Later, the families of both sides began to gather and fight. As a result, Wu Caisang's family members were killed by Chu's family members, and things became serious. So, Wu reported this situation to the doctors in the border area, saying that all their family members were killed by the Chu people, so the doctors in the border area of Wu led troops to attack the Chu people. At that time, King Chu Ping was on an east tour. Hearing this, the soldiers broke Wu's low beam and returned to Li.
When Wu Wangliao heard that his border low beam was occupied by Chu army, he was also very angry. He immediately sent Gongziguang to lead Wu Jun to attack Chu. At that time, King Chu Ping had just returned from his shift. Gongziguang led Wu Jun not only to recapture his low beam, but also to fight back and break the peace and justice of Chu. In this way, the contradiction between Wu Chu and China has become more and more serious.
Two years later, King Chu Ping died and King Zhao Chu, who was only eight years old, acceded to the throne. Two years later, Zhuan Xu, the son of Wu, sent an assassin to assassinate him and became king himself. As soon as He Lv acceded to the throne, he took Chu as a top priority and reused Wu Zixu, a famous minister who fled from Chu to Wu, while Wu Zixu recommended Sun Wu, a strategist of Qi State, to He Lv, and He Lv had Wu Zixu and his grandson.
The war between Wu Chu and China did not end because of a mulberry tree. Two years after He Lv ascended the throne, he wanted to wage war to destroy Chu. However, Sun Wu and Wu Zixu thought that the time was not ripe, so they advised He Lv, the king of Wu, to sit tight. He Lu listened. Although Wu did not wage a large-scale war against Chu, the conflict between the two sides continued. At this time, because King Zhao of Chu was young, Yin Zi, who was in power, was often treacherous and greedy, and his ability was mediocre. There was a conflict between Chu and Wu.
However, Chu has always been a big country. As one of the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period, it is also the country with the largest land area and the largest population in China, and its strength is very strong. Wu is only a middle vassal state in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and its territory is probably in today's southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and southeastern Anhui. Its strength is not as good as that of Chu, and its national strength is about a quarter to a fifth of that of Chu. Chu was only in political darkness for a while, but the thin camel was bigger than the horse. It is not easy for Wu to destroy Chu.
With the help of Sun Wu and Wu Zixu, He Lv, the king of Wu, became stronger gradually, and finally the opportunity came in 506 BC. This year, He Lv, the king of Wu, took Sun Wu, Wu Zixu and 30,000 Wu Jun, and went deep into Chu alone, defeating the main forces of Chu in the Battle of the White Horse. Thirty thousand Wu Jun defeated twenty Wan Chu armies and entered the capital of Chu in one fell swoop. This is the first time that Chu has been breached in hundreds of years.
To sum up, Wu Can's 30,000 troops defeated Chu's 200,000 troops for the following reasons:
1, the three divisions took turns to attack, exhausted Chu.
What do you mean, three divisions take turns attacking? This was Wu Zixu's strategy for He Lv, the king of Wu who was tired of Chu. The specific method is: Wu prepares three small-scale troops to harass Chu, one to attack, the other to stand by and the other to rest, and take turns to attack Chu's border. As soon as Chu's main force saw it, he retreated. As soon as the main forces of Chu army retreated, Wu Jun continued to attack Chu. Wu's practice is equivalent to guerrilla warfare.
This method annoyed Chu. ChuJun tired of going to Han, want to fight, can't catch Wu Jun, don't fight, Wu Jun often attack. It is also time-consuming and laborious for the Chu army to assemble troops. At the same time, the practice of Wu made the Chu people think that Wu only dared to fight guerrilla warfare and did not dare to fight large-scale wars, because in the eyes of the Chu people, they were big countries, and Wu was only a small country, and only dared to tinker at the edge. Later, this tactic was adopted by the State of Chu.
2. The political union and isolation of Chu.
Before the White Pony War, the result of Wu Jin was that the State of Jin had been fighting for hegemony with the State of Chu, and the two countries were rivals. In order to contain Chu, Jin courted Wu. At the same time, Jin and Wu brought in a large number of countries that were dissatisfied with and bullied by Chu and formed a political alliance. This time, it turned out that Cai had the upper hand, because the son of Ling Yin (equivalent to the prime minister) of Chu often threatened Cai and Cai Zhaohou, as well as Tang and Tang Guogong.
