The whole process of the Battle of Makino

The whole process of the Battle of Makino

1

On the 26th of the first month of the twelfth year of the Zhou era, the Zhou army set off from Haojing.

After marching for more than 20 days, we arrived at the south bank of Mengjin. Troops from various princes also arrived one after another.

On February 21, all the western coalition forces crossed the Yellow River and reached the north bank. King Wu of Zhou Jifa held a coalition swearing-in meeting and delivered an important speech (Taishu).

He said: "Now Yin Zhou completely listens to his wife (Daji), goes against heaven (self-destruction from heaven), destroys the three righteousnesses, alienates his uncles and brothers, and reuses fugitives from outside the country (referring to foreign fugitives). Fei Zhong, Er Lai) abandoned the traditional music left by our ancestors and replaced it with lewd music to please the women around me. Therefore, I, Ji Fa, will march forward bravely for the sake of heaven, gentlemen! Don’t lose it, don’t lose it again! (Excuse me, master! Not again, not three times!)”

The main crimes listed by King Wu were: listening to women, alienating relatives, and liking obscene music. This may not seem like a big deal today, but it was a very serious problem at the time.

At that time, after thousands of years of development, the people of all ethnic groups in China had already evolved from a loose primitive clan society into a highly organized clan society. Each surname and clan has its own leader (sect leader). In a clan society, if the clan leader does not trust his uncles and elders, but completely trusts his wife (who is from a foreign clan), and neglects the people of the clan and reuses the foreigners, it will seriously damage the overall interests of the clan, which is unacceptable. Forgiving.

The reason Ji Fa was able to call on the princes to attack Shang Zhou was because he stood in the clan society and safeguarded the universal values ??of the time. Although he also reused foreign tribes (such as Lu Shang), he always put the Ji tribe first.

Two

At this moment, King Zhou, who was in Chaoge, had received the news that the Zhou army was advancing eastward. He sent Jiao Ke to investigate and learn about the Zhou army's numbers, equipment, generals, etc. in order to formulate a combat strategy. The reason why Jiao Ke was sent to inquire was because he had been on several missions to Zhou and was familiar with Ji Fa and others, so he could talk to them. But he didn't expect that Jiao Ge had been instigated to rebel long ago.

When the Western Allied Forces arrived at Qianshui, Jiao Ge met with Ji Fa, King Wu of Zhou Dynasty.

Jiao Ke asked: "Where is Xibo going?" (Jiao Ke was an official of the Shang Dynasty and still called Ji Fa "Xibo" in public)

Ji Fa: " Go to Chaoge."

Jiao Ge: "When will it arrive?"

Ji Fa: "Jiazi day"

The following conversation. It’s unknown. After the two sides finished talking, Jiao Ge immediately drove his carriage back to resume his duties. The people placed by King Wu in Chaoge had already planned that someone would suggest that Shang Zhou use slaves to fight. Now he needed Jiao Ge to exaggerate the strength of the Western Allied Forces in front of King Zhou, making him feel that his own troops were insufficient and forced to use prisoners of war and slaves.

According to historical records, the Western Allied Forces led by Ji Fa totaled about 50,000 people (this figure has a certain degree of moisture), and they were divided into front army and rear army. The front army was commanded by Lu Shang, including 350 chariots (3 people per chariot) and 3,000 tiger warriors, all composed of nobles with the surnames Ji and Jiang. They were the main force in Zhou's foreign wars, and they could be said to be the best among the best. The rear army consisted of 45,000 soldiers, commanded by King Wu himself. Under his command were his uncles, brothers and ministers San Yisheng, Tai Dian, Lu Ta (surnamed Jiang), Hou Lai, Bai Yan, Chen Ben and eight other princes, who were responsible for the respective ministries.

Of course Jiao Ge did not seriously count the number of Western Allied Forces. Ji Fa told him how much it was, that's how much it was. When he reported to King Zhou, he estimated that the Zhou army of 50,000 was changed to 150,000, and the 8 princes were changed to 800 princes. He also vowed to tell Shang Zhou that Ji Fa's army would arrive at Chaoge on Jiazi Day in a few days.

Time was very tight, and it was too late for King Zhou to mobilize troops from the feudal states south of the Yellow River for reinforcements. Another main force of the merchant army is still stationed on the Huaiyi front line. At this time, the number of troops King Zhou could mobilize would not exceed 50,000. But he had two cities to defend, one was Chaoge and the other was Yindu (there were ancestral temples, government agencies and many royal nobles in the city). Both cities must be defended, and neither city can be lost. In this way, Di Xin's army was divided into about half. There is indeed a serious shortage of troops.

