Since the defeat of the Battle of Changping, the state of Zhao has been weakened, and the border has often been harassed and plundered by the Xiongnu. At this critical moment, Li Mu, a heroic general, appeared. He not only defeated the strong with the weak, continuously repelled the Xiongnu invasions, but also rode his horse and whipped to revive the prestige of the Zhao State. However, just when everyone thought that Zhao Guo would re-establish himself in the grassland, tragedy suddenly struck. Li Mu, a general with peerless martial arts, was brutally killed by his own monarch because of his senseless suspicion of Li Mu. Why did such a great name come to such a miserable end? Why did other generals in later generations rarely follow Li Mu's example?
First, Yanmen invested heavily to defend against the Huns, and Li Mu defeated the strong with the weak
Zhao Guo was greatly injured in the Battle of Changping, and the border defense line was even more torn apart. The four battalions of grassland flying cavalry that King Zhao had relied on in Beijing were almost wiped out by the Qin army, and the border pass Yanmen Pass was also unable to resist the Xiongnu's brave and warlike iron cavalry. Just when the Zhao State was in a gloomy fog, Li Mu was sent to Yanmen to guard the fortress.
Li Mu has read military books since he was a child, and has shown extraordinary military talent since he was a child. When he was young, he was listed as one of the four famous generals of Zhao State, and in the war-torn Warring States Period, Li Mu repeatedly made miraculous feats and made great achievements. It's just that his talent is extraordinary, and people often suspect him, so his promotion is not smooth. Until he was entrusted with the important task of guarding Yanmen Pass, this was a good opportunity for Li Mu to show his skills.
As soon as he arrived, Li Mu began to strengthen the fortifications of Yanmen Pass. He ordered the men to re-dig the trenches at the pass and build a strong fence of wood and earth to form a natural barrier. At the same time, traps and rope hooks are planted in important positions, so that whenever the enemy approaches, they can attack and inflict heavy damage. Li Mu also excavated a large number of cellar chambers to store materials for long-term garrison.
In addition to fortifications, Li Mu also attached great importance to the improvement of cavalry strength. He did everything he could to collect good horses, and sometimes even snatched them directly from the Huns. Li Mu's best thing is the "beautiful horse strategy", he ordered people to graze a group of Zhao mares in the border river, and when the Xiongnu war horse saw the mare's traces, they would jump into the river, and they would be stopped and detained by the Zhao army. With this strategy, Li Mu harvested a lot of excellent Qiji of the Xiongnu, which greatly enriched the cavalry strength of the Zhao army.
With Li Mu's foresight, Yanmen Pass soon became an impregnable wall. When the Huns came to attack, they were always stopped by strong fortifications, and there was no gap to take advantage of; And as soon as someone tried to attack the city, they would be fiercely counterattacked by cavalry. With the help of Li Mu's operation, Yanmen Pass, which was originally regarded as a "waist cut", regained its former majesty, making the border of Zhao temporarily restore tranquility and peace.
Second, Zhao Xiaocheng is the king of mediocrity, and the ministers are in charge
Although the border of Zhao was temporarily restored to tranquility under the guard of Li Mu, the country's qi was declining day by day. The root of all this stems from the recent successive mediocre monarchs of the Zhao Dynasty.
During the reign of King Wuling of Zhao and King Huiwen of Zhao, Zhao went through a difficult reform, and its national strength began to recover. It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, and when King Zhao Xiaocheng succeeded to the throne, the government was completely corrupted. King Zhao Xiaocheng was incompetent, drunk and obsessed, and indulged in lust all day long, and all the power of the court fell into the hands of traitorous villains.
Among them, the most favored are the two opportunists Tian Qiu and Guo Kai. They slipped into King Zhao's side by slapping their horses, and were soon entrusted with important tasks and divided the power of the country. Tian Qiu was particularly rampant, he actually tried every means to crack down on the king with a different surname, and after holding the power, he even purged the government and the opposition, and eliminated dissidents by unscrupulous means.
Under the nepotism of Tian Qiu and Guo Kai, Zhao Guo was full of a scene of conspiracy and partisanship. Loyal people have been repeatedly fallen in the court, and the entire Zhao State is like a high-risk powder keg, which may explode at any time.
The people of Zhao Guo were panicked, for fear that if they were not careful, they would fall into the suspicion of Tian Qiu and others. Such a situation is undoubtedly worse for Zhao Guo. After all, at that time, the Zhao State was at the center of the whirlpool of warring states, and it was in danger of being annexed by other vassal states at any time.
You must know that although Zhao's national strength is beginning to emerge, it is not as good as Qin, Chu and other powerful countries after all. If you can't even straighten out your internal affairs, it will not be easy to survive in an era of war. Sure enough, soon Zhao's border was attacked again.
Third, the Qin State has clever means of divisiveness
Just when Zhao was worried about domestic and foreign troubles, Qin, a powerful opponent who unified the world, was keeping an eye on Zhao's every move. As the most powerful of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, Qin has always had the ambition of dominating the world. In its view, although Zhao's national strength was declining, it was located in Mobei and controlled the choke point to the north, which was undoubtedly the biggest stumbling block to Qin's advance.
Therefore, the Qin State decided to adopt a divisive strategy, first creating chaos within the Zhao State, and then when the Zhao State itself fell apart, and then taking advantage of the situation to annex the territory of the Zhao State in one fell swoop. In order to achieve this goal, the Qin State first sent a large number of spies to lurk in the Zhao State.
