The "Battle of Cangting" was a great battle between Ran Wei and Later Zhao in the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at Cangting. This battle ended with the total victory of Ran Wei, and this great war also allowed the newborn Ran Wei to enter the peak period in a very short period of time, and became a divided force in the surrounding area. In this great battle, Ran Min used a unique strategic arrangement to cause the collapse of Later Zhao's nearly 200,000 troops, which were several times stronger than himself, and he first used the weaker 120,000 troops to contain all of Later Zhao's elite troops in the Huangcheng area, and then personally led 80,000 of the most elite infantry and cavalry troops in the rear to wait for work.
At the moment of the decisive battle, Ran Min led these 80,000 elites with full morale and physical strength to pour out of the nest and gave a fatal blow to the exhausted Later Zhao army, and finally hundreds of thousands of Later Zhao troops were completely defeated, and Ran Wei was able to win the big battle. It can be said that the Battle of Cangting was a more classic large-scale army battle in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, in which both countries invested nearly 200,000 troops, which can be described as equal, but although neither country had an advantage in terms of troop strength, it was obvious that Hou Zhao's strength was higher than that of Ran Wei's army in terms of equipment, but in the end it was Ran Wei who won the victory, and all this was due to Ran Min's decisive strategic arrangement for the troops.
Ran Min first showed weakness to the enemy, with absolutely weak troops to attract Later Zhao's national elite, and then when the two armies were in full swing and were exhausted, Ran Min personally led the most elite 80,000 troops under his command to suddenly kill from the rear, at this time Later Zhao was obviously no longer able to fight with these large armies that were waiting for work, and finally caused the Later Zhao army to give the eighty thousand troops an opportunity to take advantage of, and finally Ran Min gave Later Zhao the most devastating blow, and then Later Zhao's entire army collapsed. And eventually led to the rout of the whole army, since then Zhao has completely lost the Battle of Cangting.
Moreover, Ran Min not only brilliantly completed a large army battle in which the weak defeated the strong. And in the pursuit of the rout, he even dedicated a more wonderful pursuit battle, when there was a large-scale rout of the Later Zhao army, Ran Min did not let his army go around to pursue, on the contrary, he concentrated all his strength in one piece, and then pursued a direction of the later Zhao army's rout, thus expanding Ran Wei's achievements in this battle. So how did this classic large corps battle come about? What was the specific process throughout the Battle of Cangting? Here's a detailed explanation for you.
Book of Jin, Volume 17, Zaiji Vii: Shi Qi sent his Xiangguo Shi Kun to lead a crowd of 100,000 people into Handan. The southern Liu Kingdom of Gion is from Fanyang Huikun. Min was defeated at Handan, and more than 10,000 people died. Liu Guo also tun Fanyang. Jian Jian entered the customs from the fangtou. Zhang Hedu and Duan Qin, together with Liu Guo and Jin Dolphin, will attack Changcheng. Min Shu shangshu left his servant Liu Qun as the governor of Xingtai, causing him to ride Wang Tai, Cui Tong, Zhou Cheng, and other marshals 120,000 times at Huangcheng, and Min Gong commanded 80,000 elite soldiers to fight at Cangting. He Du and others were defeated, and 28,000 dead were chased and beheaded in Yin'an Township, capturing all their people and returning home. There are more than 300,000 soldiers, and the bells and drums of the Jingqi banner stretch for more than 100 miles, although the prosperity of the Shi clan is incomparable. Min to the Cang Pavilion, the ritual of drinking to the end, the Qing Ding Nine Streams, the quasi-talent appointment, the Confucian back door Domon Xianjin, in the time of Qiran, Fang Zhi is the beginning of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
In April 350, less than four months after the founding of the state, Ran Wei ushered in the greatest challenge, in this month its old lord Hou Zhao first let his chancellor Shi Kun lead a large army of nearly 100,000 troops to garrison Handan, and looked at Ran Wei's capital City of Yicheng, although in the end Ran Min led an army to defeat it and behead tens of thousands, but this was nothing for Later Zhao, who had a great family. Instead, it made Later Zhao realize that this new State of Ran Wei was not easy to deal with, and prompted Later Zhao's monarch Shi Qi to increase his determination to destroy Ran Wei. That is to say, after Shi Kun suffered the defeat of Handan, he also asked Zhang Hedu, Duan Qin, Liu Guo, Jin Po and other generals to lead almost all of Later Zhao's elite to Changcheng to meet with Shi Kun, who had previously been defeated, and at this time Changcheng also gathered nearly 200,000 troops because of the arrival of these troops.
