Chapter 892 The Battle of Feishui
(PS: This chapter mainly tells the background story of the Battle of Feishui. Those who don’t like or understand this history can skip it directly.)
On June 16th, all the major media in China reported in detail the news that the Great Xia Dynasty was the suzerain of Stubborn Stone City in a prominent position, even the headlines on the front page, pushing the players' heated discussions to a climax.
At this moment, a system announcement suddenly spread throughout China.
"System announcement: Thirty second-level counties have been successfully promoted in China, and the battle system has been triggered. The seventh battle [Battle of Feishui] will officially start in three days. Please look forward to it. Friendly reminder: The battle of Feishui is Non-mandatory campaign scenario missions, only territories that have been promoted to second-level counties are eligible to sign up."
...
Today, there are no more than 50 territories that have survived in the wilderness of China. The lowest level is already a first-level county town, and the second-level county town is the backbone. As for Di Chen and the others, they had already promoted their titles to first-class marquises, and their respective territories to third-class counties.
It's just that it's a big hurdle to wait from the Marquis to the Duke, not to mention Di Chen, even the Phoenix Prisoner's merit value is only more than 400,000, which is less than half of the Duke's needs.
The birth of a second capital city in China seems to be far away.
Ouyang Shuo had mixed feelings about the Battle of Feishui. The development of the China region in the previous life was far less rapid than in this life. Before Ouyang Shuo was reborn, the Battle of Feishui was the last battle.
It also means that Ouyang Shuo will no longer be able to foresee the upcoming battle.
...
The Battle of Feishui took place in 383 A.D. The former Qin sent troops to attack Jin and fought in Feishui. In the end, the Eastern Jin Dynasty defeated the 1.12 million former Qin army with only 80,000 troops.
The former Qin, which had an absolute advantage, lost to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the country also declined and perished. All ethnic groups in the north broke away from the rule of the former Qin and split into several regimes dominated by the Later Qin and Later Yan. The Eastern Jin Dynasty took advantage of this Northern Expedition to push the border to the Yellow River, and there was no foreign invasion in the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the following decades.
...
To clarify the battle of Feishui, it needs to be placed in the special historical background of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, also known as the Three Kingdoms, Two Jins, and Sixteen Kingdoms, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties lasted for 369 years, from when Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor to when the Sui Dynasty defeated Chen and unified China.
This period was the period with the most frequent regime changes in Chinese history, with long-term separatist regimes and continuous wars. Over 300 years, more than 30 dynasties, big and small, rose and fell alternately.
The Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties inherited the Han and Jin Dynasties, and then started the Sui and Tang Dynasties. During this period, the dynasties were short and chaotic. New cultural factors influence each other and infiltrate each other.
This period is also a period of transformation and transformation of the feudal dynasty system, and its status in history is no less than that of the pre-Qin Dynasty. Most of the Sui and Tang systems were gradually developed and finalized during this period, and their influence continued until the Northern Song Dynasty.
In 265 A.D., Sima Yan replaced Cao Wei and established a new regime. The name of the country was Jin, and the capital was Luoyang. The three kingdoms ended and the world returned to unity.
It is a pity that this unified dynasty is only a flash in the pan after all.
After the destruction of Wu, the nobles of the Western Jin Dynasty were extravagant and corrupt, the political style was dark, and the aristocratic families and powerful groups were in power.
During this period, a large number of nomadic tribes moved inward and were taken in as slaves by aristocratic families. At that time, foreigners in Guanzhong and Liangzhou accounted for half of the local population.
Due to the large number of immigrated people, it laid the groundwork for the subjugation of the Western Jin Dynasty and the chaos of the Five Husbands.
In 299 A.D., the Western Jin Dynasty caused the Eight Kings Rebellion due to the competition for the throne. It lasted for seven years, and the vitality was severely damaged.
The Wuhu Luanhua was counted from the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty to the unification of the north by the Northern Wei Dynasty of Xianbei.
This period was a disaster for the Han people. The world was divided between the north and the south, and there was a long-term confrontation.
The "Five Hus" mainly refer to the five Hu tribes of Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang, and Di. Before the Battle of Feishui, Qin Emperor Fu Jian was born in the Di tribe of the Five Hus.
In 357 A.D., Fu Jian, king of the East China Sea, staged a coup, abolished Fu Sheng, the former Qin emperor, and ascended the throne.
Nearly thirty years later, a generation of hero Fu Jian reused Wang Meng and others to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and wiped out Qianyan, Qianliang, and Dai successively, and finally unified the north, forming a confrontation between the north and the south with the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Fu Jian was an excellent monarch, and any emperor in the Jin Dynasty was far from being able to compare with Fu Jian.
