Introducing Li Mu, the Famous General of Zhao

Li Mu (? -229 BC), a native of the State of Zhao during the Warring States period, was an outstanding military man and commander-in-chief of the State of Zhao during the Warring States period. He was a minister of the State of Zhao, a general of the state, and was appointed as the ruler of Wuan in the State of Zhao. Li Mu's life activities can be roughly divided into two phases. The first phase was on the northern border of the State of Zhao, fighting against the Xiongnu; the latter phase was involved in political and military activities in the imperial court, with the main focus on defending against the State of Qin. During the reign of King Wu Ling of Zhao in 309 BC, Zhao ordered the state to adopt "hu clothing and riding and archery" and carried out a series of reforms, which made the state's military power gradually stronger and stronger. However, during the reigns of King Huiwen and King Xiaocheng, the Xiongnu tribes gradually regained their military power and harassed the northern border of Zhao. The king of Zhao sent Li Mu to lead his troops to take charge of the northern border. Li Mu was stationed in the northern border area of Dai County and Yanmen County (northwest of Dai County, Shanxi Province) to defend against the Xiongnu all the year round. He took strong measures to strengthen the fighting strength of the army according to the actual situation, effectively defended against the Xiongnu's intrusion, and won the love of the soldiers. His measures were as follows: Firstly, he appointed those whom he thought were capable to be his officers, and at the same time, he kept the collected goods and taxes in his own garrison office, which served as the daily expenses of his soldiers. Secondly, he slaughtered several cows every day to reward his soldiers and gave them favorable treatment. Thirdly, they practiced horseback riding and archery, emphasized the alarm system, and increased the number of scouts. Militarily, strict rules and regulations were laid down: "When the Xiongnu invaded and stole, they would rush in to collect and protect, and those who dared to capture captives would be chopped off" (The Records of the Grand Historian - The Biography of Li Mu). So every time the Xiongnu invasion, the tight alarm system to play a powerful, soldiers quickly returned to the barracks to defend, do not dare to go out to war without authorization. So the Xiongnu had nothing to gain from looting and plundering, but Zhao's army thus preserved its strength and did not suffer much loss in personnel and materials over the years, thus laying a material foundation for future opportunistic counterattacks. However, the Xiongnu people thought Li Mu was cowardly, and even the soldiers on the border of Zhao thought their general was timid and afraid. The king of Zhao rebuked Li Mu for this. But Li Mu remained as he was and did as he was told. Finally, he angered the king of Zhao and recalled him and sent another general to replace him. The new general arrived at his post for more than a year, and whenever the Xiongnu soldiers came to attack, he ordered his troops to go to war, which was often thwarted and lost, with heavy losses and casualties. The border areas could not be plowed and grazed on time. So the king of Zhao asked Li Mu to come back, Li Mu closed the door and insisted that he was sick. The king of Zhao pleaded again and again, and Li Mu proposed: "The king must use me, and I, as I did before, dared to serve the order" ("Records of the Grand Historian-Li Mu Lianzhuan"). The king of Zhao promised him. After Li Mu went to the border again, he still acted according to the original statute. In the course of several years, the Xiong Nu came to the border and gained nothing, but they always thought that Li Mu was too timid to go to war. The generals at the border were rewarded day after day without being used, so they all begged to fight with the Xiong Nu to the death. Li Mu saw the opportunity and prepared 1,300 selected chariots and 13,000 selected horses. He also organized and trained 50,000 warriors who were rewarded with a hundred gold, and 100,000 excellent archers. And the people were allowed to graze their livestock all over the mountains. Seeing this, Xiong Nu first sent a small force to invade. After the battle, Li Mu feigned defeat and left a few thousand men to the Xiongnu. Upon hearing this, Shan Yu led his army to invade Zhao, but Li Mu made a surprise attack and encircled the Xiong Nu army with his two flanks, destroying more than 100,000 Xiong Nu cavalrymen in one go. Then he took advantage of the victory