During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Yubi City in Western Wei was a military stronghold to defend against the attack of the Eastern Wei army. It is backed by the confluence of the Yanhe River and the Fenhe River, and it is also a place where soldiers and families of all generations must fight.
In 546, eastern and western Wei fought a fierce battle between siege and defense here.
Gao Huan of Eastern Wei led tens of thousands of soldiers to wage war against Western Wei, with the aim of seizing Western Wei territory and overthrowing the Western Wei Dynasty.
Wei Xiaokuan, a famous Western Wei general who guarded Yubi City, faced with the attack of Gao Huan's tens of thousands of troops, he was calm and self-assured, and adopted a series of tit-for-tat defensive measures, successively thwarting Gao Huan's six siege strategies, so that the Eastern Wei army could not break through an isolated city for two months during the siege, creating a classic example of ancient defensive warfare.
At the beginning of the battle, Gao Huan's soldiers came to the city and ordered the soldiers to build fortifications. First, a large earthen mountain was piled up in the south of the city above the city wall, in an attempt to let the soldiers climb the earthen mountain and shoot arrows to kill the defenders.
The defender Wei Xiaokuan saw through Gao Huan's intentions, and he also ordered his soldiers to tie wood and raise the tower on the original castle tower in the southern city, so that the city tower was higher than the tushan outside the city, and equipped with a large number of lethal weapons in order to attack.
Gao Huan saw that the city's jialou was higher than his tushan and could not attack, so he came up with another plan: he ordered the soldiers to dig tunnels in the south of the city, and at the same time piled up the earthen mountains in the north of the city, and the soldiers worked in shifts, day and night.
Wei Xiaokuan saw that the Eastern Wei army was digging tunnels to attack the city, and urgently ordered soldiers to dig long trenches in the city to block the tunnels dug outside the city, and sent soldiers to guard the long trenches.
When the Qi soldiers digging the tunnel dug the long trench, they were captured as soon as they appeared.
Wei Xiaokuan also asked the soldiers to pile up firewood at the entrance of the tunnel and light it, and used leather to blow the wind to blow fireworks into the tunnel, and the Qi soldiers were choked by the smoke and everyone was suffocated, and they could not invade the city.
Outside the city, Gao Huan saw that the plan to dig tunnels to attack the city would not work, so he came up with a third strategy: to build siege vehicles. After Wei Xiaokuan learned of this movement of the Eastern Wei army, he immediately had a large number of stones prepared.
Gao Huan ordered his soldiers to push the siege vehicle to attack again, and when their car had just advanced near the city wall, it was destroyed by Wei Xiaokuan's soldiers in the city who commanded the soldiers to roll down a large number of stones, although the Siege Vehicle of the Eastern Wei Army had a protective platoon to no avail.
Wei Xiaokuan also sewed a thicker cloth curtain and set it up at the Offensive Department of the Eastern Wei Army. The cloth curtain hangs from a high altitude to protect the wall, so that the siege vehicle loses its power and cannot destroy the wall.
Gao Huan saw that the siege car was blocked by the mantle, and people tied a long pole with hemp rope, rosin, and incendiary material infiltrated with oil, and rushed up to burn the cloth curtain and the city tower.
Wei Xiaokuan also asked the defenders to make a batch of iron hooks that sharpened their blades to deal with the long poles that burned outside the city. As soon as the pole came, the incendiary was cut with a hook, so that it fell into the moat to protect the cloth curtain from burning.
Gao Huan was furious when he saw that the four siege strategies he had set up had failed one by one, so he came up with a bigger plan to destroy the city—he ordered his soldiers to dig twenty-one tunnels, work on four sides, hollow out the foot of the city, support it with wooden pillars, and then pour oil on the wooden pillars, set fire to the pillars, and cause the city to collapse.
Under the fierce attack of the Eastern Wei army, the city wall collapsed. However, Wei Xiaokuan set up a wooden fence at the collapse to refuse to defend, and the Eastern Wei army still could not invade the city.
Gao Huan exhausted his siege moves, but was defeated by the Zhou army. Therefore, he gave up the strong attack method and used the attack heart disintegration tactic.
He asked his armyman Zu Jue to shout to the city: "Wei Xiaokuan, you are defending an isolated city, and there are no reinforcements now, why don't you surrender?" ”
Wei Xiaokuan also gave a powerful answer to Gao Huan outside the city: "My city is impregnable, the grain storage is abundant, the soldiers have more than enough food, your attack is exhausted, but our army can replace the work with ease." I Wei Xiaokuan is a Kansai man, and I will never be a general who surrenders. ”
After the dialogue, Zu Jue shot the letter of abduction into the city with an arrow, encouraging the Western Wei soldiers in the city to rebel against ge, saying: "If there are people who kill Wei Xiaokuan and take the initiative to surrender, we will do it for the Taiwei officials, seal the Duke of Kaiguo County, divide the food of 10,000 households, and reward 10,000 horses." ”
As soon as the letter fell into the city, Wei Xiaokuan personally wrote a sentence on the back, saying: "If there is anyone who can cut off gao huan, we will also handle it according to this regulation." ”
Gao Huan's tens of thousands of troops besieged the isolated city of Yubi City, fought bitterly for more than two months, and finally retreated due to the poor skills of the donkey and the failure. The Battle of Yubi increased the morale of the Western Wei army and destroyed the prestige of the Eastern Wei generals.
After this battle, Gao Huan suffered huge financial and material losses, and many soldiers were killed and wounded. He himself was depressed and could no longer organize a large-scale expedition to the west, and died soon after.
The victory in the defensive battle of Yubi City made Emperor Wen of Western Wei very happy, and he greatly rewarded Wei Xiaokuan, made him a great general, opened the capital Yi Tongsan Division, and gave him the surname Yuwen (宇文氏), allowing him to continue to defend Yubi City.