Li Guang

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Lĭ Guăng (Chinese: 李廣; Wade-Giles: Li Kuang, d. 119 BC), born in Tianshui, Gansu, was a famous general of the Han Dynasty. Nicknamed The Flying General, he fought primarily in the campaigns against the Xiongnu peoples to the north of Han China. He was known to Xiongnu as a tough opponent when it came to fortress defence, and his presence was sometimes discouraging enough for Xiongnu to abort the siege. Li Guang committed suicide shortly after the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC. He was blamed for failure to arrive in the battlefield in time (after getting lost in the desert), creating a gap in the encirclement and allowing Yizhixie Chanyu to escape after a confrontation battle between Wei Qing and the Chanyu's main force, whom the Han army narrowly managed to defeat. Refusing to accept the humiliation of a court martial, Li Guang took his own life.

According to the Shiji by Sima Qian, Li Guang was a man of great build, with long arms and good archery skills ^[1], able to shoot an arrow deeply into a stone (which resembles the shape of a crouching tiger) on one occasion. At the same time, like his contemporaries Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, he was a caring and well-respected general who earned the respect of his soldiers. He also earned the favour of Emperor Wen, who said of him: "If he had been born in the time of Emperor Gaozu, he would have been given a fief of ten thousand households without any difficulty."

However, Li Guang's late military career was constantly haunted by repeated incidents of what would be regarded as "bad lucks" by later scholars. He had a nasty tendency of losing directions during mobilisations, and in field battles he was often outnumbered and surrounded by superior enemies. While Li Guang's fame attracted much of his enemies' attention, Li Guang's troop's relative indiscipline and his lack of strategic planning often put him and his regiments in awkward situations. Li Guang himself narrowly escaped capture after his army was annihilated during an offensive campaign at Yanmen (雁門) in 129 BC, was stripped off official titles and demoted to commoner with fellow defeated general Gongsun Ao (公孫敖) after paying parole^[2]. During a separate campaign in 120 BC , Li Guang, this time with his son Li Gan (李敢) by his side, was surrounded again by superior enemies^[3]. His 4,000 troops suffered heavy casualties^[4] before reinforcements led by Zhang Qian (張騫) arrived in time for the rescue^[5]. The rules of the Han army dictated a commander's achievement was measured only according to his number of enemy kills minus the casualties of his own side. These, together with Li Guang's political naivety, denied him of any chance of promotion to marquessate, his lifelong dream. Emperor Wu even secretly ordered Wei Qing not to assign Li Guang to important missions (such as the vanguard position), on the ground of Li Guang's famed "terrible fortune" ^[6].