Chapter 3: The Battle of Zhongli

The Northern Expedition of the Southern Liang was huge and did enough homework, but the attack and defense changed in the blink of an eye, and it turned into the Southern Expedition of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which became the biggest joke in the previous Northern Expeditions of the Southern Dynasty.

When Emperor Wu of Liang learned of the battle report, he didn't care whether the Northern Expedition was going to be or not, and urgently ordered Changyizhi to hold on to Zhongli City. Only by guarding Zhongli City can we hold Jianghuai; Only by holding the Jianghuai can we prevent the Northern Wei army from drinking the Yangtze River.

The combined army of Zhongshan Wang Yuanying and Yang Dayan in the Northern Wei Dynasty had more than 100,000 people, while the defenders of Zhongli City were less than 3,000 people. What's even worse is that when a person heard that the Liang army was defeated, he also hurriedly led the army to make dumplings from Zhongli City.

The Northern Wei side originally sent an additional general Xing Luan to encircle Zhongli, and after Xing Luan analyzed the situation, he asked the army to withdraw from the siege.

Xing Luan's reason is relatively sufficient: although the Southern Dynasty army is not good at field warfare, its ability to defend the city should not be underestimated. The Northern Wei Dynasty had attacked Liu Song and Xiao Qi before, but they all returned in vain because the opponent's city was strong. This battle of Yiyang is also a difficult siege battle. Under the strong walls of the Liang people, the soldiers of the Wei State will inevitably become cannon fodder; Moreover, Zhongli City is located outside the Jianghuai, and it is very inconvenient to transport grain, so it needs to be resolved quickly.

Yuan Ke believes in Yuan Ying and Yang Dayan's judgment even more, since you don't have a strong fighting spirit, I'll send someone with a strong fighting spirit.

Who else can have a stronger fighting spirit than Xiao Baochun, who has a grudge against Nanliang to destroy the country and the clan?

Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke recalled Xing Luan and replaced him with Xiao Baoyin, who at this time was the general of Zhendong in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Xiao Yan, I want to go straight to Jiankang, avenge Nanqi, and avenge the imperial brother!

Zhongli City was not conducive to attack because it was adjacent to Huaishui in the north, so the Wei army built a long bridge across the river connecting the north and south banks of Huaishui on both sides of Shaoyangzhou, which was located in Huaishui. The Yuanying garrison on the south bank was responsible for the siege of the city. Yang Dayan is based on the north shore and is responsible for grain transportation and supply. Siu Baochun ensures the smooth flow and safety of the bridge itself. The three of them have a clear division of labor and want to swallow the small lonely city in one bite.

Zhongli City was suddenly in turmoil.

Zhongli City was in trouble, and Emperor Xiao Yan of Liang Wu was so anxious that in November of the fifth year of Tianjian (506), he urgently ordered the right guard general Cao Jingzong to command 200,000 Liang troops to rescue Zhongli.

Reinforcements are on the way, and the Wei army has been frantically attacking the city. The army of hundreds of thousands of tigers and wolves was as dense as an ant colony, and first used vehicles to continuously carry sediment and fill in the trenches around Zhongli City. Then use the chariot to hit the city wall, and then use the wheel battle method to storm day and night. (Attacking hard day and night, divided into generations, falling and rising, a certain retreater, fighting dozens of times a day).

Chang Yizhi promptly filled the damaged city wall with mud, led the defenders to fight back tenaciously, rolled wood thunder stones, bows and arrows hot oil, desperately smashed and splashed under the city, the Wei army suffered tens of thousands of casualties, and the battle situation tended to be stalemate. (Tens of thousands of kills and injuries before and after, the dead of the Wei people and the city are peaceful).

How long will this disparity of forces last? It lasted until the first month of the following year (507), and the hardships of the defenders in Zhongli Castle can be imagined.

The condition of the Wei army was not much better. In February, seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke issued an edict asking Yuan Ying to withdraw from the siege.

More than 100,000 troops can't take the small Zhongli City, Yuan Ying is unwilling, the above table: It has been raining in February, delaying the siege, and after the weather is sunny in March, Zhongli will definitely be captured, and I ask for more time.

There was a lot of rain in February, which affected the siege, and the reason seems to be valid. However, if Yuan Ying was a meteorology enthusiast, he would not have thought that March would be a good time. Cause? Afterword.

