First of all, I absolutely did not mean to say that the Xiongnu should not be beaten, but Liu Che's fight against the Xiongnu was indeed a failure, and it was a two-commodity behavior that was not worth the loss.
The strategy of Mayi, which triggered the Han-Hungarian War, if properly planned, could solve the Xiongnu problem in one fell swoop like Li Mu. However, Liu Che made two key mistakes, which led to the failure of Ma Yi's plot.
The first key mistake is impatience.
Li Mu only threw bait to lure the enemy many times, but he did not take the bait, the Xiongnu harassed the Zhao army for a long time and did not attack, the Xiongnu came to the conclusion that Li Mu did not dare to fight, and dispersed the army to rob with confidence, and Li Mucai seized the fighter plane and killed him with one blow, which was the result of Li Mu's long-term planning.
Liu Che thought of the war too simply, and for the first time in the Plot of Mayi, when the Xiongnu doubts were not dispelled, he sent 300,000 troops to try to annihilate the main Xiongnu in one fell swoop. This was a time when the Xiongnu were extremely vigilant, so a little wind and grass moved the Xiongnu hundreds of thousands of main forces to run.
The second key mistake is the refusal to delegate power.
The composition of the 300,000 Han army on the Mayi front was complex, and Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty did not dispatch a general or a lieutenant with full power to unify the army, and even did not send a temporary commander-in-chief. It was Liu Cheyuan who was remotely controlled in Chang'an, and the order of attack of each unit was arranged.
As a result, the enemy situation changed, and the 300,000 troops could not carry out the expected order of attack, and did not dare to disobey Liu Che's plan, and could only watch the Xiongnu flee.
If there is a commander-in-chief on the front line, at least he can adapt to changes, and he cannot completely annihilate the main force of the Xiongnu, and it is still no problem to deal a heavy blow. Because of Liu Che's remote control micro-exercises, 300,000 troops were busy in vain.
Liu Che not only did not take the initiative to assume the responsibility of Ma Yi's plot, but instead entrusted people to kill Wang Hui, the proposer of Ma Yi's plot, as a scapegoat, plus Nie Yi, who was killed by the Xiongnu, and the two people in the imperial court who knew the Xiongnu best at that time were also damaged in the Mayi plot.
Next, Liu Che began to play blind play with his national strength, and repeatedly carried out grassland armed parades. According to the Book of Han, more than half of the household accounts were lost, which was the loss of 18 million households, and even if there were millions of displaced people who did not die under the protection of powerful landlords, the loss of population was at least more than 10 million.
The Losses of the Huns were only 200,000, which was a 200,000 to 10 million battle loss ratio. In fact, although the Xiongnu suffered heavy losses, they still insisted on fighting the Han army, and it was the Han Dynasty itself that could not bear it, and Liu Che was forced to go down to the "Edict of the Wheel of The Platform" and took the initiative to stop large-scale operations against hungary. Objectively speaking, the Han-Hungarian War in Liu Che's era ended in defeat.
In addition, there is also a bad consequence that has led to the rise of powerful landlords, and the common people, because of the deep disaster, would rather be slaves with haoqiang than be the editors of the Han Dynasty. This led to the weakening of centralized power, the powerful landlords of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three kingdoms and the two Jin Dynasties, the southern and northern dynasties of the family lineage, the root of the problem is here.
The fact that Emperor Wudi of Han was able to be promoted to such a high position was actually the result of respecting Confucianism, after all, Confucianism made an important contribution to the mainstream of Emperor Wudi of Han. Confucianism naturally returned the favor, and the more consolidated the status of Confucianism became, the higher the status of Emperor Wu of Han was also promoted.
However, Hui Ge believes that Liu Che's most important contribution is not to respect Confucianism, but to forge ahead.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not only went north to the Xiongnu, but also invaded Korea in the east, went south to Baiyue, and traveled west to the western region, and sent expeditions to explore Southwest Yi many times.
This positive and enterprising spirit of exploring on all sides is the most precious wealth of our nation, especially the most remarkable results of sending Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, opening up the Silk Road, and the Central Plains civilization began to communicate with other civilizations in the world on a large scale.
In addition to the Xiongnu in the western region and the north, in fact, Liu Che made no small pioneering efforts in Korea in the east, Baiyue in the south, and Southwest Yi, and today the main body of China, Liu Che, has taken them all, and even Korea and northern Vietnam have also set up counties.
From a deep level, Liu Che's series of actions were no less than the great navigation movement in Europe, the original purpose of the European great voyage was to find allies behind the Muslims, and the purpose of Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions was also to find the Great Moon Clan, an ally who fought back against the Xiongnu.
It can be said that Liu Che's positive and enterprising spirit has surpassed that of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs during the great voyages of Europe.
Unfortunately, the livable areas around China have all been controlled by the Han Dynasty, the West of Korea is Chicken Rib, the south of Baiyue is also a land of smoke, the southwest of Yi is inconvenient, and the grassland in the north is difficult to settle. Only the western desert in the western region has oases, which can barely be developed, but the conditions are far inferior to the Central Plains.
Due to the limitations of the geographical environment, although Liu Che made greater efforts than the European navigation movement, he could not be as lucky as the Europeans to find a large livable area with convenient transportation.
In fact, it took only a little more than a month's voyage from Europe to North America in ancient times to reach this larger and more livable area than Europe.
And Chinese in ancient times to find areas with similar conditions to China's mainland, want to go around the Cape of Good Hope, want to go to the Americas to go around the Strait of Magellan, because to the west of the Americas is also a steep mountain range, a large area of habitable areas in the Americas are on the Atlantic coast, it is impossible to reach without sailing for more than a year, which is an absolutely impossible task in ancient times.
Therefore, it is not that ancient China did not make efforts, Liu Che did his best in this regard, and really could not find a large area of livable area, so the main body of civilization could only be in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins.
So my evaluation of Liu Che:
First, fighting the Xiongnu was a failure, and Liu Che's military ability was at the same level as Yang Guang's, which is also the reason why Liu Che has been controversial in history.
Second, Liu Che's high status is the result of respecting Confucianism, but this kind of respect carries family selfishness and is not objective.
Third, the most valuable thing about Liu Che is the pioneering and enterprising spirit, which is the most lacking in future generations, and it is also the most lacking in our nation. Although this pioneering spirit has not achieved the same results as the great European voyages, this is determined by geographical conditions and is also the destiny of our nation.
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