The old and the strong general

Han Guangwu Emperor seized the world by force, and he had a group of generals and strategists who came from powerful landlords, all of whom had helped the Guangwu Emperor to fight for the world, and there were twenty-eight of them with the greatest merits. After the death of Emperor Guangwu, his son, Emperor Ming of Han, Liu Zhuang, painted the portraits of the twenty-eight men on the head of the Southern Palace and called them "the twenty-eight generals of the head".

However, there was another great general, whose name did not remain on the Pantai, but was famous in history. He is Ma Yuan, who is old and strong.

During the reign of Wang Mang, Ma Yuan was the governor of Fufeng County (southeast of Xingping in modern Shaanxi). Once, the county governor sent him to send a prisoner to Chang'an. Halfway there, he saw the prisoners crying, so he let them go, and he had to lose his official and fled to the northern county to hide. Later, he started animal husbandry and agriculture there.

Within a few years, Ma Yuan became a big livestock farmer and landowner, with thousands of cattle and sheep and tens of thousands of drains of grain.

But he didn't want to stay there and live a rich life. He gave his property, cattle, and sheep, to his brothers and friends. He said, "It is too useless for a man to be a miser."

He also said, "A man should have great ambition. The poorer you are, the stronger you are, and the older you are, the stronger you are." (In Mandarin, it is called "the poorer you are, the stronger you are, the older you are.")

After Wang Mang's defeat, Ma Yuan defected to Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty and made a lot of war achievements.

In the autumn of 44 A.D., when Ma Yuan returned from the war, he was advised to say.

"You have worked hard enough. It is better to rest and recuperate at home."

Ma Yuan said boldly, "No, now the Xiongnu and Wuhuan are still in turmoil, I am about to ask the emperor to defend the north. A man should die on the frontier and have his corpse wrapped in horse leather and sent back for burial. How can I stay at home and live with my wife and children?"

Soon, Xiongnu and Wuhuan did invade the north one after another. Emperor Guangwu of Han sent him to guard Xiangguo (southwest of Xingtai in Hebei). The Xiongnu and Wuhuan made contact with the Han soldiers and fled.

Soon after the north was pacified, a tribe from Wuxi (at the border of present-day Hunan and Guizhou) in the south fought in Linyuan County, and Emperor Guangwu sent troops to conquer it twice, but they were defeated by the Wuxi tribe.

Emperor Guangwu was very worried about this matter. At that time, Ma Yuan was already sixty-two years old but still asked him to lead the troops to the war.

Emperor Guangwu took a look at Ma Yuan and saw that his beard was graying and said, "General is old, so don't go!"

But Ma Yuan defied his old age and put on his armor in front of the palace, stepped on his war horse, and gallantly ran back and forth.

Emperor Guangwu of Han could not help but exclaim, "What a hardened old man!" Then he sent him to lead two generals, Ma Wu and Geng Shu, and 40,000 men to attack Wu Xi.

When Ma Yuan's army arrived at Wuxi, some soldiers died of heatstroke because they were not accustomed to the southern climate, and Ma Yuan himself became ill. Some people provoked Emperor Guangwu to say that Ma Yuan was wrong in command. Emperor Guangwu sent Liang Song, a general, to reprimand Ma Yuan and supervise his troops.

Liang Song was the son-in-law of Emperor Guangwu and had always been arrogant and cocky. Liang Song's father turned out to be a friend of Ma Yuan. Ma Yuan was not used to Liang Song's arrogance and criticized him, and Liang Song remembered the hatred from then on.

When Liang Song arrived at Wuxi, Ma Yuan was already sick and died. But Liang Song still refused to rest and complained to Emperor Guangwu of Han, saying that Ma Yuan had not only made mistakes in commanding the battle but also had privately scavenged a large number of pearls when he was in the south last time. Ma Wu, who was with Ma Yuan, also went along with the false accusation, saying that Ma Yuan did return home with a whole cart full of pearls.

This time, Emperor Guangwu believed, ordered the dismissal of Ma Yuan's title (Ma Yuan was originally named the Marquis of New Interest), but also to track down Ma Yuan's crime.

When Ma Yuan's coffin arrived home, his wife, Mrs. Ma, did not dare to report the funeral, secretly buried the coffin outside the city, and even friends and guests who used to be close to Ma Yuan did not dare to go to Ma's house to mourn.

The wife personally went to the palace to apologize to Emperor Guangwu, who angrily threw Liang Song's zheng at her. Once Mrs. Ma saw the medallion, she realized that her husband had suffered a great injustice.

It turned out that Ma Yuan had contracted rheumatism while he was in the south. Someone told him that the local coix seeds (also called rice kernel) could cure rheumatism. Ma Yuan ate some of it and it really worked. When he went home, he asked someone to buy a batch of large grains of coix seeds and brought them back in a cart.

Liang Song and Ma Wu, who had seen these things, caught wind of them and described Coix seeds as pearls, and sued Ma Yuan, causing him to lose his title and reputation.

The wife of Ma Yuan complained to Emperor Guangwu six times in a row. Another person named Zhu Bo, hearing Ma Yuan's grievances, also boldly submitted a petition to redress Ma Yuan's grievances.

Emperor Guangwu read the memorials of Mrs. Ma and Zhu Bo, then allowed the Ma family to bury Ma Yuan, and no longer pursue Ma Yuan's crime.