Chapter 893

(PS: This chapter tells the story of the Battle of Feishui. Those who don’t like or understand it can skip it directly.)

In the Battle of Feishui, why was Fu Jian so anxious that he did not wait for the conscripted army to gather in one place, and then set out in unison to launch a thunderous blow against the Eastern Jin Dynasty and win in one battle?

It's not that Fu Jian doesn't want to do it, but it's simply impossible.

Under the conditions of ancient technology, what is the concept of concentrating millions of troops in one place? !

If you walk on a large road, even if the road is very wide and can accommodate twenty people walking side by side, and the queues are densely packed, the entire team will have to be dragged for more than 50 kilometers.

It's a horrible state of being unmanageable.

Moreover, with millions of troops marching together, it is impossible to supply supplies.

The only way is to divide the troops. Fu Jian's tactic is to divide the army of one million into several echelons. The first echelon will fall, and the second echelon will follow. Using the crowd tactics can kill the Eastern Jin army.

Fu Jian once said: "With all my troops, throw a whip on the river to cut off its flow." It turned out that the war was completely over before the second echelon had a chance to join.

…………

Compared with the hidden dangers of the former Qin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty before the Battle of Feishui was another scene.

The news that Fu Jian was about to go south in a big way reached Jiankang, and the Eastern Jin court was shocked.

At that time, the main military forces of the Eastern Jin Dynasty were divided into two parts, one was the Huanchong Army stationed in Jingzhou, and the other was the Beifu Army stationed in Huainan, led by Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.

Judging from the direction of Fu Jian's attack, the Beifu army will undertake the main combat tasks.

Xie Xuan was very anxious, and asked for orders from Xie An, the No. 1 figure in the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time. Xie An was just a gentle prime minister, so if he had any good ideas, he could only vaguely say: "The imperial court has made other arrangements."

In fact, there is no arrangement at all, Xie Xuan can only rely on himself.

Huan Chong of Jingzhou was also very anxious, and sent 3,000 elite soldiers to guard Jiankang, but Xie An said to the sent soldiers: "The arrangements have been made here, you should go back and strengthen the defense to the west!"

After Huan Chong heard this, he sighed privately and said, "We are finished!"

The officials of the imperial court saw that they were going to be taken as captives collectively, and they were impatient, so they all went to Xie An for advice. Xie An couldn't face these people, so he simply left, went out to visit the mountains and rivers, and didn't show up in Jiankang during the day.

Some people boasted about Xie An, saying that he "had been lying in Dongshan for forty years, and he defeated Fu Jian in a string and bamboo class", and he defeated Fu Jian by playing the piano. In fact, this is all the rhetoric of the literati, which is far from the truth.

Xie An may have resigned himself to fate deep in his heart. Fortunately, even if he became a prisoner, his life would not be in danger. It is a tradition for Fu Jian to treat prisoners preferentially. Work hard.

In Chang'an City, Fu Jian also built a house for Xie An in advance.

Xie An would only pretend to be deep and could not provide much help. Xie Shi and Xie Xuan could only gather all their available troops to fight Fu Jian's army decisively.

In October, Fu Rong's forward force of 250,000 troops crossed the Huaihe River, captured Shouyang City, and besieged a Jin Dynasty army in Xiashi. Fu Rong planned to wipe out the besieged Jin army, so he sent another army of 50,000 people to station at Luojian in the east to prevent the Eastern Jin reinforcements.

At that time, Fu Jian's main force was still moving out one after another, and Fu Jian himself took part of the army to station in Xiangcheng.

The besieged Jin army wrote a letter to Xie Xuan asking for help, but Fu Rong didn't want the letter to be intercepted. Fu Rong happily believed that the end of the Jin army had come, and immediately sent Fu Jian the news of victory.

Fu Jian heard Longyan Dayue, and immediately led 8,000 cavalry to Shouyang to join Fu Rong, while the rest of the main force was still slowly marching on the road.

Xie Xuan and other 70,000 main forces of the Beifu army entered Luojian, intending to rescue the trapped Jin army.

However, with 50,000 Qin troops separated between them, the Beifu army had no choice but to attack. One of Xie Xuan's generals, Liu Laozhi, led five thousand elite soldiers to attack the Qin army at night. The Qin army was unprepared and collapsed.

Just like all battlefields collapsed, the soldiers could not judge the number of enemy troops, let alone organize effective resistance, they just fled blindly, and the panicked soldiers rushed to the Huai River.

The former Qin generals had no way to prevent this collapse. They were either killed or captured. As a result, 15,000 Qin soldiers were killed, and all the weapons, food and grass fell into the hands of the Jin army. An army of 50,000 men was completely disintegrated in the sudden attack of 5,000 enemy troops, which seemed to be a preview of an even greater collapse to come.

