In March of the second year of Xingning, former Yan general Li Hong attacked Xuchang and defeated the Jin army. Huan Wen sent generals to dredge the waterway and personally led the boat division into Hefei to prepare for the Northern Expedition. This was Huan Wen's third Northern Expedition.
However, the Eastern Jin court did not want Huan Wen to go north. In May, the Jin court also used Huan Wen as the pastor of Yangzhou and the secretary of the Book of Records, and sent yan Xu to declare his will and summon Huan Wen to participate in the government. Huan Wen excused himself on the grounds that the Central Plains had not yet recovered. The imperial court did not allow it, and once again enlisted Huan Wen into the dynasty. Huan Wen's army reached Ochre (赭圻, then part of Xuancheng Commandery, near present-day Xuancheng, Anhui), and the Jin court ordered Shangshu Che to stop it, and Huan Wen then lived in ochre and led Yangzhou Mu from afar. In that year, Huan Wen moved the town to Guard Jingzhou with his brother Huan Huo to supervise the military of Jing, Yang, and Yongzhou. At that time, Huan Wenquan fell into the world and remotely controlled the government. Soon, Emperor Wai died, and Huan Wen's Northern Expedition was temporarily shelved.
In the fourth year of Taihe, that is, in 369 AD, Huan Wen officially sent troops to attack Former Yan and carry out the Third Northern Expedition. It had been 13 years since the last Northern Expedition, and Huan Wen was 57 years old at this time. During this Northern Expedition, the Huan Wen Army had no shortcomings in all aspects. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty implemented the "soil break" in Huanwen, the wealth of the country was abundant, the military food and military resources were sufficient, and Xuzhou, led by Xi Xi, was a place where the elite soldiers gathered. It is the source of the famous "Beifu Soldiers" in history. Huan Wen often said: "Jingkou (Xuzhou Zhishou, present-day Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu) can drink wine and soldiers can be used. Later, Xi Huan listened to Xi Chao's advice and ceded military power to Huan Wen, and Huan Wen's military strength increased greatly.
It was precisely because of Huan Wen's strong military strength that led to his overconfidence, and in the later marching operations, he was self-absorbed and rigid in his thinking, so that the Jin army fell into the abyss step by step. After Huan Wen sent an army in April, the champion general Mao Husheng chiseled Juye (in present-day Juye North, Shandong) for three hundred miles, and the Yinwen Water (大文水) would be in Qingshui (古吉水) below Juyeze also known as Qingshui). This channel is later called "Huan Gong Du". At that time, there was a great drought in the world, and the canal water was too shallow. The strategist Xi Chao was keenly aware that the logistics grain carrier might run aground, so he dissuaded Huan Wen's lone army from going deeper, and suggested attacking Yecheng first, or TunbingHe and Ji, and waiting for the next year to enter the army.
Xi Chao's two rational suggestions were not adopted by Huan Wen. Huan Wen sent the Jianwei general Tan Xuan to attack Hulu (southeast of the mountain). Tan Xuan quickly captured Hulu and captured Murong Zhong, the general of Ningdong of Yan. Former Yan sent Murong Li to lead 20,000 troops to meet the Jin army at Huangxu (北民權北, In henan), but was defeated and Murong Li fled back on horseback. HuanWen forwards Deng Wei and Zhu Xu defeated Fu Yan at Linzhu (in the northeast of Zhengzhou, Henan).
In July, Huan Wen's army advanced to Fangtou (枋頭, in modern Xun County, Henan). Fearful, Yan Junchen prepared to flee to Helong (present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning). At this time, Murong Chui, a famous former Yan minister, dissuaded him, saying: "Otherwise, the subject please attack it, if the battle is not successful, it will not be too late to go." Meaning: "I'll try to resist on horseback, and if I can't escape, it's too late." The Lord of Yan ordered Murong Chui to be the envoy and the governor of the southern capital, and led a crowd of 50,000 to resist the Jin army, and then made him ride the attendant Le Song to Former Qin for help.
At the beginning of Huan Wen's march, he sent Yuan Zhen to attack the land of Chen and Liang, and opened the Shimen (XingyangJing, Henan) to divert the water of the Yellow River into the Beiqu Canal (the Suo River southwest of Xingyang, Henan), communicating Huai and Surabaya for water transportation. Although Yuan Zhen calmed down the land of Chen and Liang, the stone door could not be opened. At this time, Huan Gongdu was indeed as Xi Chao expected, because the drought water level dropped and could not be transported. Murong Chui also sent Murong De the Prince of Yan fanyang and Liu Dang to lead fifteen thousand cavalry to garrison Tunshimen, and the retreat route and food supply of Huanwen's water army became a problem.
Huan Wen entered Fangtou, only two hundred miles away from the Yan capital Yecheng, but he suddenly fought his troops and did not dare to go straight to Yecheng. At this time, the situation of the Jin army was already very bad, the water transportation was not passable, the grain and grass were not continued, and the withdrawal of the army was already inevitable. After that, Huan Wen fought several battles with the Yan army without winning, and when he heard that the Former Qin army was coming, he ordered the ships to be burned and abandoned to retreat from the land. The Jin army, fearing that the Yan army would poison in the upper exile, dug a well along the way and drank.
The Jin army retreated, and the Former Yan generals had to pursue, and Murong Chui said: "No, Wen Chu retreated in fear, he must set up strict guards, and Jian Elite will not be able to resist later, and it is better to slow down." If he is fortunate that I have not yet arrived, he will rush day and night, and when his men and women are exhausted, and then strike at them, they will all be overwhelmed. Murong Chui personally led 8,000 cavalry to follow Huan Wen's army, and then sent Murong De to lead 4,000 elite horsemen to ambush in the eastern stream of Xiangyi (west of Sui County, Henan).
Huan Wen saw that the Yan army was going to catch up, and sure enough, he let down his guard and ordered the Jin army to march concurrently. Murong Chui ordered his men to give chase and catch up with the Jin forces at Xiangyi. Murong Chui and Murong De attacked back and forth, defeating Huan Wen and killing as many as 30,000 Jin troops. After that, Former Qin rescue soldier Gou Chi attacked Huan Wen on the road, and the Jin army killed and wounded more than 10,000 people. In October, Huan Wen packed up his scattered pawns and garrisoned at Shanyang (northwest of Jinxiang County, Shandong). Huan Wen's Third Northern Expedition ended in a crushing defeat.
Objectively speaking, Huan Wen is familiar with the art of war, and is also good at using soldiers, for example, on his way to cutting Shu, he once saw Zhuge Liang's eight arrays of stone barriers on the Pingsha of Yu belly (Fengjie East, Sichuan), and his "eight lines of stone barriers are eight elements, and the lines are two zhang", and his military Chinese wu do not know this array, but Huan Wen said when he saw it: "This Changshan snake is also powerful." It can be seen that he is very proficient in the art of war. But Huan Wen is not yet an outstanding military expert, using soldiers to be resourceful and decisive, and the camera moves. Huan Wen was slightly inferior to this, and he repeatedly waited and watched in the good situation, although it was related to his ambition to establish his prestige and had no intention of really going north, but it also reflected his inability to use troops to catch fighters. Therefore, Former Yan Shenyin said that he was "arrogant and arrogant, timid to adapt." In addition, Huan Wen had been in the imperial court for many years, too smooth, rigid thinking, and rarely had the opportunity to correct his own weaknesses, so that the Northern Expedition ended in a fiasco.