War, the tools that human civilization uses to shape each other. A civilization may be destroyed in war or reshaped in war. In the history of human civilization, the civilizations of ancient Egypt, ancient India and ancient Babylon were completely destroyed in the fires of war, and there was a fault line of civilization, and only the ancient Chinese civilization survived in all wars with resilience and grew stronger and stronger.
In China's more than 5,000-year history, ten wars have had the most profound impact on Chinese civilization.
1. The Battle of Zhuolu
The exact time when the battle took place is long impossible to verify.
More than 4,000 years ago, the Yandi tribe and the Yellow Emperor tribe in the Yellow River Valley united against the Dongyi tribes led by the Chiyou tribe, and finally won the victory.
The war established the Yanhuang tribe's domination of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, where the land was most fertile. This fertile plain region has also been nourishing and nurturing the roots of Chinese civilization. Since then, the ancient Chinese civilization has been centered on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Plain and radiated around, gradually forming a long history of Chinese civilization.
The battle of chasing deer laid the root vein of Chinese civilization.
2. The Battle of Makino
The Battle of Makiye was a decisive battle for King Wu, and King Wu of Zhou completely defeated the armed forces of the Shang Dynasty with fewer victories. It was the battle for the founding of the Zhou Dynasty.
According to the latest conclusions of the Xia Shang and Zhou Dynasty Project, the Battle of Makino took place on January 9, 1044 BC.
In the history of Chinese civilization, King Wu's felling was the first large-scale local government to wage war against a decadent central government.
In later generations, in almost all wars between local powers and the central power, in public opinion, the "tyrannical SenseTime" would be used to describe the decay of the central power, so as to create their own justice against the central power.
The Book of Poetry. National style. Daming" recorded: "Makino Yangyang, Tan Che Huanghuang, Qiqi Peng Peng." Master Wei Shang, Shi Wei Yingyang. King Liang Piwu, wantonly felling great merchants, will dynasty Qingming.
This is apparently an ode composed by the Zhou Dynasty ceremonial officials to praise the justice of the Battle of Makino.
In the fog of history, the battle of Makino left only two images for later generations, one is the tyrannical and fickle King Shang, and the other is the wise and benevolent King Wu of Zhou.
This war also established a kind of justice against tyranny for future generations, and always alerted every political leader of Chinese civilization.
3. The Battle of the Fall
Vigorously upholding the mountains and overpowering the world, and the times are not good.
In January 202 BC, in the cold wind and snow, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, looked at Yu Ji dancing in the big tent, and was stunned, and couldn't help but sing sadly about wine.
At this time, after several failed breakthroughs, the remaining more than 20,000 Jiangdong disciples had been besieged by the Han army, and the Han army sang Chu folk songs around in order to shake the hearts of the Chu soldiers.
In the struggle for hegemony between Chu and Han, no side has absolute justice, only heroes and heroes who fight to dominate the world and swallow wind and thunder, thousands of troops galloping on the battlefield with blood-stained yellow sand, the yin and yang skills of powerful and wise men, and the deceit of politicians.
In this chaotic battle at the end of the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang won the final victory.
In the battle of Yaxia, after refusing to cross the river and killing more than 100 people, Xiang Yu, who killed himself, also left an incomparably plump heroic image for Chinese civilization in history.
Xiang Yu's unparalleled heroism and Liu Bangchengfu's profound mastery were deeply integrated into the bloodline of Chinese civilization after this war, invisibly affecting everyone who grew up on this land.
At the same time, the Han Dynasty, which lasted for more than 400 years, also laid the foundation for the establishment of the dynasty after the Battle of Yaxia. Since then, there have been more famous generals such as Huo Qubing and Wei Qing galloping across the desert north, and Ban Gu Banchao and others crisscrossed the Western Regions. The influence of Chinese civilization reached its first peak.
4. The Battle of Shuishui
The period of the two Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties was the continuation of the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms and the beginning of the great integration of various ethnic groups in Chinese civilization.
