in the spring of 121 bc, emperor wu ordered huo qubing to invade the xiongnu with 10,000 cavalry. he occupied 5 cities within 6 days and finally killed 8,000 enemies. in order to fairly eliminate the main force of the xiongnu, huo qubing and wei qing led 100,000 cavalry and fought with their enemies in the desert in the spring of 119 bc. huo qubing died in chang'an (present-day xi'an), the capital of the han dynasty, when he was 24.