Chapter 59 If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't get cubs

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Chao followed Fengche Duwei (official name) Dou Gu to fight against the Huns, and made great contributions.Later, he was sent as an envoy to the Western Regions (now the entire province of Xinjiang, the border of Gansu, and a part of Central Asia west of Congling).He first went to Zheng Shanguo.The king had known Ban Chao for a long time and respected him very much, but after a while, he suddenly became negligent.Ban Chao summoned about thirty-six people who came with him and said: "Zheng Shanguo has been very cold to us recently. It must be that the Huns in the north also sent someone to win him over, making him hesitant to obey the other side. A wise person should start when things have not sprouted." Find it, and now it's obvious."

After inquiring, it really is the case.So Ban Chao made an appointment with all the people: "We are in a very dangerous situation now. King Zheng Shan has treated us so coldly only a few days after the Huns envoy came. You say, what should we do?" At that time, everyone resolutely expressed their willingness to listen to his proposition.The envoy continued: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't have tiger cubs. The only way now is to attack the Xiongnu envoys with fire tonight and kill them quickly. Only in this way, King Zheng Shan will sincerely submit to the Han Dynasty."

That night, Ban Chao and his thirty-six companions rushed into the residence of the Huns, fought hard to the death, and defeated most of the Huns with a small number of manpower, achieving the desired goal. Based on this story, later people extended it into the phrase "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't get cubs", which is used to explain that people can't achieve their goals if they don't make up their minds, go through dangerous situations, and go through hard work.For example, in order to study the possibility of using glacier water to irrigate farmland, several scientists planned to conduct field investigations and experiments on icebergs.This is a dangerous and arduous job, but they believe that without actual investigation and research, they will not be able to obtain real results.In this case, it can be said: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't get a tiger's cub."