A battle behind the water, which is a very familiar idiom allusion, means to swing behind the river near the river; or lay down the position. Later, he was in a desperate situation and fought to the death in order to find a way out. From the "Chronicle of the Marquis of Huaiyin", that is, from the Battle of Jingxing commanded by Han Xin. In 205 BC, Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang at the Battle of Pengcheng, which made many princes choose neutrality, thus seriously threatening the flank of the Han army, in order to get rid of this unfavorable situation, Liu Bang adopted the suggestions of Zhang Liang and others, and formulated a strategic policy of frontal defense, flank development, and attacks behind enemy lines.
In 205 BC, Han Xin first led an army to defeat the Wei king Leopard and pacify Wei. At this time, there were still three separatist forces in the north of the Yellow River: Dai (present-day northern Shanxi), Zhao (present-day southern Hebei), and Yan (present-day northern Hebei). On this basis, if Liu Bang wanted to isolate and eliminate Xiang Yu, he needed to eliminate the three princely states of Daiguo, Zhao, and Yan. In leap September 205 BC, Han Xin defeated Xiang Guoxia of the Daiguo. In October 204 BC, Han Xin led the Han army across the Taihang Mountains and advanced eastward, launching an attack on the State of Zhao. After hearing the news, Zhao Wang Xie and Chen Yu, the commander of the Zhao army, gathered a large army to defend Jingxingkou. Thus, the Battle of Jingxing, the most exciting battle in Han Xin's life, officially broke out.
One
Specifically, in the Battle of Jingxing, the Zhao army held the jingxing mouth in advance, condescending to wait for work, and the number of soldiers was wide, and it was in an advantageous and active position. For Zhao Guo, 200,000 troops were sent, while as far as Han Xin was concerned, there were only 30,000 soldiers and horses, which was undoubtedly a battle with a huge disparity in strength. Therefore, although Han Xin was the leader of the bing family, if he wanted to defeat the Zhao Guo army head-on, it was obviously a difficult goal to achieve. Therefore, Han Xin decided to make a dangerous move and win by surprise. Han Xin commanded his troops to camp 30 miles from Jingxingkou.
In the middle of the night, Han Xin quickly carried out combat deployment: on the one hand, 2,000 light horsemen were selected, each of them was armed with a Han army flag, and detoured from the remote path back to the Zhao Army's camp flank of the Baoli Zhai Mountain (present-day north of Jingxing County, Hebei) to lurk, ready to take advantage of the gap to attack and occupy the Zhao army's camp, cut off the enemy's return route, that is, according to Han Xin's plan, not only to defeat the Zhao army, but also to prepare to leave no fish that slipped through the net. On the other hand, Han Xin sent another 10,000 men as a forward, riding on the fact that the night was quiet and the Zhao army was not aware, crossed the Jingxing Pass and went to the east bank of Mianmanshui (in present-day Jingxing County, Hebei) to lay a position with the river behind its back, in order to confuse and mobilize the Zhao army and increase its light enemy mood.
Two
After Han Xin completed the above deployment, the Battle of Jingxing undoubtedly came to the most critical decisive stage. In the Battle of Jingxing, Chen Yu, the commander of the Zhao army, not only did not perceive the Rok army that was already lurking, but also thought that it was a very stupid thing for Han Xin to lead the main force to line up behind the water, so he despised Han Xin and his soldiers more and more. Of course, in the eyes of many historians, lining up behind the water is indeed a taboo for soldiers, just like the three kingdoms period when Ma Mo abandoned water sources and went up the mountain to camp. However, Han Xin and Ma Mo were obviously not generals of the same level, that is, the reason why Han Xin fought against the water was not only to paralyze his opponents, but also to stimulate the potential of his generals.
In other words, it is precisely because of the wide river behind it that the Han generals have encountered a situation where there is no way to retreat, so this will make the Han army generals burst out with unprecedented combat effectiveness. In the Battle of Jingxing, the two armies fought, and Han Xinxian led a large army to pretend to be defeated, prompting Zhao Wang Xie and Chen Yu to mistakenly think that the Han army was vulnerable, so they pursued the army and attacked the backwater array with all their strength, in an attempt to annihilate the Han army in one fell swoop. At this time, the Han soldiers saw that there was a strong enemy in front of them, and there was a water obstacle in the back, and there was no way to retreat, so everyone tried their best to resist the onslaught of the Zhao army.
Three
Of course, just a battle against the zhao army can not achieve the goal of completely annihilating the other side, after all, the 200,000 Zhao army has a huge advantage in terms of strength, and if the Han army loses its vigor, the former can completely destroy the Han army. Therefore, when the Zhao army was all attacking, han xin's two thousand light horses of the Han army, which had previously been ambushed on the flank of the Zhao army camp, suddenly attacked and occupied the Zhao camp. In this regard, in the author's opinion, because Zhao Wang Xie and Chen Yu were arrogant and arrogant, they did not leave enough troops in the camp, which led to the camp quickly falling into the hands of the Han generals. For these Han army generals, they quickly pulled down the flag of the Zhao army and planted the battle flag of the Han army, posing a huge battle.
On the other hand, when the fierce battle between the Zhao army and the Han army was in full swing, they suddenly found that their camp was full of Han army battle flags, and they suddenly panicked and had no main heart. In the face of the panicked Zhao army, Han Xin ordered the whole army to counterattack immediately, and the light horse that Han Xin had ambushed before also cut off the Zhao army's return route from the flank. Therefore, it is very obvious that at this time, the Zhao Guo army is already a turtle in an urn, which can be described as difficult to fly with wings. After a fierce battle, Han Xin commanded 30,000 Han generals to wipe out all 200,000 Zhao troops, and Chen Yu of the Zhao army was killed, and Zhao Wang Xie and Li Zuoche were captured.
Four
Finally, in the Battle of Jingxing, Han Xinqi was used simultaneously, lined up with water, flexibly used troops, won a surprise victory, and made a quick decision, thus annihilating the Zhao army in one fell swoop and writing a wonderful chapter in the history of ancient Chinese warfare. That is, in the Battle of Jingxing, Han Xin not only won more with less, but also lived after death. Because this tactic is very dangerous, after Han Xin, few famous generals dare to follow Han Xin's approach. For example, in the Battle of Jieting, Ma Mo violated Zhuge Liang's combat deployment and abandoned the water source to garrison his troops on nanshan, which obviously had the meaning of learning from Han Xin's battle of backwater, but Ma Mo was only talking on paper, and was eventually broken by Zhang Gao in the Battle of Jieting.
As for the outcome of the Battle of Jingxing, it played an important role in the direction of the Chu-Han war. Originally, in the Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu won more with less and severely damaged Liu Bang, which made many princes choose to keep a distance from Liu Bang. However, Han Xin gradually eliminated the State of Zhao through the Battle of Jingxing, undoubtedly strengthening Liu Bang's sphere of influence and paving the way for an eastward attack on the State of Qi, thus creating a favorable situation to isolate Xiang Yu. After the Battle of Jingxing, Han Xin sent people to surrender the State of Yan, and then destroyed 200,000 troops of the Chu State in the Battle of Weishui, and finally, Han Xin led his army to participate in the Battle of Xiaxia, eliminated Xiang Yu, and made great achievements for the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty. Therefore, because of these amazing achievements, "the merit is incomparable, and the slightest is not born" has become the evaluation of Han Xin during the Chu-Han dispute. What do you think about that?