Tian Dan, a famous general of the State of Qi, pioneered the Fire Bull Array, restored the dying State of Qi from the iron hooves of Le Yi, and was appointed as the State of Xiangguo, and was later exchanged by the State of Zhao for fifty-seven cities, and assisted the State of Zhao in capturing the three cities of the State of Yan.
Tian Dan (tián dān) birth and death year unknown, concubine surname, Tian surname, list, Linzi people, Ren Qi capital Linzi Shi Tuan (minor official in charge of the market). When the State of Qi was in danger, Tian Dan insisted on Jimo, broke the Yan army with a fire bull array, recaptured more than seventy cities, and was appointed as xiangguo for his merits, and received the title of An Pingjun. Later, he went to the Zhao Kingdom as a general and was buried in Anping City after his death.
1. The State of Qi will be destroyed by Le Yi, leaving Tian Shan to hold the two cities for five years
In 286 BC, The King of Qi, Tian Di, did not listen to Su Qin's advice, insisting on sending an army to attack the Song State and anger the remaining six kingdoms, in 284 BC, the Five Kingdoms sent an army to attack Qi, Yu Jixi broke the Qi army, beheaded the Qi general Han Nie, the Yan general Le Yi sent troops to capture the Qi capital Linzi (northeast of present-day Zibo, Shandong), and then in half a year successively attacked more than seventy cities of the State of Qi, almost destroying the State of Qi, leaving only Ju County (present-day Ju County, Shandong) and Jimo (southeast of present-day Pingdu City, Shandong) and the isolated cities of the State of Qi. Tian Dan led his people to flee to Jimo with a tin guard shaft and was elected as the city guard. The entire army and people of Jimo city resisted led by Tian Dan, and the two sides fought for five years. Le Yi was unable to conquer for a long time, changed to the encirclement strategy, and stalemated for more than a year.
2. Tian Shan was ordered to be in danger, and his wives and concubines all went into battle, forcing Le Yi away with a counter-plot
Jimo, located in the rich Jiaodong, is a larger city in the State of Qi, with abundant materials and a large population, and has certain defensive conditions. Soon after Jimo was besieged, the defenders were killed in battle, and the military and civilians jointly promoted Tian Shan as a general. Tian Dan took advantage of the stalemate between the two armies to gather more than 7,000 soldiers and soldiers, rectify them, expand them, and build more fortifications and strengthen defenses. He shared weal and woe with the army and the people, and for thirty-six years, king of Zhou Zhao personally inspected the defense of the city; he made up wives and concubines and clansmen to join the army, and scattered food and drink for the soldiers, which won the trust of the military and the people.
While stabilizing the interior, Tian Dan, in order to get rid of the most difficult enemy, Le Yi, also sent people into the Yan Line to divide the plot, falsely claiming that Le Yi was called Attack Qi, and really wanted to call Wang QiGuo, deliberately slowing down the attack on Jimo, if the Yan State sent another general, Jimo would be able to fall. King Hui of Yan had originally complained that Le Yi had attacked Ji Mo Bu Ke for a long time, but sure enough, he was in the middle of the plan and sent a horse robber to replace Le Yi. Le Yi had no choice but to return to the Yan Kingdom, remembered the King of Yan, and switched to the Zhao Kingdom. The dangerous situation in the State of Qi has changed drastically.
3. Pretend to be a ghost, create the first fire bull array, burn the Qi army, and recover more than 70 lost cities
So Tian Dan ordered the people in the city that when each family ate, they must lay out meals in the courtyard to sacrifice their ancestors, and the birds were attracted to hover and peck over the city. The Yan people were surprised by this, so Tian Shan threatened to say, "This is a god who came down to teach me. So he commanded the people of the city, saying, "There will be people of God who will be my teachers." One soldier said, "Can I be a teacher?" So I turned around and ran. Tian Shan then got up, pulled the soldier back, and asked him to sit facing east and serve him with the attitude of a teacher. The soldier said, "I deceived you, I am really incompetent." Tian Shan said, "Don't say it's broken." So I took him as my teacher. Whenever an order was issued to restrain the military and the people, he threatened to say: "I am only afraid that the Yan army will cut off the noses of the captured Qi soldiers and put them in front of the Yan army to fight against the Qi army, and Jimo will be attacked because of this." The Yan people heard about it and did as Tian Dan spread.
The people in the city saw that the people who surrendered to the Yan army in the State of Qi had their noses cut off, and they were all angry and insisted on being captured alive. Tian Shan shi used a counter-plan: "I am afraid that the Yan army will dig up the graves outside our city and insult our ancestors, and I will feel sad about this." "The Yan army dug up all the graves and burned the dead bodies. When the Jimo people saw it from the city, they all wept and wept, gritted their teeth in hatred, and asked Tian Dan one after another, vowing to fight with the Yan army to the death.
When Tian Shan saw that the time was ripe for a counterattack, he gathered more than a thousand cattle, sharp blades, tails soaked in oiled reeds, and cloaked in multicolored dragon patterns, and one night, he ordered the oxtail reeds to be ignited, and the cattle ran wildly to the Yan camp from dozens of channels pre-dug from the foot of the city, followed by five thousand strong warriors, and the soldiers and civilians in the city beat drums and beat their percussions and shouted for encouragement. Yan Jun saw that there were knives on countless horns in the firelight, and the fiery monsters behind him rushed straight forward, panicked. The warriors of the Qi army rushed to kill, the soldiers and civilians in the city followed closely to assist in the battle, and the Yan army took the road to escape, trampled on each other, and was killed in the chaos. Tian Dan led his army to pursue with victory, and the people of the State of Qi also armed to assist in the battle, and soon expelled the Yan army from the country and recovered more than seventy cities in the lost land, which is the famous "Fire Bull Array" in history.
Thousands of years later, Lin Biao of the Ten Marshals also used the Fire Bull Array when he resisted the Japanese in Changsha, but failed, and the Fire Bull rushed to his own position.
Soon the Yan army was expelled from the country and more than 70 cities were lost. Subsequently, Yingfa Zhang returned to Linzi (林淄, in present-day northeast of Zibo, Shandong) and officially became the Prince of Qixiang, and Tian Shan was given the title of Prince of Anping.
4. The fifty-seven cities of the Zhao Kingdom exchanged fields for tiandan, and later generations sacrificed Anping Juntiandan
Tian Danhou was made a General of Zhao and was given the title of Capital Pingjun. Zhao Guo used three large cities plus some small villages and towns to give a total of fifty-seven to the State of Qi in exchange for Tian Dan, and Tian Dan captured three small cities of the Yan State for the State of Zhao.
Tian Dan's tomb is located about 700 meters southeast of the imperial city of Huangcheng.
In the third year of the Tang Dynasty (782), yan Zhenqing suggested to Tang Dezong that sixty-four famous ancient generals be posthumously named and a temple be set up for them, including "Anping JuntianDan".
In the fifth year of Xuanhe (1123) of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty set up temples for famous ancient generals in accordance with the tang dynasty customs, and the seventy-two famous generals also included Tian Dan.