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When it comes to the famous generals of the Warring States, we can count Jiazhen, Sun Bin, Wu Qi, Bai Qi, Li Mu, etc., but what famous generals are there in Spring and Autumn? Except for a few people such as Qi Guan Zhong, Wu Guo Sun Wu and Wu Zixu, Qin Guo Meng Mingzhi, it seems that it is difficult to have any famous generals that impress us.
The reason is actually very simple, from the Western Zhou to the early Spring and Autumn Period, when the war "advocated the military salute of the Zhou Dynasty", it was relatively rigid, that is, the battle with etiquette in a good position, sneak attacks and ambushes, interception of grain roads and other victories were not martial and despised, the ability to strategize and command did not have much room to play, Song Xianggong was a monarch who advocated the military salute of the Zhou Dynasty, so for most of the Spring and Autumn period, there was no soil for the survival of famous generals under the standards of later generations.
However, by the middle and late Spring and Autumn, the concept of war underwent tremendous changes, gradually changing from "Chongli" to "deceitful" in the Spring and Autumn, and Song Xiangzhiren was no longer out of place, and the use of military trickery slowly became the mainstream, and in order to win, it was possible to use unscrupulous means and eclecticism. Therefore, after the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, there were many famous generals, among which the most well-known representative was Sun Wu, who said "soldiers, tricky ways"!
Chinese civilization looks at Spring and Autumn, and Spring and Autumn righteousness looks at the Jin Kingdom! Among the five hegemons of Spring and Autumn, the highest gold content is the Jin State, which has maintained its hegemonic position for more than 150 years, and the hegemonic status of the Jin State is definitely not sent by phone bills, but by fighting. In fact, in the process of the hegemony of the Jin state, there was a first general in the Spring and Autumn Period, and he played a crucial role in the process of turning the war from "Chongli" to "treachery".
After the death of the Duke of Qi Huan, the position of the hegemon of the world was vacant, and the State of Qin, the State of Chu, and the State of Jin were all chasing the world to compete for the position of hegemon. Among them, the State of Chu, which was not suppressed by the State of Qi, began to invade the Central Plains again, this time the prey was the State of Song during the reign of Duke Wen of Song, and the State of Chu had invaded by his grandfather Duke Xianggong of Song.
In fact, before Qi Huan became hegemonic, the southern state of Chu was very powerful, and Rong Di in the north almost penetrated "China", and the history books recorded that it was only between the first line, when China was in danger. But even when Qi Huan Gong was hegemonic, he only led the princes of the Central Plains to suppress the State of Chu, and did not have a war with the State of Chu, and in the end, Qi Huan Gong was not sure of victory.
Song Wengong asked Jin Wen Gong for help, but in the face of the powerful Chu State, Jin Wen Gong, who had just stabilized the country, fell into a dilemma: sending troops to save Song and fighting with the State of Chu, not only was he not sure, the situation was worse if he lost, and the State of Chu had helped him, and it would give the impression of being ungrateful; But Song Wengong also helped him, and he couldn't say it if he didn't save Song.
When Duke Wen of Jin was a teenager, he had five friends of high moral character, one of whom was called Xianxuan, who succeeded to the throne as Xiajunzuo and Hao Zhuo as a lieutenant general. After the succession of Duke Wen of Jin, the "three armies and six secretaries system" was implemented, that is, the central army, the upper army, and the lower army, and the main officers were the central general, the central army, the upper general, the upper army, the lower general, and the lower army, all of which were held by nobles at the level of "secretary". Therefore, Xianxuan served as the junzuo, and was the last in the high-level ranking, and his status was not too high.
As for whether to save Song, Xianxuan believes that it is necessary to save Song, because not saving the Song State is not only ungrateful, but also will lose the trust of other small countries in the Central Plains, and thus be out in the struggle for hegemony. Under the persuasion of Xianxuan and Huwei, Duke Wen of Jin made up his mind to send troops to save Song.
However, the strength of the State of Chu was too strong, and even if Xianxuan was confident, he did not dare to easily confront the State of Chu, so Duke Wen of Jin, Xianxuan and others decided to first unite with Qin Qi and other states to isolate the State of Chu diplomatically, and then decided to first fight the Chu state's allies Cao Guo and Wei Guo, so as to force the Chu State to give up the siege of the Song State. In fact, this is the plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao during the Warring States period, which means that the plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao has long appeared.
The role of Xianxuan became more and more pronounced after the war machine of the Jin state was launched, and he first used trickery to quickly capture Wulu (in present-day Puyang County, Henan), and then used his tricks to attack the capital of the Cao state and capture the king of Cao Wei. In this process, the Chinese general Hao Shu died, and Duke Wen of Jin immediately promoted Xianxuan to a general of the Chinese army, promoted five ranks in a row, and became the second in command of the Jin state.
