淝水之战

　　公元4世纪下半期，前秦皇帝苻坚统一了北方黄河流域。公元383年5月，苻坚征集了80多万人的军队开始进攻东晋。

　　面对前秦的进攻，东晋上下决心同心协力抗敌。当时，晋军将领是谢石、谢玄和刘牢之，总数只有8万人。10月，前秦军队攻占寿阳(今安徽寿县)，苻坚派被俘的东晋将军朱序到晋军中去劝降。朱序到了晋营，趁机告诉谢石，前秦军队到达前线的只有25万军士，建议先发起进攻。

　　11月，刘牢之带精兵5,000人进攻，消灭了秦军5万人。谢石等随后乘胜前进，在淝水与前秦军隔水对阵。一天，谢玄以隔水不方便打仗为理由，请秦军后退。苻坚想乘晋军渡河时用骑兵猛冲，消灭晋军，于是命令秦军后退。可是，前秦士兵不明白后退的意思，以为秦军已战败了。此时，朱序又乘机大喊：“秦军败了！秦军败了！”前秦军队顿时大乱。晋军乘机渡过了淝水，秦兵拚命逃跑，苻坚被箭射伤，只带了10多万人逃回长安。

　　这是历史上有名的以少胜多的淝水之战。淝水之战后，前秦瓦解，北方又重新分裂。

　　The Battle of Feishui

　　In the latter half of the fourth century, Fu Jian, ruler of the Former Qin Dynasty, united the Yellow River Valley area. In the fifth lunar month of 383, Fu Jian led an army of over 800,000 men against Eastern Jin.

　　Facing the attack of Fu Jian's army, the Eastern Jin Dynasty decided to make concerted efforts to fight against the enemy. At that time, leaders of the Jin army were Xie Shi, Xie Xuan and Liu Laozhi. They had an army of only 80,000 men. In the 10th lunar month Fu Jian's army captured Shouyang (today's Shouxian County, Anhui Province). Fu Jian sent Zhu Xu, a Jin general captured by the Former Qin army, to the Jin army, to induce them to capitulate. Seizing the chance of going to the Jin camp, Zhu Xu told Xie Shi that there were only 250,000 Former Qin soldiers in the front, and he suggested the Jin army launch an attack first.

　　In the 11th month, Liu Laozhi attacked the Former Qin army with 5,000 crack soldiers and wiped out 50,000 Former Qin soldiers. Xie Shi and other generals advanced on the crest of the victory and confronted the Former Qin army with each army on one side of the Feishui River. One day, Xie Xuan proposed that it was not convenient for the two belligerent parties to fight on different sides of the river and asked the Former Qin army to draw back. Fu Jian had planned to attack the Jin army when they crossed the river, so he ordered his army to retreat. However, his soldiers did not know the real meaning of the retreat, and many of them thought that they had lost the battle. Just at that time, Zhu Xu shouted loudly, "Fu Jian's army has lost the battle! Fu Jian's army has lost the battle!"This threw the Former Qin soldiers into great confusion at once. The Jin army took advantage of the occasion and crossed the Feishui River. Fu Jian's soldiers fled desperately and Fu Jian himself got wounded by an arrow. At last, Fu Jian returned to Chang'an with only a little more than 100,000 soldiers.

　　This was the famous Battle of Feishui in history, in which a small army defeated a big one. After the Battle of Feishui, the Former Qin Dynasty fell down and north China was again rent by independent regimes.