Battle of Zhongli

The Battle of Zhongli (Chinese: 鍾離之戰) took place in 507 AD in China, where forces of Northern Wei were defeated by the army of the Liang dynasty.

Zhongli is a military fortress on the banks of the Huai River. Since it is close to Jiankang and controls the strategic location of Huainan, it has been a strategic location that both sides have to fight for since the division of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Many wars have occurred in history, especially in the Northern Dynasty's southern expeditions, most of which took Zhongli as the primary target. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang alone, at least three battles for Zhongli took place.

However, due to the dangerous terrain of Zhongli and the fact that the northerners were not accustomed to water, the Southern Dynasty won most of the victories. In 505, Emperor Wu of Liang decided to launch a northern expedition and ordered Xiao Hong, the King of Linchuan, to serve as the general commander. The Northern Wei sent Yuan Ying, the King of Zhongshan, to lead the attack. Both armies claimed to have millions of men, and their strength was comparable. However, the cowardly and incompetent Xiao Hong actually fled the battlefield in front of everyone. The Liang army immediately fell into disarray and collapsed without a fight. The Northern Wei army advanced all the way and approached the city of Zhongli, which had only 3,000 defenders. In this critical moment, Emperor Wu of Liang sent Wei Rui and Cao Jingzong to lead an army of 200,000 to support. The Liang army took advantage of the surging Huai River and combined their naval superiority with fire attacks to defeat the Northern Wei army, which was not good at swimming, and captured and killed nearly 300,000 people. The historical novel "奔流 (Honryū)" written by Japanese writer Tanaka Yoshiki is based on this battle.