Huo Qubing and Wei Qing, whom Huns feared most, died one after another. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty restarted the Northern Expedition, trying to make Zhao Ponu, an old subordinate of Huo Qubing, his concubine Li Guangli and Li Ling, the grandson of General Li Guang, repeat the glory of Huo Wei, but all failed. In the vast Han Dynasty, can't you find a general who can replace Wei Qing and Huo Qubing?
I really can't find it. There are countless famous soldiers in the Han Dynasty, but no one can copy Huo Wei's tactics, and no one has the quality structure of their officers.
Wei Qing's basic tactics are to penetrate the grasslands for hundreds of miles with the high mobility of cavalry, and attack the Xiongnu ministries. Under the guidance of the surrendered Huns, he looked for a place with abundant water and grass to March, so as not to make it difficult for the army to March because of hunger and thirst. He also sent scouts and cavalry to capture prisoners for interrogation, scout the enemy's position, and then launch a surprise attack in lightning speed. After defeating the enemy, Wei Qing often plundered cattle, sheep and horses, destroying the economic base of the Huns. With this set of tactics, Wei Qing repeatedly made meritorious military service and was promoted from a general riding a horse to a general.
The generals of the Han army have been transformed into riding generals, and they have repeatedly followed the generals to attack the Huns. One of the people who got the essence of Wei Qing's art of war was his nephew Huo Qubing. Huo Qubing's tactics are equivalent to an improved version of Wei Qing's tactics. He pursues higher marching speed and a wider range of mobile warfare, and a raid is often as long as two thousand miles.
The battle of Mobei can best reflect the tactical characteristics of the two famous soldiers.
Wei Qing beat a oblique khan, only after more than two hundred miles and stopped. This distance is equivalent to two days for infantry and one day for cavalry during the Warring States period, which is relatively stable. Wei Qing's troops are inferior to Huo Qubing's in manpower. In the decisive battle, Li Guang and Zhao Shi were also absent, with little strength advantage. So, he didn't go deep into Mobei, burned the hay of Xiongnu Zhao Xincheng, and moved troops back to the DPRK.
Huo Qubing pursued the left kings of the Huns, constantly robbing the enemy of food and materials, and didn't stop pursuing until he fought wolves in Xushan and Hanhai. Wei Qinghan captured 19,000 soldiers first, and suffered heavy casualties. Most of the horses were killed. Huo Qubing's Han army wiped out more than 70,000 enemy troops with a mortality rate of 30%, with minor casualties, but most of the losses of the Han army's military forces were on this road.
Huo Wei's tactics are different, but all roads lead to the same goal. Its core spirit is to give full play to the mobility of cavalry to carry out surprise attacks, and then to pursue the defeated enemy continuously.
In order to make good use of Huo Wei's tactics, battlefield commanders should not only have superb riding and shooting skills, but also have a clear understanding of the overall situation of the battlefield. Only in this way can we accurately capture the center of gravity of the constantly flowing Xiongnu troops on the vast grassland and launch a thunderous blow to the enemy's weak links. In the Western Han Dynasty, few generals could do this except Wei Huo.
After the death of Huo Wei, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent people out of the fort for thousands of miles to search for the Huns. He clearly wanted to copy the successful experience of champion Hou, but it backfired.
For example, Zhao Ponu once led more than 20,000 cavalry out of more than 2,000 miles northwest of Shuofang, intending to go to Xunji Mountain and return to North Korea, only to be discovered by the Huns. Xiongnu Khan kept sending troops. After killing thousands of enemy soldiers, Zhao Ponu was surrounded by 80,000 Hu Qi and was unfortunately captured. Li Guang, the general of the Second Division, rode out of Jiuquan with a rate of 30,000, attacked right Wang Xian in Tianshan Mountain, and captured more than 10,000 enemies. Who knows that the Han army was surrounded by the Xiongnu army on the way back to the division, and the soldiers were killed in nine cases out of ten.
What these failures have in common is to win first and then lose. After the Han army defeated the enemy, the Huns quickly assembled into a heavy group and ambushed each other on their way home, resulting in the Han army being outnumbered.
Fighting on the grassland is problematic. The cavalry groups of Han and Hungary moved rapidly and their positions changed constantly, so it was difficult to form a siege. Whoever finds each other first and quickly gathers troops to form a formation will win the initiative. In short, we should combine fighting and keep exercising.
Huo Qubing always tries to feed on the enemy, support the war by fighting, and sprint lightly. After each successful surprise attack, he just replenished his own supplies with the enemy's supplies, then abandoned the rest of the spoils and continued to attack the next target. The Han army under the command of a title of generals in ancient times is always elusive. When they win, they act quickly and don't give each other a chance to fight back.
In BC 12 1 year, Huo Qubing took only 10,000 cavalry out of Longxi, fought for six days, crossed Yanqi Mountain thousands of miles, and fought with five Attila successively. This sudden attack without warning caught the kings on the right side of the Huns off guard. Because the Han army moved too fast, the Xiongnu couldn't keep up with the progress at all. When they wake up, they can't find anyone.
This ingenious movement tactics enabled the Han army in Huo Qubing to defeat the Huns scattered thousands of miles away. On the offensive speed alone, even Wei Qing can't catch up with Huo Qubing, let alone other generals.
