My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 466: General!

What is the highest military achievement for Chinese generals?
People in later generations may say, "Fenglangjuxu, drink from the vast sea!"

Hundreds of years ago, the heroes of the Zhou Dynasty would say, expand the territory and win every battle!

But this issue is surprisingly consistent in the Han Dynasty today - or to be more precise, on the grassland today.

The highest achievement, or the highest "treatment" that a Han general can receive among the nomadic peoples of the grasslands is to have a statue made for him and worshiped by them.

The reason for this is, of course, the Huns' enthusiasm for primitive shamanism, which advocates the idea that everything in the world can become a god.

Therefore, anything that the Huns could not defeat, whether it was a person or an object, would be deified.

As small as a stone or a tree;
As big as the Xiongnu Khan or the Han generals.

Anything that can render the Huns helpless or even hurt them will be deified in the value system of the grassland nomads.

According to this set of values, it is as if in the eyes of the Huns, they are the only "human" in the world.

The main idea is that everyone below me is an ant, and everyone above me is a god.

Liu Rong has always believed that the ideological value system of the Chinese people in later generations is quite similar to the primitive shamanism of the Xiongnu more than 2,000 years ago.

——Gou Ba is asking for a beating!
If you speak to him in a nice way, he will think you are afraid of him, and then he will want more and take advantage of you.

If you give him a couple of slaps in the face for no reason, he will think: Well, you dare to hit me and it hurts, you must be a god.

So, you become his kind father.

Under this set of ideological value system, the most direct and intuitive way for the Xiongnu to deify a Han army general was to make a clay statue of him and worship it in the morning and evening.

They would think that this god was sent down to the Han family and would temporarily serve as a general for the Han people. Sooner or later, he would return to the living gods in heaven and would surely be moved by their piety.

If I am lucky enough, I will be blessed by this living God in this life.

Even if one is unlucky and fails to receive the blessing of this living god in this life, at least one can create good karma for oneself in the next life.

It would be best if I could not be reborn on the grassland in my next life, but go to the warm Central Plains and become a Han Chinese with plenty of food and clothing.

At the very least, don't be reborn as a low-level herdsman or even a herdsman slave...

Throughout history, many Han generals have been worshipped in this special way by nomadic peoples.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, the prefect Wei Shang was stationed in Yunzhong for more than 20 years, always ensuring that the gates and walls of Yunzhong were intact;

For example, in history, there was the Flying General Li Guang who served in the border commandery during the reigns of Emperor Jing and Emperor Wu, and beat the Huns so hard that the vassal state Gongsun Kunxie shouted, "Hurry up and make him give up his magical powers."

Of course, there are also the two pillars of the empire that are rare in a thousand years: Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.

However, few people know that Zhidu, a fly in the original historical timeline, also made clay statues for the Huns to worship in the morning and evening.

It can be said that in the first half of the Western Han Dynasty in history, the most valuable and convincing basis for judging whether a military general was worthy of his reputation and had real ability was to see whether the Huns had built a statue for him.

If so, then no matter how this person was slandered by Sima Qian, he was indeed something - and more than just 'something'.

On the contrary, a Han general, even if he was praised to the skies by Sima Qian, and had outstanding achievements and was both wise and brave, was a useless person as long as he was not made a statue by the Huns.

At the very least, it can also prove that this "famous general" mentioned by Sima Qian never hurt the Huns.

You have to know that nomadic people have always been straightforward.

As long as you hurt him, he will build the statue if he says so and recognize him as his father if he says so, without any ambiguity!

Skills such as changing one's stance according to the situation and being a wise man who knows the times have long been maxed out by the nomadic peoples of the grasslands.

You couldn't even get such a group of people to make a statue for you?

Do you still have the nerve to say that you are a Han general?
As for Zhidu, there are not many traces left in history books, probably because of his political stain of "forcing Crown Prince Rong to be killed" and his tragic ending of being executed by Empress Dowager Dou.

But even so, even though Sima Qian tried his best to revise the Spring and Autumn Annals, he still had to leave behind such a description.

——After the death of Crown Prince Rong, Emperor Xiaojing appointed Zhidu as the governor of Yanmen to guard the border in order to protect him;
In the following years, Zhidu led his army to resist the invasion of the Huns and was praised by the Huns as a victorious general and a claw and tooth of the country!

The Huns carved the shape of Zhidu out of wood and set it up as a target. The soldiers rode their horses and drew their bows, but the soldiers were afraid of Zhidu and no one dared to hit the wooden target in the shape of Zhidu.

Therefore, until the loss of Zhidu, the Xiongnu army never approached Yanmen again...

