introduction
In the battle of Kunyang, Wang Mang's 420,000 army, driving the tiger, leopard and rhino elephant to help, why did he lose to Liu Xiu's 18,000 green forest army? In the battle of Jingjian, what did Ming Chengzu rely on to turn things around?
For war, the ancients have a deep opinion, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" once said: "Go to the army to fell, then fell, then fell, and then attack the city", that is, the most clever war is to win with strategy, without spending a single soldier; The second is the use of diplomacy, again the defeat of enemy soldiers by force, and the second is the siege of the city.
Once an armed war begins, various uncertainties will affect the final outcome of the war. In ancient and modern times, in China and abroad, there are some wars in which the victory and defeat are completely unexpected, as if there is a divine hand in the underworld, turning things around at a critical moment.
The battle of Kunyang was aided by heavy rain
The "Battle of Kunyang", which took place 2,000 years ago and after Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, is one of the famous battles in the history of ancient Chinese warfare in which fewer victories were won. It is also one of the most disparate wars in Chinese history.
On one side was the main army of the new dynasty established by Wang Mang, and the commander Wang Yi led 420,000 troops. Among them, there is also a capable person called "Ju Wuba". History records that he was a giant, about 2 meters 3 tall, and he could also drive tigers, leopards, rhinos, elephants and other beasts to fight. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that such a large army was "prosperous from the Qin and Han dynasties, and has never tasted it."
On the other side is the Green Forest Army led by Liu Xiu and others, with only 18,000 troops. In fact, when the war began, there were only 10,000 people, and the other 8,000 were later reinforcements.
Wang Yi initially led his army to Nanyang County to suppress the rebellion, passing through Kunyang, seeing that this place was small and had few soldiers, so he decided to take it first.
When the Green Forest Army stationed in Kunyang at that time saw this situation, most of them panicked and prepared to pack up their baggage and flee for their lives. At this time, Liu Xiu, a general who was too often biased, stood up and advised everyone: "There is still a possibility of victory if everyone works together to resist the enemy, and if you scatter and retreat, the enemy will be killed later, and it will be difficult for everyone to preserve." In the end, everyone decided to stick to Kunyang, and Liu Xiu and a dozen others broke out of the city to find helpers.
Don't look at the fact that although Kunyang City is small, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Wang Yi's army has thought of many ways to attack the city, but it has never been able to break the city. A few days later, Liu Xiu came with reinforcements, but there were only a few thousand people, and only 1,000 forwards who rushed back first. In order to boost morale, Liu Xiu took these 1,000 people to storm the enemy camp. Wang Yi looked at it, how many people are you, quite light on the enemy, casually sent thousands of people to fight, but was defeated by Liu Xiu, Liu Xiu chased after the victory, and the soldiers in Kunyang City saw that reinforcements had arrived, and also rushed out of the city to attack the enemy.
Just as the two sides were fighting fiercely, a torrential rain suddenly came. For a while, lightning and thunder roared, and heavy rain was like a note. Where have the fierce beasts raised by giant bullies, such as tigers, leopards, rhinos, elephants, etc., seen such earth-shattering scenes, and one by one they began to run around without obeying the command. As a result, due to this torrential rain. The sergeants led by Wang Yi fell into the water and drowned, were bitten and trampled to death by fierce beasts, and killed and trampled to death by killing each other.
When Wang Yi finally fled back to the capital Luoyang, only a few thousand of the hundreds of thousands of troops remained. Liu Xiu also established prestige because of this battle, laying the foundation for later becoming the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It has to be said that if it were not for this timely rainstorm, the trajectory of history would not have been like this.
The Battle of Jingjian was a stormy battle
And another battle that made posterity feel that "the will of God is difficult to violate" is the "Battle of Jingjian". During this period, several major battles were helped by "Fengbo".
First, let's talk about the Battle of Baigou River. In April 1400, Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty sent the general Li Jinglong to lead an army of 600,000 people, known as a million-strong army, to the Baigou River and attack Beiping, where the palace of Zhu Di the King of Yan was located. Zhu Di's side responded with an army of 100,000 horses.
