Li Guangli

Li Guangli led the Han army to Dayuan. He was the last general of the emperor Wu to take an army against the Xiongnu.^[1] In 102 BC he took Dayuan, the country of Ferghana, after two expeditions.^[2] In 99 BC he took 10,000 heads from the Right Worthy King. He was nearly lost with his army. In 90 BC he went over to the chanyu.^[3] The chanyu gave him his daughter and raised him in honour above Wei Lü. In the end, the Xiongnu killed him at a sacrifice.^[1]

The appointment, 104 BC

Li Guangli was the younger brother of Lady Li. The emperor Wudi favoured her, and she bore Prince Ai of Changyi.^[4] The Han court had sent envoys to Dayuan in great numbers. Junior men who had served on those missions told the emperor that Dayuan kept fine horses at the city of Ershi and hid them from Han envoys. The emperor loved the horses of Dayuan. He sent Che Ling and other strong men with a thousand pieces of gold and a golden horse to ask the king for the horses of Ershi.^[5]

The nobles of Dayuan met and refused. The Han was far away, they said. The way ran through the Salt Water, where many had perished. To the north lay raiders, to the south no water or grass, and the settlements were few. The Han envoys who had come in parties of hundreds had been short of food. More than half had died. Such a country could not bring an army. The horses of Ershi were the treasure of Dayuan. The envoys were angry and spoke rashly. They smashed the golden horse. The nobles of Dayuan said that the Han envoys had held them cheap. They sent the envoys away. At the eastern border, the king of Yucheng waylaid the envoys and killed them. He took their goods.^[5]

The emperor was furious. Men who had been in Dayuan, Yao Dinghan among them, said that its troops were weak. They said that no more than 3,000 men with strong crossbows would break it.^[5] The emperor had lately sent the Marquis of Zhuoye against Loulan. A force of 700 horse, arriving ahead of the rest, had taken the king of Loulan.^[6] He believed Yao Dinghan. He also wished to ennoble his favoured Lady Li. He therefore made her brother Ershi General and sent him against Dayuan.^[6]

The first expedition, 104 to 103 BC

The army was 6,000 horse of the dependent states and several tens of thousands of unruly young men from the commanderies and kingdoms. It was to reach Ershi and take the fine horses. The general was therefore called Ershi General. Wang Hui, the former Marquis of Hao, guided the army, Zhao Chengshi was its judge, and Li Duo, a colonel, directed its affairs.^[5] The annals of Wudi date the order to the autumn of the first year of the Taichu period, 104 BC.^[7]

West of the Salt Water, the small states in the way shut their gates and refused food. The army could not take them. Where one fell, the army ate. Where one did not fall, the army moved on after a few days. By the time it reached Yucheng, only a few thousand men were left. They were hungry and spent. Yucheng beat them back with heavy losses. Li Guangli and his officers agreed that if they could not take Yucheng they could not take the king’s city. They turned back.^[5] The march there and back took two years. At Dunhuang one or two men in ten were left.^[5]

Li Guangli wrote to the court that the road was long and food short. He wrote that soldiers feared hunger more than fighting. There were too few of them to take Dayuan. He asked leave to stand the army down and come again with more. The emperor was furious. He sent men to close the Yumen pass. Any soldier who entered it was to be beheaded. Li Guangli was afraid and stayed at Dunhuang.^[5] The order to close the gate fell in 103 BC.^[8]

That summer the Xiongnu destroyed the army of the Marquis of Zhuoye, 20,000 men and more. The ministers wished to drop the war on Dayuan. They wished to turn all strength against the Xiongnu.^[5] The emperor refused. If so small a country as Dayuan was not taken, he held, Daxia and the others would think the less of the Han. No good horses would come from Dayuan. The Wusun and Luntou would find it easy to plague Han envoys, to the laughter of foreign countries. He prosecuted Deng Guang and the others who had argued most against the war.^[5]

