Chapter 25 Han Xin's Way of Using Soldiers

Han Xin, who shouldered the task of the Northern Expedition, began to implement his own battle plan boldly. He passed all the way and approached Jingxing Pass, the west gate of Zhao State; fierce offensive.Liu Bang had no choice but to quickly transfer troops from Han Xin, leaving less than 30,000 recruits for Han Xin. Han Xin, who is known for using troops "the more the better", faced the 200,000 Zhao army at this time, and he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.You are the commander-in-chief of the northern front of the Han army, but he has 30,000 recruits who have never fought before.And this time when he attacked Zhao, Liu Bang didn't seem to have the intention of winning the battle-Xiang Yu forced him to jump the wall in a hurry, and almost died several times.This time Han Xin was sent to harass Zhao Guo, mostly to distract Xiang Yu's attention.

As Han Xin said later, commanding these new recruits was simply "fighting to drive people out of the city".Once the battle started, how to effectively organize and command the soldiers, how to stabilize and appease the morale of the army in a timely manner, and how to fully stimulate the morale became thorny problems that Han Xin had to think about. What's more, Zhao Guo, which Han Xin is about to face, is also preparing for the battle actively.Although the Zhao State at this time is no longer the overlord of the East during the period of King Zhao Wuling more than a hundred years ago, it is also a great state of princes in the world after the fall of Qin, and is the first prince to restore the country among the six kingdoms after Chu (Chen Sheng was the leader of the world at the time) At that time, you can only watch it restore the country).Zhang Han made Xiang Yu famous because he failed to defeat Zhao.

The strength of the state of Zhao far exceeds that of Wei and Dai, and its generals are by no means the mediocre people of the states of Wei and Dai.Zhao Wangxie and the coach Chen Yu mobilized 200,000 troops in a short period of time, assembled Jingxingkou, deep trenches and barriers, and waited for Han Xin to find trouble. The commander-in-chief of the Zhao army is Chen Yu, Cheng'an Lord who once joined forces with Zhang Erzhu and swept the princes of Yan and Zhao in Hebei. He is known as a sage and a political strategist. , defeated Li Liang, the rebel general of Zhao State.This time he will be playing against Han Xin, and Zhang Er happens to be in the enemy's camp.

In addition to the coach Chen Yu, Zhao Jun also has military talents. The first one to be promoted is the strategist Li Zuoche, who belongs to the army generals of Zhao Guo's elders. He is wise and brave. He has guarded Jingxing Pass for a long time. Afterwards, he became known as Lord Guangwu, and used his soldiers like a god, which was a legacy of Li Mu. Furthermore, the Han army had just suffered a setback in the middle-line battlefield at this time, and the weather was unfavorable; Han Xin's expedition to the mainland of Zhao State, people and peace are hard to find, and they will inevitably face many unfavorable situations such as fighting alone, losing popularity, and logistical supply difficulties.

In particular, the Taihang natural danger, Jingxing Pass, which stands in front of Han Xin's army, is firmly in the hands of Zhao Jun.For Han Xin, Zhao Jun's convenient location is the natural danger of the Han Army. The majestic Taihang Mountains, undulating for eight hundred miles from south to north, straddle the western edge of the land of Hebei. The mountains and mountains are endless and unreachable, forming a natural military barrier in the west of Zhao State.There are only eight disconnections in the eight hundred miles of Taihang. This kind of valley is called "Xing", and the east and west can be connected, which is called "Taihang Eight Xing".

Jingxing is not only a traffic fortress connecting Yan, Zhao, Jin, and Qin, but also a "life and death matter" of "one man guards the gate, and ten thousand men cannot open it" in military geography. Soul Valley, Life and Death and Vanity Fair. Qin general Wang Jian passed through the pass and destroyed Zhao; later, Tuoba Gui of the Northern Wei Dynasty broke through the pass and drove Zhongshan; Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi of the Tang Dynasty broke through the pass to encircle Changshan and attack Boling.The Battle of Gengzi in the late Qing Dynasty, the Battle of Jinfeng in the early Republic of China, and the Hundred Regiments Battle of the Eighth Route Army during the Anti-Japanese War all left bullet marks on the deep valley cliffs of Jingxing Pass.

