The victory of a thousand fire bulls

Background of the times

In the middle of the Warring States period, seven countries coexisted on the land of China. Among them, the strongest are the Qin and Qi states, with the Qin state located in the west and the Qi state located in the east. Small countries scattered around two great powers are often harassed by these two great powers. In 318 B.C., there was a civil strife in the northern kingdom of Yan, which was caused by the fact that the king of Yan did not pass the throne to his son according to the tradition of inheriting his father's business, but passed it to the son of the minister of the Yan state. This incident aroused the strong dissatisfaction of Yan Taiping, so he gathered his own forces to fight with the prime minister of the country. This was originally an internal affair of a country and had nothing to do with others, however, some people saw this opportunity and wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rob. In 314 B.C., the Qi army spent 50 days driving straight into the capture of Yandu Ji (now Beijing), killing the king of Yan and the prime minister of the country. Later, due to the Qi army's wanton burning and looting in Yan State, the people of Yan State rose up to resist, and the vassal states were also ready to send troops to rescue Yan, and the Qi army was forced to retreat, and Prince Ping of Yan ascended the throne as king, that is, King Yan Zhao. After King Yan Zhao ascended the throne, he recruited wise men, reformed internal affairs, developed production, and actively prepared to avenge the destruction of the country. In 301 BC, King Xuan of Qi died, and King Xuan ascended the throne. During the reign of King Qi, he launched military attacks on Song and Chu for many years, and the national strength was seriously consumed.

Although nearly 20 years have passed, King Yan Zhao has not forgotten the hatred of the country and the family, and he also wants to take this opportunity to take revenge, but from the perspective of the land, population and economic conditions of the Yan State, Yan is far inferior to the Qi State, and it is impossible to defeat the Qi State with the strength of the Yan State alone. Faced with this reality, Yan General Le Yi and Yan Xiang Su Qin proposed to win allies and isolate Qi; He also instigated the Qi State to destroy the Song Dynasty in order to exacerbate its contradictions with other countries, and then united all countries to attack Qi's war strategy on a large scale. King Yan Zhao adopted this strategy of Le Yi and Su Qin, and actively created conditions to implement it. In order to achieve the goal of attacking Qi and taking revenge, Yan ostensibly surrendered to Qi and sent Su Qin into Qi to carry out divisive activities and gain the trust of King Qi. Confused by Yan's superficial submission, Qi relaxed its vigilance, was not on guard against Yan, and even withdrew all the troops used to defend Yan from the border between Qi and Yan to the hinterland of Qi. In October 288 BC, the king of Qin and Qi was proclaimed emperor at the same time and formed an alliance. Yan once again sent Su Qin to Qi to carry out divisive activities, persuading the king of Qi to tear up the Qi and Qin covenants, abolish the emperor's title, and then wait for an opportunity to destroy the Song Dynasty. King Xiang was really impressed, and abolished the emperor's title in December, and instead joined forces with other countries to attack Qin, forcing Qin to "abolish the emperor and ask for submission". After King Qi won the victory of attacking Qin, he destroyed the Song State after three wars. The Song State, which was adjacent to the Qi State, had fertile land and developed production, and its huge tax revenue from the large commercial city of Dingtao was especially coveted by the three kingdoms of Qi, Qin and Zhao. The destruction of the Song by Qi not only exacerbated the contradictions between Qi and Qin and Zhao, but also posed a serious threat to Han, Wei, and Chu, so that the contradictions between Qi and other countries were extremely acute. Taking advantage of this situation, Yan actively took action, and finally formed an alliance with other countries. At this time, the strategic environment for Yan to attack Qi had been formed.

Character Analysis

Tian Dan, year of birth and death unknown, a native of Linzi (now Zibo City, Shandong Province), a distant relative of the Tian Qi clan during the Warring States Period, and the city Peng (secretary) of Linzi, the capital of Qi. Later, he came to Zhao as a general. In 284 BC, Le Yi, the general of the Yan State, sent troops to capture Linzi (now northeast of Zibo, Shandong), and successively captured more than 70 cities of the Qi State. In the end, only Jucheng (present-day Juxian County, Shandong) and Jimo (present-day southeast of Pingdu City, Shandong) remained, and Tian Dan led his people to flee to Jimo with iron chariot axles and became the main commanders of the Qi army in the Battle of Jimo.

