Nengjiu's pen Yan Jianhu!" So I joined the army.
This is the origin of "throwing pen from Rong".
Han Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu established the country, at this time the Xiongnu internal division into the two tribes of the Northern and Southern Xiongnu, the Southern Xiongnu came to surrender, moved to the vicinity of the current Shanxi Datong, and later continued to move south, into the "Xihe, Meiji" that is, Shanxi Lishi County, at that time let them move to the Central Plains, naturally it was right, to surrender them, let them settle down, reduce the border troubles, but this also laid the introduction of the later Wuhu Chaohua, which is another topic.
The Northern Xiongnu occupied the area around tianshan north road.
Although Liu Xiu, the founding emperor, relied on "martial arts" to establish the country, he ruled the country very leniently, pursuing the policy of Yanwu Xiuwen, he closed the Yumen Pass, kept the countries in the western regions originally attached to the Han Dynasty out of the country' gates, and concentrated on domestic construction.
In this way, the Northern Xiongnu just rose to fill this power gap, began to subdue these small states south of the Tianshan Mountains, controlled the western region, and increasingly became a major threat to the Eastern Han Empire.
When emperor Ming, that is, when Liu Xiu's son became emperor, this problem became more and more prominent, and he had to find a way to solve it, but "Yanwu" was too long, there were no good generals, first sent a general named Sacrifice To attack the Northern Xiongnu, this sacrifice was actually very good at fighting, when the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, when he was the Taishou of Liaodong, forcing Xianbei and Wuhuan to pay tribute, this time (73 AD) once again led the army to fight against the Northern Xiongnu, all the way to the desert in the north of the back of Xinjiang, but could not see the shadow of a Xiongnu, had to return in vain, Emperor Hanming was very angry and put him in prison.
Then he sent Dou Gu away.
This Dou Gu is Liu Xiu's son-in-law, the Dou family and the Ban family are fellow countrymen, or Ban Biao introduced the Dou family to join Liu Xiu's camp, so the two families are considered to be family friends.
It just so happened that Ban Chao had the ambition of making meritorious contributions to the frontier, and this time Dou Gu brought Ban Chao with him, and this year Ban Chao was already 42 years old.
Dou Gu gave Ban Chao a small position and asked him to lead a small detachment to fight in the western direction.
The vast western region suddenly became a stage for Ban Chao to display his talents, and he hit the Pushi Sea (present-day Bali Kun Lake in Xinjiang) in one breath, and also recovered Yiwulu, which is now the city of Hami.
Hami is of great military value, it always holds the north and south roads of the Tianshan Mountains, it is a key charge, hami to the south, is the shanshan country.
At that time, the strategy of the Eastern Han Dynasty was to "break the Xiongnu and first cut off their right arm", that is, to divide the small countries in the western region from the xiongnu's power and form a strategic posture of attacking the northern Xiongnu from the east and west.
But to tell the truth, at that time, the national strength of the Eastern Han Dynasty could not send troops to expedition to so many countries in the western region, so the best way was to use diplomatic means to persuade the western region to submit to the Han and jointly oppose the Northern Xiongnu.
Dou Gu saw that this Ban Chao was very capable, since he had already laid hami, then you simply represented the Han Empire on behalf of the Western Regions, so Ban Chao began his "magical" journey with a 36-person mission.
It should be noted that in this mission, Ban Chao was not a "regimental commander", but a person named Guo Ke, whose job title was "engaged" and belonged to the civilian official.
So they first reached the state of Shanshan (southwest of present-day Lop Nur in Xinjiang).
The State of Shanshan originally belonged to the Great Han, and later Wang Mang usurped the state, and after Liu Xiu established the state, he closed the Jade Gate Pass, and had no choice but to attach himself to the powerful Northern Xiongnu.
The arrival of Ban Chao and his party suddenly put Shan Shanguo into a dilemma, if Ban Chao came with a large army, then Shan Shanguo had the confidence to follow the large army against the Northern Xiongnu, but seeing that they only had thirty people, and the Northern Xiongnu were a big country in front of them, if I betrayed the Xiongnu, what could you people do?
Moreover, coincidentally, at that time, the Northern Xiongnu also had a mission in the shanshan kingdom.
Neither side of the Shanshan King dared to offend, but just entertained Ban Chao with good food and drink.
Ban Chao saw that this would not work, we had to make our words clear and get things done.
Ban Chao first brought in the attendants who received them and cheated out the information that the northern Xiongnu's mission was indeed here, and then Ban Chao immediately made a decision, telling the people of the mission that we had come here all the time to make meritorious contributions to seek wealth, and now the northern Xiongnu envoys are also here, and the attitude of the king of Shanshan is not clear, if he gives us to the Huns, then we don't have to say that we are rich, and our lives are not guaranteed, we are not going into the tiger's den, we can only destroy the Xiongnu envoys first, so that we can cut off the back road of the Xiongnu king. He can only submit to our Great Han Empire. What do you think?
Yes, the phrase "don't go into the tiger's den, get the tiger" is also what Ban Chao, the great hero, left for us.
