In 648, in the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign, a tribute group from the Tang Dynasty hundreds of kilometers northwest of the Tang Dynasty, located in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River in present-day Russia, arrived at the Tang dynasty capital Chang'an under the leadership of its chieftain Qu Azhan, and this tribute group did not only come for the tribute, they also told the Tang Emperor Li Shimin that they were descendants of the famous Western Han general Li Ling and were of the same origin as the Tang dynasty royal family.
There are two reasons why the People of The Tangese say this: one is that the fiefdom of Li Ling was in Jiankun, that is, the Tangas; the other is that these People look very similar to the Han People, with black hair and black eyes, but they are very different from other People of the Han Dynasty with red hair and green eyes. The Kyrgyz are also one of the 56 ethnic groups in China today.
Han cavalry
So the question is, who is Li Ling? What does it have to do with the Central Asian Peoples?
If You mention Li Guang, many people must be very familiar with it, the flying general Li Guang was a famous general in the Western Han Dynasty, and also the protagonist of the second half of the sentence "Feng Tang Yi Lao, Li Guang is difficult to seal", Li Ling is Li Guang's eldest grandson, is Li Guang's eldest son Li Danghu's widow.
Li Ling
Li Ling came from the family of generals, before he was born his father Li Danghu died of illness, Li Ling undertook the mission of the Li Guang family, during the Han Dynasty as a cavalry lieutenant, and then led five thousand infantry to attack the Xiongnu, see clearly, it is five thousand infantry, to know that the Xiongnu are nomadic people, all cavalry, with the Han army infantry to fight the Xiongnu cavalry, how to fight this battle?
Perhaps it was the natural bad luck of the Li Guang family, or perhaps the Li Guang family was born without a sense of direction, the five thousand infantry led by Li Ling encountered the main force of the 30,000 Xiongnu cavalry led by the Xiongnu Shan Yu shortly after the expedition, Li Ling was not afraid, with chariots surrounding the outside as a barrier, five thousand infantry with chariots, mountain peaks as the screen to form a phalanx, with halberds, shields, bows, crossbows to meet the Xiongnu cavalry.
The Han-Hungarian War
To know that the cavalry to attack the infantry, basically is a massacre, the cavalry not only has speed, but also has height, riding a horse to rush over, it is not at all the infantry can resist, but Li Ling is also an arrow array to resist the Xiongnu cavalry for many days still do not fall behind, the Xiongnu alone saw that 30,000 cavalry actually could not take five thousand infantry in a few days, so they continued to increase the number of troops to 80,000.
While resisting the Xiongnu, Li Ling retreated southward, retreated while fighting, and showed no weakness, resisting the Xiongnu 80,000 cavalry for more than ten days with 5,000 infantry, killing and wounding more than 10,000 Xiongnu cavalrymen, all exceeding the number of troops on his side, and finally due to the betrayal of traitors and the exhaustion of arrows, the 5,000 Han infantry were completely destroyed, and Li Ling had no choice but to surrender to the Xiongnu.
Han Army
From the tradition of the Li Guang family, Li Ling's surrender to the Xiongnu was only a temporary measure, and he would definitely try to escape back to the Han Dynasty in the future, because his grandfather Li Guang was like this, but Emperor Wu of Han blamed Li Ling for surrendering, Sima Qian said a few fair words for Li Ling, but was sentenced by Emperor Wu of Han in the palace, and later because of jealousy, Emperor Wu of Han killed Li Ling's wife and children who remained in the Han Dynasty, so that Li Ling could only stay in the Xiongnu and did not dare to return to the Han Dynasty, even after the death of Emperor Wu of Han, Huo Guang and Shangguan Ji sent people to persuade Li Ling to return to the Han Dynasty. Li Ling finally did not agree, and remained with the Xiongnu.
Li Ling married the daughter of the Xiongnu Shan Yu as a wife, according to the Han Dynasty, it is equivalent to the Xiongnu Shan Yu's steed, it can be seen that the Xiongnu Shan Yu attaches great importance to Li Ling, Li Ling lived in the Xiongnu for more than 20 years before he died of illness, his fiefdom is in the Jiankun area, which is also the territory of the Tang Dynasty, so it is still possible to say that Li Ling is the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty.
Han military flag
Li Ling was indeed a surrender general, he surrendered to the Xiongnu after running out of ammunition in the battle with the Xiongnu, the reason why Li Ling surrendered was first because of the severe punishment of Emperor Wu of Han, and second, because Emperor Wu of Han killed his people, so that Li Ling had no possibility of returning, so Li Ling could stay in the Xiongnu for life.
In the hundreds of years of war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu were also constantly merging, just like Li Ling's surrender to the Xiongnu, which often happened, there were generals on the Han Dynasty side who defected to the Xiongnu, such as Li Xu, Li Guangli, etc., and there were also Xiongnu who defected to the Han Dynasty, such as the Xiongnu Hun Evil King during the Han Wudi Period and the later Southern Xiongnu, plus there was peace between the Han and the Huns, and the two major ethnic groups continued to integrate and become a Chinese nation.
Li Ling Monument
Therefore, although Li Ling surrendered to the Xiongnu, he was temporarily an enemy of the Han Dynasty, but after Li Ling surrendered to the Xiongnu, he did not fight for the Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty, in the long run, Li Ling brought the Han culture to the Xiongnu, and married the Xiongnu princess as his wife, their descendants are the products of the combination of Han and Hungary, after more than seven hundred years of development, in the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty formed the Qijiasi, and after thousands of years, the Qijiasi people became one of the 56 ethnic groups of the Kyrgyz, in this regard, Li Ling is also a national hero. The difference is that he promotes the integration of nations.