Western Breaking Qiang Chu, Entering Yin, Northern Wei Qi Jin, Prominent Princes, Sun Tzu and Powerful Yan.
Anyone who has read the historical records, or who knows a little about the Soldier Saint Sun Wu, knows the above sentence.
Indeed, Wu Wang Lu was able to become one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, and had a great relationship with Sun Wu. However, this article is not to praise Sun Wu, but to talk about Sun Wu's shortcomings. Because of the long-term propaganda writing of positive characters in our country, positive heroes often have no shortcomings and become perfect people. This is a very undesirable way of writing, and there is no perfect person in this world.
First, the State of Wu, which became the hegemon of the Spring and Autumn Period, was quickly defeated
In 506 BC, Sun Wu assisted the King of Wu in cutting down Chu, and the State of Wu crossed the Three Passes of Yiyang with 30,000 people and entered the State of Chu, such as entering the realm of nobody, and finally defeated the State of Chu with a total strength of at least 400,000 in one fell swoop at the Battle of Baiju.
This gives rise to a why: Why did 30,000 Wu troops achieve such a feat?
However, if we think about it at a deeper level, 10 years later, in 496 BC, the Wu king Lu Lu engaged the Yue king at Yu Li and was defeated and killed. Two years later, his son Wu Wang Fuchai avenged his father and fought against Yue, defeating the Yue king and almost destroying the country.
Another 12 years later, in 482 BC, the State of Wu made an alliance with the Central Plains States led by the State of Jin at Huangchi, overpowering the State of Jin and becoming an ally, and the prestige of the state reached its peak.
However, only 9 years later, The Yue King's Gou Jian destroyed the Wu kingdom and became the new overlord.
This gives rise to a new reason: Why did the Wu kingdom fall so quickly?
If we use the usual saying that the Yue king gouges the salary and tastes the guts, ten years of gathering, ten years of lessons; and Wu WangFu sent to kill the loyal minister Wu Zixu, did not destroy the Yue kingdom first, but went north to compete with the Jin state for hegemony and consumed the national strength, it is obviously impossible to explain.
1. The State of Wu went north to fight for hegemony, but did not fight too much battle, and there were no major casualties in the troops.
2, the original core area of the State of Wu is in the Ningzhen area (Nanjing, Zhenjiang), the strength of the State of Wu is a history of external expansion, it is the continuous conquest and expansion of northern regions such as northern Jiangsu, Huainan, Huaibei, etc., that makes the State of Wu a place of thousands of miles, increasingly powerful and powerful. Expanding to the north is the established national policy of the 7 generations of Wu kings since Wu Wang Shoumeng to Wu WangFuchai, and it is also an effective national strategy.
3, the Yue kingdom is not so easy to destroy at all, the Yue kingdom of the Yue king is actually only one of many Yue people, of course, it is also the main one, that is, Yu Yue. The Yue people are known as "Baiyue", which is actually a barbarian collective name with many bells and many sources. In addition to the Yue, there are also a large number of Yue tribes. Later, Chu destroyed the Yue kingdom, and the Yue people did not actually perish, but were divided into multiple branches, or called kings, or kings, and did not form an effective rule over the original old land of the Yue kingdom. Later, Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms to unify the world, but did not complete the conquest of the Yue, and the Yue became the main force against Qin. If the State of Wu, which was much smaller than the State of Qin, really wanted to destroy the Yue people, it was bound to fall into the quagmire of protracted war.
The rise and fall of the State of Wu is a big history that can be written into a book alone, so this article only studies this problem from one aspect.
Second, what exactly are these two sentences in "Sun Tzu's Art of War" talking about?
This has to start with "Sun Tzu's Art of War". The Art of War of Sun Tzu has two sentences in the first "Counting Chapter": "Which is stronger than the soldiers?" "Soldier and soldier practice". These are two of the so-called "Five Things and Seven Plans" (the "Five Things" are "Tao, Heaven, Earth, Will, and Law"). The "Seven Counts" are "Who is the Lord?" Who will be able to? What is the heaven and the earth? What is the law? Which is stronger? Soldier or soldier? Reward or punishment?" ）。 These are two sentences that are very easy to understand, and I believe that junior high school students can understand them.
However, at least so far, it is difficult to see a book on Sun Tzu's Art of War that can explain these two sentences clearly.
These two sentences must be annotated in conjunction with the historical environment at that time.
As mentioned earlier, in the Battle of Baiju in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the total strength of the Chu State was at least 400,000. How can there be so many?
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, because the various countries attacked each other all year round, the original military service system of the countrymen tended to be eliminated (Note: The so-called nationals were the people who lived in the city at that time, in the words of ancient Rome, these people had the right to citizenship and could become soldiers), and a large number of "wild people" who were not qualified to be soldiers were supplemented into the army (Note: The so-called wild people are peasants who farmed the land), so the number of troops was greatly expanded.
