I. Liu Yuan's army's southward strategy and Sima Yue's army's response strategy
In August 308, the Xiongnu Liu Yuan established the capital at Pingyang (present-day Linfen), officially taking the throne as emperor, and giving the country the title of "Han". Undoubtedly, Liu Yuan's use of "Han" as the national name was a battle letter to the world to formally challenge the legitimate "Jin" representing Huaxia.
Liu Yuan has such confidence, not only in his own strength, but also in his own culture. Liu Yuan is familiar with the Han classics, his teacher is the Han, he has read the classics of the hundred families of the sons, so the Xiongnu is only his bloodline, but in his bones he is already a Han, he can become the lord of the Xiongnu, in fact, it is also thanks to the selection method of the Han people, he and his tribe have long been out of the Xiongnu system. Therefore, Liu Yuan had a reason to replace "Jin" with his "Han".
In 309, the third year of the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Yuan, a Xiongnu who had established himself as a "Han", began to move south and officially launched his campaign to enter the Central Plains.
Liu Yuan's army was a mixed army of Xiongnu, Xiongnu, and Han Chinese, and marched south in four ways:
With Liu Cong's army as the main attacker, with Wang Mi as the general of the Eastern Expedition, he attacked Luoyang from the south through Shangdang;
Shi Le's army came to the rescue and was responsible for preventing the Western Jin Dynasty's Youzhou Wang Jun's army in the north from taking advantage of the void to go south;
The Jin general Liu Jing (劉景) was made the governor of Dadu, with the general Zhu Shi as the vanguard, and marched east to Liyang (present-day Xun County, Henan) and Yanjin to establish a solid base area in response to the battles of Liu Cong and Shi Le's army;
Liu Yao and Zhao Gu led the general reserve and followed the main attacking legion south.
News of Liu Yuan's large-scale southward movement reached Luoyang, and Sima Yue also hurriedly mobilized his military strength to deal with it.
Sima Yue's deployment was five corps.
Led by Wang Kuang of Huainan Neishi in Yangzhou, the generals Shi Rong and Cao Chao led tens of thousands of troops to the west, and undertook the task of intercepting Liu Cong's army to the south;
The Eastern Advance Corps, led by Reinforcements from Ma Mo of chang'an Pyeongchang Company, rushed to Luoyang under the leadership of Chun Yuding and Lü Yi;
The southern marching corps led by Wang Jun quickly rushed south to aid Luoyang.
The Central Corps was tasked with guarding Luoyang, Gyeonggi, led by the Pingbei generals Cao Wu, the generals Song Shui, and Peng Mo.
In the face of Liu Yuan's large-scale attack, Sima Yue's deployment was entirely defensive.
Second, a general who fights with enthusiasm is doomed to failure
The strategy army of the great jin general Liu Jing opened the prelude to the battle between Han and Jin, and his troops broke all the way to the east, and soon gained a foothold in the line of Liyang and Yanjin, reaching a strategic initiative for Liu Yuan.
Liu Cong's army then marched to the shangdang, and soon arrived at the important town of Huguan, where after annihilating Liu Kun's two reinforcements, he ordered his troops to rest while paying close attention to the movements of the westward marching corps.
The Western Jin Army led by Wang Kuang of the Western Jin Dynasty advanced all the way, and as soon as his troops received the order, they rushed from Yangzhou in the south to the northwest.
Wang Kuang was born in a political worker, and he himself was good at leading soldiers, but with loyalty to the country and a passion for the front, his heart was probably full of the romance of the Han family's son Lang Ban Chao who threw pens from Rong and ran the Western Regions.
Wang Kuang's Shi Rong and Cao Chao's second generals were not romantics, war was a confrontation of strength and strategy, it was the bloody sacrifice of soldiers, they were well aware of the combat strength of the Xiongnu Han Kingdom, starting from actual combat, what they needed was to treat war with the principles of war, not romance.
Under Wang Kuang's strict orders, tens of thousands of people of the Westward Marching Corps soon came to the Ji River, which was not far from the border of Shanxi, and as soon as they crossed the Ji River, they entered the Taihang Mountains with dangerous terrain.
Without hesitation, Wang Kuang immediately ordered the whole army to cross the river, and Shi Rong hurriedly dissuaded: "My lord and slow, once our army crosses the river, it will enter the Taihang Mountains, the terrain here is dangerous, and the enemy army only needs to send a small force to ambush between the narrow valleys, even if there are tens of thousands of people, I can only watch being annihilated by the enemy one by one." ”
Wang Kuang's ambition was poured with a basin of cold water by Shi Rong, and his face was iron blue, and he did not say a word.
