In the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a touching and inspiring thing that happened at that time, when the soldiers Geng Gong and Guan Pet, who were sent to the western region to guard the frontier, because the Xiongnu in the western region counterattacked, resulting in being besieged in the western region, at that time the Eastern Han Dynasty did not know their lives or deaths, in order to rescue Guan Yu and others who had been besieged for more than a year, the Eastern Han government organized a rescue activity regardless of cost and loss.
This rescue activity arranged a total of 7,000 reinforcements from the Eastern Han Dynasty, after passing through Liuzhong City, only 2,000 people continued to cross the Winter Tianshan Mountains and finally arrived at Shule City, rescued Geng Gong and 26 other people home, and when the group arrived in the Eastern Han Dynasty again, Geng Gong and 26 other people had only 13 people left, and history called this rescue activity "Thirteen Soldiers Return to Yumen".
Geng Gong and others were besieged
The Xiongnu suffered defeat from the Western Han Dynasty during the Western Han Dynasty, and did not dare to make a mistake for a long time, but with the demise of the Western Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, the Xiongnu took the opportunity to develop and grow again, and by the time the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu had also become strong, and in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, all aspects were not stable enough, and the Guangwu Emperor naturally had no spare strength to clean up the Xiongnu.
Until the time of emperor Ming of Han, the situation in all aspects of the Eastern Han Dynasty improved, at this time the Eastern Han Court arranged a team to clean up the Xiongnu, the Great Han Dynasty was strong after all, and the spirit of the Han Dynasty at that time was still relatively obvious, so after the Eastern Han army attacked the Western Regions, the Xiongnu soon fled into the wilderness, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was able to occupy the Western Regions again.
Since the Western Regions have been attacked, they can't just leave, and don't arrange for people to stay behind to guard the town, right? Emperor Tiangao is far away, if no one stays in the town to guard, it is estimated that the Eastern Han army here has not yet arrived home, the Xiongnu over there will continue to build times, after considering these problems, the Eastern Han Court plans to set up the Western Regions Capital Protector in the Western Regions, Geng Gong and Guan Yu, Chen Mu three people were arranged to stay in the Town to guard the Western Regions, and the Eastern Han Imperial Court gave them thousands of soldiers each.
As a result, as soon as the main force of the Eastern Han army left on the front foot, the Xiongnu led a large army to attack Geng Gong and others, under the persecution of the Xiongnu army, Guan Yu and Chen Mu and Geng Gong planned to retreat to Shule City to continue to resist, and as a result, when they retreated to Liuzhong City, Guan Yu and Chen Mu were already killed, leaving only Geng Gong to lead a small number of soldiers to retreat to Shule City.
Shule City is actually an isolated city, when Geng Gong and his party entered Shule City, they were deeply aware of this problem, the Xiongnu in order to exterminate them, directly blocked all the grain roads outside, wanted to starve Geng Gong to death in Shule City, the result geng Gong and his gang at the beginning desperately dug dozens of feet, persevered in digging out the water of life, when the Xiongnu arrived at Shule City, found Geng Gong and others pouring water from the city gate, so they understood that Geng Gong and his gang had not cut off water and grain, and the Xiongnu wanted to attack Shule City. But it was never conquered.
In fact, Geng Gong and others in the city had already run out of food, in order to survive, they cut off the skin on the crossbow and burned it to maintain their lives, the Xiongnu still did not win the victory after a long siege of the city, planning to use beautiful women, gold and silver and other things to lure Geng Gong to surrender, the result geng Gong killed the emissaries who went to persuade the surrender, and directly roasted and ate it, and later Yue Fei also lamented in "Man Jiang Hong" that "Zhuangzhi starved of meat, talked and laughed and drank the blood of the Xiongnu", which is the spirit of Geng Gong and others at that time who preferred to die.
Relying on their loyalty to the country and their belief in their hearts, Geng Gong and others had to endure for a year in Shule City, during which they even had problems surviving, but they still adhered to the national integrity of the Han Dynasty, so that the Xiongnu attacked and never succeeded.
The Eastern Han court rescued Geng Gong and others
Geng Gong had actually written to the Eastern Han Court to ask for support, and when the letter was sent to the Imperial Court, it was already a few months later, when Emperor Hanming died, no one came out to take advice, so the rescue of Geng Gong and others could only be postponed, and this delay was another few months, and only after Three months after Emperor Han Zhang's succession did he officially begin to discuss rescue matters.
At this time, the imperial court was mainly divided into two factions, most of them and Situ Bao Yu maintained the same view, they believed that it was necessary to rescue Geng Gong and others, because at that time the Han army was in danger, if the imperial court abandoned them, externally it connived at the brutality of the barbarians, and internally hurt the warriors' desire to serve the country, if the country is in difficulty in the future, who else is willing to fight for the country?
