In 135 BC, the young Emperor Wu of Han decided not to maintain a fragile peace with the Xiongnu by means of peace.
However, to the embarrassment of Emperor Wu of Han, many generals of the Han Empire obviously did not have the ability to attack an unknown enemy, and in many battles, the Han army got lost or could not find the enemy.
However, two people are exceptions.
Wei Qing attacked the Xiongnu 7 times before and after, and Huo went to war 4 times before and after his illness, but none of them got lost, and each time he was able to win.
What is the reason for this?
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In fact, when Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty decided to attack the Xiongnu, he knew very little about the Mongolian plateau, and the Mongolian plateau was vast and boundless, surrounded by Qilian Mountains, Yin Mountains, Helan Mountains, Rouge Mountains, etc., and it was not entirely plain.
Therefore, it is common for Han troops to get lost in the grasslands.
In February 123 BC, on the eve of the Battle of Yinshan, the Han army launched a spring tentative attack on the Xiongnu, and Su Jian's army got lost and did not see any trace of the Xiongnu.
In 121 BC, at the Second Battle of Hexi, Gongsun Ao cooperated with Huo to attack the Hexi Corridor, but Gongsun Ao got lost south of the Qilian Mountains and missed the time to join Huo's sick army.
In 119 BC, in the Battle of Mobei, The Flying General Li Guang, who had fought against the Xiongnu for many years, and the right general Zhao Zhiqi led his army and Wei Qingbing to attack the Xiongnu King's Court in two ways, but because they were lost, they failed to join the army, resulting in Wei Qing alone against the Xiongnu.
Also in the Battle of Mobei, Gongsun He traveled 2,000 miles to the west, and when he reached the floating tho well, he did not even see the shadow of the Xiongnu, and could only return in vain.
In 129-119 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conducted about 9 large-scale expeditions against the Xiongnu, but there were at least 4 cases of getting lost and unable to find the enemy, which showed the situation of the Han army getting lost.
In fact, this matter is not all to blame the Han Army.
From the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains Empire was constantly at war with the nomadic peoples on the Mongolian plateau, and getting lost and throwing the air happened from time to time.
The most notable are ming taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's northern expedition to Mongolia.
During zhu yuanzhang's period, the Ming army had 13 large-scale northern expeditions, of which about 7 were futile, and no trace of the Mongols was found;
During the Zhu Di period, there were 5 large-scale conquests of Mongolia, and 3 times they did not encounter any decent enemies, so that Zhu Di himself hated it.
Even the tribes of the steppe themselves occasionally got lost, and when Temujin was weak in his early years, he was able to regroup because the enemy did not find him.
Therefore, in that era without GPS, it was normal for the armies of the Central Plains Empire to get lost on the steppe.
However, Wei Qinghuo went to the disease several times to attack the Xiongnu, but he never got lost, and he always won victory.
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In the 9 expeditions of Emperor Wu of han to the Xiongnu, Wei Qing participated in 7 times, and Huo Wentyi participated in 4 times.
In 129 BC, the four generals attacked the Xiongnu, and the three roads returned without success, only Wei Qing directly attacked the Xiongnu Sacred Land Dragon City.
This was the first expedition of the Han Empire, and it was also the first time that Wei Qing led his army to fight against the Xiongnu, and since then it has been out of control.
In the first year of Yuan Shuo, Wei Qing once again won thousands;
In the second year of Yuan Shuo, Wei Qing led an army to encircle Henan from the clouds, defeated the Xiongnu, captured 3,000 people, and captured Henan;
In the fifth year of Yuan Shuo, Wei Qing led an army to launch a surprise attack on the right Xianwang's troops, capturing 15,000 enemy;
In the sixth year of Yuan Shuo, the Wei Qing unified army made two expeditions to the Xiongnu, fought with the main xiongnu force, and beheaded more than 10,000 enemies;
In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Battle of Mobei, Wei Qing and the Xiongnu fought in the main battle, killing more than 19,000 enemies and suffering heavy losses themselves.
In Wei Qing's record of 7 battles, his direct subordinate army was never troubled by getting lost, and Huo's illness was even worse.
In the Battle of Yinshan, which was wounded and damaged, Huo Wentyi participated in the battle for the first time, but led 800 cavalry hundreds of miles away from the main army to kill the enemy for 2,000.
In the two Battles of Hexi, Huo first penetrated the Hexi Corridor from Longxi, then detoured from the north of Yinshan to the north of the Hexi Corridor, and from Dunhuang to Longxi.
In the Battle of Mobei, Huo Fuyi led his army alone to reach the zuoxian king's department, beheaded more than 70,000 enemies, and pursued the remnants of them to the foot of Wolf Juxu Mountain.
The other generals had all been lost, wei Qing and Huo Fuyi had participated in the battle against the Xiongnu many times, why did the two of them never get lost, was this a coincidence?
It can be seen from the marching route of the Second Battle of Hexi that this is no coincidence.
After the First Battle of Hexi, Huo Waseyi was familiar with the geography of Hexi and decided to lead his cavalry to a long detour, starting from Shuofang, advancing north along the Helan Mountains, detouring through Juyanze, and then going south to attack the Xiongnu on the Hexi Corridor from Dunhuang.
If Huo can not get lost, all by luck and coincidence, then this road will definitely consume all his luck.
Even Gongsun Ao, whose route was much simpler than his, was lost, but Huo went ill.
