Chapter 52 Chapter Fifty-Two: The Arrow Hitting the Rock

In the battle against the Huns in the sixth year of Yuanguang (129 BC), besides Wei Qing who set out from Juyongguan (Shanggu) and Li Guang who set out from Yanmen, there were Gongsun He and Gongsun Huan who set off from Yunzhong and Dai respectively. Ao two generals.Gongsun Ao has been introduced earlier.He was the one who led his companions to rescue Wei Qing when he heard the report from his servants when Wei Qing was taken away by the hooligans sent by Empress Chen and Princess Guantao.He was very close to Wei Qing, so he was promoted, and set off from Daijun as a cavalry general to attack the Xiongnu.However, he was promoted but failed to repay the expectations of his superiors. As a result, he lost 7,000 cavalry and was defeated. The end was quite miserable.

Another general, Gongsun He, was the grandson of Gongsun Kunxie, who was named Marquis of Pingqu for his military exploits during the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion.He was born in a famous family and used to be the servant of Emperor Wu (the official in charge of chariot and horse affairs).He made his fortune because he married the sister of Wei Zifu, the favorite concubine of Emperor Wu. Wei Qing's mother, Mrs. Wei, has three daughters.The eldest daughter is Junru, the second daughter is Younger, and the son-in-law is the third daughter. Emperor Wu took care of his lover's two older sisters.

He married his elder sister Junru to Gongsun He.After marrying such a woman, she will definitely make a fortune, but she has to follow her wife's breath everywhere. The second sister, Shaoer, was originally a concubine named Huo Zhongru and had a child, but Emperor Wu married her to Zhan Shi (the deacon of the queen or crown prince) Chen Zhang on the grounds that she should marry a decent man. Huo Zhongru had a little money, so Mrs. Wei gave her daughter to him as a concubine, but Emperor Wu thought that Huo Zhongru was not qualified to be his lover's brother-in-law.However, Huo Qubing, the son of the boy and Huo Zhongru, later became a military officer and became very active.

Closer to home.In the sixth year of Yuanguang's war against the Huns, only Wei Qing made great contributions. The veteran Li Guang became a prisoner, and Gongsun Ao, who was promoted, suffered the bitter fruit of defeat. Gongsun He marched for days, but never encountered the Huns army, and finally had to turn back empty-handed.This should be punished to some extent in military law, but thanks to his wife, he was spared from being questioned. Li Guang, who was once a prisoner but later escaped, and Gongsun Ao, who lost 7,000 soldiers, should be executed.However, the custom at that time was that the death penalty could be exempted as long as money was paid to make atonement.Both of these two people paid huge sums of money to avoid being executed, but were deprived of their official status and reduced to common people.

Such people tend to work desperately in order to restore their reputation, so they are often used again after being reduced to common people.And that's what happened to these two. But it will also go through a period of deprivation of all privileges. Li Guang felt very annoyed by this. Is my luck really that bad?He often sighs like this. During the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, he once made great contributions with the Minister of National Defense Zhou Yafu.However, he was not rewarded for it. In fact, this is where it comes from.During the Battle of Wu and Chu, Emperor Jing’s younger brother King Liang was responsible for suppressing the rebel army, while the Central Army was in charge of cutting off the enemy’s food routes, and did not appear on the main battlefield until the final decisive battle.It was at this time that Li Guangda showed his performance.

—Your performance is very good.Give you the seal and ribbon of the general! The king of Liang therefore granted him the seal and ribbon of a general.His position at that time was Captain Xiaoqi, and his status was lower than that of a general. Since King Liang was the object of Empress Dowager Dou's doting, he was regarded as a possible successor to the throne of Emperor Jing for a while, which shows his great power.Therefore, Li Guang accepted the reward from King Liang.But this has become his disadvantage instead. ——Li Guang has been rewarded by Liang Wang. For this reason, Li Guangsui was excluded from the central government's rewards for meritorious deeds.

The fighting was fierce, which made Liang Wang look at him with admiration—this kind of self is unlucky enough. Take this war as an example, the Huns seemed to be targeting him.Unfortunately, he was carelessly wounded by an arrow, failed to command the battle at a critical juncture, and was even more humiliated by being arrested.Isn't such a self considered extremely unlucky? After losing his official position, Li Guang didn't know how to kill time.He has no hobbies other than his family's archery skills.After moving to a place called Lantian, he used hunting whenever he had time.

