Give Qin a dismount

Background of the times

As we all know, the success of a war depends not only on the offensive and defensive strategies in wartime, but also on the balance of economic power and the quality of diplomatic relations between the countries participating in the war. Before the start of the battle between Yin and Jin, Wei, as a side of the war, had already taken the lead. Wei was one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, and his early capital was in Anyi (present-day Xia County, Shanxi), and later moved his capital to Daliang (present-day Kaifeng, Henan). Its territory included the southwestern part of present-day Shanxi, the northern part of Henan, and parts of Shaanxi and Hebei. It is bordered by Qin to the west, Huai and Ying to the east, Qi and Song, Korea to the southwest, Chu to the south, and Zhao to the north. Since the reign of Marquis Wen of Wei, the Wei State implemented reforms, reformed politics, rewarded farming and warfare, built water conservancy, developed the feudal economy, destroyed the Zhongshan Kingdom in the north (now Pingshan and Lingshou in western Hebei), and took the Qinxi River (now between the Yellow River and Luoshui) in the west, and became the most powerful country in the early Warring States period. In the period of Wei Wenhou, a large number of virtuous talents such as Li Kui, Wu Qi, Le Yang, Ximen Leopard, Zixia, Zhai Huang, and Wei Cheng were used to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and suppress the Zhao State. Later, he successively defeated the Qin, Qi, and Chu states, opened up a large territory, and made Wei a veritable overlord of the Central Plains.

After the death of Wei Wenhou, his son Wei Wuhou ascended the throne, and during the reign of Wei Wuhou, he appointed Wu Qi, a military strategist, to carry out reforms, and the national strength continued to rise. The Marquis of Wei was open-minded, appointed wise men, and united the monarchs and ministers to ensure the continued stability of the Wei state. He also paid attention to the development of production, the accumulation of economic strength and the expansion of armaments, after years of accumulation of strength, by the time of the "Yin and Jin War" in 389 BC, the comprehensive strength of Wei was not the same as that of the three Jin. Secondly, the work on the diplomatic side is excellent. In 403 B.C., the three families of Wei, Zhao, and Han were separated, and for more than a decade since then, the three families of Wei, Zhao, and Han have maintained a traditional friendship, and the two countries have also given strong support to Wei geographically, which is a key factor. Moreover, the six states of Shandong have looked down on the Qin State since ancient times, and did not include the Qin State in the sphere of influence of the Central Plains, and were ashamed to be with the Qin State. These two factors determined that Wei became much more proactive diplomatically, while Qin appeared to be passive in comparison. Moreover, before the Battle of Yin and Jin, Marquis Wu had appointed Wu Qi as the county guard of Hexi for more than ten years. Wu Qi put forward the strategy of "fighting steadily and steadily, step by step", that is, to occupy one place, build a city here, and occupy another place, and build a city. In this way, Wei has fully occupied the land west of the river and seized the geographical advantage, coupled with Wu Qi's good management, the land west of the river has become a springboard for Wei to attack Qin. The Qin State wanted to regain the land west of the river, and the difficulties greatly increased. When the fighter is mature, this strategy can greatly contain the enemy's forces, weaken the opponent's manpower superiority, and achieve twice the result with half the effort. The loss of the land west of the river by the Qin State was equivalent to the loss of geographical advantage, which often determined the outcome of a war during the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. Moreover, the Qin state was politically divided internally and clan struggles were frequent; In diplomacy, there is a lack of communication and isolation. So, before the war broke out, the outcome of the war was predictable.

