Shi Zai, in 140 BC, after Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, he resolutely and resolutely announced the abolition of the humiliating "peace and affinity" policy since his great-grandfather Liu Bang, and did not want to exchange for living space by seeking perfection, but instead swept through the Xiongnu with iron blood, "drinking the blood of Hu Yu", and shame before the snow.
Based on the needs of the war, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty immediately made active military arrangements and personnel arrangements, when the emperor assigned famous generals such as Li Guang, a "flying general" who was very experienced in dealing with the Xiongnu, to gather in the border county fortresses and strengthen the construction of cavalry units, so as to sound the charge of attacking the Xiongnu at any time.
In 138 BC, Emperor Wu of Han, who had completed the necessary military assembly, sent Zhang Qian on a mission to the Western Regions for the first time, in addition to wanting to open up the Western Regions, the biggest purpose and focus was still to attack the Xiongnu militarily, that is, by uniting with the Great Moon Clan of the Western Regions, cutting off its right arm, and attacking the Xiongnu back and forth, so that the Xiongnu would be attacked from the belly and back, and the long-distance and close-range attack would be very strong.
In short, after a series of political, economic, military and diplomatic unremitting efforts, by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the conditions for the use of troops against the Xiongnu in all aspects had matured, and only a single order from tianzi was left.
The Battle of Mayi was the product of this series of military deployments, and at the same time sounded the charge of the imperial counterattack, and it was also the first battle launched by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu.
The incident began in 134 BC when the Xiongnu requested the Han Empire's "peace relatives", through which the Han Empire devised an ambush to "lure the enemy deeper".
Anyway, this time the peace and relatives have been adjusted one by one, no longer in order to calm the people's commission to seek perfection, but the Xiongnu people's low-profile "high climbing", to the Han dynasty to release the olive branch of goodwill extended, because before the Han Wu Emperor had announced the abolition of the "peace and pro policy", it is the reason that the waist plate is tough. When he received the Request of the Xiongnu for peace (this time it was the Xiongnu who asked for it rather than the Han took the initiative to send it), Emperor Wu of Han ordered his courtiers to discuss whether this beautiful woman should still be given to the Xiongnu, and for a time it was even more emotional, and there was a lot of discussion, and there was no sending and the lord sending something.
He passionately suggested that Emperor Wu of Han refuse to make peace, because even if he sent more beautiful women, the insatiable Xiongnu still repeatedly betrayed the covenant and constantly disturbed the border, and it was better not to send it; and another minister, Han Anguo (Yushi Dafu), sent a representative as the main representative, his reason was that the Xiongnu were still strong and strong, and the Han did not have enough military strength to eliminate it, in order to avoid both defeats, or first pursue "peace is precious" and continue to send beautiful women to envelop, Many of the courtiers expressed their support for Han Anguo. For some reason, this time, the hard-line Emperor Wudi of Han listened to the opinions of the lord and the faction (whether there was another attempt to paralyze the enemy and was temporarily doubtful), decided to hang up his own tough policy, continue to make peace with the Xiongnu, and send angry beauty.
Sure enough, what happened next had a bit of a "soldier not tired of cheating" situation, which made people doubt the original intention of Emperor Wu of Han in promising peace.
In 133 BC, Nie Yi (said to be a "double agent") of Mayi County, Yanmen County, first tempted the Xiongnu to say that he was willing to do internal response, and let the Xiongnu attack Mayi. Then, through the main war faction, Wang Hui lobbied Emperor Wu of Han to take advantage of the fact that the Xiongnu had just made peace with the Han Dynasty and set up an ambush to attack the Xiongnu, and they could win a surprise victory. Wang Hui was afraid that Emperor Wu of Han would not be able to make up his mind, and he also specially taught him the history of the war, using the examples of the weak and small states of the Warring States period to resist the Strong Hu and the Southern Imperial States to encourage the emperor to fight against the Xiongnu, and by the way, he solved the problem of border troubles once and for all, and actually said that Emperor Wu of Han was also moved, and the ambitious he immediately made meticulous preparations to design an ambush against the Xiongnu and start the Battle of Mayi.
