Chapter 10 Tian Dan's Fire Bull Formation

Riding to Qi State, he is really different from Le Yi.He personally came to Jimo City to supervise the battle, and vowed to take Jimo within a month. When Le Yi was there, the Yan army's offensive was slow, and Tian Dan seemed to be facing a formidable enemy.Changed to Qi Jie as the general, the Yan army's offensive was swift and fierce, but Tian Dan relaxed. He issued a ridiculous order: the soldiers and civilians in Jimo City must sacrifice their ancestors in the open space of the court every meal time, and they must use the best wine and food as sacrifices. As a result, countless birds come to Jimo every day to snatch the sacrificial food.

The old people in the city came and cried, "Food is very scarce, don't waste it!" Tian Dan smiled but did not answer. After a few days, the Yan army outside the city saw such a spectacle of gathering birds every day, and they couldn't understand it.Then there was a strange saying: "This is the god who came down to the earth to teach Tian Dan one-sided advice." This saying spread from outside the city to the inside.At a gathering, someone tentatively asked: "General, I heard that a man of God came to teach you secrets." Tian Dan pretended to be surprised: "How do you know? There is indeed a man of God who will be my teacher. I dream of him every night."

Among the onlookers was a young soldier who was always joking and said without hesitation: "That's me!" After saying that, he felt that he had made a slip of the tongue and was afraid, so he turned and left. "Hey, stop." Tian Dan got up, pulled the soldier back, looked at him for a while, let him sit facing east, and made a respectful bow to him, and said, "It is indeed you, no wonder I think you're kind of nice." The soldier motioned Tian Dan to bring his ear closer, and said in a low voice, "Damn the villain, that's just a joke!" Tian Dan winked and said in a low voice, "Stop talking, it's you."

From then on, the soldier lived in Tian Dan's house.Every time there was a meeting in the city, Tian Dan asked him to take the main seat.Before giving any order, the soldiers had to call Tian Dan over and give an account, and then Tian Dan announced: "God said..." All the soldiers and civilians in the city believed it, "General Tian has gods and men to help him!" They worked very hard. Tian Dan is best at using methods like this. He also sent people to the Yan army to spread rumors: If you want to scare the people of Qi, the best way is to cut off the noses of prisoners of war and dig their ancestral graves.

As expected, Qi Jie was led by the nose and ordered to gather the prisoners of war of the Qi army and punish them all with torture. Then he was led for a walk around Jimo City, so that everyone in Jimo City could see the end of stubborn resistance.This tragic scene made the Jimo people furious, and they fought even harder, saying, "I would rather die than let the Yan army catch me!" Qi Jie still didn't come to his senses, so he sent people to dig up the cemeteries in the suburbs of Jimo, dug out the corpses that had been buried for decades and hundreds of years, and burned them under the city.Jimo people saw it from the city and wept bitterly.For the Chinese, there is nothing more immoral than digging up someone's ancestral grave.By doing this, Qi Jie was doing Tian Dan a great favor - he just needed the Jimo people to have such a common hatred, and he wanted to tear the Yan people into pieces.

At last it was time to counterattack.Every day, Tian Dan personally holds a shovel and pick, and builds fortifications with the soldiers. He also incorporates his wives and concubines into the army, trains with everyone, and distributes all the food at home to everyone, saying: If we can win, we don’t have to worry about food and clothing; if we can’t win, we don’t need these food.” In order to paralyze the Yan army, Tian Dan removed all young and middle-aged men from the city wall, replaced them with old and weak women and children, and sent people to ask Qi Jie to surrender.Qi Jie proudly said to the left and right: "Look, Le Yi has been attacking a mere Jimo city for five years and has not captured it. Once I came, I forced them to surrender in less than a month!"

When the generals of the Yan army got the news, they all shouted long live.After all, the war has indeed dragged on for too long, and the soldiers can't stop missing their hometown, and they can't wait to pack their backpacks and go home. Tian Dan's methods emerge in endlessly.A few days later, he ordered all the people in the city to donate gold, and collected them to a well-known local rich man, and asked him to go out of the city to give it to Qi Jie, saying: "After Jimo surrenders, please protect my family." Qi Jie readily accepted .As a result, Qi Jie let down even the last bit of vigilance, drinking and having fun in the camp all day long, waiting for Jimo Kaesong to surrender.

