Ban Chao joins the army

After Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty established the Eastern Han Dynasty, he hired a great scholar named Ban Biao to organize the history of the Western Han Dynasty. Ban Biao had two sons named Ban Gu and Ban Chao, and a daughter named Ban Zhao, both of whom studied literature and history with their father since childhood.

After Ban Biao's death, Emperor Ming of Han asked Ban Gu to be the magistrate of Lantai and continue to finish the history book written by his father, which was the Book of Han (a book recording the history of the Western Han Dynasty). Ban Chao followed his brother to do the transcription work. Both of them were very learned, but they had different temperaments. Ban Gu liked to study the doctrines of the hundred schools of thought and concentrated on writing his Book of Han. Ban Chao did not want to stay at his desk to write. When he heard that the Xiongnu were constantly invading the frontier and plundering the inhabitants and livestock, he threw away his pen and said angrily, "A great man should go to the outside of the country to make his mark like Zhang Qian, how can he die in his study."

Thus, he decided to leave his desk job and join the army (in Chinese, it is called "throwing in the pen and joining the army").

In 73 A.D., General Dou Gu sent troops to fight the Xiongnu, and Ban Chao served under him as an acting secretary and made a great achievement.

In order to resist Xiongnu, Dou Gu wanted to adopt the method of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and sent people to contact the countries in the western region to fight against Xiongnu together. He appreciated Ban Chao's talent and sent him as a messenger to the western region.

Ban Chao went to Shanshan (Shan sounded shàn in the territory of Xinjiang) first with an entourage of thirty-six people. Shanshan was originally attached to Xiongnu because Xiongnu forced them to pay tribute and extort money, and the king of Shanshan was very dissatisfied. But for decades, the Han Dynasty could not take care of the western region, so he reluctantly listened to the Xiongnu's orders, and when he saw that the Han Dynasty had sent an envoy, he was quite attentive to them.

After a few days, Ban Chao noticed that the Shan Shan king suddenly treated them coldly. When he became suspicious, his followers said, "Can you see that? I guess it must be the Xiongnu's messenger who arrived here."

However, it was only a guess after all. It happened that the Shanshan King's servant brought wine and food. Ban Chao acted as if he knew it already and said, "How many days have the Xiong Nu's envoys been here? What is the place of residence?"

The King of Shanshan was dealing with the Xiongnu envoy, which was originally hidden from Ban Chao. When the servant was frightened by Ban Chao, he thought that Ban Chao already knew about it, so he answered honestly, "They have been here for three days.

"They have been here for three days, and they live thirty miles away from here."

Ban Chao detained the servant and immediately summoned thirty-six attendants and said to them, "All of you came to the Western Region with me because you wanted to serve your country with merit. Now the Xiongnu emissary has arrived only a few days ago, and the Shanshan King's attitude has changed. If he captures us and gives us to the Xiongnu, our corpses will not be able to return to our homeland. What do you think we should do?"

Everyone said, "Now the situation is critical, it is up to you to live or die!"

Ban Chao said, "If a man does not enter a tiger's cave, how can he get a tiger cub (in Chinese, 'If you do not enter a tiger's cave, how can you get a tiger's son)? Now, there is only one way, while it is dark, go to the Xiongnu's tent, set fire on one side, and attack on the other side. They don't know how many men and horses we have, they must be panicking. As long as we kill the Xiongnu's messenger, things will be fine."

Everyone said, "Okay, let's put up a fight like this!"

In the middle of the night, Ban Chao led thirty-six strong men to attack the Xiongnu's tent. That night, a strong wind was blowing. Ban Chao instructed ten strong men to hide behind the Xiongnu's tent with drums, twenty strong men to ambush in front of the tent, and he and the other six men to set fire to the wind. As soon as the fire started, ten men beat the drums and shouted at the same time, while the remaining twenty men shouted and killed the tent.

The Huns woke up from their dream and scurried everywhere. Ban Chao rushed into the tents at the head, and the rest of the strong men followed him and killed the Xiongnu emissaries and more than thirty attendants, and burned all the tents.

When Ban Chao returned to his barracks, the sky was just getting white. Ban Chao invited the King of Shanshan to come over. As soon as King Shanshan saw that the Xiongnu's emissary had been killed by Ban Chao, he told Ban Chao that he was willing to obey the orders of the Han Dynasty.

When Ban Chao returned to the Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming of Han promoted Ban Chao to the military commander and sent him to Ü-Tsang. Emperor Ming asked him to bring more men and horses, but Ban Chao said, "The country of Ü-Tian is large and far away, so even if I bring a few hundred more men, it won't work. If there is any accident, it will be more trouble."

As a result, Ban Chao took the original thirty-six men to Ü-Tsang.

The king of Ü-Tsang was not very enthusiastic when he met Ban Chao, seeing the small number of men he had brought. Ban Chao advised him to break away from Xiongnu and make friends with the Han Dynasty. He decided not to and approached a sorcerer to ask God for advice.

The sorcerer, who was originally against the king of Ü-Tsang being friendly with the Han Dynasty, pretended to be a god and said to the king of Ü-Tsang, "Why do you want to befriend the Han Dynasty? The light black horse of the emissary of the Han Dynasty is not bad, you can bring it to me."

The king of Ü-Tsang sent the state minister to Ban Chao to ask for the horse. Ban Chao said, "Yes, tell the sorcerer to come and get it himself."

The sorcerer proudly went to Ban Chao to get the horse. Without talking to him, Ban Chao immediately pulled out his sword and beheaded him. Then he took the sorcerer's head to the king of Ü-Tsang and rebuked him, saying, "If you ever collaborate with the Xiongnu again, this sorcerer will be your example."

The king of Ü-Tsang had long heard of Ban Chao's fame, and seeing this scene, he also softened in fear and said, "I am willing to make peace with the Han Dynasty."