The Battle of Mayi was the first large army campaign launched by Emperor Wu of Han against the Xiongnu, and in fact the official declaration of war against the Xiongnu by the Han Dynasty, and ended the long-term and pro-han policy since Han Gaozu in action, and since then, "during Emperor Wu's long reign, he has carried out such battles 8 times." (Huang Renyu)
The Battle of Mayi was a typical ambush battle. Regarding the military confrontation between the Central Plains army and the northern Xiongnu, according to historical data, in the Warring States period before the Han Dynasty, there were only two victories against the Xiongnu, one was that the famous General Li Mu of the Zhao State lured the enemy into a deep siege and annihilated him; the other was that the famous Qin general Meng Tian, who was later wrongfully killed, led 300,000 Qin troops to attack the Xiongnu in the north, and the rest were mainly defensive. Emperor Wu of Han cloned Li Mu's in-depth plan this time, but unfortunately failed.
The Battle of Mayi was not complicated, it was unfolded like this: in June 133 BC, Emperor Wu of han sent 300,000 elite troops, and the generals Han Anguo and Li Guang, the general of the horse, set up an ambush in the valley near Mayi, and waited for the lured Huns to enter the encirclement of the Han army and annihilate them in one fell swoop.
In order to be foolproof, Emperor Wu of Han also deliberately sent Wang Hui and the general Li Xi (李息) to lead 30,000 troops back to Dai County (in present-day northeastern Wei County, Hebei Province) in order to cut off their rear roads from the side, attack their logistical supply lines, and form a trend of "closing the door and fighting dogs" to eliminate evil (this was also a plan that Wang Hui gave to the emperor).
After laying out the pockets, he just waited for the enemy to be lured into them.
Therefore, the spy Nie Yi "fled" to the Xiongnu to see the military minister Shan Yu in the name of going out to do business. Then, Nie Yi deceived the military ministers with his three inches of incorruptible tongue that he had hundreds of dead soldiers under his command, that he could kill the Mayi County Order, the county servant, and surrender the city, and then the whole city's livestock and gold, silver and treasure would also belong to the Xiongnu, and there were no harsh additional conditions, only requiring the Xiongnu to send a large army to meet them, in case the Han soldiers pursued and suppressed.
There are such good things waiting for the Xiongnu, the military minister Shan Yu has already been overjoyed, the dream of making a fortune has relatively reduced Shan Yu's IQ, and even does not want to use a little brain to think about whether this is a "bureau", the so-called idiom Yun Li Ling Zhi is also, anyway, the military minister Shan Yu heard Nie Yi's words, very happy, immediately agreed to his plan, in addition to personally leading 100,000 troops into Wuzhou Sai (present-day Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province), but also sent emissaries with Nie Yi to infiltrate Mayi first, Shan waited to cut the Mayi County Order, and then marched into the army.
After Nie Yi returned to Mayi, he conspired with the county order to fake the county order and the county beggar by killing the death row prisoners, cut off the head and hung it on the city gate, pretended to be the county order and the head of the county beggar, and then let the Xiongnu emissaries "visit" to make them believe it to be true (anyway, the emissaries did not know the county order), and at the same time urged the Xiongnu to quickly enter the army, do not miss the opportunity, Yunyun.
After receiving the report, the military minister Shan Yu was overjoyed, and the gold and silver treasures and beautiful women were waving at him, so he immediately led the army to march in the direction of Mayi. However, when the Xiongnu army came to a place more than a hundred miles away from the county seat of Mayi County, it was unexpected because of a small matter that changed the direction of the entire campaign.
Because Shan Yu, a military minister who had great combat experience and was also good at observing the war situation, found that although there were cattle and sheep all over the field along the way, leisurely grazing grass, but no one grazed herding, this abnormal situation aroused the suspicion of Shan Yu, a highly vigilant military minister, who was good at seeing and knowing, and he immediately judged that there must be deception in this, and it was estimated that the Han people "Jianbi Qingye" shan waited for us to enter the situation, so he ordered to stop the rapid march, and also sent people to attack a small pavilion on the side and capture the lieutenant history of Han Yanmen County to understand the situation.