Article 5 of the ninth chapter of "Sun Tzu's Art of War": "Those who are humble and ready, advance; To plan is to seek; to run around and present soldiers is to expect; to be half-advance and half-retreat is to lure.” In other words, when the enemy speaks low and low, he is often preparing to attack; if he asks to surrender without any additional conditions, there must be a conspiracy behind it.Hijacking obviously lacks common sense in this regard.In other words, he was so eager to prove that he was better than Le Yi that he lost the most basic judgment. Tian Dan issued another order to gather all the cattle in the city—whether they pull carts or plow the fields, and get more than a thousand head in total.He ordered people to dress up these cows with red silk, with five-color dragon patterns painted on the silk, and sharp knives tied to the horns of the cows. This outfit is similar to that of the Bull Demon King.

At night, the soldiers tied the reeds soaked in fat to the tail of the ox and drove the ox to the gate of the city. The huge gate slowly opened. Through the dark door opening, you can see the tranquility of the Yan army's camp under the moonlight. Tian Dan gave an order, and the soldiers lit the torches and the reeds on the ox's tail.The cows were frightened and rushed out of the city like crazy.Behind the herd are 5,000 well-equipped elite soldiers. A soldier of the Yan army who got up to pee saw this strange scene, and slapped himself twice in succession. After confirming that he was not dreaming, he uttered a terrified cry: "The enemy is attacking!"

Before the words were finished, the seemingly solid gate was knocked open, and more than a thousand fire oxen rushed into the camp from all directions. Wherever they went, tents were set on fire, and people and horses were knocked over.Not long after, the entire camp turned into a sea of ​​flames.Yan Bing, who was awakened from his sleep, ran around and was either trampled to death by cattle or burned to death.The 5,000 soldiers of Qi were merciless, and when they saw the Yan people, they killed them desperately, and they did not even allow them to surrender. The hatred of cutting the nose, the hatred of digging the grave, now is the time for revenge.

Qi Jie was helped onto the chariot, stumbled out of the camp, and didn't dare to look back until he ran several miles away, only to see the fire bulls still madly rampaging, invincible.He wiped the sweat off his face, and said in shock, "Could this be a magic weapon?" Qi Jie fled to Linzi in a hurry, Tian Dan took advantage of the victory to pursue.After hearing the news, Qi people from all over the country rose up and responded one after another, forming a volunteer army to join Tian Dan's army. In the battle of Linzi, Qi Jie was defeated again, and he himself was killed by an arrow.The Yan army fled in all directions, and the Qi army pursued them all the way to the Yellow River, recovering all more than 70 cities. When Sima Qian commented on Tian Dan's achievements, he quoted a passage from "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and said that the way to use soldiers is of course very important to face-to-face confrontation, but in order to defeat the enemy, you must rely on unique tactics.People who are good at using soldiers have endless tricks and tricks, and use them alternately in conjunction with frontal confrontation, just like a circle, which is unpredictable.The so-called quiet as a virgin, moving like a rabbit, is talking about Tian Dan! The fire ox formation is very famous in Chinese history, and the turkey formation and fire monkey formation derived from it are often seen in the annals of history.But some people are skeptical about these examples of using animals, thinking that animals will not obediently obey people's orders.According to the records of "Song History Chronicles", during the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court sent Wang De to lead an army to suppress the water thief Shao Qing.After reading the history books, Shao Qing used the Tian Dan Fire Bull Formation to attack.Wang De stopped with stillness and ordered the soldiers to fire all arrows. Fire Bull was injured and frightened, but turned around and rushed into Shao Qing's formation. The most ironic thing is that during the Opium War, the British ships and guns were moored outside the Pearl River Estuary.Someone came up with a fire monkey plan, caught more than a dozen monkeys, covered them with kerosene, and prepared to set them on fire and throw them on the British ship, but finally gave up because no one who dared to row close to the British ship could be found.