The Xiongnu were an ethnic minority active in the north of the Han Dynasty, and as early as before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the contradictions between Han and Hungary had existed for hundreds of years, and during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the Three Kingdoms of Qin, Yan, and Zhao built the Great Wall to defend against the Xiongnu. At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it mainly relied on the policy of peace and pro-peace in the frontier, but the policy of peace and pro-peace did not completely resolve the contradictions between Han and Hungary.
Stills of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
In the seventh year of Emperor Wu of Han's reign, the Xiongnu proposed peace, and after consulting with the courtiers, Emperor Wu agreed to the Xiongnu's request for peace. Two years later, Emperor Wu of Han again summoned his ministers to discuss the use of troops against the Xiongnu, and after a debate between the main peace faction and the main war faction, Emperor Wu adopted the strategy of the main war faction to "lure the enemy deeper", ambushed heavy troops in Mayi, and prepared to ambush the Xiongnu army, but ended in failure. So why did the Siege of Mayi fail? What impact did it have on the Han Dynasty?
The background to the outbreak of the Siege of Mayi
In 201 BC, the rebel general Han Wangxin and the Xiongnu prepared to join forces to attack Han, and the next year Liu Bang personally led an army of 320,000 to attack the rebel generals Han Wangxin and the Xiongnu, but was besieged by the Xiongnu Shan Yu's 400,000 troops on Mount Baishan for seven days and seven nights, and later Liu Bang was able to break the siege by bribing the xiongnu Shan Yu's wife.
After Liu Bang personally understood the strength of the Xiongnu army, he had to bend over backwards and adopt a policy of "peace and affinity" to resolve the contradictions with the Xiongnu in exchange for the tranquility of the frontier, Liu Bang opened the precedent of the Han Dynasty and the pro-policy, and since then, for nearly seventy years, the Han Dynasty has adopted a policy of peace and pro-to-ease the contradictions between the Han and the Huns, but this humiliating policy cannot achieve the desired effect.
During Lü Hou's reign, the Xiongnu Shan Yu had openly written a letter to provoke and insult Lü Hou, and Lü Hou could only choose to make reparations and yield in order to take care of the overall situation.
After Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, he still adopted a policy of peace and affinity, but the Xiongnu did not buy it, and three times before and after they reneged on the covenant of peace and pro-family, and invaded the Han Dynasty on a large scale, which made Emperor Wen very troubled, and he could not help but sigh that if he had such a fierce general as Lian Po and Li Mu, would he still be afraid of the Xiongnu?
Before Emperor Wu of Han succeeded to the throne, the reason why the rulers of the Han Dynasty did not use troops against the Xiongnu was mainly because the economic and military strength of the early Han Dynasty was relatively weak.
Stills of Liu Bang
As we all know, the Han Dynasty was a great unified dynasty established after three years of anti-Qin war and four years of Chu-Han war, and after a long period of war, the country was established and the economy was severely damaged. Shi Zaihan's early Tianzi could not even match four horses of the same color when he traveled, and the general and the chancellor could only ride in an ox cart, and the people were displaced, and even the problem of food and clothing could not be solved.
After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, the Han Dynasty had gone through decades of recuperation and development, and its economic situation had reached unprecedented prosperity and the national treasury was full. The grain of the imperial warehouse is piled up year after year, so that the national treasury has no space to place it, and can only be stacked in the open.
Horses were scarce in the early Han Dynasty, and at the beginning of Emperor Wu's reign, every household had horses, and the streets and alleys were full of horses, and at this time, Emperor Wu of Han had the capital to cut down the Xiongnu.
In 133 BC, Nie Yi, a wealthy merchant in Mayi, suggested to Wang Hui that we had just made peace with the Xiongnu, and that the Huns had relaxed their vigilance against us, and that it would be better to take the opportunity to lure the Xiongnu to Mayi and annihilate them. I have been trading with the Huns for a long time, I know their senior leaders, I can use the excuse of trading, pretend to offer The Horse to the Huns, the Huns have always only talked about profit, not benevolence, they will come.
Wang Hui relayed Nie Yi's proposal to Emperor Wu of Han, and Emperor Wu decided to adopt Ma Yi's plot to use troops against the Xiongnu.
The Siege of Mayi passes by
In 133 BC (the second year of Yuan Guang), Emperor Wu of Han appointed Han Anguo as the commander-in-chief, leading four generals, including Li Guang, Gongsun He, Wang Hui, and Li Xi, to lead an ambush of 300,000 troops at Mayi.