Under the threat of severe torture, in order to survive, Han Weishi had to put out all the ambush plans of the Han army. The military subjects were shocked after hearing this, and then turned from worry to joy, surprised that they almost destroyed the whole army because of greed, happy that finally the heavens had eyes, and their fate should not be extinguished, and they were not deceived by Wei Shi knowing the truth, and they were happy to be happy and diligently named Wei Shi of the Han Dynasty as "Heavenly King", and then ordered the immediate withdrawal of the army.
As soon as the Xiongnu withdrew, they declared the bankruptcy of the Han army's combat plan, and at that time, the Somewhat Unwilling Han Army also chased after the border plug, because it could not catch up, it could only withdraw the whole army and return without success. Wang Hui, who wanted to flank the Xiongnu, did not dare to rush out because he thought that the enemy could not defeat the main force of the Xiongnu, and finally slipped back in ashes and found nothing.
The Battle of Mayi thus ended and could not be fought. Of course, even if it fails by chance, the Battle of Mayi has been given multiple historical significances, and it will not be "nothing" in this regard.
Although the Battle of Mayi was due to a small detail (why not pretend to send a few people to see the cattle and sheep?). It is really a hundred secrets, the way of biography has not achieved home) The Han Dynasty did not take advantage of a little, but this does not mean that there is no meaning at all, this is also the first official declaration of war by the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu, no matter what the result, it is the Han Wudi Who took the initiative to fire the first shot against the powerful Xiongnu, thus unveiling the prelude to the magnificent counterattack against the Xiongnu, and its historical significance cannot be underestimated.
On this matter, some historical researchers have further hypothesized that if the Battle of Mayi can be won, the Xiongnu's 100,000 tiger and wolf divisions were surrounded and annihilated by the 300,000 troops of the Han Dynasty, in exchange for twenty years of border peace, slowed down the defense, and no longer used the strength of the whole country to pursue and fight the Xiongnu, so that the Huns had a chance to breathe, then the Xiongnu after recuperating and recovering their vitality were ultimately the biggest threat to the Western Han.
Most importantly, the Battle of Mayi taught the iron-blooded Emperor Wu of Han, who wanted to make a contribution, the most vivid war lesson, which no military theorist could personally grant him. It was the defeat of the Battle of Mayi that made Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty understand that using infantry to passively defend, it was impossible to solve the flexible combat methods and continuous harassment of the Xiongnu cavalry that came without a trace and disappeared, and only changed the means of war and implemented new military changes, that is, to take the initiative to attack with strong Han Dynasty cavalry, go deep into the enemy country and confront them head-on (do not enter the tiger's den to get the tiger), annihilate the enemy's strength on a large scale, and jump out of the old mode of fighting before.
Only in this way can we completely change the situation of passive beatings in the Western Han Dynasty since the founding of the country, create a new method of warfare for the Han Dynasty to "run long distances", and emerge famous iron horsemen such as Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi, who have frightened the Xiongnu people, and after the iron horse glacier has stepped on, it is the nightmare of the Huns who were proud of themselves as cavalry, which fundamentally changed the situation of the war, achieved the "Gaishi martial arts" of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and left the most brilliant legend of the Great Han Dynasty in history, although this also left behind the historical allusions of Li Guang's difficulty and Su Wu's shepherding based on sadness. However, the main theme is always loud and heroic, which makes the world admire.
After the failure of the "Siege of Mayi", Emperor Wu of Han had no choice but to let the main war faction represent Wang Hui as the "scapegoat", Wang Hui was forced to commit suicide to apologize, carrying the "black cauldron", and even begging The Empress Dowager wang to accommodate was useless, there must be one to come out and shoulder the responsibility of this failure, so as to confess to the people, in order to calm public opinion, but Wang Hui aroused the emperor's determination to use troops with his own blood, and from then on the Han Dynasty iron horse stepped onto the territory of the Xiongnu, drinking the blood of Hu Yu, and not fast! This back pot man has done a good job.