These Qin secret agents disguised themselves as merchant travelers, and even farmers and herdsmen, and wandered around all corners of the Zhao State. Their ears and eyes are all over the government and opposition of Zhao State, and they have all the wind and grass in Zhao State. At the same time, these agents continue to spread rumors among the people in order to create chaos and turmoil.
When the internal turmoil of Zhao State reached a certain point, the secret spy of Qin State revealed a "heavy" news to King Zhao - Li Mu, the general of Zhao State, actually harbored the intention of rebellion! In order to make King Zhao Xiaocheng convinced of this rumor, the secret envoy of the Qin State also forged a lot of "ironclad evidence", such as Li Mu's letters of fornication with foreign countries, Li Mu's military intelligence of secretly gathering cavalry, etc., all of which were placed in front of King Zhao Xiaocheng.
For the mediocre and incompetent King Zhao Xiaocheng, he was quickly deceived. At the instigation of traitors such as Tian Qiu and Guo Kai, King Zhao Xiaocheng began to have unwarranted suspicion of Li Mu. After all, this general with a brave and good fighting army is indeed a formidable potential opponent.
Therefore, King Zhao Xiaocheng ordered Li Mu to be imprisoned, and secretly sent people to Yanmen Pass in an attempt to seize this important town into his hands. But what King Zhao Xiaocheng didn't expect was that Li Mu was loyal to Zhao Guo......
Fourth, Li Mu has a mind to serve the country and adheres to ethics
In the face of King Zhao Xiaocheng's unreasonable orders, Li Mu did not have two minds. As a great general, he knows that the honor and disgrace of the country are greater than the sky. Even if he suffered such a grievance, Li Mu still unswervingly guarded the frontier of Zhao State.
When the men and horses secretly sent by the king of Zhao arrived at Yanmen Pass, they saw a well-dressed, heroic and sharp army. Although this army is small in number, it is one man and one horse, and it is extremely brave, and it is by no means an idle person. What's even more surprising is that it was Li Mu himself who led this army.
Seeing this, King Zhao's envoys were greatly alarmed, and they all turned around and ran. How could they have thought that King Zhao's ruthless killer would be resisted by Li Mu? When they returned to Beijing and reported what they had seen and heard to Queen Zhao Xiaocheng, King Zhao was even more furious and immediately ordered Li Mu to be taken down.
As a result, King Zhao mobilized a large number of troops from all over the country and went to Yanmen Pass to defeat Li Mu. However, Li Mu did not retreat from this situation, on the contrary, he strengthened his own strength. With the help of the stationing in Yanmen Pass for many years, Li Mu secretly united many local guerrilla forces, as well as some deviant Hun cavalry, to gather into a huge armed force.
After having this arm, the Yanmen Pass where Li Mu was stationed was like an iron wall, out of reach. When King Zhao's army arrived at Yanmen Pass, he saw that there were strong towers standing at the head of the city, and the city was full of chains, shackles, pits, and other mechanisms. Li Mu personally led the cavalry to gallop across the battlefield, and he was awe-inspiring with the heroic posture of a lord and general.
In the face of such ferocious defensive forces, King Zhao's army was in vain and could only look at the wind. In desperation, King Zhao had to order the withdrawal of the army, and ordered to summon Li Mu again for secret talks. However, when the envoy arrived at Yanmen Pass, he found that Li Mu was nowhere to be found.
Fifth, Li Mu was assassinated, leaving regret for his death
Just when the envoy of King Zhao came to summon him, Li Mu had already left Yanmen Pass. It turned out that after repelling King Zhao's army, Li Mu decided to leave the border pass for the time being and go to Datong to wait for an opportunity. He hoped to gather more forces there and prepare for the future to take home the garden.
So, Li Mu led his cronies and dead soldiers to quietly leave Yanmen Pass and successfully arrived in the Datong area. Here, he not only made acquaintances with more of his old tribes, but also formed alliances with some of the local warlike nomads. With his extraordinary strategy and skill, Li Mu gradually established his own foundation in the Datong area.
The news soon reached the ears of King Zhao. King Zhao Xiaocheng was shocked when he heard the news, for fear that Li Mu had gathered too much strength outside, and he would definitely be in trouble when he returned to the teacher in the future. So, King Zhao Xiaocheng decided to go out in person and wipe out Li Mu.
After nearly a year of preparation, King Zhao finally came to the border in the Datong area, and a decisive battle took place with Li Mu's coalition forces. The two sides fought fiercely in the mountains for several days, and it was difficult to tell the winner from the loser. Until the end, Li Mu manipulated the brave army to break out of the encirclement.
Seeing that the situation could not be stopped, King Zhao hurriedly mobilized the Praetorian Guards and rushed straight to Li Mu's camp in a desperate manner. Just as the two armies were about to clash again, a spy sneaked into Li Mu's camp and pierced Li Mu's body with a sharp blade.
With the sharp pain of the blade piercing his heart, Li Mu fainted to the ground, blood flowing. Seeing this, the spy hidden in the shadows quickly pulled out his feet and fled, and soon fled. At this critical moment, the dead man of Li Mu's cronies rushed to hear the news and found that Li Mu was dying.
They hurriedly lifted the injured Li Mu onto the war horse, trying to take him to break through and escape. However, Li Mu's injuries were too serious, and he soon gave up. Li Mu only said one sentence before he died: "Alas, there is no way to serve the country!" In this way, this general with peerless martial arts fell asleep forever.