When we were in high school, we all studied "Su Wu Biography", and after reading a whole text, the author remembered a sentence:
If I can't live proudly, I'd rather die.
”
Su Wu, who was forced to stay in the Xiongnu, faced two difficult choices, one was to continue to adhere to the determination to return to the Han, refuse any relief provided by the Xiongnu, and spend the rest of his life in desolation; the other was to betray the Han Dynasty and enjoy the glorious wealth and food given by the Xiongnu, but to endure the scorn and insults of the world.
For the author, being in a harsh environment and giving me two extreme options at the same time may not be able to stick to it at all. Human nature is weak, and ants are still secretly born, but this concept only represents personal ideas, which is far from the core values of contemporary socialism, and does not advocate that small partners follow suit.
Picture from the Internet: "Su Wu Biography"
The author has always had doubts about the character of Su Wu,
What was the force that supported him to completely disregard his own interests and to be alone in the North Sea for eighteen years?
By consulting relevant information, the author finally understood that Su Wu swore not to submit to the Xiongnu in death, not to struggle with whether to choose glory and wealth or loyalty to the Han Dynasty, just because of his identity, he was a Han, so he could not do the betrayal of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had repeatedly persuaded Su Wu to surrender, and Su Wu used four suicides to resist the Xiongnu.
Photo: Stills of shepherding sheep in the North Sea
His loyalty to the Han Dynasty was immeasurable by any gold, silver, treasure, or position of power, and if he could not maintain his loyalty to the Han Dynasty, he would rather preserve his faith by death.
Su Wu has a small friend named Li Ling, once persuaded Su Wu to surrender, his life trajectory and Su Wu are completely two parallel lines that do not intersect, many people think that Li Ling is a villain, is a traitor, and is not worthy of being compared with Su Wu.
So why did Li Ling betray the Han Dynasty?
What was his end?
Today we will talk about the character of Li Ling in detail.
Photo: Stills of Li Ling persuading Su Wu to surrender in the North Sea
First of all, a brief introduction to Li Ling's origin, Li Ling is a military family, his grandfather is a famous, heroic and invincible fierce general Li Guang, Li Ling's father died before he was born, and he became a widow, fortunately, there is a mother to continue to take care of and raise him.
Throughout Li Ling's upbringing, his grandfather Li Guang was unfortunately lost in the war with the Xiongnu, resulting in the army being crushed, and he committed suicide in shame, and at the same time, his uncle died.
Later, Li Guang's younger brother held a particularly high official position, but he was sentenced to prison on suspicion of land annexation, and finally broke himself in prison. Li Ling's immediate uncle Li Dang, who had injured Wei Qing, was shot by an arrow from Huo Fuyi while going out hunting.
We can see that Li Ling has lived in a single-parent family since he was born, and in the process of his growth, the people who are close to him have left him one by one, which undoubtedly left a shadow on Li Ling's juvenile life, resulting in his personality being introverted and lonely, and he did not like to communicate with people.
Image: Stills of Li Daring being shot dead by an arrow from Huo's illness
Li Ling, who came from a family of warrior generals, loved horseback archery since he was a child, and liked to specialize in military books when he was bored, his talent was soon discovered by Emperor Wu of Han, and after being appreciated, Li Ling was sent to suppress the Xiongnu, and at this time, his life ushered in a big turn.
In many ancient dynasties, Confucianism was widely respected by the rulers, and one of the things related to the state in Confucianism was loyalty to the king and patriotism, which required people to adhere to the mission of defending the country and being loyal to the monarch.
Absolutely can not betray the country, otherwise you will become a traitor and will be insulted by the world for a lifetime.
even
It will also be recorded in the annals of history.
And Li Ling also joined the ranks of traitors, but the common people did not taunt and insult him because he betrayed the country and surrendered to the Xiongnu, but instead had a deep understanding and sympathy for him.
Image from the Internet: Love Riding Archery Stills
It turned out that Li Ling was once also an iron-blooded young man with full of enthusiasm and ambition, and he was also eager to make contributions to the Han Dynasty, sweep away the Xiongnu, and return the peaceful and prosperous life of the border people, but the bleak reality made him change this idea, and his ideals disappeared with him.
At a young age, Li Ling served as the imperial bodyguard of Emperor Wu of Han, and was steady, kind, and good at riding and shooting, very similar to his grandfather Li Guang. Emperor Wu of Han relied heavily on him and sent him to the Xiongnu to survey the terrain, always bringing back good news.
Since then
Begin
Deeply appreciated by Emperor Wu of Han, he gradually began to emerge in the court.
