A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 219 The Han-Hungarian War
May
After the prisoners were delivered to Longxi County and handed over to the officials in the rear, General Hussar's troops only rested for half a month. Then under Huo Qubing's order, they quietly left the border and went all the way to the tribe of Yi Zhixie's son, the Xiongnu Chan Yu. If it weren't for his son's fast running, he would have been almost captured alive.

In this battle, Huo Qubing no longer asked for prisoners, in order to break the backbone of the Huns in one battle, so he ordered the troops to discard all the trophies and only take dry food that was easy to carry. When he returned to Chang'an, he personally asked for rewards for the soldiers. , you will get whatever you want.

That night, he led his troops and galloped across Yanzhi Mountain. They fought for six days and marched more than a thousand miles. Finally, they captured the marching troops of King Zhelan, King Luhou and King Xiutu at the foot of Gaolan Mountain.

The Xiongnu army, which did not expect the Han army to be here, was directly charged into the formation by the Han army. With just one charge, the Hussar generals annihilated their elite troops and severely damaged them. The Huns soldiers could not find the general, so they found the general. If there are no troops, they will be defeated immediately.

In the end, King Zhelan was beheaded by General Huo Qubing. King Luhou tried to run away, but General Bahu shot him off his horse with a white arrow and died. In addition, Prince Hunxie, Prime Minister, and Captain were all captured. Only King Xiutu escaped with his bloody horse.

In this battle, the Han army beheaded a total of 8,960 people, and captured King Xiutu's golden men who offered sacrifices to heaven, while only losing dozens of themselves.

After returning to Longxi and reporting the battle report, the Han Emperor granted the champion a title of 2,200 households in Shiyi.

summer
Huo Qubing wrote to the Han Emperor, saying that he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Huns did not react and his own losses were not great, so he could attack the Huns again. The Han Emperor agreed to his plan.

Then the Han Emperor used Huo Qubing to take last year's tribe out of Longxi again. Gongsun Ao, the governor of Beidi County, left from Beidi County and set off in two directions.

Later, Gongsun Ao was late because he was lost and failed to meet Huo Qubing.

After waiting for three days and still not receiving Gongsun Ao's troops, Huo Qubing decided to go deep alone.

They waded all the way to the lake south of Junji Mountain, crossed Juyanhai, passed Xiaoyuezhi, and reached the Qilian Mountains. After resting for a while, they rushed directly to the unprepared Shanhuan Kingdom, a subsidiary of the Xiongnu Kingdom, and captured King Shanhuan. Later, he ordered to continue the advance.

Then he continuously defeated the Xiongnu tribe and captured King Tu Tu. After a series of battles, Huo Qubing successfully returned to Longxi County with his soldiers and prisoners of war.

In this battle, in addition to the captured King Shan Huan and King Tu Tu, 2,500 surrenderers below the rank of Prime Minister and Captain of Shan Huan were surrendered. A total of 32,000 heads of the Xiongnu army were beheaded, and five Xiongnu soldiers were captured alive. The king, the five queen mothers, fifty-nine members of the Xiongnu clan and princes, sixty-three ministers, generals, principals, and captains, but they themselves also lost four-tenths.

After receiving the good news, the Han Emperor ordered to confer the title of 5,400 households in Huo Qubing's food town, and all the school captains who followed Huo Qubing to Xiaoyueshi were given the title of Zuo Shu Zhang.

His subordinates Bai Chi, Zhao Ponu, Gao Bushi and Pu Peng were all granted the title of Marquis of Guannei, Luqiu and Yuanting Marquis, with 500 households living in the city.

After this battle, in the entire Hexi region, the only forces left in the Xiongnu Kingdom were King Xiutu and King Hunxie.

Under Huo Qubing's repeated blows, these two kings had already felt deep fear of Huo Qubing's name. It happened that Yi Zhixie was angry at King Hunxie's repeated defeats and wanted to summon him to Shan Yu's court to execute him. kill.

King Hunxie knew that he had a narrow escape from Shan Yuting, so he immediately joined forces with King Xiutu and others to plan the surrender to the Han Dynasty. King Xiutu was unwilling, so King Hunxie directly led people to kill him, annexed his tribe, and sent an envoy to inform him. Hanting.

After receiving the news, the Han Emperor worried that this was a false surrender, so in the autumn he ordered Huo Qubing to lead an army to meet King Hunxie and others.