Although the demise of the Dai Kingdom removed Han Xin's flank containment and threat from the north, Wucheng was still under the control of Zhao Guobie General Qi.If Han Xin advances eastward rashly, he will inevitably be flanked by General Qi from Wucheng. Regardless of the overall consideration of the entire Chu-Han War, or the crisis Han Xin faced, Han Xin has only one choice for this battle, and that is a quick decision.Protracted war and war of attrition are the taboos of the Han army's long-distance raids.If you don't fight, you must win the first battle, defeat the main force of Zhao State, and gain a firm foothold so that it can no longer pose a threat to the Han army.Otherwise, if Xiang Yu defeats Ying Bu, draws out his troops, and joins forces with Zhao Guo, Han Xin will be in a dangerous situation of being attacked from both sides.

The subsequent development of the war situation also fully confirmed this point. Shortly after Han Xin put down Zhao Guo, he was indeed attacked by Xiang Yu's surprise soldiers crossing the river. With the right time, favorable location, and harmonious people, what are the chances of the Han army winning?How should Han Xin judge the pros and cons?The war is imminent, how should the campaign be planned?Han Xin in front of Jingxing Pass frowned, reining in his horse and staring at the pass in deep thought. However, Han Xin deserves to be called Han Xin. In front of the mighty pass and the aggressive Zhao Jun, Han Xin did not disappoint Liu Bang, who was on all sides and had been defeated repeatedly, nor did he embarrass Xiao He, who was chasing and retaining him under the moon.Liu Bang deserved to set up an altar to worship generals for him, and Han Xin did not earn the false name of "Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty".

The ill-fated Han Xin understood that he was neither from a famous family nor from an official family, but his parents died since he was a child.Only by making contributions can one be successful.Han Xin can't forget that in his early years he was neglected by the wife of the pavilion chief, fed by his mother, and humiliated by the butcher.The previous scenes of shame have always been a lingering shadow in his heart, inspiring him to study hard, master the art of war, and aspire to stabilize the country and achieve great ambitions. Only by strategizing can we win a decisive victory thousands of miles away.Before the soldiers and horses moved, the storm of the battle was already rolling in Han Xin's mind, and the blueprint picture scroll of the battle began to slowly unfold in his chest.

Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be invincible in a hundred battles.The confidant Han Xin should first think of Zhang Er, the Changshan King specially sent to him by Liu Bang before the war; if he wants to know the enemy, Han Xin should think of Zhang Er.Although Sima Qian paid little attention to the intelligence and espionage warfare and Zhang Er's activities in this war, and although later generations praised Han Xin's miraculous and infinite array when he mentioned this eternal war, we can still know ourselves and our enemies from Han Xin To a thorough extent, it can be deduced that Zhang Er played an irreplaceable key role in this war.