Although the Wei soldiers were in a dilemma, after all, the military strength formed a crushing trend against the defenders in the city. Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, knew in his heart that if there were no reinforcements, it would only be a matter of time before Zhongli City was broken. The previous reinforcement Cao Jingzong was stationed in Daorenzhou (now in the middle of the Huai River in the northeast of Fengyang, Anhui), and attacked without authorization in order to compete for merit, and suffered many casualties until he did not dare to attack. Cao Jingzong can't count on it for the time being, and Xiao Yan thinks that it won't work if he doesn't have a trump card. So, he decisively threw out a piece of Wang Bang in his hand.

Who is it?

Yuzhou Thorn Shi Wei Rui, later generations called Wei Rui, the first general of the Southern Dynasty. When Grandpa Mao was reading "Southern History", one of the most annotated biographies was "The Biography of Wei Rui", with as many as 24 text annotations alone.

Wei Rui's family was born from Wei Xian, the prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, and has been a famous family in the Sanqin region for generations. Xiao Yan built Liang on behalf of Qi, Wei Rui made great contributions, and after the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, he successively served as Tingwei and Yuzhou Assassin.

Wei Rui, as the assassin of Yuzhou, where does he sit? In Hefei, he personally led the army to conquer the city of Hefei not long ago.

The Northern Expedition of Emperor Wu of Liang, the commander-in-chief was Xiao Hong, and the war unfolded along the Yangtze River, starting from Qing and Xu in the east (now northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong) and reaching Henan (now Henan) in the west. Xiao Hong's army was sluggish in Luokou, but Wei Rui in the east was overwhelmed.

Wei Rui first conquered Xiaoxian City and immediately marched to Hefei.

Prior to this, Sima Hu Jingluo of the Right Army had been besieging Hefei for several days, but he could not attack it for a long time. After Wei Rui arrived, he first led the light cavalry to inspect the surrounding mountains and rivers. After returning to the camp, one thing was announced:

Build a weir on the water.

The weir construction activities were carried out overnight, and the project was huge. The weir was formed, the water level rose, and after the water was opened, the warships arrived one after another, and the navy arrived smoothly. Wei Rui then gave an order—to attack the small cities of the east and west.

Originally, the Wei army built two small cities on the east and west sides of Hefei City, and stood in Hefei, Wei Rui first captured these two cities and cleared the enemy strongholds outside Hefei. Soon, Yang Lingyin, a reinforcement from the Northern Wei Dynasty, led 50,000 troops to kill, and Wei Rui met the attack, easily defeated it, and wiped Hefei into a lonely city.

Only then did the Wei army understand Wei Rui's intentions, and dispatched troops to storm and try to destroy the weir. The Wei army was menacing, and the Liang army was fluctuating. The military supervisor Pan Lingyou persuaded Wei Rui to retreat to Chaohu, and the generals asked to retreat to save Sanyi.

Wei Rui ordered someone to take his umbrella, fan, banner and other honor guards, stood under the embankment, and gave a death order: the army is defeated and will die, there is no advance or retreat, and those who retreat will be killed!

The commander was decided, and the three Liang armies fought hard to repel the Wei army that broke the embankment and strengthened the defense of the embankment.

Wei Rui built an embankment and weir not for flood control and rescue. After the embankment was kept, the water level continued to rise, and the Liang warships arrived, and the high water level coupled with the high battleships made the defenders lose their condescending advantage. On the contrary, the Liang army was at a high point and could shoot down on the city. The Liang army was condescending, and the warships gathered on all sides to besiege the city, breaking the city in one fell swoop, and capturing more than 10,000 Wei troops.

Such a famous general, must be a tall and mighty man? Wrong, Wei Rui has always been weak, he has never ridden a horse in every battle, but sat in a small car to overseer the army, if he comes to the feather fan again, and wears a small Shenyang version of the insole hat on his head, it is a proper Zhuge Kongming. In fact, there has never been a record of Zhuge Liang sitting in a car in the official history, and Mr. Luo Guanzhong, who was in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, let Brother Liang get in the car in the romance, because he should have copied Wei Rui's image of sitting in a car.

After Hefei was conquered, Xiao Yan ordered the troops to enter Tanglin. Tanglin is only 20 miles away from the city of Yongcheng in the Northern Wei Dynasty. When the battle was about to be fought, Xiao Yan ordered Wei Rui's class. Considering that the Southern Liang army was too close to the Wei army and was worried about being followed and pursued, Wei Rui ordered the baggage to be the front team, with the army in the middle, and he sat in the back of the palace in a small car.