The second expedition, 102 to 101 BC

In a little over a year, 60,000 men marched out of Dunhuang, not counting those who followed on their own account. They took 100,000 oxen, more than 30,000 horses, and donkeys, mules and camels by the ten thousand. Fifty colonels and more served under him.^[5] The empire was in an uproar. Dayuan had no wells inside its city. It drew its water from a stream outside. Water engineers went with the army to turn the stream from the walls.^[5] At home, 180,000 garrison soldiers were put north of Jiuquan and Zhangye. The garrisons of Juyan and Xiutu were set up to guard Jiuquan. Two horse-masters went with the army to pick the best of the horses once Dayuan fell.^[5]

This time the small states met the army and fed it. Luntou would not open. The army stormed it in a few days and put it to the sword. West of Luntou it marched unopposed to the city of Dayuan. Thirty thousand men arrived.^[5] The army of Dayuan came out. The Han archers beat it, and it ran back into the city. Li Guangli did not attack Yucheng first, for fear that the delay would give Dayuan time to scheme. He went to the city, broke the water supply and moved the stream away. He then besieged it for more than forty days.^[5]

The outer wall fell. Jianmi, the bravest general of Dayuan, was taken. The nobles then agreed to kill their king, Wugua, who had hidden the horses and killed the envoys, and to give up his head. They sent it to Li Guangli with an offer. If the Han did not attack, Dayuan would bring out all its fine horses for the Han to choose from and would feed the army. They would kill the horses if the Han refused. They said that the relief army of Kangju was on its way, so that the Han would have Dayuan inside and Kangju outside. The Kangju scouts looked at the Han army and saw that it was strong. They did not dare advance.^[5] Li Guangli learned that Dayuan had lately taken Han men who knew how to dig wells. He learned that Dayuan had plenty of food. The head of Wugua had come, and the army had come to punish him. His officers agreed. He accepted the terms.^[5]

Dayuan brought out its horses and fed the Han. The Han took several tens of fine horses and more than 3,000 stallions and mares of middle grade and below. The Han set up Meicai, a noble of Dayuan who had treated Han envoys well, as king. They swore an oath with him and withdrew. They never entered the inner city.^[5] After Dayuan fell, Shangguan Jie took Yucheng. Its king fled to Kangju. Kangju gave him up. Shangguan Jie had four troopers bind him and guard him on the way to the general. The troopers said to each other that the Han hated the king of Yucheng. They said that bringing him in alive might in the end lose the great enterprise. None would strike first, until Zhao Di of Shanggui drew his sword and killed him.^[5] The Wusun had been told to join the army with strong forces. They sent 2,000 horse. The horse held to both sides and would not advance.^[5]

The Shiji puts the fall of Dayuan in the year in which the chanyu Xulihu came to the throne, 102 BC. It says that the Xiongnu wished to cut the Han army off on the way home and could not reach it.^[9] The annals of Wudi say that in the spring of the fourth year of Taichu, 101 BC, Li Guangli brought the head of the king of Dayuan and the blood-sweating horses. They also say that the emperor composed the song of the heavenly horses.^[7]

Of the army, 10,000 men and more and 1,000 horses and more re-entered the Yumen pass. The Shiji and the Han Shu say that food had not run short on the second march. They say that not many had died in battle. The officers were greedy and did not spare their men. Many died of it.^[5] The emperor overlooked the faults of a campaign of ten thousand li. He made Li Guangli Marquis of Haixi with 8,000 households. He rewarded his officers. The war had taken four years in all.^[5] The Han followed it with more than ten missions to the countries west of Dayuan. The missions were sent to seek rare things and to show the force that had taken Dayuan. The Han also set posts from Dunhuang west to the Salt Water. At Luntou, a few hundred farmer-soldiers were left, with an envoy to guard the fields and store grain for the missions sent abroad.^[6] Luntou, the Luntai of the later chapters, is placed at Bugur, not far east of Kucha. Its colony is the first of a series along the northern road.^[10] The emperor’s edict on Dayuan opens with the Xiongnu rather than with Dayuan. The Xiongnu, it says, have been a harm for a long time. Although they have moved north of the desert, they plotted with others to cut off the envoys to the Great Yuezhi and to kill Han officers. The states from Weixu westward, with Dayuan, then agreed together to kill Han envoys and close the road between east and west.^[4]

