The battle of Changping was a very important battle in pre-Qin history. Sima Qian's Historical Records describes the battle of Changping.
In 262 BC, Qin Jun began to attack Shangdang area. So he sent a reconnaissance team to Kongcangling to spy on Zhao. Lian Po "stick to Qin, Qin number challenges, Zhao Bing can't go out." (Historical Records, Biography of Tian Lei and Wang Jian). Zhao relied on a solid defense line to confront Qin Jun, but because Zhao Jun insisted on waiting for help for a long time and consumed a lot of food, Zhao Wang directly replaced Zhao Kuo with Lian Po to stick to the defense line.
Pretend to retreat and attract Zhao's main force to Danxi. Two mobile units directly dispatched, cutting off Zhao's retreat. A sudden appearance of 25,000 people behind the Great Wall defense line cut off Zhao's route for providing foodstuff. Zhao couldn't break through, and his ammunition was running out. Zhao Guo broke through by force four or five times, and was shot by Qin Jun. In the end, 400,000 Zhao troops were annihilated in Leitian.
However, during the 46 days when Zhao Jun was besieged in the battle of Changping, the details of the battle between Zhao Jun and Qin Jun were not clearly recorded in the history books. Specifically, it is roughly equivalent to Zhao's strength, with more than 400 thousand people. Zhao, led by Lian Po, a famous soldier, is supported by three lines of defense and is impregnable.
In the battle of Changping, Qin Jun didn't form an absolute strength advantage in the face of the well-defended Zhao army, which made Qin Jun's battle to destroy Zhao army have the characteristics of "defeating the strong with the weak". Details about how to "defeat the strong with the weak", besieged Zhao for 46 days and finally defeated Zhao can be found in the Terracotta Warriors.
The display of Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor reflects the formation of Qin Jun when he received a military parade. How to combine historical records and make a detailed study of historical materials and terracotta warriors and horses can reveal some distinctive features of Qin Jun's operations.
The secret of terracotta warriors and horses
Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit was built based on the garrison troops in Xianyang, Qin Dynasty, which completely restored the tactics of Qin Jun's battle formation.
Among them, the focus is the No.1 pit of Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, with more than 6,000 infantry and chariot figures and more than 30 chariots.
In movies and TV series, it is often seen that Qin Jun fires a crossbow and shoots at the enemy like rain. But this is actually a misunderstanding of history.
There is no denying that Qin Jun attaches great importance to the training of crossbows. Qin Jun soldiers' crossbow training is not in place, and not only soldiers but also officers will be punished. However, because Qin crossbow has no crossbow profile, the reliability of Qin crossbow needs to be further improved. Qin Jun will not use the crossbow as the only main weapon in offensive warfare.
What other weapons were used in actual combat in Qin Jun? According to historical records, Qin Jun's battle was "a whitewash attack, an ash attack and a sudden death from the former". This shows that Qin Jun attaches importance to hand-to-hand combat. Four meters of beryllium and three meters of halberd were unearthed from the No.1 pit. Beryllium is equivalent to a slender dagger, suitable for chopping. Beryllium is a hexahedron with a sharp front and a wide back, and its cutting edge is full of lethality. The halberd is a slender weapon with a sharper spear, which is used for assassination on the battlefield.
Careful observation of Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit No.1 reveals that the formation of Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit No.1 is divided into forward array, home array, two-wing array and defender array. Most of these soldiers are soldiers with crossbows.
Behind the striker formation is this formation, 38 columns. Among the soldiers in this array, a few people hold crossbows, and most of them are Beryllium halberd heavy infantry.
The two-wing phalanx is a separate warning force. Each phalanx has 170 soldiers. There are 204 guards in the rear phalanx, divided into three rows with 68 people in each row.
The two-wing phalanx and the guard phalanx are heavy infantry equipped with beryllium halberd.
