As mentioned earlier, the dispute between Wu and Yue is actually a war between agents of the Jin and Chu countries, why do you say this? How did the Kingdom of Wu make the powerful State of Chu lose its capital? What kind of grudge does Wu Zixu have with Chu State? What kind of relationship is Wu Zixu and Sun Wu? How high is Sun Wu's military talent? In this article, we will find the answer together.
In 518 BC, in the border of the Wu state of Beiliang (present-day Dongyang, Luxi County, Jiangsu) and the border of the state of Chu, a funny thing happened between the two cities, a mulberry tree that could not look at people took root in the Wu-Chu border area, and two women from Wu and Chu came to pick mulberry leaves at the same time.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, when the separatist forces were chaotic, it was difficult for countries to establish a clear dividing line, so the two fought over the ownership of mulberry trees. This incident was learned by the governors of the two countries, and in an instant it turned into an attack between the two cities, and then extended to the war between the two countries.
Of course, the trivial matter of fighting for Sang was not enough to cause a military struggle between the two countries, and it reflected only a microcosm of the Wu-Chu relationship at that time. Since 584 BC, Wu and Chu have been fighting each other, with an average of every 10 years staging a huge battle, not to mention the conflict of small armed forces on the border.
It is not without reason that relations between the two countries are so overwhelming. To a certain extent, the war between Wu and Chu was essentially a continuation of the Jin-Chu struggle for hegemony. Since the rise of Duke Wen of Jin, Jin and Chu began to compete with each other, and battles such as the Battle of Chengpu, the Battle of Yu, and the Battle of Yanling took place successively.
Although the State of Chu suffered repeated setbacks in the felling of Jin, its pioneering work in the south was not hindered, and its national strength remained strong. By the late Spring and Autumn period, the State of Chu was already on the defensive. However, the Jin state was also exhausted by domestic political strife and years of wars for hegemony. In order to continue to attack the state of Chu, the state of Jin began to adopt the strategy of wooing and supporting the emerging power of the southern state of Wu.
The origin of the Kingdom of Wu has always been said to be the eldest son of King Zhou "Taibo Ben Wu", as the eldest son of Tai Bo, who knew that his father favored Ji Li's son Ji Chang and took the initiative to give up the throne and leave, none of which won Wu a good reputation. During the succession of Shoumeng, the 19th monarch of the State of Wu, the State of Jin sent Duke Shen and Wuchen to the State of Wu, and sent an army to teach the State of Wu the art of using troops and the method of vehicle warfare. From then on, the state of Wu began to interact with the countries of the Central Plains and allied with the state of Jin. Thanks to the help of the Jin State and the efforts of Shou Meng, the Wu State became stronger and stronger, and gradually became an important force against Chu.
If the strong support of the Jin state was one of the prerequisites for the rise of the Wu state, then this person must be an indispensable part of the fall of the Chu state. He is Wu Zixu. Wu Zixu, originally a native of the State of Chu, after King Chuping succeeded to the throne, he appointed Wu Zixu's father Wu Fu as the crown prince, and favored the courtier Fei Wuji as the prince and young master, and jointly taught the prince Jian.
Later, Wu Fu became more and more trusted by the prince, and Fei Wuji not only regarded Wu Fu as a thorn in his side, but even the prince Jian became a stumbling block on his way. Taking advantage of the opportunity that the crown prince was about to marry the Qin daughter Meng Ying, she trumpeted the beauty of the country in front of King Chuping. King Chuping really moved his mind, and under the instigation of Fei Wuji, secretly took Meng Ying as his concubine.
There is no wall in the world that does not leak, and the gap between King Chuping's father and son is also beginning to appear. At this time, through Fei Wuji's provocation, King Chuping simply did not do anything, intending to eradicate the prince's forces. This knife naturally also fell on the body of Tai Shi Wu Fu, Wu Fu had two sons, one of whom was Wu Zixu, and the other was Wu Shang. Fei Wuji believed that the two talents were highly knowledgeable, and if they did not cut the grass and remove the roots, it would definitely cause great trouble.