This failure surprised Fu Jian. For the first time since he set out for the expedition, he felt fear.

After the victory in Luojian, the main force of the Jin army continued to advance and joined the besieged Jin army. So far, 80,000 troops of the Jin army's navy and army have assembled and stationed in the east of Feishui.

At this time, a figure who decided the key turning point in the Battle of Feishui appeared on the stage. He was Zhu Xu, the governor of Yongzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty who was captured by Fu Jian before. After Zhu Xu was captured, Fu Jian gave preferential treatment according to the tradition.

This time, Zhu Xu was appointed by Fu Jian as an envoy to persuade him to surrender. Unfortunately, Zhu Xu not only did not persuade him to surrender, but instead said to Xie Shi: "Although the Qin army has millions of people, it is still marching. It will be difficult to resist. The situation is different now, and we should take advantage of the opportunity when the Qin army has not arrived in full, and launch an attack quickly. As long as we can defeat its forward troops and dampen its spirit, we can defeat Qin's million-strong army."

Xie Shi originally planned to stick to it and consume Fu Jian, but under Zhu Xu's persuasion, he decided to take the initiative to attack.

Feishui was chosen as the place for the decisive battle between the two armies.

Fu Jian's army gathered on the west bank of Feishui River to face the Jin army across the river. At that time, in Fu Jian's army, Fu Rong's army had a total of 250,000 people, and Fu Jian brought another 8,000 cavalry from Xiangcheng.

But Fu Rong sent another 30,000 troops to Jingzhou, and lost some soldiers and horses in Luojian, and left some troops to garrison Shouchun. Therefore, the former Qin army on the bank of Feishui was really only 150,000.

The elite of the Qin army were Di soldiers, and they were concentrated in the central army commanded by Fu Rong. In addition, there are many Han people, Xianbei people, Qiang people, and Wuhuan people in the army. They have no loyalty to the former Qin established by the Di people, and they came here in fear of power.

The diversity of races increases the complexity of the organization and makes it more difficult to command. Language alone is a problem. The languages ​​of different ethnic groups are different, and Fu Rong's orders must be translated into different languages ​​before they can be issued.

One hundred and fifty thousand people came from all kinds of races and had no formal training. Now they are crowded together on the west bank of Feishui River. Even if a god is their commander, it may be difficult to manage them freely.

The two sides waited in full battle along the Feishui River, but did not move for a while.

At that time, Fu Jian and Fu Rong boarded the Shouyang City Tower, and saw the Jin army on the opposite side in order, with elite soldiers, and looked north at the vegetation on Bagong Mountain, all of which were humanoid.

Fu Jian said to Fu Rong: "This is also a strong enemy, what is so little!" He looked worried and fearful.

This is the source of the idiom "Grass and trees are soldiers", which shows that after Luojian's defeat, Fu Jian has changed from underestimating the enemy to being afraid of the enemy, and has become less confident.

At this time, Fu Jian received a letter written by Xie Xuan, which said: "The king hangs the army deep, sets up the formation to force the water, this long-lasting strategy, do you want to fight? If you retreat from the army, you will make the soldiers Zhou Xuan, the servants and the lord look at it slowly, isn't it beautiful?"

Xie Xuan's plan is to fight decisively as soon as possible. According to the plan, he will lead eight thousand elites to fight across the river. If the situation goes well, the follow-up main force will cross the river and launch a large-scale attack. If you fail, you can also have the main force to respond.

Regarding Xie Xuan's request, there were great differences among the former Qin army. Most people thought there was a problem here and should sternly refuse to retreat, but Fu Jian and Fu Rong believed: "When the Jin army is halfway across the river, let the cavalry Launching a charge against them, how can there be no reason not to win a complete victory?"

Therefore, Fu Jian ordered the army to retreat.

It seems that Fu Jian's idea is not wrong. The Qin army waited for work with ease, and used cavalry to deal with the Jin army crossing the river, which had a great advantage in tactics.

But Fu Jian ignored one point, is he capable of making his army retreat in an orderly manner? Fu Jian only considered the enemies on the other side, but did not realize that the 150,000 people around him might be more dangerous enemies.

The order to retreat was issued, and a great chaos broke out immediately.

We might as well imagine how an ordinary Qin soldier would feel during this retreat.

He was among 150,000 people, and when he looked around, there were dense crowds of people in all directions. He has been living in the north, and he never dreamed that he would come to this place called Feishui.

He knew that a bloody battle was about to break out, and he was likely to die in this strange place. He was not sure how powerful the Jin army on the other side was.

But in the battle of Luojian that happened not long ago, I heard that many people died on his side.