Character Analysis

Wu Qi was a famous military strategist and statesman who lived in the fourth century BC. (As a warman, he summarized the causes of war into five points: first, the struggle for fame, the second is the struggle for profit, the third is the accumulation of evil, the fourth is civil strife, and the fifth is due to hunger.) This theory is the earliest exploration of the roots of war in the world's military history. Wu Qi, a native of the Zuo clan of Weiguo (now a native of Dingtao, Shandong). Wu Qi liked to use soldiers since he was a child, and he wanted to become famous. In his early years, he studied in Lu under a man named Zeng Shen, and later, he went to Wei to worship Confucius's disciple Zi Xia as his teacher, that is to say, Wu Qi can also be regarded as Confucius's second disciple. In the fourteenth year of King Weilie of Zhou (412 BC), the state of Qi attacked the state of Lu, and the king of the state of Lu wanted to use Wu Qi as a general, but because Wu Qi's wife was from the state of Qi, he was suspicious. Wu Qi killed his wife because he was eager to be a general and achieve fame, so as to show that he was not inclined to Qi State, and the history said: "Kill your wife and ask for a general." Lu Jun finally appointed him as a general and led the army to fight against the Qi State. Wu Qi was strict with himself and lenient with others, and shared weal and woe with the soldiers, so the soldiers were able to serve their lives to the death. Wu Qi was a famous political reformer in the early Warring States period, an outstanding military strategist, commander, and military reformer.

Qin Huigong, the monarch of Qin during the Warring States Period. The son of Qin Jiangong, he reigned for 13 years. The initiator of the Battle of Yin and Jin.

The course of the engagement

During the reign of Wei Wenhou, the national strength was strong, and a large number of troops were sent to capture the Hexi region of the Qin State (the area west of the southern section of the Yellow River between present-day Shanxi and Shaanxi), and the Qin army retreated to the Luoshui area. After several years of preparation, Qin began to attack Wei in 401 BC, and in 393 BC fought with Wei at Wang (in present-day Chengcheng, Shaanxi), and three years later, Qin fought with Wei at Wucheng (now east of Huaxian County, Shaanxi) in an attempt to recapture the important place in Hexi, and the Wei army fought with the Qin army with all their might. In 389 BC, Qin again mobilized an army of 500,000 to attack Yinjin, an important city on Qin's eastward advance. Yin Jin is located in the southeast of Huayin County, Shaanxi Province, between the east peak and the north peak of Huashan, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Qin army set up a camp outside the Yin Jin city, surrounded the Yin Jin city with 500,000 troops, and the Wei defenders of the Yin Jin city are struggling to support, the besieging side of the city is surrounded by raw cowhide into a hut on all sides, similar to a movable car, the middle can transport soil and people, built a soil mountain outside the Yin Jin city, and then shoots arrows into the city, and later, hooks the city wall with a hook, and the soldiers invoke it, but they are all cracked by the Wei army one by one, this is a tragic war of attrition, Both sides are in a state of anxiety and the situation is very critical. Seeing this situation, Marquis Wu of Wei immediately appointed Wu Qi, the commander of Hexi County, to lead 50,000 elite "soldiers" to support. In fact, for this battle, Wu Qi had already prepared. During Wu Qizhen's defense of Hexi, he emphasized that there were not many soldiers but "governance", and he pioneered the method of selecting soldiers: it was stipulated that anyone who could wear a full suit of armor, hold a crossbow of 12 stones (one stone is about 30 kilograms), carry 50 arrows on his back, carry a sword, carry three days of rations, and run a hundred miles in half a day can be selected as a "martial pawn", exempt his whole family from taxes and land house rent, and strictly train the "martial pawn" to make him the elite division of the Wei State. Wu Qi ruled the army, advocating strict punishment and clear rewards, and teaching and precepts first, believing that if the laws and regulations were not clear, the rewards and punishments were not believed, even if there were millions of troops, it would be useless, and he had beheaded the soldiers who attacked the enemy army without being ordered to understand the law.

When Wu Qi was a general, he shared food and clothing with the lowest level of soldiers. He did not lay a mat when he slew, did not ride a horse or a chariot when he marched, carried dry food himself, and shared the labor with the soldiers. One of the soldiers had sores, and Wu Qi used his mouth to suck pus for him. The soldier's mother burst into tears when she found out about this. "Why do you cry when your son is a soldier and the general himself sucks the pus from the sores," the mother said, "No." In previous years, Wu Gong had sucked the pus from the sores for his father, and his father was desperate when he fought, so he died in battle. Now Wu Gong is sucking the pus from the sores for my son again, and I don't know where he is going to die again, so I cry. This is the widely circulated story of "Wu Qi sucking pus".