Nie Yi tricked the military ministers into saying that they had hundreds of people under him and could kill Ma Yi County Ling and County Cheng, so that Ma Yi was leaderless and led a large army to come to meet him, and you could take away the gold and silver jewelry in the city, and you could send troops after you got my signal.
After Nie Yi returned to Mayi, he conspired with the county commander to execute a death row prisoner in advance and hang his head on top of the city tower, and after receiving information, the Xiongnu, believing that Mayi had been successful, led his 100,000-strong army to Mayi.
When the Xiongnu army reached a place one hundred and ten miles away from Mayi, the Xiongnu Shan Yu found that there were many livestock along the way, but could not see the herders, so he attacked a border plug, captured Wuzhou Weishi alive, and forced him to tell the truth, Wuzhou Weishi was forced to tell the Xiongnu Shan Yu of the Han army's plan, and Shan Yu was shocked when he knew it, and immediately ordered the withdrawal of the army.
The Huns are single in the stills
After the Xiongnu returned to Saiwai, Shan Yu was very grateful to Wuzhou Weishi, who believed that this was an angel specially arranged by heaven to save him, so he rewarded Wuzhou Weishi.
The Han army did not know that the Huns had withdrawn, and when they knew, it was too late, and the figure of the Xiongnu had long disappeared without a trace. In fact, when the Xiongnu retreated, only Wang Hui, who was responsible for attacking the rear of the Xiongnu, knew that the Xiongnu were retreating halfway, and he felt that the Xiongnu had a planned retreat, and his 30,000 troops were not the opponents of the Xiongnu.
Emperor Wu of Han believed that the siege of Mayi, which was stable and stable, ended in failure.
The impact of the Siege of Mayi
After the end of the "Siege of Mayi", Emperor Wudi of Han believed that Wang Hui was cowardly to fight the Xiongnu army, which caused his plan to fail, and Emperor Wudi of Han arrested Wang Hui and imprisoned him in a fit of rage, and Wang Hui bought Off Empress Wang's younger brother Xiang Tian Tian and asked Empress Wang to exonerate himself, and Empress Wang admonished Emperor Wu of Han, saying: The siege of Mayi was carefully planned by Wang Hui, and if Wang Hui was killed, wouldn't he have caused evil anger on behalf of the Xiongnu?
Originally, after Empress Dou's death, Emperor Wudi of Han was very disgusted by his mother's interference in politics, and after leaving a queen of the emperor, another empress dowager came, and Emperor Wudi of Han did not want to be restrained by his mother, so he refused to accept Empress Wang on the pretext of Wang Hui's dereliction of duty.
Empress Dou stills
Originally, the responsibility for the siege of Mayi was not wang hui, he was also to save the main force of the Han army, and wang hui committed suicide in prison after hearing that empress Wang's lobbying was ineffective.
The "Siege of Mayi" ended in vain, wasting manpower and wasting materials in vain, the Han army not only did not annihilate the Xiongnu army in one fell swoop, but stole chickens and did not become a rotten rice, since then the relationship between the Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty has broken down, the Xiongnu will no longer believe in the Han Dynasty's peace and pro-pro policy, and for the Han Dynasty, it will no longer adopt a peace and pro policy to alleviate the contradictions between Han and Hungary, even if they want to use the pro-peace policy, the Xiongnu will not believe it.
Therefore, the defeat of the Siege of Mayi meant the end of nearly 70 years of peace and humiliation, and the Han Dynasty changed from passive defense to active attack, which opened up a large-scale war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu.
After that, Emperor Wu of han began to reuse a number of young generals and take the initiative to attack the Xiongnu, in order to relieve the problem of the Northern Expedition.
epilogue
The contradiction between Han and Hungary can be traced back to the Warring States period, when the Xiongnu invaded the border and brought great influence to the farming peoples, so the contradiction between the two ethnic groups has been as long as hundreds of years, and it is impossible to solve the contradiction between the Han and the Hungarians by relying only on an ambush war, even if victory is achieved, at most it will annihilate the 100,000 troops of the Xiongnu and will not bring heavy damage to the Xiongnu.
Although the Han army under the siege of Mayi was fruitless, from then on, Emperor Wu of Han's will to wage war against the Xiongnu was even stronger, and at the same time, he also strengthened the determination of the lord and the faction to fight against the Xiongnu, and opened the forty-four-year-long Han-Hungarian War of Emperor Wu.