During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, a famous incident occurred - the Li Ling incident. More than two thousand years later, this incident is still controversial by the world. The main points of controversy are: First, is Li Ling a hero or a traitor?

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, a famous event occurred - Liling incident . More than two thousand years later, this incident is still controversial by the world. The main points of controversy are: first, Li Ling is a hero or a traitor? Is the treatment he suffered wronged? Second, . Is it too much for Emperor Wu of Han to deal with this matter?

In fact, one thing has not yet reached an accurate conclusion after being controversial for thousands of years, which itself is enough to show that this matter is an ambiguous thing. Therefore, it is not very meaningful to us to be too obsessed with a certain statement about the "Li Ling Incident". Instead, we must understand its causes and consequences logically, and extract the human factors hidden in it so that we can truly learn from history.

The ins and outs of the Li Ling incident

Li Ling was born into a general, and his grandfather was Li Guang, the famous flying general of the Western Han Dynasty. His father Li Danghu is also a well-known general. His two uncles Li Jiao and Li Gan were shot and killed by Huo Qubing for his two uncles Li Jiao and Li Gan were even more famous.

Although their old Li family has their own combat genes, their luck seems to be a little worse. His grandfather Li Guang fought a lifelong battle with Xiongnu , and brought out dozens of marquises of all sizes, but he could not be named marquis. In the end, he committed suicide due to being lost and was held accountable. His father, Li Danghu and uncle Li Jiao both died before Li Guang committed suicide. Li Danghu still left Li Ling, the posthumous son, but Li Jiao didn't even have time to stay. Finally, Li Gan, the young uncle who bears the fate and hope of the entire family, complained about Wei Qing because of his father's suicide and beat Wei Qing, which angered Huo Qubing, who was extremely murderous, and took the opportunity to shoot and kill him while hunting in Ganquan Palace .

Many people look glorious in front of people, but they often have a harder life behind them than us. For example, Li Ling, although she has the halo behind the general, she is actually a miserable fate.

Li Ling's family's combat genes are quite powerful. His ancestor Qin Dynasty Li Xin dared to show his strength in front of the famous general Wang Jian . Wang Jian needed 600,000 people to destroy Chu. He said that he only needed 200,000; his grandfather Li Guang can be called the Li hero of that era, and he will fight whenever he encounters the enemy, and he also likes to play personal heroism. His uncle Li Dan is as his name, and he will do what he doesn't accept, such as generals and generals of cavalry, and he will beat him when he should be beaten...

We often say that "personality determines destiny". In fact, the family genes of their old Li family, which have a strong fighting atmosphere, basically determine Li Ling's final destiny.

Emperor Wu of Han always liked to fight the Huns, and also liked to constantly explore and cultivate talents to fight the Huns. When Li Ling was young, he was appointed as the Shizhong and Jianzhang (the position Wei Qing first held) . After a period of observation and training, Emperor Wu of Han discovered that Li Ling was not only skilled in martial arts, but also got along very happily with the soldiers, very much like his grandfather Li Guang, so he began to deliberately train him in the military.

At first, Emperor Wu of Han ordered Li Ling to lead 800 cavalry, intending to hone the young man. Remember, when Huo Qubing first debuted, he only commanded 800 cavalry.

Later, Li Ling was still quite successful. once went deep into the hinterland of the Huns for more than 2,000 miles, crossed Juyan to detect the terrain, and successfully returned.

Emperor Wu of Han promoted his to cavalry commander , and led 5,000 Danyang Chu people warriors to station in Jiuquan , Zhangye and other places, becoming independent border generals.

Time has come to change Li Ling's fate in 99 BC. The Huns, who had been unable to kill, made a comeback again. Emperor Wu of Han had already shown confidence in the Huns during the period of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. He believed that this was the Huns who were seeking death. So he arranged for his brother-in-law, General 2, Li Guangli, to lead 30,000 cavalry to set out from Jiuquan to attack the Right Xianwang who was operating in the Tianshan area, and asked Li Ling to transport food and grass to Li Guangli's army.

Li Ling and his grandfather Li Guang have the same personality. He thinks he has all his skills, but he has to cover up, cooperate and do logistics for others. He feels very disgusting. So he took the initiative to propose to Emperor Wu of Han: the 5,000 brothers he trained were all skilled and had excellent martial arts skills, which was a good time to show his strength for the Han Dynasty. He hoped to form a single army and go to the south of Langan Mountain to disperse the troops that interfered with the Huns, so that we could only be the transport team of General Ershi, which was a bit too wasteful.

