Chapter 30 7. Deployed skillfully, Zhao Jun was defeated in the Battle of Jingxing

The third year of the Han Dynasty (204 BC) was the most intense year of fighting between Chu and Han.This year, Chu and Han have been in a state of see-saw, and large and small battles have taken place. On the surface, it seems that no one has taken advantage of it, but a very important figure who has risen in the Han army camp cannot be ignored. He is Han Xin. Since Liu Bang returned to Guanzhong from the remote Hanzhong, Han Xin has made great military exploits for Liu Bang.Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang in Pengcheng, and many princes turned their backs to Chu, which caused a huge crisis for Liu Bang. At this time, the Han army formulated a strategic policy of sticking to the front, developing on the flanks, and harassing the enemy's rear.Among them, the "flank development" is to let the general Han Xin lead the army to open up the northern battlefield, annihilate the separatist forces north of the Yellow River one by one, and develop to the side of the Chu army. This is one of the important links of this strategic plan.Han Xin lived up to everyone's expectations, and first led his army to destroy Wei Wangbao and pacify Weidi.The three separatist forces of Dai, Zhao and Yan on the north bank of the Yellow River took refuge in Chu State and became Chu's wings.Han Xin's next task is to pacify these vassal states and keep Xiang Yu isolated.

In October, Han Xin had just pacified Dai, captured Dai's prime minister alive, incorporated Dai's army, collected all the gold, silver and jewels gathered in Dai, and gained a lot.But at this time Xingyang was in the midst of life and death.With Liu Bang's order, Han Xin's elite soldiers and generals, as well as food and grass accompanying the army, were transferred away, and Han Xin became a "commander with a polished pole".It is a bit unreasonable for Liu Bang to let Han Xin fight without giving Han Xin soldiers, but it can also be seen from this that Liu Bang has absolute trust in Han Xin's ability.

Han Xin was not annoyed by the loss of elite soldiers, and recruited 30,000 new recruits. Together with Zhang Erbu sent by Liu Bang, he crossed the Taihang Mountains and marched eastward, preparing to attack Zhao Guo.After Zhao Wangxie and Zhao Jun's coach Chen Yu heard the news, they assembled an army of 200,000 at Jingxingkou to defend. Liu Bang has no doubts in Han Xin's ability, and Han Xin is quite conceited, but for him, this battle is not so sure.Han Xin carefully analyzed the strategic situation of the two armies: Jingxingkou is one of the eight famous passes in the Taihang Mountains. To the west of it, there is a narrow post road about tens of kilometers long, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is not conducive to the movement of large troops; Guarding at Jingxingkou, condescending, waiting for work at ease, and having a strong force, he is in an advantageous and active position; Han Xin has only tens of thousands of people, and they are all recruits with little combat experience. Passive position...

From all aspects, the Han army is at a disadvantage, and some officers under him couldn't help but mutter: "How should we fight this battle?" Zhao Jun, in order to get more military information.The two armies are temporarily in a state of calm confrontation. Sure enough, within a few days, the spies sent out brought some very favorable news for Han Xin. It turned out that Zhao Jun's coach Chen Yu had a strategist named Li Zuoche under his command, who was very strategic. He carefully analyzed the situation at that time to Chen Yu: Han Xin crossed the Yellow River and destroyed Wei and Dai. In the country, the morale is strong, "its front is unstoppable", so the Zhao army has to temporarily avoid the edge of the Han army.However, the rations of the Han army had to be transported thousands of miles away, and it was difficult to supply them; the road at Jingxingkou was narrow, and vehicles and horses could not run side by side, so the transportation of rations and grass for the Han army would not be smooth.In view of this analysis, Li Zuoche further suggested to Chen Yu that he should lead a surprise army of 30,000 troops to attack from the trail to capture the supplies of the Han army and cut off Han Xin's food road; Fortress, the wall does not fight, and Han Xin's army is in a stalemate.Li Zuoche believed that as long as he used this strategy, Han Xin would be unable to fight and had no way to retreat. Within ten days, the Han army could be completely wiped out.Otherwise, the Zhao army would definitely be defeated by the Han army.

Hearing this, Zhang Er yelled "It's dangerous", if Li Zuoche's plan is followed, the consequences will be disastrous.Han Xin remained silent and asked the spies to continue talking. But Chen Yu is unusually headstrong, pedantic and ridiculous. He believes that "the righteous soldiers don't need to use tricks and tricks" to die, and believes that Han Xin's soldiers are few and tired, so they should avoid attacking, and categorically refused to adopt Li Zuoche's combat plan. . This news made Han Xin very happy: first, the coach of Zhao Jun turned out to be a mess; second, he can implement his plan.After contemplating for a few days, Han Xin finally started talking and laughing with his subordinates. Anyone who is familiar with Han Xin knows that Han Xin is "sure about this battle".

