Culture Shanxi: Those famous defenders from Shanxi

In ancient wars, siege warfare was considered to be the most tragic battle, not only the attack on the side of the siege could easily cause a large number of casualties, but also the defending side would run out of food and water because the city was besieged, and even the tragedy of cannibalism. Therefore, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" says: "The upper soldiers cut down the plot, the second cuts the diplomatic relations, the second cuts the troops, and the next attacks the city." The "siege" is listed as the next strategy, which shows the difficulty of siege warfare.

However, when the war is carried out and has to go to the siege, the warring sides will face the problem of how to attack and defend, and many times it is more difficult to defend the city than to attack the city. Therefore, there are many famous siege generals in history, while the famous defenders of the city are relatively few and more valuable. Shanxi has been a famous general and a capable subject since ancient times, and Fu Zuoyi, as we know it, has the reputation of "a famous general who guards the city". In addition, there are three Shanxi generals who have left their names for thousands of years because they are good at defending the city.

Zhang Liao guarded Hefei

Zhang Liao (張辽), courtesy name Wenyuan,was a native of Mayi, Yanmen (present-day Shuozhou, Shanxi), and a famous general of Cao Wei. In the twentieth year of Jian'an (215), Zhang Liao was stationed in Hefei, and Sun Quan personally led an army of 100,000 to besiege Hefei. Due to the disparity in strength between the two sides, Zhang Liao believed that if he wanted to defend the city, he should take the initiative to attack and crush the enemy's momentum. So he led eight hundred soldiers to attack Eastern Wu's 100,000-strong army, and rushed to kill Sun Quan's commander-in-chief, and Eastern Wu collapsed into an army. Later, when eastern Wu withdrew, Zhang Liao led a pursuit of troops and almost captured Sun Quan alive. After this battle, Zhang Liaowei shook Jiangdong, leaving behind the allusion of "Zhang Liao stopped crying".

Hao Zhao guarded Chen Cang

Hao Zhao, Zi Bodao, Taiyuan, Cao Wei famous general. In the second year of Taihe (228), Zhuge Liang led tens of thousands of troops on the Second Northern Expedition. The Cao Wei general Hao Zhao defended Chen Cang with more than a thousand troops, but Zhuge Liang was unable to persuade him to surrender, so tens of thousands of troops attacked the city day and night for more than 20 days, and Zhuge Liang was forced to retreat due to the exhaustion of grain and grass. As a result, Hao Zhao was made the Marquis of Guannei by Emperor Ming of Wei.

Zhang patrolled Suiyang

Zhang Tour (張巡), courtesy name Inspector, was a native of Hedong, Puzhou (present-day Yongji, Shanxi), and a famous courtier in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. During the Anshi Rebellion, Zhang Patrol held the important town of Suiyang in Jianghuai with no grain and grass inside and no reinforcements outside, and held out for ten months, fighting more than 100,000 rebels with 7,000 troops, causing heavy losses to the rebels. Although Zhang Tour was eventually captured and killed due to the exhaustion of grain and grass and the death and wounding of soldiers, it bought time for Li Tang's preservation.