It is undeniable that The individual's outstanding military prowess is undeniable, but it is also necessary to exaggerate the historical role of the individual.
First of all, let's talk about why the famous general Ruyun in the early Han Dynasty was not able to defeat the Xiongnu.
The matter of fighting a war certainly has a lot to do with the skill of the general, but it is not the most important factor, the most important thing is the strength of the two countries. The hard indicators of national strength are the number of soldiers and horses, the quality of equipment, the amount of grain and the total amount of wealth, which is the core of supporting the victory of the war.
Although the society of the early Han Dynasty tended to be unified, it was a very fragile nascent regime established on the ruins of the late Qin War, the Chu-Han War, and the rebellion war against the kings of different surnames. In the early Han Dynasty, the phenomenon of starvation everywhere was very common, so even if there were famous generals such as Zhou Bo, Fan Duo, and Cao Shan, there was no room for them to play, and the Han Dynasty did not have the conditions to launch an offensive against the Xiongnu at that time, and even self-defense was enough.
However, in the period of Emperor Wu of Han, the Han Dynasty was no longer what it used to be, and after seventy years of policy of inaction and restoration in the early Han Dynasty, the advantages of the centralized system of the Great Unification Empire appeared, and the Han Dynasty ushered in the prosperity of the rule of Wenjing, the national strength was doubled, the people flourished, and the grain output hit a new high, coupled with the personal talent of Emperor Wu of Han, it was the slightly enterprising spirit of the Han Dynasty, so that the Han Dynasty's passive defensive strategy against the Xiongnu turned to active attack, and only then did it achieve the glory of the god of war of Huo's disease of "sealing the wolf and living in Xu", which was the opportunity given by the times to Huo to go ill.
Let's talk about the Huns
The strength of the Hun tribes should not be exaggerated. Although the Xiongnu were naturally taller and more powerful than the Central Plains and had a strong ability to adapt to harsh environments, they were not disciplined, and the level of military strategy was not high, and the purpose of their invasion of the frontier was only to rob wealth and provide for self-sufficiency, not for greater strategic intentions.
The reason why the Han people have repeatedly lost battles against the Huns is that the Huns have two magic weapons to win.
The first is that the Xiongnu are mostly extremely mobile cavalry, while the Han people are mostly infantry, people fight too much, they can't fight, they can't run, we can't catch up. The second is the simple and efficient way of supplying the Xiongnu, eating dried meat and drinking goat's milk, not as cumbersome as the Han army cooking on fire. If the Han army can handle these two points well, in terms of combat effectiveness, the Han army's tiger and wolf division is not inferior to the Huns who are tall and powerful.
Another point is also very important, that is, the gaozu period in the early Han Dynasty was the heyday of the Xiongnu. The outstanding Xiongnu military master Mao Dundan had just unified the tribes and was strong, while the early Han Dynasty was poor and weak, so it was vulnerable. In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the relationship between the strong and weak sides was reversed, the national strength of the Han Dynasty was doubled, and the internal contradictions of the Xiongnu were numerous, and gradually went downhill.