The first anti-Jin Coalition

Military action

Faced with Jin expansion in both the Hu river basin and the Qing river basin, the great powers and lesser powers of the Hu river civilization rallied behind Duke Chu of Zhao and set out to crush Jin ambitions

In the year 620 of the Xin era, Duke Chu of Zhao assembled the other three great powers of Lu, Xing, and Wei, along with the eight smaller feudalities of Zhu, Tang, Ya, Yin, Zheng, Hao, Lu, and Chao, in a league against Jin. Only the State of Han, who controlled the valuable Hu delta at the far north, chose to remain a neutral power and providing only symbolic monetary support.   This coalition struck three years later, in the year 623 of the Xin era, at Jin. The campaign, while initially successful at destroying the Jin field armies, soon bogged down at the gate of Bai Dou, where 120 000 Jin defenders successfully held back the coalition army of half a million for over two years. When the Gates finally fell, the exhausted coalition found itself unable to mount a force powerful enough to threaten the capital of An Ning, whose position in lake Guan Liao made it very difficult to take.   While the coalition beat away at Bai Dou, Jin marines sailed up the Qing river and took many of the Zhao towns and cities, eventually forcing the Zhao contingent of the coalition to turn back to defend their homelands. The remainder of the coalition, after looting the more easily lootable targets at the mouth of the Qing river and the Red River, eventually accepted to turn back in exchange of a lump sum of Jin silver.