to destroy Eaves Ragged, break Donghu, and subdue Linhu, and Shan Yu fled far away. For more than ten years afterward, Zhao's northern border was solid, and the Xiongnu did not dare to approach the cities and towns along the border of Zhao. Li Mu thus became the most important general of Zhao after Lian Po and Zhao Xun. As Li Mu ensured the security of Zhao's borders, Zhao's rulers and ministers were able to deal with the Qin's annexation wars without any worries. In fact, every political and military victory of Lin Xiangru, Lian Po, and Zhao Xue was supported by Li Mu's collaboration. Li Mu served in the imperial court after about 246 BC. He was transferred back to the court for state affairs, and as a minister he traveled to Qin to make a pact that led to the return of the hostage of Zhao. Two years later, King Mourning Xiang succeeded to the throne. At that time, Zhao Xie and Lin Xiangru had already died, and Lian Po and Le Shi had both left for other countries, so Li Mu became an important minister in the court. In the first year of the reign of King Xiang of Zhao (244 B.C.), Zhao sent Li Mu to attack Yan, capturing Wusui (west of Xushui County, Hebei Province) and Fangcheng (south of Gu'an County, Hebei Province). At this time, Qin quickly annexed a large part of Wei's land, and after forcing Wei to submit, it turned its main force against Zhao. In the third year of the reign of Zhao Wangqian (233 BC), Zhao's general Hu Luo was defeated by Qin's general Huan Yi (also known as Fan Yuqi) and lost 100,000 troops. Qin also attacked Zhao's rear from the northern road, the situation was critical, rushed to appoint Li Mu as the general, led the troops south to counterattack the Qin army, in Yian (present-day Artemisia County, Hebei Province, southwest of twenty miles) defeated the Qin army, more than 100,000 Qin troops, all were annihilated. Huan Yi only led a small number of his soldiers to break out of the siege and fled to Yan for fear of punishment. The battle dealt a heavy blow to the Qin state, and Li Mu was named Wuan Jun (武安君) for his achievement. In 232 B.C., the Qin resumed their attack on Zhao Bangu (south of Pingshan County, Hebei Province). Li Mu sent his troops to meet the Qin army and once again dealt a heavy blow to the Qin army, but Zhao also suffered a great loss of military strength. At that time, Han and Wei had already obeyed Qin's orders and attacked Zhao with Qin's army, for which Li Mu marched southward again to defend against Han and Wei's attack. In 229 BC, Qin sent Wang Jian to attack Zhao, which resisted with Li Mu and Sima Shang. When the Qin army was not allowed to advance, they bribed Guo Kai, a favorite minister of the king of Zhao, with a large sum of money. He spread the rumor in front of the king of Zhao that Li Mu and Sima Shang wanted to conspire against him, and the king of Zhao fell for the trick and sent Zhao Onion and Qi general Yan Ju to take Li Mu's place. When Li Mu refused to obey, Zhao set up a trap to capture Li Mu and killed him, and replaced Sima Shang. The state of Zhao was in the midst of a war, but it had kissed the sycophants and killed the good generals. Three months later, Qin general Wang Jian took advantage of the situation and attacked the Zhao army, killing Zhao Onion, capturing Zhao Wang Qian and Yan Ju, and the state of Zhao was destroyed. Comment: Li Mu was the most outstanding general of the six eastern states at the end of the Warring States period. He was y loved by his soldiers and people, and had high prestige. In a series of battles, he repeatedly attacked the enemy army without defeat, showing his superior art of military command. In particular, the Battle of Breaking Xiong Nu and the Battle of Fei, the former was a typical battle in the history of Chinese warfare in which a large regiment of infantry completely annihilated a large regiment of cavalry, and the latter was an example of siege warfare. He was killed innocently, which made Zhao destroy the Great Wall, and also made the descendants sigh with regret, and his experience was similar to that of Bai Qi, the Wuan Jun of the State of Qin. When Hu Sanxian annotated the Tong Jian, he linked Li Mu's murder with the demise of Zhao: "Li Mu was the servant of Zhao, and he was killed in order to speed up his demise." Sima Qian, in his Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), said that the king of Zhao was "advocated by his mother," and that "Suo had no behavior and believed in slander, so he killed Li Mu, his good general, and used Guo Kai to kill him." Sima Qian because of the king of Zhao and angry with his mother, see how righteous