On the second day, he ordered his troops to set up a camp 30 miles away from Jingxingkou, and immediately summoned his generals to make a strategic plan to win by surprise.When the night fell, the Han army prepared their troops and horses, and the atmosphere was tense, waiting for the action order.In the middle of the night, when everything was silent and the night was hazy, Han Xin gave an order: divide the troops into three groups.Two thousand light cavalry, each holding a red battle flag of the Han army, detoured from a remote path to Baoduzhai Mountain on the flank of the Zhao army's camp and lurked, preparing to take the opportunity to attack the Zhao army's camp and break the enemy's way back; 10,000 people were the vanguard. Taking advantage of the dead of night and Zhao Jun's deep sleep, they crossed the mouth of Jingxing and formed an array on the east bank of Mianmanshui with their backs against the river, in order to confuse and mobilize Zhao Jun. All the remaining soldiers were led by Han Xin and obeyed the command. .After the deployment is over, the soldiers and horses of the three routes are in their positions, the east is gradually showing its belly, and the day of the decisive battle is quietly approaching.

Zhao Jun was unaware of the lurking Han army. Chen Yu saw the Han army lined up in front of the formation, and there was no way to retreat. He couldn't help but chuckled in his heart: "It is said that Han Xin is the most strange man in the world, I can't see it... ..." Thinking that he didn't understand the common sense of using troops at all, he despised the Han army even more.Chen Yu's underestimation and carelessness are the weaknesses that Han Xin took advantage of. After daybreak, Han Xin personally led the Han army, under the flag of the general of the Han army, and forced the Zhao army to the east of Jingxingkou.Seeing this, Chen Yu was smug and determined to win the world's first miracle, so he left the camp to face the battle without hesitation.The two armies met with spears and spears, and after fighting for a while, Han Xin pretended to be defeated, ordered his subordinates to throw away the flags, drums, and ceremonial guards, and retreated towards the Mianmanshui, and quickly joined up with the troops that had lined up there beforehand.This posture confused Zhao Wangxie and Chen Yu. They mistakenly thought that the Han army had really lost the battle, so they swamped their troops in pursuit and attacked the backwater formation with all their strength, trying to wipe out the Han army in one fell swoop.

The soldiers of the Han army who were fighting to the death saw that there was a strong enemy in front of them, and there was water in the back, and there was no way to retreat, so everyone fought to the death and desperately.Although Zhao Jun had an absolute advantage in numbers, he didn't get any benefit.At this time, the two thousand light cavalry of the Han army ambushing on the flanks of the Zhao army's camp took advantage of the empty and unprepared Zhao army's camp, and suddenly attacked and occupied Zhao's camp.They quickly pulled down the flag of the Zhao army and planted the battle flag of the Han army. For a while, there were many red flags, waving in the wind, very majestic.

Zhao Jun had been attacking backwaters for a long time, so Chen Yu had no choice but to order his troops to retreat. Looking back at the camp, he was startled, and quickly asked his left and right: "Why are the barracks full of red flags?" His subordinates came to report after a while: "The Han army has occupied the big camp. Battalion!" When Chen Yu heard this, beads of sweat dripped down, and then he realized that he really underestimated Han Xin, and ordered to fight back immediately.But most of the Zhao troops found that their camp was full of red battle flags of the Han army, and their old nest had changed hands. They were panicked and panicked, and they fled one after another without listening to Chen Yu's command.

The Qingqi of the Han army occupying the camp of the Zhao army saw that the Zhao army was in disarray, and immediately took the opportunity to attack and cut off the return route of the Zhao army from the side; while Han Xin commanded the main force of the Han army to launch a counterattack across the board.The Zhao army retreated in the direction of Lishui in a panic, but was overtaken by the Han army, and they were all wiped out.Chen Yu was killed, and Zhao Wangxie and Li Zuoche were captured without a fight. The battle of Jingxing came to an end with Han Xin's complete victory and the destruction of Zhao in one fell swoop.Han Xin destroyed 200,000 with 30,000, creating a miracle in the history of Chinese military affairs. Han Xin "megatronically shocked the world" all at once.At that time, Yan Guo was terrified when he heard the news, and handed in a letter of surrender to Liu Bang, expressing his surrender.

The outcome of the Battle of Jingxing is of great significance to the entire process of the Chu-Han War.The victory of the Han army made it gradually gain an advantage in the overall strategy, that is, it eliminated the most powerful opponent on the northern battlefield, creating a favorable situation for isolating Xiang Yu. In the Battle of Jingxing, the gains and losses of the two sides in combat command were obvious.The key to Han Xin's victory in battle lies in his ability to give full play to his subjective initiative, make and use the mistakes of the Zhao army in a planned way, skillfully use the soldiers' psychology, line up against the water, use troops flexibly, win by surprise, and make quick decisions, so as to wipe out the Zhao army in one fell swoop. It has written a wonderful chapter in the history of ancient Chinese warfare.The failure of the Zhao army was due to the pedantic and arrogant coach Chen Yu, who refused to adopt the correct combat plan of the counselor Li Zuoche, which finally caused the Zhao army to lose its advantage and active position, and was wiped out everywhere passively.The Battle of Jingxing has left many valuable revelations for future generations, the most important of which is: the use of military tactics should be flexible and innovative, and rigid dogma should not be avoided.