Huo went ill and died in the sixth year of the Han Dynasty, that is, in 117 BC, at the age of 23. The cause of his death is a historical mystery, because neither the Records of History nor the Book of Han elaborate on how the young general died.
Sima Qian even described Huo's funeral in detail in the Records of History, but did not mention the cause of his death. It's not that Sima Qian didn't dare to write it, but he really didn't know. Although Sima Qian and Huo Wentai were from the same dynasty, Sima Qian was born in 145 or 135 BC, and his "History" was written around 104 BC - 90 BC, at this time, Huo Qian had died for many years.
In that era of completely asymmetrical information, if he wanted to know the cause of death of Hodg's disease, he could only ask some old insiders, and if others did not want him to know, he could not obtain any information. Then the question is, if Huo's disease is a normal death, as a general who has contributed to the society, the Han government has no reason to hide the cause of his death, so the only explanation is that Huo's disease is an unnatural death.
How can a 23-year-old young man die so badly? Of course, he was a soldier, and he may have been killed on the battlefield, but this also does not make sense, since 119 BC, after the Battle of Huo's Disease Desert North, he completely solved the threat of the Xiongnu to Han, sealed the wolf Juxu, won the victory, since then, Han and the Xiongnu have no more big battles to fight, why huo to go to the sick and die?
Obviously, the young Hodge was not killed on the battlefield, so there were only two possibilities left, one was the plague theory, and the other was the conspiracy theory. Huo went deep into the desert north several times to fight the Xiongnu, each time beheading more than 10,000 people, and a large number of corpses were thrown on the grassland, rotting and deteriorating.
At the same time, there are still a large number of sick or killed livestock carcasses in the north that have not been disposed of in time, and these rotten corpses are the most prone to plague, which is what we modern people call infectious diseases. It is possible that Hodg was unknowingly infected with the plague.
We know that the ancients lacked the conditions to treat infectious diseases, and once infected with the plague, they could only wait for death. Huo's illness is likely to end up dying of the plague, which is difficult for the Han government to accept, and it is really detrimental to the image of the government to say it, so it can only not disclose the cause of his death.
The possibility of conspiracy theory is even greater, during the period of Emperor Wu of Han, the Wei clique was large, the representative of the Wei clique was Wei Qing, and Wei Qing's wife was Princess Pingyang, the sister of Emperor Wu of Han. The Wei clique grew more and more powerful in the war against the Xiongnu, and Emperor Wu of Han felt threatened, and he needed a man to suppress the Wei clique, and Wei Qing's nephew Huo Fuyi was the best candidate in every way.
So Huo Went ill became a thorn in the eyes of the Wei clique, a thorn in the flesh, of course, Wei Qing was unlikely to harm Huo To get sick, but his wife Princess Pingyang was difficult to say.
In short, whether it is conspiracy theory or plague theory, the unnatural death of Huo Huo disease is a disgraceful thing for the Han government. Since it is disgraceful, of course, it cannot be written in the history books, so from the day of his death, all those in the know have been secretive, silent, and the relevant information is also blank, where did you ask Sima To move to find the basis for his death? Therefore, it is not that Sima Qian did not dare to write, but that as a history book compiler, he could not write things that he did not know, which was his principle.