It's no joke not to strike in the spring and autumn.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, four major military changes took place in China.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a great struggle took place in China. If you don't advance, you will retreat. If you don't change, you will die. In the eyes of princes who can survive the competition, there is nothing like "the tradition of ancestors cannot be changed", nothing like "learning from the ancient sages", and no king believes in "three generations of arch rule". Everything revolves around the word "change development and survive".

In this process of "seeking change", when the inherent military concepts and tactics gradually failed to adapt to the situation and could not defeat the enemy, Xian Zhen, Shu Wei, Sun Bin and Zhao Wuling successively launched four major military changes, which had a far-reaching impact on the military of later generations, among which Sanjin area was monopolized for three times.

0 1: "Chongli" changed to "Cunning"

In the history of China War, there was a war that was a farce now and normal at that time, and that was the flood war, from which the allusion of "Song Xiang's Benevolence" came. Chu army crossing the river, Song Xianggong refused to attack halfway; When Chu army crossed the river, Song Xianggong waited for the deployment of Chu army; Song Xianggong thought that when the two sides saluted, the Chu army rushed forward, Song Jun was defeated, and Song Xianggong was shot in the thigh. As a result, Song Xianggong became the representative of pedantry and was nailed to the shame column of history.

However, talking about history untimely is hooliganism. Judging from the atmosphere in the mid-Spring and Autumn Period, did Song Xianggong really do something wrong? In fact, Song Xianggong didn't do anything wrong, because from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, everything was based on etiquette, including military wars. The two armies arrayed themselves, then openly engaged in war, winning and losing, each convinced, cutting off the route of providing foodstuff, raiding, luring the enemy in depth and so on, all of which were despised by people at that time. After Song Xianggong's defeat, when many people were complaining about him, Song Xianggong taught him: "A gentleman with a kind heart will not attack an injured enemy or an old man with gray hair in a battle. Especially when the ancients fought, they didn't win by blockade. Although my country in Song Dynasty is about to perish, they still can't bear to attack the enemy without a good array. " From the point of view of later generations, Song Xianggong was stupid, but from the point of view of the Spring and Autumn Period, Song Xianggong respected etiquette and obeyed the rules of the game, and the barbarians of Chu were fooling around, winning without force.

Shortly after the flood, the most famous war was the battle of Chengpu, which opened the prelude to Chu Jin's hegemony and even started the "treacherous" use of troops. In the battle of Chengpu, Xian Zhen, the commander-in-chief of the Jin army, changed the fixed and rigid war mode since ancient times, and created a precedent of maneuvering troops on the battlefield and concentrating forces to attack the enemy, and created cunning tactics of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, pretending to retreat and luring the enemy. For example, on the battlefield, the upper-level troops of the State of Jin pretended to retreat, while the lower-level troops would drag branches with cars, raise dust, forge the illusion of retreat, and lure Chu and Zuo Jun to attack. As a result, Xian Zhen suddenly mobilized China's army and Zuo Jun of Chu. Jin Jun's tactics in the battle of Chengpu are very common now, but they are very cunning in "paying homage". After the battle of Chengpu, the war of grain broke out in Jin and Qin Dynasties. This is a war of ambush by the Jin army, which is incompatible with the upright tactics in the Spring and Autumn Period. This is another betrayal. In the following 100 years, the technique of deceiving the monarch was extremely popular, and later Sun Wu refined it into "Soldiers are also cunning" in the Art of War.

The change from "honoring ceremony" to "breaking faith" is a landmark change in the history of China's war, from a polite war to an unscrupulous war.

02: "Car War" to "Step War"

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the symbol to measure the strength of a country was the chariot. According to the literature, the more chariots, the stronger the national strength. Chariot combat became the basic feature of the war in this period, and the chariot was the core and main force of the Spring and Autumn War. During the Warring States period, although there were still documents describing Qin as a "country with thousands of riders", the chariots did not completely withdraw from the historical stage, and the overall situation was that infantry was the mainstay, and the mode of war had undergone tremendous changes. So, how did the great innovation from car warfare to step warfare come from?