In the following years, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty sent him to lead thousands of soldiers to garrison Jiuquan and other places, and the usual task was to train soldiers, and occasionally work overtime to receive friendly troops allied with the Han Dynasty.
Image from the network: Jiuquan location
In the eyes of outsiders, Li Ling was deeply valued by Emperor Wu of Han at a young age, and his future was bound to be unlimited. However, since the Xiongnu experienced a crushing defeat in the Battle of Mobei, their troops and livestock were severely reduced, harassing the tranquility of the border people for several consecutive years, and from time to time sending out a small-scale battle with the Han Army, that is, not fighting a frontal battle with the Han army on the battlefield.
There are not many incidents of Li Ling killing the enemy in the history books, perhaps because of this reason, even though Li Ling was a wizard, he was useless.
It can also be said that although Li Ling became famous at a young age, he lacked practical combat experience
。
This situation lasted until 99 BC, when Emperor Wu of Han sent Li Guang to attack Dawan and appointed Li Ling as the main force of the army, first leading some soldiers to survey the terrain in advance, because this was Li Ling's old job, and he had also surveyed before, so he took a short time to return to the military camp.
Photo: Li Ling was appointed as the main force of the army forward stills
Soon, the Xiongnu army invaded the Western Han Dynasty in an all-round way, and the war began to break out in full swing, Li Ling saw that the peace that his grandfather Li Guang had worked so hard to exchange for blood was about to be destroyed, and he wanted to protect the foundation of the Great Han, so he asked Emperor Wu of Han to send him to the front line to fight.
Emperor Wu of Han was a little hesitant at first, after all, Li Ling was young and had not fought any battles, and it would be very risky to lead the troops to fight in a hurry, so he refused to say that there were no soldiers and horses that could be sent to him.
At Li Ling's many sincere requests, Emperor Wu of Han promised him a chance to make a meritorious career and sent him five thousand troops and horses. Li Ling rushed to the front line with the soldiers and horses in his hands, drew a map of the road he was passing, and sent his men to restore the life of Emperor Wu of Han, who after receiving the news, Long Yan was overjoyed and felt that the victory was in hand.
At this time, Li Ling's military horses were suddenly attacked by the Xiongnu army, when the Xiongnu had 80,000 military horses, while Li Ling only had 5,000 military horses, which was simply an egg touching a stone, and the Han army was soon surrounded by enemy troops.
Image: Stills of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
Li Ling led these men and horses to fight with the Xiongnu army for several rounds, the Han army desperately resisted, the Xiongnu could not quickly eliminate it, a drum, and then weakened and exhausted, the morale of the Xiongnu gradually declined, Li Ling took this opportunity to take advantage of the victory to pursue, but also destroyed the Xiongnu thousands of troops.
This move completely angered the Xiongnu Shan Yu, who immediately ordered his soldiers to do their best to encircle and suppress Li Ling, and Li Ling was finally unable to resist and asked the imperial court for help while retreating.
At this time, Shan Yu was still wondering whether the army led by Li Ling was a trap set by the Han in order to lure him, and just when Shan Yu was hesitating, a person ran from Inside Li Ling's camp to leak secrets.
Saying that there were no traps and no reinforcements to help, Li Ling's army was already at the end of its rope, and Shan Yu was overjoyed and overstretched, leading his troops to annihilate the Han army with all his might.
Image: Single stills
After several days of fierce fighting, Li Ling's thousands of troops and horses were almost exhausted, and their weapons were almost exhausted, so in desperation, Li Ling let his subordinates flee for their lives, taking advantage of the late night attack to sneak back to the Han Dynasty, waiting for the next day to take revenge.
However, in the end, only a few people successfully escaped back to the Han Dynasty, and Li Ling was captured by the Xiongnu and surrendered to the Xiongnu.
Emperor Wu of Han learned the news
after
Furious, he regretted that he had been blind before sending this traitor to fight him
battle
But
Emperor Wu of han and
Li Ling's relatives were not killed.
After a long time after this incident, one day Emperor Wu of Han suddenly remembered Li Ling, thinking that Li Ling must have been forced to surrender to the Xiongnu because the reinforcements did not arrive in time, plus Li Ling was brave and fearless, and he made a lot of achievements, so he sent someone to the Xiongnu to pick up Li Ling.
Image: Li Ling stills
Unexpectedly, the people sent said that Li Ling was training the army and attacking the Han Dynasty in Japan, this news triggered the thunderous anger of Emperor Wu of Han, and killed Li Ling's entire family in one breath, and Li Ling was sad and indignant after learning that his family was killed, completely cut off the idea of returning to Han, and stayed in the Xiongnu until death.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!