The Battle of Righteousness

The military ability of Zu Ti, the hero of the Northern Expedition in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is not without controversy. Some people say that his record is nothing more than fighting against the dock owners south of the Yellow River, and he has never achieved a decent battle record against the post-Zhao Jieren Empire. Even the confrontation between Zu Ti and Shi Hu, the nephew of Schleswig-Holstein, was judged by many people to be the victory of Shi Hu and the defeat of Zu Ti in the second year of Taixing (A.D. 319) according to Yuan Di Ji and the Record of Schleswig-Holstein in the Book of Jin.

However, if we make a detailed resumption of this campaign, we will know that Zu Ti was in a difficult situation at that time, and his heroic courage in swinging the river and supporting the building alone in a crisis.

zhongzhou was devastated

After the scuffle of the Eight Kings Rebels and the looting and maiming by the Huns, Jie people and Wang Mi, the Henan area in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was devastated and the people died and dispersed. The only remaining people, based on the clan, formed large and small dock castles, relying on self-control.

The History of Jin Dynasty contains: Yongjia was in chaos, and there was a famine in the middle of summer. Guard Bao-bi doesn't make more than forty. There are only four or five thousand at most, and five hundred at least.

Mid-summer here refers to Henan, not the whole north. Even so, it is estimated that after years of melee, Henan, once a land with fertile land, abundant registered permanent residence and a population of up to 11 million, was greatly damaged as a place of four wars, and the population left after Yongjia Rebellion was less than one million.

By the time the Zulu Northern Expedition opened up, Schleswig had wiped out Liu Kun and Wang Jun in Hebei, basically pacifying Hebei. Hebei suffered a minor military disaster, with a population of several million under the control of Schleswig.

In the fourth year of Yongjia (311 years), Shile once conquered Wancheng and Xiangyang. In the fifth year of Yongjia (311 years), it crossed Mianshui to conquer Jiangxia, basically sweeping Hubei, annexing the armed refugees and gaining more strength. It was only in order to join forces with Xiongnu Liu to eliminate the remnants of Jin in Henan that it returned to conquer Xuchang.

In the battle of Ningping City in the fifth year of Yongjia (311 years), Schleswig and Wang Mi, the rebel leader who worked for the Xiongnu Liu, jointly annihilated tens of thousands of Jin troops led by Wang Yan, the commander of the Western Jin Dynasty, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians. After that, Schleswig washed the counties of Yuzhou and stationed troops in Gebei (now fifty miles northwest of Xincai County, Henan Province).

At that time, Si Marui, the king of Langya, occupied Jiangdong, but his rule over Jiangdong was still very weak. Schleswig-Holstein trained in Gebei to build a ship, but he planned to wipe out Jianghuai and conquer Jianye (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) in one fell swoop. Then he went to Shouchun to confront the Jin army, and sent general Zuo Fusu to lead looting troops across the Huaihe River to plunder Huainan and return to the Yangtze River.

Si Marui's army was led by Ji Zhan and other generals. In Shouchun, it confronted Jiejun. The Shile army found it difficult to cross the Huaihe River on a large scale and decided to withdraw. During this period, its nephew Shi Hu led 2,111 cavalry troops to be defeated by Ji Zhan, a general of Jin Dynasty, and Shile turned to run Hebei.

No troops were left to occupy Henan. First, Henan suffered too much damage and was sparsely populated, which was not conducive to being a base for the time being. Second, because most of the dock owners in Henan hate the brutal Hu people's army, relying on the solid dock to fight against the Jie army stubbornly, it will be difficult to calm down for a while. Therefore, Schleswig-Holstein concentrated his forces to destroy Hebei and remained loyal to the power of the Jin Dynasty. At the same time, he continued to send troops to plunder Henan and rob the material population.

Zu Ti went north

But when Zu Ti led an army of 2,111 men to the north, Schleswig had wiped out Wang Jun and Liu Kun, Zu Ti's close friend, and was about to launch a massive army in Henan, which was a crucial moment for both sides to race against time.

However, the Eastern Jin government was not only exhausted because it wanted to suppress Wu people's disobedience, but Wang Dun, who occupied Jingzhou, was also ambitious and plotted downstream, making it impossible to manage Henan.

When Zu Ti first arrived in Henan, his troops were inferior to those of many dock owners. Later, although he was supported by Huan Xuan sent by Wang Han, Wang Dun's brother (promoted by Si Marui and later served as Wang Han to join the army, with the dual background of Emperor Shi and Wang Langya) and Li Tou sent by Chen Chuan, the owner of Pengwu Fort, it was extremely limited. After a bitter defeat of Zhang Ping and Fan Ya, the owners of Dawu Fort, Zu Ti gained a firm foothold in Henan.

