Prelude to the Han Dynasty

Background of the times

In 205 BC, Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang in Pengcheng, which made the princes at that time turn their backs on the Han and return to Chu, and Liu Bang's situation was very difficult. In order to get rid of this unfavorable situation, Liu Bang adopted the suggestions of his adviser Zhang Liang and others, and formulated a strategic policy of holding on to the front, developing on the flanks, and attacking and harassing behind enemy lines. He ordered the general Han Xin to lead the army to open up the northern battlefield, annihilate the separatist forces north of the Yellow River one by one, and develop towards the flank of the Chu army. In 205 BC, Han Xin first led his army to defeat the Wei Wangbao and pacify the Wei land. At that time, there were still three separatist forces on the north bank of the Yellow River: Dai (present-day northwestern Shanxi), Zhao (present-day southern Hebei), and Yan (present-day northern Hebei). They all took refuge in Xiang Yu and became Chu's wings. If Han wanted to destroy Chu, he had to first eliminate these vassal states and isolate Xiang Yu. In view of the weakness of these separatist forces only trying to protect themselves and not helping each other, Han Xin proposed to Liu Bang to further open up the northern battlefield, eliminate Dai, Zhao, and Yan one by one, attack Tian Qi in the east, cut off the grain route of the Chu army in the south, implement a flank detour against the Chu army, and finally join Liu Bang in Xingyang, which was quickly praised and approved by Liu Bang.

After Liu Bang's defeat in Pengcheng, he retreated to Xingyang and Chenggao, and started a four-year-long Chu-Han war with Xiang Yu. Relying on the favorable terrain, Liu Bang personally organized a strategic defense system here, and used the assets of Guanzhong and Hanzhong, as well as Peng Yue, who was good at guerrilla warfare, to harass the grain route on the road that Xiang Yu had to pass to fight a protracted war. At this time, the princes of Hebei all turned their backs on the Han and surrendered to Chu, which not only posed a huge threat to Liu Bang's left flank, but also seriously hindered the Han army's detour to Xiang Yu's strategic concept of flanking and attacking. Han Xin took the opportunity to ask for orders to go north to sweep the princes and open up another new battlefield! In the first battle, Han Xin used the sound of the east to attack the west, avoided the real and attacked the weak, crossed the river with a wooden poppy, and successfully completed the battle of attacking Wei. Because of this battle, Liu Bang was satisfied with Han Xin's combat ability and ordered Han Xin and Zhang Er to continue to attack Zhao State in the north. At this time, the battle situation in Xingyang was critical, Liu Bang received Han Xin's elite soldiers to threaten the Chu army, and ordered Han Xin to take tens of thousands of recruits to attack Zhao, Zhao was obviously stronger than Wei and Dai, and had a geographical advantage, Han Xin was in an unprecedented crisis.

Character Analysis

The life of Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, can be said to be both success and failure. The famous words left by this hero who covered the world are: "The cunning rabbit dies, the lackeys cook, the birds are exhausted, and the good bow is hidden; The enemy country is broken, and the ministers are killed. The world has been decided, and I will cook. Han Xin, a character tautology, Han nationality, was a native of Huaiyin (now Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province). Military strategist, is the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, one of the three heroes of the early Han Dynasty, it is said that he was a famous military theorist at that time Wei Yu's high disciple. Han Xin is familiar with the art of war, and he says that "the more the merrier". The way of using soldiers has been respected by soldiers of all generations. As a military strategist, Han Xin is the most outstanding general after Sun Wu and Bai Qi, and his biggest feature is the flexible use of troops, and he is the best at flexible use of troops in the history of Chinese warfare. As the commander-in-chief, he was under one person, above 10,000 people, to assist Liu Bang, the king of Han, to lead the army out of Chencang, Dingsanqin, the battle of Jingsuo defeated the Chu army, and then divided the troops to the north, captured Wei, broke the dynasty, destroyed Zhao, descended Yan, and cut Qi, until the Chu army was completely annihilated, without any defeat, the world did not dare to compete with it; As a military theorist, he and Zhang Liang compiled a book on the army, and wrote "Three Articles on the Art of War". Han Xin made great contributions to the Han Dynasty, successively serving as a general, Zuo Prime Minister, Xiangguo, King of Qi, King of Chu, Marquis of Huaiyin, etc., but he also caused suspicion because of his high merits. In the end, Han Xin was accused of rebellion and was lured into the bell room of Changle Palace by Lu Pheasant (Liu Bang's wife) and Xiao He to be executed.

