Although the first two years of Jin Ligong's reign focused on the Huimeng, it did not mean that Jin Ligong was not good at using troops, not to mention that Jin Jinggong had returned the Jin state to the track of hegemony. Therefore, for the Jin state at this time, it was natural to use war to solve the problem if the alliance could not be achieved.
"Zuo Chuan" Yun: "Duke Huan of Qin and Duke Li of Jin are allies of Linghu, and they also summon Di and Chu to fight the Jin Dynasty." ”
Obviously, the root cause of this battle is the last "Alliance of the Foxes". Unlike the Records of History, the Zuo Zhuan records that the Qin and Jin dynasties were allied first, and then the Qin state united the Di people and the Chu state, and also guided them to attack the Jin state. This move was unacceptable to the other princes, so they formed an alliance with the Jin state to come to fight.
Stills of Jin Jinggong in "Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Chapter"?
In order to make this battle justified, The Duke of Jin first sent Lü Xiang as an envoy to the Qin state, and published the "Book of Absolute Qin", which severed diplomatic relations between Jin and Qin, and immediately met each other.
This "Book of Absolute Qin" is nearly a thousand words, sprinkled with foreign language and passionately worded. It is precisely because the purpose of the Jin state is to raise an army against the qin state, so in this letter, the jin state lists the crimes of the qin state one by one, and only conveys one concept throughout: since the Qin state has been the Duke of Qin Mu, until the Duke of Qin Huan, all the faults in the war with the Jin state are on the Qin state.
In the first half of the letter, Lü Xiang briefly recounts the events of the Jin and Qin states in the past eighty years from the Jin Dynasty to the Duke of Jin, and lists five major wars: "The Battle of Hanwon", "The Battle of Kun", "The Battle of Linghu", "The Battle of Hequ", and "The Battle of Fushi".
In Lü Xiang's view, the capital of the culprits of these wars was the State of Qin. In fact, the causes of some wars are complex, and it is really difficult to judge who is right and who is wrong, such as the "Battle of Hanwon" has both the ambitions of Qin Mugong and the treachery of Jin Huigong; the "Battle of Kun" has both the greed of Qin Mugong and the open and secret struggle between the jin monarch and the nobles; and the reason for the "Battle of Hequ" is also derived from the "Battle of Linghu".
"Eastern Zhou Kingdoms, Spring and Autumn" Qin Mugong stills
Among them, only the right and wrong of the "Battle of the Fox" is the most obvious, and the original sin lies entirely in Zhao Dun of the Jin Dynasty. Qin Kanggong was inexplicably insulted in the "Battle of the Foxes", which was already helpless enough, and now in the article "Book of Absolute Qin", he actually blamed all the faults of this war on Qin Kanggong, saying that he "wanted to destroy my office, overthrow my society, handsome me as a thief, and shake my frontier", Jin Guo's words were really deceiving people too much!
Moreover, Lü Xiang said that after the "Battle of Hequ", jin jinggong looked forward to an alliance with the qin state but was rejected, however, the alliance that Lü Xiang said was that the jin state Zhao Pu attacked the chongguo that was close to the qin state, and when the qin state came to save the chongguo, he allied with the qin state. The Jin state's behavior was not only insincere, but also very bad, how could the Qin state ally with it?
Lü Xiang also said that when the Di people invaded the Jin state, the Qin state sent troops to attack the Jin, which led to the "Battle of the Fu Clan" between the two sides, which is true, but what Lü Xiang did not say was that before that, the Jin state had also joined Bai Di to attack the Qin state, and at the same time seized the spies of the Qin state.
In short, in order to show the world that they were famous, the Jin State counted these wars between Jin and Qin. However, for the war that originated in the Jin state, Lü Xiang completely evaded responsibility, and even did not hesitate to distort the facts; for the war that caused the Qin state, Lü Xiang showed that the Jin state was forced to passively send troops, and there were sinister intentions to avoid the heavy and the light in order to win sympathy.
Stills of Zhao Dun in "Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Chapter"
Lü Xiang's "Book of Absolute Qin" has so many strong words to grasp the reason, which cannot be fully trusted. From an objective point of view, everyone looks at these battles from different angles and will have different opinions. However, Lü Xiang threw all the mistakes to the Qin State, which shows that Lü Xiang's technique of "throwing the pot" is really crude, as Du Xian said: "Jin chaos and more slander Qin", which can be described as fair.
In the second half of the letter, Lü Xiang explains the content of the "Alliance of the Foxes". The State of Qin first demanded that the State of Jin jointly send troops to attack the Di people, but then the State of Qin reneged on its covenant and told the State of Jin to send troops to attack them. At the same time, the State of Chu also united with the State of Chu to use troops against the State of Jin, and the State of Chu, because it had just participated in the Alliance of Soldiers, relayed the matter to the State of Jin. Lü Xiang stated that the Jin state gathered the princes in the posture of an ally lord, and repeatedly lowered its posture and did not take the initiative to attack, as long as the Qin state could re-ally with the Jin state, it could avoid the pain of war.
From Lü Xiang's remarks, it was learned that Qin Huangong was really "treacherous" this time. However, this is only one side of Lü Xiang's words, and moreover, in the first half of the letter, Lü has a lot of slander against the Qin state, and it is conceivable that the real reason for the Qin state to renege on the covenant may not be exactly as Lü Xiang said.
At this time, the situation of the Qin state and the princely states headed by the Jin state as enemies has put the Qin state into an extremely unfavorable crisis situation, and if the Qin state cannot resolve this crisis, then war will be inevitable.
After the State of Jin sent Lü Xiang to eliminate Qin, the State of Qin did not agree to the rude demands of the State of Jin and did not ally with it, so the two sides opened up a position, and a fierce battle was about to begin.
The size of the Jin army at this time was four armies, each of which had generals, and its combat effectiveness was not inferior to that of the sixth army; on the other hand, the Qin army, according to the theory, the Qin army was not fighting independently, and there should be a joint army of Di and Chu, but from the results, there was no trace of these two soldiers and horses.
The State of Qin fought alone, and the final result can be imagined - the State of Qin was defeated.