In August 383, after Former Qin once again occupied the western region and realized the unification of the north, Jian Jian no longer waited, and gathered more than 800,000 troops from all over the country to march south, intending to capture Jiankang and destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but was eventually defeated by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Former Qin also perished a few years later, which was also the Battle of Shuishui.
Most people have the impression that the Eastern Jin Dynasty defeated the Former Qin army with fewer victories and more victories under extremely inferior circumstances, and as far as the historical records of the Battle of Shuishui are concerned, this battle is indeed related to the national fortunes of Former Qin and Eastern Jin, but from the perspective of the course of the war, the two sides did not have such a big disparity in strength at the time of the decisive battle.
In fact, after the death of Former Qin's famous minister Wang Meng, Jian Jian began to drift a little, plus the war in the north of Qin was relatively smooth, and the situation of great unification was achieved in a few years, which greatly stimulated The ambition of Jian Jian, who vowed to go south to destroy Jin and complete the unification of the world.
At that time, there were still many people in Former Qin who opposed it, and Xiang Rong said, "Although Jiangdong is endless, the appearance of heaven is ultimately indestructible", as far as the situation at that time was concerned, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was different from the countries that were destroyed by Former Qin, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not a short-lived regime in the north, and the people were orthodox dynasties that moved south, although the imperial power was not strong, but the Gate Valve clan still supported the Eastern Jin Dynasty and would not succumb to Zhi Jian.
At the same time, Former Qin had just achieved the unification of the north, the internal strength was intertwined, it needed time to suppress or appease, and the Qin army had not yet established a force sufficient to resist the Eastern Jin Water Division, which were the drawbacks of Former Qin's crusade against the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but obviously Jian Jian did not care about these, he was confused by Former Qin's apparent unprecedented strength, and in August 383 AD, he recruited troops from all over the country, claiming 600,000 infantry, 270,000 cavalry, and more than 800,000 troops to the south.
At that time, Jian Jian recruited horses from various states to replenish the army, and at the same time, "ten people sent one soldier", suddenly remembered murong the former Yan monarch Murong Jian before him, he was even more ruthless, he was planning to re-examine the population of all parts of Former Yan, and then each household only left one ding, planning to gather more than 1.5 million troops to conquer the world, but later Murong Hang, if this Murong Jian forcibly carried out this military plan before his death, then the situation in the world does not know what will happen?
At the same time as Former Qin masse its forces on a large scale, Jian Jian also played a psychological warfare. "On the day of kejie in the next book period, with the emperor as the left servant of the Shangshu, Xie An as the official Shangshu, and Huan Chong as the servant, and set up the first to be waited for" Simply put, Jian Jian announced to the world before the great expedition that after the destruction of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he would give high-ranking officials to Emperor Xiaowu of Jin and Xie An Huanchong and other important officials of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to maintain their status.
It can be said that this is a letter of surrender from Jian Jian, once the war situation is not conducive to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, then it is conceivable that there will definitely be people who will defect to Former Qin, after all, like the last monarch of Former Yan, Murong Wei, who was an official in Former Qin, what is impossible, if Former Qin unifies the world, there will definitely be a special situation, that is, many of the kings of the fallen countries have become colleagues who are officials in the dynasty.
In the face of Former Qin's military operations, in addition to the frontal battlefield, the Eastern Jin Dynasty ordered Xie Shi to lead Xie Xuan, Xie Yan, Huan Yi and others, commanded 80,000 Northern Fu soldiers to meet the enemy, and on the flank battlefield, that is, in the Jingxiang area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, ordered Huan Chong to attack Xiangyang.
Book of Jin. Huan Chong, the general of the Jin Dynasty, led a crowd of 100,000 people to attack Xiangyang.
Before the War around Xiangyang in the Former Qin and Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huan Chong held the main force, but was afraid of the Former Qin army, so Zhu Xu trapped Xiangyang for a year without help, and finally Xiangyang was lost, so this time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty ordered Huan Chong to attack Xiangyang in the north, which did not play any key role, and could only disperse part of Former Qin's troops, but it did not have much impact on the front-line war.
However, Jian Jian's plan was very beautiful, but the reality was very bone, he mobilized troops from all over the country, and he himself set out from Chang'an, so the Qin army everywhere was bound to be unable to arrive at the battlefield at a unified time.
Book of Jin. To Xiangcheng, the soldiers of Liangzhou began to reach Xianyang, the army of Shu Han went down the river, and the people of You and Ji went down the river as far as Pengcheng, east and west, and the land and water advanced together.