Han Xin's achievements in his life are not his personal luck. Rather, it was revealed at a young age. When Han Xin was young, his family was very poor and often did not have enough to eat, so that he had no money to hold the funeral after his mother's death. One day, an old mother who was washing clothes by the river saw that Han Xin was hungry, so she gave him the food she had brought for dozens of days. Han Xin said very gratefully: "I will definitely repay you in the future." The old mother was very angry when she heard this, and said, "You have a problem even eating now, I gave you food when I saw that you were pitiful, where do I want you to repay it?" Han Xin was deeply ashamed when he heard this. At that time, a Nanchang pavilion chief saw Han Xin's extraordinary husband and invited him to be a guest, but he was not allowed by his wife. A local butcher wanted to insult Han Xin, saying, "Don't look at your tall and sword-wearing, it's actually a scare." If you really have the ability, kill me; If you can't, crawl under my crotch. Han Xin listened, slowly lowered his body, and crawled out from under his crotch. People all over the street laughed at Han Xin, thinking that he was a cowardly and unproductive person.

A few years later, Han Xin returned to his hometown after helping Liu Bang seize the world, and he still remembered these things in his early years, and gave these people "rewards for meritorious deeds". He summoned the drifting mother who gave him food back then, and rewarded her with a thousand gold. When he saw the chief of the Nanchang Pavilion, he only rewarded him with 100 yuan, and said: "You are a villain, and doing good deeds has no beginning and no end." Then he summoned the man who had insulted him and made him crawl under his crotch, made him lieutenant, and told the generals: "This is a strong man, and when he insults me, can I not kill him?" But killing him won't make me famous in the future, so I endured it, and that's what I have today. It can be seen that heroes are not ordinary characters after all, and in them, we can always find some special qualities that others do not have. Even today, there is still a great deal of revelation.

Chen Yu, a native of Daliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), was a famous scholar in Wei. Chen Sheng rebelled, Chen Yu and his best friend Zhang Er went to Chen Sheng together, and suggested that Zhao Di should be slightly attacked with strange soldiers. Chen Sheng agreed, sent Wuchen as generals, with Chen and Zhang as captains, and led 3,000 troops to Luodi. The warriors obeyed the strategy of 蒯 (kuǎi) and won more than 30 cities without a fight. To Handan, he and Zhang Er supported the military minister as the king of Zhao, and he was the general, and Zhang Er was the right prime minister. During the battle of Julu, Chen and Zhang were at odds, and Chen Yu's soldiers were collected by Zhang Er, and only a few hundred of his subordinates left. In the third year of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty (204 BC), he sent Han Xin and Zhang Er to fight Zhao and behead Chen Yu on the water.

The course of the engagement

The majestic Taihang Mountains are a northeast-southwest trending mountain range on the topographic map of China, and some people say: "The Taihang Mountains are the backbone of China, and to control them here is to control China." It is said that there are eight passes in the Taihang Mountains, which stretch for more than 400 kilometers. They are the military capital, Boyang, Flying Fox, Jing, Fukou, Bai, Taihang, Zhiguan, etc., known as Taihang Eight in ancient times. These eight passes are the eight passages that must be passed through the Taihang Mountains. The battle took place at Jingchengkou, one of the eight major passes, located 30 kilometers west of present-day Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. There is a narrow post road about dozens of kilometers long, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and is not conducive to the movement of large troops. Since ancient times, it has been known as "Yanjin Thoroughfare". In the hinterland of Jingcheng, there is a river that originates in Shouyang, Shanxi, passes through Niangzi Pass into Jingcheng, with a total length of 120 kilometers - Mianhe, which is an important tributary of Hutuo River. In history, it was famous because of the marriage with a man and a battle. This character is Han Xin, a famous general in the late Qin and early Han dynasties, and this battle is the "Battle of the Backwater".

