The Huns were an ethnic minority in my ancient times, and one of the most ferocious peoples. They are typical nomadic peoples, living on grass and living on animal husbandry. The Xiongnu were ancient northern nomads in China, arising in the Yinshan Mountains of present-day Inner Mongolia, and have lived in the northern barbarian land for generations. They have the title of "First Hu of the Steppe", and their official rise was after the Warring States, and their names only appeared from that time.
The rise of the Huns was a series of twists and turns
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the princes competed for hegemony, and in the end, the most powerful Warring States Seven Heroes appeared, and they attacked each other and could not tolerate each other. At this time, the Xiongnu had just risen, and he was close to the border of the Zhao state at that time. Because they often attacked the borders of the Zhao state, and later the King of Zhao sent the famous general Li Mu to suppress outside the Yanmen Pass, and finally destroyed 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry in a battle, resulting in the Xiongnu's vitality being seriously injured for decades without slowing down, so in the following decades they became peacefully divided, after all, their own strength did not allow.
The first rise failed, and they must not be willing. When Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms to unify China, they rose again, and this time they finally appeared their own boss "Touman", equivalent to the emperor of China. However, how could their combat effectiveness be comparable to the Tiger and Wolf Division of the Qin Army, so the Xiongnu only made a small fuss and withdrew, after all, the protagonist at this time was not him.
The Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, expanded its territory, and launched a war against the Xiongnu
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, in order to continue to expand the scope of his rule, in 215 BC, he sent the general Meng Kuo to lead 300,000 Mengjia troops to march into the Hetao Plain. The Qin army was also overwhelming, sweeping through the Xiongnu army, after several battles, the main xiongnu army suffered heavy losses, the Qin Dynasty recovered Henan and other places, extending the ruling territory north to the yangshan northern false area, and the Xiongnu had to retreat non-stop. Strengthening the management of the border and preventing the Xiongnu from making a comeback, Meng Kuo connected the Great Wall of the former Zhao State yan state with the Great Wall of the Qin state, and built a defensive line from the east to the liao to the east to Lintao for more than 10,000 miles, blocking the Xiongnu from the vast Gobi.
The reason why the Qin army was able to win was that on the one hand, the xiongnu army was not strong in combat effectiveness at that time, on the other hand, there were small countries such as yueshi and Donghu attacking in the rear of the Xiongnu, and the more important reason was that the Qin army was strong in combat at that time, which was incomparable to the Xiongnu.
The era of Mo dun came, and the Xiongnu were no longer the "little brothers" they used to be.
After coming to power, Mao Dundan carried out a series of military reforms and established a complete and strict military and political system, which significantly enhanced the national strength and military strength of the Xiongnu. In the early days of his reign, the Xiongnu had more than 300,000 combat cavalry, so he began to expand his territory on a large scale after he took office. The first thing he had to clean up was donghu, a small country that was inching forward, and then constantly conquered other tribes and countries nearby, and reoccupied Henan. Therefore, at this time, the Xiongnu faced by the Han Dynasty was no longer the "little brother" he had been before, and he had been reborn to reach his peak.
What was the reason for the repeated defeats of the Han Dynasty army?
In the early days of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the country had experienced decades of war, which had long been a people's livelihood and was in ruins to be revived, and it had no ability to compete with the Xiongnu at all, and the Xiongnu had been constantly recuperating for decades, which can be said to be a rich country and a strong army. Therefore, the policy adopted by the rulers of the early Han Dynasty was to rule by doing nothing, allowing soldiers to be disarmed and returned to the fields, so that the people could be recuperated and recuperate, thus restoring national strength. Therefore, the same measures were also adopted in foreign relations, and friendship with the Xiongnu was maintained through a series of means such as peace and affinity, although there was no large-scale conflict between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu for 67 years, but small border frictions often occurred. After more than 60 years of recuperation, the economy of the Han Dynasty was restored and the national strength was significantly enhanced, especially in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the national strength reached a strong strength, so the decisive battle between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu was inevitable.
The Han Dynasty failed in several battles against the Xiongnu for the following reasons.
The first is the lack of careful planning, and the light enemy is adventurous. Liu Bang led the army to the north twice, both because there was no careful plan, lack of experience in battle, and because it was a hasty action, so it was a failure. Secondly, the lack of clear strategic objectives, in several battles against the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty army did not know where the main force of the Xiongnu was, but just blindly attacked, like a blind man touching an elephant, so the large army was easy to be besieged by the main force of the Xiongnu on a long journey, and this would also lead to the elongation of the supply line affecting the logistics supply, so failure was inevitable. The most important point is that the Xiongnu have a strong cavalry force, with strong flexibility, mobility, and the combat radius is several times that of ordinary infantry, so the Han Dynasty army with infantry as the main enemy has a more advantage in engaging the Xiongnu army. The Hetao Plain occupied by the Xiongnu was a high-quality pasture and horse farm, so it was even provided with more high-quality BMWs, while the Han Dynasty was relatively lacking in this regard.
summary
The reason for the Han army's difficult victory was on the one hand because the Xiongnu were too strong, and on the other hand, the Han Dynasty hoped to fight quickly and pursue a quick decision. At the same time, the strategic deployment of the Han army was improper, the front line was too long, and the combat generals lacked unified command were all the reasons that affected the Han army.