The other faction was dominated by Sikong Fifth Lun, who felt that the Western Regions were far away from the capital, and it had been several months to simply transmit the letter to the capital, plus emperor Han Mingdi had not had time to deal with this matter during the time of his death, and it had been almost a year since then, geng Gong and others had almost no hope of survival, and instead of doing a rescue activity without any meaning, it was better to give up directly.
Of course, the arguments of both sides are reasonable, but in the face of this kind of major right and wrong, many times realism is still invincible to idealism, and finally Emperor Han Zhangdi plans to follow the advice of Bao Yu and his gang, whether dead or alive, they must send people to find out, live to see people, death to see corpses, this is the style of the Han Dynasty, how can it be possible to let the soldiers guarding the frontier die in such a way?
Emperor Zhangdi of Han arranged for Wang Meng and Fan Jiang and others to lead a total of more than 7,000 soldiers Haohao Tangtang to set off, the morale of the Han army was high, everywhere they went, they all won victories, the Xiongnu were caught off guard, but after arriving at Liuzhong City, the Han army found that Guan Yu had already died, so there was a different voice within the Han army, Wang Meng and others thought that Geng Gong they must have died, there was no need to continue to search, it was better to go home directly.
However, Fan Jiang (who was once Geng Gong's subordinate, the two had a deep relationship) firmly believed that Geng Gong was still alive, so the Han army divided into two routes, with Wang Meng's army of about 5,000 people choosing to return to the palace, Fan Jiang led about 2,000 people to continue to cross the mountains and mountains, through the Tianshan Mountains, resisting many difficulties, and finally arrived outside Shule City.
Geng Gong and others in the city heard that fan Jiang and others from the Eastern Han army had come to rescue themselves, and they were excited, and quickly opened the city gate, and the two sides saw each other and burst into tears, at this time Geng Gong had only 25 warriors left to defend Shule City with himself, this spirit and integrity made Fan Jiang once again look at the former leader.
The only 26 people left, after enduring the harsh environment and the ravages of hunger and cold, looked skinny, black and thin, and their ragged clothes looked distressing, Fan Jiang found a dress for them to put on, and then rushed back to the capital, a few months later, Geng Gong and others finally arrived in the capital, but carefully counted, the 26 people who set out together, only 13 people were left, and the remaining 13 people had long passed away.
The end of the thirteen generals returning to the Jade Gate
After arriving in the capital, Emperor Zhangdi of Han personally received Geng Gong and others, and Fan Jiang personally bathed and changed clothes for the old leader Geng Gong, a group of warriors who had been in Shule City for a year and resolutely refused to surrender no matter how harsh the environment was, and finally officially returned to the embrace of the Eastern Han Empire.
In order to reward this group of warriors for their indomitable spirit, Emperor Zhang of Han gave generous rewards to the 13 warriors who returned alive, of which Geng Gong was originally The Governor, and was now promoted to the rank of Riding Governor Wei, Sima Shixiu was luoyang city (equivalent to vice mayor), Zhang Feng was the Yongying Sima and Fan Jiang was the Gongxian Cheng, and the remaining nine were Yulin.
In a year's time, they perfectly achieved the miracle of five or six consecutive promotions, I have to say that Emperor Han Zhang's reward for them has been very good, as for some people why geng gong and other people did not make a marquis, in fact, this is related to the Han Dynasty's policy of sealing and knighthood at that time, they abided by the policy of no merit and no marquis, even if they are brave and courageous like Li Guang, people who have sacrificed their lives for the Han Dynasty, because there is no meritorious service, it is impossible to be a marquis, although Geng Gong insisted on not surrendering for a year, the spirit is commendable, but in terms of military merit, In fact, Geng Gong not only did not make meritorious contributions, but also lost the city.
Of course, these are all afterwords, in that environment, throughout the ages, those who can persist like Geng Gong and never surrender, do not yield, presumably there are people such as Su Wu who can do it, if they are not full of love for the country in their hearts, if they are not full of hope for the country, if they are not resolutely unwilling to humiliate the country and the nation, who can do so without hesitation? No matter how many Spring and Autumn Festivals the Chinese nation continues to inherit, we should not forget such spirits and figures.
epilogue
Although Emperor Han Zhangdi was only 18 years old when he succeeded to the throne, he was able to do his best to overcome public opinion, resolutely let 7,000 people go to the Western Regions to rescue Geng Gong and others at any cost, and created a good story of the return of thirteen generals to Yumen, I have to say that Emperor Han Zhangdi is already a very good emperor, he not only shows the mind of an emperor, but also fully demonstrates the spirit of a big country, Geng Gong and others can be rescued, it is also a kind of luck!
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