Emperor Wu of Han, who had been in power for a long time, knew Li Ling quite well, so he immediately said to Li Ling: ", you don't want to be a subordinate, right? But, I have sent so many soldiers and horses, and there are no extra horses to you!"

Li Ling, who was exposed to his mind, immediately took over and expressed his opinion: " does not need to give horses. I am willing to use less to attack more, and only use five thousand infantry to hit the Shanyu royal court."

Emperor Wu of Han agreed to his request and arranged for the strong harsh harem harem Bode to lead troops to support Li Ling's troops in the middle.

But the problem comes again. Lu Bode is also a veteran. Li Ling doesn't want to cooperate, and he doesn't want to. So I wrote a letter to Emperor Wu of Han: "It's just autumn that is when the Huns are fat, so you can't start a war with it. I hope to keep Li Ling until spring, and lead him to Jiuquan and Zhangye 5,000 cavalrymen to attack the east and west Junjishan , and they will surely win."

Emperor Wu of Han was very angry when he saw it. Why did he have so many opinions recently? even suspected that Li Ling and Lu Bode colluded with , so he ordered Li Ling and Lu Bode to send troops quickly, and to keep talking less, and asked them to report the content of their daily communication together.

So Li Ling led his five thousand infantry to set off from Juyan, marched north for thirty days, and camped at Junji Mountain. He also drew the mountains, rivers and terrain he passed through and reported it to the court, which made Emperor Wu of Han feel very happy.

As a result, this 5000 infantry squad was unlucky to encounter the main force of the Huns in Junjishan . When Li Ling saw the vast area of ​​30,000 Hun cavalry, he not only didn't feel very scared, but was a little excited.

The Huns, who had not gained a advantage in the Han army for many years, saw that Li Ling was few and excitedly commanded the army to rush straight to Li Ling's camp.

How big the face is, how big the eyes are, More than 30,000 Hun cavalry were killed and defeated by 5,000 Han infantry infantry, and after thousands of casualties, they fled to the mountain.

The Xiongnu Chanyu, who was unwilling to accept the revenge of the troops of Zuo Xianwang and the Youxianwang brought rescue troops, with a total of more than 80,000 people attacking Li Ling again. Although the Han soldiers were extremely brave, they were outnumbered in the end. Li Ling had to lead the troops and retreat, and was later besieged in a valley.

After rectifying the military discipline, Li Ling led his army to kill thousands of Xiongnu again, and then broke through to the southeast, retreated along Gulongcheng Road, and walked for four or five days, and was blocked by a large swamp reed.

The Huns even used fire attack, but were cracked by Li Ling using the method of clearing and space isolation. The angry Huns sent a large army to encircle Li Ling again.

At this time, Although Li Lingjun was in a dangerous situation, he fought to the death without retreating . He fought all day and killed more than 2,000 Xiongnu soldiers again.

The war came to this point, which made the Great Khan of the Huns a little doubted about his life. can't kill them, and it won't work if they don't fight them. 80,000 cavalry can't crush them yet when they fight against 5,000 infantry. How can we lead the troops in the future? How to shape the confidence of the grassland warriors? However, they retreated south while fighting, and the closer they were to the Bians. What if they were the army that lured the enemy and joined the main force? The Huns were ready to retreat.

However, at this critical moment, a military marquis named Guan Gan fled and surrendered to the Huns because he was humiliated by the captain, and told the Huns that the food and bullets had been exhausted and the troops were deployed.

When the Huns heard that Li Ling was actually at the end of his strength, he quickly ordered to increase the offensive and blocked Li Ling's retreat based on Guan Gan's information.

Another bloody battle. Although Li Ling's army killed countless enemies, it was hard to support it in the end and his vitality was exhausted. Li Ling even planned to take action to carry out the beheading operation himself - assassinate the Great Khan of the Xiongnu, but was dissuaded by his subordinates.

Finally, Li Ling, who was determined to die in the battlefield, summoned his subordinates to break through in a comprehensive manner, but his subordinates were dispersed in the war, and Li Ling and his party were targeted by thousands of enemies and had nowhere to hide. : Seeing his comrades around him fall down one after another, Li Ling felt like a knife, and finally, after the deputy general Han Yannian died in battle, he had no choice but to surrender to the Huns.

Li Ling was defeated at that time. In fact, the nearest frontier garrison was only more than 100 miles away. Only about 400 people escaped from Li Ling's army. These people spread the battle situation to the frontier and reported it to the court. At first, Emperor Wu of Han thought that Li Ling had sacrificed his life for the country and planned to give him some good care of Li Ling's family, but later he heard that Li Ling surrendered and immediately became furious.