Zhang Erben and Chen Yu are both colleagues and fellow villagers. They are both from Daliang, Wei State, and they have been close friends since they were in Daliang. As mentioned in the preface, since the Great Deer War, the two have been jealous and resentful of each other, and turned against each other.Chen Yu joined forces with Qi Wang Tianrong to defeat Zhang Er, and Zhang Er then defected to Liu Bang.After Chen Yu regained the land of Zhao, he welcomed Zhao Xie as the king of Zhao again. The two who used to be at the crossroads of death and death, now they are their masters again, gathered at Jingxing Pass, and met each other in arms.The country hates the private enmity, and both sides can't wait to put the other party to death immediately.This change from friendship to hatred, from love to hatred, not only made future generations lament, but also God helped Han Xin to eliminate Chen Yu and conquer Zhao. It was precisely because of Zhang Er's special identity and relationship that Han Xin was able to quickly learn that Li Zuoche's proposal of deep ditch and high fortification, a strong wall, a detour in the rear, seizing his supplies, cutting off his food roads, and waiting for an opportunity for a decisive battle It is a good strategy, the top military secret of Zhao Jun, which was rejected by Chen Yu on the grounds that "righteous soldiers don't need to use tricks and tricks". It is very likely that Han Xin was based on Zhang Er's intelligence and planning, so he came to the judgment that the Zhao army was dispatched and no one stayed behind in the old camp, so he dared to take a back-to-back formation, lead the Zhao army to a decisive battle in the plains, and send a small group of cavalry to attack The battle deployment of Zhao Jun's camp and flag-changing.We can even boldly speculate that Zhang Er might instigate some generals of the Zhao army and cooperate with Han Xin's 2,000 cavalry raiders. How could Chen Yu mobilize all his troops, the rear battalion was unguarded, and even a small group of 2,000 troops couldn't resist it?Looking at the fact that after Sun Kewang surrendered, Li Dingguo was in a dilemma, and the role of Zhang Er can be seen. Therefore, before the two armies fought against Han Xin and Chen Yu, due to the existence of Zhang Er, the balance of victory had been tilted to the Han army by more than half. As far as Zhao Jun is concerned, Guangwu Lord Li Zuoche's strategy of defending first and then attacking can be described as seamless, sophisticated and vicious, which hit the weakness of the Han army.He keenly and accurately judged that the Han army's "going to the country to fight far away" is bound to be "unstoppable"; it is bound to be difficult to transport grain and logistical supplies for thousands of miles. Xiang Chen Yu took the lead in deep ditches and high fortifications, without a strong wall, and used a surprise army to detour behind the Han army, seize its supplies, cut off its food roads, and put the Han army in the predicament of "no fight in front, no return", and then wait for an opportunity to fight decisively. Can win, otherwise, the two of them will be captured by Han Xin.In fact, this is similar to Han Xin's later implementation of the combat plan of standing up against the water and pulling out flags and changing banners. It's a pity that Li Zuoche was commanded by Chen Yu, a soldier of the Antique School who was known as a great Confucian and was born as a literati.In the face of the cruel war that never tires of deceit, another Song Xianggong is reborn, with the attitude of a gentleman, and also has the awe-inspiring righteousness of a politician. He regards himself as a benevolent and righteous teacher who resists aggression. Conspiracy. What's more, Han Xin's invading enemy, in his opinion, has already been extremely exhausted after running for thousands of miles; although it is said to be in the tens of thousands, it is actually only a few thousand mobs.There is a saying in the art of war: "Ten will encircle it, and twice it will fight." Relying on our own 200,000 mighty army, we will avoid and not attack this small group of invading enemies.What should we do if we encounter a strong enemy again?Wouldn't it make the princes of the world despise and laugh at him.Once this precedent is set, everyone will dare to bully Zhao Guo in the future! Chen Yu's weakness was extremely magnified and inflated at this time, and he was arrogant and underestimated the enemy. In his opinion, today's Han Xin was a soft persimmon in his hands, and he didn't pay attention to it at all.Consciously confident and capable, not only must we win this disproportionate battle, but we must also win it uprightly, justifiably, and beautifully! I don't know if this is the sorrow of a gentleman, or a curse to war and military strategists?War is so cruel and merciless, with no benevolence or righteousness at all, so that the true gentlemen and Confucians of later generations have gradually become rare animals.As a