"When the minister hears the righteousness of the world, he should be mixed in one, there were Tang and Yu in the past, and now there are strong men. The Xiongnu called Han Evil Shan Yu has been called the Northern Domain, only Zhi Zhi Shan is rebellious, not subdued its innocent, the west of Great Xia, thinking that the strong Han can not be subordinate. Zhi Zhi is single in the tragic viciousness of the people, the great evil is forced in the sky, the minister prolongs life, the minister Tang will be a volunteer soldier, the heavenly punishment, rely on His Majesty's gods, yin and yang should respond, the weather is shrewd, the enemy is defeated, and the head of the Zhi branch and the following kings are killed. It is advisable to hang the head between the barbarian mansions on the street to show that those who commit crimes against strong men will be punished even if they are far away. —Book of Han
This is an excerpt from the Han Chen Tang Shangshu to the imperial court, and it also makes "those who commit crimes against the strong Han will be punished even if they are far away" as the most powerful national slogan of the Han Empire.
However, the fate of Chen Tang, who practiced this slogan with actions, was full of twists and turns.
Chen Tang is a native of Yanzhou, Shandong, he liked to read when he was a teenager and had a broad idea of writing, but because his family was poor and sometimes relied on begging to get by, Chen Tang was not valued by the township.
With no way out in his hometown, he wandered to Chang'an and met Zhang Bo, the Marquis of Fuping, who felt that he was very talented. In 47 BC, Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty issued an edict asking the ministers of the princes to recommend young talents, and Zhang Bo recommended Chen Tang to the imperial court. Chen Tang's fortunes seem to have improved.
However, while waiting for the assignment, his father died, and Chen Tang, who was eager to gain fame, did not go home for the funeral. At that time, people attached great importance to filial piety, and Chen Tang was reported for this, so the imperial court not only condemned Zhang Bo, but also arrested Chen Tang and imprisoned him. Fate closed the door for Chen Tang again.
A few years later, as we often say that gold always shines, Chen Tang was strongly recommended to become a Lang official because of his talent. When the state recruited personnel to envoy to the Western Regions, he took the initiative to ask for help, and later as the deputy envoy of the Western Regions, he and the principal envoy Gan Yanshou sent an envoy to the Western Regions. Fate opened a path for him to achieve success.
At that time, the situation in the Western Regions was more complicated, and the influence of the Han in the Western Regions was completely covered by the Xiongnu Shan Yu Zhizhi.
During the period of Emperor Xuan, the Xiongnu were in civil strife, and the five Shan Yu competed for the throne, among which Zhi Zhi Shan Yu annexed the three kingdoms of Huyan, Jiankun and Ding Ling by force, and became stronger and stronger.
The arrogant Zhi Zhishan Yu also imprisoned the Han Dynasty's envoy Jiang Naishi, and later killed the envoy Gu Ji.
At the same time, he sent envoys to Su, Dawan and other countries, coercing them to pay tribute to him every year, so that Zhizhi had a sphere of influence in the land of thousands of miles, and in the land of the Western Regions, the Xiongnu Zhizhi Shan Yu completely regarded himself as the lord of a great power.
Moreover, he spoke wildly, disrespected the Han Dynasty envoys who came to negotiate, and had great ambitions to replace the Han Dynasty emperor, resulting in a serious threat to the Han Dynasty's business in the Western Regions.
Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang, who were the chief and deputy envoys of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty, learned about these situations and sent troops to the Western Regions in the third year of Jianzhao (36 BC).
Chen Tang is brave and thoughtful, scheming, and happy.
This time they went to the Western Regions, they only brought a convoy army, not a large army, and lacked sufficient troops.
When they went out of the country, Chen Tang said to Gan Yanshou, "Zhi Zhishan is fierce and brutal, and dominates the Western Regions, if he continues to develop, it will definitely be a disaster for the Western Regions." Now he lives far away, there is no city to defend, and there is no soldier who is good at using a strong crossbow, if we gather the soldiers on the border of Tuntian, and then call in the soldiers of Wusun and other subject countries, and directly attack Zhizhi, he will not be able to hold it, and even if he escapes, there is no place to hide. ”
Gan Yanshou thought his analysis was very reasonable, but said that he could only act after asking the court for approval. Chen Tang thought that if he asked the imperial court first, if he couldn't get consent, he would lose the best opportunity, and thought that he could go first and play the next role.
However, as a positive envoy, Gan Yanshou considered that he should still go through the formalities of the invitation. But at this time, Gan Yanshou fell ill.
Chen Tang waited anxiously for day after day, and finally decisively took the measure of falsely proclaiming the holy decree, mobilizing the troops of Tuntian of the Han Dynasty and the soldiers of the subordinate state Cheshi State to march towards the Xiongnu Zhizhi.
The helpless Gan Yanshou had no choice but to obey him. So the two led more than 40,000 soldiers from all walks of life and all ethnic groups to march north with great fanfare.
Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang divided the army into six schools, three of which took the South Road and crossed the Green Ridge through Dawan; The other three schools took the north road, entered the red valley, passed through the Wusun and Kangju realm, and approached Zhizhi Shan Yu.
In the end, the army reached the Zhizhi city and relied on the water's edge.
The colorful flags fluttered on the head of the Zhizhi city, hundreds of armored soldiers climbed the high garrison, some waved to the Han army to tease, Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang observed and then ordered the soldiers to surround the city on all sides, and killed and injured the soldiers defending the city with arrows, so a confrontation was launched.
The arrows of the siege killed several of Zhizhi's wives and concubines, and then shot him in the nose. The next day, Chen Tang ordered the soldiers to attack with fire on all sides, and beat drums to cheer, and the Han army broke through the wooden fence on the periphery with smoke and fire, and took the opportunity to rush into Tucheng.
Zhi Zhishan was surrounded by only hundreds of men and women and some officials, and he was powerless to resist. The Han soldiers bravely killed and stabbed Zhi to death. The military marquis Du Xun cut off the head of Zhi Zhi Shan Yu, rescued two Han Dynasty envoys from prison, and searched the palace for the documents and letters brought by the late envoy Gu Ji.
Chen Tang won a complete victory in attacking the Xiongnu Zhizhi Shan Yu this time, killing a total of 1,518 people including Zhi Zhishan Yu's wife and concubine, the crown prince and the prince who was crowned, capturing 145 officials alive, and capturing more than 1,000 enemy soldiers, so that the Xiongnu Zhizhi Shan Yu who invaded the Han Dynasty was duly punished, re-established the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty over the Western Regions, and practiced the creed of "those who offend our Han will be punished even if they are far away".
Chen Tang, who has made such great achievements, also has two fatal problems, one is to falsely spread the holy decree and mobilize soldiers and horses; First, he was greedy for money, and after conquering Zhizhi City, a large amount of property was seized, and Chen Tang hid a lot of gold and silver treasures privately, and those in the know had reported this to the imperial court when he was in the Western Regions.
So his fate changed differently.
On the way back to the court, the winning class was inspected by the imperial court.
After returning to the dynasty, Zhongshu Ling Shi Xian and Kuang Heng thought that Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang were guilty of a major crime by falsely transmitting the holy decree, and they could offset it with merit and not be killed. If he is rewarded with knighthood, then the future envoys going abroad will be the first to follow suit, and they will inevitably have nothing to do and make it difficult for the country.
Zongzheng Liu Xiang believes that Gan and Chen "are the kings of a hundred barbarians, the soldiers of the city, a hundred deaths, into the desperate domain, and then go to Kangju, slaughter the five cities, hold the banner of the marquis, behead the head of the Zhizhi branch, the county is thousands of miles away, and the west of Kunshan is mighty, sweeping the shame of Guji, and establishing the merit of Zhaoming. Hu Han evil single Yu saw that Zhi Zhi had been punished, and he was happy and afraid, the township was righteous, and the chief guest was willing to guard the north? , known as a minister for many generations. Establish a thousand years of merit, build the peace of eternity, and the ministers are great", so it is unfair to treat Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang only by merit and demerits.
So Emperor Yuan issued an edict to pardon Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang's crime of falsely transmitting the holy decree, named Gan Yanshou as the Marquis of Yicheng, gave Chen Tang the title of Marquis of Guannei, and rewarded each with 300 households and 100 catties, and worshiped Chen Tang as the captain of the shooting sound, and Yanshou as the captain of Changshui.
The hero's exploits were finally affirmed by the imperial court.
However, heroes are not perfect, history is always complicated, and Chen Tang's fate still had many twists and turns later.
But he killed Zhi Zhishan Yu, his prestige was far away from foreign countries, and his outstanding military talent was affirmed by the general Wang Feng, and he was also considered by Geng Yu to be the "minister of the army and the enemy, and the only one Chen Tang'er" in today's country. Therefore, although he was degraded several times, he was finally taken care of by the imperial court, and later died of illness in Chang'an. In particular, Chen Tang fell into rheumatism when attacking Zhizhi in his early years, and his arms could not be bent and extended, so when he entered the emperor, the emperor first issued an edict that he did not need to bow down.
After Wang Mang took power, he posthumously named Chen Tang as the Marquis of Pohu Zhuang, his son Chen Feng as the Marquis of Pohu, and Du Xun as the Marquis of Di.
Chen Tang was greedy for money, falsely passed on the holy decree, and also told a lie when identifying Prince Kangju, and also had resentment against the court's attitude towards him, but he used his own merits to defend the Han Dynasty's jurisdiction over the Western Regions throughout his life, and beheaded the Xiongnu Shan Yu showed the national creed of "those who offend my Han will be punished even if they are far away", so it was affirmed by several generations of emperors and people of insight in the Han Dynasty at that time, including the later Wang Mang regime, and was recognized by later generations.
Chen Tang used his own merits to become the representative of the Chinese nation's national creed of "those who offend our Han will be punished even if they are far away".