The Jin dynasty regime established by the Sima clan was full of absurdity, shamelessness, depravity and corruption, and it could be described as a beast. After the Rebellion of the Eight Kings moved south, the emperor of the Sima clan had basically lost imperial power, and the Jin dynasty had actually become a regime controlled by the Shi clan gatekeepers.
Under the control of the enlightened aristocracy, the Eastern Jin Dynasty also had a rare period of commendability.
In the north, various ethnic groups fought and killed each other, and finally a ruthless man Fu Jian unified the north with the assistance of the sage Wang Meng.
In 383, Fu Jian, who had pacified the north, saw that the Former Qin Dynasty had many generals and sufficient resources, so he made up his mind to destroy the Jin Dynasty and complete the unification of the whole country.
Although before the expedition, the powerful ministers of the Former Qin Dynasty had their own opinions, Fu Jian himself had made up his mind.
In November 383, the Qin soldiers were in the southeast of present-day Shou County, Anhui, across the water from the Beifu soldiers under the command of Xie Xuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
At this time, there was a dramatic scene in the battle situation.
Former Qin, who had an absolute superiority in troops, received an invitation to battle from Xie Xuan.
In the invitation to battle, Xie Xuan said that he asked the Qin soldiers to retreat slightly, let the Jin soldiers cross the water, line up the position, and then fight the Qin soldiers.
At this time, the core of the former Qin commander Fu Jian and his younger brother Fu Rong showed an incomprehensible naivety that often appeared in brutal wars.
They thought of calculating Xie Xuan, and when the Jin troops crossed the water, they half-crossed it. In their calculations, this battle will be won.
So they agreed to Xie Xuan's request and ordered the Qin soldiers to retreat.
However, what they did not expect was that Xie Xuan had already arranged for five thousand cavalry to sneak across the river, and when the Jin soldiers pretended to cross the river and the Qin soldiers pretended to retreat, these five thousand cavalry suddenly killed the retreating Qin soldiers.
Qin Bing was suddenly confused, didn't he say that it was good to attack half-du? Why did it suddenly reverse? The Qin soldiers, who were originally pretending to retreat, were instantly in chaos. And Fu Rongyi, who commanded in front of the battle, also fell nervously, and was inexplicably killed in the chaotic army. After this complete game, the Qin soldiers were on the verge of collapse, and they could not organize and command at all.
After crossing the river, the Jin soldiers rushed over under the command of Xie Xuan, and the Qin soldiers were defeated.
More details about the Battle of Shuishui are not recorded in historical sources. However, the fact after the war was that Fu Jian's 600,000-strong army escaped and collapsed, and after gathering and rectifying after arriving in Luoyang, only 100,000 remained. However, the 30,000 soldiers and horses under the command of Murong Chui, a Xianbei nobleman who strongly supported Fu Jianfa Jin before the war, were almost unscathed. In the process of the Qin army's rout before the Battle of Shuishui, he most likely played a role in fanning the flames.
After the war, Murong Chui and other nobles successively rebelled, and the originally unified north fell into chaos again.
It was not until more than 200 years later, when the Sui Dynasty unified the whole country, that this period of chaos that lasted for more than 300 years ended.
And in this chaotic era, there were two opportunities for the whole country to be unified, one was the Battle of Chibi, and the other was the Battle of Shuishui.
After the Battle of Chibi, the north did not fall into chaos, which was due to Cao Cao's own ability, but the greater reason was the rule of the Han Dynasty in 400 years, so that the northern regions still had a strong centripetal force towards the central government.
After the defeat in the Battle of Shuishui, the north soon fell into collapse and chaos. The reasons involved are thought-provoking.
5. The Battle of Ross
In the 7th century, after more than 300 years of great division, a brand-new Chinese civilization appeared in this ancient land.
The Tang Dynasty, which was full of grandeur and tolerance, especially after the destruction of the Eastern Turks, had a period of harmonious ethnic relations rarely seen in history.
Under the leadership of a strong central government, the people of all nationalities in the territory enjoyed prosperous peace and joy.
However, in the distant frontiers of the empire, the battle between iron and blood remained the same.
The Arab Empire, which arose in the eighth century, began to infiltrate its power into Central Asia. The Anxi Capital Protectorate of the Great Tang Empire is its biggest obstacle.