military strategist, Li Zuoche can only look up to the sky and sigh!And Han Xin, who is also a military strategist, must have secretly smiled when he found out this information, just like when Chen Yu saw him standing up against the water.Both sides are laughing at each other, but who can have the last laugh? In the past, Duke Xiang of Song met King Cheng of Chu in the Battle of Hongshui; Faro met Hannibal in Cannae in ancient Rome; The contemptuous and scheming expert-Han Xin met in Jingxing Pass, and a wonderful and cruel battle was inevitably on the verge of breaking out. Han Xin, who had already had a plan in his mind, did not go straight to Jingxing Pass to attack the city and pull out the stronghold. Instead, he sent General Cao Shen to capture Wucheng in one fell swoop, beheaded the other general Qi who was defending the city of Zhao State, and wiped out the left-wing threat of the Han army's eastward advance to Jingxing.Then lead the army to set up camp 30 miles away from Jingxing pass, and the whole army rests. In the middle of the night, the mountains and valleys in front of Jingxing Pass were as quiet as usual, and the Han army camp was solemn. Han Xin began his long-planned deployment of troops and formations. The first general order issued by Han Xin was to send two thousand light cavalry, each holding a red flag of the Han army, to take advantage of the night to quickly detour around the road to Baodu Mountain (northwest of Huolu today) to hide, spy on the Zhao army, and wait for the Zhao army to move out. When fighting the Han army, he immediately rushed into the Zhao camp, seized the barriers, pulled out the Zhao flag, and planted the Han army's red flags everywhere. Han Xin's second general order is: "Today breaks Zhao Huishi!" After the battle, everyone will have a big meal, which seems to be a routine pre-war mobilization order.Few of the soldiers of the Han army who were present at the time took it seriously, and everyone was more worried about whether they could still eat their usual meals.What puzzled the generals even more was Han Xin's third general order, sending 10,000 vanguard troops to face the enemy with their backs on the Mianman River and Jingxing River, cut off their retreat, and fight to the death with the Zhao army. It is clearly written in the military book that the principle of formation is "back to the mountains on the right, and facing the water on the left", but Han Xin did the opposite, and ordered them to line up with their backs, wouldn't they kill themselves!No one dared to think about today's big meal. But the military order was like a mountain, and in the vast night, Han Xin's various armies arrived at the designated positions silently, ready to fight.And Chen Yu and his Zhao Jun are now dreaming their sweet dreams in the gentle village inside the high base of their camp. In the morning light, Han Xin and Zhang Erdou put on their armor and led the remaining soldiers of the Han army. Flags and banners were unfurled, flags fluttering, and all the generals leaped on horses and raised their guns, and came straight to the Zhao army's camp.At this time, Chen Yu was calm and calm, still showing the demeanor of a Confucian. Seeing that the Han army was lining up against the water, Han Xin and Zhang Er actually came to fight in person with the flags and honor guards of the Han generals flying against the wind. Chen Yu couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, laughing at Han Xin who didn't understand the art of war, and cut himself off, and threw himself into the trap;If you don't fight now, when will you wait?Immediately ordered the entire Zhao army to attack and completely wiped out Han Xin's invading army.How did Chen Yu know that his move hit Han Xin's plan to lure the enemy out of the camp, and he automatically gave up the geographical advantage of the deep trench and barrier. In an instant, in the valley of Jingxing Pass, drums and horns sounded in unison, flags covered the sky, horses chirped and neighed, swords, guns and halberds clashed, soldiers fought and shouted, one after another, echoing in the long Jingxing Canyon, the torrent Riverside. It seems that just as Chen Yu expected, the Han army was really vulnerable. The two sides fought for less than an hour, and the Han army threw away their helmets and armor one by one.Han Xin and Zhang Er were also coerced by the rebels and fled.Chen Yu was overjoyed, he wiped out Han Xin, and the time to capture his enemy Zhang Er was at hand.He made the flag dance wildly, personally commanded and led the Zhao army to pursue it, trying to wipe out the Han army on the east bank of the Mianman River in one fell swoop. Han Xin was also secretly delighted, as expected, Chen Yu was bewildered by his trick of pretending to be defeated, and was lured into his long-planned backwater battle.Now Chen Yu and his Zhao Jun have thoroughly learned the mystery and power of Han Xin's backwater formation.In the war of the cold weapon era, the