The Military Affairs of Shang Dynasty in China

The Military Affairs of Shang Dynasty in China

1. The Battle of Mingtiao and Shang Jianguo

As a generation of wise masters, Shang Tang appointed famous sages Yi Yin and Zhong You as his left and right sides to actively prepare for the summer. Politically, in view of Xia Jie's tyranny, he adopted the policy of "forgiving the people and governing the people" to win the hearts of the people and expand his influence, and soon won the support of those small countries enslaved by Xia Jie; Economically, we will strive to develop agriculture and animal husbandry, actively carry out internal and external economic exchanges, and enhance our strength.

Militarily, Shang Tang took strict steps. In order to find out the internal situation, Shang Tang sent Yi Yin into the Xia Dynasty twice, and learned that there was a folk song "A God-given shirt, a soldier in summer" circulating in the society. Xia Jie is in a crisis state of widespread indignation and discontent, so he started a military action to cut summer.

Shang Tang's first strategy was to cut off his wings one by one, destroy the summer and isolate him. The first conquest was Ge (now the north of Ningling County, Henan Province). Ge is in the west of Shangdu, which is the only way to the summer capital. In order to win its surrender, Tang repeatedly fed Ge Jun food and livestock, and sent people to help with farming, but Ge Jun refused. Later, on the grounds that Ge Jun killed the child who delivered the meal, Tang sent troops to destroy Ge Jun and won the victory in early summer. Then, we wiped out the Eastern Wei Dynasty (now east of hua county, Henan Province) and the ancient Xia Dynasty (east of Fan County, Henan Province) with heavy troops. In this way, the military strength of Shang was greatly enhanced, and the prestige of Tang was also greatly improved. All over the world, his army is known as the teacher of justice, and he does not fight for looting property. People everywhere are looking forward to Shang Tang's army like "drought for rain". Since then, the "Eleven Commandments are invincible in the world", including the elimination of Kunwu (Xuchang, Henan Province), the most powerful country in the East, and the road to direct summer logging.

In order to prepare for the war to destroy the summer directly, Shang Tang called the allied forces, contacted the allied forces, adopted Yi Yin's suggestion, and tested Xia Jie's reaction by stopping paying tribute to Xia Jie. At this point, Xia Jie can still mobilize the division of September 1st, ready to crusade against Shang Tang. Shang Tang saw that Xia Jie's power was still there, so he "made amends" and pretended to surrender temporarily.

In order to further find out the inside story of Mingxia before sending troops, Yi Yin went to Xiadu again, and immediately returned to Tang after learning that Guan Fenglong and other loyal officials had been brutally killed and that he was afraid of betraying others. Tang Zaihang stopped paying tribute to Xia Jie. Jie Li called the teacher of Jiuyi to discuss the soup, and called the princes to form an alliance. As a result, not only the teachers in September 1st couldn't stand it, but also some people openly opposed summer. At this time, Tang thought that the time was ripe for cutting Jie, so he decided to strike first and destroy the summer in one fell swoop.

When Shang Tang made his fortune, he held a pledging mobilization meeting and announced that he was ordered by heaven to crusade against Jie. He asked his subordinates to help him wholeheartedly, and then he gave such subordinates a big reward, "I will not break my word"; Otherwise, "if you don't keep your oath, I will kill you without forgiveness", that is, if you don't obey my orders, I will punish you, or kill you, or turn you into a slave, and I will never forgive you.

The rulers of the Xia Dynasty, who had already been fighting among themselves, learned that Shang Tang had sent troops and fled to western Henan. Shang Tang led the troops across the Yellow River and Enemy at the Gates. Xia Jie led his troops out of the capital and went to fight in the Ming Dynasty. Tang Shi fought bravely and was quickly defeated. Valerian fled to the South Nest and died.

The victory of the battle of Mingtiao means the beginning of summer in Shang Dynasty. Therefore, Shang Tang and Yi Yin attached great importance to this battle, made long-term preparations, and adopted the correct strategic policy in order to win this battle. They are good at winning and grasping favorable fighters, carrying out the correct policy of fighting for the people and the country, and launching a political offensive before the war, which is the earliest example of decisive battle and quick decision in China's military history, and also has a very important position in military history. Xia Jie is politically autocratic and corrupt, losing the support of the people and the state, and falling apart internally, which is the main reason for its failure; When Valerian was attacked by Tang, he didn't know how to use the capital to weaken the enemy, but he hurried out of the city to meet the strong enemy in the wild, which made a military taboo and provided conditions for Tang Jun to win quickly.