In the first engagement, King Yan's army was ambushed by Ping'an, the vanguard of Emperor Jianwen's army, at Sujiaqiao, and King Yan's army suffered heavy casualties and had to lead the army to retreat. The next day, Zhu Di personally led his army across the river to fight and led his army to defeat the rear flank of the Yan army commanded by Fang Kuan. On Zhu Di's side, several charges were not captured, so Zhu Di led thousands of elite people to brave the rain of arrows to break into the formation, killing and wounding many soldiers of Emperor Jianwen's army. However, Emperor Jianwen's general Li Jinglong suddenly swung his division around the back of the Yan army and carried out a front and rear attack.
At this time, the battle situation was very unfavorable for Zhu Di, in order to escape the pinch, he had changed three horses in a row, and the arrows in the quiver had already been shot, and he could only fight with the sword that was missing the blade. Seeing that Zhu Di was about to be captured, and the Battle of Jing was about to end, suddenly, something unexpected happened to everyone.
According to the "History of Ming", "there would be a whirlwind, the banner of Jinglong, and the king would take advantage of the wind to set fire to the fire, beheading tens of thousands, and drowning more than 100,000 people." That is to say, at this time, a whirlwind rose flat, and it happened to break Li Jinglong's general flag. This was a great omen, Li Jinglong's soldiers suddenly lost their heart, and at this time, Zhu Di and others took the opportunity to set fire to it and launch a fierce attack. Emperor Jianwen's army then collapsed, with countless casualties. Zhu Di won more with less, so as to reverse the situation and turn defense into attack.
If such a thing happened once, maybe we can say that it is a coincidence, but the heavens seem to be to prove support for Zhu Di. So in March of the following year, he issued two more threats.
At that time, the Yan army led by Zhu Di and Emperor Jianwen's general Sheng Yong fought at Jiahe. The situation on the first day was unfavorable for the Yan army, and the Yan general Tan Yuan was killed in battle. The next day, Zhu Di's whole army fought again, and the two sides fought from morning to noon without distinction. At this moment, a northeast wind suddenly blew, the wind was too great, the two armies were close but could not see each other clearly, the Yan army roared to attack by the wind, and the Sheng Yong army was defeated, so they had to temporarily retreat. A few days later, the two armies met again in Yancheng, Sheng Yong's army was arrayed in the southwest, the Yan army attacked from all sides, and Zhu Di led his elite to attack its northeast corner, at which time the Fengshen came to help again. The history books say that "the wind will rise, the house will uproot the tree, and the Yan army will take advantage of it", so Sheng Yong's army was defeated, and Zhu Di took advantage of the victory to pursue and beheaded more than 60,000 people. Zhu Di's Yan army was helped in the three great battles of Baigou River, Jiahe and Yancheng, and even Zhu Di himself was deeply fortunate, he believed: "This heavenly gift is not manpower."
Yingzhou Dajie fog rescue
Speaking of which, there was also a laughable war in the Ming Dynasty. It was the Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao who named himself the "mighty general" who secretly left the palace and arrived at the border pass, and fought a battle with the Mongols without preparation, and Zhu Houzhao, who knew nothing about military affairs, actually won. What's going on?
According to the "Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming", in August of the twelfth year of Zhengde (1517 AD), "Shangfu night went out of the Desheng Gate and tended to be mediocre". That is to say, an emperor actually took advantage of the night to sneak out of the palace and run to the border town of Xuanfu. Wang Xun, the commander-in-chief of Datong, suddenly received a letter to the effect that he should be faithful to his duties, train his troops well, and not betray the emperor's trust in him, and paid him "the general of the military affairs of the governor and the mighty general."
This letter made Wang Xun confused, he has been an official for many years, and he still does not know that the military department has this official position, whose letter is this. It wasn't until Zhu Hou revealed his identity that he knew that it was the emperor.
However, at this time, there was intelligence that the little prince of the Mongol Tatar tribe, Boyanmeng, could lead an army to attack, with a strong force of about 50,000 people. This is a bad thing for Wang Xun, why?