At that time, Jian Jian had arrived at Xiangcheng (湘城, in present-day Xiangcheng, Henan), the troops recruited from Liangzhou had just arrived at Xianyang in Guanzhong, the Qin army in the land of Shu Han was advancing east along the Han River, and the army around Youzhou Jizhou had just arrived at Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu).
That is to say, Former Qin's military operations are huge, but on the frontal battlefield, the troops have not yet been assembled, on the front line, the Eastern Jin Dynasty will face mainly the 300,000 troops led by Zhi Rong, and it should be noted that these are all former Qin's so-called troops, I personally believe that former Qin's national strength at that time was not enough to support an army of nearly one million, for logistics, it was absolutely a disaster.
Therefore, in the frontal battlefield of the Battle of Shuishui, although former Qin's strength is claimed to be 300,000, the actual strength may only be more than 100,000, while the Eastern Jin Dynasty's 80,000 troops are relatively credible, after all, this is the first battle related to national fortunes, the Eastern Jin Dynasty will not have reservations, if you meet the main force of the Qin army, you can not come up with an army of about 100,000 to resist, then the Eastern Jin Dynasty is not far from the fall of the country.
On the whole, although on the surface, Former Qin gathered heavy troops and went south in multiple ways, which had a great situation in which the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed Wu, but in essence, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not Eastern Wu, and Former Qin was not the Western Jin Dynasty.
Book of Jin. The Chronicle of Jian Jian (苻健載記) rong and others attacked Shouchun... Fall of Yuncheng... Liang Cheng, together with Wang Xian of Yangzhou and Wang Yong of Yiyang Taishou, led a crowd of 50,000 people to Tun At Luojian and Zhahuai to suppress the Eastern Army.
In the early days, the Former Qin army was successful in battle, and seeing that the situation was favorable, Jian Jian left the large army in Xiangcheng, and he led a light horse to the front line of Shouchun to supervise the battle, and the situation gradually developed in the direction of favoring the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Remember Xiangyang guarding the captured Zhu Xu in the middle of the battle? He became a key figure in the Eastern Jin Dynasty's counterattack, and Jian Jian thought that the Eastern Jin Dynasty was weak, so he sent Zhu Xu to persuade Xie Shi, hoping that Xie Shi would lead his troops to surrender, and if the main Force of the Jin Army, which confronted the Qin Army, surrendered, then the Qin Army could indeed drive straight in and reach the city of Jiankang, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty would be forced to move its capital to avoid the enemy even if it did not destroy the country.
However, Xie Shi would not accept The Invitation of Jian Jian, and since Zhu Xu was not a loyal person to Former Qin, his heart was still on the side of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Book of Jin. Zhu Shu's biography was still in Xiang, and Zhi Rong arrived first with 300,000 people. Jian Shu said Xie Shi, saying that he was a soldier. The prologue reverses to Shi Yue: "If the millions of people who are strong know about it, they will not be able to fight the enemy, and they will not be able to meet, and they will be able to win the victory."
When Zhu Xu arrived at the Eastern Jin dynasty camp, instead of serving as a lobbyist for Jian Jian, he told Xie Shi that he could take the initiative to attack while the various large armies of Former Qin had not yet arrived on the battlefield and could strike with one blow.
In fact, Xie Shi's original plan was to close the guard and not fight, which was not completely jealous of the Qin army's military strength, but to safely repel the Qin army.
As I said before, the Qin army massed troops to the south, its logistics supply will inevitably have problems, and the Battle of Shuishui occurred in the autumn and winter, when the northern rivers gradually dried up, and water transportation was not enough to maintain the logistics supply of the front-line army, and there is a point in the historical record that can also be proved.
Book of Jin. The biography of Xie Xuan was obtained by Jian riding on a mica cart, ceremonial clothing, equipment, military assets, treasures and mountains, cattle, horses, donkeys, mules and camels more than 100,000.
When Xie Xuan and others repelled the Qin army, more than 100,000 mules, horses, cattle, camels, etc. were captured, which was obviously not the rations of the Qin army in conventional combat, but the livestock that transported logistics grain and grass, which showed that the logistics supply of the Qin army at that time relied heavily on land transportation.
In that era, the consumption of land transportation rations on the road was very large, and Former Qin was a labor division expedition, while the Eastern Jin Dynasty was a local combat, coupled with the strength of the Eastern Jin Water Division, it can be said that the advantages of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in terms of logistics and supply were far greater than those of Former Qin.