The Northern Wei army was frightened by Wei Rui, and did not dare to approach from a distance, and the Wei army was able to retreat intact. Since then, Nanliang has moved Yuzhou Prefecture to Hefei.

This time, Cao Jingzong was ordered to rescue Zhongli City, and there were many casualties, until he did not dare to attack, and built a fortress in Daoren Continent to defend himself. Cao Jingzong couldn't count on it, Xiao Yan immediately issued an edict, Xuan Wei Rui entered the pilgrimage to see, and gave him the dragon ring sword: all entrusted to you, if the generals do not obey the order, behead.

Wei Rui, who was 65 years old at the time, took over the knife and also took over the life and death of Nanliang.

The soldiers were fast, Wei Rui led the army from Hefei directly through Yinling Daze, encountered the mountain stream and canyon, and ordered the sappers to build a bridge to cross. Some generals were worried that the Wei army was strong and advised Wei Rui to march slowly.

Wei Rui waved his hand: Zhongli was already in a hurry to dig a hole and find a mouse to satisfy his hunger. Hurry by car, still afraid that it will be too late, and slow down? Hasten!

From Hefei to Zhongli City, the straight-line distance is more than 300 miles, and the road is full of Yinling Daze, mountain streams and canyons, but Wei Rui's rescue army arrived in less than ten days, and joined forces with Cao Jingzong to enter Tundao Renzhou.

When Wei Rui, the god of war, arrived, Cao Jingzong was very respectful, and the two generals got along harmoniously. As with Hefei, before the war, Wei Rui first conducted a topographical investigation.

Grandpa Mao is reading "Southern History. Wei Rui's biography", in Wei Rui's Hefei Battle to survey the terrain of the "Rui Case Walking Mountains and Rivers" annotated "bow down to investigate and study". In the survey of the terrain of the "Rui patrol fence" added a side circle, but also annotated "bow investigation and research", it seems to be insufficient, and add a circle next to the word "bow".

The Daorenzhou where Wei Rui's army was stationed was in the Huai River northeast of Fengyang, Anhui Province. The main force of the Northern Wei army was stationed on Shaoyang Continent in the middle of the Huai River, east of Daorenzhou, and the north and south banks were connected to the river bank by wooden bridges. The south bridge points to Zhongli Castle and is the offensive route. The north bridge was used to transport weapons, grain and grass, and baggage. In order to protect the bridge, the Wei army surrounded each other with a fence on the side of the bridge to cut off the waterway.

Isn't this an eagle with outstretched wings? Break off its wings, and the eagle becomes a domestic chicken.

Wei Rui's heart lit up, there is.

The next day, Yuan Ying, the commander of the Northern Wei Army, got up to brush his teeth and wash his face, and when he looked outside the barracks, he was shocked.

A tucheng and a deep ditch across Shaoyangzhou lay in front of Yuan Ying. It is more than 100 steps away from the Wei army camp and less than 200 meters. At the head of the city, Liang Jun was still waving at Yuanying, frowning.

Yuan Ying didn't have time to pick out the in his eyes, and kept knocking on the ground with a stick: how can he be so fast? TMD is not so fast to build Huoshenshan Hospital!

Fast? Yes, Wei Rui fought quickly, and it took less than ten days to rush from Hefei to Zhongli City, and ordered the Liang army to take advantage of the night to take a boat to the island, lurk near the Wei army camp, dig a long trench overnight, tie the antlers, and cut off the river to form a city defense. The Liang army in the city defense can attack the two bridges and the Wei army on the continent at any time.

Wei Rui is at the level of a national first-class registered builder. And Cao Jingzong was not idle, and ordered the sergeants to dive from the bottom of the river into Zhongli City, and informed the defenders that reinforcements were coming.

3,000 people suffered from more than 100,000 Wei troops' mad dog-like continuous attacks, and the mental condition of the defenders in the city was on the verge of collapse.

The defense of the barrage city was completed, but Wei Rui was not in a hurry to attack, he was waiting for the best opportunity.

Wei Rui can wait, Yang Dayan can't wait, this Northern Wei general, who is known for his parkour speed, took advantage of Wei Rui's unstable foothold and led more than 10,000 cavalry to attack the Shaoyangzhou base camp of the Liang army, and the army was fierce and invincible.

With cavalry on land, that's all you can do. Back then, Li Ling of the Western Han Dynasty led 5,000 foot soldiers to resist the 110,000 elite cavalry of the Huns, what did he rely on?