Everyone thought, without any notice, suddenly the emperor came. Coincidentally, the little Mongol prince Boyanmeng came without saying hello, and brought 50,000 troops, and his own defenders here were 20,000. This is also to say, as long as the emperor hurriedly returns to Beijing to avoid danger and stays here to die, even if the shroud of Mag is doing his duty as a courtier. However, the emperor just refused to leave. If you refuse to leave, it's just that, hurry up and wait for it. However, the emperor spoke: Taizu and Chengzu are so heroic, they themselves shed their blood, they should also be very talented in military affairs, what to keep, give me an attack.
The king's fate was difficult to violate, and Wang Xun had to lead his troops to attack. The tactics of the Ming army confused the battle-hardened Mongol prince, who felt that the Ming army either had far more troops than himself, or there were reinforcements nearby, otherwise this battle would not be fought like this. Thinking about it like this, the little prince was a little timid and shrunk.
On the second day, just after the formation was formed, suddenly there was a super fog in the sky, so large that no one could be seen from five meters away. The third day was still foggy.
Finally, when the clouds cleared, the Mongol prince found that the Ming army had already taken the opportunity to sneak back into the city. The little prince lost patience and ordered an attack on the city, but before they reached the city, the Ming army actually opened the city gate and rushed out, catching them off guard again. It turned out that the nearby Ming army had received an order from the emperor and had come to reinforce one after another.
In the end, Zhu Houzhao also rushed to the battlefield to take the lead, fighting hard to kill the enemy, and slashing one person. The whole army worked together and finally succeeded in repelling the little Mongol prince.
Speaking of which, although the credit cannot all be credited to the fog, if there is no fog to help and buy time for the Ming army, the final result may really be certain. This fog can also be regarded as fulfilling the title of "mighty general" of Ming Wuzong.
Magical prayers
In fact, not only in ancient China, but also in modern Western wars, there have been such miraculous battles, the most famous being the breakthrough battle of Yaldin experienced by American General Patton.
In the winter of 1944, it was the most difficult period for the US military during World War II. Although Nazi Germany was on the verge of defeat, the U.S. military was facing its toughest winter in decades on the continent.
In December, Hitler gathered 30 divisions in a last-ditch attempt to launch the Battle of the Bulge. The US 101st Airborne Division, stationed at the key communication point, was surrounded by German troops in Basten in France and was in danger.
Therefore, General Patton led the Third Army to Basten to rescue the 101st Airborne Division. The Basten region was shrouded in fog and snow, and the Allies were unable to provide any air fire support.
Seeing that the military situation was urgent, General Patton turned to God. He asked O'Neill, the chaplain of the army, to write a prayer and ordered that the prayer be made into cards and distributed to all 250,000 officers and soldiers.
Each person had a card with the famous "Patton Prayer" written on it: Almighty and merciful Father, we humbly implore you to temper this bad weather and give us the good weather we need to fight. Please listen to the call of our soldiers, and with your divine power, help us to achieve continuous victory, smash the oppression of evil enemies, and bring justice to you on earth and in all nations.
Patton asked all officers and soldiers to concentrate on prayer at critical moments, saying, "We must come together to look to God and seek the Lord's help with all our strength."
However, on the eve of the departure of the Third Army, it was still snowing. Kneeling humbly in the street and praying to God alone, General Patton finally said, "Lord! I've never been an unreasonable person, I'm not asking for you, I'm not even asking for miracles, all I ask is four sunny days."
At dawn, a miracle happened! The snow stopped and the next six days were sunny and sunny. So the Third Army successfully moved north and rescued the 101st Airborne Division trapped in the Basten area. "Barton's Prayer" also became a miracle all over the world.
After the war, the media continued to praise Patton's bravery, but Patton was not greedy for heaven's achievements, he said: "This is God helping me to complete my mission, I personally insignificant."
epilogue
Today we only know the contours of ancient wars from the history books, and we cannot know the real details of the war. And after all, history books are things that revise the history of the former dynasty, serve the current dynasty, publicize the evil of the previous dynasty, and exaggerate the beauty of the present dynasty, which is not uncommon in the twenty-fourth history.
It is undeniable that war is a particularly complex matter, and winning more with less is only a special case when cold weapons, and most of the time the side with more people prevails. It can be seen that whether as a general, a company owner, or an individual, you can only give full play to your own advantages. It is possible to be invincible.
Well, you still know which wars are won with less, welcome to comment and let me know.