What to do? King Zhou sought countermeasures from his advisors.

So, someone suggested that he release the slaves in prison and put them in front of the battle line as cannon fodder to withstand the attack of the Zhou army. After the Zhou army eliminates these cannon fodder, there will definitely be heavy casualties. When the Shang army launches a counterattack, it will be able to annihilate the Zhou army in one fell swoop.

Di Xin thinks this is the best way at the moment. There were plenty of slaves anyway, so he didn't care how many died. So he asked people to release all the slaves from several prisons, formed them into queues, and were escorted by the Shang army to the front line to fight against the Zhou army.

At this time, the Western Allied Forces encountered trouble. The chariot Ji Fa was riding in had an accident, and the shaft was broken into three parts. He became nervous again and asked Lu Shang if this was a sign that his advance would be unfavorable.

Lu Shang said that this is God helping us, reminding us that we need to divide the army into three parts. There were also some Fang states loyal to the Shang Dynasty south of the Yellow River. If they go north for rescue, it will be very detrimental to the coalition forces.

Ji Fa then detached a part of the rear army and marched eastward along the Yellow River to prevent the princes of Henan from going north to rescue Chaoge.

At this time, it started pouring rain again, which lasted for three days. The roads were muddy, which seriously affected the marching speed. If this continues, Jiaziri will not be able to reach Chaoge. Ji Fa muttered again. He asked Lu Shang whether it was really against God's will to attack the Shang Dynasty.

Lu Shang said that this is God testing our determination and using rain to cleanse our distracting thoughts. As long as we are strong-willed, God will trust us with the destiny.

Ji Fa then ordered the entire army to overcome all difficulties and speed up the advance, and must reach Chaoge on Jiazi Day. King Wu's uncles and brothers all came to complain, saying that the army had a bad fortune before it set off. It was your monk father who forced us to march, so we followed. But now it has come true. The continuous heavy rain has made it impossible to walk on the road, and the soldiers are all We are very tired and hope to stop and rest for a few days before moving forward.

King Wu said to them: I have asked Jiao Ke to inform Shang Zhou that the Western Allied Forces will arrive at Chaoge on Jiazi Day. If I fail to fulfill my promise, Jiao Ke will be killed by Shang Zhou for lying about the military situation. Moreover, the merchant army may change its strategy as a result, and the outcome will be unpredictable. This opportunity cannot be missed. If you miss this opportunity, I am afraid that you will never be able to avenge Wang Ji (Ji Li) and realize King Wen's last wish. Please work harder, victory is right in front of you!

Since Wang Ji and King Wen were moved out, the clan members had nothing to object to. It is the obligation of every descendant of Ji to avenge Ji Li and fulfill King Wen's last wish to overthrow the Shang Dynasty. This issue is non-negotiable.

The former army led by Lu Shang is a professional soldier who has been fighting and training for many years. The muddy road is not a particularly big obstacle to them. However, the composition of the rear army led by King Wu was very complex, including professional soldiers, improvised farmers and troops from various princes. Most of them lacked professional training, and their movements were much slower when encountering bad weather.

In desperation, in order to save Jiao Ge's life, King Wu and Lu Shang decided to lead the front army to advance alone, and told the generals of the rear army to arrive before the decisive battle between the two armies. King Wu did not need them to participate in the first round of attacks, but he needed a huge lineup to cheer up the front army and at the same time cause huge psychological pressure on the Shang army's front line.

Three

The former army led by King Wu and Lu Shang arrived at Muye on the outskirts of Chaoge in the evening of February 26th (the day before Jiazi Day), and started with Chaoge. The vanguard of the incoming merchant army met and the two sides started a confrontation. Since it was getting late and it was raining heavily, neither side knew how many people were coming from the other side and did not dare to attack easily. Both sides sent envoys to negotiate and agreed to a decisive battle the next day.

King Wu and Lu Shang discussed that if the rear army could not catch up with the decisive battle, they would launch an attack before dawn the next morning. In this way, the other party would not know the actual number of Zhou troops.

However, as dawn approached, the rear army actually caught up. King Wu was overjoyed and immediately ordered the entire army to gather. He wanted to give a final mobilization speech before the battle.