During the eradication of Qianyan, Qianliang, and Dai Three Kingdoms, Fu Jian never punished those captured emperors and generals, and gave them very high treatment.
This may be due to Fu Jian's generous character, but it is more likely to be based on policy considerations.
Because the Di ethnic group is a small ethnic group in the north, how to control other ethnic groups is a big problem. Faced with this situation, Fu Jian did not want to cause turmoil by killing the leaders of the foreign tribes, but preferred to control them with some means, and even gave those leaders considerable military power.
Among them are Murong Chui, Yao Chang and others.
Ironically, after Qin was defeated in the Battle of Feishui, Murong Chui fled back to the hometown of Qianyan to restore the country and became the king.
...
In 375 A.D., Wang Meng passed away. Before he died, he said to Fu Jian: "Although Jin is remote and ugly, Wu and Yue are inherited from Zhengshuo. Being kind to benevolent neighbors is also the treasure of the country. After the death of the minister, I hope that Jin will not be used as a picture. The Xianbei and the Qiang captives are our enemies, and they will eventually become human troubles, so we should gradually eliminate them for the sake of the country."
Wang Meng's exhortation is justified.
After exterminating Qianyan, Qianliang, and Dai Three Kingdoms one after another, Qianqin got a huge amount of spoils at once, but it was not easy to digest this result.
Assimilation and integration between races takes time.
The little Di conquered northern China like a snake swallowing an elephant. It stands to reason that the snake's first priority is to work hard to secrete stomach acid and digest the elephant. It's obviously not a good idea to go and swallow a rhino before it's digested.
Wang Meng was worried about the digestion ability of this snake, that's why he gave the previous warning.
However, Fu Jian's rise is a history of continuous success, which gave Fu Jian strong self-confidence, and he did not believe that his good luck would end.
Fu Jian happily thought, "It's okay to swallow another rhinoceros."
The unification of the world is a huge temptation, and Fu Jian cannot resist this temptation. Therefore, seven years after Wang Meng's death, Fu Jian thought the time was ripe and decided to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In 378 A.D., the former Qin stepped up its offensive against the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
At that time, the former Qin Dynasty mobilized 170,000 troops divided into four groups to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Xiangyang City fell after holding on for a year, and Zhu Xu, the governor of Yongzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was captured.
According to Fu Jian's practice of reusing captives, Zhu Xu was absorbed as a former Qin official.
This Zhu Xu did not give up his submission, but instead played the role of a senior spy, which played a very destructive role in the subsequent Battle of Feishui.
In 383 A.D., the former Qin Emperor Fu Jian decided to devote all his power to the conquest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He ordered that all the horses in the country, regardless of whether they were public or not, should be drafted into the army at the rate of one out of every ten males. It is still private, and it will be requisitioned for use by the expeditionary army.
In this way, an army of 870,000 was assembled, of which there were 270,000 cavalry alone. In addition, there are 250,000 vanguard troops led by general Fu Rong, with a total of 1.12 million troops.
At that time, the total population of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was only three to four million, and there were only about one hundred thousand soldiers fighting. Just one thing, compared to the million troops temporarily dispatched by the former Qin Dynasty, the 100,000 troops of the Eastern Jin Dynasty are several grades higher in combat power.
The main force of this army is the Beifu Army, which is mainly composed of refugees who have been recruited.
Why refugees?
After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, refugees from the north entered the south. Some refugees moved to the south of the Yangtze River and became vassals of gentry and landlords, becoming ordinary people. But there are still many refugees living in the north of the Yangtze River. Unlike those refugees who went to farm for big families, they have their own organizations and armed forces.
In ancient times, fleeing was not an easy task, and people faced danger everywhere.
When everyone fled, they always wore the best clothes on their bodies and hid the most valuable things in their packages, which made them the best targets for robbery.
In troubled times, bandits are rampant. It is common for bandits to strip naked and still go to the side of the road. The rebellious army is where it is, and it is their duty to see refugees looting.
In addition to bandits and rebels, even the officials of the Jin Dynasty had the idea of targeting refugees.
For example, Sima Yi, the king of Xiyang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, asked his subordinates to pretend to be bandits and openly robbed the road in Hubei to rob these refugees. There are more than one or two unscrupulous princes who do this business without capital, and it has almost become a promising sunrise industry. Even the famous Zu Ti, the general of the Northern Expedition, did this too.
When Zu Ti first arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, he had no property. One day, he invited many senior officials to his home as guests, displayed a lot of treasures, and said: "Don't be surprised, everyone, I just came to Nantang by accident yesterday to make a vote."