Most generals of the Han army can't combine walking with fighting. In the war, they relied too much on the trench, their action route was single, their tactics were dull, and their judgment of the enemy was far less accurate than that of Huo Qubing. All this left the Huns with time and fear to reorganize their counterattack. When they imitated the champion's playing style of two thousand li, the shortcomings of slow fighting pace were exposed more thoroughly. It is still difficult to get away with it, and it is even more hopeless to defeat the enemy.
Although the Han Dynasty was able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, the expeditionary forces that attacked the Huns in the north were mostly in the scale of 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000, and rarely invested more than 50,000 troops. Even if hundreds of troops, it is also a converging attack. The army took different routes, and each route was divided into 10 thousand to 30 thousand riding legions, and they met somewhere outside the Great Wall according to the agreed time limit.
The reason for this is that the logistics consumption of cavalry expedition is far greater than that of infantry. Xiongnu itself is a nomadic economy, and logistics materials flow around with the cavalry regiment, so there is no worries. The Han army lacked a supply base on the grassland beyond the Great Wall and relied more on its own food and grass.
Confrontation can reduce the logistics burden, but there is also the risk of being breached by Hu Qi. The key to victory lies in close cooperation, and the key to cooperation lies in a commander's unified command and dispatch of generals.
Throughout the previous converging attacks of the Han army, only two were controlled by a general. More often, there is no supreme commander, and each will only fight together after the rendezvous. The deployment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was also out of helplessness. Because Wei Qing is the only one who is really suitable to be the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces and take control of the overall situation.
In BC 124, Wei Qing, the general of riding a chariot, led more than 100,000 people to the Xiongnu Right King Xian Department and personally led 30,000 sharp riders. The rest of the troops belong to six generals. The following year, Wei Qing, promoted to general, led six generals to the Northern Expedition again. The Han army invested more than 10,000 cavalry/kloc-0,000, and successively captured more than 10,000 enemy troops/kloc-0,000, but lost 2 generals and more than 3,000 cavalry.
In the Battle of Mobei, Huo Wei received 50,000 cavalry each, and they were not subordinate to each other. The difference is that Wei Qing has four lieutenants, while Huo Qubing has no lieutenants. Only senior colonel Li Gan and others act as lieutenants. The arrangement of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fully considered Huo Wei's command style.
Huo Qubing likes to take the lead, wipe out a thousand troops, play sports warfare in the most concise and lively way, and only choose brave and sharp people to fly with him. Wei Qing can give full consideration to the strength of each army, find out the most reasonable way of coordinated operations, and let many war generals with average abilities make contributions.
Since the death of Wei Qing, there has been no such commander in chief in the Han army. The shortcomings of the general's ability were completely exposed when they led the troops alone, and they were not good at fighting in Hungary. Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, who had high hopes from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, went to war many times, often winning first and then losing. He commanded hundreds of thousands of troops to fight against Huns Khan, but he still lost. Li Guangli finally surrendered to Xiongnu because of defeat, which was the last Northern Expedition of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.
According to the theory of officers' quality put forward by Wang Xiangsui and Qiao Liang, the quality structure of officers can be divided into three basic types: biased, balanced and lacking.
The characteristics of biased officers are that one or more qualities are in a dominant position and the score is obviously higher than other qualities. Hou Huo Qubing, the top scholar, is a typical upright official. He used his troops flexibly, but what impressed the world the most was the "courage and resourcefulness" of the champion Hou.
The characteristic of a balanced officer is that there is no obvious shortcoming in all aspects of quality and he has reached a harmonious and balanced state. Chang Pinghou has the advantages of wisdom, faithfulness, courage and strictness, and can't find faults, which fully conforms to the definition of soldier Sun Wu as a model soldier.
Missing officers are characterized by obvious defects in some qualities and cannot successfully complete major combat tasks. Li Guang, a flying general whose reputation far exceeds his record, is the best example. His riding and shooting skills may be better than Huo Wei's, but his performance in command, army management and training is mediocre. To make matters worse, Li Guang got lost and was besieged more times than anyone else. He obviously can't carry the banner of anti-Hungarian cause.
The quality structure of other Han generals is also mostly missing. Gong Sunhe and Gong Sunao followed Wei Qing to war and often failed. Li Xi made great achievements when he cooperated with Wei Qing, but his performance was mediocre when he led troops alone. Li Guang's cousin Cai Li has more political talent than military talent. Su Jian was once destroyed by Huns and escaped alone. Zhao and Li Guang got lost together in the Battle of Mobei. Han said that the record was acceptable, but the ability to unify troops was average. Li Guangli is useless. Zhao Ponu is Huo Qubing's subordinate, belonging to the official type. He fought bravely, performed well under the command of Huo Qubing, led the troops alone, and had a lot of time difference.
On the whole, although Wei Qing and Huo Qubing have different types of quality structure, their comprehensive ability is much stronger than others. Although Huo Qubing is partial, his shortcomings do not constitute a dead hole, but the quality of "courage" is particularly prominent. Rising stars Lubbock and Zhao Chongguo are balanced officers, but their command style is moderate, which is not the same as Huo Wei's agility, and they are not good at dispatching people.
In a word, the quality structure of people in the Han army determines that they are more suitable to be Huo Wei's subordinates, but it is difficult to flexibly use Huo Qubing's unique tactics, let alone become Wei Qing-style commanders. After repeated attempts, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally confirmed this point. He can only give up the dream of completely destroying the Huns and let the soldiers and civilians who are tired of inefficient wars recuperate.