In 506 BC, a few months before the Battle of Baiju, Jin, Qi, Wu, Lu, Song, Cai, Wei, Chen, Zheng, Xu, Cao, Ju, Zhu, Deng, Hu, Teng, Xue, Qi, (otherwise Guo) and Wu.
In this way, Chu was politically isolated. The advantage of isolation is that when Wu joined forces with Tang and Cai to attack Chu, no other vassal state rescued Chu. At the same time, because Cai and Tang were the portals of northern Chu, and Cai and Tang took refuge in Wu, it was equivalent to handing over the portal of Chu to Wu, which also laid the groundwork for the failure of Chu later.
3, abandon the ship and land, the soldiers are expensive.
Wu is located in Jianghuai, south of the Yangtze River, with a dense water network. Wu's navy master was very famous at that time. When He Lu led the army to attack Chu, the first thing he did was to go by water, and the navy went all the way west on the Huaihe River, because everyone knew where to take a boat, and Chu also knew that when Wu Jun attacked Chu, he gave up the boat halfway and took land. This has one advantage, one is to speed up the March, and the other is to make the Chu people unable to know about Wu Jun.
Sun Wu chose an elite Wu Jun of 3,500 people as a pioneer, passed through Cai Guo and Tang Guo, joined Cai Jun and Tang Jun, crossed Qingshui River and came to the east bank of Hanshui River. This is Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province today. As long as you cross the Hanshui River, you can immediately go straight to the capital of Chu (now Jinan City, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province), and the main forces of Chu immediately form an array on the west bank of Hanshui River.
Wu Jun marched very quickly. He immediately entered the hinterland of Chu and approached Ying Du, the capital of Chu. At that time, the forward of Wu Jun was only about 120 kilometers away from the capital of Chu. When Chu heard the news, there was chaos, and he quickly mobilized troops to carry out encirclement and suppression. Wu Jun's March also disrupted the deployment of the Chu army. Although Wu Jun fought alone, his strength was far inferior to that of the Chu army, but his approach to the capital of the State of Chu also contributed to his success.
4, retreat for progress, rally troops to annihilate the enemy.
Yin Zichang made a serious mistake when he led the main force of Chu army to stop Wu army on the west bank of Hanshui River. As long as the Chu army calmly thinks about it, it will be understood that there are only 30,000 people in Wu Jun who go deep into the hinterland of Chu. The food supply for these people had to be shipped from Huaishui by boat. Chujun only needs to cut off Wu Jun's logistics and burn Wu Jun's ships, and 30,000 Wu Jun will be wiped out without fighting. For both sides, Wu Jun is eager to try.
But Zi Chang actually took the initiative to attack Wu Jun because he listened to the villain, plus he had no ability. Wu Jun is few, Chu Bing is many. Wu Jun retreated without a fight, step by step, from Zhongxiang on the east bank of Hanshui River to Macheng, Hubei Province, through Jingshan and Yunmeng, and led the Chu army into Dabie Mountain. Wu Jun is getting earlier and earlier, and Chu Jun is in hot pursuit. As a result, the two sides fought five wars and the Chu army failed.
When the main forces of the Chu army were defeated, Wu Jun began to pursue them again. Although Chu is big and has many troops, all the troops are not concentrated in one place, but scattered all over the country, and there is a big place to defend. The main force of the Chu army was defeated, and it was too late to rescue the capital army in other places. When another Chu army led by Shen came to the rescue, it was completely eliminated by Wu Jun.
In this way, Wu Jun went straight to Ying City, the capital city of Chu, and other Chu troops had no time to rescue. The king of Zhao and Chu also abandoned the city and fled before Wu Jun arrived. There were not many Chu troops in Ying city, and they were quickly breached by Wu Jun. At this time, Wu Jun won a great victory. Hundreds of years after the founding of the State of Chu, the capital was invaded by foreign enemies, and it was still a weak country, Wu.
Generally speaking, 30,000 Wu Jun can defeat 20 Wan Chu armies and break through the capital of Chu, which is a battle in which the king of Chu is young, the powerful minister is fatuous and the command is improper. Although Wu Jun was able to concentrate his forces, although there were many Chu troops, he dispersed his forces and made serious mistakes, which led to the final failure.
The Battle of the White Pony was a surprise attack. Although the capital of Chu has been breached, the national strength of Chu is still there. Chu troops from all over the country came to Qin, and Shen borrowed reinforcements from Qin, because King Zhao of Chu was the son of Princess Qin, and Qin was the only vassal who could help Chu. In the end, the allied forces in Qin Chu drove away Wu Jun and regained the capital.