In 751, in April of the tenth year of Tianbao of the Great Tang Dynasty, Gao Xianzhi, the governor of the four towns of Anxi, commanded 20,000 Tang soldiers and 60,000 clan soldiers to attack the territory of Dashi. In Gao Xianzhi's strategic planning, this is a military operation that replaces defense with attack.
The two sides met at Tyros (in present-day Kazakhstan) and the two armies faced each other.
Five days later, the clan soldiers led by Gao Xianzhi, Ge Lulu, suddenly rebelled and attacked the Tang army with the big food, and Gao Xianzhi was defeated.
After this battle, Gao Xianzhi was removed from his post as the envoy of the four towns of Anxi.
Historians have always had different opinions about the defeat at the Battle of Tyros. Some people believe that Gao Xianzhi's personal command ability was deficient in commanding troops and led to the rebellion of his subordinates, while others said that it was caused by the defection of the countries of the Western Regions to the Great Tang.
In any case, the result of the defeat of this war was that the prestige of the Tang Dynasty began to decline in the Western Regions, and Islam gradually advanced eastward.
Only four years after this battle, in 755 AD, the Anshi Rebellion broke out and the collapse of the Tang Dynasty began.
The defeat of the Battle of Tanros also indicates to some extent that after the ancient Chinese civilization has reached a stage peak, it has gradually begun another internal division.
And this division seems to have been seen from the betrayal of Gao Xianzhi's clan soldiers. To this day, such things are still full of warnings.
6. Battle of Danzhou
In September 1004, Empress Dowager Xiao Yanyan of Liao and the young emperor Yelu Longxu commanded an army of 200,000 to invade the Song Dynasty.
When the news came, the government and the public were shocked.
Since the defeat of Emperor Gaozong of Song and Zhao Kuang's righteous forces on the Yongxi Northern Expedition in 986, the Song and Liao countries have still fought for more than a decade, but neither has divided the victory or defeat, and it has consumed manpower.
Both sides were tired of fighting, and no one expected that the Liao Congress would suddenly pour the whole country into invading the Song. The whole Song Dynasty was completely confused about the situation, and what was most worried was whether the Liao Kingdom had dug up a superweapon and suddenly rose up?
In the court of Kaifeng, there was even a voice suggesting that the capital be moved to avoid disaster for a while.
Fortunately, Prime Minister Kou Zhun stabilized the hearts of the people, and Song Zhenzong also took a strong position, driving his own conquest and arriving at the first line of confrontation between the two armies, Danzhou City.
The emperor's presence on the battlefield greatly boosted the morale of the Danzhou generals. At this time, the Liao general Xiao Tharin was also shot by a large crossbow under the city of Danzhou, and the morale of the Liao army was low.
At this time, the situation on the battlefield was that the Liao army was alone and deep, and the supply lines were very long. The Song army held on to Jiancheng, and at the same time actively dispatched soldiers and horses from all over the world to gradually form a siege of the Liao army. Seeing that force was difficult to win, Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao State began to preside over the peace. The two sides exchanged secret envoys, and after many discussions, they finally signed the "Tanyuan Alliance", which opened the century-long peace between Song and Liao.
The Tanyuan Alliance is the first covenant signed between the orthodox Chinese regime and a foreign regime with the nature of self-demotion.
The Chinese regime in the Song Dynasty has lost the atmosphere of the Bafang Dynasty in the Han and Tang dynasties, but it is like a war-fearing and cowardly regime after the chaotic era of five dynasties and ten countries. The policy of emphasizing culture and suppressing martial arts for a long time after the Song Dynasty also had a far-reaching impact on Chinese civilization.
The weak impact of this battle was not complete until the Battle of Yashan more than 200 years later, when 100,000 Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians were martyred at sea.
7. The Battle of Salhu
In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire completed its conquest of the Southern Song Dynasty and established the Dayuan Empire. For the first time, nomads with a relatively backward level of civilization established a unified regime in the core area of Chinese civilization.
