Ban Chao

Ban Chao

Ban Chao (32-102), Zhongsheng. Fufeng County Pingling county (now Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province) people. Ban Gu, the eldest brother and Ban Zhao, the younger son of ban Biao, a famous strategist and diplomat in the Eastern Han Dynasty, are also famous historians.

Ban Chao was ambitious and didn't pay attention to details, but he was respectful and scrutinized. He argued and read widely. Not willing to copy documents for the government, he joined the army, followed Dou Gu to attack the northern Xiongnu, and was sent to the western regions. In 31 years, he accepted more than 50 countries in the western regions and made great contributions to the return of the western regions. Official to the western regions Du Hu, Feng Dingyuan Hou, known as "ban Dingyuan.".

In the 12th year of Yongyuan (100th year), ban Chao asked to return to Korea because of his old age. Yongyuan 14 years (102 years), arrived in Luoyang, was worshipped as Shesheng captain. He died at the age of 71. After his death, he was buried on Mang Mountain in Luoyang.

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Life of the characters

Little ambition

Ban Chao is the young son of historian ban Biao. Although he is ambitious and informal, he is filial, respectful and hardworking, but he is not ashamed of it. Ban Chao had a good eloquence and read a wide range of classics. He often read Gongyang Chunqiu.

In the fifth year of Yongping (62), ban Chao's elder brother Ban Gu was called to Beijing as a school scholar. Ban Chao and his mother also moved to Luoyang. Ban Chao's family was poor, and he made a living by copying documents for the government. Later, he went to see the person who met him. The person who met him said, "although your ancestors are common people, you will be Marquis ten thousand miles away in the future." Ban Chao asked him why, and the person who met him said, "your forehead is like a swallow, your neck is like a tiger, flying and eating meat. This is the appearance of a Marquis of ten thousand li."

Later, the emperor asked Ban Gu, "where is your brother now?" Ban Gu said: "I'm writing books for the government and using the money I earned to serve my mother.". So the Ming emperor appointed ban Chao to be the commander of LAN Tai Ling, in charge of memorials and documents. But soon afterwards, he was dismissed for negligence.

Mission to the Western Regions

After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, the vassal states of the western regions broke away from the jurisdiction of the central dynasty and were controlled by the northern Xiongnu. After obtaining the manpower and material resources of the western regions, the northern Xiongnu's strength increased greatly, and repeatedly invaded the Hexi counties, making the people in the border areas unbearable.

In the 16th year of Yongping (73), Dou Gu, the commander of Fengche, and others sent troops to attack the northern Xiongnu. Ban Chao followed the Northern Expedition and served as a fake Sima (acting SIMA) in the army. As soon as ban Chao arrived in the military, he showed his unique talent. He led his troops to attack Yiwu (now the fourth West Fort of Hami in Xinjiang), and fought with the northern Huns in the Pu Lei Hai (now the Balikun Lake in Xinjiang), and gained a lot. Dou Gu appreciated his talent, so he sent him to the western regions with Guo Xun.

After preparation, ban Chao and Guo Xun led their troops to the western regions and first arrived at Shanshan (now southwest of Lop Nur, Xinjiang). At first, Shanshan king was polite to ban Chao and others. Later, he suddenly changed his attitude and became lax and indifferent. Ban Chao estimated that there must be a reason, so he said to his subordinates, "don't you realize that the attitude of Shanshan king has become indifferent? This must be the reason why some envoys from the northern Huns came here and made him hesitant to obey. A sober mind can foresee what has not yet happened, let alone what has been made clear now! "

So ban Chao called their Shanshan waiter and asked him unexpectedly, "I know that the envoys of the northern Huns have been here for several days. Where do they live now?" The waiter felt unexpected and had no choice but to tell the truth. Ban Chao imprisons the waiters in case of divulging information. Then, thirty six of his subordinates were immediately summoned to hold a drinking meeting. When he got drunk, ban Chao deliberately angered everyone and said, "you and I are all in a foreign land. We want to achieve prosperity through meritorious service. But now that the envoys of the northern Huns have been here for only a few days, the king of Shanshan will not treat us with courtesy. If the king of Shanshan sent us to the northern Xiongnu, wouldn't we all become the food of jackals? What do you think of this? " Everyone said in unison: "we are now in a critical situation. It's up to Sima to decide whether to live or die." Ban Chao said, "if you don't go into the tiger's den, you can't get a tiger.". The only way now is to attack the envoys of the northern Xiongnu by fire at night. They don't know how many of us are. They must be very afraid. We can take the opportunity to destroy them. As long as we eliminate them, the king of Shanshan will be scared out of his wits, and we will succeed. " Someone said, "this matter should be discussed with Guo." Ban Chao said angrily, "it's the matter whether it's bad or good. Guo Zhuozhou is a mediocre civil servant. When he hears about this, he will expose our plan because of fear, and we will die in vain and lose a bad reputation. This is not a strong man. " All the subordinates unanimously said yes.