Shi Rong did not notice the change in Wang Kuang's face, and even if he did, at the juncture of deciding the life and death of the troops, he would not give up his suggestion, he continued: "The last general thought that our army could not reach the river for the time being, just with the Ji River as the boundary, blocking the enemy's way out of the Taihang south, and then according to the change of the situation, the next strategy was determined. ”
Wang Kuang could no longer bear the anger in his heart, and immediately interrupted Shi Rong: "Bold Shi Rong, just when tens of thousands of my soldiers were about to gather and annihilate the Hu bandits, you came to shake the hearts of our army. ”
Wang Kuang held tens of thousands of male soldiers in his hands, and his chest surged with pride, he could not tolerate any opponents, and his characterization of Shi Rong was"
The king wants to discourage all evil!
”
The meaning of depression is corruption, discouragement. Its nature is far more serious than shaking the hearts and minds of the military.
Hearing Wang Kuang's words so serious, Shi Rong retreated with tears in his eyes, he was completely for the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers to advise Wang Kuang, but he was hit so hard, he made plans to die, but he felt heartache for the white blood of tens of thousands of soldiers, he sighed to Cao Chao, who came to comfort him: "Liu Cong is very good at using soldiers, but Wang Kuang knows nothing about military affairs, and poor my tens of thousands of troops are going to be in great trouble." ”
The Westward Advance Corps quickly crossed the river into the hinterland of the Taihang Mountains, quickly took Gaodu (present-day Jincheng), and then took the Heng clan (present-day Gaoping), Wang Kuang was enthusiastic, and ordered the whole army to continue to march north to find Liu Cong's main force to fight a decisive battle, at this time, the entire Westward Advance Corps was filled with an atmosphere of victory, only Shi Rong and Cao Chao were more and more uneasy in their hearts, and it turned out that their uneasiness was justified, because since their troops entered the Taihang Mountains, they had never left Liu Cong's sight, and Liu Cong adopted the strategy of luring the enemy to go deeper. He had already chosen a tomb for this unit, and the place was the famous Qin and Zhao battlefields- Changping.
Wang Kuang's army swung all the way, entered Changping and encountered an ambush, he was looking for the main force of the enemy army all the way, but he did not expect to meet the enemy at a wrong place, the wrong time, under the premeditated attack of Liu Cong's army, Wang Kuang's westward marching corps was defeated, "the dead sixteen seven".
Here, Shi and Cao Er found the final destination of the soldiers, and both died on the battlefield, they knew that they could not do anything but still calmly died, and died brightly.
However, Wang Kuang, who was enthusiastic about the main battle, ran away with a cigarette.
3. The Han army was defeated under the city of Luoyang
After annihilating the Western Advance Corps, Liu Cong took the opportunity to expand the results of the battle, successively occupying Tunliu and changzi, including the entire southern part of the Shangdang, and completely cutting off Liu Kun's contact with the Central Plains.
At this time, Liu Cong, seeing that the southern part of the Shangdang had come so easily, temporarily put aside Liu Yuan's strategic action of asking him to go south as soon as possible, and took it upon himself to send a large army to the north to attack Liu Kun's Jinyang, but Liu Kun's territory was not so easy to break, and Liu Cong's footsteps stopped.
When Liu Yuan saw that Liu Cong had changed his strategic plan privately, he was furious and hurriedly ordered Liu Cong to move south to Luoyang as soon as possible.
Liu Cong, seeing that his father was angry, did not dare to be idle, and was busy stopping the siege of Jinyang, turning out of the Taihang Mountains and going south to take Luoyang.
Due to Liu Cong's stay under Jinyang City, Sima Yue had plenty of time to complete the layout of Luoyang city defenses, and the Central Army led by the Pingbei general Cao Wu was placed on the outskirts of Luoyang, ready to assist the city defense army in field battles.
Wang Mi, the general of the Eastern Expedition, could not forget the fiasco under the city of Luoyang that year, and Liu Cong was also a good soldier, he was not in a hurry to attack Luoyang, suddenly turned around and went east, and soon he was under the city of Junyi (present-day Kaifeng), but he did not fight against Junyi, Liu Cong's strategy was to encircle and fight for help.
