Page "Battle of Fei River" Paragraph 6

In October 383 the Former Qin forces under Fu Rong captured the important Jin city of Shouyang ( 壽陽, in modern Lu ' an, Anhui ).

Fu Jiān, seeing the possibility of achieving a quick victory, left his main force at Xiangcheng and led 8000 light cavalry to rendezvous with Fu Rong.

Fu Jiān sent captured Jin official Zhu Xu ( 朱序 ) as a messenger to try to persuade Xie Shi to surrender.

Instead, Zhu tipped Xie Shi to the fact that the entire Former Qin force had not yet arrived, and that he should try to defeat the advance Former Qin forces to cripple the Former Qin's campaign.

At Zhu's suggestion, Xie Xuan and Liu Laozhi ( 劉牢之 ) led 5000 elite troops to engage the advance Former Qin force and scored a devastating victory, killing 15, 000 men.

Afterwards, Jin troops were lined up in a wide formation to give the illusion that the Jin forces could match Former Qin's manpower.

Because of the early minor defeats and the Jin formation, Fu Jiān overestimated the amount of Jin forces.