This is enough to prove that Wei Qinghuo did not get lost as often as other generals, not by luck but with certain methods and tricks.
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Why Wei Qinghuo didn't get lost when he went sick, there are several reasons that are obvious:
1) Because of the abundance of warhorses in the Han Empire, Wei Qinghuo was able to use cavalry in large quantities in battles. The four-legged cavalry obviously had a faster speed than the two-legged infantry, and it was less likely to get lost on the steppe.
2) In 126 BC, Zhang Qian, who had sent an envoy to the Western Regions, returned to Chang'an. The Han dynasty had a basic understanding of the Xiongnu and Hexi, and from then on, the battles against the Xiongnu were at least much better than before the blind man touched the elephant.
However, there is another most important reason beyond that.
If we look up the relevant records, we will find that under wei qing and Huo Qi' illness, there has been such a group of people for a long time.
In the Battle of Hexi, there were 3 generals under Huo's command, namely Zhao Baonu, Gao Buzhi, and Shuduo; in the Battle of Mobei, 4 people were awarded the title of Marquis for military merit, namely Lu Bode, Fulu Zhi, Yi Jijing, and Weishan.
Among these 7 people, Gao Buzhi, Servant Duo, Fulu Zhi, and Yi Jijing were all Xiongnu generals.
For some reason, these people are hidden in the historical records, and everyone is not familiar with them, but there are two people who are very familiar to everyone.
One was Zhao Xin, who was originally a small king of the Xiongnu, who later defected to the Han Dynasty, participated in 3 battles of the Northern Expedition against the Xiongnu, and was captured by the Xiongnu in the Battle of Yinshan, rebelling against the Xiongnu again.
The other was Tang Yi's father, a Xiongnu, Zhang Qian's deputy envoy to the Western Regions, who later returned to the Han Dynasty and participated in the Northern Expedition of the Han Army many times, and later died in Chang'an.
Historians have also made statistics that in the first 20 years of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were 32 people who were enfeoffed for military merit, of which the Xiongnu surrendered as many as 18, more than half.
All kinds of data show that there were a large number of Xiongnu generals in the Han army.
They were huns themselves, and many of them were high-ranking hun nobles, so they were very familiar with the geographical situation of the Mongolian plateau and so on.
And it was precisely because of them as the leading party that the Han army was able to detour at a long distance and launch a long-distance attack like the Battle of Hexi and the Battle of Mobei.
So why were so many Huns willing to betray their own people and serve as a leading party for the Han army?
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In history, there is a term called Han traitor, and everyone has always hated Han traitor.
This is because betraying one's own people and ancestors is intolerable in any nation.
However, in fact, during the period of confrontation between China and Hungary, we saw a different scene: the Han and Hungary were sparing no effort to recruit rebels, and it seemed that no one was ashamed of betraying the nation.
The Han Empire successively surrendered to the Xiongnu, including the Lu Xie family of the Yan king and the Han Wangxin family during the Han Gaozu period; the Zhongxingyan family during the Han Wen Emperor period; and the Wei Lu, Li Ling, and Li Guangli during the Han Wu Emperor period.
These people were also treated very well by the Xiongnu, li Guangli and Li Ling both married the daughters of the Xiongnu Shan Yu, and it is said that Li Ling even became the second most powerful vice-king after the Xiongnu Shan Yu.
On the side of the Han Empire, as early as the time of Emperor Wen of Han, Jia Yi had proposed the famous three tables and five baits, and Chao Que had also systematically expounded how to recruit the Xiongnu.
Although most of these surrendered Huns were hidden in the snow for various reasons later, we can still see that during the Han Jing Emperor's time, there were 8 Xiongnu generals who were given the title of marquis, and there were only 10 Han generals in the same period.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, as already mentioned, it is even more so. The Xiongnu crown prince Jin Riju later even became the second most important minister to Huo Guang.
Such a phenomenon was common, as was the case in both Han and Hungary at the time, and although they had been fighting for decades, not only did they not discriminate against ethnicity, but they trusted those who surrendered.
Not only that, later in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Southern Xiongnu nobles were also proud of their sons-in-law of the Han Dynasty and the descendants of Li Ling, so it can be seen that East Asia before 2000 was only the competition between two countries, and there was no prejudice between the two nationalities at all.
The reason for this is that the concept of the so-called nation was not yet formed at that time.
The Xiongnu called all those who believed in the culture of the Central Plains Han or Zhongyuan people, and the Han Empire also called the Xiongnu, Wuhuan, Xianbei, and the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions under the rule of the Xiongnu all the Xiongnu.
Neither the Han nor the Huns are a national concept, but a regional and cultural concept.
The Huns who surrendered to the Han court could also be called Han Chinese, and the Han people who surrendered to the Huns were also Huns, who changed with the changes in the regime they were loyal to and the area of residence, without carrying this mark for a lifetime.
The formation of the nation is actually a matter of modern times. In the history of East Asia, there has always been only a struggle for hegemony between two or more regimes, and there has been no ethnic divide.
In recent years, the so-called Wei Qinghuo went ill and Yue Feiwen Tianxiang was not a national hero, but from these points of view, the root of this statement lies in looking at the problem of history from the current perspective.
At that time, there were no nationalities, so how can we say that they were only national heroes of the Han nationality and not heroes of our country?
They are the heroes of their allegiance to the regime, and the regime to which they are loyal is the origin of our Chinese nation.
Text/Zi Yu
References: "General History of the Xiongnu", "History of the General Wei Horse Riding Column"