King Wu of Zhou climbed onto the temporary commander's platform, holding a yellow yue (brass battle axe) in his left hand and waving a white yue (a command flag made of yak hair) in his right hand, calling everyone to come.

"People from the West who have come all the way, thank you for your hard work! Gathered here today are the kings and ministers of the Western Alliance, including Dazai, Situ, Sima, Sikong, Yalu, Shishi, Qianfu, Centurions, and all the warriors from Yong, Shu, Qiang, Kuai, Wei, Lu, Peng, and Pu, take up your arms, line up your shields, and raise your spears. Please listen to me: < /p>

“The ancients said that if the hen crows in the morning, the family will be ruined. Now King Zhou of Yin only listened to women, gave up the sacrifice to his ancestors, and did not believe in his uncles and brothers. Instead, he reused criminals who escaped capture and allowed these criminals to harm the people and destroy his country.

"So, today Ji Fa will work with you to fight for heaven and defeat Yin Zhou.

"When you attack later, you must pay attention, every six or seven steps forward , it is necessary to adjust the formation in time to keep the team neat. Gentlemen, forge ahead! When your spear thrusts forward four, five, six, or seven times, you must adjust your formation in time to keep the team in order. Gentlemen, forge ahead! Be proud of your bravery. You must be as fierce as tigers, bears, jackals, and crocodiles! When we encounter those who surrender, do not hurt them, this will strengthen us. Forge ahead, gentlemen! If we don't move forward bravely, there will be only a dead end today! ”

After listening to King Wu of Zhou’s oath, the whole army was excited and shouted long live.

According to Lu Shang’s plan, since the opponent’s front line was full of slaves and they lacked organizational discipline, They have no ability to coordinate and have no intention of working for King Zhou of Shang, so as long as they charge with the large chariots of the front army, they will definitely turn into a pile of scattered sand and flee in all directions, which will squeeze the main force of King Wu of Shang behind. The speech repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain the formation. As long as the formation of the Western Allied Forces is not chaotic, the war will be won.

The Shang Army was personally commanded by King Zhou, and the camp was also very large in "Historical Records". It is impossible to say that King Zhou sent out an army of 700,000 people. At that time, the Shang Dynasty's direct jurisdiction had shrunk severely, and the total population was only about 1 million. How could it be possible for Sima Qian to mobilize an army of 700,000 people? Wan mistakenly wrote 700,000, which is still a bit exaggerated.

However, this is Shang Zhou's home court after all, and he can bring in many old, weak, sick and disabled people to join forces to increase his momentum. It should be certain that the Shang army was larger in number than the Zhou army. According to the Book of Songs, King Zhou's army was as dense as a forest (its generals were as dense as a forest).

As expected, the front line of the merchant army were all slaves in ragged clothes. Most of them were prisoners of war captured in the battle against Dongyi, and they were already full of hatred for the Shang Dynasty. Now that he knew that he would be used as cannon fodder, his hatred for Shang Zhou reached its limit.

Someone (it is not clear who it is) has quietly passed a message to these slaves, saying that King Wu of Zhou Jifa issued an order to the Zhou army. As long as the slaves surrender, their lives will be saved, and they will be restored after the war. The body of freedom. If the counterattack against the merchant army is successful, they can be directly promoted from slaves to princes. After secretly instigating rebellion, they were all determined to defect before the battle, and they only looked forward to the Zhou army coming to attack.

Lu Shang took the lead in launching the challenge. He, another general Baifu, and a chariot driver drove a chariot to the merchant army to provoke them. This program is called "To the Teacher" and its purpose is to boost morale.

If the other party accepts the challenge, soldiers of equal specifications will be sent out to duel.

Lu Shang is the commander-in-chief of the former army, and the Shang army should also send the commander-in-chief of the former army to fight. Of course, you can also send military attaches lower than yourself to fight. But this will show that you do not have the courage to fight in person. You are already timid. All your soldiers are watching. How can you convince the crowd in the future?

Although the war at that time also focused on strategy, the commander's courage and force value had a great impact on morale. Morale is often the key to determining the outcome of a war.

Lu Shang patrolled in front of the formation, fired a few arrows into the Shang army's formation, and killed one of the opponent's generals. The Shang army fired arrows like raindrops at Lu Shang. But like a miracle, the three of them returned to their camp unscathed. Zhou Jun has taken the lead in terms of momentum.