King Chuping then made it a condition to pardon Wu Fu, intending to recruit the two into the palace to kill him. Wu Shang is a man, benevolent and honest, knowing that it is a trap, but willing to die. Wu Zixu was different, he was strong and unwilling to take his life, so he fled out of the city overnight, and the Wu family was destroyed.
Wu Zixu, carrying a family feud, crossed the search and arrived at the Song Kingdom where Prince Jian was located. However, his journey to escape did not end. After experiencing the civil strife of the Song State and the strangling of the Zheng State, Wu Zixu eventually moved to the Wu State. The country's political stance fits his vision of revenge, and his growing prosperity makes him see the feasibility of revenge.
Wu Zixu was born in the family of the official eunuchs of the State of Chu, which means that he has a considerable understanding of the political style and military strength of the State of Chu, and this knowledge reserve may be useful in future wars against the State of Chu. In addition, in the process of Gongzi Guang's seizure of power in Wu, the assassins introduced by Wu Zixu played an important role, and Gongzi Guang became more and more important to him.
Dedicated to the assassination of the king
At this time, the leader of the anti-Chu Dynasty, Gongzi Guang, succeeded to the throne, calling King Wu Lulu, and Wu Zixu, the knowledge reserve library, also successfully took his place and gave officials and pedestrians. But this fledgling anti-Chu organization still lacks an important role, that is, military guidance. Soon, Wu Zixu recommended a person to Lu Lu, who was not from the State of Chu or a native of the State of Wu, but from the State of Qi.
Wu Wang Lu
Sun Wuzi Changqing, a native of Le'an in the Qi state, fled to the state of Wu due to political unrest in the state of Qi. The young exile settled in a thatched hut outside the city of Gusu, the new capital of Wu. Here, he did a sensational event in the entire military forum, he wrote the famous "Sun Tzu Art of War", but at that time, he was still an unknown little person.
By chance, Wu Zixu, who was concentrating on the cause of Fa Chu, glimpsed this inconspicuous book of soldiers, and was greatly shocked. The military strategy shown in the book will undoubtedly open a new skylight for the war against Chu. For this reason, he strongly recommended Sun Wu to Lu Lu. After reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, Lu Lu also sighed secretly and decided to reuse it.
On the side of the state of Chu, in 516 BC, before Lu Lu usurped the throne, King Chuping died, the young King Chu Zhao took the throne, and the military and political power fell into the hands of Ling Yin Nanwa, the grandson of Wang Zizhen, the third son of King Zhuang of Chu. He was treacherous and greedy for money, and he was obsessed with accumulating huge amounts of money. This thirst for wealth even extends to diplomacy.
The State of Tang and the State of Cai were small states in the north of the State of Chu, and they had long sought refuge from the State of Chu, forming a relatively stable relationship of dependency. But this balance was upset during a courtship meeting between the leaders of Tang and Cai. After being refused to ask the two lords for money, Nangwa spread rumors that they wanted to unite with the Wu state to attack the state of Chu, resulting in the two being imprisoned in the state of Chu for three years. This also caused the relationship between the State of Chu and Tang Cai to quickly drop to a freezing point, laying hidden dangers for the defeat of the Battle of Wu and Chu.
In order to continue to combat the forces of the State of Chu, Lu Lu adopted the strategy of "three divisions taking turns and cameras annihilating the enemy" proposed by Wu Zixu. He divided the national army into three parts, harassed the Chu territory in turn, once the Chu state sent troops to fight, it immediately retreated, once the Chu army ceased, the Wu army would harass again, judging the situation from the Chu army's every attack, no fighters retreated to interfere with it, and if there were fighters, the three armies came out in unison, concentrated superior forces to annihilate the enemy, and gradually accumulated small victories into big victories.