Sure enough, Sima Yue saw that Junyi was surrounded, and hurriedly ordered Cao Wu to lead his army to the east to support, and when Cao Wu arrived with his central corps in a hurry, he was entering the pocket of Liu Cong's army, and after being beaten by a fierce beating, he suddenly lost his combat effectiveness, and Liu Cong took advantage of the victory and rushed westward, and soon approached the city of Luoyang.
When the news of the defeat came from the front, Sima Yue was busy mobilizing all the forces that could be mobilized to cooperate with the 40,000 main forces to enter Luoyang City to defend and take advantage of the thick walls of Luoyang City to resist.
Liu Cong came to Luoyang City, after surveying the terrain, he ordered an attack from Ximingmen, this is the first time since the founding of the Han army to attack a large city, and it is the capital Luoyang, it appears inexperienced, to besiege the city is not the xiongnu cavalry director, repeated attacks were repelled, in vain to damage many horses, Liu Cong saw that the sky will be late and ordered the army to retreat and camp, this time Liu Cong left a heart eye, he did not stay in the previous Wang Mi failed qilijian, but to the northeast Xuanyang Gate stationed.
Liu Cong did not expect that Sima Yue would dare to launch a surprise attack on himself by night, and that he would concoct the methods used against Wang Mi the previous time, and the Han army was greatly defeated.
Fourth, failure, but achieved strategic significance
The great defeat under luoyang also made Liu Cong see that he did not have the ability to attack the big city, and to win, he must give full play to his field strengths, attack the other with his own strengths, and then make a decision on the spot, change Liu Yuan's established goal of capturing Luoyang, and turn around and go west to find Sima Mo's eastward marching corps.
Sima Yue's two generals Chun Yuding and Lü Yi led the East Advance Corps to Luoyang, during which they heard that Luoyang was besieged, and they were even more anxious to speed up the march, and when they met Liu Cong's army advancing westward near Yiyang, not far from Luoyang, the two armies adjusted their formations and then launched a battle, field warfare was the advantage of cavalry, not to mention the eastward march of the army for thousands of miles, fatigued, after several charges by Liu Cong's army lost its combat strength, the East Marching Corps collapsed, and Hongnong (northeast of present-day Lingbao) Taishou Yuanyan surrendered.
After the defeat of the Eastern Advance Corps, there was no longer a heavy army group of the Jin Empire near Luoyang, and the Jin army in the city fell into isolation, Liu Cong was happy in his heart, thinking that the capture of Luoyang was just around the corner, so he celebrated in the army, but he did not know that only the victory in hand belonged to him, and the victory that did not arrive could be converted into defeat at any time.
Liu Cong was still too young, he didn't know how to deal with the surrendering enemy, and he didn't even have the idea of defending the surrendering enemy, perhaps he believed too much in his own strength.
The surrendered Hongnong Taishou Yuanyan did not sincerely surrender, and still had the troops in his hands, so he took advantage of liu cong's lack of preparation at night to lead the army and civilians to raid Liu Cong's camp, and this battle occurred when Liu Cong was completely undefended, it was as if he had hit the weak ribs, he lost badly, and his troops completely lost confidence in the duel with Sima Yue in Luoyang, and had to return to Pingyang.
Although Liu Cong did not capture Luoyang, he annihilated the three heavy army groups of the Jin Empire in one fell swoop, and its strategic significance far exceeded Liu Yuan's expectations.
Because of this, although Liu Cong was defeated, Liu Yuan "greeted the division in plain clothes".
Fifth, the great defeat of Shi Le
The Shi Le legion in charge of reinforcements was not smooth, he did not wait for Wang Jun's army, but waited for the Xianbei army led by Duan Wenyan, a Xianbei man.
Duan Wenyan was the son of Wang Jun's son-in-law Duan WuBeichen, who fought bravely and fiercely, and was a famous general of the Xianbei generation.
The two sides fought at Feilong Mountain (southwest of present-day Shijiazhuang), and although the Shi Le legion was large and powerful, it exposed the problem that the troops were expanding too quickly and were undertrained, and his troops were a mixed army composed of Han, Xiongnu, and Xiongnu, and there were great problems in the coordination between each other.
Shi Le's defeat in this battle was really too miserable, and he ran all the way to the base area established by Liu Jing in Liyang before stopping, and from then on he developed a psychological obstacle to Duan Wenyan, and in the future battle, as long as he heard Duan Wenyan's name, Shi Le would collapse without a fight.
At this point, the first battle of the Han and Jin Dynasties ended.