As a result, in the court, there were criticisms and Li Ling was placed in the wind! Only Taishigong Sima Qian spoke up for justice, saying that Li Ling surrendered with all his might and led the opportunity to Li Guangli who was inaction.

Emperor Wu of Han, who never liked to listen to explanations, was like adding fuel to the fire when he heard this, so he ordered to put Sima Qian in prison and be punished with castration.

After a long time, Emperor Wu of Han gradually realized that Li Ling might have to surrender because of his isolation and helplessness. Therefore, it actively sent a friendly signal, and sent an envoy to condolences and rewarded Li Ling's remnants.

A year later, Emperor Wu of Han sent General Gongsun Ao to lead troops deep into the territory of the Huns to pick up Li Ling back. As a result, Gongsun Ao, who had not taken back, told Emperor Wu of Han that Li Ling was helping the Huns train troops to deal with the Han army, and he could not receive anyone at all.

Hearing that Li Ling was completely scattered, Emperor Wu of Han was furious, so he imposed the punishment of Li Ling's family as , and his mother, brother and wife were all killed.

After this incident, even the people in Li Ling's hometown felt deeply ashamed of Li Ling's betrayal of the motherland.

, and Li Ling, who heard that all his family was killed, said that he could never go back and eventually died in the Huns.

The above is the overall process of the "Li Ling Incident". In fact, there are many distortions or logical absurdities in it, which is also the fundamental reason for the controversy of this matter for generations.

logical sorting of the Li Ling incident

The "Li Ling incident" is actually put into the workplace, which is a black case caused by the collision of human nature. Among them are the reasons for Emperor Wu of Han’s partial belief and cruelty, the reasons for the exclusion and cunning of the ministers, and Li Ling’s own personality.

In order to help everyone thoroughly clarify the whole thing, we will conduct a logical analysis from beginning to end.

Li Ling is indeed very similar to his grandfather. He has personal abilities and tactical skills, but he is indeed a bit worse than understanding the rules and strategic structure of the workplace. His grandfather Li Guang finally committed suicide angrily. He was wandering in a foreign land and could not go back to his home. It seemed accidental, but it was inevitable.

young and energetic, arrogant, too eager to prove himself, likes indulgent management, does not pay attention to details... these are all problems that can be seen in his naked eyes.

In fact, Emperor Wu of Han still valued him more, otherwise he would not have entrusted important tasks when he was young.However, sometimes the leader's valuation will become a person's desire amplifier. always feels that since the leader values ​​me so much, it means that I must be an extraordinary person. As long as I can jump onto a broader stage, I will definitely achieve an extraordinary career.

Emperor Wu of Han used troops to the Huns, which made Li Ling feel that his highlight moment was coming. So he felt it was very difficult for Emperor Wu of Han to arrange for him to be the transportation captain of Li Guangli. He was the grandson of "Li Daxia", so how could he be the logistics captain of General Ershi who relied on nepotism? Isn't this disgusting me?

Therefore, Li Ling took the initiative to ask Emperor Wu of Han to lead his own army and stand alone. Let’s not talk about whether Li Ling has the ability and strength, but Li Ling’s actions are actually a taboo in the workplace. First of all, you are disobeying the arrangements of the big leader; secondly, you are openly breaking with the small leader.

Emperor Wu of Han had actually understood the thoughts of this young man, but he couldn't help but really like this young man who dared to fight and fight. So after proving all the difficulties, he finally agreed to Li Ling's request.

In order to win the opportunity to prove himself, Li Ling completely ignored the enemy's situation and the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy, and looked like he could do whatever he could. This is a sign of immaturity!

Soldiers are major events in the country and a place of life and death. Do you really think you are the god of war, and you dare to go deep into the hinterland of the Huns to face all kinds of unpredictable cavalry impacts? There is no joke in the army. Should you fulfill your various promises to Emperor Wu of Han? Are you responsible for the outcome? Have you carefully considered the safety of those "martial arts masters" under your command?

As an adult or a leader, You can never expect that after you make a big mistake, you can wait for others to forgive you, understand you, and sympathize with others. A truly mature person is to carefully analyze risks and deal with unknowns.

Besides, people live for a lifetime, and never think about problems from their own perspective, because we all live in a complex environment. You have made a promise with confidence to Emperor Wu of Han. Have you ever thought about the consequences? Have you ever thought about Li Guangli’s feelings when you openly leave Li Guangli’s leadership? If you don’t accept anyone, just obey your own actions, will other colleagues not accept you?