scientific and reasonable formation plays a vital role in the victory or defeat of the war.Arranging troops is a compulsory military course for every ancient general. The battle of Jingxing made Han Xin's backwater formation famous throughout the ages, which perfectly and truly reflected Han Xin's unusual formation skills and military knowledge.The military strategists of the past dynasties have all praised their miraculous words, so that there are countless imitators later, but there are very few who can really achieve the miraculous effect of Han Xin's Jingxing battle today. It's just a laughingstock.The mystery of the backwater formation lies not only in Han Xin's excellent intelligence and espionage work, but also in Han Xin's magical use of Jingxingguan military geography beyond ordinary people. There are two rivers at Jingxing Pass—Mianman River and Jingxingshui, one flowing north-south and the other flowing east-west. They meet at approximately right angles in front of Jingxing Pass. A flat area like a peninsula is naturally formed between the two rivers. Just facing the southeast direction where Zhao Jun's camp is located. The Zhao army has deep ditch barriers, condescending, high mountains and deep valleys, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If Zhao army is led to fight on the flat peninsula between two rivers, Zhao army will completely lose its absolute advantage in geographical location. This is the ideal battlefield that Han Xin dreamed of. location.That's why Han Xin exposed his identity as the commander-in-chief with great fanfare, luring the enemy's heavy troops down the mountain;Step by step, Zhao Jun got into the trap that Han Xin set for him-backwater formation. In fact, Han Xin's deliberate backing of the peninsula had deeper intentions.He not only showed his stupidity to Zhao Jun, but also lured the enemy to go deep.More importantly, put the recruits led by him like driving "city people" to death, so that these recruits with no combat experience and weak combat effectiveness have no way to retreat, nowhere to escape, and only a deadly battle can survive. . "Survive after falling into death, and survive after throwing yourself into death", this is what Han Xin said after the war. He simplified the war between princes and princes for world hegemony into an extremely simple philosophy of life-saving soldiers.This is the cruel reality of war, but it solved all the difficulties Han Xin had in commanding the recruits, and also made Han Xin the name of a famous general forever. At the same time, due to the existence of these two rivers, Han Xin's possible threats from the flanks and rear were virtually eliminated.In this way, the Han army, which was originally insufficient in strength, could deploy all the troops originally used for guarding the flanks and rear wings on frontal offense and defense.From the perspective of quantity, the absolute number of the Han army has not increased, but the number of troops that can be directly put into combat has increased relatively.More importantly, the Han army was able to mobilize 2,000 detour cavalry that decided the battle situation. Before the war started, Chen Yu had already lost to Han Xin twice in a row in terms of terrain utilization and formation of troops.In this way, in Han Xin's magical and ingenious transformation of geographical advantages, the combat effectiveness of the two sides has been subtly transformed into each other, and the balance of victory is tilted towards Han Xin again. Not long after Chen Yu sent out to pursue Han Xin and Zhang Er, he gradually and truly tasted the true power of Han Xin's back-water formation and back-water soldiers.In addition to the invincible combat power of the soldiers who are all desperate to die, everyone is tenacious and indestructible, Chen Yu's 200,000 troops are several times larger than Han Xin's. situation. Since the width of the front where the two sides can directly contact is very limited, the Zhao army, which is really directly involved in the battle and attack, is on par with the frontal defensive forces of the Han army.The vast majority of the remaining Zhao Jun can only do the work of cheering and cheering.This made Chen Yu's formula of "encircle with ten times, fight with times" completely ineffective. Due to the limitation of the two rivers, the Zhao army, which was in an absolutely superior force, could not form an actual encirclement circle against the Han army at all. This is another amazing mystery of Han Xin's backwater formation. Han Xin maximized the geographical advantage of the battlefield, making the two armies, which were originally outnumbered, reach a relative strength in the actual battle area of ​​the "Han Army Defense Line". balance. At this time, Chen Yu's passion and impulse to annihilate the Han army in one fell swoop were gradually overwhelmed by the stalemate in the melee that could not be attacked for a long time.That's the case for the coach, let alone the exhausted Zhao Jun