Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng" mentions that "Li Guang is difficult to seal". As a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty, Li Guang fought more than seventy battles with the Xiongnu during his lifetime. Because of his tall stature, slender arms, good at riding and shooting, and quick movements, he was praised as "flying general" by the Xiongnu. He guarded the border for decades, successively serving as the emissary of the seven border counties, and for more than 40 years, the Xiongnu did not dare to attack; He cherished the soldiers and was deeply loved by the soldiers and the people.
So, such a general, who made the Xiongnu fearful, was told by Emperor Wudi of Han to "use it carefully" before setting out? In the era when Emperor Wudi of Han was awarded marquis and rewarded for military merit, why was he not made a marquis in his life? Why did you commit suicide with hatred in the end? All this also starts with the first award of this general named Li Guang after making meritorious achievements.
Standing in the wrong team, missing the marquis
Li Guang, a native of Chengji, Longxi (present-day Qin'an County, Gansu Province), was a famous general during the Western Han Dynasty, and his ancestor was Li Xin, a famous general of the Qin Dynasty. Li Guang attacked the Xiongnu in the 14th year of Emperor Wen of Han (166 BC), and because of his meritorious service, he hunted with Emperor Wen several times, hunting birds of prey with birds of prey, and was very brave. Emperor Wen of Han once commented, "It's a pity, the son does not meet the time!" If Ling Zi is a high emperor, how can the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households be enough! ”
In 157 BC, Emperor Wen of Han died. Crown Prince Liu Qi succeeded to the throne for Emperor Jing of Han. Soon after, Li Guang was appointed commander of Longxi and later a cavalry general. Two years later, the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms broke out, and an epic drama of chasing deer from the Central Plains was staged again, and for Li Guang, a professional soldier, the opportunity to make meritorious achievements finally came.
During the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Li Guang, as a lieutenant of the Xiao Cavalry, followed the imperial lieutenant Zhou Yafu to counterattack the Wu Chu rebels. Under the city of Changyi, Li Guang, who was in the prime of life, seized the rebel banner and made great battle achievements, which shocked the world. However, Li Guang, who stood on the wrong side, missed the official Jin Jue - he accepted the general seal letter granted by Emperor Jing's brother King Liang.
At this time, Emperor Jing of Han was jealous of Liu Wu, the king of Liang. Because Empress Dowager Dou loved Liu Wu and repeatedly proposed that Liu Qi make Liu Wu the imperial brother, which greatly displeased Emperor Jing of Han. Therefore, even if Li Guang made a lot of battle merits, Emperor Hanjing could not reward him, but later transferred Li Guang to be the Taishou of Shanggu.
Habitually getting lost and delaying the fighter
Perhaps it was Li Guang, who saw that other comrades-in-arms had been added to the rank of Jin Jue, but he was only transferred at the same level, and Li Guang, who was resentful in his heart, hoped to make another miraculous achievement. He joined the major and minor battles against the Xiongnu, and in the following years, Li Guang was transferred to Longxi, Yanmen, Daijun, Yunzhong border counties as the taishou of the border counties, earning him the title of "General Fei".
In 141 BC, Emperor Jing of Han died and Emperor Wudi of Han ascended the throne. Li Guang was transferred from Shangjun Taishou to the rank of Jiuqing, commanding the Weiyang Palace Janissaries. This year, Li Guang was over 50 years old, and for a soldier who had been fighting on the battlefield for many years, Li Guang was eager to make achievements in the final stage of his life and draw a perfect end to his career as a horseman.
In 129 BC, Emperor Wudi of Han sent four generals, Li Guang, Gongsun Ao, Gongsun He, and Wei Qing, each with 10,000 cavalry, to attack the invading Xiongnu army from Yanmen, Yunzhong, Daijun, and Shanggu. In this expedition, except for Li Guang, the other three were all young generals of Fang Gang.
In 123 BC, Li Guang accompanied Wei Qing as a partial general and was one of the six generals under Wei Qing, but Li Guang returned without success; In 120 BC, Li Guang led 4,000 troops and encountered 40,000 cavalry of the Xiongnu Zuoxian Wang, but because Zhang Qian's reinforcements failed to arrive in time, the whole army was once again destroyed.
In 119 BC, Emperor Wudi of Han gathered 100,000 iron horsemen and sent Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, two famous generals, to launch a general attack on the Xiongnu in northern Mobei, intending to quell the Xiongnu's plague in one fell swoop. In this year, Li Guang was over sixty years old and could not withstand Li Guang's request, and Emperor Wudi of Han finally appointed him as a former general and followed the general Wei Qing on his expedition to Mobei. In this battle, Wei Qing learned that the Xiongnu headquarters was directly in front of him, so he led his own elite troops, crossed the desert, rushed for more than a thousand miles, and defeated the Xiongnu Yizhi Shan Yu. Li Guang made a roundabout response from the east, but because he was lost, he failed to join Wei Qing's main forces, resulting in a breakthrough in the joint attack plan, and failed to complete the operational goal of capturing the Xiongnu Shan Yu alive, and Yi Zhixian fled to Mobei.
Later, a generation of famous generals Li Guang pulled out his sword and killed himself, dying with hatred, leaving an allusion to "Li Guang is difficult to seal", which made future generations sigh.
Epilogue:
Some people say that General Li's life was not good, others believe that Emperor Wudi of Han used his brother-in-law Wei Qing and nephew Huo to be ill and did not wait to see Li Guang, while Li Gugang thought that he might have killed the troops in earlier years and suffered retribution. And if you want to explore the root cause of Li Guang's difficulty in sealing, we have to start with the military merit system of the Han Dynasty.
There were four ranks of military merit in the early Han Dynasty, namely marquis, secretary, doctor, and junior, among which the highest gold content was marquis. Marquis are divided into two types: Guannei Marquis and Liehou, the former is of lower rank and has no fiefdom; The princes were of high rank, not only having a feudal state, but also the supreme ruler of their fiefdom country. Once he obtained the title of Marquis, it meant that he had left the commoner class and became a nobleman like the royal family.
Statistics in the "Records of History" and "Book of Han" show that during the period of Emperor Wudi of Han, there were a total of 79 marquises. Among them, there were as many as 44 high-ranking surrenderers of the enemy, and among the other 35 people, 9 people were arrested for meritorious marquises, 2 people were marquis because their father died in battle, and only 24 people were really marquis for military merit.
It can be seen that there are three reasons why Li Guang is difficult to seal: first, according to the military merit system of the Han Dynasty, Li Guang does not meet the criteria for being a marquis; Second, Li Guang often made some very low-level mistakes, so that the emperor did not dare to give Li Guang a high position; Third, when he can take the reward by virtue of military merit, he is on the wrong team.