The most famous poem in ancient China is the Sheng Tang poet Wang Changling's "One of the Two Pieces of Out of the Plug":
Qin Shi Mingyue Han Shi Guan, the Long March of Ten Thousand Miles has not been returned.
But to make the Dragon City fly will be, not to teach Humadu Yin Mountain.
The "flying general" mentioned in the poem refers to Li Guang, a famous general of the Han Dynasty. He went through Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Jing, and Emperor Wu, made great military achievements, successively participated in the pacification of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, successively served as the Taishou of the Seven Counties, guarded the northern frontier, and led troops to attack the Xiongnu. In his lifetime, he fought with the Xiongnu for more than forty years, more than seventy battles, with a body of martial arts, killed countless enemies, and the Xiongnu feared their bravery and called them "flying generals". Because of his bravery and good fighting, the Xiongnu were feared and called "flying generals", and they did not dare to attack for several years. Sima Qian praised him as "tao li does not speak, but becomes his own" under the tao.
According to the "Chronicle of General Li", Li Guang was extremely tall, had infinite divine power, was good at shooting with ape arms, cherished soldiers, and was deeply loved by soldiers. Li Guang was a man of integrity, and the Chronicle of History records that "he was rewarded with the gift of dividing his men, and eating and drinking with the soldiers." In the end, Guang's body is two thousand stones; for more than forty years, the family has no surplus wealth." The story of Li Guangguan's hunting of stone tigers is even more well-known, making Li Guang one of the synonyms of the sharpshooters of later generations.
Li Guang's ancestor Li Xin was a famous general of the Qin Dynasty who led an army to defeat Prince Dan of Yan. The Li Guang family has accepted the official position of servant for generations. Their hometown was in Akeli, and later migrated to Nariki. Li Guang's family has been practicing archery for generations.
In 166 BC (the fourteenth year of Emperor Wen of Han), the Xiongnu invaded Xiaoguan on a large scale, and Li Guang joined the army to fight against the Xiongnu as a disciple of the Liang family, because he was proficient in horseback archery and killed many Xiongnu leaders, and was appointed as Hanzhong Lang. Li Guang once traveled with the emperor, charging against the enemy and fighting with the beasts, so Emperor Wen of Han said, "Unfortunately, you did not meet the opportunity, if you were born in the era of Gaozu, it would not be a problem to seal a marquis of ten thousand households!" "
Li Guangwei was incorruptible, and often distributed his rewards to his subordinates, eating and drinking with the soldiers. He had been an official of the two thousand stones for more than forty years, and there were not many surplus belongings in the family, and he never talked about the purchase of family property, which was deeply loved by the officers and men. Li Guang was tall, with arms as long as an ape, and had a talent for shooting, and his descendants learned archery from others, but they were not as good as Li Guang. Li Guang was not good at words, and when he was idle with people, he also gambled with archery for pleasure, and used archery as a pastime all his life. Li Guang loves soldiers like sons, and can lead the way in everything. When the marching army encounters a lack of water and fasting, it sees water, sees food, the soldier does not drink all the water, he is not near the water's edge; The soldier didn't eat it all, he didn't eat it. Leniency and not harshness on the soldier make the soldier willing to give him death. When Li Guang shot the enemy, he demanded that his arrows be fired without false fire, so he did not shoot within dozens of steps, often the arrow was off the string, and the enemy died in response. As a result, he was chased by the enemy many times, and he was injured several times when shooting the beast because it was too close.
In 123 BC, Li Guang was made a general and accompanied Wei Qing to attack the Xiongnu, but failed to make a contribution. In 120 BC, Li Guang led 4,000 men out of Right Beiping to fight with Zhang Qian's troops, and was surrounded by 40,000 elite xiongnu zuoxian kings, and the stalemate lasted for a day and a night, and the losses were heavy, and later Zhang Qian led 10,000 cavalry to arrive and forced the Xiongnu to break the siege. In this battle, Li Guang was not rewarded for the loss of soldiers, and Zhang Qian, because of the delay of the military plane, was beheaded according to the law, and was later deposed as a Shuren.