In 7 14 BC, when Zheng Zhuanggong attacked Shanrong, he lamented: "He is my car, and I am afraid that he will invade me." Beirong is an infantry, and we are chariots. It's easy for them to suddenly approach and attack us! This worries Zheng Zhuanggong. In the battle of Zheng's resistance to Beirong, the soldiers were divided into three ways, and he lured the enemy into depth by cheating and defeating Shan Rong. Although he won the victory, Dan Rong's pure infantry tactics stimulated Zheng Zhuanggong, especially on rugged land. The mobility of personnel carriers was very poor, and it was extremely dangerous when facing pure infantry. So he later created the "Fish Beauty Array", that is, the array in which the infantry evacuated around the chariot, which gave full play to the role of the infantry. The infantry rushed around the chariot to evacuate the formation, making up for the gap of the chariot and effectively killing the enemy.

The "array of fish and beauty" gives consideration to mobility, defense and lethality, and is an important innovation in the combat history of personnel carriers. However, in the narrow and rugged place, the Fish-Beauty Array still can't solve the defect of poor mobility of personnel carriers, so Shu Wei, the State of Jin, launched an important military reform in the late Spring and Autumn Period, which is Shu Wei's phalanx.

In 54 1 year BC, general Xun Wu and general Zuo attacked Shanrong, and the two sides joined forces in Dayuan (now southwest of Taiyuan, Shanxi). Shanrong is an infantry and Jin is a chariot, but Dayuan is located in Taihang Mountain area, with overlapping mountains, rugged roads and narrow terrain, and the environment is obviously more conducive to Shanrong's combat mode. Shu Wei analyzed the situation of the enemy and me and thought, "If he tries to drive with me, he will encounter difficulties, so why should he drive with me?" Trapped in Eritrea, and grams. Please all die and start from scratch ",so" destroying the car is the way, five times is three times ",abandoning the car and letting the chariot get off to fight in formation, that is to say, forming an infantry formation to fight with Shanrong, which is called" Shuwei Square Array "in history. As a result, Shu Wei defeated Shan Rong and won the battle of O 'Hara.

The reason for the victory in the battle of O 'Hara can be summarized as "worshipping soldiers" in the words of Zuo Zhuan, that is, advocating infantry. The Battle of Ohara and Shuwei Square Array marked the fundamental change of China's war mode from "car war" to "step war", which was an epoch-making sign of the change of car and step, and then infantry gradually became the number one arms of the war. Shu Wei discovered the power of the infantry phalanx, which laid the foundation for the appearance of Wei Wuzu.

03: Military changes brought by Sun Bin

For a long time, Sun Bin gave the impression that his strategy was amazing. Tian Ji's horse racing, encircling Wei to save Zhao, increasing troops and reducing stoves are popular, but little known is that Sun Bin also brought a tactical innovation, that is, the use of arrow array and crossbow array.

Bow and arrow is an ancient long-range weapon, and the words "Jin", "Yi" and "Yi" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions are closely related to bow and arrow. During the Spring and Autumn Period, people generally attached importance to crossbows. At that time, a chariot was equipped with three soldiers, arranged in three directions: left, middle and right. The left soldier shoots the main gun with a bow, which is the length of a chariot and is called "the left of the chariot" (also known as the first gun). The soldier on the right is armed with a spear and is responsible for removing obstacles for the chariot, which is called "Cheyou" (also known as Cheng Can); In the middle is the charioteer driving the chariot. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the chariot was the core of the war, and the archer was the length of a car, which shows that people paid attention to the crossbow in the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Warring States Period, "The Warring States Policy Hance Yi" recorded: "All the strong bows and crossbows in the world come from North Korea, and the learning of Chinese characters, less government, ten miles, and self-help are all shot 600 steps away." During the Warring States Period, the strong crossbow made in South Korea had a range as high as 600 paces, which showed that China's crossbow technology was advanced and its manufacturing industry was developed.

But before Sun Bin, people didn't seem to realize that crossbows could be used intensively, forming a huge, dense and terrible arrow array. During the Sun Bin period, Wei Wuzu, the heavy infantry of Wei, swept the world, pacified Qin, Qi and Chu, and became the strongest in the Warring States. In the face of Wei Wuzu's rampage, the most important means for Sun Bin to break the array is the arrow array.