The amount of information that can be extracted from the description of just a few sentences is enormous.

First of all, the most important and also the most astonishing point is that the victorious general and the country's lackey were not boasted by the Han family, or praised by the emperor Jingdi Liu Qi for his face;

Rather, it is the "official certified" user evaluation after the Huns experienced it themselves!

Secondly, from the scale and frequency of the Xiongnu’s activities on the Han border during the reign of Emperor Xiaojing, it is not difficult to find that during the reign of Emperor Xiaojing, the Han border was not very peaceful.

Although the Xiongnu never really interfered in the internal unrest of the Han Dynasty before and after the Wu-Chu Rebellion, the frequency and scale of the Xiongnu's "activities" on the northern border of the Han Dynasty increased day by day, both before and after the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled.

Especially after the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled, the Xiongnu seemed to be upset because they missed the opportunity and did not intervene in the Wu-Chu Rebellion;
Therefore, for many years in a row, they carried out high-frequency and high-intensity invasions on the northern border of Han as a way of venting their anger.

This situation continued until the third year of the Houyuan period of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, which was 141 BC.

However, it did not mean that the Huns stopped harassing the Han Dynasty in this year.

Rather, the Xiongnu's invasion of the Han Dynasty reached its peak in this year, and eventually led to a national-level humiliating event that was no less than the Siege of Baideng for Emperor Taizu, the humiliation of Empress Dowager Lu by receiving a letter from the emperor, and the Xiongnu vanguard burning the imperial palace in the 14th year of Emperor Taizong's reign.

——In the third year of the Houyuan period of Emperor Jingdi of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Qi was seriously ill and on his deathbed, so he asked Crown Prince Liu Che to be crowned in advance to prepare for the upcoming handover of power.

Upon receiving the news, Xiongnu Chanyu Luandi's military officials immediately issued an order: mobilize all the capable troops in Munan, Hexi, and Hetao, and each of them will attack the nearest Han border passes and launch a full-scale invasion of the Han territory!
At that time, after the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled, the Han Dynasty had formulated a series of policies to weaken the clan princes, and all of them had reached a critical moment of cutting the flesh.

To ensure that everything would go smoothly, Emperor Jingdi Liu Qi transferred a considerable portion of the border defense forces on the northern wall to garrison in Guandong to prevent any changes in Guandong.

The border defenses were weak, and the Huns took advantage of the emperor's death and the people's panic to come out in full force, so the border defense line naturally collapsed at the first touch.

In just a dozen days, war broke out along the Han-Xiongnu border, and most of the border passes, fortresses and important military towns were breached!

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in border counties were plunged into dire straits.

This year is generally recognized by later historians as the most bitter and difficult year in the 400-year history of the four counties in the northern border of the Han Dynasty.

During this year, the four northern counties of Han were plundered by the Xiongnu for several months.

The number of soldiers and civilians killed, wounded, or abducted in the four counties reached more than 100,000, accounting for at least 40% of the total population of the four counties! Dingnang, Yanmen, Dai, and Shang counties were severely damaged, and they finally recovered after receiving immigrants from inland areas for decades.

What's even more terrible is that: just like in the 14th year of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's reign, the Xiongnu vanguard set foot in Guanzhong and set fire to the imperial palace;
This time, another Han palace was set on fire by the Xiongnu vanguard.

And this time, the fire was closer to Chang'an.

——It was no longer the straight-line distance to Chang'an of 200 li, but the actual distance to the palace was more than 300 li;

Instead, it’s over a hundred miles in a straight line, and the distance to Ganquan Palace is no more than two hundred miles!

Ganquan Palace!
Every summer, the Han emperor went to the Ganquan Palace to escape the summer heat!

This incident was called "Burning the Central Palace" by later generations, and was also officially named by the Han Dynasty officials at that time as "The Hatred of Humiliation".

As mentioned above: from the time the Wu-Chu Rebellion was put down to the humiliation and hatred at the end of Emperor Jing's reign, the condition of the Han Dynasty's northern border wall was actually deteriorating at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Under this premise - under the premise that the border situation is getting worse and worse and the border pressure is getting greater and greater, Zhi can bring years of absolute peace to Yanmen County, which is located on the front line of the border. In a sense, this is very telling.

On the Han side, the emperor was seriously ill and the crown prince was young and weak;

There is an undercurrent in Guandong, and the border defenses are empty;
On the other hand, the Xiongnu - Junchen Chanyu had just integrated the Chanyu Court and was at the peak of his power. Coincidentally, the Xiongnu Empire also reached the peak of its military strength.

In contrast, it was almost inevitable that the two sides would burn down the central palace and destroy the four counties in northern Han.