Thinking of this will of course make him highly nervous, and the surrounding population density is so large, this will not relieve his pressure, but will only make him more nervous.

Fear can be passed on and strengthened between people.

He may not understand some officers' words, even if the captain speaks the same language as him, he can understand it, but it is difficult to understand. The officer said: "Everyone should retreat 500 meters so that the Jin army can cross the river, and then turn back to fight the Jin army and drive them into the river."

This statement was too complicated for him, and besides, the officer might not really tell him that much detail, all he knew was that the officer told him to retreat, and he didn't know exactly why he retreated.

Okay, everyone turn around and walk.

They knew that the Jin army was behind them and could charge at them at any time. This kind of thinking would naturally make them feel dangerous. As you can imagine, some of them could easily pick up the pace.

The more you think there are many Jin troops behind you, the faster you may go.

He still has a wife and children, but he dare not die casually. As soon as they walked fast, the people around them also walked fast involuntarily. Seeing the people around them walking faster and faster, everyone naturally became more and more frightened.

This is a bad positive feedback. If it is allowed to develop, the end will be that everyone runs collectively. It stands to reason that there should be an external force to interrupt this positive feedback, and this external force is the commander of the army.

But in the face of such a complicated establishment and such a large number of personnel, it was difficult for the generals to deal with it. At that time, there were no decent communication measures, except for military flags and trumpets, which were shouted by human voices.

It is difficult for junior officers and senior generals to communicate, and the language barrier makes it even more difficult.

It is very likely that the grassroots officers did not understand the development of the situation. Did the Jin army come to fight? Have you already defeated yourself? Is it time to retreat or retreat?

He himself was probably involved in this torrent, and he was running hard.

By the time the chaos had spread, even the officers were helpless. The power of fear is infinite. I saw 150,000 people change from marching to walking, and from walking to running.

At this juncture, Xie Xuan's troops had already started to cross the river.

Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Fu Rong took a step forward, trying to restore order. It's a pity that Fu Rong ran too eagerly and was rammed by the rebellious army. As a result, the horse fell over and Fu Rong, who lost his mount, was killed by the Jin army.

The Jin army did not encounter any resistance after crossing the river, and what was shown in front of them was the gratifying scene of the Qin army running around and trampling each other.

Where would Xie Xuan hesitate, and immediately ordered the pursuit.

Qin Jun ran wildly all the way, and ran to Qinggang in one breath. Their running attitude was very firm, and no force could stop them.

These defeated troops ran until night and were still reluctant to rest, trying to move forward day and night. When they heard the turmoil, they all thought it was the pursuers of the Jin Dynasty, and their fear had penetrated into their bones.

At this point, the 150,000 army of the former Qin Dynasty collapsed.

Fu Jian was also shot by a stray arrow. At that time, the chaos was extremely high. No one cared about the emperor's life and death. Fu Jian rode to Huaibei by himself.

The Jin army obtained 10,000 brocades and 100,000 cattle, sheep, donkeys and mules.

Fu Jian's army collapsed without fighting, the direct reason was that the army retreated for a short period of time. This ending would be unimaginable to modern commanders.

But under the conditions at the time, it was the case.

When the sun rises in the east, there are still 150,000 former Qin soldiers on the west bank of Feishui. When the sun was setting, there were no former Qin soldiers on the bank of Feishui. Illuminated by the setting sun, there are only trampled corpses beyond recognition.

The fate of the former Qin Empire sank with the setting sun.

Those soldiers who had not reached Feishui immediately dispersed when they heard the news of Feishui's defeat. The 800,000 troops that Fu Jian worked so hard to conscript were all disintegrated without being of any use.

Fu Jian's requisition caused commotion throughout the empire, but he did not get any benefits from it. Instead, many defeated troops joined the rebellion against him.

The giant beast swallowed by the snake was not digested, and now it tore the snake's belly and stood up in a pool of blood. The Xianbei rebels established the Later Yan Empire, and the Qiang rebels established the Later Qin Empire.

Fu Jian, who never suspected others, was betrayed by someone he trusted, so he had to abandon Guanzhong and flee to Gansu.

Soon, Fu Jian was strangled to death by Yao Chang, the leader of the Later Qin Dynasty. Twenty years ago, Yao Chang was about to be executed. Fu Jian, who was still the king of the East China Sea at that time, rescued Yao Chang from the execution ground.

It's really like a play of fate.

At that time, it was only two short years since Fu Jian's ambitious conquest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and his dream of unifying the world.

When Fu Jian was dying, did the farce on the bank of Feishui flash in his mind? At his most glorious moment, he suddenly lost the favor of fate.

All this is like a dream.