When the Han army crossed the Yellow River and arrived near the camp of King Hunxie, some of the soldiers under King Hunxie were unwilling to surrender and plotted to escape. At this critical moment, Huo Qubing led his troops into the Xiongnu army and met King Hunxie.

He was told not to move without permission. Awed by Huo Qubing's reputation, King Hunxie and his men who wanted to surrender did not dare to move. Huo Qubing led his elite cavalry and rushed straight into the rebel formation, killing eight people who were trying to escape. Thousands of people surrendered to thirty-two foreign kings.

Later, Huo Qubing first sent King Hunxie to Chang'an alone, and then led more than 40,000 of his troops to return to the Han Dynasty.

After this battle, the Han Dynasty directly occupied the Hexi area, and there were almost no Xiongnu incursions on the northwest border of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the Han Emperor ordered to reduce the number of garrison troops in Longxi, Beidi, and Shangjun by half.

Later, four counties were set up in the Hexi area, and pavilions and barriers were set up, which became the outposts of the Han army's march into the Western Regions. As a result, the power of the Xiongnu was greatly weakened. Not only that, the Xiongnu relied on supplies from the Western Regions, but they were also blocked by the Han army.

Han three years

After suffering continuous attacks from the Han court and his tribe (King Hunxie), Yizhixie Shanyu became angry and sent his generals to send tens of thousands of troops each to attack Youbeiping and Dingxiang counties in separate routes.

But no achievements were made.

Han Dynasty four years

The Han Emperor used 140,000 horses and 500,000 infantry as a supply force, and ordered General Wei Qing and General Huo Qubing to each lead 50,000 cavalry, and more than 100,000 infantry and transport troops, divided into two groups. Expedition across the desert to jointly attack the Huns.

The Han army originally planned to have Huo Qubing march out of Dingxiang to attack. Later, he learned from the captured Huns that Yi Zhixie was in the east, so Huo Qubing changed his plan to march out of Daijun in the east, while Wei Qing marched out of Dingxiang in the west.

Yi Zhixie, on the other hand, followed the strategy of his second king, Zhao Xin, and placed elite troops in Mobei, preparing to wait for work. So when Wei Qing's army went out for more than a thousand miles, it met the main force of the Huns in Yi Zhixie. Taking advantage of the situation, the two sides began the second direct battle between Han and Huns in the wild.

Wei Qing ordered former general Li Guang and right general Zhao Shiqi to merge their armies and outflank them from the right. He led the left general Gongsun He and the rear general Bai Li to confront Shanyu's main force head-on.

Wei Qing ordered the Wugang chariots that had been prepared long ago to line up in a circular camp, and ordered five thousand cavalry to gallop to resist the Huns. The Huns also came galloping with about 10,000 cavalry.

It happened that the sun was about to set, a strong wind blew, and the sand and rocks blocked the sky. The two armies could not see each other. However, the left and right wings of the Han army did not stop and rushed forward, intending to outflank Shan Yu's troops.

Yi Zhixie saw that the Han army was massive, with strong warriors and horses. If they fought, he might not be able to win. Therefore, in the evening, when the two sides were engaged in a night battle with torches, they rode in a cart pulled by six mules and, together with hundreds of strong bodyguard cavalry, broke through the encirclement of the Han army and galloped northwest.

The Han army continued to fight with the Huns, killing an equal number of people on both sides. The Han army's Zuo Xiaowei captured the Xiongnu prisoners and said that Yi Zhixie had already left before dark, so Wei Qing sent out Qingqi to pursue him all night, and he led the main force to follow him.

After losing their command, the Huns also fled in all directions.

By daybreak, the Han army had traveled more than 200 miles, but still did not catch up with Yizhixie. However, they arrived at Zhao Xin City in the Taoyan Mountain and obtained the grain stored by the Xiongnu for the army.

The Han army stayed in Zhao Xincheng for a day and burned all the remaining food in the city before returning.

In this battle, Wei Qing's troops killed and captured more than 19,000 people. When the army returned to the camp, they encountered Li Guang and Zhao Shiqi, who had lost their way and were coming to support them.

Huo Qubing's 50,000 cavalrymen galloped all the way, with Cavalry General Bai Chi and others as the vanguard. They left Dai County and Youbeiping County, marched north for more than 2,000 miles, crossed Lihou Mountain, crossed the Gonglu River, and faced the enemy directly. Defeated the Xiongnu Zuoxian King's tribe.