Because the Xiongnu army was attacking me, that guy Wei Qing took advantage of me... Wei Qing, an inexperienced guy, only got up because he was Wei Zifu's younger brother, and his jumping up just took advantage of me lost ground... The more Li Guang thought about it, the angrier he became.Therefore, when he was not hunting, he drank heavily.Alcohol is indeed the ultimate cure for sorrow. When hunting, he doesn't like to prey on things like foxes and rabbits, but looks for wild animals as much as possible.At that time, there were still many tigers in and out of the Central Plains, and Li Guang liked to hunt tigers the most.

—The tiger is out! The more people talked about the tiger, the more energized he became. With a bow and arrow on his back, he rode his horse to the place where the tiger might appear. One day, when he heard that a tiger appeared, he rushed to the mountain immediately.Looking around carefully, I found a tiger lying quietly in the grass. —Actually, it was not a tiger, but a rock shaped and colored exactly like a tiger. The Helan stone inkstone produced in Shizuishan, Gansu Province is quite good.The author used to buy and use it in Xi'an, and the quality is really satisfactory.This is a stone inkstone with a gray-black background and grass-colored stripes. There are various carvings on the grass-colored part.The author has never seen the original stone. Li Guang mistakenly thought that the tiger was probably this kind of rock?

After the arrow is on the bow, use all your strength to pull the bowstring to the full, aim at the target and shoot. Sure enough, the arrow hit the tiger—but the tiger didn't even move.Surprised, Li Guangsui tiptoed over, only to find that it was a rock.However, the arrow he shot did penetrate the rock. The arrow can actually be inserted into the rock! Li Guang took out the arrow and put it on the bow again. He also drew the bowstring fully and shot at the rock.As a result, as soon as the arrow hit the rock, it was bounced back.Repeated several times, the result is the same. This is because the target is determined to be a tiger, and the incredible power produced by concentrating the will, right?

