My system is not decent

When the two armies fought, there was not much fighting at all, and the Yin and Shang armies turned against each other.

King Wu of Zhou drove straight in, and King Zhou of Shang betrayed his relatives.

This seems to fit our imagination of a holy battle.

However, "Historical Records" is a classic of the Han Dynasty after all, and the description of the Battle of Muye a thousand years ago may not be accurate.

In earlier documents, although there are many descriptions of the Battle of Muye, there is only a lack of description of the specific process of the battle.

For example, "Shangshu Mushi" only records the pre-war mobilization of King Wu of Zhou, and the whole article ends with the oath of King Wu of Zhou;
The description of the war process in "Yi Zhou Shu Ke Yin" only has the sentence "the king swore to drive the merchants with tigers and chariots, and the merchants collapsed";

"The Book of Songs Daya Daming" also only generally records the might and majesty of the armies of both sides, without saying a word about the battle process.

In the historical materials of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Spring and Autumn Period, the records of the war tend to describe the reasons for the war and the preparations before the war in detail, and generally seldom spend pen and ink on the process of the war.

The records of the Battle of Makino are no exception.

But this time, Chen Wenzhe saw the real situation.

So, how did he determine that this was the battle of Muye, the key battle for King Wu to defeat Zhou?

In fact, in addition to the above reasons, there are many factors.

Regarding this battle, there are many researchers in later generations, such as the situation before and after the battle, the weather conditions at that time, and the clothing of the soldiers at that time.

Even because of this war, an idiom appeared, that is, blood flowed.

Obviously, the word here is not just an exaggeration, there must be a reason.

Now there are people who study this professionally. For example, there are still restoration pictures of warriors in the Western Zhou Dynasty. These documents are from "Ancient Chinese Military Costumes".

The styles of samurai clothes, clothes, and boats in the picture are from the "New Ding Three Rituals Picture".

For the style of the stomach, refer to the real object unearthed in Changping, the capital of God.

For the style of A, refer to the object unearthed in Pudu Village, Chang'an, Xishan;

For the weapon style, refer to the real object unearthed in Fangshan, Shendu.

Although thousands of years have passed, what happened will definitely leave clues in history.

Now even the clothes worn by soldiers back then can be restored by referring to the past.

Then, can the process of the Battle of Makino be judged?
Of course, through a few words, you can actually understand the cruelty of the war at that time.

For example, it is recorded in "Mencius: Put Your Heart Down": "Mencius said: "It is better to have no books than to believe in books. I just took two or three strategies in "Wu Cheng".The benevolent is invincible in the world, and even the benevolent cuts down to the inhumane, how can his blood flow? '"

Mencius' original intention was to refute the omission of the "Wu Cheng" chapter, but accidentally preserved for future generations a lost article "Blood Flowing Pillar" in the "Shangshu·Wu Cheng" chapter.

The Battle of Muye recorded in "Wu Cheng" was not bloodless or peaceful.

Instead, after an extremely cruel fight, blood flowed everywhere in the end, and even the wooden pestle could be floated.

Corresponding to the records in the "Book of Yi Zhou · World Prisoners", in the battle of King Wu's defeat of Zhou, "hundreds of evil ministers were held hostage".

...

"There are nine out of one hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-nine, and two hundred and thirty out of three hundred million captives."

This shows that there were hundreds of Shang ministers captured.

Two hundred and thirty out of three hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-seven hundred and seventy-nine of the beheaded.

There are so many people captured and beheaded that they can correspond to the records of "Blood Flowing".

Of course, there must be exaggeration here, which is similar to the history recorded by Ah San.

It's just that our ancestors still didn't dare to think about it, dare not do it, the exaggeration is too light.

On Ah San's side, in a war, tens of millions of people would participate in the war at every turn, and even billions of people could be killed at a time.

It's a pity that "Wu Cheng" has long been lost. We can no longer see this precious historical document today, and we don't know what the real history is like.

Of course, although we cannot see it, the ancients have seen it.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Wu Cheng" had not yet been lost. Wang Chong had read "Wu Cheng" and made very accurate comments.

"According to the chapter of "Wu Cheng", the battle of Mu Ye was bloody, and the red land was thousands of miles away. From this, it can be said that Zhou Zhi took Yin, which is the same as Han and Qin, and Yun took Yin Yi, and the soldiers did not use blood. The gain actually does."

The change of dynasty is often accompanied by large-scale wars.

Large-scale war means mass destruction, which is the same in ancient and modern times.

It should be said that the same is true of King Wu's extermination of Shang, but because later generations continued to deify for political purposes, the narrative system of changing dynasties without bloodshed appeared.

But if we think more deeply, we will have the idea of ​​"negation of negation".

First of all, the records of the number of captives and beheaded people in "World Prisoners" must have greatly exaggerated.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in World War I, and it only appeared in the middle and late Warring States Period, during the Qin Unification War.

During the Battle of Muye nearly a thousand years ago, our country's socioeconomic level and population were far inferior to those in the Warring States Period.

How could the scale of destruction in war be so huge?This was completely inconsistent with the reality at the time.

Secondly, even if the war kills huge, it will not reach the level of "blood flow".

What is the pestle? There has always been some controversy. Some say it is a shield, and some say it is a spring rice utensil.

But it was definitely some kind of woodwork, and it had some volume.

Makino is an open and flat field. If you want to float the wooden pestle, you need tens of centimeters of water depth.

The blood in the body of an adult man is only five or six thousand milliliters, and even the blood of a hundred thousand people is only a few hundred cubic meters.

This amount of blood is spread on the vast plain, and it is impossible to produce blood accumulation tens of centimeters deep.

Just as Wang Chong said: "King Wu conquered Zhou in the field of Mu. The land in Hebei is high, the soil is not dry, and the soldiers are bloody, and the soil is dry, and it is safe to float?"

Since "blood flowing and drifting" is so unreasonable, why does "Wu Cheng" record such specific and vivid details as "blood flowing and drifting"?
Recently, some scholars have re-examined this issue and put forward a new explanation.

This is "On the Historical Truth of "Blood Flowing and Drifting"".

First of all, when King Wu defeated Zhou, there should have been a continuous heavy rain.

"Mandarin Zhouyu" contains "the king used the night battle of Guihai in February, and it rained before it was over";
"Lu's Spring and Autumn" contains "the sky rains day and night, and King Wu travels fast";
"Six Secret Teachings" contains "Wu Wang's eastward expedition, as for the river, it rained and thundered."

There are many similar records in other classics.

Based on these historical materials, we can know that there should have been a heavy rain before and after the Battle of Muye, and even the battle was carried out in the rain.

Secondly, Muye was close to the Yellow River at that time, and the armies of both sides were probably deployed along the river.

There are many advantages to deploying formations along the river, the most important being that it can prevent the opponent from attacking from the flank.

During the heavy rain, Linhe fought, and the blood was washed into the river by the rain.

It is also very possible that blood will dye the river red due to the large number of casualties in a short period of time.