It stands to reason that Zu Ti was not a bad person. Later, he led an army to the Northern Expedition and died in Henan. The local people built an ancestral hall for him, and many people burned incense and worshiped him.
The point is that it is too tempting to do this. How can you let go of a flock of fat sheep lying outside? Anyway, if you have a knife and a gun in your hand, if you rob it, it will be for nothing. Who would not rob for nothing?
As for whether these sheep will have difficulties in life after being robbed, who can control so much?
Even refugees rob each other, and unarmed refugees can easily become victims of their own kind.
In such a situation, under the command of the leader, the refugees organize themselves, no matter who you are, whoever dares to come to grab things, I will fight with you to the end.
These leaders became "refuge commanders".
In this way, the refugees became a relatively independent armed force.
In addition, most of the refugees who went south were people who had developed some skills after going through turmoil. They were so powerful that they were more capable of fighting than those who spent their entire lives farming at home and paying rent.
It would be a pity if they were not used to fight.
In 377 A.D., Xie Xuan took in a large number of northern refugees in Jingkou and established the Beifu Army.
Under the rectification of a qualified general, Xie Xuan, the Beifu soldiers trained hard for several years, and soon became the most elite army in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and also the most elite army in China at that time.
In the sixth year after Xie Xuan formed the Beifu Army, the Battle of Feishui began.
In all fairness, Fu Jian conscripted one male out of ten. This ratio was not too high at the time, and a higher ratio was not uncommon.
However, Fu Jian confiscated and expropriated throughout the entire former Qin Empire. From Hebei to Sichuan, from Shandong to Gansu, all confiscated according to this ratio, which would cause huge problems.
At that time, there were no railways and trucks, and there were not so many carriages for these soldiers. These soldiers could only rely on their two legs to travel. Under normal circumstances, if a person walks empty-handed for 8 hours a day without taking anything, and the roads are well repaired, he may be able to walk 40 kilometers.
But as a soldier, you always have to bring some belongings, and the road may not be so smooth.
According to historical data, Alexander the Great's army could walk about 25 kilometers a day. The army of the Roman Empire can generally travel 25 kilometers, and even more than 30 kilometers when it is very fast.
However, the army of the former Qin Dynasty was not a long-term trained professional soldier. It is quite rare for them to be able to walk 20 kilometers. It was a troubled time at that time, and it is estimated that the roads will not be well maintained.
If you encounter crossing the river, you will be even more dumbfounded. If there is no bridge, you can only wait for the ferry. Even if these difficulties are ignored, it will take two months for a Northwest soldier to rush to the Huaihe River Basin.
The problem is that Fu Jian's war preparations were hasty. In July, Fu Jian issued the conscript order. According to common sense, it would take a certain amount of time for this decree to reach all parts of the country, and then the local officials would also spend considerable time to implement it.
But Fu Jian felt that the time was running out.
On the second day of August, Fu Jian dispatched 250,000 infantry and cavalry troops of Yangping Duke Fu Rong, commander-in-chief Zhang Hao, Murong Chui and others as forwards. .
On the eighth day of August, Fu Jian set off from Chang'an to the battlefield, and the main force followed suit.
In September, Fu Rong led a vanguard force of 250,000 troops to Yingkou in the Huai River basin, Fu Jian's central army reached Xiangcheng, Liangzhou's army arrived in Xianyang, and Zitong prefect Pei Yuanlue led a navy of 70,000 to go eastward from Bashu. The armies of Youzhou and Jizhou also arrived in Pengcheng, traveling thousands of miles east and west, advancing by land and water.
At this point, the war has officially begun.
And at this time, have the troops from all over the country reached the designated battlefield? If you calculate the time, you will know that it will definitely be too late. According to historical records, when Fu Jian arrived in Xiangcheng, the Gansu army had just arrived in Xianyang.
Armies across the country are marching toward assembly points, and the war has begun.
What's even more ironic is that the Battle of Feishui was over before they reached the battlefield. All they do is run around in northern China, consuming a lot of food and blocking roads everywhere.
It can be said that Fu Jian failed in the battle of Feishui because he did not listen to Wang Meng's dying words, disregarded the objections of Fu Rong and other ministers, and did not listen to the famous monk Shi Dao'an, Prince Fu Hong, Zhongshan Gong Fu Shen and even his favorite concubine. The dissuasion by Mrs. Zhang and others, and the inflated confidence, had already planted the root of disaster when the whole country conscripted a large army to attack Jin.
Qin's defeat before the Battle of Feishui was by no means accidental.