Fu Rong

The strategically important city of Xiangyang, gateway to the Middle Yangtze, had fallen to Fu Jian in 379.

The controversial Murong Chui, a great general of the Chinese/Xianbei state Former Yan, had fled to Former Qin and become one of Fu Jian’s generals, participating in the campaign commanded by Fu Jian's son Fu Pi against Jin's key city of Xiangyang.

Fu Jian had conquered all of north China by 381 and began preparing for an invasion of the south.

In 382, when Fu Jian wanted to launch a major campaign to destroy Jin and unite China, most officials, including Fu Jian's brother Fu Rong, Duke of Yangping, who had succeeded Wang Meng as prime minister after Wang's death in 375, opposed, but Murong Chui and Yao Chang urged the campaign.

In May of 383, a Jin army of one hundred thousand commanded by Huan Chong attempts to recover Xiangyang but is driven off by a Qin relief column of fifty thousand men.

Fu Jian responds by ordering a general mobilization against Jin, conscripting one in ten able men and mustering thirty thousand elite guards.

In August, Fu Jian sends his brother Fu Rong with an advance force of three hundred thousand.

Later this month, Fu Jian marches with his army of two hundred and seventy thousand cavalry and six hundred thousand infantry from Chang'an, reaching Xiangcheng in September.

Separate columns are to push downstream from Sichuan, but the main offensive is to occur against the city of Shouchun on the Huai River.

Emperor Xiaowu of Jin, hurriedly preparing a defense, assigns Huan Chong responsibility for the defense of the Middle Yangtze.

To Xie Shi and Xie Xuan and the elite eighty thousand-strong Beifu Army is given the defense of the Huai River.

The Jin army’s overall military strategist, prime minister Xie An, lacks military abilities but calms the panicking officials and people by his example.

The Former Qin forces under Fu Rong capture the important Jin city of Shouyang (in modern Lu'an, Anhui) in October.

Fu Jiān, seeing a possibility of a quick victory, leaves his main force at Xiangcheng and leads eight thousand light cavalry to rendezvous with Fu Rong while dispatching the captured Jin official Zhu Xu as a messenger to try to persuade Xie Shi to surrender.

Instead, Zhu advises Xie Shi that fact the Former Qin force has not entirely assembled and that he should try to defeat the enemy’s advance forces.

Xie Xuan and Liu Laozhi, leading five thousand elite troops to engage the Former Qin advance force, scored an unexpected victory, killing fifteen thousand of the enemy troops.

In November, the Former Qin troops encamp west of the Fei River; the numerically inferior Jin forces halt east of the river, unable to advance.

Xie Xuan sends a messenger to Fu Rong, suggesting that the Former Qin forces retreat slightly west to allow Jin forces to cross the Fei River, so that the two armies can engage.

Most of Fu Jian’s generals oppose this plan, but Fu Jiān, planning to attack the Jin forces as they cross the river, overrules them.

Fu Rong agrees and orders a retreat but the Qin army, its morale low, panics when Zhu Xu manages to broadcast the false information that their retreating force has been defeated.

The retreat becomes a rout, and the generals Xie Xuan, Xie Yan, and Huan Yi cross the river to launch a major assault.

Fu Rong attempts to halt the retreat and reorganize his troops, but after becoming unhorsed, he is killed by Jin troops.

The Jin army continues their pursuit, and the entire Former Qin force collapses.

In the ensuing retreat, beset by famine and death from exposure and harried by the Jin army, the Former Qin force loses an estimated seventy to eighty percent of its strength.

The battle is considered one of the most significant in the history of China.