In fact, Li Guangli and Lu Bode are not very friendly to Li Ling, right? No one is willing to cooperate with you or support you, which basically means that you, Li Ling, cannot accomplish anything big! Your 5,000 infantry can only pray for good luck, encounter a small group of Hun soldiers, and then achieve a small victory; if you are not lucky and encounter a large group of enemies, without the cooperation and support of friendly forces, you are doomed to be a big defeat.

Winning is a small victory, and defeat is a big defeat. Why do you have to show off?

Judging from the final result, most of the tragic ending of Li Ling in was caused by his own digging. Lu Bode did not cooperate, Li Guangli did not support, his subordinates defected and sold, and the ministers in the court took the blame, and the typical wall fell and everyone pushed him.

The world criticized Emperor Wu of Han for this, but let's look back at the various treatments of Emperor Wu of Han. Although it is not so humane, it is actually not completely unreasonable.

tells you that there is no horse, and you say that infantry is fine; you are worried that you are weak, so you arranged for Lu Bode to support you, but Lu Bode is the same as you and is unwilling to attack others; I thought you had sacrificed your life for the country, but you were still alive; I sent someone to pick you up, but I was told that you were helping the enemy train... Under a series of disappointment, Emperor Wu of Han's overreaction is actually understandable.

By the way, Emperor Wu of Han actually had a legal basis for killing the Li Ling clan members. At that time, Hanlu did kill himself and kill his clan members for those who treasoned the country and surrendered to the enemy.

In addition, we need to note that Emperor Wu of Han did not immediately attack Li Ling's family after Li Ling surrendered. Instead, after a year, Gongsun Ao added fuel to the fire and angrily killed Li Ling's family.What does this mean? shows that Emperor Wu of Han always hoped that Li Ling could prove his innocence, which means that Emperor Wu of Han actually still had some expectations for Li Ling.

Of course, there is an inevitable link here, that is, why did Emperor Wu of Han not listen to Sima Qian’s defense of Li Ling?

First of all, Emperor Wu of Han, who was very fond of merit, had long been dissatisfied with Sima Qian describing some things about their Liu family in "Records of the Grand Historian", had long been dissatisfied with Sima Qian's defense; Secondly, if Sima Qian's defense was in line with his brother-in-law Li Guangli, and Li Guangli's sister Mrs. Li was his heart, and Li's family was also his weapon to fight against the Wei family. Finally, Sima Qian's explanations of are just speculations on . People have already "surrendered" to the Huns. You have no evidence that he is just pretending to surrender. How can it be convincing?

Back to Li Ling, this is indeed a tragic character, just like his grandfather Li Guang. Is it really not that everyone doesn’t enter the whole family?

Li Ling did pretend to surrender at the beginning, and there was indeed someone else who helped the Huns train troops. He was a surrendered general named Li Xu. Li Ling later removed this shameful traitor for the Han Dynasty. But it's too late to do these things.

has been made, and 's distant hometown is the hometown that Li Ling can't go back to. Even if you have fought for 80,000 cavalry with 5,000 infantry and annihilated tens of thousands of enemies, you may have a clear conscience, but under different time and space and various human natures, you have sent your family on a path of no return. When he went back to the Han Dynasty, how should Li Ling handle himself?

can no longer go back to his hometown, and a foreign land is also his hometown. Therefore, Li Ling, facing the various invitations of the Han envoy to return to China, sighed: "I am already a Hun!" is both helpless and sad.

For some friends who accused Li Ling of later marrying the daughter of the Xiongnu Shanyu, persuaded Su Wu to surrender, etc., they were actually a little blamed and begging Li Ling for everything. What can a person do when he is abandoned by his hometown and his tribe? Not alive anymore?

We talk about the principles and principles are actually good things, but in the final analysis, we must understand the rationality of a person's behavior. Li Ling did not really feel sorry for the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of Han was worthy of Li Ling to some extent, but there were various human constraints in this, which led to an indescribable knot between Emperor Wu of Han and Li Ling, pushing the matter into the abyss of tragedy .

Realistic Thoughts on Li Ling

Li Ling was very popular in history, mainly for two reasons: First, because Li Ling is indeed capable and has a miserable fate, people often give such people preconceived great sympathy and compassion; second, because Tai Shigong was implicated, and Tai Shigong's influence in history was too great, which amplified Li Ling's influence.

When people interpret the Li Ling incident, they often focus on the point of "Whether Li Ling is wronged or not", and Li Ling was indeed wronged. However, this is not of great significance to our realistic reference. is not successful or failure. How much significance can get from the right or wrong thousands of years ago?

