In 133 BC (the second year of Emperor Yuanguang of the Han Dynasty), Emperor Wu of Han decided to carry out the Siege of Mayi, which is also known as the Mayi merchant Nie Yi lured the Xiongnu military subjects Shan Yu to lead more than 100,000 Xiongnu troops to the south, and the Han army gathered more than 300,000, intending to annihilate them all at Mayi.
If the strategic goal is achieved, then it can greatly reduce the threat of the Xiongnu to the northern frontier of the Han Dynasty, after all, the peace exchanged for peace with the relatives is fragile, but the siege of Mayi, which could have been settled in one battle, failed because of the leak of a Wei Shi, and finally the only Wang Hui who could fight with the Xiongnu also took the initiative to avoid the battle, and the Xiongnu army withdrew from the outside world and avoided the fate of being surrounded and annihilated by the Han army.
Therefore, it has been circulated that a small weishi caused a butterfly effect, resulting in more than 300,000 Han troops returning without success, "since then, the Xiongnu have never been peaceful, attacked the road plug, often stolen from the Han side, innumerable", the defeat of the Siege of Mayi opened the prelude to the Xiongnu Hundred Years' War, but in fact, whether the Wei shi was leaked or not, the han army's action will not be successful, and there are many problems in this operation itself.
First of all, who is the commander-in-chief of the front line of this military operation? It's Han Anguo.
Historia. The Xiongnu Chronicles" Han Fu soldiers more than 300,000 Ma Yi, the imperial master Han Anguo as the protector, the fourth general to protect the danyu.
The problem is that when Emperor Wu of Han summoned his ministers to discuss the strategy of Mayi, he was a staunch anti-war representative, and history records that Han Anguo and Wang Hui almost fought directly, and before the siege of Mayi, Han Anguo's insistence on avoiding war had always been the most vocal in the imperial court.
It was Wang Hui who insisted on the main battle, and the rampant Xiongnu was because of the forbearance of the Han army, coupled with the fact that Emperor Wudi of Han had long had the intention of driving the Xiongnu north, so Emperor Wudi of Han forcibly advanced the plan of the siege of Mayi, but the former military commander Emperor Wudi could only choose Han Anguo, who had been avoiding the battle, so the overall strategic deployment of the siege of Mayi was too ideal.
Book of Han. The Biography of Han An Guo is about a column in Mayi. Wang Hui and Li Xibei attacked from the acting lord.
To put it simply, Han Anguo's commanders Li Guang, Gongsun He and other generals gathered the main forces of the Han army and lurked in the valleys around Mayi, waiting until Nie Yi lured the Xiongnu army into the city of Mayi, and then the Han army was surrounded on all sides and settled the battle with superior troops, while Wang Hui led the army to march northwest from Daidi to attack the heavy troops of the Xiongnu army.
This plan is indeed very beautiful, but the problem is that it is too beautiful, the pre-war Han army's attack conditions are too harsh, that is, only wait for the Xiongnu army to enter Mayi City, and Han Anguo's reason for this arrangement is also very simple, so that if you fight, the han army's danger coefficient is the lowest, Han Anguo naturally wants to avoid the main force of the Han army suffer heavy damage as the premise, give priority to protecting the main force of the Han army, followed by the annihilation of the enemy.
Second, the overall combat plan of the Han army lacked the ability to respond.
As mentioned earlier, the military operation led by Han Anguo was too idealistic and did not respond to possible contingencies, in fact, the Xiongnu found the Deployment of the Han Army before arriving in Mayi, and then led the army to retreat, which is a very likely situation, but it is obvious that the overall layout of the Han Army lacks the ability to respond to this.
In addition, since the siege of Baideng, the Han army in northern Xinjiang is mainly defensive, and has lacked the ability to take the initiative to attack, and at the same time, Han Anguo has placed the main force of the Han army around Mayi, and the Han army itself does not have enough pursuit ability, even if it is discovered that the Xiongnu retreat to the north.
Book of Han. In the Biography of Han An Guo, the angry warrior did not attack Shan Yu Zhongye, and restored: "At the beginning, when entering the city of Mayi, the soldiers and Shan Yu were connected, and the subjects attacked his weight, and they could gain profits." Now that he has returned without arriving, his subjects will be defeated by 30,000 people and will only be humiliated. Gu Zhi returned and beheaded, but his majesty completed thirty thousand people. ”
At that time, Wang Hui supported more than 30,000 troops, but did not dare to fight with the Xiongnu, in the face of the responsibility of Emperor Wu of Han, he said that according to the original plan, he was going to ambush the Xiongnu heavy troops, and did not face the main force of the Xiongnu, and the battle was defeated, so Wang Hui claimed to save the 30,000 soldiers and horses for Emperor Wu of Han.
