When it comes to assessing the causes of military disasters over the ages, one that appears time and again is the capacity of military leaders to underestimate their enemies. This was the case in October 205 BCE, when the combined forces of the Zhao army took on the much smaller force of the Han army in the rugged Taihang Mountains of northwest China.
The battle was catastrophic for the Zhao army, which was outwitted, outmanoeuvred and annihilated by a Han force less than one-sixth its size. The general commanding the Han army was Han Xin, a mercurial character who would go on to become the greatest military strategist in Chinese history. Han Xin’s strategy that day would become the stuff of legend. It’s a credit to him that over two millennia later, the Battle of Jingxing is remembered for the audacious brilliance of his battle plan.
The Warring States
The Battle of Jingxing took place towards the end of a period of ancient Chinese history known as the Warring States. This was an era defined by military conflict and rife with fractured alliances, scurrilous betrayals and fervent territorial ambition. Sixteen years prior to the battle, in 221 BCE, the Qin dynasty had been established as the first dynasty of a unified Imperial China. But by 208 BCE, the Qin had been overthrown by a rebellion.
In 207 BCE, one of the rebels, a noble called Xiang Yu, asserted his leadership of the rebel armies and joined forces with the anti-Qin leader Liu Bang. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang teamed up to overthrow the Qin, but their allegiance was to be short-lived. By 205 BCE they were at war with each other for control of China.
The Battle of Pengcheng
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