Explain in detail the battle of suspended sand

Explain in detail the battle of suspended sand

In 30 1 year BC, the allied forces of Qi, Wei and Han defeated Chu in the sand blowing (now near the southwest of tanghe county, Henan Province), which is called the battle of sand blowing in history. After the war, the strength of Chu State was weakened, and Qi State, which contributed the most, did not benefit. Watching the fire from the other side of the bank, Qin became the biggest winner.

The overall situation of the war

In the mid-Warring States period, the hegemony pattern of vassal States generally showed the situation of three pillars: Qin, Chu and Qi. With the development of United Lian Heng, the vassal states continued to divide and unite. First, Zhang Yi disintegrated the Qi-Chu alliance, leaving Chu out of the alliance and forming an alliance with Qin. Later, Chu found himself cheated by Qin, so he sent troops to attack Qin and was defeated by Qin in the battle of Lantian in Danyang. As a result, with the help of Qi, Chu fell to Qi again. After Qin acceded to the throne, because Queen Xuan was from Chu, Qin tried to win over Chu. Embrace Qin again, causing strong dissatisfaction of Qi. Qi joined forces with Korea and Wei to attack Chu on the grounds that Chu had broken his promise. Chu asked Qin for help, and after Qin sent reinforcements, Qi, Han and Wei all retreated.

At this point, the accident happened. King Heng of Chu, who was taken hostage in Qin State, killed a doctor in Qin State for personal reasons and fled back to Chu State. Relations between Qin Chu suddenly deteriorated, and the Qin Chu League broke down again. In 30 1 year BC, Qi, Han and Wei jointly attacked Chu again. Qin did not send troops to rescue Chu.

The allied forces of Qi, Wei and Han, with Zhang Kuang, the general of Qi, as the main commander, confronted Chu Junshui (now Tanghe in southwest Henan, downstream to Xiangyang and into Hanshui). Being unfamiliar with the specific situation of the river, puffed up dare not rashly lead the army to cross the river. The allies sent several soldiers to explore the water depth, but they were all blocked by the archery of the Chu army on the other side. During the stalemate, the allied forces accidentally learned from a woodcutter that the places guarded by the Chu army were convenient and shallow. Overjoyed, he sent elite soldiers to cross the river from shallow water at night and launched a sudden attack on the Chu army in the vertical sand. The Chu army was defeated and its main commander, Tang Mei, was killed. Since then, the allied forces have taken the opportunity to capture the area north of Wan (now Nanyang City, Henan Province) and Ye (now Pingdingshan City, Henan Province). After the defeat of the Chu army, Zhuang Ti, a Chu man, took advantage of the situation to launch a rebellion. At the same time, Qin stepped up its attack on Chu, and Chu declined.

Make an interim decision

The victory of the Qi, Wei and Han allied forces benefited from the on-the-spot command of Zhang Kuang. At first, because the Coalition could not find the specific depth of water, it was deadlocked with the water array of Chu army for half a year. Qi Xuanwang could not sit still. He sent people to the front and ordered puffed up. After receiving the order, Zhang Kuang said, "The King of Qi can recall or kill me, or even kill my whole family, but he can't let me fight when the fighter plane is immature, or not fight when the fighter plane is mature." According to this, later generations put forward the statement that "your life will not be affected if you are not here". The battlefield situation is changing rapidly, which requires generals to adjust their tactics according to the actual situation and not blindly obey the arrangements of superiors or monarchs thousands of miles away. Due to the existence of subordination, this is difficult to achieve in reality, so the monarch is required to employ people without doubt, give the generals full on-the-spot command and not interfere too much. Sun Tzu's Art of War says, "He who can resist the monarch wins." In history, cases of failure due to the blind interference of monarchs abound. Tang Xuanzong forced Ge out of Tongguan to face the Anshi rebellion, and finally defeated Chang 'an and fell. Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty urged Hong Chengchou to make a decisive decision, which led to the annihilation of the Ming army in the battle of Jinsong.

In the battle of suspended sand, Zhang Kuang did not send troops to attack without knowing the depth of the river, which showed that Zhang Kuang was cautious and steady as the main commander. Sun Tzu's Art of War emphasizes the important influence of geographical factors on war, and holds that "those who don't know the dangers of mountains can't March", which is exactly the principle that Zhang Kuang upholds. After that, the allied forces learned about the specific situation of drowning from the local woodcutter, which shows that playing the role of local guide in the battle may sometimes get miraculous results. Sun Tzu's Art of War pointed out that "without rural guidance, we can't get the right place".

The biggest winner

In the battle of hanging sand, Chu, as the loser, suffered heavy losses, and Qi, as the winner, failed to gain benefits. In this battle, Qin, who watched the fire from the other side, became the biggest winner. This is of great significance to how to maximize the interests of our country strategically.

For Chu, the defeat in the battle of hanging sand triggered a series of chain reactions. First of all, Miao Zhuang launched a rebellion that swept across the country, and once divided the State of Chu into several large pieces. On the western front, Qin took the opportunity to attack Chu. One of the important reasons why Chu got into such a predicament is the previous diplomatic mistakes. First of all, I believed Zhang Yi's empty promises and broke off the alliance with Qi. Later, after the relationship with Qi allies was restored, it quickly fell to Qin. Chu is capricious in dealing with other countries, which reflects the vacillation of Chu's strategy. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" said: "You can't make friends if you don't know the plan of the princes." Foreign communication should be based on me, lacking understanding of other countries, and eventually falling into isolation, bringing disaster to Chu.

This war, which lasted for half a year, caused considerable consumption of Qi's national strength, which was also one of the important reasons for participating in the war. After the war, the allied forces successively captured a large area of land in Chu, but this land was eventually divided by Korea and Wei, and Qi failed to get a piece of it. The reason is that Qi is far away from here and it is difficult to control it directly. Therefore, Qi played the role of "making wedding clothes for others" to a certain extent, wasting national strength, not worth the candle. This has also become an important negative case for Fan Ju to persuade Zhao Xiang, the king of Qin, to "attack far and defend near" in the future.

Qin State, which stayed out of this battle, not only preserved its national strength well, but also took the opportunity to attack the western line of Chu State after the war and captured Xincheng (now Xiangcheng County, Henan Province) and other places, further expanding its territory and hitting Chu State. Compared with Qi's huge consumption and limited income, Qin has obviously gained the most at the least cost, and is the biggest winner of this war.

Watching the fire from the other shore-watching someone's troubles coldly from a safe distance

Watching the fire from the other side of the bank is the ninth trick in the "thirty-six plans", which means that when many opponents are caught in conflicts and wars, we do not rashly participate, but take a wait-and-see attitude and wait for favorable opportunities to appear, so as to decide our own actions. This reflects the idea in Sun Tzu's Art of War that "you can't fight unless you are profitable, and you can't fight unless you are in danger", that is, you should be cautious when using troops, and you should not lightly fight. Watching the fire from the other side of the bank does not mean standing by and watching the excitement. Once the time is ripe, we must change "sit and watch" into "attack" in order to win and benefit.

Historically, it has been used to watch the fire from the other shore. In the Battle of Maling, Qi waited until the end of the Han-Wei War before sending troops. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun and Liu fought a decisive battle in Yiling, and Cao Wei stood by and tried to take advantage of it to make a crusade.