After capturing Cao Wei, in order to calm the minds of his junior brothers, the State of Chu sent someone to tell Duke Wen of Jin, promising the two sides to withdraw their troops together and return to their previous state, and peace seemed to have arrived. However, at the suggestion of the new Chinese general Xianxuan, Duke Wen of Jin imprisoned the envoys of the State of Chu and fooled Cao Wei into severing diplomatic relations with the State of Chu, thus provoking the State of Chu to march.
Sure enough, Ziyu, the lord of the State of Chu, felt that the State of Jin had made an inch, so he led his army to force the Jin army, and Duke Wen of Jin retreated to avoid its attack on the grounds of repaying the kindness of the State of Chu, and finally the two sides fought a decisive battle in the place of Chengpu (southwest of Zhencheng, Shandong).
The Jin state Xianxuan and Hao Qin led the Chinese army, Hu Mao and Hu Wei led the upper army, and Luan Zhi and Xu Chen led the lower army. Ziyu of the State of Chu commanded the Chinese army, Zixi led the left army, and Zishang led the right army, of which Xu Guo, Zheng Guo, Chen Guo, and Cai Guo's servant armies were all in the left and right armies of the State of Chu.
According to the traditional method of warfare, the Chinese army against the Chinese army, the left army against the upper army, and the right army against the lower army, the two sides put up a position to fight. But Xianxuan was full of schemes: first, he first pinched soft persimmons and first stormed Chen Cai's servant army, the weakest in the Chu state, resulting in the rout of the right army of the Chu state; Secondly, after the State of Chu strengthened its offensive against the Shangjun and Chinese troops of the State of Jin, Xianxuan let the Shangjun of the State of Jin retreat slowly, and he himself ordered the army to drag branches and retreat at a gallop, in order to cover the battlefield and block the advance of the Chinese army of the State of Chu, and lure the left army of the State of Chu to go deeper; Third, when the Chu left army attacked the Jin army, it was suddenly attacked by the Jinzhong army and the upper army and was defeated. At this point, the left and right armies of the State of Chu were defeated, and Ziyu had to retreat.
Through the battle of Chengpu, we can see that Xianxuan broke the routine of the Spring and Autumn War, created a precedent of mobile use of troops on the battlefield, concentrated troops to attack the enemy, and created a treacherous method of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, avoiding the real attack on the weak, feigning retreat to lure the enemy, and breaking each one. Therefore, Sun Wu's soldier is not tired of deception is not the first initiative, but his summary of a series of wars in the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, to some extent, the battle of Chengpu is one of the sources of Sun Wu's thought, and Xianxuan is one of Sun Wu's teachers of the art of war.
If the Battle of Chengpu can be said to be an incomplete and deceitful use of troops, and there are still many traces of "Chongli", then the Battle of Xianxuan, commanded by Xianxuan, is a complete subversion.
After the death of Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mugong of Qin wanted to shake the position of the overlord of the Jin state, and even sent a soldier and horse to privately cross the border of the Jin state to raid the state of Zheng. But he didn't expect that when he was halfway there, he was discovered by the merchant Xian Gao of the Zheng Kingdom, so the Qin army changed his plan, destroyed the neighbor of the Jin state, and returned to China.
Xianxuan believed that the Qin state sent troops and entered without authorization to attack the neighbors with the same surname of the Jin state when the corpse of the Duke of Jin Wen was not cold, which was a provocation and shaking the hegemony of the Jin state, and a lesson must be given. Therefore, Xianxuan urgently mobilized, made the whole army dressed in black, and then ambushed the Qin army in the place of Xian (present-day southeast of Shaanxi County, Henan), capturing three commanders of the Qin state, one of whom was Meng Mingzhi, the son of Baili Xi, known in history as the "Battle of Xian".
From today's point of view, ambush warfare is the most common tactic, but before Xianxuan, there was no survival soil for ambush warfare, and there had never been ambush warfare, so the Battle of Xian was the first ambush battle in Chinese history, and it was the first and most significant representative of military trickery.
Through two wars, Xianxuan established the hegemony of the Jin state for more than 150 years, and after him, military deceit slowly became the mainstream, and by the late Spring and Autumn period, deceit had become widespread, and even Lao Tzu shouted "Abandon fraud and abandon hypocrisy" (Guodian Chujian Tao Te Ching).
However, as the first military genius who truly practiced the idea of "soldiers are not tired of deception" and whose actual achievements far exceeded Sun Wu's, the turning and revolutionary representative of China's art of war, who can be called the ancestor of the Chinese soldiers, did not get the historical status he deserved, and there was no separate biography for him in the "Shiji", there were only a few accounts of him in the "Zuo Chuan", and ancient and modern literati rarely mentioned him when discussing the "Sun Wu Art of War".
History is sometimes just, but history is also sometimes unjust.