When encountering the enemy on the battlefield, the Qin army just started to disperse with light infantry, killing some enemies with crossbows in his hands, which constituted a disturbing situation for the enemy. Heavy infantry quickly changed formation, compressed depth, prepared for battle, and stood by with beryl in hand. Once the order to go to war is given, Qin Jun's heavy infantry equipped with beryllium and halberd can launch a white-edged charge and engage the enemy hand to hand. Then, through the killing of light crossbowmen, the enemy's effective strength was hit to a certain extent, and Qin Jun's heavy infantry could relatively easily enter the enemy formation and fight with the enemy.
In addition to offensive weapons and tactics in place, Qin Jun's protection is also quite good.
Qin Jun's protection is divided into front armor (protecting the chest and abdomen), back armor (protecting the back), shawl (protecting the shoulders), basin collar (protecting the neck) and armor (protecting the arms and hands). Qin Jun's armor is divided into different types according to the needs of various arms. For example, infantry armor, focusing on protecting the chest, back and neck, focusing on building front and rear armor, shoulders and basin collars. The neck, arms and hands of the chariot are vulnerable to attack, so it is necessary to focus on building the armor of the arms and hands and the basin collar.
Qin Jun's armor is leather. Compared with bronze armor, leather armor has higher strength and can provide better protection. The leather armor collected from the tomb of Zeng Houyi can prove that the leather armor production in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period reached a fairly high technical level.
Combined with the introduction and data of Terracotta Warriors' pit 1, and the introduction of weapons and protection in Qin Jun, we basically restored the basic formation of Qin Jun. But this is not all the fighting formations in Qin Jun, and there are pits 2, 3, 4 and Qin Jun.
The military array displayed in the second pit is divided into four phalanxes.
1 The phalanx is a crossbowman, 160 The crossbowman kneels, 172 The crossbowman stands and shoots.
The phalanx is a chariot formation, with 64 chariots, and each chariot has three Qin Jun soldiers.
3 phalanx is a mixed formation of infantry, cavalry and chariots, with chariots 19, infantry 264 and cavalry 8.
4 phalanx is a mixed formation of chariots and cavalry, with 6 chariots and cavalry 108.
Qin Jun in pit 2 is a mixed force of infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers. It belongs to the category of "Indiana Jones" in Sun Tzu's Art of War. In wartime, it can undertake independent combat tasks, such as independent attack or reconnaissance harassment. If the two sides are deadlocked, they can strike from the enemy's flank and rear, just like a dagger inserted directly into the enemy's chest.
The third pit is the position of the commander.
The fourth pit is unfinished, but it is located between the third pit and the second pit. It is likely to be a mixed battle phalanx of infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers.
Terracotta Warriors and the Battle of Changping
Judging from the arrangement of Terracotta Warriors and Horses pits, the infantry phalanx in Qin Jun No.1 pit is the main fighting force, which is divided into light crossbowmen and heavy beryllium halberd soldiers to fight against the enemy.
Pit No.2 and Pit No.4 combined combat troops-mixed combat phalanx of infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers, quickly penetrated from both sides and rear of the enemy and directly surrounded the enemy.
In this way, the details of Qin Jun's action become quite clear.
In the battle of Changping, Zhao fell into a "hodgepodge" of Qin Jun infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers, and attacked Zhao's main force with the main force. First, the crossbowman fired a crossbow, constantly harassing and killing Zhao's effective strength.
At the same time, the infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers were mixed into two groups, cutting off Zhao's retreat and route for providing foodstuff near the Great Wall defense line. The heavy infantry, equipped with beryllium and halberd, was cut off from the grain route, and Zhao lacked food and launched a fierce hand-to-hand combat. The soldiers of Zhao lacked food and could not effectively stop Qin Jun's hand-to-hand combat.
The part of Zhao who broke through was violently blocked by the "Indiana Jones", that is, the multi-arms mixed combat corps in the No.2 pit, and it was impossible to break through. In this way, 400,000 Zhao troops suffered heavy losses and made great achievements under the mixed tactical attack of riding.