At this time, all the elite soldiers of Later Zhao were gathered here, and it was obvious that Later Zhao wanted to destroy the emerging State of Ran Wei with absolute superiority in troops. On the other hand, although Ran Min repelled Shi Kun's 100,000-strong army not long ago, it did not have much impact on Later Zhao, and Ran Wei was still in an absolute weakness. A few months ago, although Ran Min killed Later Zhao's emperor Shi Jian and the Shi family at Yecheng, and also established Ran Wei in Yicheng, but at this time Ran Wei only occupied the area around Yecheng, and the other Later Zhao prefectures and counties were unwilling to submit to him when he called the emperor at that time, and then with Shi Hu, the son of Shi Hu of the Shi clan, who was outside the Shi clan, declared himself emperor in Xiangguo, the governors of the previous Later Zhao prefectures and counties also submitted to him, it can be said that ran Wei at this time was in terms of population, military strength, and military strength. Both the economy and the land are clearly in absolute vulnerability.
It is also in such an environment that the Later Zhao poured out the troops of the whole country at this time, which is definitely a huge challenge for Ran Wei, it can be said that if this battle is lost, Ran Wei will die, but if it is won, Ran Wei will usher in the most prosperous moment. Therefore, for the generals of the State of Ran Wei and Ran Min, this battle must be won, and it must also be won, and for this great war, Ran Min is not like the usual people who hope to rely on a strong city defense in Yicheng to resist the attack of Later Zhao, and for Ran Min, a war maniac, this is not his style. On the contrary, when Ran Min learned that Later Zhao's troops were coming to attack Yecheng, he decided to take the initiative to fight with Later Zhao's army in the wild.
In August, Ran Min took all the troops that Ran Wei could gather, and nearly 200,000 troops went to Changcheng to fight the Later Zhao army, and finally met the Later Zhao army at Cangting. Before the war, Ran Min also knew that although his troops also reached more than 200,000, less than 80,000 troops could actually be used for combat, and the rest were all old and weak soldiers, which were simply not enough to cause fatal damage to Hou Zhao's army, so what to do? In the end, Ran Min thought of a strategy, that is, to "show the enemy to be weak", he first placed the nearly 120,000 weak army in Huangcheng, which was facing the Later Zhao army, and let his generals Wang Tai, Cui Tong, Zhou Cheng and others lead them, and then he personally led 80,000 of the most elite infantry and cavalry troops to ambush in the rear.
In fact, Ran Min's in the end did confuse Zhang Hedu, Duan Qin, Liu Guo and other Later Zhao generals, at that time, the Later Zhao generals saw that the Ran Wei army that was fighting against them was so weak, they gradually began to despise the Ran Wei army, and Shi Kun and others also thought that the defeat of Handan was caused by their own negligence, so they began to look down on these Ran Wei troops in front of them from the bottom of their hearts, and at the same time they came up with a plan that they thought was very clever, that is, at the beginning of the great war, Let all the troops go out to completely encircle and completely annihilate these hundreds of thousands of Ran Wei troops, as long as these hundreds of thousands of troops are completely annihilated, Ran Wei will perish.
But what they never expected was that their so-called good plan just gave Ran Weijun and Ran Min another opportunity. Finally, at the time of the decisive battle, because all the fresh forces of the Later Zhao army were thrown into this so-called annihilation war, and were dragged to death by the 120,000 Ran Wei troops they despised, Ran Min personally led 80,000 Ran Wei troops to give the Later Zhao army a fatal blow in the rear of the Later Zhao army, at this time the Later Zhao army was already exhausted, coupled with the sudden attack of Ran Min's 80,000 troops, the entire Later Zhao army was suddenly on the verge of collapse, and then with Zhang Hedu, Duan Qin, Jin Dolphin and other generals taking the lead in escaping, the entire Later Zhao army collapsed Since then, the victory of the Ran Wei army in the Battle of Cangting has become a foregone conclusion.
Later, when the Later Zhao army was defeated, Ran Min gathered all the large armies to intercept the Jin Dolphin Department in Yin'an, and finally beheaded the Jin Dolphin under the horse, and the tens of thousands of remnants of the Jin Dolphin Department were also forced to submit to Ran Min, and since then the once mighty Later Zhao army has been completely disintegrated, and the remaining remnants of the defeated army have to flee back to Xiangcheng in disgrace, and Ran Wei has won the final victory. With the rout of the Later Zhao army, the state of Ran Wei also ushered in a period of great prosperity, when Ran Min's entire army was still in Yicheng, at this time, the Ran Wei army plus the captured army had a huge force of more than 300,000 troops, and the bells and drums of the Jingqi bells stretched for more than a hundred miles, and the Han Zhao who once dominated the north did not have such a mighty power.
Later, after Ran Wei solved the biggest threat of Later Zhao, Ran Min was able to calmly rectify Ran Wei's interior and carried out the famous Cangting system, at this time many people of prestige and knowledge were given matching official positions, and with the addition of these people to the territory of Ran Wei, there was a peaceful scene for a while, which was the so-called "at the beginning of the Wei and Jin dynasties." ”。 At the same time, the biggest impact of the Battle of Cangting was that the millions of Zhuyi, Qiang, Hu, and Barbarian tribesmen who had originally gathered under Later Zhao's command withdrew from the hinterland of the Central Plains and fled to Saiwai.