Cars, crossbows. Wei Rui ordered people to string the vehicles together to form a large car formation, forming a defensive position in the core. When Yang Dayan's cavalry attacked, 2,000 strong crossbows in the vehicle formation were fired at the same time, like machine guns, piercing through the armor of the Wei army. The Wei army suddenly fell in pieces, and the right arm of the fierce general Yang Dayan was also pierced, so he had to withdraw his troops back to the camp.

The deputy coach was injured, and the coach personally stepped in. In the early morning of the next day, Yuan Ying personally led his troops to attack. By this time, the Liang army had recovered from the exhaustion of digging trenches overnight to build the city. Wei Rui sat in a white wooden car, holding a white horn in his hand, and commanded several times a day, and the Wei army returned in vain.

If you don't work during the day, you can do it at night. Yuan Ying organized a night raid team, arrows rained down, and the roof of Wei Rui's wooden BMW became a hedgehog. A Wei army rushed to Tucheng, the Liang army was horrified, Wei Rui drove over and shouted: Wei Rui is here! Liang Jun heard the voice of the God of War Commander, and each of them shot a tube of chicken blood to suppress the Wei army.

During the stalemate stage, every time the Liang army sent people to the north bank of Huaishui to cut grain and grass, they were also intercepted by Yang Dayan's army stationed on the north bank. Cao Jingzong sent more than 1,000 people to build a fortress on the north bank to confront the Wei army. Assigned the general Zhao Cao to guard this city, called Zhao Cao City.

This Zhao Cao City, in addition to ensuring that the Liang army's food and grass are safe, is also equivalent to indirectly cutting off the supply channel of the Wei army, and has achieved unexpected results.

The Wei army was even more anxious, and tried to break through the defense line built by Wei Rui overnight several times, but they were unsuccessful and were cut off on the Zhou Bridge. In March 507, the spring flood of the Huai River came, and the Huai River swelled seven feet, and the water surface was almost flush with the wooden bridge deck.

This is the moment that Wei Rui was waiting for.

On land, your cavalry can spread wild, and now is the time for the naval army of the Southern Dynasties to make contributions.

Wei Rui ordered the whole line to attack, and the naval warships such as Feng Daogen, the Taishou of Lujiang, Pei Di, and the Taishou of Qinjun, Li Wenzhao, all of them, approached the Wei army camp. The Liang army also used small boats to carry grass, filled them with fire oil, and released the boats to burn the two wings of the Wei army's formation—the South Bridge and the North Bridge.

The wind was so fierce that the brave men uprooted the wooden fences, and all the bridges were destroyed, and they writhed and disappeared downstream in a panic with the turbulent water. The bridge has become two seas of fire, and there is an earthen city dug by the Liang army overnight, and the base camp of the Wei army on the middle continent has become an isolated island.

Feng Daogen and others all stood up to fight in person, and the sergeants fought bravely for a while, and the killing sound shook the heavens and the earth.

The Wei army was defeated, and more than 100,000 people fled to the water and drowned, and the remaining tens of thousands took off their armor and kowtowed to beg for mercy and became prisoners. The three generals, Yuan Ying, Yang Dayan, and Xiao Baokun, escaped and fled.

Chang Yizhi in Zhongli City, led the army to support himself at the head of the city to watch the battle, and when he saw the victory of the Liang army, he couldn't express his excitement, but just shouted vigorously: It's alive again! Live again!

At the end of the war, Xiao Yan sent Zhongshulang Zhou She to the Huai River to work on the army. Wei Rui piled up the captured materials at the military gate, and Zhou She sighed after watching it: The general's capture is really as high as Bear's Ears Mountain!

Wei Rui was promoted to the rank of marquis for his merits.

In the battle of Zhongli, the Southern Liang won a complete victory, and the Northern Wei army drowned and beheaded as many as two or three hundred thousand, plus tens of thousands of surrendered, almost all the troops were wiped out. After the three commanders of the Wei army, Yuan Ying, Yang Dayan, and Xiao Baokun, fled back to China, some people suggested that the three be sentenced to death. Emperor Xuanwu Yuan Ke was a kind man, exempted three people from capital crimes, only deprived Yuan Ying and Xiao Baochun of their titles, and demoted them to commoners, while Yang Dayan was exiled to Yingzhou to fill the army. Soon after, in order to deal with the domestic rebellion and the use of troops against the Southern Dynasty, Yuan Ke successively restored the official titles of the three people.

