The thunderbolt of Chen Tang’s battle to destroy the Zhizhi Shanyu was brilliant.

It seemed too easy for Chen Tang to win the battle to destroy Zhizhi Shanyu. A simple long-distance attack, less than two days of offensive and defensive battles, and the city was easily beheaded and captured. It was almost a completely one-sided battle, without any sense of suspense. But the seemingly easy victory was no accident. In addition to the military surprise factor achieved by Chen Tang's long-distance attack, it was also caused by the competition between the strengths of the Han and Hungarian sides.

First of all, the strategic situation has been turned upside down. I think back then, when Maodun Shanyu was in power, he defeated Donghu, conquered Yuezhi in the west, merged with Loufan and Baiyang in the south, conquered Hunyu, Qushe, Dingling, Gekun, Xinli in the north, and settled Loulan, Wusun, Hu It exposed 26 neighboring countries, unified the north and south of the desert, and controlled 300,000 subordinates. It was so majestic that the Han Dynasty, which had experienced wars for a long time and had just established a country, naturally found it difficult to lead it. From the founder of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, to the second emperors Wen and Jing, the Han Dynasty endured for decades and gathered strength for decades. The national resources accumulated over the decades were fully unleashed in the hands of the talented Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. After decades of war between Han and Hungary, the strategic situation began to reverse completely.

Times have changed, and the Zhizhi Chan has been in the era. The Huns have already lost Hetao, Longxi, Liangzhou and other strategic places for many years. It is not just that "the death of Yanzhi Mountain has made women colorless". With the strategic advancement of the Han Dynasty's continuous land reclamation, immigration, and transportation to the Western Regions, the Xiongnu's space for activities became smaller and smaller. At best, they could only make trouble in small countries. Compared with the Han Dynasty that had just experienced the "Zhaoxuan Zhongxing", it undoubtedly pales in comparison. One goes down and the other goes up. As a Xiongnu minister said at the time: "There is a time when there is strength and weakness. Now the Han Dynasty is prosperous, and all the countries in Wusun City are all ministers and concubines. The Xiongnu are weakening day by day and cannot recover. Even if they are so weak, they will never be safe for a day. What is happening now The Han Dynasty will live in peace, but if nothing happens, it will be in danger. How can we get past this!" This is the situation, and the situation is stronger than people - no Xiongnu Chanyu can change this strategic situation with a huge disparity in strength.

Secondly, there is an obvious gap in military strength. The battle to annihilate the Zhizhi Chanyu was not only Chen Tang's personal act of heroism by sending troops, but it was also an attempt by the Han Dynasty to fight against the nomads by gradually building up a complete military force (including institutional advantages) over the past decades. Practical test.

In the battle against the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty learned and modified while fighting. The various arms of the cavalry, chariots and infantry were constantly adjusted and reorganized. Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, cavalry has developed rapidly. During the Battle of Spring Mobei in 119 BC, the number of horses in the armies of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing alone reached 140,000, which was very powerful. In the end, the Han army's cavalry completed its transformation into a strategic service and became the first main force in the army. This enabled the Han army to use maneuverability to deal with the enemy's maneuverability. It could not only run long distances, but also detour, outflank, divide, encircle and annihilate, and win the battlefield. The active position on the ground, lethality and mobility are greatly improved.

Moreover, the Han army paid special attention to the combined operations of cavalry, chariots and infantry. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when Wei Qing went out to fight, he surrounded the camp with Wugang chariots (chariots with leather protection) for defense. At the same time, he sent 5,000 fine cavalry to attack the Xiongnu. On the basis of the continuous accumulation of actual combat experience, the Han army formed a set of tactics to defeat the enemy using cavalry in the field, infantry to attack fortresses, and chariots to defend, and their coordinated combat methods gradually became more sophisticated. In the battle to destroy Zhizhi, it was precisely because of the strong military strength of the Han army and the coordinated operations of various arms, both offensive and defensive, that more than ten thousand Kangju cavalry were unable to do anything against the tightly defended coalition positions led by the Han army, and they cried out in vain. What's more, the sophisticated weapons and equipment of the Han army are far beyond the nomads.

On the other hand, the Xiongnu have always been good at offense but poor at defense. Defensive warfare has never been the strength of the nomads, and their inherent mobility advantage has no use. Zhizhi Chanyu's biggest tactical mistake was that when facing more than 40,000 Han and Hu coalition forces and the enemy was outnumbered, he actually defended himself in the city, so that he drew the ground as a prison and used eggs to hit rocks. As a result, Shanyu City, which took two years to build, fell in one day and night under the strong attack of the Han army.

Napoleon said: “God always fights on the side of the stronger material force.

"Historical facts prove that in the face of the highly organized armed forces established on the basis of agricultural civilization, the nomadic peoples who have not yet completed the refined division of combat basically have no chance of winning. Facing the field military system and offensive and defensive weapons and equipment that the Han Dynasty has cultivated for many years, , with a tacit understanding of the combination of troops, how could Zhizhi not be defeated quickly due to a mistake in decision-making? From another perspective, in the battle to destroy Zhizhi, the Han army made reasonable use of its own advantages, attacked the city from a long distance, and attacked the city with great speed and beheaded cleanly. The whole battle process was as fast as thunder, faster than the roaring waves, and the victory was very beautiful. It dealt a heavy blow to the Xiongnu both militarily and psychologically.

Zhi Zhidan. After Yu Fu was executed, Hu Hanxie Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu was both happy and frightened - happy that his mortal enemy had been destroyed, but frightened that the Han army was powerful, so he made a third pilgrimage alone, even more respectfully, expressing his "willingness to defend Beichun." , have been proclaimed ministers for many generations." This was the famous "Zhaojun came out of the fortress". From then on, the fate of the Southern Xiongnu was completely tied to the Han Dynasty, and the northern border troubles since the Qin and Han Dynasties were eliminated in one fell swoop. Even later, when Wang Mang reorganized the system and the world was in chaos , the Huns were unable to take advantage of the situation. Just as Liu Xiang, the clan official of the Han Dynasty, said at the time: "(This battle) will show off the west of Kunshan, wipe out the shame of Guji, and achieve great success. All barbarians will be intimidated, and everyone will be afraid of the shock." "With one battle, Chen Tang achieved strategic success, and Chen Tang became famous all over the world. What is often talked about today is the famous memorial sent by Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang to Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty after the victory: "Zhi Zhi Shan Yu acted cruelly on the people, and great evil was forced on the heavens. Chen Yanshou and Chen Tang will use the righteous soldiers to carry out heavenly punishment, relying on your majesty's spirit to coordinate yin and yang to capture the enemy and defeat the enemy, beheading the heads of the Zhi branch and the famous kings below. It is advisable to hang your head in the barbarian mansion to show that those who are thousands of miles away will definitely attack the powerful Han even if they are far away!" His words are so breathtaking that they will last forever.

The famous general Chen Tang only fought this one battle in his life, but The First World War brought a successful end to decades of Han-Hungarian war and won long-term border peace for his motherland. As a general, what more can I ask for? Therefore, no matter how frustrated and difficult Chen Tang's subsequent fate was, His courage, strategy and talent are all like a bright star, shining brightly at the moment of victory, forever fixed in that night on the banks of the Talas River in Central Asia more than 2,000 years ago.