Chapter 63 2. The way to defend against the enemy

The Huns and wolves that worried the people of the Han Dynasty finally came to this yellow land.In the eleventh year of Xiaowen (169 BC), in the summer of June, the Xiongnu continued to attack and rob along the border of the Han Dynasty. The people of the Han Dynasty didn't know that this was just a trial robbing exercise by the old Shang Shanyu.However, with regard to the frequent harassment of the Huns, some people have seen signs that the Huns will make big moves.This person is Prince Liu Qi's think tank: Chao Cuo. Chao Cuo, from Yingchuan, is upright and harsh.In the early years, he studied Shen Buhai and Shang Yang's criminal law with a certain master, and was proficient in literary classics, so he was mentioned as a common anecdote.Later, Liu Heng found out that no one ruled the "Shangshu" in the Manchu Dynasty, and heard that there was a man named Fu Sheng in Qi State who was a doctor in the old Qin Dynasty.But Fu Sheng is now in his nineties and has almost become a genius. If he wants to be recruited, it is really embarrassing for the old man.

Therefore, Liu Heng decided to let Taichang send someone to study with his class.The leader of Taichang took a fancy to Chao Cuo at a glance, but sent him to study in Qi State.When Chao Cuo returned to Chang'an after studying in Qi State, he was indeed a gilded man, and his mouth was full of "Shangshu".As the saying goes, rare things are precious, so Chao Cuo was promoted by Liu Heng as a prince, a doctor, and later a doctor. Dr. Chao Cuo, in addition to absorbing the strengths of various schools, also has another specialty, that is, policy theory.We know that policy theory is Jia Yi's masterpiece.If Jia Yi says he is second, no one dares to say he is first.However, after Jia Yi's death, if Chao Cuo said he was second, no one would dare to say he was first.To paraphrase the words of the madman master Li Ao: After Jia Yi's death, Chao Cuo ranked first in policy theory in the Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo ranked second, and Chao Cuo ranked third.

We can't find any clips of Jia Yi and Chao Cuo's relationship, but looking at Chao Cuo's life, many of his thoughts still cannot escape the shadow of Jia Yi.The most obvious place is that they all advocate Physiocratism and weak feudalism.The difference between the two is that facing the menacing Xiongnu from the north, Chao Cuo did not jump up and shout like Jia Yi, but made a surprising suggestion. Chao Cuo thinks this way: The Xiongnu are like those blood-sucking lice attached to the back of the Han Dynasty, which cannot be beaten or driven away.The only way is to set up a firewall to prevent problems before they happen!

About how to prevent this problem, if you want to talk about it, you must talk about it endlessly.However, in general, there are about two Chao Cuo firewall solutions: First, control barbarians with barbarians.The most powerful of the Huns is the cavalry, but even if all the cavalry of the Han Dynasty are added up, they are not as strong as a single county of the Huns.Use the weak to attack the strong, and you can win or lose without a fight.Therefore, if you want to deal with the Huns' cavalry, the only way is to introduce foreign aid and establish a Huns corps.In the dangerous areas, the foreign troops attacked; in the plains, the Han Dynasty chariot troops and bows and arrows attacked.The combination of the two and mutual support can constitute a perfect strategy.

Second, recruiting people to strengthen borders.The biggest advantage of recruiting people's strength is that it greatly reduces the cost of the country.The reason is obvious. The Huns, a nation on horseback, would come and rob as long as they had nothing to eat or clothes to wear, and they would run away when they were finished.As a result, the people of the Han Dynasty wanted to beat him, the farmers had to put down their work on the ground, the merchants had to stop their business, the soldiers had to leave their homes, and the emperor had to bear the humiliation and conquer himself.So once the Huns attacked, the whole country was in a hurry and restless.

This is the sequelae left by the Huns to the Han Dynasty.Chao Cuo believes that the best way to cure this sequelae is to encourage the people to move to the frontier fortress.The way to encourage is to give away all the food, accommodation and travel in the past few years for free.At the same time, the common people are rewarded for reclaiming frontier fortresses, and their taxes are exempted.More tempting conditions are yet to come: as long as you are willing to move to the frontier, the guilty will be forgiven; the innocent will be worshiped. In this way, the residents of the frontier fortress come to work in the spring and enjoy the wind in their free time; during the war, they defend their homes and the country, which can be described as the best of both worlds.

Chao Cuo is really talented.The real strategy lies not in whether he can make people feel excited, but in its feasibility.For Liu Heng, Chao Cuo's policy theory is really a timely rain.Therefore, he adopted them all and promulgated them. In the fourteenth year of Xiaowen (166 BC), in the winter, just over a year after Liu Hengqiang's border policy was implemented, the Xiongnu came out of their nests unexpectedly. This time, the Huns came fully prepared.The old Shang Shanyu led 140,000 cavalry, attacked from the flanks with lightning speed, captured the Northwest Frontier Fortress Chaona and Xiaoguan, hunted and killed the captain of the North, and plundered a large number of cattle, sheep and livestock from the people. null.