In the same year, the shrewd Jieren leader Schleswig realized that the threat of Zu Ti, who had imperial title, was not comparable to that of the dock owners who attacked and killed each other. He sent his nephew Shi Hu to attack Qiaocheng, the base of Zu Ti (now Bozhou City, Anhui Province), but was defeated by Zu Ti. Shi Hu heard that Huan Xuan had come to help, so he withdrew. Huan Xuan stayed to help Zu Ti, and later became a great star.

After the war in Qiaocheng, Si Marui, the king of Langya, wrote a letter saying, "Rebel against the thief Shile, wreak havoc on the river and the moon, and punish the calendar for a long time, wandering souls live in seclusion. Re-send the fierce party Shi Jilong, dogs and sheep, cross the Henan River, and poison them vertically. Zu Ti, the general of the day, was handsome and attacked, but he broke up in time. Today, nine armies, including the general and Wang Pou, were sent to ride, with 31,111 sharp casualties and four roads on land and water, to create a thief's field, which was severely punished. There are those who can be the first to win the championship. Reward three thousand silks, fifty catties of gold, seal the county, and eat two thousand households in the city. "Besides, the thief gang can send Ji Long's head, and the reward will be the same.

Although Si Marui's promise of 31,111 reinforcements was only a verbal claim, it did not come; However, from the tone of the imperial edict, it can be seen that in the battle of Qiaocheng, Zu Ti defeated the elite Jiejun army led by Shi Hu in the plain, and the results were not cheap, which was of great exciting significance.

Chen Chuan, the owner of Pengwu Castle, is one of the leaders of the begging army, and his army is very effective. However, because his ministry praised Zu Ti for Li Tou, Chen Chuan killed Li Tou crazily, sent Wei Shuo to plunder Yuzhou counties, and was defeated by Wei Ce sent by Zu Ti. Since then, Chen Chuan has taken refuge in Jiezu Schleswig. Zu Ti sent troops to conquer Chen Chuan, which triggered the subsequent battle of Jun Yi.

Junyi besieged the city

Chen Chuan turned to Shile, Hebei Province for help, and Shile sent his nephew Shi Hu to lead the troops, with a strength of as much as 51,111, showing the huge national strength gap between the two sides.

Chen Chuan's stronghold, Pengbeiwu, is located in Junyi, that is, Kaifeng City, Henan Province. The battle of Junyi was Zu Ti's undoubted defeat, which is not only due to the record that "Zu Ti, the general of Pingbei, and Shile fought Shi Jilong in Junyi, and Julian Waghann was defeated" and "Zu Ti, the general of Pingxi, attacked Chen Chuan in Pengguan, and Shi Jilong saved Sichuan and retreated to the state of Liang" in Records of Shile in Jin Shu, but also because Pengpi dock was still there.

after Zu Ti's defeat, he retreated to Huainan (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province). In November, Schleswig-Holstein became the King of Zhao (known as Hou Zhao in history). In June of the following year, Shi Hu sent Taobao, stationed troops in the west platform, and went in and out from the south gate, while Zu Ti sent Han Qian, who went in and out from the east gate. The two armies were deadlocked for 41 days. Zu Ti tricked the post-Zhao army into thinking that the Jin army had enough food and was afraid of the army; At the same time, Han Qian, Raoul David Findeisen and other departments were sent to intercept the logistics forces of Zhao after Bianshui, and the supply of Taobao was cut off and could not be held, so they retreated to East Yancheng (now northeast of Yanjin, Henan).

Zu Ti immediately ordered Han Qian's department to enter Tun Fengqiu (now in Henan), and Feng Tie's department to enter No.2, and he unified his troops to guard Yongqiu (now in Qixian, Henan), and repeatedly sent troops to intercept the post-Zhao army. Many towns in post-Zhao rebelled against Zhao and returned to Jin.

From Schleswig-Holstein until Zu Ti's death, we never dared to send large-scale troops into Henan. Judging from this, the victory of the Battle of Liang was enough to make the Jie people win the air. Although Shi Hu was defeated by Ji Zhan in his early years, he later became the number one fighter under Schleswig. Zu Ti defeated him twice with fewer victories, and the gold content should not be underestimated.

Therefore, Zu Ti was able to expel the Taobao stationed in Pengbeiwu, and wipe out the stronghold of Jie people south of the Yellow River, which made Shile afraid to spy on Henan easily. With very little resources, we can compete with the poor people in Henan. The difficult situation in Zu Ti and the majestic action are enough to get considerable affirmation.