Battle of Baiju
In 506 BC, King Lu of Wu thought that the time was ripe for a major attack on Chu and Ying, so he sought the opinions of Wu Zixu and Sun Wu. Wu Zixu and Sun Wu said that if we want to comprehensively attack the state of Chu, we must win over Tang and Cai. Although the strength of Tang and Cai is weak, their geographical location is extremely important, especially Cai Guo occupies the upper reaches of the Huai River and is the entrance and exit of the Chu State on the north side of the Dabie Mountain Range. The unity of the State of Wu with Tang Cai meant that it had mastered the fortress leading to the Chu land from north to south, so that the army was arranged to form a horn, posing a great threat to the Chu state.
Previously, the relationship between Cai and Tang and the state of Chu was already quite tense in essence, and at this time, Wu Guo's military action to destroy Chu was easily supported by Tang and Cai. Therefore, with Sun Wu and Wu Zixu as generals and his brother-in-law as the vanguard, Lu Lu led 30,000 troops along the Huai River to the west and began a full-scale war against the State of Chu. After arriving at Huaixi, Sun Wu suddenly landed in a boat, and the march was changed from west to south.
Why did Sun Wu suddenly change the direction of his march? Different from previous battles, the strategic goal of the Wu State this time is no longer to capture the border cities of the Chu State, but to directly attack the capital of the Chu State, Xingdu, and annihilate the country in one fell swoop. In order to conceal the true combat intentions, the Wu army withdrew part of its forces and launched an attack on the frontal defense line of the Chu army in the eastern side of Dabie Mountain, such as Chu Guoyao and Lu'an, creating the illusion that the main force of the Wu army interfered with the border.
The main force of the Wu army quickly detoured north from the east, boarded warships from Zhongli and Zhoulai, advanced west along the Huai River, and joined the Tang and Cai armies. However, going against the tide made the Wu army slow, and this move was bound to be detected by the Chu army and took the opportunity to strengthen its defenses. By the time the Wu army approached the center of Chu Land, the Chu army was already ready to fight, and it was not conducive to fighting on its own side. Based on these considerations, Sun Wu immediately selected 3,500 elite soldiers as the forward, with Fu Wei as the commander, and quickly seized the three dangerous passes of the tunnel, Zhiyuan, and Hades at the junction of Dabie Mountain and Tongbai Mountain.
This move not only controlled the entrances and exits in the northeast of the Chu State, but also used the natural partition of the Dabie Mountain Range to divide the troops on the eastern defensive line of the Chu army and the troops in the heart of the Chu State on the west side, so that they could not care about each other. The main force of the Wu army quickly advanced and approached the Hanshui defense line on the east side of the capital of Ying.
The speed of Wu Jun's progress shocked Chu Guo. King Chu Zhao hurriedly sent Nangwa and Zuo Sima Shen Yinjiao to lead the army of the capital to Hanshui to block the Wu army. In view of the fact that the forces scattered throughout the Chu state had not yet been assembled, they were easily broken by the Wu army, and it was difficult to prevent the Wu army from breaking through the defense of Hanshui. In view of the weakness of Wu Jun's lone army and no territorial gains, Shen Yinjun advocated giving full play to the advantages of the large number of soldiers of the State of Chu and turning passive into active. He suggested to Nangwa that Nangwa lead the main force of the Chu army to fortify the front along the west bank of the Han River, while he himself led part of his troops north to the upper city, detouring the back of the Wu army, destroying its warships, and cutting off its way back. Then, together with the main force led by Nangwa, they attacked the Wu army front and back, annihilating the Wu army in one fell swoop.
However, at the provocation of the accompanying generals, Nangwa believed that Shen Yinjun's deployment was actually to monopolize the credit, so he did not wait for Shen Yinjun's army to arrive, and led his army across the Hanshui without authorization to attack the Wu army. In order to paralyze the sangwa, Wu Jun took the initiative to retreat. Sure enough, Nangwa decided that the Wu army was cowardly and launched an attack step by step. However, after three battles, the Chu army lost three battles in a row. Helplessly, Nangwa had to regroup his troops and prepare for another battle in Baiju.
