What role does the military flag play in war, and why should we fight to the death to keep it?

In ancient wars, the most obvious thing was that the flags covered the sun. These flags specifically referred to military flags or battle flags, and the enemy and ourselves could also use these military flags to determine the number of the other party's troops.

However, real wars in ancient times did not have so many military flags. They were all added by movies and TV dramas to create visual impact.

Military flags can be roughly divided into five categories, namely: tooth flags (纛), signal flags, liaison flags (letter flags), formation flags (five square flags), general flags, etc. However, this does not mean that all military flags need to be protected to the death.

So, which military flag is the most important and needs to be defended to the death? The commander-in-chief (commander) can clearly judge the changes in the strength and weakness of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield through the "flag" and "general flag", so as to make the correct decision when deploying troops

On the battlefield, the trumpet Wherever the flag points, the soldiers will rush to that direction; and where the flag points to, the soldiers under his command will also rush to that direction.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the banner and the general's flag will appear at the same time. The country's name is often written on the banner, such as Qin, Han, Tang, Song, etc.; the country's name is often written on the general's flag. The surnames of generals include: Wei (Wei Qing), Huo (Huo Qubing), Yue (Fei), etc.

However, the rule for the size of general flags at each military rank is that the higher the military rank, the larger the general flag, and vice versa. For example: in the Han Dynasty, the flags of generals (three-level officials) were significantly larger than those of low-ranking generals, and the military rank was lower than that of fifth-rank miscellaneous generals and sixth-rank miscellaneous guards. He is not qualified to have a general's flag.

After the battle starts, the soldiers of both sides will charge according to the flags and flags. Even if they are scattered, they can quickly find their own troops and move closer or rescue each other, while the other side can discover them as soon as possible. own target of attack.

At the same time, the commanders (marshals) of both sides can judge the strength of the enemy and ourselves based on the number of flags and flags. Because most of the flags and flags are at the core of an army. Once the flags and flags fall or retreat, it means that the outer defense line of one's own army has been breached by the enemy. Not only are the generals of the army in danger, but also possible Distressed. Or, once the flags and generals' flags retreat, the generals (marshals) of both sides have to decide whether to beat the drums to encourage them and order to continue the attack, or to sound the gongs to withdraw the troops, or to dispatch troops to rush for reinforcements, or to direct the troops to cover up the enemy, etc.

Therefore, once the flag and general flag fall or are defeated, it will cause a big blow to one's own morale. On the contrary, the enemy's morale will rise, which is also related to the outcome of a battle. Therefore, as long as you can kill the general and capture the flag on the battlefield, you must have made a great contribution. For example: During the Battle of Mobei, Li Gan was commended by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for capturing the battle flag of King Zuoxian of the Xiongnu. He was awarded the title of Marquis of Guannei and was granted a household of 200 households, which made up for his father's regret that "Li Guang could not be granted the title" .

However, some famous generals were able to use flags to plan and achieve great victory in a war.

For example: According to the "Historical Records: Biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin", in 204 BC, in the last battle (also known as the Battle of Jingxing), Han Xin took the lead in occupying the narrow road of Jingxing and sent two thousand light cavalry in the middle of the night. Each person took a flag (Han army flag) and detoured from the trail to the rear of the Zhao army camp to ambush. After the Han army pretended to be defeated and lured the Zhao army out of the camp, the two thousand Qingqi ambushing behind the Zhao army's camp quickly rushed into the Zhao army's camp, pulled out the Zhao army's flags and replaced them with the red flags of the Han army. .

Soon, Zhao Jun, who was defeated by the Han army, wanted to retreat to the camp, but found that the camp was full of Han army flags. The troops were immediately shocked and in chaos. As a result, Han Xin took advantage of the situation to attack, Zhao's army was defeated, and King Zhao was captured.

From this point of view, both the trumpet flag and the general flag are important. However, the flags are relatively common and cannot reach the level of "defending to the death". Although on the battlefield, the general's flag is more important than the trumpet flag, it is only one general's flag among countless generals in a battle, and it cannot reach the level of "defending to the death" for the entire army. The commander-in-chief (marshal) can use the "formation flags" (also known as the five-party flags) to march and arrange troops, dispatch and command

In ancient battlefields, the "five-line army formation" was often used in battles, and each represented the five elements. The directions are: Qinglong (left army), Baihu (right army), Zhuque (front army), Xuanwu (rear army), and Huanglong (center army).

But it is also said that the "Five Elements Army Formation" represents "metal, wood, water, fire, and earth" respectively, that is: wood (the left army, uses the green flag), water (the right army, uses the white flag) , Fire (the front army, uses the red flag), Earth (the rear army, uses the black flag), Jin (the center army, uses the yellow flag).

According to historical records, the Five Elements Army Formation originated during the Yin and Shang Dynasties.

At the same time, in order to facilitate the height of the army in these five directions, the general (commander) needs to use formation flags, namely: green flag represents the left army, white flag represents the right army, red flag represents the front army, and black flag represents the The rear army, the yellow flag represents the middle army. To put it simply, when the general (marshal) needs the left army to attack (or retreat), he will order the flag soldiers to wave the green flag, that is: waving it up and down means retreat, waving it left and right means charging, that is, fighting to the death, etc. Even in other military formations, the commander-in-chief (coach) conducts command and dispatch through the formation flag.

For example: The most intuitive one is the formation flag in Cao Cao's army. The ones directly used are the Qinglong Flag, White Tiger Flag, Suzaku Flag, Xuanwu Flag and Huanglong Flag. At the same time, there is also a record of formation flags (five-square flags) in "Water Margin": "Knock on the golden edge, bring out five-square flags, use big cannons, and march to the camp with trumpets, and everyone will set up a formation to fight.

"The commander-in-chief (marshal) will use the "liaison flag" flag to determine whether there may be enemy ambushes, swamps (rivers) blocking, or unimpeded traffic in dangerous mountainous areas on the march, so that he can make decisions about setting up camp, marching in a hurry, or Charge and other decision-making orders.

Many people wonder why generals like to be the vanguard. There are two main reasons: First, if they have the opportunity to encounter the enemy first, they will naturally make the decision to go to war. The second is that even if there is no credit, there will still be hard work of "opening roads across mountains and building bridges across rivers".

However, the vanguard troops want to report the situation discovered on the road to the main force behind them in a timely manner. It is necessary to use the liaison flag and convey the flag message.

If the flag soldier waves the green flag and the red flag, it means that the leading force has encountered a mountain forest, indicating that the main force needs to slow down and wait for a fire attack. If there is no danger, the black flag will be waved to indicate that it is safe to pass.

The flag-bearers wave the yellow and black flags crosswise to indicate that they have encountered an enemy ambush and have repelled the ambush. If the flag-bearers wave the yellow and red flags crosswise, it means that there are many ambushed enemy troops and the situation is very dangerous. Whether to rescue or not, or how to save them, depends on the leader (marshal). The flag-bearers crossing the green flags wave the green flags. and a white flag, indicating that there are forests and water here, which is convenient for camping in the cold.