Everyone listened to Ban Chao's words and felt reasonable, some people said, this matter is quite big, are we going to talk to Colonel Guo?
At this time, the temperament of Ban Chao's hero was revealed, and Ban Chao said, needless to say to him, Commander Guo is just a civilian official, he can't do this fight and kill, and he knows that he is likely to miss the wind because of fear, not only will things not be done, we will have to die in vain, and even the reputation of a strong man cannot be fished out.
The so-called hero actually does not lie in how high his martial arts value is, but also in his daring to be dared to be a man and dare to make a decision on the spot.
As soon as everyone listened, ok, that's it.
That night, just when it was windy, Ban Chao and his party sneaked to the Xiongnu envoys' concord station, set fire to the wind, and more than thirty people beat the war drums, and the noise was noisy.
The Xiongnu mission also did not have many people, as soon as they saw this situation, they immediately became chaotic, and Ban Chao and his party took advantage of the situation to slash and kill, and the fire burned many Xiongnu people, and the Xiongnu mission fell into a "regiment annihilation."
The next day, Guo Ke knew about this matter, first he was afraid, and then he felt that Shan Shanguo must be submissive to the Great Han because of this, which was a super big credit, but this matter was taken by Ban Chao, the credit was Ban Chao's, and it had nothing to do with himself, so he was very unhappy.
As soon as Ban Chao saw Guo Ke's appearance, his heart was funny, and he comforted Guo Ke, this military merit medal, ah, there is half of me, of course, there will be half of you as the regimental commander, you can rest assured.
Guo Ke was happy at this time.
Ban Chao invited the king of Shanshan out and placed the heads of the Xiongnu emissaries in a row for the king to see.
The king saw that this class of super people was really cruel, what else could he say, belong to the imperial court, and expressed his willingness to send his prince to the imperial court as a hostage.
In this way, Ban Chao subdued Shan Shanguo.
Ban Chao brilliantly completed the task entrusted to them by Dou Gu, and when he returned, he reported to Dou Guhe, who of course was very happy, so he explained the matter to Emperor Ming of Han and suggested that the emperor send emissaries to the Western Regions to subdue the small countries and divide the forces of the Xiongnu.
After Emperor Han Ming heard about Ban Chao's heroic deeds, he was very appreciative, and issued an edict saying that there was such a capable person as Ban Chao, and what others were sent, it was him, let him be the military commander, and continue to send envoys.
Dou Gu felt that Ban Chao only had more than thirty people, a little less, so he wanted to allocate some more people to him, but Ban Chao waved his hand and said that we represented the Great Han Empire, sent envoys to various countries, and did not go to war, and if there was an accident, there were many people but a burden, which was enough.
So Ban Chao took about thirty people and marched to the western region, this time to Hetian, Xinjiang, which was then called Khotan.
The state of Khotan was a large country in the western region, calling the southern province of the Tianshan Mountains, but the power of the state was not actually in the hands of the Khotanese king, but the Northern Xiongnu, who had a mission stationed in Khotan, which was externally said to be guardianship.
The Khotanese king was also very cold to the Han envoys, in fact, it was because of the Northern Xiongnu that he did not dare to offend the big country in front of him.
At that time, the witchcraft was prevalent in Khotan, and the king's sorcerers knew that the envoy of the Han Empire was coming, and did not want the king to submit to the Han, so he said to the king, the gods know that you have the idea of submitting to the Han, and now they are angry, the Han mission has a horse with a black mouth, and use this horse to sacrifice the gods, so that the gods can stop their anger.
The Khotanese king was a little frightened, so he sent his own prime minister to ban chao to ask for this horse.
Ban Chao had already inquired about the matter, so he said to the prime minister, the horse can be given to you, but ask your wizard to lead the horse himself.
When the wizard arrived, Ban Chao couldn't help but say that a knife would hack him to death and return his head to the king of Khotan.
The king of Khotan also heard about Ban Chao's murder of the Xiongnu mission in the state of Shanshan, and was afraid when he saw that this matter could happen again on his own territory.
At this time, Ban Chao showed the demeanor of a diplomat and had an in-depth conversation with the king of Khotan, explaining the stakes.
The Khotanese king immediately ordered the slaughter of the Xiongnu envoys and recombined the Han Empire.
When the small countries in the Western Regions heard that the envoys of the Great Han Empire had arrived in the Western Regions, they all expressed their attachment.
The relationship between the Western Regions and the Central Plains Empire was broken for more than sixty years, and with the efforts of Ban Chao, contact was slowly restored at this time.
However, the Northern Xiongnu were strong after all, and they also controlled many countries in the western region.
