God of War through the ages: Han Xin

Chapter 49

Han Xin puts himself in a very high position, or Han Xin has already sealed himself as an omnipotent god in this world, and he is unwilling to return to the world.Han Xin always dealt with Liu Bang and others in the human world with an attitude of looking down, which hurt Liu Bang's self-esteem. Liu Bang stubbornly believed that he was the omnipotent and only god in this world.

Without Han Xin, Liu Bang can't live?Of course Liu Bang didn't think so.Therefore, Liu Bang urgently needs to earn points for himself on the battlefield without Han Xin's participation, to prove that his military ability is not weaker than Han Xin.This is not only an issue of Liu Bang's personal dignity, but a political issue involving whether he can establish the authority of the emperor and prestige the princes.Any problem in the world, as long as it involves politics, is never a small problem.

Liu Bang's prestige is very high, but it is mainly limited to politics, and his military prestige is far inferior to Han Xin. If Liu Bang wants the world to forget Han Xin in the shortest time, he has to open up new battlefields and continue to win.If the world is still immersed in the infinite worship or panic of Han Xin's military genius, it will not be conducive to Liu Bang's god-making movement for himself.

Where to open up a new battlefield?The answer is the Huns in the north.

Since the Warring States Period, the increasingly powerful Xiongnu has become a lingering shadow in the hearts of the people of the Central Plains. Because the social productivity of the Mongolian plateau where the Xiongnu lived was low and there was a shortage of supplies, the Xiongnu often went south to commit crimes in order to survive.The three kingdoms of Yan, Zhao, and Qin who bordered the southern line of the Huns had to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build the Great Wall and put up fortifications to prevent the Huns from invading the south.

Among the Three Kingdoms, the Zhao State suffered the most pressure from the Huns’ southern crimes. Fortunately, the Zhao State produced an incomparable monarch Zhao Yong (that is, the Wuling King of Hufu riding and shooting) and the famous general Li Mu, which effectively prevented the Huns from going south. .After Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, taking advantage of the momentum of sweeping thousands of troops, General Meng Tian oversaw [-] troops and marched northward to defeat the Xiongnu and regain Hetao.

At that time, the Xiongnu did not form a unified trend in the north. There was the Donghu in the east and the Yuezhi in the west. Coupled with the strong advance of the Qin army to the north, the Xiongnu carried out a strategic contraction.Touman, the Hun, went north to avoid the Qin Dynasty. Until the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, he had no time to look north. The Xiongnu forces went south again, trying to intervene in the civil war in the Central Plains.

Before Touman could do something, he was caught in a political vortex in which his concubine seized power, and died as a result.At first, Touman appointed his eldest son, Modun, as his successor, but later Touman married his second wife and gave birth to his youngest son.In order to get rid of Maodun's entanglement, Touman sent Maodun to Yuezhi as a hostage, trying to kill someone with a knife, but unexpectedly, Maodun escaped privately.Touman discovered some conscience and asked Modu to stay in charge of the army. Unexpectedly, he was set up by Modu. On the way to hunt, he was shot dead by Maodu's random arrows. .

Mao Dun is a rare hero in the history of the Huns. His coming to power means that the Huns will usher in another spring.The most important thing that Maodun did after he seized the throne was to show weakness to his powerful neighbor Donghu in the east, and even gave his beloved woman to the Donghu people in order to achieve the goal of being humble and proud.The Donghu people believed that Mao Dun was a timid coward, but they didn't expect that Mao Dun's angry knife point was about to stab their chests.

Mao Dun successfully paralyzed the Donghu people, and led the angry Huns to kill them eastward. The Donghu people hardly made any decent resistance and were wiped out by the Huns.Mao Dun was already red-eyed, eating Donghu did not relieve his hunger, and then pointed the tip of the knife at the Yuezhi, Loufan and other tribes, and the result was self-evident.

When Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were fighting hard in the Central Plains, Maodun had quietly annexed the desert grassland. At this time, the Huns were powerful, with more than 30 string-controlling soldiers, countless horses and cattle, and they were constantly harassing The Yan and Dai regions became a major disaster in the Central Plains.

Liu Bang paid attention to the movements of the Xiongnu very early, but at that time Chu and Han were still brutally stalemate, and Liu Bang could not be distracted for the time being.After killing Xiang Yu, Liu Bang began to set his sights on the distant northern desert.At this time, Liu Bang should not have made the military and psychological preparations for the war with the Huns. The most important thing for Liu Bang at this stage is to defend the border. Don't let the Huns break through the northern line, and give Liu Bang enough preparation time.

As for who to send to defend the Huns on the northern front, Liu Bang thought of Han Xin, of course not the Huaiyin Marquis Han Xin who was full of complaints all day long, but another Han Wang Han Xin (that is, Han Wangxin).

