This is the 272nd original article of Shi Shuoxing
It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period, a wonderful battle for hegemony was staged between the Jin state and the Chu state, but the Jin state was initially in a passive situation, and as a result, the Jin Dynasty turned the tide and reversed the situation. How did he do it?
First, let's look at the cause of the Battle of Chengpu, after Song Chenggong saw King Wen of Jin, his prestige grew and his country grew stronger, so he rebelled against Chu in the eighteenth year of King Xiang of Zhou (634 BC) and made peace with Jin. King Cheng of Chu was extremely angry about this. At that time, when Qi and Lu were at war, Lu asked Chu for help, and the Chu army was sending troops to help Lu Faqi, so he moved a force to besiege Song Zhiyi (present-day Jinxiang, Shandong).
Song Chenggong still refused to yield, and King Cheng of Chu led a combined army of Chu, Chen, Cai, Zheng, and Xu to attack Song and besiege the Song capital Suiyang. Duke Cheng of Song sent Sima Gongsun Gu to the Jin Dynasty for help. Jin Wengong was ambitious and was trying to dominate the Central Plains, which was an excellent opportunity. However, the Jin state had only been restored for four years, and the Chu state was militarily strong and had already controlled the countries of the Central Plains, and in this situation, whether to aid the Song had to be carefully considered.
If no troops are sent to the rescue, not only will the Song State be lost, but also the trust of other small countries in the Jin State, and the vast middle area between the Jin and Chu will surely be firmly controlled by Chu, and the sharp edge of the Chu State will directly threaten the Jin State. If troops are sent to save the Song, then in terms of the comparison of troops, the strength of the Chu state is stronger than that of the Jin; from the geographical situation, the Jin is far away from the Song, and there are two allies of the Chu state of Cao and Wei separated in the middle, and the labor expedition is very difficult. Therefore, Jin Wengong hesitated and could not make up his mind.
Proceeding from the strategic situation at that time, the Jin general Xianxun believed that it was necessary to send troops to aid the Song, because this was related to the future of the Jin state in striving for hegemony. He analyzed the significance of aiding the Song to the Jin Wengong: repaying the favors of the Song state when the Jin Wengong was in exile, saving him from danger, establishing the prestige of the Jin state in the eyes of the princes, and laying the foundation for the Jin state to establish hegemony in the Central Plains.
Then, in view of the unfavorable situation of saving Song from afar, Hu Yan came up with a way to attack it and move the Chu army north, thus changing the situation between the host and the guest, saying, "Chu began to get Cao, and the new dim (married) yu Wei, if Cao and Wei were to be saved, then Song would be spared." Jin Wengong adopted this operational guidance of mobilizing the enemy and turning passive into active, and was determined to aid the Song. In the first month of the twentieth year of king Xiang of Zhou (632 BC), Duke Wen of Jin concentrated his forces on the border between Jin and Wei, and on the pretext that Cao Gonggong was rude to him during his exile, he asked the soldiers to question him and borrowed the road from Wei Guo.
Wei Cheng refused to allow it, so the Jin army secretly withdrew, detoured from the South River (present-day Ji County, Henan) across the Yellow River, and suddenly attacked and occupied the Wei state of Wulu (present-day northwest of Qingfeng, Henan), using this as a forward base to move closer to the Qi army, threatening the Chu army's flank that had recently occupied Qi'e. This action not only won the alliance between Qi Zhaogong and Jin Wengong at Shuolu (盂盂, in present-day southern Puyang, Henan), but also forced the State of Lu not to dare to send troops to help Chu and remain neutral, so that the Jin army avoided the danger of fighting on both sides and was able to concentrate its forces to attack Cao and Wei.
Wei Chenggong saw that the Qi and Jin alliances were very powerful, and also asked to join, but they did not agree, so they had to tell Chu about it. The Wei people rose up and expelled Wei Chenggong, and the Jin state occupied the Wei state without a fight. At this time, the Marshal of the Jin Dynasty, Hao Hu, fell ill and died, and because of Xianxun's performance in the early stage of the war, he was indeed praised by Zhao Wan, so he promoted him to marshal of the Chinese army and commanded the whole army. After serving as commander-in-chief, xianxun attacked the Cao capital Taoqiu (曹都陶丘, in modern Dingtaonan, Shandong) and captured Cao Gonggong. The original purpose of the Jin attack on Cao and Wei was to mobilize the Chu army to the north to relieve the siege of the Song capital.
But the Chu army was not mobilized. Song once again appealed to Jin. At that time, although Qi and Qin had signed a pact with Jin successively, expressing their support but did not actually send troops, they still intended to wait and see. Jin Wengong had some concerns, believing that "the Song people are in a hurry, and if they give up, they will not be able to do so." Tell Chu that I don't allow it, I want to fight, Qi and Qin are not allowed, if so? Xianxun believes that the primary task at present is to use diplomatic means to prompt Qi and Qin to change their wait-and-see attitudes.
