Emperor Wu of Han reigned for 55 years and fought against the Xiongnu for 46 years, and most of the daily affairs he faced during his reign were wars with the Xiongnu. During these 46 years, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty repeatedly sent 100,000 cavalry legions to attack the Xiongnu and inflict heavy damage on the Xiongnu.
The Zizhi Tongjian records: "Emperor Wu conquered the Xiongnu and pursued them deeply, and for more than twenty years, the Xiongnu horses and livestock were severely pregnant and fell, and they were extremely depressed and bitter. ”
Many people judged who won or lost the Han-Hungarian War during Emperor Wu's reign, using the criterion of the number of soldiers lost by both sides, which was too crude. The blows inflicted by the war were far more than that, and not every decisive battle was like the Battle of Changping, which allowed the defeated countries to lose all the young and middle-aged men. The two sides of the Han-Hungarian War mainly attacked each other's national strength, people's strength and economy.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu only lost 100,000 or 200,000 warriors on the front line, but the blows they suffered were enormous. The Han army always went deep into the hinterland of the Xiongnu, often expeditions for more than a thousand miles, forcing the herders of the Xiongnu to move far to the northwest to hide, and when the Han army returned to the division, they had to move back to the homeland with abundant water and grass, and every time they fled and came back, they often had to walk thousands of miles.
The main industry of the Xiongnu was animal husbandry, and the people traveled long distances, and their cattle, horses, and sheep could not be left behind, but had to move away with them. This migration is urgent and requires day and night, and during the migration, the animals they breed often die in the middle of the way, and pregnant animals can easily abort. This long-distance attack of the Han army caused a huge blow to the economy of the Xiongnu. The living conditions of the people of the north were already harsh, and this blow was unbearable for the Huns and could take decades to recover.
At the same time, the losses of the Han Dynasty were unimaginable, because of the continuous burden of the war, by the end of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty lost half of its population compared with the Wenjing period, and the imperial court also spent all its savings.
The Zizhi Tongjian records: "At the end of Emperor Wu's reign, the sea was wasted, the hukou was halved, Huo Guang knew the importance of current affairs, lightly dispensed with thin endowments, and rested with the people..."
After decades of hard work, during the decades of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, all the things accumulated during the Wenjing period were consumed, and the Han Dynasty returned to the way it had just been baptized by the Chu-Han War. Therefore, Huo Guangcai moved out of the rule of inaction, so the era of Emperor Xuan of Han was called "Zhaoxuan Zhongxing", and the so-called "Zhongxing" refers to an era when the edge of the dynasty became stronger after it was completely weakened.
What happened in these decades, why did the Han Dynasty lose half of its population?
What should I do if I am short of money?
"Sun Tzu's Art of War" said: Then the internal and external expenses... The daily cost is thousands of dollars, and then the master of 100,000 is raised.
Fighting a war requires the mobilization of a large number of manpower and material resources, taking an attack in the fourth year of Yuan Shou as an example, the great generals Wei Qing and Huo Zhiyi each led 50,000 cavalry, and the main force added up to only 100,000. But a total of 140,000 horses were mobilized (only 30,000 were left when they returned), and "hundreds of thousands" of logistics troops were mobilized.
Can it cost less to mobilize so many people? Moreover, Emperor Wu of Han himself was also very generous, and the historical records recorded before the Han-Hungarian War
Nine years
And the cost of his reward to the warriors was there
200,000 pounds
gold.
Moreover, at that time, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty dispatched 100,000 troops every year to attack. The consequences of the huge expenditure were: in 123 BC, the imperial court's savings were spent (133 BC Ma Yi's plot); in 121 BC, the Xiongnu Hun evil king surrendered to Han, and Emperor Wu of Han sent 100,000 horse-drawn carriages to meet him, and as a result, the imperial court could not take out so many horses, but also borrowed horses from the people; in 120 BC, there was a major flood, but the granaries everywhere were empty, and only 700,000 disaster victims could be relocated to the newly opened Shuofang County...
Han and Hungary had already started a war, and even if they had no money, they could only hold on, so Emperor Wu of han invented the salt and iron official camp; invented the car calculation and the ship calculation; invented the uniform transportation officer; promoted the new copper coin; and promoted the leather coin.
