The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
。 In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, Chinese history entered a situation of division, and the Battle of Shuishui was a war between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and former Qin. After the war, China's southern and northern dynasties began a long period of separation and division.
In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the rulers were corrupt and incompetent, and the society was turbulent, and China entered the period of the divided Andong Dynasty. In 317, Sima Rui, the king of Jin, proclaimed himself emperor at Jiankang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty included the Han River and most of the area south of the Huai River. Various ethnic minorities in the north have also established political power. The Qi people established the former Qin state. Former Qin successively destroyed the Former Yan, Dai, and Former Liang forces, and gradually unified the Yellow River Valley. In 373, the Former Qin army captured the eastern Jin Dynasty prefectures of Liang (present-day Hanzhong, Shaanxi) and Yi (present-day Chengdu, Sichuan), and gradually expanded its power to the Yangtze River and the upper reaches of the Han River. Therefore, the Former Qin Emperor Jian Jian wanted to sweep away the Eastern Jin Dynasty in a remote corner of the south and unify the north and south in one fell swoop.
In August 383, Jian Jian personally led 600,000 infantry, 270,000 cavalry, and 30,000 Yulin Lang to the south. At the same time, he also sent Zi Tong Taishou Pei Yuanliu to lead 70,000 water troops down the river from Bashu and directly to Jiankang.
In the face of strong enemies and the oppression of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the rulers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty agreed with the proposition of Xie An, the minister of the main war faction, and decided to rise up to resist. Xie An, with Xie Shi as the governor of the conquest and Xie Xuan as the vanguard, led 80,000 strong "Beifu soldiers" along the Huai River to meet the Former Qin army. In addition, he ordered Hu Bin to lead 5,000 water troops to reinforce Shouyang (寿陽, in modern Shou County, Anhui), and Huan Chong to serve as the assassin of Jiangzhou, leading an army of 100,000 to control the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. On October 18, Gong Jian's younger brother Zhi Rong led the leading troops to capture Shouyang and captured Xu Yuanxi, the garrison general who was stationed in Shouyang. At the same time, The Former Qin army Murong Chui led his troops to capture Yuncheng (郧城, in modern Yun County, Hubei). Hu Bin had to retreat to Jiaoshi (硖石, southwest of present-day Fengtai, Anhui) and wait for a follow-up army. Gong Rong also led his troops to attack Jiaoshi, and soon captured Luojian (羅涧, in present-day eastern Huainan, Anhui), cutting off Hu Bin's retreat. Hu Bin was besieged by Jiaoshi, the grain and grass were not good, and Jiaoshi was in a hurry. The distress letter written by Hu Bin also fell into the hands of the Former Qin army. Xiangcheng's army remained in Xiangcheng and personally led 8,000 cavalry to Shouyang.
Jian Jian arrived at Shouyang and sent zhu Xu, an Eastern Jin general who had been stationed in Xiangyang, to the Jin camp to persuade him to surrender. After Zhu Xu arrived at the Jin camp, he not only did not persuade him to surrender, but instead informed Xie Shi of the specific situation of the Former Qin army. Xie Shiyuan believed that the Former Qin army was strong and was ready to hold out, waiting for the enemy army to be tired and waiting for the opportunity to counterattack. Knowing the truth of the Former Qin army, he turned from defense to attack and decided to take the initiative to attack.
In November, Xie Xuan sent Liu Gaozhi to lead 5,000 elite soldiers to sneak into Luojian, kicking off the battle of Shuishui. The Former Qin general Liang Cheng led an army to meet the attack. Liu Gaozhi sent a part of his army to detour the rear of the Former Qin army, and personally led his army to cross the Luoshui River into the Former Qin army camp, defeating the Former Qin army. Former Qin generals Liang Cheng and Liang Yun were defeated and killed. Xie Shi led his army by land and water, and arrived at BagongShan on the east bank of the Shuishui River (淝河, in the south of Shou County, Anhui) to set up camp and confront the Former Qin army in Shouyang. The Former Qin army was lined up close to the west bank of mi, and the Jin army could not cross the river. Xie Xuan sent people to use the radical general method to make the Former Qin army retreat. At this time, the morale of the Former Qin army was low, and the retreat lost control of the middle position in chaos. Xie Xuan led more than 8,000 cavalry to rush across the water and attack the Former Qin army. Zhu Xu took the opportunity to shout behind the battle: "The Qin army has been defeated!" The Qin army was defeated!" Former Qin soldiers believed that they were really scrambling and fled. Xiang Rong wanted to control the situation and did not want to be killed in the rebel army. The former Qin army's forwards lost their commander and collapsed completely, and the follow-up troops also collapsed. The Jin army took advantage of the victory to pursue, and the corpses of the former Qin army trampled on the dead in the rout were all over the mountains. Jian Jian was also injured and fled back to Yanyang alone.
Xie Xuan used the Radical General Method to make the Former Qin army retreat, why did the Former Qin army commander Xiang Rong agree?
Because the Former Qin army was lining up on the west bank of the water, the Jin army had no way to cross the river and had to face across the river. Xie Xuan sent people to the Former Qin military camp to meet Gong Rong and implement the Radical General Law. The messenger said to him: "The general's lone army went deep and approached the river to line up, which was to prepare for a long confrontation, not to prepare for a quick battle. Wouldn't it be better if the army were to retreat a little and let the Jin army cross the river to fight for life and death?" Many generals of the Former Qin army expressed their opposition, but Jian Jian advocated taking the plan into account, letting the soldiers retreat slightly, and waiting until the Jin army was halfway across the river, and then sending cavalry to charge and kill, so that the full victory could be achieved quickly. Gong Rong also agreed with Jian Jian's proposal, so he agreed to Xie Xuan's request and commanded the army to retreat.
How did the allusion to the "wind and cranes" in the Battle of Shuishui come about?
Jian Jian agreed to Xie An's request to agree to retreat, but he did not think that the Qin army was just a temporary patchwork of troops, and the command was not coordinated. As soon as they were given the order to retreat, the rear army thought that the front was defeated and hurriedly retreated. Xie Xuan saw that the enemy was in disarray and personally led his army to quickly cross the river to kill the enemy. On the way to the retreat, the Qin army threw away its armor and chaos, trampling and injuring countless people and horses. Those Qin troops who were lucky enough to escape did not dare to stop all the way, and when they heard the whistling wind and the cries of cranes, they all thought that the Jin army had caught up again, so they kept running day and night desperately. This is the origin of the "wind and crane".
The Battle of Shuishui was a famous example of a battle in which a million former Qin troops were either annihilated or scattered, with only Murong Chui's 30,000 men and horses without any losses. At this station, Jian Jian's hope of unifying the Central Plains was completely destroyed. Not only that, but the temporary unification of the north has also disappeared. In the north, more local ethnic regimes appeared, and Murong Chui of the Xianbei tribe and Yao Cang of the Qiang tribe rose up and established their own states. Two years later, Yao Cang captured and killed Jian Jian, and Former Qin perished. Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty could not unify China through this war, it also effectively curbed the southern invasion of the northern regime, so that the political and economic development of the south had a relatively stable situation.
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