Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to fight the Xiongnu in the spring, and the number of female births decreased.
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Thank you for your support. Introduction: The Xiongnu have been the confidants of the Central Plains Dynasty since ancient times, and since the Warring States Period, the Xiongnu have bordered the northern regions of our country and frequently invaded.
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the strength of the Xiongnu reached its peak, and even caused the Han Dynasty to retreat one after another. So, how did the Han Dynasty defeat such a powerful enemy, and finally make "the Xiongnu flee away, and there is no royal court in Monan"?
The "love-hate entanglement" between Chinese civilization and the northern nomads has a long history, and it is said that the ancestors of the nomads are of the same origin as our ancestors. According to the "Historical Records", the Xiongnu were a member of the descendants of Yan and Huang.
During the time of the Yellow Emperor, these tribes were called "meat porridge" and in the Book of Songs, indicating that they lived in the Yellow River valley with our ancestors and fought against each other.
In the war with the Yellow Emperor, the Xiongnu were at a disadvantage and had to move to the steppe regions of the north. However, the Yellow Emperor tribe at that time did not have a fixed residence, but a lifestyle that combined nomadism and farming.
From the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Xiongnu known as "Rong Di" began to constantly harass the Central Plains Dynasty, especially after the Zhou Youwang Fenghuo Opera princes, Rong Di broke through the Western Zhou Dynasty and forced the Zhou Dynasty to move to the east to establish the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which shows the strength of the Xiongnu.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various countries actively prepared for war, and the Hufu cavalry of King Wuling of Zhao successfully resisted the invasion of Lin Hu and Lou Fu, making them join the ranks of the Xiongnu; Li Mu's hundreds of thousands of troops and 10,000 chariots successfully conquered the Xiongnu, so that the Xiongnu did not dare to invade again for decades.
However, the speed with which the northern nomads have recovered their strength is alarming, and their aggressive intentions are well known.
With the evolution of Xiongnu society, some Xiongnu began to develop agriculture, establish cities and vassal states, and were eventually annexed by the Yan, Zhao, and Qin kingdoms. The other part continued to live a nomadic life, being driven further north by the Central Plains army to the steppes.
By the time of the unification of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang ordered Meng Tian to lead an army to the north to attack the Xiongnu, establish a defense line of the Great Wall, and drive the Xiongnu out of the Hetao Plain, away from the rich grasslands.
This series of events made "the Hu people dare not go south and graze horses", which made the morale of the Xiongnu fall to the bottom for a time.
After Mao Dunshan succeeded to the throne, the national strength of the Xiongnu gradually increased, and the momentum of foreign expansion became more and more violent. They expelled the Yueshi to the west and occupied the Hexi Corridor; Defeat Lou Fu to the south and retake the Hetao area; Xiang Dong broke Donghu and made it completely surrender.
From then on, a vast northern Asian empire was established, and the Xiongnu regime was dominated by slavery and was active in Chinese history for 300 years. After that, although the sporadic Xiongnu tribes still existed for more than 200 years, it was not until the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties that the word "Xiongnu" disappeared from the records of our country.
During this period, countless valiant warriors fought in Monan, and the threat of the Xiongnu has always worried the rulers of the Central Plains Dynasty.
Under the leadership of Mao Dun, the Xiongnu tribes in the early Han Dynasty were united, and the implementation of the feudal system also greatly improved the mobilization of the armies of each department. Although the Han Dynasty had just unified the dynasty, the north had not yet been completely pacified, the limited army strength and the shortage of war horses made the Xiongnu's cavalry have an obvious advantage over the Han infantry, but under the close defense of the Han army, the Xiongnu could not make a major breakthrough.
Although the national strength of the Han Dynasty was insufficient in the early days, it still won more and lost less in many wars, which gave Liu Bang great confidence, and he personally led an army of 400,000 to conquer the Xiongnu, although he defeated the Xiongnu army several times, but after the lone army went deeper, he was besieged in Baishan Mountain.
In the face of the defense of thousands of Han troops, the Xiongnu could not break through, but Liu Bang was worried that the materials would run out, so he finally chose to sign a contract with the Xiongnu, officially starting the process of peace with the Xiongnu.
Historically, the relationship between the Central Plains and the Xiongnu has been fraught with conflicts and challenges. Since the tribal period, the Xiongnu have been wandering in the marginal areas, being squeezed out of the Central Plains of the Yellow River valley and becoming nomadic peoples.
Although the Xiongnu had strong ambitions for the Central Plains, their lack of comprehensive strength caused them to be defeated many times. It wasn't until the appearance of Maudun that the Xiongnu began to really become strong.
For Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, fighting against the Xiongnu was one of the most important tasks in the Western Han Dynasty. In the process, he discovered some key factors. First of all, population is crucial in the age of cold weapons.
Only with a large population can the combat effectiveness be strong, and a battle with less victory is rare in history. However, the population of the Xiongnu was far less than that of the Central Plains. As nomadic peoples, the population grew at a slower rate, and even if all the young and middle-aged were to be conscripted, it would be difficult for them to have more than 300,000 troops.
In ancient times, a strong man usually needed to support five family members, so the total population of the country was only about 1.5 million.
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the population was 10 million, and after the rule of Wenjing, the population of the whole country reached 30 million, and the comprehensive national strength far exceeded that of the Xiongnu. Moreover, the timing of the war is important. The Xiongnu put Manan Mountain in spring and summer, the war horses were fat, the materials were abundant, the army was strong, and they saw that there was grain to grab in the Central Plains, and their morale was naturally high.
However, autumn was the harvest season of agricultural civilization, most of the soldiers were sent home, and the remaining soldiers were anxious to go home, and the combat effectiveness of the army was much worse than before. Moreover, the weather is getting colder and colder, the soldiers are not adapted, and an autumn offensive is clearly not a good option.