At that time, almost all countries were expanding their armaments on a large scale, such as the perennial overlord Jin Guo dispatched 4,000 military vehicles at a time at the Pingqiu Meeting ("Zuo Chuan Zhao Gong Thirteen Years", "July Bingyin, ruling the army in southern Qi, 4,000 vehicles, sheep tongue fish To sima and then join the princes in Pingqiu." ”）。
Even the little Zheng Guo dispatched 700 military vehicles to the Zizhan and Zizhan Chen Guo ("Twenty-five Years of the Left Transmission of Xianggong": In June, Zheng Zizhan and zizhan Shuai car 700 people took Chen Chen, and chencheng was attacked at night, and they entered it).
The State of Chu was even more able to recruit thousands of troops from only a few large counties of Chen, Cai, and BuTang ("The Twelfth Year of Zuo Chuan Zhaogong": "Now my big city of Chen, Cai, and Bu Tang are all given a thousand multipliers").
According to the military system at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, one multiplied by 75 people, and the chu state was specially used by one hundred people, so the total strength of the Chu state just mentioned was at least 400,000.
Not to mention the State of Chu, the State of Zheng had at least 50,000 troops. However, wu attacked Chu and gathered most of the country's troops, but only about 30,000 people.
What is the reason for this?
That is, at that time, the territory of the State of Wu had already far exceeded that of the State of Zheng, but the number of troops was less than that of the State of Zheng.
First, the core region of the Wu State at that time, Southern Jiangsu, was an extremely developed region in modern times, but it was an extremely backward area at that time. The economy is backward and output is low, which will create a very serious problem, and it will not be able to feed more people, which will lack the most critical resource at that time - people.
Second, this is what Sun Tzu called "which of the soldiers is stronger?" The true meaning of " . In the ancient military service system, men were required to serve as soldiers from the age of 18 to 60. When countries generally let "savages" join the army, the size of the army and the number of posts increased greatly, but the problem that followed was that the combat effectiveness could not be guaranteed, and in Sun Wu's view, such an army was meaningless. Therefore, Sun Wu pointed out in a targeted manner that we should not do this, but must take the line of elite troops, select elite troops, and form elite troops. The remaining people can continue to engage in agricultural production without affecting the national strength.
The person who understood this truth after Sun Tzu was called Wu Qi. Therefore, there is a saying called "There are those who mention seventy thousand and the world is not dangling, who knows Wu Qiye." There are those who mention thirty thousand and the world is not dang, who knows Wuzi also. "Therefore, I absolutely do not believe that you said that Wu Qi's Wei Wu troops did not learn from Sun Wu's experience.
Let's look at the next sentence, "Soldiers and soldiers practice." During the Spring and Autumn Period, how did countries conduct military training? Among the nobles were miwa and archery. And the army is called "蒐" and "狝". The so-called plough is field hunting. In the words of the ancients, it is "to be in the gap in the field" and "to farm at three times, and to talk about martial arts for a while". When the farmers are busy, they cultivate the fields, and when the farmers are idle, they conduct military training in the form of field hunting.
Such an army is bound to have a low level of training. Sun Wu also said: This will not work, we must build a professional army and conduct special military training. Therefore, the State of Wu had a special training place on the shore of the Five Lakes (present-day Taihu Lake), "selecting soldiers, learning to fight" ("The First Time of Lü's Spring and Autumn"), "Practicing The Skill of Fighting and Riding and Shooting the Imperial Family" ("Wu Yue Chunqiu Lu Inner Biography"), and established a strong and lean standing army. On this basis, the State of Wu completely defeated the State of Chu and became stronger and stronger.
This is a great contribution made by Sun Tzu to the ancient military system, and since then the army has been professionalized, and the infantry has truly become the dominant force on the battlefield for thousands of years.
Third, the code that made Wu Guo strong and prosperous was the reason for the decline of Wu Guo
However, this was the reason for the rapid decline of the Wu state.
People who know Wu Qi know that Wu Qi single-handedly created the "Wei Wu Pawn" system, and with this elite army, Wu Qi almost won every battle.
Throughout the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, only The Wei Wu pawns under Wu Qi had a striking resemblance to the elite troops of the State of Wu trained by Sun Wu in that year. And the Kingdoms of Wu and Wei also bear striking resemblance. These two countries are not vast in territory, and the overall strength of the country is not very strong, but they have achieved hegemony by relying on a carefully selected and strictly trained army. However, the hegemony of both countries did not last long and soon declined.
Let's take a look at the experience of Wei Wuzu, especially the Wei Wuzu troops rebuilt by King Hui of Wei after Wu Qi left the State of Wei. Around 364 BC, King Hui of Wei rebuilt the Wei wushu forces, and later led by Pang Juan, marched east and west, almost without any disadvantage. However, 10 years later, in 354 BC, Wei Wu was defeated by the Qi army led by Tian Ji and Sun Zhen at the Battle of Guiling. In the Battle of Maling in 341 BC, the Wei army was defeated again, and since then Wei Wushu has withdrawn from the stage of history, and the State of Wei has also declined and has never been able to rise again. Although the Battle of Guiling and the Battle of Maling, the Wei general Pang Juan was defeated by Sun Zhen's plan, but wei Wu's troops did not exert their due strength. It should be known that the people of the Warring States Era commented on the Wei and Qi armies in this way: "Qi's skill cannot meet the Wei's martial pawns. ”
But why couldn't Wei Wuzhuo exert his strength to save the defeat?