The protagonist of this famous story of "Shooting Stones with Arrows" is exactly Li Guang in his desperation period. Although he spends his days hunting and drinking, his mood is not at ease. One day, drinking late at a friend's house, he came to Baling Pavilion on the way home with his entourage.Ting is one of the administrative units, with ten pavilions as a township, that is, Suyi.At this time, the Ting Wei (the stationed officer) who was also drunk shouted to Li Guang, "Where are you going!" In this era, traveling at night was forbidden.The city gates are closed after nightfall.Since there are no city gates in the countryside, compared with the cities, the prohibition on road travel at night is more relaxed in enforcement. "This is the former general Li Guang." When Li Guang's entourage said this, the drunk Ting Wei shouted louder: "The regulations are the regulations, even the current general is not allowed to walk at night! Besides, you are a general who has stepped down, what are you doing?" !" Li Guangzhu had no choice but to spend the night in the humble office of Baling Suyi. "Ha! I'm a resigned general..." Li Guang once again sighed at his fate. Compared with the unlucky veteran Li Guang, the young Wei Qing is a lucky star, and everything goes well. In the second year after Wei Qing participated in the war for the first time and made great contributions, his sister finally got Lin'er. Emperor Wu was twenty-nine years old at this time.Although he already had several daughters, it was the first time he had a son.The extent of his joy is of course indescribable. "Great! Great!" Emperor Wu did not know how many times he said this sentence.The boy born was very healthy, and the emperor's joy of having an offspring should be far greater than that of ordinary people. Wei Zifu finally sat on the queen's throne that had been vacant for two years after the Chen family was abolished. There was of course some backlash.The reason is that Wei Zifu's background is too humble.But no one can stop what Emperor Wu wants to do.What troubled Emperor Wu was just how to set up a name. ——A mother is most precious to her son. Fortunately, there is such a sentence in the Confucian dogma: the mother of the crown prince should of course be the queen. It was in the spring of the first year of Yuanshuo that Wei Zifu gave birth to the crown prince and was established as a queen. In the autumn of this year, the war in the north was urgent again. It turned out that 20,000 Xiongnu cavalry invaded the Han territory and killed 2,000 villagers including the prefect of Liaoxi County.Liaoxi County is the area from the north of Hebei Province to the west of Liaoning Province, and the current Beijing area is Yuyang County.In Yuyang County, Han Anguo was stationed there as a general.General Caiguan is the head of the infantry regiment.Han Anguo was a former deputy prime minister and doctor of history, and he was the commander-in-chief during the Battle of Mayi.His status was later demoted one after another, and at this time he was only the leader of an army. Some people moved left, while others were promoted.The young Wei Qing once again set out from Yanmen with 30,000 cavalry as a chariot general.As a result, he marched into Longxi in the west, killed thousands of enemies, and obtained hundreds of thousands of livestock.Because of his activity, the place that used to be the territory of the Xiongnu was incorporated by the Han Dynasty and named "Shuofang County". Wei Qing was granted the title of Marquis of Changping for his second achievement. Han Anguo, the general officer in Yuyang, listened to what the captives said "the Huns have gone away" and neglected to guard against it, and suffered a big loss as a result.After Emperor Wu heard about this, he transferred Han Anguo to You Beiping.Youbeiping is the so-called Rehe area, which is closer to the border than Yuyang.He is getting lower and lower.For Han Anguo, who once climbed to the position of deputy prime minister in the central government, this is really embarrassing! Han Anguo became sullen.Since I am old, I really want to submit my resignation, but this is impossible.He could only be on the eastern border, quietly watching his younger brother Wei Qing sweep the Xiongnu in the west with great victories, and gradually promoted. This is a very difficult process.He fell ill due to depression and fell ill, and finally died of hemoptysis.This happened a few months after he was transferred to Beiping. You Beiping is the eastern border and an important stronghold.The prefect of this place must appoint excellent people. The successor of You Beiping prefect has not been decided yet. "Although that person is old, it seems that there is no other candidate besides him?" Emperor Wu said. "It seems to be the only choice." All the ministers below the prime minister agreed. The so-called "he" they refer to is Li Guang who fled after being captured and failed to attack the Huns from Yanmen.The veteran, who deserved to be asked to die, atones for his crime with money, and is spared from death. After being reduced to a common man, he lives by hunting and drinking.But the old general did not disappear, and his comeback was faster than expected. "The old man is old, let alone a person who was once guilty. I ask the emperor to let this matter go." Li Guang made a formal modest speech in accordance with the usual practice.At times like this, no matter how much you desire in your heart, you have to quit on the surface. This is a common practice. "Look! Didn't you ask me in the end!" Li Guang was complacent. Under the court's repeated invitations, he failed to resign and had to accept a new job-this is the form he adopted. Li Guang returned as the prefect of You Beiping. "I dare not disobey the order, so I respectfully accept it. But in order to fulfill my duties, please allow me to name a few staff members myself." When Li Guang took office, he submitted this application. This was also the custom at the time.I want to go to the post with my trusted subordinates, and these people have current jobs, can they be transferred? —That's what he asked for. ——As many people as you want, you can choose to take it with you! Emperor Wu also approved his request according to the usual practice. Li Guang decided to pick out a few people who might become his confidantes from the central government and its surrounding areas, and go to his post.Of those he named, only one did not belong to his faction. This person was none other than Captain Ba Ling Ting, the one who yelled at Li Guangda, "What's wrong with the former general" in the middle of the night and detained him in a crude place. Li Guang never forgot the humiliation he suffered that time.A person's emotions are at their sharpest when they are not met.He was insulted at such a time.Thinking of the situation at that time, he felt the blood flowing backwards all over his body. Going to the place of duty, when he set off from Chang'an and arrived near Baling, Li Guang drew his sword and ordered the Baling Tingwei: "Come outside!" Tingwei's face was livid, and he staggered to the outside. The sword held by Li Guang was dyed blood red under the reflection of the setting sun.A flash of sword light—— Captain Ba Lingting's head rolled to the ground on the spot. Reading Li Guang's biography, we all sympathize with his rough life.But when I read the passage where he beheaded Ba Ling Tingwei, I couldn't help feeling disgusted with him. A man is most animal when he is in bad luck--isn't he?