When the division was over, Lu Shang immediately ordered the front army to launch a charge.

Shang Zhou also issued an attack order to the slaves.

Lu Shang’s chariot and tiger tigers are too brave, and they are completely desperate. As soon as the two armies came into contact, the slaves in the front line of the Shang army put down their weapons, raised their hands to express surrender, and took the initiative to make way for the Zhou army.

Shang Zhou's expectation was that the front army could at least resist the Zhou army for a long time. When they were almost exhausted, his main force would pounce on them. But the surrender of the slaves instantly exposed the main force of the merchant army behind them. Because the Zhou army's attack speed was too fast, before the Shang army's chariots and phalanx of soldiers had time to launch, they were rushed by the opponent's fast chariots and tigers, and they were immediately thrown into chaos.

Seeing this, King Wu of Zhou ordered the entire rear army to press forward. The main force of the merchant army soon collapsed. Some of them were killed by the Zhou army, while others were crushed to death by chariots or trampled on each other. Seeing that the Zhou army was in sight of victory, the slaves joined the counterattack against the merchant army.

Seeing that the situation was over and that there was no way to recover, Shang Zhou fled back to Chaoge alone. Fei Zhong was killed by the Zhou army in order to cover his retreat. As soon as the coach ran away, the remaining merchant troops also gave up resistance. E Lai fled to the south of the Yellow River with a remnant of his army. Others who could not escape in time surrendered.

After King Zhou fled to Chaoge, he told Daji and others the result of the defeat. Then he hurried to the deer platform where the treasure was stored, and asked people to pile up firewood, which was filled with pearls and jade. Shang Zhou hung the most precious jade on his body, put on several layers of clothes, then sat on the pile of firewood and lit himself on fire.

He probably wanted to take these valuable jade stones to the underworld for further use.

The Zhou army quickly pursued him, but King Zhou of Shang had already set himself on fire and died. Zhou Jun found more than 4,000 pieces of unburned "common jade" next to his body, as well as five pieces of priceless "tianzhi jade". They found tens of thousands more jade stones in Lutai. Jade at that time, like gold and silver later, could be used as both decoration and currency.

The battle in Muye lasted less than two hours, and the Yin and Shang dynasties collapsed. Shang Zhou's use of slaves as front troops was the direct cause of his defeat. But many people in later generations couldn't understand why he didn't stay in the city but went out to fight in the field? Also, after Muye was defeated, he could have fled to the merchant army on the Huaiyi front line, so why did he rush to commit suicide?

First let’s talk about the issue of holding on to the city. This is very difficult. The city-building technology before the Western Zhou Dynasty was very primitive. The city walls were short and thin, and there were no designs such as crenellations and parapets to facilitate counterattacks. The city wall built with loess couldn't withstand a few impacts and collapsed. In this case, if you defend the city, you must deploy troops all around. The attacker can concentrate on choosing a breakthrough point. Therefore, the strength of the defender must be several times that of the attacker. The number of merchant soldiers at that time obviously could not meet this condition.

Let’s talk about escaping to the Huaiyi front line. With Shang Zhou's conceited character, he would definitely not be willing to do this. The parents, wives, and children of the soldiers on the Huaiyi front line all stayed in Chaoge and Yindu. After the defeat of Muye, the families of these Huaiyi frontline soldiers all fell into the hands of the Zhou army. Just imagine, if Shang Zhou escaped alone, how would he explain to these frontline soldiers? Even if the soldiers don't blame him, he himself has no shame in living anymore, so he might as well die happily.

About 850 years later, Xiang Yu's mood was quite similar to King Zhou of Shang when he committed suicide in Wujiang River.

Xiang Yu once led eight thousand Jiangdong disciples across the river to fight for the world. After his defeat, he fled to Wujiang alone. The chief of the Wujiang Pavilion persuaded him to return to Jiangdong in order to make a comeback. Crossing the river to the west, no one has returned. Even if my father and brother from Jiangdong take pity on me, how can I see him? "Because I couldn't see the elders from Jiangdong again, I had to kill myself to apologize.

Shang Zhou and Xiang Yu are both people who cannot live without face.

Of course, the demise of the Shang Dynasty cannot be entirely attributed to a war, nor can it be entirely attributed to the personality or character of the king. The various social contradictions that the Shang Dynasty could not solve by itself were the root causes of its downfall. The war only accelerated this process.