Against the Xiongnu, 99 and 97 BC

After Dayuan the emperor turned to the Xiongnu. His edict began with the siege of Pingcheng. Emperor Gao had left him the grief of Pingcheng, it said. Under the empress Lü, the chanyu’s letter had been insolent. The Chunqiu had praised Duke Xiang of Qi for avenging a wrong of nine generations.^[9]

The chanyu Qiedihou sent back the Han envoys he had held. He called himself the Han emperor’s child. The emperor sent Su Wu with rich gifts. The chanyu grew proud and received him rudely.^[11] In 99 BC Li Guangli went out of Jiuquan with 30,000 horse and struck the Right Worthy King in the Tianshan. He took 10,000 heads and captives and turned back. The Xiongnu then surrounded him in great numbers. He barely escaped. Of the Han soldiers, six or seven in ten were lost.^[11] In the same summer Li Ling went out of Juyan with 5,000 foot and met the chanyu in battle. He surrendered when his arms and food were gone.^[12]

Two years later, in 97 BC, the Han sent Li Guangli out of Shuofang with 60,000 horse. The foot soldiers numbered 100,000 by the Shiji’s count and 70,000 by the Han Shu’s.^[11]^[13] Lu Bode joined him with 10,000 men, Han Yue went out of Wuyuan with 30,000, and Gongsun Ao went out of Yanmen with 10,000 horse and 30,000 foot.^[14] The Xiongnu moved their families and baggage north of the Yuwu river. The chanyu waited on the south bank with 100,000 horse. He fought Li Guangli for more than ten days. Li Guangli drew off. Han Yue found nothing. Gongsun Ao fought the Left Worthy King, did not do well and withdrew.^[11]

The surrender, 90 BC

In 91 BC the Xiongnu of the chanyu Hulugu raided Shanggu and Wuyuan. In 90 BC they raided Wuyuan and Jiuquan. They killed two commandants.^[15] The Han sent three armies. Li Guangli went out of Wuyuan with 70,000 men, the censor Shangqiu Cheng out of Xihe, and the Marquis of Chonghe out of Jiuquan with 40,000 horse.^[15]

The chanyu sent his baggage away north of Zhao Xin’s city to the Zhiju river. The Left Worthy King drove his people over the Yuwu river, 600 or 700 li to Mount Doushu.^[1] The chanyu took the picked troops across the Guqie river.^[1] He sent a great general with Li Ling and more than 30,000 horse after Shangqiu Cheng’s army. They fought it for nine days. The Han broke their line and drove them back with heavy losses. At the Punu river, the Xiongnu turned away. Another Xiongnu force of 20,000 horse waited for the Marquis of Chonghe at the Tianshan. It saw that the Han were strong and left.^[1]

Against Li Guangli the chanyu sent the Right Great Commandant and Wei Lü with 5,000 riders to the Fuyangju narrows. Li Guangli sent 2,000 Hu horse of the dependent states. The Xiongnu broke, and the Han followed them to the city of Fan Furen. The Xiongnu fled, and none dared face the Han.^[1] Then Li Guangli learned that his wife and children had been arrested at home on a charge of witchcraft.^[1]^[16] His clerk Hu Yafu, who had joined the army to escape punishment himself, spoke to him. Li Guangli’s wife and household were in the hands of the officers, Hu Yafu said. If he returned and the court was not pleased, he would find the prison waiting. From north of the Zhiju, could he ever see them again?^[1] Li Guangli wavered. He wished to go deep and win merit. He marched north to the Zhiju river and found the enemy gone. He sent his army protector across with 20,000 horse.^[1]

On the far bank, they met the Left Great General of the Left Worthy King with 20,000 horse and fought for a day. The Han killed the Left Great General. Many Xiongnu fell.^[1] In the army, the chief clerk and a commandant said that the general had a divided heart and meant to risk the whole army for his own merit. They planned to seize him. Li Guangli heard of it and beheaded the clerk. He marched back to the mountain the Han Shu calls Suxie Wu Yanran.^[1] The chanyu saw that the Han were tired. He took 50,000 horse and attacked. During the night, he had a ditch dug in front of the Han army, several feet deep. He struck from the rear. The army broke up in confusion. Li Guangli surrendered.^[1]^[16] Li Guangli can be counted among the frontier generals whose careers crossed between the Han and the steppe. Others in this class were Zhao Xin, Zhao Ponu and the Xiongnu-born Wei Lü. Seen this way, expeditions against the Xiongnu did not depend on the court’s finding a competent general, because a whole class of such men stood ready on the frontier.^[17]