Le Yi, a descendant of the famous general Le Yang of Wei. Le Yi is virtuous, good at the art of war, and is very important to the Zhao people. After the Dune Rebellion during the reign of King Wuling of Zhao, Le Yi left Zhao and went to Yan and was appointed as Yaqing. He suggested that King Yan Zhao contact Zhao, Chu, Wei and other countries to deal with Qiang Qi, and was sent to the countries to carry out the matter of connivance. In 284 BC, Le Yi led the troops of Zhao, Qin, Han, Wei, and Yan to attack Qi and defeated the Qi army in Jixi. After that, Le Yi and the soldiers of Han and Qin returned to China, Wei entered the Song Dynasty, Zhao Dehebei, and Le Yi led the Yan army to chase the defeated and fleeing Qi army until the Qi capital Linzi. After capturing Linzi, he took all the treasures, property, and sacrificial vessels of Qi and transported them to Yan State. King Yan Zhao was overjoyed, and he went to the labor army in person, and Le Yi was named the king of Changguo.

Cavalry, a general of the Yan State during the Warring States Period, and the commander of the Yan Army in the later period of the Jimo War.

The course of the engagement

In 284 BC, King Yan Zhao appointed Le Yi as a general to lead the Yan army, plus friendly forces from Qin, Zhao, Han, and Wei, and began to attack the state of Qi. Le Yi took the lead and led his troops to run among the soldiers and horses of Qin, Zhao, Han, and Wei, and went to the place closest to the enemy to command the battle. Seeing this, the soldiers of the four countries were excited, and they fought desperately forward, defeating the main force of the Qi army in the Battle of Jixi. The four kingdoms fought several victories, and each occupied several cities of the Qi state, and then they were contented to settle down, and did not continue to descend. Le Yi himself led the Yan army to advance with victory and captured Linzi, the capital of Qi. Then, in less than half a year, more than 70 cities were connected. Except for Juyi (present-day Juxian, Shandong) and Jimo (present-day southeast of Pingdu, Shandong), which were not captured, all other places were occupied by the Yan army led by Le Yi. Le Yi knew that force alone could not conquer the hearts of the people of Qi State; The people are not convinced, even if they take down the whole country of Qi, they will not be able to hold it. Fortunately, there are only two cities left in the Qi country, and it can't be a big deal, so it's better to buy the hearts of the people of the Qi country with favors. So he did several things to please the people of Qi, such as abolishing the harsh laws set by the king of Qi at that time, reducing the tax burden of the people, respecting their customs and habits, giving preferential treatment to local celebrities, and so on. Le Yi besieged Ju (jǔ) Yi and Jimo for nearly three years, but still did not defeat them, so he ordered the troops to retreat, stationed the army more than ten miles away from the city, and issued an order, saying: "Anyone who comes out of the city can let them come and go as they please, and they are not allowed to embarrass them." If there is hunger, let them eat; and to those who are frozen, give them clothes to wear. From this point, it can be seen that Le Yi is very politically visionary, and it also reflects his deep understanding of the nature of war, that is, what Sun Tzu said in "The Art of War": A soldier who surrenders without a fight, and a good person who is good! But before his plan could be implemented, a piece of bad news about the fate of the Yan army flew in from the north.

In 279 BC, King Yan Zhao died, and his son ascended the throne as King Yan Hui. The replacement of the throne in feudal society means the adjustment of national policy, and Yan is no exception. This year, someone said in the ear of King Hui: "Le Yi supports the army and respects himself, and wants to be the king of Qi country." King Yan Hui believed it without investigation. hurriedly sent the cavalry robber as a general and transferred Le Yi back. He became a general and took over Le Yi's army. He had his own set of methods to change all of Le Yi's orders. Yan Jun was a little unconvinced, but everyone dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak. The cavalry ordered the siege of Jimo. Tian Dan, the general who defended the city, had already deployed the steps of the decisive battle. Tian Dan is a distant relative of the Qi nobleman Tian, this person has no merit, but his mind is flexible, he once worked as a small official in the national capital Linzi, mediocre and unknown. When Linzi, the capital of Qi, was captured, Tian Dan also fled to Anping (now northeast of Zibo, Shandong) with his family and his family. Along the way, he saw that the fleeing vehicles were very crowded, often colliding with each other, and he estimated that Yan Jun would still come to chase, so he sawed off the exposed parts of his axles at both ends of the carriage and wrapped them in iron sheets. Sure enough, the Yan army chased after them, and the Qi people scrambled to flee for their lives, and many vehicles broke their axles in order to seize the road, and they could not walk, only Tiandan's car successfully escaped to Jimo.