The Xiongnu are located in northern China, with a cold climate and frequent natural disasters. In winter, the Huns mostly rest at home and recuperate, and in spring, there are naturally many women who are pregnant and have difficulty moving.
In addition, the Xiongnu experienced winter consumption in spring, the war horses lacked food and grass, and the army's combat effectiveness declined sharply. The Han Dynasty was full of supplies after the beginning of spring, the soldiers were high-spirited, and the weather was getting warmer and warmer, and morale was high.
As a result, spring offensives tend to work wonders. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty seized on this characteristic and launched an attack on the Xiongnu in the spring, and sure enough, he was victorious. It is recorded in the Book of Han: "The Han soldiers pursued for more than 20 years, and the Xiongnu were pregnant and lazy, and they were extremely bitter.
Self-reliance on the following often has desires and schemes. ”
Although the Han army had contained the Xiongnu invasion to a certain extent, they still faced a number of challenges, the biggest of which was how to improve their mobility.
After all, the Xiongnu were a people on horseback who had no fixed residence, and if they were to find their hiding place, the Han army would have to be similarly flexible. However, the Xiongnu only needed to seize the appropriate opportunity, find the weak link in the defensive line, and retreat quickly after looting, and the Han army would be in a state of exhaustion.
After recuperation, the Han Dynasty began to plan a conquest of the Xiongnu. Under the rule of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were more than 400,000 horses, and at the same time, everyone also saw the weakness of the Xiongnu, and the offensive strategy was cleverly formulated.
As early as when Zhang Jian went to the Western Regions, the Han army had already learned about the situation of the Xiongnu. Although it failed after a tentative attack with cavalry, Emperor Wu of Han did not give up. He sent his general Wei Qing to attack Henan, beheading thousands, reoccupying the Hetao region, and strengthening the defenses of the Great Wall, relocating hundreds of thousands of people, dividing the Xiongnu lands so that they could not support each other.
Then, he sent the general Huo Qubing to attack the hinterland of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu army in the spring was vulnerable, and the hinterland of the Western Front was broken in one fell swoop, with thousands of people beheaded. Subsequently, Huo Qubing went deep into the hinterland of the Xiongnu, chased to Qilian Mountain, and captured more than 2,000 Xiongnu nobles, completely hurting the foundation of the Xiongnu.
After that, the two Xiongnu surrendered, and the remaining ones retreated to Mobei, trying to lure the enemy deeper, but were completely defeated by Wei Qing and Huo Quzhi. Unfortunately, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty originally wanted to completely eliminate the Xiongnu, but Huo Quai's sudden death, coupled with the excessive loss of war horses, the Han-Hun War had to be suspended.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty successfully conquered the Xiongnu with his eloquence and heroic generals, and brought the Western Regions into his jurisdiction, which made the Xiongnu lose their stable economy and could only be trapped in Mobei and gradually declined.
The Han Dynasty adopted a steady strategy, through the cavalry to open the road and the infantry to the field, completely dispelled the Xiongnu's ** idea, so that the Central Plains Dynasty was no longer threatened by the Xiongnu.
Although the Xiongnu was the first great enemy in the history of our country, and it took several dynasties to fight for 300 years before it was finally defeated, this undoubtedly reflects the eloquence of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the heroic battle between Wei Qing and Huo Quzhi.
In addition to resisting, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also used the Xiongnu to govern the country, and many Xiongnu defected to the Han Dynasty during the Han-Hungarian War, which promoted the exchange and ethnic integration of the two ethnic groups and made great contributions to the development of the Han Dynasty.
The most famous of these is Jin Riyan, who was originally a prince of the Xiongnu who defected to the Han Dynasty after the killing of King Hutu, and was sent to the Yellow Gate to raise war horses. Because of its strong and clear appearance, the raised war horses are fat and strong, and they were seen at a glance in the review of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and since then they have begun to work in the imperial court, serving as a waiter, serving Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for decades, and being a very popular minister.
During this period, Jin Riyan did not spy on the behavior of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at all, but thought about the Han Dynasty everywhere. Not only did he not get close to the maid given by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and did not accept the marriage given by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but after his son molested the maid, he killed his relatives and eradicated the root cause.
And the usurpation of the Ma brothers made Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty completely trust him.
After the scandal of the "Witch Gu Scourge**, Jiang Chong's conspiracy was exposed, there was a pair of brothers named Ma Horo and Ma Tong in the palace at that time, and they had a close relationship with Jiang Chong.
In order not to be implicated, they conspired to infiltrate the emperor's residence with a fake edict when Emperor Wu of Han was hunting. However, Jin Riyan suddenly sensed that something was wrong, and immediately entered the palace, and at the moment of life and death, he captured the Ma brothers with his bare hands and successfully saved the emperor, showing his incomparable loyalty.
Eventually, Jin Riyan became a retainer of Tuogu, and he also ranked himself behind Huo Guang to prevent the Xiongnu from despising the Han Dynasty.
In the struggle against the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty showed great acceptance. Although they were disgusted by the invasion of the Xiongnu, they were more inclined to value peace and accept the Huns who had surrendered.
This strategy left its mark on history, allowing the Central Plains Dynasty to better defend against Xiongnu invasions. From the Great Wall of Qin Shi Huang, to the wise strategy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to the heroic performance of generals such as Wei Qing, Huo Quzhi, and Li Guang, they all contributed to the fight against the Xiongnu in their own ways.
Eventually, the Xiongnu gradually died out in the long course of history, and peace was temporarily restored to northern China. These historical events are still of great significance to us today.