Yuan Shao VS Gongsun Zan(The Battle of Jieqiao)

History of Three Kingdoms 14

After the Dong Zhuo(董卓) crusade, the Guandong(area to the East of Han’gu pass函谷关) Alliance Army was disbanded, while Yuan Shao(袁绍), the leader of the alliance, returned to Bohai commandery in frustration.

At this time, Yuan Shao, except for the two resounding names of the "three Councillors in four generations" and the leader of the alliance Army, actually only has a small piece of land as Bohai(渤海) commandery, which was even given by Dong Zhuo. In that period of the law of the jungle, if you couldn't expand your power quickly, you would soon be eaten by others, regardless of whether you were a famous scholar or an alliance leader.

Bohai commandery belonged to Jizhou（冀州） province, so Yuan Shao naturally targeted the territory of Han Fu（韩馥）, the provincial governor of Jizhou. There was a conflict between Han Fu and Gongsun Zan(公孙瓒) in Youzhou(幽州) at that time, so Yuan Shao adopted the strategy of his military counsellor Pang Ji(逄纪), on one hand, he led his army to the west and set up an attack on Jizhou, on the other hand, he secretly wrote a letter to Gongsun Zan, and made an appointment to jointly pincer attack Jizhou. Han Fu was really no match for Gongsun Zan, and was defeated as soon as they fought, and even his general Qu Yi (麴义)rebelled. Yuan Shao sent emissaries to make friends with Qu Yi. His nephew, Gao Gan（高干）, and a counsellor, Xun Chen(荀谌), went to Yecheng(邺城capital of Jizhou) to persuade Han Fu.

Yuan Shao's strategy was really beautiful. Han Fu, who was a coward in nature and had no strategy, agreed to give up Jizhou and invited Yuan Shao to be the provincial governor of Jizhou under coercion and lure. In this way, without a single soldier, Yuan Shao got Jizhou, the richest of the thirteen provinces in the country, while Han Fu, the wrongdoer, was deprived of his military power and died under house arrest.

Jizhou, with its large area and abundant resources, gave Yuan Shao an inexhaustible supply of soldiers and talents. By this time, Yuan Shao's civil officials included Ju Shou(沮授), Shen Pei(审配), Guo Tu(郭图), Tian Feng(田丰), Xu You(许攸), Pang Ji(逄纪), and Xun Chen(荀谌), his generals included Qu Yi, Yan Liang(颜良), Wen Chou(文丑), Zhang He(张郃), and Gao Lan(高览), initially constructing his own core team.

But this time Yuan Shao was facing a situation that was not optimistic. Although Jizhou is rich, it is surrounded by strong enemies. Qingzhou(青州) to the east is where the remaining Yellow Turban rebels have gathered, and it's been in chaos for years. To the south is Cao Cao's(曹操) territory, Yanzhou(兖州). To the west, Bingzhou(并州) was once under the rule of Zhang Yan's(张燕) Black Mountain Army. The north is even more dangerous, as the powerful warlord Gongsun Zan is entrenched in Youzhou, watching intently.

At the beginning of 192 A.D., Gongsun Zan, who had long been impatient, launched a strong attack on Jizhou, which led various counties to surrender, so Yuan Shao personally led his troops to engage, and the Battle of Jieqiao(界桥) broke out.

Gongsun Zan arranged his 30,000 infantry in a square formation, with 5,000 light cavalry on each flank, and in the center was “The guards on white horses（白马义从）”, the most mighty cavalry force in combat. “The guards on white horses” are Gongsun Zan's most elite cavalry force, numbering about 3,000, the horses are all white, and the soldiers are all the best of the best. They have strong mobility and power, and are very loyal to Gongsun Zan, which is Gongsun Zan's greatest support, even the valiant Xiongnu(匈奴) cavalry, when they see ”The guards on white horses“, they mostly run away!

But this time they've met their nemesis, Qu Yi's 800 Daredevils. In fact, Yuan Shao arranged this, it is a helpless move, if we want to talk about the strength of infantry, Yuan Shao is not weaker than Gongsun Zan, but Yuan Shao's cavalry is too few to match with Gongsun Zan!

There is a natural disadvantage in using infantry against cavalry, not to mention that with only 800 men, Gongsun Zan will surely take it lightly. This is the effect that Qu Yi wants. In fact, these 800 men are just bait, and behind them are 1,000 ballistas, which are very powerful and far from ordinary bows , this is Qu Yi's real killer weapon!

Sure enough, Gongsun Zan, seeing the small number of soldiers on the other side, ordered his cavalry to charge and trample on the enemy, while Qu Yi led the 800 elite infantrymen, quietly crouching under the shields.

Yan Gang(严纲), the general under Gongsun Zan, was leading “The guards on white horses” to rush to a place dozens of paces away from the enemy, when he suddenly discovered the thousand terrifyingly ballistas, and the harsh cold light from the dense arrows instantly made Yan Gang's brain go blank. What the ballistas means to the cavalry, Yan Gang knows better than anyone, but it's already too late, not waiting for Yan Gang to react, Qu yi jumped up with 800 dead soldiers, killing over, at the same time, the ballistas were fired, the arrows were like meteors, swooping down on Gongsun Zan's cavalry, where they hit, like lightning and thunder, in the bloody air, mixed with the cavalry's dying wails and the neighing of their horses, a large number of soldiers fell down in a split second, and the entire army of Gongsun Zan was in chaos, with soldiers scrambling to flee for their lives, Qu Yi became more and more courageous in his fight all the away ,they captured the Jieqiao, while Gongsun Zan led the remnants of his troops to retreat to Ji County(蓟县).

At this time, Yuan Shao is commanding behind with tens of thousands of infantrymen, and when he sees that Qu Yi has won a great victory, he becomes a bit careless with the enemy. He ordered his main force to chase the enemy, while he himself led just more than 100 guards, holding dozens of crossbows, slowly marching behind them.

When he reached a distance of more than 5 kms from the Jieqiao, he heard that Gongsun Zan had already been defeated, so he got down from his horse and rested for a while.

At that time, Gongsun Zan's more than 2,000 cavalrymen who had fled suddenly appeared and surrounded Yuan Shao's 100 people!

These soldiers didn't know that the one in there was Yuan Shao, so they didn't play with their lives to charge, otherwise Yuan Shao's life would not have been saved.

After these people surrounded Yuan Shao, they just released random arrows on the periphery, and for a while the arrows fell like rain, making the situation very dangerous. The strategist Tian Feng supported Yuan Shao and asked him to hide in a short wall to avoid the arrows, but Yuan Shao was furious and fiercely slammed his helmet on the ground, saying that :"a great man preferred to die in battle, could he survive by hiding behind the wall?" Yuan Shao's heroism dispersed the fear in the hearts of the crowd. He boosted the morale of the people and calmly commanded the bowmen to fight against the enemy, never letting the enemy troops advance.Soon Qu Yi led his troops to come back to rescue them, which made the group of cavalrymen quickly withdraw.

The Battle of Jieqiao, was a classic campaign in Chinese history in which infantry defeated cavalry, taught future generations that strict discipline, the ability to catch the chance and the personal qualities of the commander are always the key to win!

After this battle, Qu Yi became famous throughout the country, while Gongsun Zan's “guards on white horses” were basically wiped out, with the general Yan Gang killed in battle. While Yuan Shao conquered the whole Jizhou, firmly controlling this rich foothold.