Chapter 10 The Battle of Feishui(6)

In the second year of the Tai Yuan Dynasty (377), the Eastern Jin court appointed Huan Chong's son Huan Si as governor of Jiangzhou. In addition, he appointed Wang Yun, a senior officer of the Ministry of War, as governor of Jiangzhou and governor of Xuzhou. He appointed South County prime minister, Xie Xuan, as the Yanzhou governor, supervising the military of the north Yangtze River. [8]Later Xie An presented his nephew Xie Xuan to defense the northern territories. [9]Xie An himself took command of military of Yangzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Qinzhou, totally five states military forces, covering large area of the whole Yangtze river downstream. [10]Huan secretariat was appointed to jingzhou, defense JingXiang region; Xie Xuan defended Guangling and coordinated with Xie An to defend the Huainan area. In order to strengthen the central army, Emperor Xiaowu ordered Xie Xuan to recruit people from Huainan and Jiangbei to expand his army. In Guangling, he selected good generals, trained elite soldiers, selected Liu Aozhi and others, and set up the elite Beifu Army at that time. [11][12]

In February of Taiyuan three years (378 AC), former Qin King FuJian appointed Fupi as chief general to conquer the south, to lead Gou Chang, general of military defense, and Murong, and general of Shang Shu, with 70,000 cavalry troops, to march for Xiangyang, an important city of Eastern Jin on the western boarder. The three armies encircled Xiangyang with a total of 170,000 troops. [13]