What we need to do is to sort out some experience and wisdom from the Li Ling incident that can meet our needs in life and work.

In fact, people like Li Ling are widely present around each of us. has the ability, ideas and courage, but the final outcome is often not very good. Why is this so?

Let’s carefully sort out the root cause. In fact, whether it is life or work, our core orientation should be to achieve harmonious unity with the environment. environment includes people, things, things, etc. around us. We should adjust ourselves in time to find a matching state and method.

Li Ling is obviously just a person who has been staying in his habits and emotions. Once such people enter a certain dilemma, they are easily isolated by the surrounding environment and easily swallowed by the dark side of certain human nature.

Each of us wants to make achievements like Li Ling and go to a larger stage to prove ourselves. This is understandable, but we must also respect human nature and the objective laws of our actions.

Let’s find the leader to ask for tasks and opportunities. Never be as impatient as Li Ling, as if as long as the leader gives you tasks and opportunities, you can help the leader pick the moon in the sky.

Although the leader will involve some personal emotions when arranging tasks and arranging opportunities, his core purpose is still to look at the final result of the matter. Therefore, don’t make a promise to your leader in order to get the opportunity without meeting the conditions or not being sure.

Think twice before doing everything, analyze the situation and weigh the consequences. In order to prove himself, Li Ling desperately led 5,000 infantry into the heart of the enemy area, which is actually a very immature manifestation. If you fight, you don’t necessarily win; if you run, you are absolutely rare to run away. If things get messed up, how can you get a job? Before you can win, you can’t defeat first. This is the first choice for generals.

Even if Li Ling is quite confident in the 5,000 elite troops he trained (facts have proved that these 5,000 people can indeed fight), but when you act, you must also consider the constraints of human nature and environment!

You openly broke with the young leader Li Guangli and wanted to start your own business. Can Li Guangli feel comfortable? Since you can disobey the arrangement and ask for opportunities from the leader, will other people follow suit? Didn’t Lubode just follow the example? Do you really feel that you can be unimpeded by your own strength?

There are some details that can prove that Li Ling is surprisingly similar to his grandfather Li Guang. is not good at detail management and emotional management.

For example, his 5,000 subordinates are mainly composed of rangers with strong individual combat capabilities. Although such people work well when fighting, their military discipline and style are also prone to problems. You have to create a good team culture in daily life to eliminate this hidden danger. As a result, Li Ling discovered that there were women in the army on the eve of the second head-on battle with the Huns, which seriously affected morale.

For example, Guan Dan's rebellion also shows the problem. At the moment of the enemy, this kind of internal bullying has occurred. If this happens, Guan Dan successfully escapes. After Guan Dan escapes, he does not have the awareness and measures to deal with the crisis. This is a serious lack of a person leading the team!

Li Ling was defeated, but in fact he was not far from the frontier. They had lasted long enough. Friends actually had enough conditions to support them, but no soldiers helped them. After that, in the court, everyone took advantage of Li Ling's injury; in order to clear himself, Gongsun Ao lied to Li Ling for helping the Huns train troops.

These things look ugly, but this is the reality of human nature. can be said that most people are like this. Think about it carefully, why could Gongsun Ao take a group of brothers to save Wei Qing? That's the matter of offending Liu Piao , which is at its peak! Why do you have to frame you, Li Ling, for no reason? This is a lie that will be missed sooner or later!

In real life, many people like Li Ling, are too eager to prove themselves, but do not recognize and integrate into the environment, and finally force themselves into the dilemma of being alone. This is actually a flaw in knowledge and paranoid human nature.

people, you must always remember that even if you are covered with iron, you can’t get a few nails. If we want to accomplish things, our personal ability is important, but more importantly, the ability to mobilize and organize favorable resources around us. We cannot offend everyone around us to prove ourselves. Some people seem to have nothing to do with your career, but sometimes they can become the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

When you are smooth sailing, those "unrelated" people will naturally stand quietly by your side to watch your scenery; but when you are in trouble, those who feel that they have been insulted by you will definitely throw dirty water on you with the flow.

Although these human natures are sometimes cruel, that's it. We don’t be villains, but we must be careful of villains!

Li Ling is indeed a pity, sad and respectable, but in fact, he is slowly forced to become a pitiful person under the constraints of human nature?

but fails to get it, but instead seek it in your own way. When we encounter something that cannot fulfill our wishes, it will probably be a good thing to reflect on ourselves.