Three people including the Xiongnu Tuntou King and the King of Han were captured, as well as 83 people including generals, prime ministers, danghu, and captains.

Then he left behind the spoils of war and advanced all the way to victory, chasing the remnants of the Xiongnu to Langjuxu Mountain. Here he held a ceremony to offer sacrifices to the heavens on behalf of the Han Emperor, and erected a stone tablet: "The champion of the Hussars of the Han Dynasty, Hou Huo Qubing, offered sacrifices to the gods here. present."

Afterwards, a Zen ceremony was held at Guyan Mountain, and the troops were pushed all the way to Beihai. Finally, when the dry food they carried with them could no longer support them, they ordered to return to the army.

In this battle, Huo Qubing's troops beheaded a total of 74,443 Huns, but three-tenths of their own soldiers were also damaged.

After this battle, the Xiongnu forces in Monan were wiped out by the Han army, and the Xiongnu Chanyu Yizhixie fled to Mobei, where he reestablished the Shanyu Royal Court. At this point, the Xiongnu fled far away, and There was no royal court in Monan, and the Xiongnu power declined greatly.

The Huns gradually moved northwest, and within more than ten years they were no longer able to move south. The Han army occupied a large area of ​​land from the west of Shuofang to Zhangye and Juyan, ensuring the security of the Hexi region.

However, the Han army also suffered heavy losses. Only 30,000 of the 140,000 horses that went out for the expedition returned. The Han army lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. The cost of land and water transportation of weapons and armor and other items was not included. Prime Minister Zhang Tang It was found that even all the money in the treasury and tax revenue were still not enough to pay for the soldiers.

He then submitted a letter requesting the establishment of a martial arts lord to raise military expenses.

Immediately afterwards, the Wuhuan people completely surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and the Xianbei people directly broke away from the control of the Huns. When the countries in the Western Regions heard that the Huns were beaten and fled to Mobei, they also sent envoys to get in touch with the Han Dynasty.

After returning to the court in triumph, Wei Qing did not receive another reward for adding a new settlement because his settlement had already reached 16,700 households. However, his officers and men, except for Chang Hui, the governor of Xihe, and Suicheng, the governor of Yunzhong, protected him. Except Bai Ze, the Wuhuan captain, none of them received the reward of becoming a marquis.

The difference was that Huo Qubing's subordinates were granted the title of 5,800 additional households by the Han Emperor. The generals under him also received a large number of rewards. Lu Bode, the governor of Beiping, who accompanied him on the expedition, Xingshan, the captain of Beidi, Fuluzhi and Yijiquan were all awarded the title of marquis respectively. Pioneer Baichi was awarded the title of marquis in one fell swoop. He was granted the title of Marquis of Wu and was granted the title of a thousand households.

At the same time, Emperor Wu set up the position of Grand Sima, with General Wei Qing and Hussar General Huo Qubing as the Grand Sima. Huo Qubing became the Grand Sima Hussar General, and issued a decree to make the salary of the Hussar General equal to that of the Great General.

In addition, because Bai Ze was born in the line of Xiuwu Marquis, in addition to the title of Marquis of 10,000 households of Marquis Xiuwu and the title of Marquis of 1,000 households of Shanyang Marquis, the line of Xiuwu Marquis also has the title of 1,000 households of Marquis Chengwu. It is a sect with three nobles.

Han six years

Because the Xiongnu Chan Yu Yi Zhixie repeatedly refused to surrender to the Han and also detained the Han envoy Ren Chang, the Han Emperor prepared to mobilize for war again, determined to use this battle to annihilate the main force of the Chan Yu.

However, during the preparation process, perhaps due to the fatigue of leading troops on many expeditions and being in the harsh environment of Mobei for a long time, Huo Qubing died of illness early at the age of twenty-four. As a result, the Han Emperor was forced to temporarily stop fighting against the Xiongnu.

After receiving the news of Huo Qubing's death, the Han Emperor was very sad and ordered that he be buried with him in the Maoling Mausoleum built for him, and personally gave him the posthumous title "Jinghuan".

Not only that, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty also specially dispatched the armored troops from the five counties in Hexi and ordered them to line up in formation along Chang'an to Huo Qubing's tomb in the east of Maoling. He also ordered that Huo Qubing's tomb be built to look like the Qilian Mountains to show his ability to conquer the Xiongnu. achievement.

(End of this chapter)