The battle of people slaughtering Bai to become famous skillfully used the tactics of suspicious soldiers to completely annihilate the Han and Wei coalition forces
During the Warring States Period, the Qin state was greatly strengthened by the Shang Dynasty reform, and under the leadership of King Qin Zhao, it was no longer limited to the west of Hangu Pass, but actively expanded eastward. When Qi and Wei were defeated by Meng Weijun's defection, Qin seized the opportunity to repair relations with Qi, triggering a war to annex the Six Kingdoms, while Qin repeatedly attacked Han and Wei.
Background of the war The Qin state attacked Han Wei and was attacked by the Han and Wei coalition forces.
In the nineteenth year of King Zhou (296 BC), King Xiang of Wei and King Xiang of Han died one after another. King Zhaoxiang of Qin took advantage of the turbulent situation in Korea and Wei and began to actively prepare to attack Wei and Korea.
In the twentieth year of King Zhou (295 BC), Qin sent troops to attack Wei and captured the city of Xiangcheng of Wei.
In the twenty-first year of King Zhou (294 BC), King Zhaoxiang of Chu divided his troops to attack Korea, with Xiang Shou, the general of Chu, leading his troops to attack Wushi, and Bai Qi, the general of Zuo, leading his troops to attack Xincheng.
Unable to defeat the Qin army, Korea hurriedly sent envoys to Wei for help. Since Wei was already an ally of Korea and faced a common enemy, Qin, King Zhao of Wei immediately ordered the general Gongsun Xi (Zihui) to lead the Wei army to help in the battle.
As a result, Wei and Han sent troops to pursue each other, and the king of Su also sent troops to respond, so about 240,000 allied soldiers went to the front. At the same time, King Zhaoxiang of Qin, at the suggestion of Prime Minister Wei Ran, promoted Bai Qi to Zuo Prime Minister, replacing Xiang Shou as a general, and led 120,000 Qin troops to resist the coalition army. The Battle of Yiqu broke out.
After the war, the Han and Wei armies abandoned the defense, and Bai used a suspicious strategy.
In the twenty-second year of the reign of King Yu of Zhou (293 BC), Bai Qi led 120,000 Qin troops to fight against the 240,000 combined forces of Wei, Han, and Eastern Zhou led by the Wei general Gongsun Xi at Yique (present-day Longmenzhuang, Luoyang City, Henan Province).
The reason why it is called"Easy to bend"It is because the two mountains face each other, shaped like a gate, and the Yishui River flows through the center from south to north. As shown in the map above, the terrain is extremely dangerous (for ease of understanding, I marked the 200-meter contour line in black), and the canyon is a narrow canyon formed by deepening the river bed and washing the river between the two mountains when Dayu controlled the water.
At that time, the coalition forces were mainly Han and Wei armies, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty basically played soy sauce. Although the strength of Wei at this moment is weaker than that of the early stage of the belligerents, but"Emaciated camels are bigger than horses"Compared with South Korea, Wei has an advantage in both strength and combat effectiveness, while the Han ** team is relatively weak.
He wrote in "Warring States Policy":"Han Lone went deep and didn't want to use his people first. The Wei army supported the Korean army and hoped to be at the forefront. The Korean general Storm Kite wanted the more powerful Wei army to be the vanguard, but the Wei general Gongsun Xi felt that the crossbows, armor, shields, bronze helmets, and iron curtains of the Han ** team could not be compared with them in terms of strength, so he wanted the Han ** team to be the vanguard.
I have to say that the strength of the Qin State is not without reason, and his intelligence work is indeed outstanding. Bai Qi soon learned of the clash between the generals of the Han and Wei armies, so he stood on the gentle slope of Yique, observed the situation of the Han and Wei armies, and began to make plans when he found that the Han army was in front and the Wei army was next to and behind the Han army.
In view of the deployment of the coalition forces, Bai Qi decisively took advantage of the fact that there were fewer suspicious soldiers and planted more flags and ribbons in front of the battle, creating the false impression that he was about to attack the South Korean army. On the other hand, the main force of the Qin army bypassed the rear of the coalition army and suddenly attacked the Wei army, which was caught off guard and rushed into battle, and the formation was completely dispersed, so it could only fight alone.
Seeing this, the Wei general Gongsun was happy and immediately sent someone to invite the Han army to come to help. However, the Korean general Storm Kite, thinking that he was facing the main force of the Qin army, replied:"We are also battered and too busy to take care of ourselves, so how can we have the strength to go to reinforcements? "
The Wei army was inferior to the Qin army, and without reinforcements from the Han army, it was soon defeated. Only then did General Han realize that he had been deceived, but it was too late. But it was too late. The flanks of the Wei army were completely exposed, and not only were they indecisive, but before they could react, they were attacked by the Qin army in front and back. The South Korean army immediately fled.
In the Battle of Yiqu, the 120,000 Qin army led by Bai Qi annihilated the 240,000 troops of the combined forces of Han, Wei, and Eastern Zhou, killed the Wei general Gongsun Xi, and captured five cities including Yiqu. In this battle, the name of the six powerful countries of Bai Qi went down in history for the first time.
From the twenty-fourth year of King Zhou (291 B.C.) to the twenty-sixth year of King Zhou (289 B.C.), the doors of Han and Wei were opened. The Qin army successively captured the three counties of Wanyan, Ye, and Deng in Korea, and Yi, Han Yong, Puhan, Pi, and Hannei in Wei, and swept away the obstacles to the eastward advance of the Qin army.