In this case, holding out and not fighting, although there is some recognition, but it is not a correct choice for the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In ancient warfare, the first consideration in tactical choice was logistics, as long as it was fought around logistics, it was basically not wrong.
Therefore, Xie Shi chose to stick to no war, maintain the situation of confrontation, and wait for the logistics problems of Former Qin to be a reasonable decision, but why did Xie Shi adopt Zhu Xu's suggestion?
The first thing to say is that Zhu Xu was not a traitor who was afraid of death in Xie Shi's eyes, he had been guarding Xiangyang for a year, he had done enough, and finally the city was destroyed as a result of someone smuggling with Former Qin, Xie Shi believed in Zhu Xu's character, and naturally believed in the news that Zhu Xu brought from Former Qin. At the same time, Xie Yan also supported Zhu Xu, so Xie Shi changed his playing style and began to try to attack.
Book of Jin. The Biography of Liu Jiaozhi led the army of Liu Xun and Zhuge Qiu to cross the water, and then cut cheng and his brother Yun in the front, and then divided the troops to return to Tianjin. The thief's foot rode collapsed, rushed to Huaishui, killed more than 10,000 people, and collected all his equipment.
Liu Gaozhi was ordered to lead his troops to attack first, won the great victory of Luojian, defeated Former Qin Liang Cheng's troops, and killed more than 10,000 people, which greatly boosted the morale of the Jin army, and it was this victory that made Xie Shi dare to continue to attack Former Qin.
After that, the well-known thing happened, the Jin army took advantage of the situation to move west, and the Qin army was there, holding on to the other side, Xie Xuan sent emissaries to tell Jian Jian that he wanted to cross the river to the Qin army's intention to fight, at that time, the former Qin generals said that they should hold firm and prevent the Jin army from crossing the river, or half-crossing, but Jian Jian insisted on letting the Jin army cross the river, and then used the cavalry advantage of the Qin army to encircle the Jin army that had just crossed the river.
Book of Jin. The Biography of Xie Xuan was extinguished, and the crowd could not stop the chaos. So Xuan, Yan, Yi, and others waded through the fertile water with eight thousand elites. Shi Jun distanced himself from Zhang Oysters and retreated slightly. Xuan and Yan still advanced, and fought a decisive battle in the south of Feishui. Solid in the middle of the stream, on the verge of melting. The strong crowd rushed to collapse, and the dead who threw themselves into the water were invincible, and the fat water did not flow.
Book of Jin. Zhu Xu's biography is strong and small, and the prologue is behind his army, singing Yun: "Tough defeat!" The multitudes rushed, and the order was returned.
As a result, the Qin army was in chaos in the retreat, Xie Xuan and others took advantage of the situation to attack, and the Qin army was defeated, of which Zhu Xu participated in the process of creating chaos for Former Qin, and it is not known whether Zhu Xu initiated it or Zhu Xu took advantage of the situation to expand, but it caused chaos in the Former Qin army.
After that, on the way to the north of Jian Jian, he did not have the energy to collect the defeated pawns, so most of the Qin generals were lost on the way to defeat and retreat before they fought with the Jin army. Jian Jian even left an allusion to the wind and cranes, which shows that the pursuit of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time was very fierce, which caused a certain psychological shadow to Jian Jian.
If it is said that purely from the perspective of the loss of troops, this battle did not completely crush Former Qin, but what made Jian Jian unacceptable was that most of the casualties in the Battle of Shuishui were Former Qin's concubine troops, and the other local armies had not yet arrived at the main battlefield, and Jian Jian was defeated.
The resulting situation was that the fresh forces that Jian Jian once had that could shock all sides were lost, and the strong and powerful parties were not afraid of Jian Jian, and each of them set up a banner against Qin, and in the following year of the Battle of Shuishui, Later Yan, Western Yan, and Later Qin were established successively, and Former Qin was also doomed in civil strife.
In general, the Battle of Shuishui was a war that Jian Jian was too anxious, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not weak, and there were still many internal problems in Former Qin, and Jian Jian hastily gathered the strength of the whole country to fight the battle of national fortune, and the result was that just because of an active tactical retreat, it triggered a major defeat, which he could not have imagined.
References to the Book of Jin. The Book of Jin. Zhu Shu biography", Book of Jin. Xie Xuanchuan", "Book of Jin. The Biography of Liu Prison