From the perspective of the new era, the general situation of the Expedition of the Shang Dynasty is described

According to the Shang Dynasty's Bu Ci, during the reign of Wu Ding (Shang Gaozong) (1324 BC to 1266 BC), it was the Tufang tribe that controlled the area north of the Central Plains, the Ghost Side controlled the northwest and west, and the rival tribes in the west of the Central Plains were the Qiang fang tribe. During this period, the area of tufang's activity was probably in the northern part of present-day Hebei and Shanxi provinces, and the area around present-day Hetao in northern Shaanxi was the sphere of influence of the ghost fang.

According to the research of modern archaeologist Dong Zuobin, the predecessors of the later Kunyi, Xiongnu and other tribes were tufang and ghost fang. As for the Qiangfang in the west of Yin Shang, its main area of activity was in the southern part of present-day Gansu Province and the northern part of Sichuan. At that time, in the southern areas of Tufang and Ghost Fang, there were tribes such as The Shang Dynasty, which served as a powerful barrier for the Shang Dynasty to resist the invasion of Tufang and Ghost Fang. The reason why Emperor Wuding of Shang Gaozong conquered the Ghost Fang was caused by the invasion of the Lan clan by the two sides of the Earth Ghost at that time.

In February of the 29th year of Emperor Gaozong of Shang (1296 BC), due to the rebellion in the neighboring Tufang's Xiazhi region, Wu Ding sent the general Wangcheng to quell the civil unrest, at which time the Tu ghosts and ghosts took the opportunity to harass the Lan tribe. When Wu Ding learned of this, he summoned 5,000 soldiers to attack the earth on March 7 of the same year. At that time, Yin Shang's combat strategy was to abandon the earth for the time being, go all out to fight the earth and quell the rebellion. In December of the same year, with the end of the Battle of xiazhi, Wu Ding began to solve the problem of the invasion of the ghost side.

During Wu Ding's crusade against the Ghost Fang, in order to avoid the Zhou tribes active in the Wei River Valley and the Qiang Fang clan occupying Longxi, they took the opportunity to rebel and sent Menghou to monitor it, and at this time the Ghost Fang also concluded a pact with the Tu side to share the expedition of the Other Shang Dynasty. The war was most intense in July, August, and September of the 30th year of Wuding, during which Time Wuding ordered the recruitment of reinforcements seven times, and each time it was on the scale of 3,000 to 5,000, and even within 38 days, a total of 23,000 reinforcements were recruited. When the war was scorching, Wu Ding even worshipped his ancestors and gods to pray for blessings. The Battle of the Two Sides of the Shang Dynasty expedition against the Earth Ghosts did not end with the victory of the Shang Dynasty until the end of the thirty-second year of Emperor Gaozong of Shang (1293 BC).

The target of this campaign shang dynasty conquest was the three tribes of the Xiazhi, the earth side and the ghost side, and especially the strength of the ghost side was the strongest, Wu Ding's expedition lasted for more than three years from the beginning to the end, the scale of this battle and the number of troops mobilized were really an unprecedented decisive battle, even after this, Yin Shang rarely dispatched so many troops and experienced such a long war.