In 119 BC, Emperor Wu of han launched the Battle of Mobei, and Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi each led 50,000 cavalry from Dingxiang and Dai Commandery to attack the Xiongnu headquarters across the desert, and Li Guang was assigned to follow Wei Qing on the expedition. Emperor Wu of Han could not withstand Li Guang's request and agreed to let him fight the vanguard, but then secretly sent a letter to Wei Qing, saying that Li Guang had committed bad luck and could not give the vanguard official a heavy responsibility. Therefore, Wei Qing arranged for Li Guang and Zhao Shiqi to lead troops to support the East Road, which made Li Guang quite dissatisfied. Due to the long distance, Li Guang got lost in the desert, delaying the timing of the battle, causing Shan Yu to break through and escape. After the end of the Battle of Mobei, Li Guangbu met with the main forces, and Li Guang was reprimanded by Wei Qing for the crime of delaying the fighter plane, unwilling to be tried by military law, and committed suicide in anger, at the age of more than sixty.
Although he had distinguished himself in battle, Li Guang had never been enfeoffed as a marquis in his lifetime. After seeing Li Guang's deeds, the early Tang Dynasty poet Wang Bo wrote in the "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng": "Feng Tang is easy to grow old, and Li Guang is difficult to seal. The allusion comes from the article "History of General Li Guang's Biography". However, later generations also had a lot of criticism of Li Guang, calling him "narrow-minded and untrustworthy." ”
Li Guang once lured the Qiang rebels in Longxi and then killed all 800 of his descendants. Killing prisoners has been taboo since ancient times, and there is a saying that "killing is ominous", and it was considered a war crime at that time. Li Guang's inability to be marquis was also considered by the then famous Xiangshi Wang Shuo to be a punishment from heaven for killing him.
Li Guang once declared a personal vendetta and killed an officer with whom he had a festival. After Li Guang was defeated and lost his official position, he once went on a hunt through Nanshan, delaying the time to return. According to the regulations, after nightfall, the customs were closed and no passage was allowed, so the lieutenant who guarded the Baling Tomb forbashid him to pass. Li Guang asked for approval and called himself General Fei. Lieutenant Ting replied, "None of the current generals can pass, let alone the previous ones?" Li Guang remembered this, and later Ren Beiping was too punctual, and in the name of personnel scheduling, he recruited Lieutenant Baling to his jurisdiction to take the opportunity to kill.
In history, most of the appreciation for Li Guang came from the literati, and the soldiers rarely praised Li Guang. In his lifetime, Li Guang fought more than seventy battles against the Xiongnu, "all in the name of force battles", but there were only a few victories that could be brought to the table, and the history books recorded more acts of personal heroism (such as taking horses and fleeing, the divine bow to frighten the enemy, shooting the stone tiger, etc.), and the number of times the loss of soldiers and the defeat of soldiers was also quite large. Li Guang himself also recognized that "he is not a descendant, but he has no merit to obtain the title" (never lagging behind others, but there is no military merit that is qualified for the title).
Li Guangxin was arrogant and arrogant, and often acted in a spirited manner, and even led a hundred people to chase after three Xiongnu soldiers, only to be surrounded by thousands of enemy troops. When Shanggu was too punctual, Gongsun Kunxian, a vassal state, once wrote to Emperor Jing of Han that although Li Guang was "unparalleled in talent in the world", he was "conceited", fearing that he would suffer a big loss if he ventured to fight the Xiongnu (Li Guang was therefore transferred to Shangjun as a taishou).
Since the ancient soldiers have always advocated the strict management of the army, and Li Guangzhi's army is relaxed, the discipline of the troops is very poor, and even the marching army does not line up ("Guangxing no part of the qu Xing Chen"), when stationed, it will only find the nearest waterside grassland battalion ("just good water grass tun, give up"), the atmosphere is scattered and does not train troops in peacetime ("everyone is self-reliant, do not strike the sword and mane to defend themselves"), the form documents for managing the army are all simplified ("Mofu Province's Covenant Literature and Books"), and only rely on sending scouts from afar to avoid sneak attacks ("Ran is also far away, and has not been killed"), However, he was very popular with the soldiers because he led the soldiers to share happiness and hardship ("Generals, who lack water in the end, soldiers do not drink enough, do not go near water; do not eat, do not taste; leniency is not harsh, and soldiers use this love for pleasure"). Although he received the support and love of the soldiers, he committed a military taboo.
Therefore, Sima Guang also believed: "If you do not know what you are doing, you will not be defeated; if you imitate Li Guang, you will rarely perish." (Emulating Cheng Is not aware, even if he does not make meritorious contributions, he will not lose the battle; following Li Guang's example, it is difficult not to destroy the entire army.) ）”