▲ Cangnan Mountain, which is surrounded by Jingcheng County, Hebei Province. The cliff here is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is a place where soldiers must fight.

In April of the second year of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty (205 BC), Liu Bang led 560,000 soldiers of the princes to the east to attack Chu. At this time, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, was fighting in Shandong, and the capital Pengcheng (now Xuzhou, Jiangsu) was captured by the Han army. Xiang Yu led 30,000 people to kill back, breaking the Han army, the Han army was defeated and fled, falling into Surabaya, and more than 100,000 people died. suffered this fiasco, Liu Bang's vitality was greatly damaged, and the princes who were originally subjugated all turned their backs on the Han and returned to Chu. The most infuriating thing is that even the Wei Wangbao, who was personally entitled, also rebelled against the Han and attached himself to Chu, seriously threatening the rear Guanzhong of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang relied on the core defense line of the confrontation with Xiang Yu, Xingyang, Chenggao, and the Weishui transportation line of the Yellow River. Send the strategist Li Shiqi to lobby Wei Wangbao. Liu Bang said to Li Shiqi: "If you can say that the king of Wei will return to the Han Dynasty, I will seal your ten thousand households in Wei." This shows how important the belonging of Wei Wangbao is to Liu Bang. However, Wei Wangbao rejected Li Shiqi and said: "The king of Han is slow and insulting to people, scolding the princes and ministers like scolding his house slaves. I don't want to see him again. Li Shiqi truthfully returned, Liu Bang saw that there was no hope of persuasion, and he had to solve it by force, so he decided to raise troops to attack. In August of the same year, Liu Bangbai Han Xin was the left prime minister, and led the general Cao Shen and the cavalry general to irrigate less than 30,000 people, entered the pass from the west of Xingyang, and launched an attack on the Wei army with the momentum of wind and thunder. In this battle, troops were dispatched in August and won in September, which shows the speed of Han Xin's troops. The 52 counties of Hedong returned to the Han in one fell swoop, and the captured elite Wei soldiers were supplemented to the Xingyang front, which relieved Liu Bang, who was in danger. At this time, Han Xin proposed to Liu Bang to increase the army by 30,000, raise Yan Zhao in the north, Tuqi in the east, and cut off the grain road of Chu in the south, and then return to the west and Liu Bang to join forces in Xingyang. This is the strategic goal planned by Han Xin with the vision of a strategist. His strategic route to go north to Yan Zhao is exactly the route of Qin Shi Huang to destroy Zhao and Ping Yandi, and his real intention is to go north to Yan Zhao, take Tian Qi in the east, and form an absolute strategic advantage over Chu, and then attack back and forth, fight Xingyang, and fight a decisive battle with Xiang Yu. Liu Bang readily agreed, and sent Zhang Er and Zhang Cang to lead 30,000 horses to Han Xin's command, plus Han Xin's original 20,000 people, with a total of more than 50,000 troops. Han Xin waved his army eastward, first defeated the Dai army, captured Taiyuan, and then went straight to Jingcheng from Taiyuan. A miracle in the history of war is about to be staged in the Hutuo River Valley.