However, the nomadic regime, which lacked experience in the governance of agricultural civilization, could not maintain its rule south of the Great Wall for less than a hundred years.
The Ming Dynasty was subsequently established and had a long confrontation with the nomadic regime in the north.
For the security of the northern border, the Ming Dynasty built the largest and strongest Great Wall since the Qin Dynasty.
However, after Zhang Juzheng's death, the Wanli Emperor began a thirty-year slack of government for his own selfishness, plunging the vast Ming Empire into an almost irreversible decline.
After the three major expeditions of Wanli, the national treasury was empty, and the soldiers and people were tired.
And the nomadic Jurchens of eastern Liaoning, under the leadership of Nur Hachi, rose between the white mountains and black waters.
In 1618, the first month of the forty-sixth year of the Wanli calendar, Nurhachi officially rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, and in the text, he recounted the various crimes of the Ming Dynasty against the Jurchens. Under the leadership of Nurhach, the Jurchens quickly conquered several Ming military towns in eastern Liaoning. For a while, Liaodong was in a hurry.
After a long period of preparation, the Ming Dynasty gathered troops in the Liaodong region and prepared to attack Nurhach.
These troops were recruited from all over the country, including the allied forces of Korea and the Yehebu who were at odds with Nurhach.
Yang Ho was nominally the commander of the Liaodong Theater, but these armies under his command had their own control systems, and the officer ranks of the troops were often constrained by each other, and it was difficult to use them at will. So it has been delayed in moving.
The army assembled in Liaodong quickly consumed the few military salaries of the Daming court. The imperial court repeatedly urged Yang Ho to march as soon as possible, but Yang Ho had no choice but to start attacking.
He divided his troops into four routes and formulated a detailed operational plan. However, these four people and horses went their separate ways, and the reality was that the western road Juniper was completely annihilated by Nur Hachi, and Juniper also died on the battlefield. Then the Northern Route Army lost the battle and routed, the Eastern Route Army was defeated, and the Southern Route Army fled directly after hearing that the Western Road Army was completely destroyed.
In the battle of Salhu, Nurhachi waited for work and concentrated his forces to break each one. In order to fight a quick battle, the Ming army divided its troops and marched, but they fought separately, there was no communication between them, and it was an expedition, and the internal political incompetence of the Ming Dynasty had seriously affected the morale and combat ability of its army.
After this battle, Houjin was the foundation of the state. The Ming Dynasty completely lost control of Liaodong, and Korea was no longer dependent on the Ming Dynasty.
Twenty-six years later, Wu Sangui, the Ming Dynasty general of Shanhaiguan, led Qing troops into the customs to protect himself when facing Li Zicheng's army. Since then, the last dynasty of Chinese civilization began its rule over the core area of Chinese civilization.
The management of the frontiers by the Kangxi and Qianlong dynasties of the Qing Dynasty laid a solid foundation for the unification of China today.
For today's Greater China, the defeat of the Battle of Ming Ting Salhu is not a blessing.
8. Sino-Japanese War
After entering the period of the Industrial Revolution, the clash of civilizations was no longer confined to a certain region, but rose to the level of the whole world.
The rising powers of the West have set their sights on the rich East for their wealth grabbing.
Soon after the outbreak of the Opium War, the Black Ship Incident also occurred in Japan.
However, compared with the large and clumsy Qing government, Japan clearly had advantages in political system and national composition, and they reacted quickly and carried out the Meiji Restoration.
In just 30 years, Japan emerged from poverty and weakness, and its national strength grew stronger and stronger.
And the Qing Dynasty is also doing its part. Under the auspices of Prince Gong Yixuan, Li Hongzhang, and other powerful ministers, a foreign affairs movement was launched in order to improve himself. Subsequently, the Beiyang Navy Division with good strength was also established.
In 1894, due to the Korean Dongxue Party uprising, the Qing court and Japan clashed, followed by the Sino-Japanese naval battle.
In the end, the Beiyang Naval Division was completely destroyed, and the Japanese army landed in Liaodong. In the Liaodong land war, the Qing court was even more vulnerable. Soon the Liaodong Peninsula was also occupied by Japan. Soon, the Qing court signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, and the reparations alone amounted to 200 million taels of silver.