What is even more frightening is that the old Shang Shanyu burned and killed all the way.Overnight, the Xiongnu cavalry rushed to Ganquan like paratroopers.Ganquan, that is, the northwest of Chunhua County, Shaanxi Province, is only about 80 kilometers away from Chang'an in a straight line. The beautiful city of Chang'an is like a scroll looking forward to the Huns.The old Shang Shanyu seemed to tell Liu Heng that the north wind was too strong, we just wanted to come here uninvited, to stroll around the city, and spend the winter by the way! catastrophe!It seems that I have never been so close to Liu Heng!

At this time, the whole of Chang'an seemed to have experienced an earthquake, and fear shrouded the entire Chang'an city like a winter fog.Looted, the Huns came to rob.I think this should be the scariest sentence pervading the city of Chang'an at that time. Liu Heng, who had always endured humiliation and backed down, was finally forced to draw the knife. The primary task of the Han Dynasty was to defend Chang'an, and this task fell to the commander of the Chang'an garrison area (the lieutenant) and the commander of the court guard officer (Lang Zhongling).Liu Heng served as Lieutenant Zhou She and Lang Zhongling Zhang Wu as the general, mobilized 1,000 chariots and 100,000 infantry and cavalry to deploy outside Chang'an City, preparing to meet the Xiongnu.

In addition, temporarily pay homage to the generals and guard the three important battlefields.Their list and places to guard respectively are: Baimaohou Lu Qing as the general of the Shangjun, guarding the Shangjun (Yan'an, Shaanxi Province); worshiping the Marquis of Ningwei Wei as the general of the North, guarding the North; worshiping the Marquis of Longlu Zhouzao as the General of Longxi, and guarding the Longxi County (Gansu Province) Lintao County, Province). The above five people, except Lang Zhongling Zhang Wulu, who had met several times, were all new faces.There is no way, Liu Heng is also very sad.The old ones are dead, and the new ones don't stand out, so we have to make do with them.

When everyone was in position, Liu Heng suddenly announced: personally conquer the Huns. Liu Heng's brave action immediately frightened the officials.Everyone's unanimous attitude is: the Huns are sincere and hateful, and the emperor's price is even higher.With the enemy at hand, this is destined to be a fierce battle. What if something happens to the emperor?Isn't this a matter of self-disorder? Therefore, the officials of the Han Dynasty collectively dissuaded Liu Heng, and let him take command in Chang'an, instead of taking the risk of personally conquering.However, Liu Heng's attitude was extremely firm: No!I just want to personally recruit, and I want to let the old Shang Shanyu know what it means to come in horizontally and go out vertically! It seems that Liu Heng is really ready to go all out! At this moment, Empress Dowager Bo intervened.Empress Dowager Bo told Liu Heng: The Xiongnu must be fought, but you don't have to conquer it yourself.140,000 Huns, that's no joke.There are thousands of scholars and people, but only one emperor.If you love yourself, you love the people and officials.Don't you understand this principle? Faced with the stern questioning of Empress Dowager Bo, Liu Heng had no choice but to say: I understand. Liu Heng had no choice but to readjust his personnel: appoint Dongyang Hou Zhang Xiangru as the general, Ren Chenghou Dong Chi and the special mayor of the capital Chang'an (internal history) and Luan Bu as generals! At that time, in addition to using the barbarians to control the barbarians and mobilizing the frontier to strengthen the side, Chao Cuo also put forward another important opinion on the way to win the war against the Huns.This strategy is: to cultivate excellent generals.Chao Cuo thinks this way: there are only invincible generals, not invincible soldiers.Therefore, in order to secure the borders of the Han Dynasty and establish a great reputation, it is to cultivate excellent generals. What Chao Cuo said was correct.This is called, a thousand soldiers are easy to get, but a general is hard to find. However, excellent generals are like peerless beauties, who can be met but not sought after.It just so happened that neither Zhou Bo nor Guan Ying had trained one or two capable generals for the Han Dynasty.So, when they became immortals one by one, the Han Dynasty became what it is today. Before the battle, Liu Heng shouted that he would lead the army to conquer. From this point of view, the outcome of this battle between the unknown general and the veteran Shan Yu can be imagined.Of course, everyone in the Han Dynasty was looking forward to a miracle, and there would be one or two generals who took the lead. But the fact is that the expectations of the Han people fell through. As a result, this counterattack against the Huns was fought sparingly for more than a month.As a result, the old Shang Shanyu robbed the inside of the Great Wall for more than a month before the Han army finally drove them out of the Great Wall, and even the beheaded enemy troops were pitifully small. Now, the old Shang Shanyu has even more reason to be proud.He seemed to be addicted to robbery, and from then on, he would visit the border of the Han Dynasty several times every year.After grabbing the west side, grab the east side.To make matters worse, those people who risked their lives to reclaim wasteland on the frontier almost all became sheep under the knife of the Huns. Miserable, really just one word. Could it be that Chao Cuo's strategy of recruiting people to support the border is wrong? Of course Chao Cuo was not wrong.If there is nothing wrong with the border, it is of course impossible to rely solely on border officials.There is not a strong frontier army and a general like Meng Tian.These frontier officials will always be the meat of the Huns. yes!Liu Heng still lacks Meng Tian and an invincible border guard!