"Xun Bing Pian" records: "Wei Bing took it one by one, wore the armor of three genera, took twelve crossbows and fifty arrows, placed them on it, crowned them with swords, grabbed three days' grain, and rushed to a hundred miles at noon. The pilot project will be resumed, which will benefit its farmland. "Compared with modern times, Wei Wuzu is almost the selection standard of modern special forces. It can be seen that its combat effectiveness is almost impossible for ordinary elites to win. However, in the Battle of Maling, Sun Bin used a series of tricks to attract Pang Juan and Wei Wuzu to step into an ambush. Then, "all the good shooters of the Qi army are crossbows, lying on the road, saying' See the fire at dusk'", and defeated Wei with "all crossbows", which also pushed Qi to the top of the six countries in Kanto.

After Sun Bin, this tactic was perfectly inherited by Qin, and the arrow array played an important role in the process of Qin's unification of the six countries. It is worth mentioning that some people discussed whether the Seven Heroes of the Warring States could defeat Alexander's phalanx if Alexander marched eastward to China. In fact, the Alexander phalanx, no matter how flexible and defensive, is always a slow-moving infantry phalanx. Can melee be stronger than Wei Wuzu, and can it escape the long-range killing of the arrow array?

04: Zhao Wuling, Wang Hufu riding and shooting

Zhao comes from the Zhao family in the state of Jin, with Qi Yan in the east, Qin in the west, Wei in the south, East Lake, Xiongnu and Loufan in the north. It can be said that we are surrounded by strong enemies. When Zhao Wuling succeeded to the throne, Zhao was in a period of national decline. In the war with Qin, Qi, Wei and other big countries, Zhao Guolian suffered defeat and the defeat was like a mountain. He had to be humiliated and ceded territory. Even if Sun Yat-sen and Lou Fan plundered the State of Zhao year after year, the State of Zhao had little strength to fight back. Seeing that he was annexed by other countries, Zhao has reached the "autumn of life and death".

King Wuling of Zhao found that the Hu people had some special advantages in military costumes: first, wearing narrow sleeves and short jackets was more convenient for life and hunting; Secondly, cavalry, bows and arrows are used in combat, which is more flexible than chariots and spears in the Central Plains. He said to his opponent: "The cavalry of the nomadic people in the north come like birds and go like strings. Today, this is a rapid reaction force. Such troops are galloping on the battlefield, and there is no reason not to win. " Therefore, King Wuling of Zhao said: "Our country is bounded by buildings and Qin and Han dynasties, but we are not ready to ride and shoot. I want to change clothes and prepare to go to Yan, Shenhu () and the buildings. " Determined to reform the army, learn from Hu Lin and Lou Fan, advocate "Khufu" and coach "riding and shooting".

After riding and shooting, Zhao's strength rose rapidly, wiped out Zhongshan, the eighth strongest country in the Warring States, and became a dominant eastern force, even interfering in the internal affairs of Qin, forcing the then Empress Xuan (that is, was appointed as the Prime Minister of Zhao. Some scholars believe that Zhao at that time had the strength to unify the whole country. If it weren't for Zhao's civil strife, King Wuling of Zhao would starve to death, and it might be Zhao who finally unified China.

From a military point of view, the influence of Khufu's riding and shooting is self-evident, which is a great change in ancient Chinese military history, and promotes the development of riding and shooting techniques and the progress of China cavalry tactics. But more importantly, Wang Wuling of Zhao broke through the obstruction of conservative forces and resolutely carried out the national policy of learning from foreigners in different times, which showed his courage and courage as an ancient social reformer, and had a great influence on China's later generations, giving them the courage and example to learn from foreigners. Therefore, in modern times, Liang Qichao thought that King Wuling of Zhao was the first great man since he started his business for 4,000 years.

Xian Zhen, Shu Wei, Sun Bin and Zhao Wuling have made great military achievements in seeking change and innovation. It can be said that each of them is stronger than a country, and at least one regional hegemon has emerged. Needless to say, this point is destined to be engraved on the glorious pillar of history. But what is even greater is that their innovation and change have once again verified the concept of "change if you are poor, change if you can reach it, and the general principle will last for a long time", regardless of the country.