After years of careful management by Wu Qi, he finally created a standing army with combat effectiveness. And as early as three years ago, he invited Wei Wuhou to hold a celebration banquet, so that those who made meritorious contributions sat in the front row, used gold, silver, copper and other valuable tableware, pigs, cattle, and sheep were all livestock; Those who have made meritorious contributions sit in the middle row, and the valuable tableware is appropriately reduced; Those who do not have merit sit in the back row and are not allowed to use expensive tableware. After the banquet, they will also reward the parents, wives and families of the meritorious person outside the gate. For the families of the deceased soldiers, every year they send envoys to express condolences and reward their parents to show that they will not forget. This law was in force for three years. As soon as the Qin army attacked Hexi, the Wei army immediately had tens of thousands of soldiers who did not wait for orders to put on their own armor and asked for battle. In the face of this large-scale attack by the Qin army, Wu Qi asked Wei Wuhou to send 50,000 people who had not made meritorious contributions as infantry, and led the counterattack against the Qin army by himself. Marquis Wu agreed, and sent 500 chariots and 3,000 cavalry.

The day before the battle, Wu Qi issued an order to the three armies, saying: All the officers and soldiers should go with me to fight the enemy, regardless of the chariots, cavalry, and infantry, "if the chariot cannot be ridden, the cavalry cannot be ridden, and the vain cannot be vain, even if the army is broken." Then, on a pitch dark night. Wu Qi's 50,000 Wei troops suddenly detoured back to the back of the Qin army, this group of wolf-like junior soldiers without merit and fame were all one to ten, bravely killing the enemy, shouting loudly, and the cavalry began to set fire around again, only to see 500,000 Qin troops huddled together, it was not clear how many Wei troops there were, all holding their heads and trampling on each other, and the defenders in the city saw that the reinforcements had arrived, and they also opened the city gate and killed the Qin army together. On this night, after the Wei army repeatedly rushed and killed, the 500,000 troops of the Qin army were defeated, and the Wei State achieved brilliant results. In the end, Wu Qi pursued the idea of being poor and did not pursue the defeated Qin army.

▲ The seven countries of the Warring States Period, which are what we now call the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States".

War Impact

The Battle of Yin and Jin was a large-scale battle between Wei and Qin in the early Warring States period, and occupies an important position in the history of Chinese warfare. Under the command of the famous general Wu Qi, although facing the powerful Qin army, Wu Qi greatly improved the morale of the Wei army through the incentive method, significantly enhanced the combat effectiveness, defeated the Qin army ten times his own with a small number of elite soldiers, defended the strategic point of Hexi, and curbed the momentum of the Qin army's eastward advance, Wu Qi defeated the Qin army with 50,000 troops, causing the Qin people to lose the land west of the river, creating a famous example in the history of Chinese warfare to win more with less and win quickly. At the same time, Wu Qi adopted a steady and steady strategy; Tactics such as avoiding the enemy's front, detouring to the rear, attacking from both sides, and pre-war incentives had a far-reaching impact on later generations.

Strategy analysis

After the Battle of Yin and Jin began, Wu Qi's strategy of avoiding the frontal attack of the Qin army, using the main force to carry out a roundabout surprise attack on its weakly defended rear, and then cooperating with the defenders of the Yin and Jin cities to implement a two-sided attack on the Qin army was quite successful. This was a surprise strategic surprise attack, and the principle of "taking a detour as a straight line and attacking from the front and rear" was adopted. Avoiding the enemy's strongest front, detouring to the rear, and smashing the enemy's weakest rear, like a sharp sword directly into the enemy's back, surprise, so that the enemy is very passive and hastily responds to the battle, and then cooperates with the defenders of the Yin Jin city. With this move, the victory is sealed. In the end, the Wei army defeated the Qin army with fewer victories and more victories. The victory and defeat of the war changed rapidly, and the Wei army finally defeated the Qin army with 50,000 troops and 500,000 troops.

☆☆ War Archives ☆☆

Campaign Name: Battle of Yin and Jin

Time of occurrence: 389 BC

The warring sides: Wei VS Qin

Place of engagement: Yin Jin (now east of Huayin County, Shaanxi Province)

Strength comparison: Wei army 50,000 VS Qin army 500,000

The result of the war: the defeat of 500,000 Qin troops

Nature of war: defensive warfare

Intelligence Level: ☆☆☆☆☆