Let's look at the end of the mighty Wu army. In 494 BC, after the Battle of Qiu li, Wu Wang Fu cha rebuilt the defeated Wu army, and defeated the Vietnamese army in the Battle of Fu Jiao, avenging a one-arrow revenge. Twelve years later, in 482 BC, the Wu army still showed great strength in the Meeting of Huangchi, shocking the first great power, the Jin State, and reached its peak. However, in just 10 years, the Wu army was repeatedly defeated by its former defeated general, the Vietnamese army, and it was simply incapable of resistance. In 473 BC, the state of Wu was destroyed by the State of Yue, and the once-mighty Wu army became vulnerable.
We can see that these two countries have maintained hegemony for almost 10 years, and almost all of them have begun to slowly lose their former strong combat effectiveness after 10 years, and reach the bottom after 20 years.
In fact, this is exactly the drawback of the military service system adopted by Sun Wu and Wu Qi.
(1) They all select strong men from all over the country to join the army, which makes their army different in age structure from the armies of other princely states. The armies of other countries are men between the ages of 18 and 60, and although the number is large, the combat effectiveness is uneven. And Sun Wu and Wu Qi's army, because of the strict selection criteria, are basically 20 to 30-year-old prime-age men. In this way, there is an innate advantage. However, with the passage of time, 20 years later, because according to their military service system, these people are still serving, the age composition of this army suddenly becomes 40 to 50 years old, and the combat effectiveness naturally declines sharply.
2. Why do the soldiers of these two armies continue to serve when they are older? Neither country is a vast country, and there is no inherent advantage in population size. To form a selected army, it is necessary to select from all over the country. From the records of the ancients, it can be known that Wei Wu had about 70,000 soldiers and The elite army of the State of Wu was about 30,000 people, and these two figures were exactly the limit of the mobile strength of these two countries. After completing one selection, it will take at least 10 years for another selection to re-reach the post.
3, 10 years seems to be inconsistent with the previous decline cycle of 20 years? That's because there's a third point. As mentioned earlier, neither of these two countries was a great power in the true sense, but the system adopted by Wei Wupao was that once he was selected, he would be exempted from servitude and given land and a house for a lifetime, and could not be deprived. The direct consequence is that the state, regardless of whether it has done anything or not, gives a large amount of material basis into private ownership, which directly leads to a decline in state tax revenue. When this army is in its prime and can win the foreign conquest, then the problem will be covered up for the time being. Once the old age and physical decline, the combat ability declines, and the inability to make up for the state expenditure through foreign victory, the problem is immediately highlighted.
Because the land previously given could not be deprived of them, it would lead to the inability to form a new strong army by the same means.
Therefore, during the Warring States period, people had already pointed out this problem to the point: "(Wei Wupao) is decades and declines, and it is not easy to take it, and it is not easy to transform It." Although the land is large, its taxes will be small. It is also the soldier of the dangerous country. Therefore, the ancients pointed out: "The warriors of the Wei clan cannot meet the sharp soldiers of Qin." ”
Why? The State of Qin adopted the system of twenty-rank knighthoods, which required merit to be rewarded, and it was not a one-step approach, but should be slowly accumulated and gradually improved. It is through this incentive system to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, mobilize the enthusiasm of soldiers, and stimulate the instincts of soldiers with strict laws and the temptation of knighthood promotion. There is a fundamental difference between such an army and the armies of the Wei and Wu states, and the combat effectiveness is always maintained and continuously improved. The army system of the State of Wei and the State of Wu is actually increasing the inertia of the army, because they can get all of it at the beginning, although they are strong in the early stage, but the rewards obtained by fighting to the death will not exceed the previous level, where there is still enterprising spirit, it will naturally become corrupt over time. And because it is limited by the overall strength of the country, it cannot be replaced in time, and it cannot be replaced, and the cost is too high.
In China's thousands of years of history, the military service system has always changed, but before the extraordinary moment, there has never been such a system as the Wu army and Wei Wu pawn in the Sun Wu period, because although it can run rampant for a while, it is not a long-term solution for the country.
This is one of the reasons for the rapid decline of the State of Wu. Is Sun Wu responsible? Definitely. His method allowed the Combat Effectiveness of the Wu army to increase rapidly, but the hidden dangers were buried.
This article is not allowed by the author himself and "This is the war", the self-media and the media shall not be reproduced, and the violators will be held legally responsible, and readers are welcome to forward. Friendly reminder: This number has joined the copyright protection, anyone who dares to plagiarize and wash the manuscript and steal the picture will be hit by the "Visual China" style of rights protection, the price is high, do not lose big because of small, do not say that it is unpredictable.