Although the credit is not as good as that of Han Xin in Huaiyin, Han Wangxin also made great efforts in the war against Han and Chu, so Liu Bang had long decided to make him King Han and enjoy the same treatment as King Han Xin of Qi.However, from the perspective of Liu Bang's interests, Han Wangxin is not his direct line after all, and he is a king with a different surname, so it is difficult for Liu Bang to rest assured.

What's more terrible is that the area ruled by Han Wangxin is located in the hinterland of Henan, with Luoyang in the north, Wanye in the south, Guanzhong in the west, and Pengcheng in the east.Once Han Wangxin rebelled and Han Bing moved westward, Chang'an and Luoyang had little danger to defend. Han Wangxin was decisive and good at martial arts.

Moving Han Wangxin to Daibei has two advantages: first, Han Wangxin has outstanding capabilities and can effectively defend against the Huns; second, it reduces the military threats faced by Chang'an and Luoyang.Han Wangxin's northward move was actually a move by Liu Bang to eradicate the threat of a king with a different surname, but the process was relatively milder than the method of fraudulently capturing Han Xin.The capital of Han Wangxin changed from Yingchuan to Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi), and he governed 31 counties in Taiyuan County. Hedong has been an important town in the world since ancient times.

Han Wangxin did not express dissatisfaction with his move to the north, but only expressed the hope that Liu Bang would agree to move the capital of South Korea from Jinyang to Mayi (now Shuo County, Shanxi). The reason was that Jinyang was too far away from the Han-Hungarian border. Once there are police in the north, it will be difficult to send troops to rescue in time.What Han Wangxin said made sense, and Liu Bang had no reason to object, so he agreed to Han Wangxin's request to move the capital to Mayi.

The Heshuo area centered on Mayi was the main attack point for the Huns to invade the Central Plains. Li Mu, a famous general of Zhao State, was in Yanmen before Mayi.However, generals of Han Wangxin's level did not have a strong deterrent effect on the mighty Xiongnu Maodun Shanyu.

In the autumn and September of the sixth year of the Han Dynasty (201 B.C.), the cavalry of the Xiongnu brigade left the grassland and rushed towards Mayi like a storm.The Xiongnu army was dominated by cavalry, and they marched very fast. Before Han Wangxin understood, the Xiongnu cavalry had already surrounded Mayi City.

With the strength of Han Wangxin, he has no power to stop the attack of the Huns. The only thing he can do is to ask for peace.Of course, the free lunch of the Huns is not free. Han Wangxin must have paid a certain price in the negotiations with the Huns.

It is a big taboo to negotiate with the enemy in private without the consent of the supreme leader. Liu Bang really suspected that Han Wangxin wanted to step on two boats, which Liu Bang absolutely could not allow.However, the method Liu Bang adopted was to intensify the conflict. He sent envoys to Mayi to warn Han Wangxin not to communicate with the Huns in private.

Han Wangxin's reaction to Liu Bang was very frightening. Today Liu Bang scolded him, and tomorrow Liu Bang would dare to kill him. Just look at the fate of Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, to know Liu Bang's attitude towards kings with different surnames.Han Wangxin and Liu Bang were not old friends. Maybe he smelled something strange, so he surrendered to the Huns cruelly, and invited the Huns to send troops south to take Taiyuan together.

When Liu Bang heard the news, his weather-beaten old face was almost distorted. Taiyuan was an important military town in the Central Plains to defend against the Huns. Once Taiyuan was lost, the Huns cavalry might rush to the north bank of the Yellow River at any time.Moreover, according to reliable information, Han Wangxin's army actually appeared in Tongda (now south of Qin County, Shanxi), more than 400 miles south of Jinyang.

Liu Bang's rebellion against Han Wangxin was not only shocking, but also secretly delighted. At least Han Wangxin's behavior gave Liu Bang a reasonable and legal excuse to eradicate the king with a different surname-to suppress the rebellion.The current situation is very favorable to Liu Bang. Huaiyin Han Xin, who is the most military threat, has been placed under house arrest by Liu Bang. The military capabilities and strength of other kings with different surnames are not as good as Liu Bang. Liu Bang is very confident in dealing with this group of people.

In October of the seventh year of the Han Dynasty (200 BC), Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty led his elite troops to leave Guanzhong, cross the Yellow River via Puban, and go straight to Tongda.The main force of the Han army was exhausted, with generals Guan Ying, Li Shang, and Jin She all accompanying the army, and Han Wangxin's army was no match for them at all.The Han army quickly beat Han Wangxin's army to pieces in Tongda, beheading his general Wang Xi.Judging from the fact that Han Wangxin fled to the Xiongnu after his defeat, it should be his main force that was defeated in Tongda, otherwise, how could Han Wangxin escape in one battle.

