During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Two Jin Dynasties, there was a famous battle in which less won more, that is, the famous Battle of Shuishui. Former Qin Gathered a Million Troops to Fight against the Eastern Jin Dynasty's 80,000 Troops, but it ended in a fiasco, which gave birth to an idiom called "Grass and Trees Are Soldiers".
The combination of kings and subjects of Jian Jian and Wang Meng should be a rare harmonious combination in ancient history, comparable to Qi Huangong and Guan Zhong, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. With the assistance of Wang Meng, Jian Jian worked hard to rule the north, basically unified the north, and the people had a relatively long and stable life.
Jian Jian created the only rule of the World during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period, everything was developing in a good direction, and if this momentum continued to be maintained, perhaps the reunification of the North and the South was just around the corner. However, historical trends have always been unexpected.
In the eleventh year of Jianyuan, in 375, Wang Meng died. Before his death, he had a sufficient understanding of former Qin's future, and before his death, he repeatedly advised Jian Jian not to try to promote the Jin Dynasty, but to resolve the unresolved contradictions between the various departments in the north, saying:
"Although Jin is secluded and ugly, Wu Yue is Zheng Shuo's inheritance. Kindness and good neighborliness, the treasure of the country also. After the subject is gone, he is willing not to take jin as a picture. Humble and humble, my vendetta, will eventually be afflicted, and it is advisable to gradually get rid of it so that it can be community-oriented. ”
Wang Meng's suggestion was carefully considered, and if Jian Jian could listen to and implement it, Former Qin would certainly not stop in the north, but Jian Jian, who had always listened to Wang Meng's words, did not take Wang Meng's last words in his heart, or that his desire for the reunification of the north and south in his heart had exceeded others. Wang Meng may still be able to persuade him to stay alive, but he is dead, and no one can persuade Jian Jian.
He decided that the north had been unified, and the internal contradictions were not big contradictions, and when the Eastern Jin Dynasty was destroyed, all the contradictions could be solved, but as Wang Meng believed, although the Eastern Jin Dynasty was partial to one corner, it was zhengshuo after all. But Jian Jian obviously couldn't take care of this anymore, and he wanted to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and this idea was never suppressed after it was born.
In the early winter of 382, Jian Jian put forward the idea of attacking the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the Taiji Hall, naturally some people supported some people opposed, and those who supported it had nothing new, that is, they supported Jian Jian's decision, and there were many voices of opposition, the reasons sounded very good, to sum up, former Qin attacked the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the heavens and places were not occupied. As Rong Rong said:
"There are three difficulties in this period of cutting down the Jin Dynasty: the heavenly path is not smooth, one is also; the Jin kingdom has no provocation, and the second is also; I am tired of the number of soldiers, and the people have the heart to fear the enemy, and the three are also."
Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty was weak, it did not lose its mandate of heaven, and with the assistance of Xie An and Huan Chong and others, and the danger of the Yangtze River, it was not easy to take. Although Former Qin was strong, it was not strong enough to conquer the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the warriors were exhausted from years of conquest, the country was not harmonious, there were many contradictions between various ethnic groups, and the tribes were looking at each other, and they could give Former Qin a fatal blow at any time.
All these voices, Jian Jian refuted one by one, as if a debate was held, And Jian Jian's tongue and warriors believed that "I am strong with millions of troops, and the capital is like a mountain", attacking the Eastern Jin Dynasty "sweeping autumn leaves by the wind", he tried his best to overcome the public opinion, and finally the plan to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty was carried out.
Former Qin had gathered a million troops at that time, while the Northern Province army that the Eastern Jin Dynasty could muster was only 80,000 at that time, and such a huge disparity in strength gave Jian Jian great confidence. He did not think that it would be difficult to defeat the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so the million-strong army soon set out.
In August 383, Zhi Rong led an army of 250,000 to the vanguard, while Zhi Jian led nearly 900,000 troops from Chang'an, and when Zhi Rong captured Shouyang, Zhi Jian secretly led 8,000 light horses to Shouyang to join Xiang Rong, and then captured several cities. Just after Former Qin had several victories, Jian Jian made a wrong decision, and he asked Zhu Xu, a former Eastern Jin official who had become Former Qin Shangshu, to persuade Xie Shi to surrender.
The existence of Zhu Xu can be said to have changed the outcome of the Battle of Shuishui with his own strength, originally Xie Shi had already decided not to come out of the wall, in this case, the nature that awaited him was a fiasco, and Zhu Xu told Xie Shi that he could quickly send troops and hit the Former Qin army by surprise.
Although Former Qin claimed to have a million troops, in fact, the vast majority of them were still on the road and did not come with Jian Jian, and Former Qin's actual strength in Shouyang was less than 300,000, which could completely thwart the vigor of their forward troops.
With Zhu Xu's accurate information, Xie Shi decided to take the initiative to attack, which really caused the 250,000 forward troops of Jian Jian to suffer huge losses, and the Former Qin soldiers threw away their armor and fled. Jian Jian and Xiang Rong did not expect to lose so quickly, and in the face of such a situation, the Book of Jin records:
Jian and Gong Rong ascended the city and looked at the Wang Shi, seeing that the troops were in a neat formation and the soldiers were elite; and looking north at the grass and forests on the Bagong Mountain, they were all humanoid, and Gu Rong said: "This is also a strong enemy, what is less?" 'There is fear.
This is the origin of the idiom "grass and trees are soldiers", at this moment, Jian Jian was really afraid, and even turned every grass and tree on the mountain into a Jin army, as the emperor of Former Qin, Jian Jian was so afraid, not to mention the soldiers of Former Qin, after Former Qin began to lose, most of the soldiers began to flee.
They were afraid of the Jin army, although the Jin army was far fewer in number than Former Qin, but on the battlefield it was not only about the strength of the troops, but also about a lot of things.
This battle completely extinguished Jian Jian's confidence, so that in the subsequent war, he did not recover, and when the Former Qin troops were deployed on the north bank of Feishui and the Jin army could not cross the river, Xie Xuan sent emissaries to say to Zhi Rong: "If you go deep alone, if you deploy the front in this way, it can only be a long-term solution, you cannot fight a quick battle, and it is not good for you to cross the river for a long time, so it is better for me to cross the river, and we will quickly decide the victory or defeat." ”
The generals on the Former Qin side were reluctant to let the Jin army cross the river, while Jian Jian insisted on letting them cross the river, saying that when they were halfway through, they would give them a fatal blow and soon win, and how could the Jin army not know this truth?
Therefore, when Jian Jian ordered the soldiers to retreat, Zhu Xu shouted in the army: "The Qin soldiers have been defeated." The soldiers in the back did not know what was happening in front of them, they only ordered to retreat, originally their hearts were up and down, and when they heard Zhu Xu's words again, they naturally thought that the Qin army was really defeated, so they quickly fled.
The rear was chaotic, and the soldiers in front had no intention of fighting, which gave the Jin army a good opportunity to quickly cross the river and then attack Jianjian. Gong Rong was killed in the battle, and Zhi Jian was also hit by a stray arrow, and the armies collapsed, and Zhi Jian was defeated.
Only then did Jian Jian know what a wrong decision it was to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and only then did he know that Wang Meng's proposal was so correct, and he regretted that he did not listen to Wang Meng's good words, but it was too late, and the price was quite large, but in two years, Jian Jian was killed, and the north was in chaos again, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty had a period of peace for several years after this battle.