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As mentioned in the previous lecture, Zhang Handan's army rushed directly to Linzai, the capital of the Wei state, and Wei Wang Wei sent Zhou Shi to ask Qi and Chu for help, so Qi Wang Tian Dan and Chu generals Xiang arrived in time, and they could see that they could form a pincer attack on Zhang Wei under the city of Linji. This is the first high-level cooperation between the anti-Qin camp and has dominated the home field. How will Zhang Wei fight?
Zhang Han night attack
In this case, there are specific and subtle teaching cases in the book of soldiers "Six Tao", and there are techniques to break the situation, and the core means is to launch a surprise attack under the cover of night. Therefore, doing a good job of hiding became the key to the march - the flag should be black, and the soldiers should have a medal. The so-called chopsticks are small wooden sticks that resemble chopsticks, attached to the mouth, and the matching rope is tied to the back of the neck.
The use effect can be described by borrowing Ouyang Xiu's famous text "Autumn Sound Fu": "It is also like a soldier who goes to the enemy, and he rushes away, not listening to orders, but hearing the sound of people and horses." "It's hard to understand how the army uses black flags to convey messages in the night, but in any case, the key is to be silent, undetected by the enemy, and then attack the enemy's weak points with all their might.
This "Six Tao", we have not encountered for the first time. Su Qin hit a wall everywhere in his early years, and the "Taigong Conspiracy" that he read hard after returning home should be one of the "Six Tao". The "Taigong Art of War" that Zhang Liang got from Huang Shigong is also likely to be the same book as this "Six Tao".
Under the city of Linji, Zhang Wei fought exactly according to the plan of "Six Tao": taking advantage of the night, the generals of the whole army rushed away, successfully launched a surprise attack, and broke the anti-Qin coalition army.
This battle, in different chapters of the "History", the records are not very consistent, the "Zizhi Tongjian" summarizes an outline, the ending is like this: the coalition army was defeated, Zhou Shi and Qi Wang Tian Dan were killed, Wei King Wei Guan saw that the general trend had passed, simply did not fight, and Zhang Wei negotiated the surrender conditions, and finally fought for a little benefit for the people of Wei State, after the negotiation, Wei Guan set himself on fire and died, and the Wei state died again.
Wei's death was particularly different. The reason why he chose to surrender was not because he was greedy for life and feared death, but because he was unwilling to let the people of the Wei kingdom die for themselves again, and the self-immolation after negotiating the conditions was a high posture of the traditional nobility to express his will not to bow to the violent Qin. Such monarchs are rare, but Wei Wei did not become the object of praise from posterity, and only sporadic voices—such as Wang Yinglin's Tongjian Q&A—praised him for "dying in ren", which is remarkable.
Under the ruthless washing of time, the law of success and defeat often plays a decisive role, and only those imperial generals who have achieved great achievements can carry the halo on their heads, step on the auspicious clouds, and accept the worship of thousands of generations in the thousands, even if they will achieve ten thousand bones, even if they regard the people as grass mustard, even if they highlight a moral stain that cannot be concealed by life or death.
Titles
Next, let's review the battle of Rinzai, although Zhang Wei was surprisingly victorious, but his surprise was not an unprecedented original.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Era, Wu and Yue fought for hegemony, and Yue King Goujian won a decisive victory precisely by virtue of the title and night battle, forcing Wu Wangfu to commit suicide and destroy the Wu Kingdom in one fell swoop.
It is possible that this kind of thing developed from the ritual of sacrificial ceremonies. The Confucian classic "Rites of Zhou" records that the job responsibility of the "Title Yuan" is "Si Hao", which, as the name suggests, is responsible for noise rectification. Whenever silence is required, such as large sacrifices, expeditions and hunting, the people involved must be honored without noise, and the clan is dedicated to managing such affairs.
Although "Zhou Li" is very utopian, its main content should not be imaginary. As a surname, it is possible that it comes from the title.
Since night raids are not new, of course there will be means of prevention, in addition to setting up more checkpoints, the most typical is to move camps. For example, when Wu Sangui invited Dolgon to enter Shanhaiguan, Dolgon was not at ease and moved camp several times overnight outside Shanhaiguan. Of course, this is a stupid method, the price is that the entire army will not sleep well all night, but at a critical time and in a key place, such caution is necessary. Tian Dan and Xiang Yi did not have this caution, and as a result, they sent heads thousands of miles away, achieving Zhang Han's battle exploits.
Establish a new king
The battle of Rinzai was a nerve-wracking battle for the anti-Qin camp, and two kings died at once. It is said that the king is not worth much in such a troubled world, and if he dies, he may as well establish another one, but the trouble is here. As soon as Chen Sheng died, the State of Chu established a new king, causing a lot of infighting.