The Xiongnu-supported Guizi state attacked the Shule state (present-day Kashgar, Xinjiang), killed its king, and established another Guizi as the king of Shule, and the Shule state was actually in the hands of the Huns. ]
In order to solve this problem, in the spring of 74 AD, Ban Chao again led a delegation to the Shule kingdom, to a place a hundred miles away from the city, Ban Chao sent a man named Tian Wei to summon the king of Shule, the king of Shule was not a Shule people, but loyal to the Xiongnu Guizi people, there was no intention of submission, Tian Chao took advantage of his unpreparedness, kidnapped the king, Ban Chao then summoned the officials of the Shule state, announced the establishment of another nephew of the Shule king who had been killed as king, the Shule people were very happy, and thus recruited the Shule kingdom, so that Shanshan, Yu Khotan, All three states of Shule resumed their vassal relations with the Han Dynasty.
In 75 AD, emperor Ming of Han died, and the yanqi (present-day Yanqi Hui Autonomous County, Xinjiang) took the opportunity to besiege the capital of the Western Regions, killing the capital Chen Mu, and Guizi and Gumo (in present-day Wensu County, Xinjiang, around Aksu City) and other states also repeatedly sent troops to attack Shule.
Ban Chao persisted in Shule for more than a year.
By 76 AD, the Han Zhang Emperor Liu Ju believed that Chen Mu was dead, worried that Ban Chao was alone in the frontier and had no strength to send troops, so he wanted Ban Chao to return to China, but at this time, once Ban Chao retreated, those small countries that established subordinate relations with the Han Empire must fall back into the hands of the Xiongnu, Ban Chao has always had the ambition of making meritorious contributions to foreign lands, decided not to return to China for the time being, and recruited 10,000 soldiers from each vassal state to attack the Gumo State, thus isolating Guizi.
In 80 AD, Ban Chao had been in the Western Regions for eight years, and with his understanding of the situation in the Western Regions and after careful consideration, he wrote to Emperor Zhang of Han and proposed the strategy of "ruling yi with yi".
The State of Wusun in the Western Regions was a large country with strong military strength, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had been friendly with it when he was in peace, and Princess Xiaojun married the then King wusun. Ban Chao thought that he could unite with the State of Wusun, so he asked Emperor Zhang of Han to send emissaries to appease Wusun, so that the State of Wusun could also restore relations with the Han Dynasty.
Until 86 AD, under the efforts of Ban Chao, the countries of the Southern Province of the Western Regions were all submitted to the Shun Han Empire, and the Southern Province was unimpeded from then on.
In 87 AD, the attack on Shache, the Guizi kingdom sent troops to rescue. Ban Chao directly attacked the Shache base camp with the strategy of transferring the tiger away from the mountain, the Shache country surrendered, and Ban Chao was even more powerful in the western region.
In 90 AD, Ban Chao fought a battle with the Great Moon Empire, the famous Kushan Empire.
The Ōtsuki clan then crossed the Amu and Sil rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea, occupying the northwestern part of Afghanistan and India, and later expanding into the entire basin of the Ganges.
Relying on his own strength, the king of the Dayue clan proposed to Ban Chao that he wanted the Han Dynasty to "make peace" and marry a Han Dynasty princess.
Ban Chao directly rejected him, and the King of the Yue Clan sent a so-called deputy king with 70,000 troops to attack Ban Chao in the east.
Ban Chao knew that they had come from afar, and there was no way to continue the grain and grass, so he could not hold out, and he knew that they would definitely ask Guizi for help, send troops to ambush in the east in advance, and then kill the emissaries of the Yue Clan Kingdom to Guizi for help, the deputy king of the Yue Clan had no choice but to ask Ban Chao for guilt, and the Great Moon Clan was greatly shocked by the strength of the Han Dynasty, so he paid tribute to the Han Dynasty every year.
In 91 AD, the kingdoms of Guizi, Gumo, and Wensu all surrendered.
In this year, the imperial court appointed Ban Chao as the protector of the Western Regions and Xu Gan as the governor of Changshi.
In the autumn of 94 AD, Ban Chao recruited a total of 70,000 troops from eight vassal states, including Guizi and Shanshan, and attacked Yanqi, Weisu, and Wei Plough, and more than 50 countries in the western region recombined to the Han Dynasty.
In 95 AD, the Han court enfeoffed Ban Chao as the Marquis of Dingyuan and ate thousands of households.
In 100 AD, Ban Chao was 69 years old at this time, homesick, he wrote to the emperor, asked to return to his hometown, in August 102, Ban Chao returned to Luoyang, and died shortly after, at the age of seventy-one.
Of the seventy-one years of Ban Chao's life, thirty years were spent in the Western Regions.
Such a person, called a big hero, is not excessive.
In the upper book of The Class's request to return to his hometown, there is a sentence that "the subject does not dare to look forward to Jiuquan County, but wishes to be born into the Yumen Pass", which is the origin of the allusion of "born into the Yumen Pass", and to this day, it still makes people feel admired and feel the pride of dry clouds!
Unfortunately, although Ban Chao was a great hero, he almost single-handedly fought the mighty style of the Great Han in the Western Regions, but after he returned to China, Ren Shang, who took over his position as the protector of the Western Regions, deviated from Ban Chao's strategy of governing the Western Regions, coupled with the gradual corruption of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which led to rebellions in various countries one after another, and the good situation was lost.
Thank you for "watching"