Liu Bang's initial strategic goal has been achieved, but then he will continue to fight against the Huns to ensure that Taiyuan County will not fall into the hands of the Huns, otherwise the situation will be over, and the Huns have joined forces with Han Wangxin and Zhao Li, a descendant of the private Zhao Kingdom, as Zhao The king's Wang Huang, Man Qiuchen and other forces wandered back and forth near Jinyang.

Liu Bang has long longed for the day when he will fight the Huns to prove that without Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, Liu Bang can still achieve something in the military field.The Han army saved face for the emperor and defeated more than [-] Huns cavalry under the city of Jinyang, but Liu Bang had a terrible illusion that he believed that the Huns were vulnerable.

The Xiongnu Shanyu Maodun saw Liu Bang's eagerness to get rid of Han Xin's shadow, so he dug a big hole for Liu Bang, hid the elite of the Huns, and used some old and weak soldiers to lure Liu Bang, and Liu Bang really bit the hook.It was severe winter, and the cold wind was like a knife. Liu Bang still ordered all the ministries to go northward quickly to solve the northern border problems in World War I.

More than 30 infantry soldiers of the Han army endured the damage to the human body caused by extreme weather, and were lured by the bait soldiers of the Huns to Baideng Mountain in Pingcheng (now the outskirts of Datong, Shanxi).Liu Bang was still imagining that he could take this battle to slap Han Xin hard, but in reality he slapped Liu Bang hard, because he had seen 40 Hun cavalry speaking nonsense, wielding sabers, and slapping Bai Deng together. surrounded.

The trick of the Xiongnu to hide their strength and show their weakness has long been seen through by the counselor Liu Jing, but Liu Bang is already so enthusiastic that he can't listen to it at all. Now it is too late to regret it.Hu riding everywhere, Hu talking loudly, Liu Bang's face was as ugly as it was, and he even began to predict his own fate pessimistically.

Since the Han army was marching in a hurry, the food that the Han army carried with them was quickly eaten up. Looking at the endless Huns outside the city, Liu Bang wanted to cry but had no tears.For seven whole days, more than 30 Han soldiers listened to the approaching footsteps of the god of death in pain and hunger.

Fortunately, Liu Bang was accompanied by a genius counselor, Chen Ping, who gave Liu Bang a famous beauty trick, asking the artist to draw a picture of a beauty and presenting it to Mao Dun, but deliberately handed over the picture of the beauty to the Yan family (that is, the queen) of Mao Dun. ), said that as long as the Xiongnu army retreated, the Han Dynasty would give this beautiful woman to Modun.Chen Ping knew that a woman of Yan's status was most jealous of having a "little wife" around her husband, so Yan's readily agreed to the Han envoy's request.

Mrs. Yan was blowing the wind beside Maodun's pillow, saying that the Hu people were not used to the customs of the Central Plains, and they would not be able to keep it if they got the Central Plains. Moreover, the emperor of the Han Dynasty was a heroic man, and he was not easy to get. It is better to give him a favor.What Mao Dun was worried about was not Liu Bang's so-called "God", but that Wang Huang and other troops of the Xiongnu allied forces did not arrive at the battle site on time.Out of this consideration, Mao Dun decided to take a step back temporarily, let the army flash a small path, and let Liu Bang pass.

Liu Bang fled from the foot of Baideng Mountain in a very embarrassing situation in the dense fog, and returned to Pingcheng sighing. Mao Dun's slap made Liu Bang's eyes glow with gold, which was very embarrassing.Liu Bang could imagine how Han Xin would laugh wildly when he heard the news about the siege of Baideng.

Liu Bang recovered his old life, but the huge military threat posed by the Xiongnu to Han Wangxin to the Central Plains has not been weakened in the slightest.Han Wangxin was willing to be Maodun's pawn and led his army to harass the Hungarian-Han border. Liu Bang was so angry that he called Han Wangxin a white-eyed wolf.In Liu Bang's view, none of the two Han Xins was good, and they made trouble for him all day long.

Through this inexplicable siege of Baideng, Liu Bang finally recognized the true strength of the Huns. If Mouton launched an offensive decisively, 40 cavalry against 30 infantry, the result can be imagined.The gap between the field capabilities of the two sides was too great, and Liu Bang didn't dare to push it any further. Instead, he followed Liu Jing's suggestion to avoid wars with the Huns as much as possible and focus on internal affairs.

Liu Bang's so-called internal affairs are actually the question of how to eradicate the threat to the court of kings with different surnames.Although Han Xin's problem has been basically solved, and Han Xin is almost useless under Liu Bang's strict monitoring, the existence of other kings with different surnames still makes Liu Bang sleepless and must be removed.

