During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, from 317 to 420 AD, there were many battles. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was a regime established in the Jiangdong region by Sima Rui, the head of the Western Jin Dynasty, after moving south, and also declared the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty, which established the capital Luoyang.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were many battles. One of the battles is the most famous in history, and is a typical example of a battle in which less is won than more. This battle was the Battle of Shuishui between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Former Qin, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty defeated more than 800,000 Former Qin troops with a force of 80,000 troops. The victory of this war led to the decline and even extinction of Former Qin, and the various ethnic groups in the north also fled former Qin's rule. In the north, it split into several regimes dominated by Later Qin and Later Yan. At the same time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty also took the opportunity to carry out the Northern Expedition, pushing the national border to the Yellow River and recovering the lost land previously occupied by Former Qin. In the following decades, there was no foreign invasion in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The impact of such a battle shows how wonderful this battle of Shuishui, which won more with less victories, was fought! So what is the background, reason, and process of this battle?
Political corruption in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty triggered many social upheavals. In 317, Sima Rui, the evil king of Jin, proclaimed himself emperor at Jiankang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the north, due to the strife between the separatist regimes of ethnic minorities, the former Qin state established by the Hu people successively destroyed the former Yan, Dai, and Former Liang and other divided states and unified the Yellow River Valley.
In 357 Bc Qin, the Qin lord Fu Sheng wanted to get rid of Jian Jian, but jian Jian attacked him first to forcibly remove him. Jian Jian then established himself as the Heavenly King of Great Qin, and Jian Jian declared himself queen, reusing Wang Meng to make the country stronger and stronger, unifying the north. Jian Jian had always wanted to move south and unify the country, but Wang Meng had always blocked his policy. Wang Meng believed that although Former Qin's national strength was stronger than that of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Former Qin was not yet ripe because it had just unified the north. In addition, the Eastern Jin Dynasty had a natural danger of the Yangtze River, so it was necessary to consider the long term from the perspective of Jian Jian. However, after Wang Meng's death, Jian Jian had been patiently attacking the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was not until the seventh year after Wang Meng's death that Jian Jian thought that the time had come to prepare to send troops, but he was opposed by the Qunchen. Jian Jian couldn't bear it anymore, and he said, "What is the Yangtze River Natural Danger?" I have an army of a million, and as long as I give an order, I tell the soldiers to throw the leather whip into the Yangtze River, which is enough to cut off the flowing water!"
Subsequently, Jian Jian began to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the south. In 373 AD, Qin captured Liang prefectures and Yizhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, extending Former Qin's power to the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers. Therefore, Jian Jian wanted to capture the entire Eastern Jin Dynasty and unify the north and south as quickly as possible.
At this time in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in 376 AD, the Xiaowu Emperor Sima Yao began to pro-government. The chancellor Xie Ansheng was promoted to the superintendent of the Zhongshu and the Lu Shang Shushi, and was in charge of the administration of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At the time of Jian Jian's occupation of Yizhou in Liangzhou, the war between Former Qin and the Eastern Jin Dynasty broke out. Xie An tried his best to reconcile the two families of Huan Xie in preparation for the upcoming war.
In 378, Former Qin began to attack Xiangyang, and Xie An sent his nephew Xie Xuan into battle. Finally, under the command of Xie An, Xie Xuan returned from four battles and four victories before Qin's great victory. After the war, Xie An was appointed As the Duke of Chang County, and Xie Xuanjin was made the Marquis of Dongxing County. After four battles of defeat, Jian Jian still did not give up. In June 383, the Eastern Jin Dynasty again went to war at Shuishui, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with Xie An's nephew Xie Xuan as the vanguard, led 80,000 generals to meet the Former Qin army. In this battle, the Former Qin army invested 600,000 infantry, 270,000 cavalry, and 30,000 Yulin Lang (Janissaries), a total of 900,000 troops, and Jian Jian personally took the battle.
However, due to his self-confidence and strength, he believed that the 80,000 Eastern Jin army led by Xie Xuan was not a threat and despised the power of the Eastern Jin army. At that time, Jian Jian discussed the strategic plan with the generals and said: "Only lead the soldiers to retreat a little, let them cross the river to the halfway point, and then we will send out ironclad cavalry to attack and kill, there is no reason to be invincible!" But he never expected that as soon as he retreated, he never moved forward again, but retreated again and again. The generals led by Xie Xuan were very powerful in attack, and they beat Jian Jian's 900,000 troops to death and wounded. In the end, the Jin Dynasty won a complete victory. The Eastern Jin Dynasty suffered 5,000 casualties before the Qin forces were completely destroyed, and the rest of the troops defected.