The defeat of the Sino-Japanese War became a talisman for the Qing dynasty and a catalyst for the Chinese National Revolution. It is a scar of shame deeply imprinted on the body of Chinese civilization, which is always a wake-up call to the world.
9. The War of Resistance Against Japan
On July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident occurred.
If today's Chinese people do not know much about history, when they see the Lugou Bridge incident described in textbooks, they will question the first sentence.
"On the night of July 7, 1937, the Japanese garrison at Lugou Bridge, without notifying the local Chinese authorities, held a so-called military exercise near the position of the Chinese garrison, falsely claiming that a Japanese soldier was missing, and asked to enter the county town of Wanping, southwest of Peiping, to search it."
The Japanese garrison at Lugou Bridge? How can there be a Japanese garrison at the Lugou Bridge in Beijing, China?
Today's Chinese people may simply not be able to imagine how the great powers ran amok and entered and exited unhindered on the land of China in those days.
At that time, China could be described as a fish and meat that could be slaughtered by anyone, with no sovereignty to speak of, and the people lived as second-class citizens on their own land.
This is also the fundamental reason why the Nationalist Government will lose the hearts and minds of the people, and the spark of the Red Army can be set ablaze.
Six years before the Lugou Bridge Incident, Japan had already occupied all of Northeast China through the 918 Incident and established the puppet state of Manchukuo.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was still wholeheartedly encircling and suppressing the Red Army, and Zhang Xueliang, the actual controller of the three northeastern provinces, also pursued a policy of non-resistance.
Six years later, Japan, which had a solid operation in the northeast, began transporting troops into customs and conducting provocative military exercises around Beijing.
Yes, you read that right, Japan was able to transport troops into the perimeter of Beijing with swagger, and the Nationalist government did nothing.
Until the gun is on the head, still do nothing! Until the Japanese knocked the trigger again, and the bullets fired made the Chinese military and civilians no longer bearable!
The Lugou Bridge Incident finally opened the prelude to China's all-round resistance against Japan.
During the eight years of the War of Resistance, the loyal souls and blood of countless heroes and martyrs soaked the ancient Chinese land, erecting an immortal heroic monument for Chinese civilization.
We have been hurt, so we can better understand the pain of the injured.
Therefore, in the modern clash of civilizations, Chinese civilization has shown the ability to understand and tolerate those old capitalist countries in the West.
The significance of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to Chinese civilization lies in its manifestation of the great spirit of the Chinese nation of never succumbing to aggression, and in the fact that it has endowed Chinese civilization with a deeper civilizational heritage, which will be the precious spiritual wealth of Chinese civilization.
10. War of Liberation
The War of Liberation expelled not only Chiang Kai-shek's big bourgeois dictatorship, but also foreign imperialist forces.
During the Nationalist government after World War II, the old capitalist countries of Europe and the United States still retained various privileges in China, especially the United States, which stationed a large number of troops throughout China. Because of the large amount of assistance provided by the United States to the Nationalist government during World War II, it also obtained a lot of privileges in China.
Both economically and militarily, China seems to be becoming a colony of European and American powers.
After the liberation of the whole country, the old capitalist countries in Europe and the United States did not recognize the founding of New China without exception because they lost all the privileges they had previously had in China.
The War of Liberation was not only a war of national unification, but also a war of independence for Chinese civilization.
After the Liberation War, although we suffered a complete blockade of Europe and the United States diplomatically and economically, we also completely regained our own political and economic sovereignty.
Since then, there have been no garrisons of foreign powers on the land of China.
This is a real war of independence!
After this war, Chinese civilization has once again begun to move steadily towards the peak of human civilization!
epilogue
The past does not forget the masters of the future, and has left countless treasures in the vast historical years of Chinese civilization.
War shapes civilization and profoundly changes the course of civilization.
Looking back at the great course of the formation of modern Chinese civilization and the wars that have had a far-reaching impact on us are of extremely important practical significance in today's turbulent international situation. And these are not the wealth that every country has.