During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Xiongnu Central Plains were troubled. When Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty decided to attack the Xiongnu with all his might after a long period of planning, he found that the Xiongnu had no place to live and it was difficult to clean up. In the era of no satellite positioning, let alone want to have a decisive battle, just trying to find their whereabouts is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Li Guang is one of the examples, Li Guang has been fighting in the Xiongnu all his life, and when the Xiongnu talk about "Li Guang", the color changes. However, even such a veteran who knows himself and knows the other and has been in the battlefield for a long time, in the battle of the desert north, he actually missed the opportunity because he was lost in the vast desert, and committed suicide with hatred.
In addition to Li Guang, there are also famous generals such as Gongsun Ao and Gongsun He, all of whom have encountered the dilemma of getting lost. It is not difficult to understand that if you want to fight with the Huns, the first problem to solve is how to find them.
However, this problem, which has been difficult to effectively solve for decades, has not been able to overwhelm the famous young general of the Western Han Dynasty. Huo Fuyi had carried out precision strikes on the main Xiongnu forces four times in just four years, so how did he do it?
In fact, much of the success of Huo's disease was attributed to his subordinate Huns.
In the Battle of Mobei, the 22-year-old Huo Wentai was ordered by Wei Qing to fight together, and he went north into the hinterland of the desert for two thousand miles and successfully found the main force of the Xiongnu Zuoxian King, in this war, Huo Wentai's outstanding achievements, killed 70,000 Xiongnu, and chased all the way to wolf Juxu Mountain.
The Chronicle of History records that Huo did not kill or release the Xiongnu captives after the war, but took advantage of their familiarity with the desert, because these Huns lived in the desert since childhood, knew where the Huns usually liked to move, and knew where the Hun army might settle down. Through them, Huo Zhiyi could not only easily find water sources, but the greater advantage was that they knew how to find the main Xiongnu force.
Some people may wonder that ancient armies often had spies, and their accusation was to explore the terrain and local conditions, so why not rely on their own soldiers? Obviously, first, because compared with the Xiongnu, the shrewd Han people are not as familiar with the desert as the Huns; second, it is also a very fatal weakness, the Han people often care too much about their own safety, lack the spirit of sacrifice and dedication, and often choose to flee for their lives when they encounter danger. The failure of the veteran general Li Guang was due to the irresponsibility of the detectives.