2. "Wuding Zhongxing" and the prosperity of Shang Dynasty.

After the establishment of Xia and Shang Dynasties in Shang Tang, the situation of the country developed rapidly, and small neighboring countries surrendered one after another, respecting business as king, forming a powerful situation of "dare not come to enjoy, dare not come to the king".

By the 11th King, there was a "Nine Dynasties Rebellion" within the ruling clique, which weakened the rule of Shang Dynasty. Some Fang tribes took the opportunity to get out of control, rose up, disturbed the Shang Dynasty, and the Shang Dynasty was in chaos.

After the 25th King Pan Geng succeeded to the throne, he moved the capital to Yin in order to solve the internal and external troubles, revitalize the rule of Shang Dynasty, and from then on, the politics of Shang Dynasty tended to be stable, which laid the foundation for future development. Shang has been called Yin or Yin Shang ever since.

The 23rd Ding. According to legend, when he was young, he lived among the people and knew "the pain of ploughing". After Fu Shuo, who was born a slave, ascended the throne, he was appointed as prime minister, striving to make all aspects of Shang Dynasty develop.

At that time, the Shang dynasty tried its best to consolidate and develop slavery, and the conflict with the increasingly powerful Fang tribes whose normal occupation was looting war was bound to be fierce. Among them, Xirong, located in the northwest and dominated by Qiang people, often invaded the northwest of Yin and plundered crops, livestock and population, especially in the harvest season. Sometimes they are sent alone to clean the city; From time to time, alliances were formed and soldiers invaded and plundered, which made the northwest border of Yin seriously uneasy. There are also some small countries that take the opportunity to comply with the times, often refusing to pay tribute under various excuses, and even dispatch troops insurrection. Therefore, Wu Ding conquered all directions and fought for many years. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions's records, Wuding recruited hundreds of tribes, and sometimes several fronts fought at the same time. One of the most important and fierce wars is to cut the ghost side and cut the side.

Ghost Fang is located in today's northern Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, and it is one of the more powerful ministries. Emperor Gaozong (Wuding) cut down the devil's prescription and conquered it in three years. The war of the victors is an important event in the history of Shang Dynasty. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the war took place in the late Wuding period. There are a lot of divination in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. According to textual research, its activity area is about in the northern part of Shanxi and Hetao area of Inner Mongolia. Surrender to Yin became stronger in Wuding. He occupied the northwest and became the leader of some nomadic tribes' anti-Yin alliance. He led the sheep side, the square side and the Turkish side to attack repeatedly. Although this kind of invasion is generally small in scale, it is frequent. Not only crops, people and animals are often plundered, but also slaves in border areas often take the opportunity to escape or resist, which poses a great threat to Yin. Therefore, Wuding's war of aggression lasted a long time and was laborious. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, 13,000 soldiers are used at a time, which is an unprecedented scale of fighting, surpassing any other tribe in China.

During the war, Wu Ding always attached great importance to the situation of the enemy. He not only ordered the military attaché s and local governors stationed in the western regions to closely monitor the border crossings, but also mobilized "many servants" and thousands of soldiers to take care of them. The specific battle plan is carefully planned, for example, whether Wuding's army is dispatched, whether it is supported by Wang Yin himself, whether it is necessary to pursue a 56-point victory, how to deploy the army, how to appoint generals, etc., all of which have to go through repeated divination, which shows that the other side has always adhered to the principle of winning with caution. This is an important reason why the conquerors of Wu Ding won. The war was fought off and on for many years, which basically relieved Fang's threat to Yin. When Wu was in power, he captured Fang's leader alive and finally ended the war.