Doctor Jimo and Yan Jun died in battle, and the Jimo people learned that Tian Dan had transformed the axle and retreated safely, thinking that he was resourceful, and he was a descendant of the Tian family, so he would be familiar with the art of war, so everyone jointly elected Tian Dan as a general and adhered to Jimo. After Tian Dan became the leader of Jimo, he shared weal and woe with his subordinates, personally patrolling the city day and night, and was trusted and supported by the people of the city. On the one hand, Tiandan strengthened the garrison of the city defense; On the other hand, he sent people to Yan to reconnoiter the enemy's situation. He heard that King Yan Zhao was dead and his son King Hui ascended the throne, and King Hui had a conflict with Le Yi and distrusted each other. So, he used a counter-strategy and sent spies to Yan to spread rumors: "The king of Qi is dead, and the cities of Qi have not been captured by the Yan army, but only two." Le Yi is now in the name of defeating Qi, but he actually wants to unite the remnants of the defeated army of the Qi State to claim the throne there, but the people of the Qi State refuse to submit to him. Therefore, he was not in a hurry to capture Jimo, in order to wait for the time to be ripe. Now the people of Qi are worried about the great future of Yan Guo's change of faction, and Jimo City will be finished soon. When King Yan Hui heard this, he felt that it was very reasonable, and believed it, so he sent another horse robber to replace Le Yi. After Le Yi was dismissed, he was afraid of being killed by King Yan Hui and returned to his hometown of Zhao.

The cavalry was originally an incompetent person, and as soon as he took office, the military spirit of the Yan army was shaken. After Tian Dan replaced Le Yi with a counter-plot, he further did the work of boosting morale, and in the form of superstition, he selected a clever soldier in the army and asked him to pretend to be a "divine master". Whenever he gave an order in the future, Tian Dan always invited this "divine master" out very respectfully, saying that it was from the teachings of the gods. The soldiers of the Qi army were very happy when they heard that there were heavenly soldiers and gods descending to help them; On the contrary, when Yan Jun heard the news, he really thought that Qi Jun had the help of heavenly soldiers and gods, but he was very harmful. Tian Dan also called a few henchmen to discuss, pretending to be ordinary people. Someone said: "In the past, General Le Yi was too good, he took prisoners and treated them well, and of course the people in the city were not afraid." If the Yan people cut off the noses of the captives, where would the Qi people dare to fight? Another person said, "The graves of our ancestors are all outside the city, if the Yan people dig up the graves, what will they do?" When he heard these words, he really cut off the noses of the Qi captives, and dug up the ancestral tombs outside the city of Jimo and set them on fire. The defenders of Qi State in the city saw the flames outside the city, and the smell of fishy smell was stinking, and they all gritted their teeth, heartbroken, and resented the atrocities of the Yan army.