As soon as it was dark, ban Chao led the soldiers straight to the North Hun envoys. At that time, there was a strong wind in the sky, and ban Chao ordered ten people to hide in the rear of the enemy's camp with drums. As soon as the fire started, they made an appointment to beat the war drums and shout loudly. He ordered others to ambush on both sides of the door with swords, guns and crossbows. After the arrangement, ban Chao set fire in the downwind. For a time, thirty-six people made a lot of noise. The Huns were in chaos and had no way to escape. Ban Chao personally killed three Huns, his subordinates also killed more than 30 people, and the rest of the Huns were buried in flames.

The next day, ban Chao reported the incident to Guo Xun. Guo Xun was first surprised, and then he felt unfair on his face. Knowing that he was jealous, ban Chao raised his hand and said to him, "although you didn't act with us, how can ban Chao have the heart to take the credit?" Guo Xun looks happy. Ban Chao then invited the king of Shanshan to show him the head of the Hun emissary. The king of Shanshan was greatly shocked and the whole country was terrified. Ban Chao was very comforting. Shanshan King expressed his willingness to submit to the imperial court and sent his prince to the Han Dynasty as a hostage.

After ban Chao completed his mission, he led the people back to work and reported the situation to Dou Gu. Dou Gu was very happy. He went up to show the process and achievements of the emissary. He asked Emperor Ming to send another emissary to the western regions. The Ming emperor appreciated ban Chao's brave strategy and thought that he was a rare talent, so he issued an imperial edict to Dou Gu, saying, "why don't envoys like ban Chao send him instead of selecting others? We can promote ban Chao to be the commander of the army and let him continue to complete the task of sending an envoy. " Dou Gu thinks that ban Chao has too few people under him, so he wants to give him some more. Ban Chao said: "I just need to lead the more than 30 people who followed me. If there is an accident, the more people, the more burden."

Ban Chao and others headed for the western regions, and soon arrived in Khotan (today's Hotan, Xinjiang). At that time, Wang Guangde of Khotan just conquered the state of Shache (now Shache in Xinjiang) and became the leader in the South Road of Tianshan Mountain. The northern Huns sent envoys to stay in Khotan to supervise it, but actually controlled the power of Khotan. After ban Chao arrived in Khotan, the king of Khotan was not very polite to him, and his attitude was rather cold. The wizard of Khotan said to the king of Khotan, "the God of heaven is angry. Why do you want to submit to the Han Dynasty? Han emissary has a good horse with black mouth and yellow hair. Please bring it to me as soon as possible to offer sacrifices to the gods! " The king of Khotan sent the prime minister to ask banchao for the horse privately. Banchao knew the whole story and agreed happily. But he asked the wizard to lead by himself. When the wizard arrived, ban Chao could not help but kill him, arrested private Lai Bi and beat hundreds of whip. Send the wizard's head back to the king of Khotan, explain the interests, and reprove him morally. The king of Khotan had long heard of banchao's killing of the Hun envoys in Shanshan, so he was quite frightened. He immediately ordered to kill the Hun envoys in the north and return them to the Han Dynasty. Banchao rewarded the king of Khotan and his ministers and successfully pacified Khotan. Therefore, all the countries in the western regions sent princes to Korea as hostages. The relationship between the western regions and the Han Dynasty was broken for 65 years, and then it was restored.

At that time, the king of Kuqa (now the eastern suburb of Kuqa County in Xinjiang) supported by Huns was unscrupulous in Tianshan Road relying on the power of Huns. He sent troops to attack Shule state (now Kashgar in Xinjiang) and kill his king. He also set up the name of Kuqa as Shule king. Shule state was actually in Kuqa's hands.

In the spring of the 17th year of Yongping (74th year), ban Chao took his men to the country of Shule. Ban Chao went to the place where douti lived, 90 Li from Jiatuo City, and sent his official Tian Wu to surrender douti. Ban Chao instructed: "douti is not a Shule man. The people of Shule will not serve him faithfully. If he refuses to surrender, he will be detained." Tian Wu came to see the topic alone. When I read the title, I saw that Tian was alone and didn't mean to surrender at all. Tian Wu took advantage of it and hijacked him. In this kind of emergency, the people under the handle of douti are scared to run. Tian Wu gallops on his horse and returns to banchao. Ban Chao immediately came to Jiatuo City, gathered all the civil and military officials of Shule, told them all kinds of unreasonable behaviors of kuci, and announced that he would set up another nephew of the former killed Shule monarch to be king. Shule people were very happy. Xinwang and a group of officials want to kill douti, but ban Chao starts from the overall situation and says, "killing him is not good for a big event. We should let Kucha know the power of the great man." After persuading people to release the topic, Shule also calmed down.

So far, ban Chao sent two envoys to Shanshan, Khotan and Shule to restore their relations with the Han Dynasty.

play off one power against another

In the 18th year of Yongping (75th year), Emperor Han and Ming died, and Yanqi (now Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in Xinjiang) took the opportunity of the great funeral of the Han Dynasty to besiege and kill Chen mu, the capital of the western regions. Banchao was isolated and helpless, and kuci, Gumo (now Wensu county and Aksu City in Xinjiang) and other countries repeatedly launched troops to attack Shule, a Han Dynasty dependent state. Ban Chao and Shu

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