In October 204 BC, Han Xintong led 30,000 newly recruited troops across the Taihang Mountains and advanced eastward to attack Zhao. After Zhao Wangxie and Chen Yu, the commander of the Zhao army, heard the news, they immediately gathered an army of 200,000 to defend at Jingchengkou. In the face of an enemy several times his own, Han Xin was also extremely cautious, he knew the grim situation he was facing, and knew that he had to risk entering the territory of Zhao and the main force of Zhao to attack and fight a decisive battle, and a protracted war or a defeat war would be unfavorable to him, what Han Xin wanted to do was to defeat the main force of Zhao in a battle, so that Zhao would no longer be able to resist the Han army. Han Xin and Zhang Er commanded the troops to Jingchengkou and waited for an opportunity to cross the border and advance eastward. Zhao Wangxie and Prime Minister Cheng Anjun Chen Yu learned that the Han army had destroyed the dynasty and intended to advance eastward, so they immediately set out from Xindu (now Xingtai, Hebei), with 200,000 soldiers, rushed to Jingchengkou, built a fortress, and blocked the Han army. The strategist Li Zuoche offered a plan to Chen Yu and said: Han Xin crossed the Yellow River in the east, captured Wei Wang Leopard, captured Xia, and won a complete victory. Today, he won the victory and attacked Zhao, and he was unstoppable. I heard: "Thousands of miles of food, soldiers are in danger of starvation; If you don't go to fetch firewood to cook until it's time to eat, the army won't have enough to eat. "The dangerous road in the valley of Jinjing is narrow, the cars cannot be parallel, the horses cannot be in columns, the Han army has traveled hundreds of miles to this point, the team will be very long, and the grain and grass are bound to fall behind. If the general can let me lead 30,000 cavalry to cut off the Han army's baggage from the path, the general will dig a deep ditch here, build a high base, and not fight with the Han army, so that the Han army can not fight in front of it, and cannot retreat, I will surprise the army to cut off its back road, so that they can not grab anything to eat in the field, and within 10 days, the Han army will be completely annihilated in one fell swoop, and the heads of Han Xin and Zhang Er can be presented to the general. I hope the general will heed my advice, or he will be captured by these two.

Chen Yu is a scholar, respects Confucianism, and moves the book of soldiers, and he takes "righteous soldiers do not need to deceive and trick" as the principle of using soldiers. After listening to Li Zuoche's suggestion, he was quite unimpressed, and said: "I have heard that the art of war says that if the army is ten times larger than the enemy, it can be surrounded, and if it is twice as large as the enemy, it can be fought against and engaged. Now Han Signal said that there were 10,000 people, but there were only thousands, and they had traveled thousands of miles to attack us, and they were exhausted. With such a comparison of forces, if we don't fight head-on, and we have a stronger enemy in the future, what method will we use to fight against it? Don't you let the princes laugh at my cowardice? So he rejected Li Zuoche's suggestion.

Han Xin secretly sent people to find out that Li Zuoche's plan had not been adopted, and he was overjoyed, so he boldly ordered to march to Jingchengkou day and night. Set up camp 30 miles from the mouth of the well. After careful investigation, a set of bold combat plans was formulated. In the middle of the night, Han Xin first sent 2,000 light horsemen, each holding a red flag in his hand, and rushed to the back of the Zhao camp by taking a small road, and hid himself in Mengshan (now Luquan City) to peep at the Zhao army, and told them: "When the Zhao army sees our army fleeing, it will definitely go out to chase us." You will quickly rush into the Zhao camp, pull out the banner of the Zhao army, and plant our red flag. At the same time, he also asked the general to order the preparation of a meal, saying: "After defeating the Zhao army, we will have a meal." The generals thought they had misheard, and they did not dare to raise objections, so they agreed on the surface: "Obey the order." In the early morning of the next day, Han Xin ordered more than 10,000 people to set up a camp against the Mianman River. Zhao Jun couldn't stop laughing when he saw it. As soon as the day dawned, Han Xin raised the banner of the generals, beat the drums and left the camp, dozens of generals jumped on their horses with guns, the war drums beat, and the horns sounded in unison, rushing straight towards the Zhao army camp, putting on a decisive battle posture. Chen Yu saw that the Han army was setting up a formation with its back and leaving no way to retreat, so he secretly ridiculed Han Xin for not understanding the art of war, and immediately ordered the Zhao army to attack. The Han army fought against the water, there was no way out, and they fought desperately and fought bravely. A fierce battle ensued between the two sides. Seeing that the time had come, Han Xin ordered his soldiers to abandon their banners and feign defeat and retreat. When they arrived at the riverside position, they turned back and fought again. Chen Yu immediately ordered Zhao Jun to pour out of the nest and chase and kill; While snatching the banner left by the Han army. At this time, the 2,000 cavalry ambushed near the Zhao camp quickly rushed to the Zhao camp, pulled out the Zhao flag, and raised 2,000 Han army red flags. The Zhao army could not win for a long time, and suddenly saw the red flag of the Han army planted all over the camp, and was shocked, thinking that the position had been broken by the Han army, and suddenly there was a great chaos, and they fled one after another. Han Xinling ordered the whole army to attack on both sides, and the Zhao army was defeated.

