Chapter 37 The third battle of Feishui

In November of the eighth year of Taiyuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 383), it was located in Shouyang City on the west bank of Feishui River (that is, today's Shouxian County, Anhui Province).A man dressed like a general in military uniform slowly climbed to the top of the city, looking into the distance at the camp of the Eastern Jin army across the bank from Shouyang. For the soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the camp on the other side, no one could predict what their future fate would be. The "General" may be thinking more about how to eliminate the remaining Sima regime in Jiangdong, but the significance of the war he launched is far beyond the life and death of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, and will determine where the Chinese nation will go, and even The future destiny of the entire Han cultural circle.

Who is this general?I don't think I need to say much here.This imminent war is the "Battle of Feishui" that will shock China and the world (I don't think this word is too much) in the future.Regarding the ins and outs of this war, let us start with another Civil War thirty years ago. Around 350 A.D., the chaos in the north caused by the struggle for the throne between Zhao and Zhao, as Cinason said in his masterpiece "Thirty Years of Yuanjia", directly resulted in the accelerated decline of the northern minorities represented by the Xiongnu and Jie. Now that the Huns and "Thirty Years of Yuanjia" have been mentioned, let me talk about my views by the way.Regarding the disappearance of the Northern Huns in Chinese history, there was a slight mention in "Murong Xianbei".The westward migration route of the Northern Huns is roughly close to the route of the Mongols' westward expedition a thousand years later. Unlike the Mongols, the original purpose of the Northern Huns was not to conquer, but to find a place to live.Under the suppression of the Southern Huns, Han Chinese, and Xianbei, the vast desert area has been unable to gain a foothold, but their migration pace was slower at the beginning (otherwise, according to the speed of the Huns cavalry, they would not have to wait until more than two hundred years later to appear in the within Eastern Europe).They stayed in Central Asia for a long time, and there are almost no records of this period in Chinese and foreign history books. We have to infer from common sense that they still continued their original nomadic life.Central Asia has always been a good natural pasture and a place where ethnic groups live together. This inference should be tenable.So what drove the northern Huns to leave Asia, travel thousands of miles, and enter Europe?I don't know much about the situation in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. From the perspective of China, there seems to be an answer that can be justified, that is, the abnormal climate.From the end of the third century to the fourth century AD, there were many natural disasters in China (see Chapter 4 of "Yongjia Rebellion"). The influx of nomadic places into the Central Plains is the best proof.It can be seen that due to the harsh climatic conditions, the continental climate zone in north-central Asia could no longer meet the living needs of nomadic peoples. The northern Huns also left Central Asia during this period and began their long journey westward.

However, the Han people were unable to re-establish their dominant position in the north at this time. The failure of Ran Min shows that a large number of ethnic minorities in the north (these ethnic groups are no longer considered minorities in many areas in the north) have not yet completed their own development. Before Sinicization, it was impossible to establish a Qin-Han or Wei-Jin style Han country in the north.The Xianbei people from the northeast and the Diqiang people from the northwest filled the vacancy of the rulers of the Central Plains. The south is still in the hands of Sima, the former lord of the Central Plains, but these descendants of Sima Zhao are not as powerful as he was in the past. Most of the Eastern Jin emperors have the power of life and death in the hands of powerful officials.And the quality of the powerful ministers is surprisingly poor. Whether it is the arrogant Wang Dun or the suspicious Yu Liang, if they are placed in the late Han or Wei Dynasty, they may not even have the qualifications to lead soldiers to fight and make suggestions.In comparison, Huan Wen is considered capable.

In the tenth year of Emperor Yonghe of the Jin Dynasty (354 A.D.), Huan Wen, the general who conquered the West with internal and external powers, set out from his station in Jiangling to attack Chang'an, the capital of the former Qin State, by water and land. (Two of Huanwen's three armies came from Jingzhou, that is, the navy went upstream from Xiangyang, and the infantry went out of Wuguan from Xichuan; Wei Yan’s suggestion to Zhuge Liang more than a hundred years ago has always been quite controversial. Let’s take a look at the results of the Eastern Jin Dynasty’s adoption of this strategy with the cooperation of the two armies.)

Qianliang, who was far away in Liangzhou, learned of the news, and also sent the later Zhao rebel general Wang Zhuo to attack Chencang (now Baoji, Shaanxi), an important town in the southwestern part of the former Qin Dynasty, in response to the attack of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.The former Qin emperor Fu Jian sent 50,000 troops, led by his prince Fu Chang and younger brother Fu Xiong, to resist the Jin army in Gaoliu (now south of Lantian, Shaanxi). The northern army had not encountered such a strong offensive from the south for decades. Huan Wen personally went into battle to oversee the army. After the first battle, the Qin army was defeated badly.Then Huan Wen's younger brother Huan Chong defeated Fu Xiong's army in Bailuyuan (near Bahe, Shaanxi today).The morale of the Qin army was greatly frustrated after consecutive defeats, so Fu Jian had to take 6,000 old, weak and disabled soldiers to retreat into Chang'an and stick to the city.

Huan Wen moved forward, and finally stationed troops in Bashang.All counties and counties in the Guanzhong area came to surrender, men, women and children lined the road to welcome the Jin army, just like meeting relatives.At this time, less than 40 years had passed since the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty. Among the people in Guanzhong who suffered from the subjugation of the country, some of the younger ones were still alive. That's why the old man said with tears in his eyes, "I never thought I would see the officers and soldiers today!" But this is the last remaining Han Chinese sentiment in the north.In other words, this time may be the last chance for the Eastern Jin Dynasty to restore the north. (Even Fu Jian deeply realized this when he first entered Guanzhong a few years ago, probably because the Western Jin Dynasty finally died in Chang'an, and in addition, the rule of Later Zhao in Guanzhong was not firm, Minxin Sijin was a ruler of the Di people As a headache, Fu Jian had to communicate with Huan Wen in the early days of his rule.) With the demise of the generation of Han people who survived the Yongjia Rebellion in the north, and the subsequent migration of Hu people to the Chang'an area in large numbers, Chang'an became more and more divorced. Chinese control.When Liu Yu, another warlike general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, came here again half a century later, the image of this city was far from the imagination of the Han people, and it became a matter of course that it was gained and lost.