Lesser known battles

[Gaiazun]

Share some knowledge about some lesser known Battles and Generals from outside Greece and Rome

As long as their are interesting ie. not simply two armies met and one won

Since some of these battle will be in and between empires not part of the Ancient/Medieval Time scale i'll put a limit of around 400 AD If the period/war/dynasty being disscused Started before then but lasted further then thats ok. Please try to give a date,The period/dynasty , a rough estimate of the numbers on each side and a short prelude

I'll Start with The Battle of Hei Fei this a battle from the Three Kingdoms period of Ancient China about 217 AD

Prelude
Sun Quan (Leader of the Southern Wu state) advanced north towards the Wei city of Hefei with a massive army (80,000 men). First, they assailed the city of Huan, which was growing grain and sending large amounts of it to Hefei. Without Huan, Hefei would have no steady supply of grain. The governor of Huan, Zhu Guang, sent a request for aid to Hefei which prompted the commander Zhang Liao to personally lead a relief force, but the reinforcements did not arrive in time. Huan fell to Wu, and Sun Quan set his sights on Hefei.

The battle
There were only three commanders in the city of Hefei at the time: General Zhang Liao, Yue Jin, and Li Dian. The amount of men in the garrison at Hefei is also disputed, but it was definitely somewhere from 500 to 1,000 men Zhang Liao received orders from Cao Cao that if Sun Quan attacked, he and Li Dian were to sortie against him and Yue Jin was to guard the city. The three commanders formed a plan to swiftly defeat the Wu army.

Zhang Liao and Li Dian took a company of men each and placed them in ambush on either side of the Xiaoyao Bridge. Yue Jin took the remainder of the men into the field, leaving only a few in the city. The Wu army arrived, with Lu Meng and Gan Ning leading the charge. The Wu army had to cross the Xiaoshi Bridge in order to engage Yue Jin. Yue Jin clashed with Gan Ning and feigned defeat, leading his troops back towards Hefei. Gan Ning and Lu Meng pursued. Sun Quan (The Leader of Wu) and Ling Tong, who held the center, followed up, crossing the bridge. As soon as Sun Quan crossed, Zhang Liao and Li Dian struck.

They destroyed a large portion of the Xiaoyao Bridge, cutting the Wu army in half. Both Wei commanders struck towards Sun Quan. Ling Tong did his best to hold Zhang Liao and Li Dian off, but he was hard pressed. Sun Quan, without any other options, fled. He spurred his horse and jumped the ten foot gap in the bridge, escaping certain death. Lu Meng and Gan Ning turned back to try and save the center, but they took extremely heavy losses from Yue Jin's and Li Dian's men. Both commanders fled, skirting the river and heading back to Wu. (I think the numbers for this battle have been Exaggerated but the Wu army still heavily outnumbered Wei). As a result of this battle Zhang Liao became famous and feared -parents in Wu would silence misbehaving children by threatening that Zhang Liao would come and get them

[Gaiazun]

This is a battle from the warring states period (and this is a different Wei from the Three Kingdoms Period)
In 342 BC, the state of Wei attacked the state of Han, and Han turned to Qi for help. Instead of sending a force to save Qi directly Sun Bin suggested to aim for the capital of Wei, Daliang. Forcing Pang Juan general of Wei to retreat to defend against the oncoming army of Qi -even though his army was only days away from capturing the Han capital. King Hui of Wei appointed Prince Shen of Wei as Chief commander and Pang Juan as commander, and ordered an army of 100,000 to mobilize against Qi.

In order to mislead his enemy, Sun Bin ordered his soldiers to make less stoves day by day. On the first day, Qi had stoves enough for 100,000 people; on the second day, there were only stoves for 50,000 people. On the third day, there were only stoves for an army of 20,000. As Pang Juan saw this, he judged that the soldiers of Qi were deserting their army and decided to pursue the Qi army with an elite cavalry. As Qi retreated into their own territory, Sun Bin ordered his troops to abandan some of their heavy artillery. This further gave the impression of a state of confusion amongst the Qi army. As Qi arrived at Malian, Sun Bin noticed a heavily wooded and narrow pass that could be used for ambush. Estimating the arrival of Pang Juan around nightfall, he ordered to have a tree cut down, its bark removed, and the words "Pang Juan shall die under this tree" carved. He then ordered his archers to hide close to the tree, and told them to aim for a torch at night. When Pang Juan arrived in Maling, he noticed words carved on the tree, and lit a torch to read it. Suddenly, the archers fired and the Wei army was decimated. Seeing his army defeated under the Qi arrows, Pang Juan committed suicide.

After the death of Pang Juan, Prince Shen was captured by Qi. The power of the state of Wei decreased considerably after this battle

[ceardog]

During the Consulship of Marcus Tulius Cicero his Under Consul Cataline after being convicted of treason by the Senate In absentia attempted to take over militarily. He and his troops were met in Northern Italy by Quintus Cicero the younger brother of Marcus. Quintus flanked Cataline and soundly defeated him. In the battle Cataline was killed.

[Proconsul]

One battle often overlooked is Abrittus or Forum Terebroniis, in 251 AD, when the emperor Decius was defeated and killed by the Goths. I couldn't find figures, but I would be surprised if the Romans were less than 15-20,000 odd strong, since it was their main Imperial field army, probably made up by vexillationes from many legions. It had dire consequences for Roman prestige and probably encouraged other Barbarians to attack the empire at a time of internal political crisis and plague epidemy. So it was decisive for the development and culmination of the so called Third Century Crisis, which almost ended the empire and brought great and ultimately fatal changes.

Still it's almost unknown, compared with Adrianople, which is often considered the decisive battle the brought the end of the Western empire at the hand of the barbarians. That's even more strange considering that Adrianople was a defeat of the Eastern Roman army, not the Western one. Also, according to Osprey the Romans at Adrianople were only about 15,000 strong, which means it was not such a big engagement as usually tought.

I would appreciate more informations about the strength of the opposing armies in these battles.

[TroyGoodfellow]

Originally Posted by ceardog

During the Consulship of Marcus Tulius Cicero his Under Consul Cataline after being convicted of treason by the Senate In absentia attempted to take over militarily. He and his troops were met in Northern Italy by Quintus Cicero the younger brother of Marcus. Quintus flanked Cataline and soundly defeated him. In the battle Cataline was killed.

You have a source on this? From my knowledge, Quintus was praetor at the time (62 BCE) and based in Rome. The pursuit of Catiline (who was not "under consul" whatever that means - he was defeated in all of his attempts at election) was entrusted to Cicero's co-consul Gaius Antonius.

The complication was that Antonius was a friend of Catiline's and maybe even part of the conspiracy. Cicero bought him off with the promise of Macedonia as his consular province.

So, when the battle came, Antonius feigned illness and Marcus Petreius, his legate, took command. Catiline was pinned between Petreius' forces and those of Marcellus Celer. Antonius' army was larger, but Catiline was gambling on the consul being able to pull some strings. He was wrong.

His forces fought bravely (Sallust suggests that Catiline died a braver death than his cause deserved) but were eradicated.