Due to the defeat in the previous battle, the morale of the Chu army was low, and the general disgust and disobedience of the commander Nangwa in the military camp, the vanguard of the Wu army believed that a preemptive strike should be made. Therefore, despite Lu Lu's opposition, Fu led a vanguard force of 5,000 men to the Chu camp. Sure enough, the Chu army collapsed at the touch of a finger, and the situation was chaotic.
Seeing that Fufu's general department was successful, he took the opportunity to enter the battle with the main force. The Chu army soon collapsed. The remnants of the defeated Chu army fled westward. The Wu army took advantage of the victory to pursue Qingfa Shui, southwest of Baiju, to catch up with the Chu army, and Lu Lu wanted to attack immediately. Fu Guan believed that taking advantage of the Chu army crossing to the middle of the river and attacking again, he would win a big victory.
The Chu army saw that the Wu army was chasing but did not attack, and was anxious to survive, and rushed to cross the river. When he was halfway through, Lu Lu attacked and captured half of the Chu army. The Chu army crossing the river fled to Yongshu and was burying pots to cook, but the Wu army vanguard chased him, and the Chu army fled in a hurry.
Wu Jun ate the meal made by Chu Jun and continued to pursue. At this time, Shen Yinjun, who learned of the rout of the main force of Nangwa, led his troops to come to the rescue. Although he defeated Fu Guan's vanguard forces, he was eventually outnumbered and completely defeated by the main forces of the Wu army. Shen Yinjun saw that the general trend was gone, so he ordered his subordinates to cut off their own heads and repay the king of Chu. After that, the Wu army crossed the Hanshui River and achieved five victories along the way, King Zhao of Chu fled in a hurry, and the capital of the state of Chu was quickly broken due to the lack of troops.
Subsequent
After Wu Jun entered the capital of Xing, he wantonly slaughtered and raped women of the Chu state at will. And according to the level of status, he stayed in the palace of the Chu State. Lu Lu entered the palace of the king of Chu and raped the women in the harem of the state of Chu one by one, and when it was the turn of Bo Ying, the wife of King Chuping and the mother of King Chu Zhao, Bo Ying resolutely refused to obey and declared his attitude with death.
On Wu Zixu's side, although the Wu army attacked the capital of the Chu army, at this time King Chuping was dead, and King Chu Zhao had fled, in order to vent his anger, he sent people to dig up King Chuping's tomb, dragged his body out, and beat King Chuping's body with an iron whip for 300 lashes.
After King Chu Zhao fled, he sent ministers to the State of Qin to ask for help, on the one hand, the State of Chu was a related in-law of the State of Qin, on the other hand, the Duke of Qin was moved by the kneeling of the minister Shen Baoxu, the minister of Chu, and the State of Qin began to send troops to support the State of Chu. Moreover, the State of Yue took advantage of the empty domestic forces of the State of Wu at this time and began to attack the mainland of the State of Wu, coupled with the rebellion of his brother-in-law, so King Lu of Wu withdrew from the capital of Ying, returned to Wu to suppress the rebellion, and the State of Chu was restored.
The Battle of Baiju, the defeat of the 30,000 Chu army by the Wu army of 30,000, and the fame of Sun Wu's battle, can be said to be an unprecedented large-scale far-reaching surprise attack operation in China's military history, a fundamental breakthrough and innovation in the war situation of "fixing the land on the covenant" and "frontal decisive battle" under the traditional military guidance, and also an all-round and comprehensive practical application of Sun Tzu's art of war, the art of Sun Wu's military command. Among them, the most famous soldiers, such as the trickery of the soldiers, the detour of the army, the speed of the soldiers, the need to avoid the truth, the quick victory, and the food for the enemy, etc., are all conspicuously reflected in this battle. After the Battle of Baiju, although the State of Chu successfully counterattacked with the help of the State of Qin and achieved the restoration of the country, this battle caused the State of Chu to rapidly weaken and eventually withdrew from the ranks of the Spring and Autumn powers.