Chapter 67 66 Fly General Li Guang

In 129 BC, the Xiongnu sent troops to invade Shanggu (where the government is located in the southeast of Huailai, Hebei today).Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent four generals, Wei Qing, Gongsun Ao, Gongsun He, and Li Guang, to attack separately. Among the four generals, Li Guang is the oldest and most qualified.Li Guang became a general during the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty; during the time of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, he and Zhou Yafu quelled the chaos of the Seven Kingdoms and made great contributions; Once, when the Xiongnu entered Shangjun, Li Guang led a hundred cavalry to chase three Xiongnu archers, and they chased for dozens of miles before catching up.He shot two of them dead and captured the third alive. Just as he was about to return to the camp, he saw thousands of Hun cavalry coming up from afar.

Li Guang's soldiers panicked when they suddenly encountered so many Xiongnu soldiers.Li Guang said to them: "We are still dozens of miles away from the big camp. If we run back now and the Huns catch up, we will be finished. It is better to stop altogether. The Huns think we are here to lure them, so we must not Dare to attack us." Then, Li Guang ordered to advance, stopped only two miles away from the Huns' position, and ordered the soldiers to dismount, take off all the saddles, and rest on the spot. The soldiers were all anxious and said: "There are so many Huns and they are so close. What if they attack?"

Li Guang said: "We did this to express that we would not leave, and to make the enemy believe that we were deceiving them." The generals of the Huns were really a little scared when they saw Li Guang's arrangement.They observed the movement of the Han army from a distance and dared not come up. At this time, there was a general riding a white horse on the Huns' position, and he came out to inspect the team.Li Guang suddenly got on his horse with a dozen cavalrymen, galloped over, and shot him dead with an arrow.Then he returned to his team, dismounted and lay down on the ground to rest.

The more the Xiongnu soldiers looked at it, the more suspicious they became.When it got dark, they believed that there must be an ambush by the Han army, fearing that the Han army would attack them in the middle of the night, so they all fled back overnight.At dawn, Li Guang saw that there were no Xiongnu soldiers on the mountain, so he returned to the camp safely with more than a hundred cavalry. This time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent four troops to resist the Xiongnu.Shan Yu, a military official of the Xiongnu, found out the situation of the Han soldiers and knew that Li Guang was the most difficult to deal with among the four generals. He concentrated most of his troops at Yanmen, set up ambushes along the road, and ordered his subordinates to capture Li Guang alive.After a fierce battle, Li Guang's troops were scattered, and Li Guang himself was wounded and captured by the Huns.

Seeing that Li Guang was seriously injured, the Xiongnu soldiers put him in a hammock tied with ropes, carried him on two horses, and sent him to Shanyu's camp. Li Guang lay motionless on that hammock, as if he was dead.After walking for about a dozen miles, he secretly spotted a good horse riding a Hun soldier next to him, struggled hard, jumped on the horse, grabbed the bow and arrow, pushed the Hun soldier off the horse, turned the horse's head and fought hard. Fly south. The Huns sent hundreds of cavalry in pursuit.Li Guang clamped the horse's belly hard and urged the horse to run quickly. At the same time, he turned around, picked up his bow and set up an arrow, and shot to death several Hun soldiers who were chasing in front.Seeing that they could not catch up with Li Guang, the Xiongnu soldiers had no choice but to let him run away with blank eyes.

Although Li Guang was out of danger.However, he was sentenced to death because of his loss of soldiers and generals.There was a rule in the Han Dynasty that sinners could redeem their sins with money.Li Guang paid a sum of money, finally redeemed his crime, and went home to become a commoner. Not long after, the Xiongnu harassed the border again, and Emperor Wu of the Han reappointed Li Guang as the prefect of Youbeiping (the name of the county, where the government is located in the southwest of Lingyuan, Liaoning). For many years, Li Guang has been defending in the north.Because Li Guang moved fast, and his arrow skills were fine, and he came and went suddenly, making it difficult for people to figure out his way.So the Huns nicknamed him "Flying General".Li Guang became the prefect of Youbeiping, and the Huns were afraid of flying generals and dared not invade.

There are no Xiongnu soldiers invading in Youbeiping area, but tigers often come out to hurt people.Whenever Li Guang heard that there were tigers, he would shoot them himself.Whenever a tiger met him, he would be shot to death. It is said that once, Li Guang came back late and the sky was hazy. While walking with his followers, he was on guard against a tiger. Suddenly he saw a colorful tiger squatting in the grass at the foot of the mountain in front of him.He quickly picked up the bow and arrow and shot it with all his might.With his perfect arrow technique, he hit the target naturally.

Seeing that he shot the tiger, the soldiers under him ran up to catch the tiger with their knives and guns.When they got closer, they were completely stunned. It turned out that the arrow hit was not a tiger, but a big rock, and the arrow was sunk so deep that several people couldn't pull it out even if they tried to pull it out.Everyone was really surprised and admired. Li Guang looked over and wondered, how could the stone go in?He went back to the original place and shot a few more arrows at the stone. When the arrow hit the stone, only sparks shot out, but they couldn't go in again.But with this arrow, it is said that the arrow of the parachutist Li Guang can shoot through the stone.

Li Guang devoted most of his life to fighting the Huns.He has experienced more than 70 battles, big and small, and because of his bravery and skill in fighting, he has become a terrible enemy in the eyes of the Huns nobles.But Li Guang often suffered unexpected setbacks in his life's battles.On the contrary, two newly promoted young generals, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, made outstanding military exploits in the war against the Huns.