Chapter 23 22. Sand Garden War

The Battle of Shayuan was a crucial battle during the period of confrontation between the Eastern and Western Weis. Even viewed in the context of the entire Chinese history, this battle has far-reaching significance.If we make an irresponsible assumption and swap the winners and losers at that time, not only will the course of the Southern and Northern Dynasties be completely changed, but the Sui and Tang Dynasties that started decades later will also cease to exist.If history could repeat itself, I don't know how Gao Huan and Yu Wentai, the parties involved, would feel. Although Yu Wentai killed Gao Huan's general Dou Tai in Xiaoguan, he couldn't help the abnormal weather.The famine of the previous year not only did not stop, but spread more violently in the north.The Guanzhong area in the Western Wei Dynasty continued to suffer from a large area of ​​drought, and similar disasters occurred in the Shanxi prefectures in the Eastern Wei Dynasty.Fortunately, the loss of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was far smaller than that of the Western Wei Dynasty. Compared with the whole country of the Western Wei Dynasty, the Eastern Wei Dynasty was only partially affected.The people in the disaster area flowed into non-disaster areas such as Shandong, Hebei, and Henan, which objectively eased the scale of the famine. At the same time, the Eastern Wei Dynasty had sufficient grain reserves, and Gao Huan ordered the opening of warehouses for disaster relief, which finally effectively controlled the disaster.

There is no such good thing in Guanzhong. The death rate of the common people has reached a terrible 70% or more. In other words, a family of five can only survive on average for one or two people.The supply of military rations in the Western Wei Dynasty also began to run out. Yu Wentai was worried about this and thought hard about countermeasures.Shangshu Zhishi Langzhong Yu Wenshen reminded him that while the soldiers were still fighting, they went out and captured Hongnong in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (also called Hengnong, changed from the name of Emperor Xianwen Tuoba Hong in the Northern Wei Dynasty, located in the west of Sanmenxia, ​​Henan today), and captured The local granary not only solves the problem of military rations, but also preemptively prevents Gao Huan from making trouble.

Yu Wenshen is a son of Yu Wentai's family, he is quite good at strategy, and he often coincides with Yu Wentai.Yu Wentai immediately adopted his suggestion, and in order to fight to the death, the Western Wei Dynasty mobilized almost all the elite. In August of the third year of Datong (537 A.D.), Yu Wentai led twelve generals in Guanzhong, with a force of about 10,000 (you can see the tragedy of the Western Wei Dynasty after the disaster), to crusade against the Eastern Wei Dynasty.The twelve generals, according to their ranking in the "Book of Zhou", are: Li Bi, Dugu Xin, Liang Yu, Zhao Gui, Yu Jin, Shuo Hui, Yi Feng, Liu Liang, Wang De, Hou Mo and Chen Chong , Li Yuan, Da Xiwu.

The twelve people can be roughly divided into three categories: Li Bi, Duguxin, Zhao Gui, Yu Jin, Hou Mo and Chen Chong, who were the second to sixth of the six pillar states of the Western Wei Dynasty in the 16th year of Datong; Hui, Yifeng, Liu Liang, and Wang De had the same status as the six major Zhu kingdoms, but they died relatively early and were not included in the list of the Zhu kingdoms; Li Yuan and Da Xiwu had slightly lower status (the first ten basically All of them have positions above the generals of chariots and riders), and will be listed as the twelve generals of the six pillar kingdoms in the future.

Yuwentai's principle of army management is that the generals control the soldiers of the Ministry, divide and control the armies, and be independent of each other in war, but also cooperate with each other to maximize the combat effectiveness of the soldiers.This seemingly loose form of organization, borrowed from the military system of the Xianbei nomadic tribes, has been improved, and is the embryonic form of the military system of the Western Wei Dynasty in the future. Yu Wentai swore an oath in Tongguan, with Yu Jin as the vanguard, surviving from death, like a broken bamboo, first captured Pandou (now northwest of Yangping, Henan) to the east of Tongguan, then captured Hongnong, and captured the governor of Shanzhou in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (Shaanzhou Governor of the Eastern Wei Dynasty) alive. Li Huibo, who is located in Hongnong, captured 8,000 guards, and the nearby counties of the Eastern Wei Dynasty joined him one after another.In the Hongnong Granary, the soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty received the long-lost military rations.

The news of Hongnong's fall made Jinyang's Gao Huan unable to sit still. In less than a year, the old hatred was not eliminated, and a new hatred was added.At this time, he was entangled in the issue of punishing corruption with Du Bi, a doctor in Taiwan. The large amount of corruption among officials in the Eastern Wei Dynasty was an old problem left over from the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Gao Huan believes that the world is divided into three parts, with Yuwentai in the west and Xiao Yan in the south. If the officials are strictly governed, the military officials will go to Guanzhong, and the civil officials will flee to Liang. Non-remediation of the interior (this insight is much worse than that of Yuwentai).Gao Huan was about to send troops, but Du Bi stubbornly demanded to get rid of the "internal thieves" who robbed the people first. Gao Huan didn't respond, and ordered his soldiers to line up on the left and right, draw their bows and arrows, and hold up their knives and axes, so that Du Bi could pass by.Du Bi was so frightened that he was sweating profusely and trembling.

