Author: Our special guest author Chongsen
The classic American war film "Saving Private Ryan" tells the story of a small detachment of American troops who went behind enemy lines to save Alane, a paratrooper, during World War II. Its wonderful battle scenes left a deep impression on the audience, but Chinese audiences may not know that nearly two thousand years ago, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a war in the land of China under our feet that was more difficult and exciting than saving the soldier Ryan.
First, Geng Gong insisted on sticking to Shule City
During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty repeatedly sent troops to attack the Xiongnu in the north, Le Shi JiGong, Bu Han Guo wei in the four directions, and set up the Western Regions Capital Protectorate to manage the affairs of the Western Regions. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, although it intended to run the capital protectorate, the military might was far less powerful than before, so the Xiongnu were eager to move and wanted to regain hegemony in the western region, which was the background of the story.
The protagonist of our story is called Geng Gong, born into the Shomen family. His uncle was Geng Yi, the famous founding general of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Geng Gong's father died early, and at a young age, he developed a tenacious heart and became his spiritual weapon for victory on the battlefield. In the sixteenth year of Yongping, Geng Gong was sent to Jinpucheng as a lieutenant to consolidate the Western Regions Capital. Jinpu City is the land north of Qitai in Xinjiang, which was a dangerous place with extremely harsh environment and difficult for people and animals to survive at that time. Geng Gong did not regard this assignment as a kind of torture, on the contrary, he thought that he could establish more valuable feats in this distant and difficult place, but he did not know that he could create such a great miracle later.
In the seventeenth year of Yongping, the Xiongnu fought without a declaration, and more than 20,000 knights invaded the Western Regions Capital Protectorate set up by the Han court. Since Jinpu City was an important pass stuck in the throat of the Tianshan Mountains, the Huns had to pull out of it. Facing the black clouds under the city walls, the Xiongnu knights were only hundreds of Han Jia Erlang behind them. But Geng Gong did not panic, organized the soldiers to wipe the arrows with poison, and suppressed the enemy with a bow and arrow with poison, the Xiongnu army was caught off guard, the arrow was not dead at the time, but the poison on the arrow made them live or die, and the Huns were forced to withdraw. But they did not expect that Geng Gong dared to pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger, and that night he led hundreds of Han troops to attack the Camp of the Xiongnu at night. The Xiongnu saw that the Han army was killed like a divine soldier descending from heaven, and exclaimed: "Han army, the gods are also!"
But Geng Gong was not a brave man, and he knew that with his strength of several hundred men it would be difficult to resist the Xiongnu's 20,000 cavalry, although he unexpectedly fought two victories. The worst thing is that the road for han reinforcement is completely blocked, and they are really fighting alone. So he moved his troops to the neighboring city of Shule and defended it according to the more dangerous terrain. The Huns hated this hundred-man army to the bone, and they were bound to destroy the city and slaughter it all. Geng Gong repeatedly launched a flexible counterattack based on the terrain, and the Huns' repeated onslaughts were defused one by one. But the materials in shule city could not be supplied, the grain was decreasing day by day, the warriors could only kill the horses to eat horse meat, remove the leather on the armor and cook it to eat, if it were not for the fact that a deep well was later drilled, Geng Gong and the generals would die of hunger and thirst even if they were not buried under the Xiongnu sabers. Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, the war lasted for a year, and if it were not for Geng Gong leading the warriors to support themselves, they would have died here long ago. Every time after a fierce battle, Geng Gong would look at the rivers and mountains in the east, hoping that a flag of the face would fly in front of his eyes.
2. Disputes in temples
In Chang'an, thousands of miles away from Shule City, a political earthquake was taking place at this time. In the seventeenth year of Yongping, emperor Ming of Han, who had appointed Geng Gong, died. By the time the new emperor ascended the throne and dealt with all affairs, it was already eighteen years of Yongping, and more than a year had passed since the Xiongnu attacked Shule City, and the courtiers remembered the distant western capital protectorate. On whether to rescue Geng Gong, the courtiers engaged in a fierce debate.
The ministers represented by the famous minister Sikong Fifth Lun believed that the war had been over a year, and their lives and deaths were uncertain, and there was little point in sending troops to rescue them at this time. Situ Bao Yu, on the other hand, refuted him, and his remarks had the effect of pulling out thousands of people: "Now people are in a place of danger, and they are abandoned in a hurry, and on the outside they indulge in barbarism, and inside they hurt and die." If they are not saved at this time, if the Xiongnu re-offend Sai Wei Kou, what will His Majesty do! "At present, our warriors are clinging to the frontier, and if they are abandoned, they will indulge the tyranny of the enemy and hurt the hearts of other soldiers in our country." At this time, if you do not go to the rescue, the Xiongnu will march into Kou again, and what else can Your Majesty do to win the loyalty of the soldiers! As soon as the loud words came out, the entire court was silent. For a long time, the young Emperor Zhang of Han issued a decree that the three counties of Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, and shanshanguo would join forces to send out the Western Regions to rescue Geng Gong!
Third, a thousand miles of rescue
Along the way, the Han army was invincible, and successively defeated the combined forces of the Xiongnu and cheshi who came to obstruct it, "beheading 3,800 levels ... The Northern Prisoners were frightened away, and the Che Division returned to surrender, "However, when the troops marched to a place in Liuzhong City, there were internal differences. In front of Liu Zhongcheng was the Tianshan Mountain, and he had to cross the Tianshan Mountain to rescue Geng Gong in Shule City. But at that time, it was already a snow-capped mountain, and the Tianshan Mountain was high in altitude, and in ancient times, there was no oxygen delivery equipment, and the weapons and armor loaded by individual soldiers were extremely heavy, and it was really unimaginable to cross the Tianshan Mountain. Many generals also believed that there was no need to risk rescuing an army whose life and death were unknown. There was only one person who resolutely opposed it, that is, Geng Gong's former general Fan Qiang, who firmly believed that his commander had a superior ability and would not be sacrificed like this, and the other generals did not embarrass Fan Qiang, but only gave him two thousand men and horses.
There is no record in the historical records, and it is difficult for us to imagine how Fan Qiang's troops braved the cold and snow to carry heavy materials over the thin air of the Tianshan Mountains in the western region, which was like a knife. The historical records only record that Geng Gong suddenly heard the sound of soldiers and horses, thinking that the Xiongnu had come to attack the city again, but it turned out to be the banner of the Han family, "The city heard the sound of soldiers and horses at night, thinking that they were coming, and they were shocked." Qiang Nai yao exclaimed, "I Fan Qiangye." The Han army greeted the lieutenant's ear. "The city is called Long Live." Open the door and weep together. A strong army and another strong army finally met at this time, and at this time, Geng Gong's army was only twenty-six people. The next day they began their return to Han, and they broke through the pursuit of the Huns, and along the way, some of Geng Gong's twenty-six people continued to fall seriously ill and die on the road. When they reached the Jade Gate Pass of the Han Dynasty, there were only thirteen people left. The guards of Yumen Pass saw this heroic force returning to Han and were touched to personally bathe and change their clothes and ask for merit and rewards. After Bao Yu heard about Geng Gong's deeds, he praised his temperament as comparable to Su Wu.
epilogue
This is the story of our Chinese our own salvation soldiers, which embodies our unique heroic spirit that continues today: even if there are all kinds of difficulties and dangers, as long as it is our Chinese territory, we will protect him at all costs; the slogan of not abandoning and not giving up is also circulating in our great People's Liberation Army. This is our hero, this is our hero story.
References: Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Zizhi Tongjian
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