If you want to select how many "one emperor in ancient times" there are in China's history, there should be many names in everyone's mind: Qin Shi Huang, Tang Taizong, Kangxi, etc., among which there must be the position of Emperor Wu of Han.
Emperor Wu of Han was the seventh emperor since the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, and this position did not move forward, how did he become the most accomplished emperor of the Western Han Dynasty?
Some people say that the status of Emperor Wudi of Han is overestimated, and his merits are not enough to be called the Emperor of the Ages, now let's briefly introduce Emperor Wudi of Han.
Image: Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty called the emperor stills
Emperor Wu of Han was proclaimed emperor when he was 16 years old
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He reigned for fifty-four years.
During his reign, he used a variety of policies and means to consolidate and strengthen the centralization of power, making the Western Han Dynasty more unified and powerful.
In terms of culture, he was very advocating Confucianism, and together with Dong Zhongshu advocated "deposing hundreds of families and respecting Confucianism alone." In terms of diplomacy, Emperor Wudi of Han sent Zhang Qian on an envoy to the Western Regions, which made the exchanges between the Han and the Western Regions more close, and in terms of military affairs, Emperor Wudi of Han ordered Huo Zhiyi and others to attack the Xiongnu, making the residents of the north and the Central Plains feel unprecedented peace.
I have to say that the political achievements of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty are really quite outstanding, not to mention whether he can be called an emperor for thousands of years, at least his political achievements are worthy of our affirmation.
Photo: Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions Comics
Generally speaking, an emperor who can bear the title of "Emperor of the Ages" must not only have wisdom beyond ordinary people, but also have extraordinary courage and a strong body, which are the most basic conditions.
Apparently, Emperor Wu of Han did it, and he spent two-thirds of his life in power. In the more than fifty years of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, not a single day of the crusade against the Xiongnu was stopped, and as long as the country still had grain, grass and troops, it would seize the opportunity to conquer the Xiongnu.
So exactly
What was the reason why Emperor Wudi of Han had been holding on to the Xiongnu?
？
Image: Stills from the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
In fact, in the intermittent wars between the Han and the Xiongnu for decades, because Emperor Wudi of Han wanted to eliminate the Xiongnu in one fell swoop, and spent a lot of troops and financial resources, the Western Han Dynasty was already walking on thin ice in the later years of Emperor Wudi of Han, and there was a huge crisis, and the main reason why Emperor Wudi of Han did not stop attacking the Xiongnu was related to what the Xiongnu had done before.
If you stand in the perspective of the Huns and let them choose an emperor who can compete with them, in addition to Emperor Wu of Han, it should be Qin Shi Huang. The State of Qin had many brave and good warriors, and it was precisely because of this that the Great Qin Empire could rise rapidly and become the first feudal dynasty in history.
There was a famous general in the State of Qin, named Meng Tian , and both his grandfather and father were heroes who followed the Qin State from birth to death, and Meng Tian later accumulated a lot of experience with the army.
Qin Shi Huang used him very much, appointed him many times to the front line to guard the town, and finally was able to unify the six kingdoms in one fell swoop, and Meng Tian also made a great contribution to it.
It can be said that the Mengjia family has been a great hero of the Qin state for several consecutive generations, and has merit and status, and the mengtian generation has reached its peak.
Image: Stills of Monty being appointed to fight
After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu on the northern border were particularly restless, and from time to time they came to attack the border of the Qin Dynasty, which made Qin Shi Huang intolerable and vowed to eliminate the Xiongnu in one fell swoop. After a few years of preparation, Qin Shi Huang sent Mengtian to fight against the Xiongnu, but most of these soldiers were infantry, and the Xiongnu used cavalry, and the disparity in strength was too large, which was a major challenge for Mengtian.
The conditions could not be changed, but the operational strategy and strategy could be adjusted, and under the command and coordination of Meng Tian, the Qin army gradually gained an advantage, and the situation was overwhelming and invincible, forcing the 100,000 troops of the Xiongnu to flee step by step. Meng Tian continued to take advantage of the victory and drove all the Xiongnu troops to the north of the desert.