soldiers who fought bloody battles on the front line!The morale of Zhao Jun, who was in an absolute advantage, was greatly frustrated.At this time, Chen Yu may have thought of the benefits of Li Zuoche not being able to stay out of the fortified wall and making a detour in the rear, so he decided to withdraw his troops and return to the camp, and then tried a good strategy to defeat the enemy. What he never expected was that after he dispatched all his troops, his empty and unprepared base camp was immediately attacked and occupied by the 2,000 light cavalry soldiers that Han Xin had planted on Baodu Mountain in advance.When he returned to his horse and looked at the old camp of the Zhao army that once belonged to him, there were red flags of the Han army everywhere, flying in the wind, covering the sky and blocking out the sun.He couldn't judge how many Han soldiers were there, his blood swelled suddenly, his eyes turned black, his horse stood still, and he was speechless for a long time. But his soldiers reacted faster than him, and immediately realized that they were surrounded by the Han army on both sides.The front could not break through the backwater formation, and the old nest in the rear was taken away again. The victory over the Han army was in vain, and the general situation was over.Suddenly the morale of the army was chaotic, and they fled in all directions. It can also be seen that the quality of Zhao Jun's soldiers is not much better than Han Xin's recruits, and they are not elite soldiers who have experienced battles.When Chen Yu came back to his senses and came to control and dispatch his army, it was too late, no matter how he killed the fleeing soldiers, it was useless.The army was defeated like a mountain, but his 200,000 army collapsed completely.Chen Yu himself had no choice but to flee for his life. This makes us praise the tenacious resistance of the backwater formation, but also marvel at the ingenuity of the surprise attack of changing the banner.It is a distinctive feature of Han Xinxin's soldiers that they use troops in a strange and correct manner, complementing each other. It is a pity that Chen Yu, who had always wanted to kill Zhang Er, was finally chased and killed by Zhang Er's colleague Zhang Cang on the banks of the Lishui (now Weihe River, Hebei Province), and Zhao Wangxie was also captured alive.In the second year, Zhang Er became the new king of Zhao. The once acquainted with each other ended up slicing the neck; Li Zuoche, who shouldn't have suffered such a defeat, was tied to Chen Yu's chariot, full of wisdom, doomed, and eventually Han Xin offered a reward of a thousand gold to capture him alive; For more than a hundred years, Zhao Xie, who has inherited the throne of Zhao King from generation to generation, was captured alive by the Han army in Xiangguo (now southwest of Xingtai, Hebei) after witnessing the final scene of Zhao's collapse.Zhao Guo has since been included in the territory of Han Wang Liu Bang. What is even more touching is that this last stand was not Han Xin's first and unique skill, but Xiang Yu, who broke the boat in the Battle of Julu not long ago.Judging from Han Xin's whereabouts, he should have served as a doctor in Xiang Yu's army at that time, and had personally participated in the Battle of Julu!Presumably, Han Xin has a deep understanding of the beauty of breaking the boat and sinking the boat, so he used it in time to learn and apply it in the Battle of Jingxing, which shows his intention and brilliance; while another Chen Yu, who also experienced the Battle of Julu himself, was insensitive to it. Without any vigilance, he ridiculed Han Xin for not knowing how to use troops, and dismissed it.The difference between the two military literacy can be seen from this.Chen Yu is so ignorant of progress, how can he be invincible! Han Xin himself summed up the reasons for his victory as: fall into a dead place and then survive, and put in a dead place to survive.This is undoubtedly a key to victory in this battle, but it is far from all. The real key is actually the classic phrase that everyone often talks about: Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles.And combined it skillfully and organically with the tactics of winning by surprise, with a certain degree of relaxation, and accurately grasping the rhythm of the battle, Han Xin composed this sonorous and brilliant victory symphony. The backwater battle does not lie in how mysterious it is, but in that Han Xin fully grasps the intelligence of the enemy and ourselves, clearly observes the geography of using troops, and prescribes the right medicine!Pulling out the flag and changing the flag does not lie in how tacitly and "philosophically" the cooperation between the strange soldiers and the regular soldiers, but in the fact that Han Xin has full confidence in taking out the enemy's camp!The victory of Jingxing is that not only one side has a "Hannibal" - Han Xin, but the other side also has a "Faro" - Chen Yu.