In the 13th year of King Huan of Zhou Dynasty (707 BC), the Battle of Gege was a counterattack of Zheng Zhuanggong, the State of Zheng, who defeated Zhou's allied forces in Gege (now Changge North, Henan Province) in order to dominate the Central Plains in the early Spring and Autumn Period. It is also the beginning of the decline of the Zhou royal family and the rise of the vassal state after China entered the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which disobeyed the emperor's orders and began to covet and compete for hegemony.
After the war in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the strength of the Zhou royal family was greatly reduced. Although Zhou, who moved eastward to Luoyi, nominally retained his position as the master of the world, in fact, his power had plummeted, and the area directly ruled was shrinking, making it impossible to command other princes. In this situation, some governors took the opportunity to stand up and began to challenge the exclusive position of Zhou Tianzi. Among them, Zheng, located in the center of the Central Plains, rose first in this struggle and became the most powerful and prestigious country among the governors at that time.
Although Zheng began to enfeoffment in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, its founding monarch Zheng Huangong was the youngest son of Zhou Liwang, and was closely related to the Zhou royal family, so he was always dependent on the Zhou royal family and was appointed as a royal official to preside over the central affairs of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition, Zheng Huangong also moved the domestic people from Guanzhong area to Xinzheng County, Henan Province, occupying a world-famous place extending in all directions. Therefore, the country is thriving and becoming a pivotal force among vassal States and nations.
After he acceded to the throne, relying on his strong national strength and favorable conditions for being a powerful minister, he tried his best to expand his territory and invade vassals, further enhancing Zheng's strength. In military diplomacy, his main strategy and means are to win over Qi and Lu, weaken Wei, Song, Chen and Cai, and destroy Xu, resulting in a "small hegemony" situation.
With the growth of political and military strength, his attitude towards the Zhou royal family became more and more arrogant and unruly, and he no longer paid attention to the king's life. In this way, the contradiction between Zhou and Zheng became a sharp tax, and the battle of Ge was the product of this contradiction.
As early as the reign, there was mutual distrust between Zhou and Zheng, and there was a "Zhou Zheng hostage" incident, that is, his son stayed in Zheng as a hostage, and Zheng's son suddenly lived in Luoyi, the capital of Zhou. After Zhou Huan-wang succeeded to the throne, he was even more disgusted with his arrogance, so he gave the state political commissar to Guo Gong, and later even deprived him of his official position and took part of Zheng's land for himself.
Zheng Zhuanggong became angry from embarrassment and never went to worship King Huan of Zhou again. The contradiction between the two countries has reached the point of explosive. King Huan of Zhou could not tolerate the offensive behavior, so in the autumn of 707 BC, he personally led Zhou Jun and the armies of Chen, Cai, Wei and other vassal States to slash Zheng, and a great war finally broke out on the battlefield in the Central Plains.
When Zheng Zhuanggong heard that Zhou's multinational troops came among the people, he commanded the army to meet him. Soon, the two armies met in Gege. In order to win the decisive battle, the two sides quickly dispatched troops and deployed troops. King Huan of Zhou divided the allied forces into three armies, the father of which was the right army, and Cai and Wei Jun were the right army. Zuo Jun was under the command of Duke Zhou and Duke Qing, and Chen Jun was subordinate to it. Zhong Jun was personally commanded by Huan Wang.
Zheng Jun also made necessary and sufficient arrangements according to the situation and characteristics of the allied forces around the room. They also divided Zheng Jun into three parts: Zhong Jun, Left Rejection (although it means "Force Array") and Right Rejection. Zheng Zhuanggong, Fan Yuan, Gao Qumi and others led Zhong Jun, with Jizhong commanding left refusal and Mambo commanding right refusal. Prepare to fight Zhou Jun.