The annals of Wudi give the year as 90 BC. The Han Shu chapter on Zhang Qian and Li Guangli puts the campaign eleven years after the end of the Dayuan war.^[18] The Shiji chapter on the Xiongnu, as it stands, tells it differently. In it, Li Guangli goes out of Shuofang in 97 BC with 60,000 horse and 100,000 foot. He fights the chanyu for more than ten days. He hears that his family has been wiped out for witchcraft. He goes over to the Xiongnu with his army, so that of a thousand men one or two return. The chapter adds that the chief physician Sui Dan was arrested for having said that the family was destroyed, which let Li Guangli surrender.^[9]

Among the Xiongnu

The chanyu had long known Li Guangli for a great officer and a noble of the Han. He gave him his daughter and raised him in honour above Wei Lü.^[1] In the next year the chanyu wrote to the Han: “In the south is the great Han, in the north the strong Hu. The Hu are the proud sons of Heaven, and do not trouble themselves with small courtesies.” He asked to open the frontier gates and to receive a Han woman as wife. Each year the Han was to give 10,000 shi of fermented drink, 5,000 hu of millet and 10,000 bolts of silk. The old terms were otherwise to stand.^[1] The chanyu’s men put a question to the Han envoy about the revolt of the Han crown prince, of which Li Guangli had told them. The envoy answered that the crown prince had raised troops in a quarrel with the prime minister, who had slandered him. He said that a son playing with his father’s army was a fault for a beating. He asked how it compared with Bagatur, who had killed his father to take his throne and married his stepmother. That, he said, was the conduct of beasts. The chanyu held the envoy for three years.^[1]

Li Guangli lived among the Xiongnu a year or more. Wei Lü was jealous of his place. When the chanyu’s mother fell ill, Wei Lü told the Hu shamans to say that the former chanyu was angry. The shamans were to say that whenever the Hu went to attack, they had sacrificed to the troops and had always said that they would take the Ershi general for the altar of the soil. The shamans were to ask why this was not done now. Li Guangli was seized. “When I die,” he said angrily, “I shall destroy the Xiongnu.” He was slaughtered for the sacrifice.^[1]^[19]^[17]

Rain and snow then fell for months. The herds died, the people fell sick, and the grain did not ripen. The chanyu was afraid. He built a shrine for Li Guangli.^[1]

The Han had lost a Grand General and tens of thousands of soldiers. It sent no more armies out. Three years later, Wudi died. The Han Shu observes that for more than twenty years the Han armies had gone deep and pressed hard, until the Xiongnu were worn out. It adds that from the chanyu down the Xiongnu spoke of a settlement.^[1]

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Han Shu, juan 94
^ Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 61
^ Han Shu, juan 61; Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94
^ a b Han Shu, juan 61
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Han Shu, juan 61; Shiji, juan 123
^ a b c Shiji, juan 123
^ a b Han Shu, juan 6
^ Chavannes 1913, vi
^ a b c Shiji, juan 110
^ Herrmann 1910, p. 120
^ a b c d Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94
^ Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94; Han Shu, juan 6
^ Ögel 2015, p. 98
^ Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 6
^ a b Han Shu, juan 94; Han Shu, juan 6
^ a b Ögel 2015, p. 102–106
^ a b Lattimore 1951, p. 485
^ Han Shu, juan 6; Han Shu, juan 61
^ Ögel 2015, p. 108–109

Sources

Han Shu, juan 6, 61, 94 (after Shiji)
Shiji, juan 110, 123

Literature

Albert Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien. Beiträge zur alten Geographie Asiens, Bd. 1 (1910)
Édouard Chavannes, Les documents chinois découverts par Aurel Stein dans les sables du Turkestan oriental (1913)
Bahaeddin Ögel, Büyük Hun İmparatorluğu Tarihi II (2015)
Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (1951)