Empire of Horses by John Man

Author:John Man
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

So much for the western campaign. What of the other one, in the centre, north of the Yellow River? It had had its successes, mixed with disasters.

It was plagued by disputes, because the eminent, elderly, feisty loose cannon Li Guang, veteran of seventy battles against the Xiongnu, demanded a chance to finish them off once and for all. But because of his age and perceived unreliability he was granted only a sideshow, leading his own contingent apart from the main force. That one, the main force, was under the command of Wei Qing, who in 119 BC headed north, across the Gobi – a three-week march, easily long enough for Xiongnu scouts to see them coming – and ran directly into the chanyu Ichise and his army. Wei Qing formed a laager with armoured wagons, Wild West fashion, making an effective defence against Xiongnu arrows. There were charges, and counter-charges, ‘carnage and slaughtering’ (in Sima Guang’s words) until late afternoon, when a dust-storm struck, one of those so-called ‘black storms’ that can shred tents and strip the paint off cars: ‘sand, gravel, pebbles and stones were sucked into the sky, pelting against the faces of the warriors … it became almost pitch black, so that the warriors could not distinguish friend from foe’. Then, as the storm passed, Wei Qing ordered a two-pronged assault, so astonishing Ichise with the size of the Chinese forces that he ‘clambered into a carriage drawn by six mules’ – mules rather than horses because they have greater endurance – and escaped to his tent-city capital several hundred kilometres to the north-west. ‘Shocked to the core,’ the Xiongnu scattered, while Wei Qing led a task force in a night-time pursuit of the chanyu.

Come the dawn, ‘they looked to the horizon. It was a desolate wilderness with no Xiongnu in sight.’ Arriving at a fortress built by a Xiongnu chief who had defected to the Han then defected back again, Wei Qing’s men fed themselves from the stores, trashed the place so completely its ruins have never been found, and returned to Chang’an.

Li Guang, meanwhile, had lost his way, and on returning, was arraigned before a military court. He was a model of decorum. Getting lost was all his own fault, he said, ‘my subordinates are not guilty of any blunder’. He was over sixty now, he went on, and ‘simply could not bear to face these petty bureaucrats’. Saying which, ‘he drew his sword and slit his own throat’. All his men ‘wept bitterly’ at the news, as did civilians young and old, whether they had known him or not.

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