The soldiers and masses of Jimo asked Tian Dan one after another to fight to the death with the Yan people. Tiandan selected 5,000 strong men and 1,000 oxen, trained them first, and told the old men and women to be on duty in the city. He also collected a lot of gold, and sent a few men pretending to be rich men from Jimo, and secretly sent them to the horsemen, saying, "The food in the city has run out, and you will have to surrender in less than three days." When your army entered the city, I asked the general to protect our family. Seeing Cai, the cavalry robbers were overjoyed, and promised repeatedly, only waiting for the Qi army to surrender and relaxed their guard. Tian Dan believes that the conditions are ripe for counterattacking the Yan army. However, Jimo has limited troops, and a large number of Yan troops who are besieging the city must design a good battle plan. So, Tian Dan dressed up the thousand cows. The cow was draped in a coat with strange patterns painted in red and green; Two sharp knives were tied to the horns of the ox; The tail of the ox was tied to a bundle of hemp and reeds soaked in oil. The 5,000 strong men formed a "death squad", they all wore colorful faces, held big swords, followed behind the cattle team, in the middle of the night, the Yan army had fallen asleep, Tian Dan ordered to tear down dozens of city walls, and drove the cattle team out of the city. The tail of the ox is set on fire. As soon as the tail of the ox burned, the thousand cows lost their temper and rushed towards the barracks of Yan State. 5,000 "death squads" rushed forward after him, and the common people in the city fiercely knocked on copper basins and copper kettles, and shouted as they followed outside the city. In an instant, the earth-shaking shouts of killing were interspersed with the sound of drums and gold tools, which woke up the people of Yan Guo's sleep: the soldiers were in a hurry, and they couldn't find the guy in a panic. I saw a large group of fierce monsters, with sharp blades on their heads, and a ball of fire wrapped in them, rushing towards them like lightning. Not to mention how many people were injured by the knives on the horns of a thousand cows, and how many people were killed by the 5,000 "death squads", it was enough for the Yan army to break into the ground and trample on the ground by themselves. The general rode a carjack, intending to fight his way out, and happened to run into the villain book "Fire Bull Array" published in the 80s of the 20th century about the content related to the Battle of Jimo. Tian Dan. This general, who thought he was much more clever than Le Yi, was killed by Tian Dan after less than a few rounds of fighting. Tian Dan reorganized his team and immediately launched a counterattack. The entire Qi country was in a sensation, and the Yan troops everywhere heard that Tiandan counterattacked and defeated the Yan army, and the main general was killed, so they retreated one after another. As soon as the soldiers who had surrendered to the Yan State heard that Tian Dan had won a great victory, they were all ready to meet Tian Dan. Wherever Tiandan's army hit, the common people rose up to respond, and Tiandan's troops became stronger and stronger. In less than a few months, dozens of cities occupied by Yan, Qin, Zhao, Han, and Wei were all recovered. Because Tiandan recovered a lot of lost land and made great contributions to the country, the soldiers and the people wanted to support him as the king of Qi. Tian Dan said: "The prince Fazhang lives in Juyi, and we have already been in contact, where can I establish myself as a king?" Tian Dan took the prince's law chapter to Linzi, chose a good day, and let the prince officially become the monarch of Qi, and he is the king of Qixiang.

King Qi Xiang said to Tian Dan: "The country of Qi has perished, and it is all up to my uncle to fight the tide and re-establish it, this credit is too great, how can I repay you?" I want to crown my uncle as An Pingjun, please don't shirk my uncle. Tian Dan thanked him and asked King Qi Xiang to continue to be angry and strong, in case Yan Guo came to retaliate again. However, after several years of war, the strength of Qi was weakened, and there was no longer the strength to compete with the princes for the world, and the battle of Jimo, which Tiandan won with the fire bull formation, was one of the famous battles in the Warring States period.

War Impact

In the Battle of Jixi, Le Yi adopted the strategy of luring Qi to attack the Song Dynasty, forming a favorable situation for the world to attack Qi. Then seize the favorable opportunity when the strength and weakness have changed, take advantage of the victory to pursue, and go straight to the capital, thus achieving a major victory. And the king of Qi was proud of his strength, reckless in arms, made enemies on all sides, and fell into the trap of Yan without knowing it. When the five-nation coalition forces attacked, they rushed to the battle, prematurely concentrating their main forces to confront the powerful coalition forces, resulting in a crushing defeat and almost the loss of the country. In the Battle of Jimo, the Qi army was able to hold on first and then counterattack, and finally defeated the Yan army in one fell swoop. The Battle of Jimo was a key battle in the early stage of the Qi army's counteroffensive, after which it gained the initiative on the battlefield, and with the support of the people of Qi, after hard fighting, it finally achieved a glorious victory in defeating the Yan army and restoring the Qi state.

Strategy analysis

In the first battle of Jimo, Tian Dan relied on his superior resourcefulness to stick to the lonely city, paralyze the Yan army, and actively create conditions for counterattack when the country broke the siege and the strength of the two sides was greatly disparity. When the time was ripe, the main reason for the victory over the Yan army was to make full use of the factors of mobility, suddenness, lethality, and psychological deterrence, and to carry out a night raid with the "Fire Ox Array" and to surprise and attack it unprepared. In addition, since Jimo has certain defensive conditions; The Yan army divided its troops into multiple ways to attack, and the development was too fast, and the preparation and strength for attacking the city were insufficient; Tian Dan's clever counter-tactics and borrowed the enemy's hand to get rid of the most difficult Le Yi, which is also one of the reasons.

☆☆ War Archives ☆☆

Campaign Name: Battle of Jimo

Time of occurrence: 279 BC

The warring parties: Qi VS Yan

Place of battle: Jimo, the capital of Qi (now southeast of Pingdu County, Shandong Province) Strength comparison: tens of thousands of Qi troops VS hundreds of thousands of Yan troops

Result of the battle: The Qi army defeated the besieging Yan army

Nature of war: defensive warfare

Intelligence Level: ☆☆☆☆