He suggested to Duke Wen of Jin that he should let the State of Song prepare to send the heavy gifts of Jin to Qin and Qi, and ask them to mediate and persuade Chu to withdraw his troops, but still detain Cao Gonggong and give some of the land of Cao and Wei to Song. Cao was a new ally of Chu, and Wei was related to Chu, so Chu was bound to refuse to agree to withdraw his troops.
The Qin and Qi monarchs, who both liked the treasures of the Song Dynasty and were angry at the refusal of the Chu State, would naturally cooperate with us in attacking Chu. Duke Wen of Jin adopted Xianxun's suggestion, and both Qin and Qi sent troops to help Jin after mediation was rejected, so that the overall strategic situation was transformed into a favorable situation for Jin.
The battle line of the Chu state was very long, the northernmost was in Qi's Yuyi, the main force was in Suiyang, and the rear was relatively empty. Qi, Jin, Qin, and Song joined forces, and if the Qin army attacked Shenyi from Zijingguan, the Chu army would be attacked on its back. King Cheng of Chu was well aware of the talents of Jin Wengong, and seeing that Qi, Qin, and Jin had already formed an alliance and that the strategic situation was extremely unfavorable to him, he was afraid that the Qin army would attack Shenyi, so he decided to withdraw the Song siege and retreat to avoid a decisive battle with Jin.
He ordered ziyu, the main general who surrounded the song capital, to withdraw Song Wei and lead the army back to china, and fearing that Ziyu had a fierce temperament, he warned him: "There is no way to fight with the Jin division (do not be tempted by the Jin state and fight with it), the Marquis of Jin has been outside for nineteen years, and the result of the Jin state, danger and difficulty, prepared to taste, the people's feelings are false, and they know everything!" The year of heavenly leave, and get rid of its harm. How can the heavens be abolished? The "Military Chronicle" says 'if you allow it to return', you also know that 'retreat in the face of difficulties', and you also know that 'virtue is invincible', these three ambitions, Jin Zhi is said to be complete. ”
At the same time, he ordered Duke Shen's uncle Hou to withdraw the city of Qi and return the land to the State of Qi. King Cheng of Chu himself led an army to retreat to Shenyi. Proud and conceited, Ziyu attempted to fight a victorious battle to improve his prestige and status in the country, refused to retreat, and asked the King of Chu to allow him to fight the Jin army to the death.
King Cheng of Chu was extremely dissatisfied, but did not issue another order that the troops must be withdrawn, nor did he allow Ziyu to leave more troops, and only sent Xiguang (the king's personal entourage), Donggong (the Prince's guard) and Ruo AoLiu (600 of Ziyu's private soldiers) to help. After Ziyu received reinforcements, he attempted to mobilize the Jin army to the south in order to wait for work and fight with Jin on a battlefield favorable to him, falsely claiming that he was willing to reconcile, and sent emissaries to Jin camp to negotiate with conditions that the Jin state could never agree to.
They were asked to first "restore the country and seal Cao", and then they would "release the siege of song". If Jin Ru agreed to Chu's terms, it would be tantamount to spitting out the result of the annexation, Cao and Wei, while Chu simply gave up a result that had not been obtained at all, Song. Moreover, the political consequences of this were that Cao and Wei would be more afraid of Chu and hate Jin, and the Song state would also be dissatisfied with Jin because the Jin army did not help and withdrew from the land. Even from a military point of view, in the future, there may not be a favorable fighter for Qin and Qi to jointly send troops to help The Jin.
Therefore, the monarchs and subjects of the Jin State did not agree to accept Chu's conditions. Fox Yan put forward the idea of not missing the opportunity and entering the battle. On the one hand, in view of Cao and Wei's eagerness to restore the country, he secretly allowed them to restore the country, but asked them to break off diplomatic relations with Chu; on the other hand, in view of Ziyu's proud and conceited character, he deliberately detained the envoys who came to negotiate, provoking him to be angry and light, and once Chu withdrew from the Siege of Song and looked for a decisive battle, he would take countermeasures according to the development situation, and the camera annihilated him.
Duke Wen of Jin greatly appreciated the plan of the first emperor, so he implemented it according to the plan. Everything developed according to Xianxun's estimation, and after receiving the news that Cao, Wei, and the envoys had been detained, Ziyu was furious and immediately withdrew the siege of Song Capital, leading the coalition army north to attack the Jin army.
Next Author takes you to focus on analyzing the history of the Battle of Chengpu, and what thrilling moments will be shown!
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