Before the war, Dr. Zheng made a correct analysis of the enemy's situation in view of the composition of the Coalition forces. He pointed out that the situation in Chen Guo is turbulent, so its army has no fighting spirit. If Chen Jun's week is attacked first, Chen Jun will surely collapse soon. However, Cai Weijun's fighting capacity is not strong. At that time, under the attack of Zheng Jun, it will be difficult to compete and retreat first. In view of this actual situation, Gong Ziyuan suggested that Zheng Jun first break the weak left and right wings of the allied forces, and then concentrate his forces on attacking the main force of the allied forces commanded by Zhou himself. His suggestion was very reasonable, so it was accepted by Zheng Zhuanggong.
Gao Qumi, another doctor of the State of Zheng, in view of the lesson that in the past, when the vassal allied forces attacked the northern land, the vanguard soldiers were broken, and the subsequent chariots lost their cover, so that they could not attack and lost, he put forward the suggestion of changing the clumsy cooperative combat mode of chariots and infantry in the past and weaving them into a "fish-beautiful array" to meet the enemy. The so-called "beautiful array of fish" is characterized by "leaning first and fighting later" and "fighting each other", that is, the chariots are arranged in front, and the infantry are evacuated on both sides and rear of the chariots, forming a coordinated and flexible whole. Zheng Zhuanggong is a ruler who is good at accepting new things, so his new tactical suggestions are also adopted by him.
After the battle began, Zheng Jun took the initiative to launch a fierce attack on the allied forces in Zhou's territory in accordance with the established operational deployment: "the flag is moving and the drums are beating" and the drums are marching forward. Dr. Zheng Manbo directed Zheng Youjun's phalanx to attack Chen Jun on the left of Zhou's allied forces first. As expected, Chen's soldiers had no fighting spirit. When he fled the battlefield, the left wing of Zhou's allied forces collapsed. At the same time, Ji Zhong also directed Zheng Jun's left phalanx to attack Cai Wei Jun's Zhou right-wing troops. Cai Weijun's situation is not better than Chen Jun's. After a little confrontation, he lost one after another. Zhou was disturbed by the routed troops, and the battle immediately fell into chaos. Seeing this, he immediately waved the flag to command the original numerous attacks on Zhou. Zheng's left and right phalanxes, commanded by Ji Zhong and Mambo respectively, also took advantage of the situation to attack Zhou. Zhou, who lost the cooperation between his left and right wings, could not resist the converging attack of Zheng Sanjun and was defeated. Zhou himself was wounded by an arrow and was forced to order him to leave the battlefield.
When Zheng Jun's commander saw Zhou Shi's rout, he was very excited. Zhu Yong and others suggested to proceed immediately and expand the results, but Zheng Zhuanggong refused. His view is that "a gentleman doesn't want many people, how dare he be the son of heaven?" So the battlefield is so quiet. The implication of Zheng Zhuanggong's doing this is that although Zhou's position is not what it used to be, his prestige is still there, and he should not offend too much, which will cause hostility and opposition from other vassal States. To this end, he also sent people to offer sacrifices to the injured King Huan of Zhou overnight to ease the sharp contradiction between the two countries.
There are three main reasons why Zheng Jun won the battle. First, the main attack direction was correctly selected and a reasonable attack procedure was formulated. Because the two wings of the Zhou Coalition are very weak, especially Chen Jun, who is the left wing, is the weakest.
Zheng Jun attacked his left wing first, then his right wing, and then concentrated his forces to attack the operational headquarters of China army, which hit the weak link of Zhou's allied formation, thus winning the battle. The second is the correct use of advanced tactics. It created a "beautiful fish array", which made the chariots and foot soldiers cooperate well, greatly improved the combat effectiveness of Zheng Jun, and was limited to the passive failure of Zhou's allied forces in the traditional car warfare tactics.
The third is to grasp the scale of advance and retreat in a timely manner, stop chasing in time to win the battle, not only strive for political initiative, but also retain the achievements of military victory.
The battle of Gege had a great influence on that time. The prestige of the Zhou emperor plummeted, and the tradition of "ritual and music conquering from the emperor" died out. At the same time, it also marks the official arrival of the era of vassal hegemony.