In fact, the fundamental problem is that the Han army lacks pre-war response military deployment, after all, Wang Hui is not a military general, has not commanded any major battles, once he encounters such an unexpected situation, there is no targeted arrangement before the war, he can only waste fighters between hesitation, and even if he attacks, what can he do?
The main force of the Han army was in the direction of Mayi, and the combat strength of the troops he led was obviously not comparable to that of the main force, and in the face of the impact of the main cavalry of the Xiongnu, it was unrealistic to want to stop the Xiongnu army and delay until the main force of the Han army pursued.
The third point, and the most important point, is that the Han Army's plan wanted to copy the homework, but completely copied the wrong answer.
Historia. Lian Po Lin is like a legend of the great longitudinal livestock, and the people are full of wilderness. The Xiongnu entered small, and the north was invincible, with thousands of people entrusted. Just by smelling it, the crowd came in. Li Muduo was Qi Chen, and Zhang attacked him left and right, killing more than 100,000 Xiongnu horses. Destroy the rags, break the East Hu, lower the Forest Hu, and run alone. After more than ten years, the Xiongnu did not dare to approach Zhao Biancheng.
Historia. The Biography of the Xiongnu alone entered hansai, but did not go to More than a hundred miles of Mayi, and saw that the livestock were wild and there was no shepherd, and it was strange that it was an attack on the pavilion.
In the Han army's plan for the siege of Mayi, part of it was somewhat similar to Li Mu's plan to encircle and annihilate the Xiongnu, that is, on the Xiongnu's marching route, leaving a large number of livestock, Li Mu relied on this to attract the main Xiongnu troops to go south in a large scale and enter the pocket array he had prepared, Li Mu broke more than 100,000 Xiongnu in this battle, and the northern frontier of the Zhao state was stable in this battle.
And the Han army in the siege of Mayi, the same way, this is copying the work of the predecessors, but obviously did not copy to understand, but also the military minister Shan Yu led the troops on the way to Mayi, only saw cattle and sheep, but did not see the herdsmen, this is too abnormal, it can be said that the Han army wants to create a normal state, but it has left an obvious flaw, people Li Mu can not leave only livestock and not herders. It was also unwise for the Han army to leave livestock as bait, after all, it was Mayi City that really attracted the Xiongnu army, which was different from Li Mu's time
Moreover, the military minister Shan Yu went to the border defense pavilion because of suspicion, and lived the lieutenant history who leaked the secret, so the question is, how secretive is the Han army's plan?
Personally, I think that although the Han army kept it secret to a certain extent, it was difficult to hide the situation in which the military plan was widely known, first of all, the Xiongnu at that time did not know the Han army plan before the war, otherwise they would not have gone south.
But on the side of the Han Dynasty, this plan is obviously difficult to be completely secreted, and unlike Li Mu's plan to annihilate the Xiongnu, Li Mu was originally stationed in Yanmen County, he used a local army, there was no large-scale military mobilization within the Zhao State, and when the siege of Mayi, the dispatch of the main force of the 300,000 Han army was too big, and concentrated on the front line of Mayi, and it was impossible to be airtight.
This is why a small lieutenant Shi can grasp the general military deployment of the Han army, so the siege of Mayi buried the hidden danger of failure from the beginning, after all, this plan was originally hoped to fight the information gap, intending that the Xiongnu army would unknowingly plunge into the encirclement of the Han army, which was too ideal, after all, the whole plan had no secrets to speak of.
So even without that Wei Shi, on the way the Xiongnu continued to go south, wouldn't the Xiongnu be made to perceive that something was wrong because of other things?
Moreover, the execution of the Han army was a problem, that is, the Han army deliberately left a large number of livestock, but where did the herders go? If the Han army did not want to leave people, then that Wei Shi would not appear on the front line, that is to say, the Han army may not have evacuated the people on the Xiongnu's marching route before the war in an attempt to create a peaceful state, but it is still that sentence, the movement of the Han army is too big, and the news has been leaked
It may be that before the Xiongnu army went south, the herders got the news and fled, leaving only livestock, which aroused the suspicion of the Huns.
In general, the overall plan of the Han army in this operation of the Siege of Mayi was too idealistic, lacked the ability to respond, and the mobilization of 300,000 troops was difficult to completely keep secret, and finally failed because of the leaked information, which was normal.
References to The Chronicle of History. Lian Po Lin is like a biography of The Chronicle of History. Biography of Li Guanglie" Biography of the Xiongnu" Book of Han. Biography of Han An Guo