With the death of the famous general Li Guang who fought against the Xiongnu, the great general Wei Youth was old and weak, and the great general Huo Fu died of illness at an early age, and the years without famous generals made the Han Dynasty become flat. In the later years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the exhausted Han Empire, which was tormented by the war, began to seek compromise with the Xiongnu. Therefore, when the Xiongnu offered to reconcile with the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of han sent Su Wu and his party to send envoys to the Xiongnu.
When the Han envoys traveled thousands of miles to the court of the Xiongnu king, they found that the Xiongnu Shan Yu did not have the enthusiasm he imagined for the relaxation of Han-Hungarian relations. Faced with Shan Yu's attitude of turning indifferent, Su Wu's retinue Zhang Sheng believed that the Han envoy Wei Lu, who had surrendered to the Xiongnu, was obstructing in the middle, so he secretly plotted to assassinate Wei Lu and abduct Shan Yu's mother and flee back to the Han Dynasty for reward. However, the plan soon failed, which also gave the Xiongnu a reason to detain the Han envoys, so Su Wu and Chang Hui, who later became famous in the Western Regions, and all others were imprisoned.
Upon learning of the han envoys' detention, Emperor Wu of Han put pressure on the Xiongnu and in the following year (99 BC) sent the general Li Guangli (李廣) to 30,000 cavalry as the main force, and Li Ling (Li Guang's grandson) 5,000 infantry to coordinate and launch a war against the Xiongnu. As a result, Li Guangli was defeated and forced to surrender to the Xiongnu after Li Ling's army was almost completely destroyed. In this way, Su Wu had one more difficult brother.
Later, the Xiongnu Shan Yu put Su Wu under house arrest in the North Sea (around present-day Lake Baikal) to graze rams, and Li Ling not only married a Xiongnu princess, but the Xiongnu Shan Yu also gave Li Ling the already submissive Jiankun State as a dowry for his daughter. On the surface, Li Ling was much luckier than Su Wu, but in fact he was bound by the Xiongnu shan Yu with sugar-coated shells. Fortunately, Su Wu had the care of Li Ling, which greatly improved his living conditions, and he also married a Xiongnu woman and gave birth to a son.
In fact, just like Zhang Qian was detained by the Xiongnu for 13 years to marry and have children locally, in the 19 years that Su Wu was detained by the Xiongnu, it is difficult to imagine whether they could survive these arduous and long years without a woman. Obviously, it was precisely because of the warmth and love that the Xiongnu women brought to Su Wu that he insisted on his faith and supported until the day of his return to his homeland. Therefore, idealists cannot seek complete blame, because human nature has a very emotional side.
After returning to the Han Dynasty, Su Wu naturally became a hot hero, but he did not immediately reveal all the encounters including marrying and having children in the Xiongnu. Perhaps, in Su Wu's heart, that incident was contrary to his glorious integrity, but Emperor Xuan of Han was still very tolerant and generous, not only did not blame Su Wu, but also sent someone to pick up the mother and son to reunite with Su Wu. Because, this move can also be regarded as a kind of comfort for the psychological trauma caused by Su Wu's original wife remarrying someone else.
The fly in the ointment was that the Xiongnu wife was unable to return to Su Wu's side with her son due to illness. A few years later, Su Wu died, and his Xiongnu son may have been too bland to leave little ink in the history books. Compared with Su Wu's life full of glory, the image of his Xiongnu son is bleak, but this is not another real life.