Gao Huan glanced at Du Bi contemptuously, and said slowly: "You will lose your soul if you set up an arrow but not shoot it, and hold up your sword without falling. If it is bigger, how can it be dealt with at will?" Gao Huan's words stunned Du Bi, but his words were simply unreasonable.This is equivalent to saying that if a person kills three bad guys, then he is also worthy of praise for killing two good guys!Gao Huan's theory has been running through the Eastern Wei-Northern Qi's philosophy of governing the country. It is conceivable what the ending will be. Gao Huan persuaded Du Bi, so he ordered an army of more than 100,000 troops to go south to Pujin (that is, the Yellow River ferry west of Puban), pretending to cross the river, and ordered Gao Aocao to lead 30,000 troops out of Luoyang to besiege Hongnong.His strategy is very clear, if Yu Wentai defends, he will block you in Hongnong;

When the wind came, Yu Wentai knew that he couldn't stay for a long time.He ordered the soldiers to equip enough food and grass, the main force withdrew from Hongnong, and entered the pass quickly.As soon as the Western Wei army left, Gao Aocao's army surrounded Hongnong. History books are vast, but there are often inexplicable omissions. For example, the name of the general Yu Wentai left behind to guard Hongnong is not recorded in "Book of Zhou", "Book of Northern Qi" and "History of the North".This person would not be one of the twelve generals, but he shouldn't be an unknown junior, because he guarded Hongnong quite well, and Gao Aocao didn't take any advantage when he was absolutely outnumbered.Gao Aocao had no choice but to adopt the strategy of encircling but not fighting, cutting off the food road of the Western Wei army.

The situation was developing in favor of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Gao Huan's subordinates had two opinions: one, represented by the right chief Shi Xueyu, emphasized the use of static braking, thinking that the food and grass of the Western Wei army would not last long, and the Eastern Wei army did not need to cross the river, as long as they were near the river. Wait and see, in the coming year, Yu Wentai will surely be trapped to death; the other is represented by Hou Jing, who believes that the Eastern Wei army is superior in number and there is no need to advance with the whole army. It can be divided into two armies and act back and forth in order to respond.The former is obviously a literati's point of view, and they want to reap the benefits, but the night is long and there are many dreams, how can Gao Huan wait so long?The latter is Wu Fu's point of view. Gao Huan is not at ease if he divides part of the army into the command of someone like Hou Jing.

Gao Huan saw that the victory was close at hand, so he ordered to rush across the Yellow River from Pujin and enter Guanzhong before Yuwentai. On the west bank of the Yellow River is Huazhou (Government Feng Yi, now Dali, Shaanxi) guarded by the veteran Wang Zhen.Wang Wei has guarded Guanzhong since the time of Emperor Xiaowen. After Emperor Xiaowu moved westward, he was loyal to the Western Wei regime and extremely brave, repelling the attacks of the Eastern Wei many times.Yu Wentai sent an envoy to report to Wang Wei, asking him to be careful. Wang Wei replied with a sentence: "The old man is in power, and the raccoons can't survive!" Using his name to make use of his name, he compared Gao Huan and his 100,000 army to raccoons. What a boldness this is.