But even in this situation, Zhidu, a "guilty minister", was under pressure from Empress Dowager Dou to avenge her grandson Liu Rong, while still being able to beat the Huns so hard that they fled in fear - they did not dare to draw their bows towards their own wooden statues, and they dared not approach Yanmen again!
Liu Rong just wanted to say: The last person who achieved such an achievement - the last person who made the Huns dare not approach their defense area was Wei Shang during the reign of Emperor Taizong.

As for the next one?
It is most likely either Wei Huo or Huo Wei.

——Even Cheng Buzhi, who had won two consecutive battles in Chaona and Hetao, had never been treated with such courtesy by the Huns!
Such a talented general was in front of them, but the Han Dynasty was suffering from a shortage of generals.
Could Liu Rong really just leave Zhi alone?

Could it be possible to recall the Huns' official recognition of a 'victorious general and a close friend of the country' to Chang'an to be the head of his bodyguards, or the captain of the Kyoto Security Brigade?

Are you kidding...

"You may as well tell the general."

"——The battle of Gaoque has already been decided."

"Temple calculation, victory."

Seeing that Zhidu thought for a long time but still said nothing, Liu Rong did not rush him.

Instead, he said this to draw Zhidu's attention back to the present, and then added: "The general has also been a garrison commander at the border, not a 'Southern General'."

"There is no need for me to elaborate on how important Gaoque is, what benefits it brings, and what harm it brings if it is lost."

"——As long as Gaoque is in my hands, even if I never send troops to the grassland again, my Han family can at least have 20 years of peace!"

"Twenty years later, at most it will be Gaoque that is in danger, not the border."

...

"Moreover, after taking Gaoque, it is impossible for me to stop fighting and make peace with the Xiongnu."

"——I have too many accounts to settle with the Huns."

"We, the Han people, have too many national and family hatreds to seek redress from the Xiongnu."

"So I must get Gaoque. There is no room for negotiation."

"The only difference is: Are you, Goshawk Zhidu, willing to be the claws of the country - to fly to the north for me, to peck out the eyes of the Huns, and to carry away the Huns' sentinels?"

"Or maybe I need to find another pioneer to reward him for this incredible achievement..."

In fact, Liu Rong didn't need to say so much - praising, flattering, tempting with military exploits, etc.

Just in the past few years, the huge gap from the emperor's confidant and the nine ministers in reserve to the border general and the subordinate of Marquis Bowang was enough to make Zhidu take this gamble desperately.

The reason why he did not respond immediately after Liu Rong sent out the invitation, but frowned and fell into deep thought, was the same as the three veterans Li Ji, Luan Bu and Han Tuidang before.

——Gao Que, very difficult to hit.

If the time, location and people are all right, it is just possible.

If any one of them is missing, success will be almost impossible!
Zhidu really wants to take this gamble.

But precisely because of the "gamble", Zhidu had to think carefully in order to come up with a relatively feasible plan to gain Liu Rong's trust.

——Zhi Du did not believe at all that Liu Rong would unconditionally entrust the vanguard mission of attacking Gaoque to a "non-relative" minister of the previous emperor like him.

If he cannot come up with a feasible plan, Zhidu cannot guarantee that this opportunity will not be handed over to someone else by Liu Rong.

For example, Cheng Buzhi, the Marquis of Bowang;

For example, the Flying General Li Guang.

At worst, there are still three veteran generals, Li Ji, Luan Bu and Han Tuidang, to provide a backup.

They may no longer have the strength to charge into battle;
But commanding the battle is still a piece of cake...

However, the goal of this battle is ultimately no less important than Gaoque, which is Hangu Pass.

No matter how much he cherished this hard-earned opportunity, Zhidu still couldn't think of a better solution in the end.

——Starting the war in winter, crossing the river at night when it is frozen, and attacking the enemy unexpectedly when they are unprepared were already the limits of what the Han Dynasty could achieve in terms of tactics.

Removing the moat: The obstruction of the river and creating opportunities for surprise attacks are the greatest tactical advantages that the Han Dynasty can gain for the frontline soldiers.

All that's left is for the soldiers to fight with their swords and guns.

As a result, Zhidu's focus quickly shifted from the battle itself to pre-war preparations.

——If you want to freeze the river outside Gaoque, you have to wait until the cold winter of December to do it!
In the twelfth lunar month when large rivers could freeze, it was difficult for the Han army soldiers to avoid being "frozen" in the northern part of the Hetao area.

Since the Han army can no longer do more at the strategic and tactical level, the only thing it can do is to provide good logistical support to reduce the inevitable non-combat casualties.

(End of this chapter)