Zhao Wangxie and Chen Yu led the defeated troops to retreat to Xindu. Han Xin pursued with his army, beheaded Chen Yu in Lushuinan (present-day Gaoyi, Hebei), and captured Zhao Wangxie alive. After the battle, someone asked Han Xin: "In the art of war, it is said that the marching formation should be on the right and behind the mountain, and the front and left should be near the water." And you are backing yourself to the water to set up a formation, winning more with less, what is the reason for this? Han Xin replied: "This has long been recorded in the art of war, but you didn't pay attention to it." Doesn't it say in the book of war, 'Fall into the place of death and then live, and put it in the place of death and survive'? Most of our army are newly recruited soldiers, who have not undergone rigorous training, and only by putting them to death can they fight desperately for their own survival and survive from the dead. Otherwise, under the attack of an enemy several times stronger than mine, we will definitely be defeated without a fight. After hearing this, all the generals were very impressed and praised Han Xin's soldiers as gods.

When the battle was raging, Han Xin ordered that Li Zuoche should not be killed in the army, and that if he was captured alive, he would be rewarded with a thousand gold. Sure enough, soon someone sent the tied Li Zuoche into the handsome tent, and Han Xin personally loosened the tie, let Li Zuoche take the upper seat, and treated Li Zuoche with the etiquette of treating the teacher. Li Zuoche was deeply moved, so he became a good friend with Han Xin. Han Xin has already set Zhao Di, and according to his established strategy, the next goal is to attack Yan and conquer Qi. Han Xin asked Yu Li Zuoche. He humbly called himself a servant and said, "If the servant wants to attack Yan in the north and conquer Qi in the east, how can he succeed?" Li Zuoche excused himself and said: "Your Majesty heard that the generals of the defeated army cannot speak bravely, and the doctors of the dead country cannot survive." How can I, a defeated captive, be qualified to participate in the determination of great things? Han Xin said: "Baili Xi is in the Yu State, and the Yu State is dead, and when it comes to the Qin State, the Qin State is strong and hegemonic." Why? It is not that Baili Xi treats Yu with foolishness and repays Qin with wisdom, but that the two countries listen to Baili Xi's strategy or not, and whether they use it or not. If Chen Anjun and Chen Yu follow your plan, it will be me Han Xin who will be captured and captured. I sincerely listen to your plan, sir, and I hope that you will not shirk it. With a few words, he moved Guangwujun Li Zuoche, and analyzed Han Xin's advantages and disadvantages at the moment, and put forward a good strategy for taking Yan peacefully. Li Zuoche said to Han Xin: "I have heard: 'A wise man thinks a thousand times, and he will make a mistake; The fool has a thousand thoughts, but there is also a gain', so it is said that 'the words of the madman, the saint can also choose to adopt it'. I am afraid that my strategy may not work, but I hope that I will only serve the foolish and faithful. Cheng Anjun originally had a plan to win a hundred battles, but once he made a mistake, he was defeated and died on the water. Now the general has captured the king of Wei, captured Xia Shuo, and in less than a morning, he broke Zhao's 200,000 army, killed Cheng Anjun, famous in the sea, and shocked the princes, and even the common people had to stop working, take out light clothes and food, and wait for your order. However, the people were toiling and the soldiers were tired, and it was difficult to use the army. Now the general's exhausted soldiers, tired under the strong cities of the Yan State, obviously showed insufficient strength, intended to attack, but could not be attacked, protracted, and the food was exhausted. If the Yan State cannot be breached, the Qi State will definitely refuse to defend the border in order to strengthen itself. If the two countries are at loggerheads with Yan and Qi, then the victory or defeat between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu cannot be distinguished. This is my humble opinion, and I privately thought it might be wrong. ”

