In 140 BC, a maid named Wei Shao'er gave birth to a son at the residence of the Marquis of Pingyang.
His father, Huo Zhongru, was a low-ranking official in Pingyang who dared not acknowledge him. His mother was a maid in the marquis's household. The child had no respectable lineage to speak of. No one could have imagined that one day his name would be carved into the history books and strike fear into the Xiongnu.
His name was Huo Qubing.
At eighteen, he went on his first campaign. Refusing reinforcements from his uncle Wei Qing, he volunteered to lead eight hundred cavalry deep into the southern desert, killing 2,028 enemies and capturing a Xiongnu chancellor and a Danghu, as well as taking the Chanyu's grandfather captive. Emperor Wu of Han was overjoyed and made him the Marquis of Champion.
At nineteen, he led two campaigns in Hexi. His cavalry crossed the Yanzhi and Qilian Mountains, annihilating forty thousand enemies and forcing the King of Hunxie to surrender to the Han with forty thousand men. The Hexi Corridor thus became part of Han territory.
At twenty-one, he fought in the decisive campaign in Mobei. He and General-in-Chief Wei Qing led separate forces deep into Mobei, two thousand li, annihilating seventy thousand enemies and capturing eighty-three men, including the Xiongnu kings Tuntou and Han. He built an altar on Mount Langjuxu to offer sacrifices to Heaven, performed the earthly rite on Mount Guyan, then returned from the shores of the great lake. This was the farthest the iron cavalry of the Han had ever traveled.
For the next thousand years, “sealing Mount Langjuxu” became the highest honor a general could attain.
At twenty-three, he died suddenly in Chang'an.
This is no fictional tale. This is the real Huo Qubing, who spent twenty-three years becoming the most dazzling light in the history books.