Post-war review.

Comparison of days and times. Yuan Ying thought that there was a lot of rain in February, which was not conducive to the siege, and he had to wait until March to win the victory. But in March, it was the spring flood season of the Huai River in the south, and there was more rain, which was conducive to the naval army of the Southern Dynasties. Yuan Ying didn't learn meteorology well, and he lost to Liang in the sky.

Comparative geographical advantages. "The Art of War" cloud: "The upper army is to attack and plan, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and then the next is to attack the city." That is, attacking the enemy's city is the strategy of using soldiers, and this method of fighting often outweighs the losses, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to build equipment in order to capture a city, and it takes a lot of food, grass and time. In the end, at the cost of heavy casualties in exchange for a ruined city, it can only be regarded as a crushing victory; If the siege is not overcome, not only will the soldiers suffer many casualties and damage their morale, but they may also be pursued by the enemy when retreating, so that they will suffer a major rout.

In history, Sun Quan's attack on Hefei, Zhuge Liang's attack on Chencang, and Emperor Yang of Sui's conquest of Liaodong all made the mistake of not breaking through the fortified city and not giving up.

The Han army was like this against the Han army, not to mention the Hu cavalry. The Northern Wei Dynasty could not first occupy the upper reaches of Sichuan and Shu, go down the Yangtze River, and then march along the Yangtze River to form an encirclement of the south of the Yangtze River, as the Western Jin Dynasty did when it destroyed Eastern Wu. Instead, they used cavalry that was good at field warfare to engage in siege warfare with the southerners, and finally failed.

The Central Plains region is a flat river, and there is no danger to defend, so Liu Song and Xiao Qi cannot hold the land of Henan; But from the area south of Qinhuai, the hills and dirt slopes are endless, the rivers and lakes are swamped everywhere, and the cavalry has nowhere to show their hands and feet. Therefore, although Liu Yilong's two Yuanjia Northern Expeditions were defeated and pursued by the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty only returned after drinking the Yangtze River, and there was no way to return if they did not return.

People and aspects comparison. On the Liang army's side, the waste commander Xiao Hong fled, but let the god of war Wei Rui free up his hands and feet, plus the lives of the three armies, all departments worked closely together, adopted a variety of effective tactics, and counterattacked in a timely manner, and achieved a great victory in the war between the Southern Dynasties and the Northern Dynasties since the early years of Song Yuanjia, and stabilized the situation in Huainan.

The most important decisive factor in the war is still people, if you don't believe it, look at the current Russian-Ukrainian war. The Liang army first fought among themselves and then united, and Xiao Hong argued with the generals, leading to the defeat of Luokou; Later, Wei Rui and Cao Jingzong united as one to jointly lift the siege of Zhongli. The Wei army first united and then fought infighting, and Xing Luan did not hesitate to abandon India and return for this; Yuan Ying was earnest in his meritorious service and did not hesitate to disobey the withdrawal order of Emperor Yuan Ke of Wei Xuanwu. Renshang lost another move to Liang Jun.

Wang Fuzhi: Zhongli's victory, the merit is a great achievement.

Hou Jing: Stealing Anqiang in the north of Wei is the beginning of the Heavenly Prison, the battle of Zhongli, and the horses will not return.

It can be seen that the Battle of Zhongli was the most defeated and far-reaching of all the military operations of the Northern Wei Dynasty against the Southern Dynasties, and it also damaged the national strength of the Northern Wei Dynasty greatly. After that, the domestic civil unrest intensified, and the political situation declined, which eventually led to the division of the country into the Eastern Wei and Western Wei.

This battle was an unprecedented victory for the Southern Liang and even the entire history of the Southern Dynasties, and it was "an unprecedented victory since the war between the North and the South", showing that the balance of strength between the Northern and Southern Dynasties had changed, and the Northern Wei Dynasty began to decline.

However, although the Southern Liang maintained relative stability, Emperor Wu of Liang never gave up the idea of the Northern Expedition, and used troops for many years to weaken the national strength, planting a remote cause for the future Hou Jing Rebellion.

Japanese writer Yoshiki Tanaka's long historical novel "Rushing Stream" is based on the background of the Battle of Zhongli, and evolved from the folk tale "Liang Zhu". However, the protagonist in his book did not participate in this war, but the protagonist is also a legendary figure in the Southern Dynasties and even the entire Northern and Southern Dynasties.

The lower part is a special description of Hou Jing and the protagonist.