In 99 BC, Li Ling was ordered to cooperate with the general Li Guangli of the Second Division to attack the Xiongnu, but was defeated and captured. After the news came, the Manchu Dynasty was in an uproar, Emperor Wu of Han was greatly angered, and the civil and military officials collectively denounced Li Ling's guilt, and only Sima Qian alone spoke out in righteousness. He told Emperor Wu of Han that Li Ling was not sincerely surrendering to the enemy, but must have wanted to preserve his useful body in order to repay the emperor's favor.
Emperor Wu of Han temporarily believed Sima Qian's words, and also believed that Li Ling would not betray the Han Dynasty, and must have been captured because of insufficient troops and no rescue, so he sent Gongsun Ao to retrieve Li Ling in Xiongnu territory. However, Gongsun Ao went around the Xiongnu but was unable to find Li Ling, but instead reported that Li Ling was training troops for the Xiongnu. This time, Emperor Wu of Han was really angry, and not only destroyed Li Lingmanmen, but also angered Sima Qian, causing him to suffer a humiliating and corrupt punishment.
After Li Ling's surrender to the Xiongnu led to the extermination of the Li family, people in the Longxi area who had originally served as a doorman to the Li family felt humiliated, and the reputation of the Li clan in the local area was also destroyed. However, Sima Qian, who suffered the disaster of innocence because of his defense of Li Ling, still insisted that Li Ling was innocent, and even defended him in the "Biography of General Li of the History", believing that Li Ling was honest and generous and not a traitor to the enemy.
How Sima Qian viewed Li Ling was no longer important, because Li Ling did later defect to the Xiongnu, and also married and had children in the Xiongnu, not only marrying the daughter of the Xiongnu Shan Yu, but also becoming the right colonel of the Xiongnu. Regardless of Li Ling's original intentions, he became a high-ranking figure of the Xiongnu and became friends with people who should have been enemies. Moreover, Li Ling also did one thing, that is, to persuade Su Wu to surrender.
Su Wu was reluctant to surrender after being trapped by the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu Shan Yu was very angry, but he could not do anything with Su Wu. Because Su Wu sent an envoy to the Xiongnu on behalf of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, although the Xiongnu were enemies of the Han Dynasty, they did not dare to really kill the envoys in order to avoid angering the Han Emperor. When Li Ling surrendered, the xiongnu Shan Yu gave him the first task, that is, to let him set an example and come forward to persuade the stubborn Su Wu to surrender.
Li Ling actually did not want to see Su Wu, although he stayed in the Xiongnu because Emperor Wu of Han destroyed him, but this was a disgraceful thing after all, and his grandfather Li Guang had decisively drawn his sword and committed suicide. But Li Ling couldn't do this, because after all, he was still young, and his life still had a long way to go. Moreover, he was born as a general, served the imperial court for generations, and now that he has defected to the enemies of the Han Dynasty, what face does he have to meet Su Wu?
However, Li Ling was after all a foster under the fence, and although the Xiongnu shan yu valued him very much, he also had to show his own value. Therefore, he could only go to Su Wu with a hard scalp, hoping to persuade Su Wu to surrender. He said to Su Wu, do you remember your eldest brother and third brother? They were all forced to commit suicide by Emperor Wu of Han. Now that you are living in a foreign land, the imperial court has long forgotten your existence, and your wife, son and sister have not heard from you, what are you still insisting on? Why not turn to the Huns and save your own life is important.
In the face of Li Ling's questioning, Su Wu's answer seemed very simple. He said to Li Ling, "I am sending an envoy to the Xiongnu with a festival, which represents the majesty of the Great Han Heavenly Son, and it is impossible for me to surrender." If the Right Colonel King (Li Ling's title in the Xiongnu) must make me surrender, then let me die in front of you!
Listening to Su Wu's answer, Li Ling felt extremely ashamed, and he said to Su Wu, "You are a righteous soldier, and the sins of Me and Wei Lu are in heaven!" Wei Lu was also a Han courtier, and later surrendered to the Xiongnu, and was also sent by Shan Yu to force Su Wu to surrender. Li Ling went back to warn the Xiongnu Shan Yu that he really could not persuade Su Wu to surrender, so Shan Yu drove Su Wu to Beihai to herd sheep, and told him that he would only release him when the ram was born.
Su Wu stayed with the Xiongnu for 19 years, persisted indomitable, and finally returned to the Han Dynasty during the Han Zhao Emperor. At that time, the Han Dynasty was assisted by Huo Guang, Shangguan Jie and others, and their relations with Li Ling had always been very good, and they also sent envoys to take Li Ling back to the Han Dynasty, but Li Ling refused because his wives and children were in the Xiongnu. After Su Wu returned to the Han Dynasty, he recorded his experience in the Xiongnu, and the record of Li Ling persuading him to surrender also caused later generations to argue about whether Li Ling had betrayed the Han Dynasty.
Over the past 2,000 years, the evaluation of Li Ling in the history books has been mixed, although historians such as Sima Qian and Ban Gu believe that Li Ling did not betray the Han Dynasty, and even Su Wu has commented on Li Ling: "Every time you think about it, you are Shiying." the device is time-out. However, there are still many literati and inkers who believe that Li Ling has indeed betrayed the Han Dynasty. For example, Wang Fuzhi, one of the three great thinkers of the Ming and Qing dynasties, believed that "Li Ling's surrender is also a sin that cannot be concealed." Moreover, he also believed that Sima Qian's words were not objective, "The book of Qianzhi is evil enough to believe in the words of the party for the sake of betraying the words of the public death party." ”
It wasn't until the 1940s that archaeologists discovered the ruins of a palace in Russia, which once belonged to the Territory of the Huns. According to archaeologists, its owner is Li Ling, a famous general of the Han Dynasty. Fragments of cultural relics unearthed from the site may put an end to the question of whether Li Ling genuinely betrayed the Han Dynasty: he may have really been wronged for more than 2,000 years.
In 1940, archaeologists discovered the ruins of a palace on a site on the Yenisei River, which, judging by its architectural style, belonged to the Han Dynasty period in China. In the site, archaeologists also found a lot of Chinese characters, one of which was engraved on one of the tiles: "Long live the Heavenly Son's Thousand Autumns and Long Live Long Happiness and Weiyang". Changle and Weiyang are the names of palaces in the early Western Han Dynasty, these two palaces belong to the same three palaces of the Han Dynasty as the Jianzhang Palace, and are the places where the Han Dynasty Tianzi lived and handled the imperial government.
Perhaps in Li Ling's heart, he still cherished his homeland, and even though Emperor Wudi of Han destroyed the Li clan, he still hoped that Emperor Wudi of Han would be able to "live a long life of happiness for a long time." Judging from this, Li Ling was forced to stay in the Xiongnu at the beginning, and because Emperor Wu of Han was misled by Gongsun Ao and killed Li Lingmanmen, Li Ling could not return to the Han Dynasty. Such a situation, I am afraid that no one can face it calmly, and can only choose to escape. Therefore, when Huo Guang and Shangguan Jie, who were good friends with Li Ling, controlled the government, he still refused to return to the Han Dynasty.