Salt and iron official camp is to prohibit the people to boil salt, iron (such as iron hoe), salt and iron is the most profitable industry at that time, so Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty let the imperial court take over these incomes, the imperial court became rich for a time, of course, the result is that the price of salt and iron soared; car calculation, boat calculation is that the family has a car and a boat to pay the "car and ship tax", most of the people who have cars and boats are merchants, so you know. Whoever dares not pay it, once it is found that all the property is confiscated, the whistleblower can get half of it; the average loser is to prohibit the merchants from buying and selling local specialties, these things are very low in the place of production, and the selling price in the place of sale is very high, so the imperial court set up a special sale of special products, and the result is that the special products become luxury goods...
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty abolished the previous copper coins, forbade the minting of copper coins by the people, and issued five-baht coins mixed with a large number of cheap metals, and the weight of the new copper coins was also seriously insufficient. (Copper could have been minted for three copper coins, so that five could be cast.)
The leather coin is the currency made of white deer skin in Shanglin Garden, and a leather coin engraved with a little pattern is worth 3,000 copper coins!
Basically, every time Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty issued a new copper coin, the people had to go bankrupt once.
But what if you are still short of money later? Emperor Wu of han became the first emperor to sell official titles, and he invented eleven martial arts knights, each of which had an open price, and had: reaching a certain title could be exonerated or become an official. Therefore, a large number of adulterous people can enter the career path by buying knighthoods.
Consequences
After the price of salt and iron rises, someone must secretly cook and cast; the income from minting after the implementation of new money is too great to resist the temptation; many merchants are unwilling to accept car calculations and ship calculations.
A new decree was issued:
Those who dare to privately cast iron or boil salt cut off their left feet; those who dare to conceal the number of cars and ships confiscate their family property, and those who report him can get half of it; those who privately mint money abandon the market.
Taking money minting alone as an example, at least five of the ten families secretly minted money at home. Stealing is a capital offense, but there are still countless people who steal casting, because the benefits are too great, so the number of people who have lost their lives is innumerable.
In short, after Emperor Wudi of Han implemented his new inventions, the crime rate of the Han Dynasty soared to an uncontrollable level, so Emperor Wudi of Han promulgated stricter and stricter laws and promoted a large number of cool officials, which created a situation of imprisonment and imprisonment, and there were too many criminals in prisons.
Emperor Wu of Han liked this phenomenon more.
Because the ordinary people at that time were tired of war, there were few troops. At that time, there was a man named Bu Shi, who had to donate his family property whenever there was a war, and also requested that all the people in the family be incorporated into the army. When Emperor Wu of Han heard about it, he rewarded Bu Shi heavily and announced to the world that he hoped that everyone in the world would learn from him, but the people still did not buy it.
Criminals were also one of the important sources of soldiers for Emperor Wu of Han, for example, when Emperor Wu of Han attacked the State of South Vietnam, he mobilized 100,000 troops, all of which were composed of criminals. Therefore, Emperor Wu of Han liked the situation of imprisonment as if the city was imprisoned, which may also be one of the reasons why he tightened the law.
epilogue
The corruption of the Han Dynasty officials, the harshness of the laws, the tricks of the cool officials, the hardships of the people, the wanton expropriation and tyranny... As a result, the Han Dynasty lost half of its population. Because of the Han-Hungarian War, the imperial court was underused, so the latter happened again.
In fact, in the early days of the Han Dynasty, there was a situation in which internal and external troubles coexisted, and the biggest threat of the Han Dynasty was the Xiongnu in the north, and the previous generations of emperors: Liu Bang, Liu Ying, Liu Heng, and Liu Qi could not deal with it well. Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was indeed very talented, which could not be denied, but those who had such unique talents must be proud of themselves. Emperor Wu of Han believed that "whoever I am" and that if he did not solve some problems, the emperors behind the Han Dynasty might not be able to solve them. He wanted to solve all his internal and external troubles while he was alive.
For example, after Emperor Wu of Han defeated Minyue, he believed that the Baiyue people would be a scourge for future generations in the future, so he migrated all the Baiyue people to the Jianghuai area and vacated the entire Minyue kingdom.
Doing things step by step, Emperor Wu of Han achieved a lot of deeds, on the other hand, the loss of rushing to achieve success is not small, a bite can not become a big fat man, but also have to eat hard scalp. His time alone has made the Han Dynasty twice as large, so how many people have been killed by years of war? This is also a problem that we cannot ignore.
Therefore, Sima Guang commented on Emperor Wu of Han: "There are few people who are different from Qin Shi Huang... Therefore, there is the loss of the dead Qin and the misfortune of the dead Qin! ”