Then Meng Tian led his army to garrison there, lest the Huns harass the Central Plains again. Meng Tian also built many fortresses there to prevent the surprise attack of the Huns,
And this war of great disparity in strength
In exchange for more than ten years of peace and stability in the Great Qin Empire
As a result, Meng Tian was also known as the "God of War" by later generations.
Image: Stills of Paimont's crusade against the Huns
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty regarded the Xiongnu as the strongest enemy. In 201 BC, Lu Xie rebelled and joined forces with the Xiongnu to attack the Central Plains, and Liu Bang, who had an army of 320,000 at that time, was full of confidence, did not think of a big defeat to the Xiongnu, and was even surrounded by the Xiongnu at Baishan Mountain.
It was not until Chen Ping offered his plan that Liu Bang sent some gold and silver jewelry to the Queen of Xiongnu that he was able to escape. After this battle, the Western Han Finally saw the strength of the Huns and no longer dared to be overly arrogant and confident.
According to historical records, After this battle, Liu Bang killed many ministers who advocated attacking the Xiongnu, which shows how deep a shadow this battle left in Liu Bang's heart. Since then,
Huns
Begin
Repeated harassment of the northern border of the Han Dynasty
Then he often did some bad acts of burning and looting.
Faced with this situation, the Great Han Tianzi could only choose to tolerate it again and again, and sent many clan women to go and kiss.
Image: Stills of the princess who was arranged and kissed
Although the act of harmony was a helpless act, it also humiliated the royal family, indirectly indicating the cowardice and incompetence of the Han Dynasty. The Huns have always had a custom that was criticized by the Central Plains people, that is, wives should marry their sons directly after the death of their husbands. For the Central Plains people, this is simply against human morality, and everyone deeply feels sorry for the women who are forced to kiss.
These helpless acts of the Han Dynasty were also seen by Emperor Wu of Han, who had not yet ascended the throne.
He secretly swore in his heart that he would destroy the Huns in one fell swoop.
When he succeeded to the throne, he also faced two choices, one was to continue to maintain peaceful relations with the Xiongnu through a pro-reciprocal policy, and the other was to send fierce generals in the dynasty to conquer the Xiongnu, scare them, and expel them, so that the Huns would no longer dare to offend the Central Plains.
Image: Cartoon of Emperor Wu of Han
Apparently, Emperor Wu of Han chose the latter,
He knew that the combat effectiveness of the Han army was too weak compared with the Xiongnu, so he actively learned advanced cavalry techniques and weapon casting techniques from the Xiongnu
At the same time, Emperor Wu of han also made good use of those generals who had a passion for blood and courage, and repeatedly eliminated those military generals with bad intentions.
At the same time, many horse courts were built, a large number of military horses were raised, and a group of sophisticated cavalry was formed. Finally, the Han Dynasty formed a powerful army consisting of more than 100,000 cavalry and hundreds of thousands of infantry.
Image: Stills of forming a mighty army
In fact, from a large number of historical records, we can see that the Xiongnu invaded the border of the Han Dynasty, and the attitude of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty to the Xiongnu was even more ruthless, and did not let the Huns bully the head of the Han again.
In addition, Emperor Wu of Han was also plotting in his heart how to fight for the dominant rule of the Western Regions, and the Huns were obviously his biggest obstacle. Fortunately, Emperor Wu of Han did not give up, and spent his whole life circling with the Xiongnu, launching wars again and again to weaken the strength of the Huns, and finally causing their complete decline.
Image: Stills from the start of war
Emperor Wu of Han greatly benefited future generations in this move, just imagine, if during the Three Kingdoms period, the warlords divided the power so seriously, the Xiongnu also harassed the border from time to time, it is estimated that the Three Kingdoms will only be more unpeaceful.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!