This situation now appeared in the State of Qi, as soon as Tian Dan died, his brother Tian Rong collected the remnants of the defeated army and retreated to Dong'a. Both Linji and Dong'a were within the territory of Dongjun during the Qin Dynasty, but Linji was located in the southwest corner of Dongjun, and Dong'a was near the northeast corner of Dongjun. Tian Rong ran all the way, and Zhang Wei chased all the way, and finally trapped Tian Rong in Dong'a City. In the rear of the Qi State, the priority was not to rescue Tian Rong, but to install a new king.
The new King of Qi, named Tian Qi, was a purer bloodline than Tian Dan, and was the brother of Qi Wang Jian, the last king of the State of Qi.
The establishment of a new king must also be accompanied by a new set of leadership groups: Tian Jiao is the phase, and Tian Jiao's brother Tian Ma is the general.
We will think that the Qi people "have endless wildfires, and the spring breeze blows again", and the new team inherits Tian Dan's legacy and continues to hold high the banner of anti-Qin, but no, the original text of the "Zizhi Tongjian" is "to distance the princes". In other words, the people of the State of Qi quickly formed this new team, and the first purpose was to maintain the independence of the State of Qi and guard against those who should have become anti-Qin comrades-in-arms.
Fish in muddy waters
When looking at Qin Chu, the overall situation of the Qi State was the weakest, and the hatred for the Qin State was also the lightest, and the Qi royal family just wanted to fish in troubled waters to restore their own acres and threes of land. This is not surprising, after all, from the queen to the Qi king, the two generations of rulers actively befriended the Qin state, ensuring decades of peace between Qin and Qi, so that the Qi state in the last years of the Warring States was almost a paradise.
In the end, the State of Qin annexed the State of Qi, and did not fight any tough battles, so it did not form a deep feud, and Qin Shi Huang did not show favor to the people of Qi during his eastern tour. Tian Dan, Tian Rong, and Tian Heng can all become a wealthy family in their native township, and then look at Tian Dan's death, Tian Jiao, Tian Jiao, and Tian can immediately replace them, compared to the Chu State, Xiang Liang easily excavated a bear heart for herding sheep from the people.
The State of Qi sought independence, and the State of Chu was determined to take revenge. Therefore, when Tian Rong was trapped by Zhang Wei in Dong'a, and his life and death were only between the first line, Tian Jiao, Tian Jiao, and Tian Ma, who were also surnamed Tian, stood by and watched, but Xiang Liang personally led his army to support and defeated Zhang Han under the city of Dong'a.
This was the first defeat since Zhang Wei left the division, and it was also the first hard battle and first victory directly commanded by Xiang Liang since he left the division. Zhang withdrew his troops to the west, and Xiang Liang pursued all the way.
And since Tian Rong in Dong'a City almost died, even if it is not from the perspective of family and national righteousness, only from the perspective of personal grudges, he really owes Xiang Liang a great favor, and it is only right to rectify the soldiers and horses and pursue Zhang Wei with Xiang Liang. But Tian Rong fully demonstrated the characteristics of the Qi royal family: the Qi people were angry and set up Tian False, and the priority was to lead the troops back to the base camp, saying that nothing could let Tian Fake claim the king, and other things were all backward.
Tian Rong's anger is very understandable, not only the king has it, but even the one general and one phase are matched, even if they can accept themselves without any heart, they are destined to fall from the second-in-command beside Tian Dan to the periphery of power, which is unbearable. And tactically speaking, Tian Rong must seize the time and take advantage of Tian Rong's failure to hold the regime firmly to win a quick victory, and delay for one day to lose the chance of victory.
On Xiang Liang's side, defeating the invincible Zhang Wei in a battle was really a shameful thing.
Attack Chengyang
Xiang Liang personally led the army in pursuit, and at the same time arranged for Xiang Yu and Liu Bang to have a task: to attack Chengyang.
Chengyang was located in the northeast of the Peony District of Heze City, Shandong Province in present-day Shandong Province, and belonged to the Eastern County of the Qin Dynasty at that time, roughly located between Dong'a and Linji. The battle of Chengyang is just a small battle in the context of the big era, but it is the first joint operation between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, so there is no style. The war went smoothly, and the original text of the "Zizhi Tongjian" was "Tu Zhi". This was Xiang Yu's second city slaughter after Keng killed the defenders of Xiangcheng, and it was also the first city slaughter after Liu Bang's rebellion.
At the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, the slaughter of the city was a common thing in the war, because the concept of the times is the most typical "the grace of a meal must be repaid, and the revenge of the eyes will be rewarded" in the spirit of Ren Xia, even in peaceful years, the sense of revenge is completely beyond the shackles of the law, so it is not difficult to understand that those who dare to defend the city for the enemy are, of course, their own enemies, if the enemy cannot be-for-tat, it is needless to say that it is difficult to calm the bottom of the heart, and even an old face will have nowhere to place.
Every era has its own values, and this is something we need to pay special attention to when reading history.
How the decisive battle between Xiang Liang and Zhang Wei will develop, and who will die in the power struggle of the Qi state, we will talk about it next.
Review of the previous issue: Xiong Xin, who was originally a shepherd, why was Xiang Liang embraced as the king of Chuhuai? The banner of the anti-Qin war!
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