Gao Huan's army came to the city of Feng Yi, and shouted before the battle: "Old General Wang, Yuwen Black Otter will be defeated, why don't you come down sooner?" Standing at the top of the city, Wang Wei shouted: "This city is the tomb of Wang Zhen. I will never leave my life. If you want to die, please come here!" After all, Huazhou was not Gao Huan's target, and it would be useless to attack. This hard bone should be left for later.The Eastern Wei army bypassed Fengyi City, crossed Luoshui River, and stationed troops west of Xuyuan (now southwest of Dali, Shaanxi). Yu Wentai had just arrived at the south bank of the Weishui River at this time, and urgently recruited soldiers from various states, but he couldn't get together for a while.The strength of the two armies was very different. The generals of the Western Wei Dynasty suggested that they should not move. Yu Wentai said: "If Gao Huan is allowed to enter Chang'an, the situation will be chaotic; now he has come from a long way, and his foothold is not stable. This is the sky. Unprepared." After all, the Western Wei army built a pontoon bridge, and thousands of light cavalry each carried three days' food, crossed the Wei River to the north, and left their luggage on the south bank, escorted by old and weak soldiers, and followed westward. In October, Yu Wentai arrived at Shayuan on the north bank (now south of Dalin, Shaanxi Province) and visited Ma Lai to report that sixty miles northwest was the camp of the Eastern Wei Army.Everyone's nerves suddenly became tense, and suddenly Yu Wenshen laughed and raised his hands to congratulate Yu Wentai. Yu Wentai was puzzled and asked him why he was laughing.Yu Wenshen replied: "Gao Huan is very popular in Hebei. If he stays honest, it will not be easy to destroy him. Now that he is crossing the river alone and going deep into our territory, his soldiers will probably be reluctant. The reason is that Gao Huan Huan wanted to avenge Dou Tai's murder, so he came here headstrong and full of anger. This is called an 'angry soldier', and he can be captured in a single battle. The reason is very clear, why not congratulate him?" Yu Wentai was overjoyed and ordered all the troops to prepare to meet the enemy.In the early morning of the next day, Gao Huan found out the location of the Western Wei army, and the army marched from Xu Yuan.Li Bi offered advice to Yu Wentai: "The enemy is outnumbered and we are few, so we can't line up on flat ground. There is a bend in the Wei River ten miles east of Shayuan, commonly known as Wei Qu, surrounded by water on three sides, and reeds are overgrown. Our army can lie in ambush there first, waiting Gao Huan." Yu Wentai acted according to the plan, moved his army to Weiqu (so this battle is also called the Battle of Weiqu), and divided the east and west wings. Li Bi commanded the west wing phalanx, Zhao Gui commanded the east wing phalanx, and lay back Pocket array, meet with the drumbeat as an order. In the evening, the army of the Eastern Wei Dynasty came to Weiqu.The governor Hulu Qiangju said: "The reeds are deep and muddy, which is not conducive to our army's combat. It is better to stand at a distance, assign elite cavalry to attack Chang'an, take away Yuwen's lair, and tell him to lose without a fight." Hu Lvqiang's idea was very poisonous, but Gao Huan focused on revenge and did not express his opinion.He looked at the reeds thoughtfully: "How about setting fire to the enemy army to death?" Hou Jing disagreed: "We should capture Yuwen Hei Otter alive to tell the world, but if he burnt it, the corpse cannot be distinguished, who would believe it!" Peng Le, the governor who was born in a town soldier, was domineering, and asked Yingying for a decisive battle: "I have many enemies, and if I catch him one out of a hundred, I'm afraid I won't win?!" Gao Huan was deeply instigated, so he stormed Weiqu with his whole army, but unexpectedly, he crashed into the pocket array of Western Wei Dynasty.The east, west, and south directions of Weiqu were surrounded by ambushes, and the entrance to the north was blocked by a large group of troops from the Eastern Wei army.The dense reeds made the best bunker for the soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty. The soldiers of the Eastern Wei Dynasty couldn't see the number of enemies clearly, and they lined up to die one by one. When the time was right, Yu Wentai beat the drums himself.The soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty waved their weapons and shouted loudly. Yu Jin and other troops rushed forward from the front.Li Bi on the west wing took the lead and led more than 60 iron cavalry under his command to charge horizontally into the formation of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and cut Gao Huan's army into several sections.Li Bi's younger brother, Li Que, is small in stature, but extremely brave. He looks like an invisible man on horseback, killing enemies with little effort.The soldiers of the Eastern Wei Dynasty were terrified. When they saw him from a distance, they shouted, "Hurry up and hide!" The two armies fought so darkly that they didn't stop until late at night.Peng Le, who was in the Eastern Wei army, was punctured in the stomach and his intestines leaked out. He stuffed his intestines into his stomach and turned around to continue the fight.Geng Linggui, the general in the Western Wei Dynasty, was completely covered in blood from the killing, and Yu Wentai couldn't help but groan. The soldiers of the Eastern Wei Dynasty became fewer and fewer as they fought. Gao Huan wanted to withdraw his troops to fight again, but he was completely unable to command the chaotic forces.Gao Huan was melancholy for a while, but he still didn't want to retreat (hundreds of thousands of troops were destroyed in the sand garden...).General Hu Lujin persuaded: "Now that the soldiers are separated, they can't fight any more. Hurry up and go back to Hedong!" Gao Huan.There was no boat to cross the Yellow River, so the general Gao Huan found a tall camel. After wading in the river, the ferry boat approached, and he fled to the east bank in embarrassment.Gao Aocao from Hongnong also returned to Luoyang when he heard that Gao Huan was defeated. Yu Wentai chased to the river, and when he saw Gao Huan going away, he stopped chasing.He kept more than 20,000 soldiers from the captives of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and released all the rest (there were too many monks and too little porridge, Yu Wentai was quite satisfied with his lucky victory in difficult times, and the extra soldiers could only be sent back to make Gao Huan cheaper).The army of the Western Wei Dynasty returned to the south bank of the Wei River, and the troops from various states that had been conscripted a few days ago just came to gather. Yu Wentai asked the soldiers to plant a willow tree on the battlefield to commemorate this hard-won victory. In the battle of Shayuan, the Western Wei army defeated ten against one, annihilating and incorporating more than 80,000 Eastern Wei troops, and obtained countless grain, grass, weapons and battles.The weak Western Wei regime was consolidated, and Yu Wentai was named a general of Zhuguo, and twelve generals were added to the ranks.Gao Huan stumbled in front of Yu Wentai, who was eleven years younger than him, and never set foot in Guanzhong again.