When fighting against neighboring tribes, Wu Ding often carefully selects military commanders and generals according to the difficulty of winning or losing the war targets. Fang was an old enemy of the Yin Dynasty. As a result, Wu Ding often led a great army to cut down houses, appointed Canghou Lake to cut down houses, and made women cut down and levy houses, netting stables, Kejifang, etc., and cooperated closely. Among them, Fu Hao was the first famous female general in ancient China. She is one of Princess Wuding. She either fought independently or cooperated with generals to help Wu Ding conquer and defend its borders for a long time. There are many sacrificial objects and ritual vessels in Fu Hao's tomb, which is a compliment to Wang Shanghui's achievements.

Wuding also used troops against barbarians in Jingchu, Jianghuai, the lower reaches of Huaihe River and Shandong coastal areas in Jianghan area south of Qinling Mountains. Because the Fang tribes in these areas also showed a strong political centrifugal tendency, the Shang Dynasty sometimes resorted to force to conquer these places.

"Arise, attack Jingchu and block the way" is an important war to conquer Jingchu in Wu Ding period, which has great influence. Since then, the ruling power of the Shang Dynasty in the south has been extended from the Yangtze River to the present areas of Hunan and Jiangxi.

Wu Ding conquered the war in all directions, relieved the troubles of the northwest border, expanded the territory and influence of Shang Dynasty, and made the development of Shang Dynasty enter its heyday, becoming a famous slavery power in the world at that time. After Wu Ding's death, his temple name was named "Wu" and was honored as "",which was greatly respected by the Yin people and became a famous monarch in ancient times.

3. Conquering Dongyi and the demise of Shang Dynasty

At the end of Shang Dynasty, Wang Shang Wuyi, Wen Ding, Di Yi and Di Xin successively ascended the throne. These four heavenly kings all like to lead troops to fight and pay attention to martial arts. Therefore, the temple names of the first three kings were all preceded by the word "Wu", such as Wu Zuyi in Wuyi, Wen Ding or Ding, Di Yi or Di Yi. Because Zhou is the king of national subjugation, there is no temple name. During his reign, he often waged wars, the most famous of which was the war against Dongyi.

Dongyi has always been associated with the Central Plains Dynasty (Xia Shang Dynasty), and Wuding even "moved to Huai and Dai and gradually became a sergeant", which often led to direct conflicts with Shang Dynasty, and finally several large-scale wars broke out in Shang Dynasty.

According to legend, the cause of Dongyi's invasion was that Dongyi held a military exercise in Lebanon. Dongyi refused to participate, so he was furious and sent troops to crusade. The real reason is that the local class contradictions under the direct jurisdiction of Shang Dynasty were very fierce at that time, and "Wang was in the ascendant and shared the same enemy". In order to divert attention, he launched a war against Dongyi. There is no specific record of the conquest of Dongyi in history, but judging from the achievements of capturing "100 trillion" Yi people, the scale is quite large.

The battle of Zhou Dong's expedition to the East was an attempt to consolidate and expand the rule of Shang Dynasty, which objectively had certain positive significance for protecting the economic and cultural development of the Central Plains, expanding the spread of advanced culture in the Central Plains and accelerating the integration of all ethnic groups. However, this war is cruel and predatory. The property and livestock of Dongyi people were looted, and the policy of enslaving and killing prisoners of war intensified the opposition and hatred with neighboring countries. This is completely different from Shang Tang's attack on Xia Jie, which not only reflects the powerful national strength in the late Shang Dynasty, but also reflects the reactionary and decadent politics in the late Shang Dynasty. It is he who is doing a good job in the war. Although he won, he exhausted his national strength.

The traffic in Dongyi is inconvenient, and the business army is far away. In this war, the battle organization of the advance team came into being. The advance team opens the way for the main force to March, removes obstacles and ensures the smooth progress of the main force. This is a pioneering work in military history. The Shang army also used "riding a horse to serve cows" as a long-distance transportation tool, and the road from the Central Plains to the Quartet was quickly opened.

As Shang Zhouwang led the elite troops to conquer Dongyi, when he was full of ambition, the allied forces led by Zhou Wuwang suddenly appeared in the commercial suburb of Konoha. The army of the Shang Dynasty collapsed in the First World War, and Zhou Wang died of self-immolation. Then the Shang Dynasty perished, and the Zhou Dynasty was established and replaced.