Liu Bang insisted that a king with a different surname is not the same as a king with the same surname. No matter how good his personal relationship is, he would not believe it. After all, the king with the same surname came from the same line of blood.After Han Wangxin's defection, Liu Bangli's elder brother Liu Zhong became the acting king, gradually encroaching on the territories of kings with different surnames.

Liu Bang's next target is his son-in-law, King Zhao Zhang Ao. Zhang Ao is the son of Liu Bang's good friend Zhang Er, who inherited his father's throne and married Liu Bang's daughter Lu Yuan, but Liu Bang still can't trust him.In December of the seventh year of the Han Dynasty (200 BC), when Liu Bang returned to Guanzhong from the south of Pingcheng, he passed by Zhao Guo specifically to find Zhang Ao's trouble.The father-in-law crossed the border, Zhang Ao naturally ate, drank and entertained, and treated Liu Bang like a slave, but Liu Bang still scolded Zhang Ao with excuses, almost crying.

Liu Bang wanted to force Zhang Ao to jump over the wall in a hurry, so Liu Bang seized the handle and took the opportunity to abolish Zhang Ao.Zhao Guosheren Guangao, Zhao Yu and others couldn't stand Liu Bang's rogue behavior, and advised Zhang Ao to launch a mutiny to get rid of this old rogue.Zhang Ao still has a conscience, he knows that his father Zhang Er can be the king of Zhao, all thanks to Liu Bang's strength alone, he must not forget his roots.Zhang Ao rejected their very dangerous request, but Guan Gao was still preparing to assassinate Liu Bang in private. Fortunately, Liu Bang seemed to have sensed a trace of uneasiness and left early.

Liu Bang soon got this top-secret plan from Guan Gao's enemy. Liu Bang was shocked and ecstatic, and eradicated Zhang Ao just today.In December of the ninth year of the Han Dynasty (before 198), Liu Bang took pains to arrest Zhao Wang Zhang Ao and all the people involved in the case, and tortured them severely.Although Guan Gao was loyal to Zhang Ao and would never lead the disaster to Zhang Ao, Liu Bang still took advantage of this matter to grab Zhang Ao and beat him to death.

Lu Pheasant wanted to say something nice for his son-in-law, saying that Zhang Ao would not rebel because our daughter was watching over him, but Liu Bang scolded sharply: "You know what! If Zhang Ao succeeds in rebelling, according to the world, does he still lack beauties? Then your daughter will be nothing in his eyes!"

Liu Bang is not a fool, Guan Gao's loyalty to Zhang Ao is enough to prove Zhang Ao's loyalty to him, Liu Bang is just making use of it.Although Liu Bang did not kill Zhang Ao, he abolished Zhang Ao's prince, changed his title to Xuanpinghou, and changed his beloved youngest son Liu Ruyi as King Zhao.Because Liu Ruyi was too young to be in charge of the government, and to prevent Lu Zhi from murdering him, Liu Bang chose Zhou Chang, the imperial historian, as Zhao Guoxiang.

Sima Guang from the Song Dynasty said that Guan Gao's behavior was the main reason for Zhang Ao's dismissal. In fact, whether Guan Gao appeared or not, Liu Bang would take Zhang Ao down.On the issue of kings with different surnames, no matter what tricks Liu Bang pulls out, the final result must be that the kings with the same surname succeed the kings with different surnames.Liu Bang is a very cunning man. Instead of killing Guan Gao, he called Guan Gao a righteous man and reused his loyal subjects. He just wanted to use Guan Gao to cover up his secret manipulation on the issue of kings with different surnames, and use this to show his old face Top with powdered cream.

The threat of kings with different surnames to the court is a historical problem that Qin Shihuang has initially resolved, but because of the resurgence of wars, it is understandable for Liu Bang to attack kings with different surnames out of family considerations, but the methods are too harsh.The founding emperors of the past dynasties lifted the military power of meritorious officials with different surnames. There were only differences in means, not results.

The reason why Liu Xiu in the Eastern Han Dynasty and Zhao Kuangyin in the Northern Song Dynasty were able to solve this problem peacefully was that they themselves had made great achievements in the process of conquering the world, and the prestige of the generals was not as good as that of the emperor.And Liu Bang's military ability is a recognized shortcoming, especially the appearance of Han Xin, which is the most important factor for Liu Bang to defeat Xiang Yu, and Peng Yue and Han Wangxin are all meritorious.Therefore, Liu Bang rarely used military means, but used political means to kidnap and deceive.Now Han Xin was deceived by Liu Bang and went bankrupt, and Zhang Ao was almost killed by his old father-in-law.

(End of this chapter)