Han Xin still sincerely asked, "According to your opinion, sir, what should we do?" Li Zuoche offered a plan: "Today's plan, it is better to stand still, and the people within a hundred miles will take out beef and wine every day to reward the soldiers." The general arranged an army on the way to Yan in the north, and then sent envoys, holding letters, to lobby Yan Guo, and Yan Guo would not dare not listen. From the Yan Kingdom to the Qi State to the east, although there are resourceful people, they cannot come up with a better plan for the Qi State. If this is the case, the great affairs of the world can be plotted. There is a truth in the book of war that the truth is first false and then real. Han Xin said, "Okay, follow your advice." "Using Li Zuoche's strategy, send an envoy to Yan Kingdom, although Yan Wang Zang Di was sealed by Xiang Yu, at this time, he only knew that the current affairs were Junjie, and he surrendered when he heard the wind. Yan Zhao was pacified, and Han Xin sent an envoy to Liu Bang, asking for Zhang Er to be appointed as the king of Zhao to govern Zhao. Liu Bang agreed, and Zhang Cang was the prime minister, garrisoning the north, and setting up Changshan County and Dai County.

War Impact

The outcome of the Battle of Jingcheng was of great significance to the entire course of the Chu-Han War. The victory of the Han army made it gradually gain an advantage in the overall strategic situation, which not only eliminated the strongest opponent in the northern battlefield, but also created momentum and prerequisites for the next step of "surrendering the army without a fight" and "pacifying Yandi without bloodshed", and also paved the way for the eastward attack on Qi, thus creating a favorable situation for isolating Xiang Yu. Although it was a small battle, it was of a strategic nature. In the Battle of Jingcheng, the gains and losses of the two sides in operational command were obvious. The key to Han Xin's victory in the battle was that he was able to give full play to his subjective initiative, create illusions and take advantage of the mistakes of the Zhao army in a planned way, form a formation against the water, flexibly use his troops, win by surprise, and achieve a quick victory, thus completely annihilating the Zhao army in one fell swoop and writing a wonderful chapter in the history of ancient Chinese warfare.

Strategy analysis

After the battle, Han Xin's subordinates were puzzled and asked: "The art of war is on the right side of the mountain, the front is on the left side of the water, and the current general Lingchen and others are against the water Chen, and Zhao will eat, and the ministers will not accept it." However, what is the trick of victory? The letter said: "This is in the art of war, and Gu Zhujun does not pay attention to it." The art of war does not say that 'the place of death is trapped and then lived, and the place of death is left behind' and it is believed that it is necessary to follow the doctor and the doctor, this so-called: 'drive the people of the city to fight', its momentum is not to put the place of death, so that everyone fights for themselves; Han Xin's explanation undoubtedly said a key to the battle, and he skillfully applied the essence of Sun Tzu's Art of War to tactics, leaving a perfect battle sample for future generations.

☆☆ War Archives ☆☆

Campaign Name: Battle of Jingcheng

Time of Occurrence: 204 BC

The warring parties: Han VS Zhao

Place of engagement: Jingchengkou (now Jingcheng County, southwest of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province) Comparison of strength: 30,000 Han troops VS 200,000 Zhao troops

The result of the war: the total annihilation of the Zhao army

Nature of war: offensive warfare

Intelligence Level: ☆☆☆☆☆