In the winter of 755 AD, An Lushan, the military governor of three northern provinces trusted by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, suddenly rebelled at Fanyang. His 100,000-strong army swept south with unstoppable force. After decades of peace, local officials had forgotten what war looked like. Within just over a month, the rebels captured the eastern capital Luoyang. Linghu Chao, the magistrate of Yongqiu (modern Qi County, Henan), believing the dynasty was about to fall, abandoned his post and went to surrender to the rebels.
At that time, Zhang Xun, the fiercely loyal magistrate of Zhenyuan (present-day Luyi, Henan), was outraged by Linghu Chao's betrayal. He rallied 2,000 troops and, seizing the moment when Linghu Chao was away from the city, launched a surprise attack and captured Yongqiu.
When Linghu Chao returned from his surrender negotiations, he found Yongqiu already occupied by Zhang Xun and his entire family slaughtered. Enraged, he gathered 40,000 rebel troops to attack the city. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Zhang Xun held firm, defending Yongqiu for over sixty days without the walls ever being breached.
Later, Suiyang, east of Yongqiu, also came under rebel siege. Governor Xu Yuan sent word to Zhang Xun for help. Recognizing Suiyang as the shield for the entire Yangtze-Huai region, Zhang Xun resolutely abandoned Yongqiu and led his troops to Suiyang to reinforce Xu Yuan.
The combined garrison of the two cities had fewer than 6,000 soldiers, while the rebel army numbered 130,000, yet Zhang Xun showed no fear, holding the line for half a month and eliminating over 20,000 rebels. But the rebel general Yin Ziqi continuously reinforced his troops and launched a renewed assault.
One day, Zhang Xun approached the front lines and noticed several mounted enemy officers, unsure which was Yin Ziqi. He fashioned an arrow from a reed stalk and shot it toward the enemy ranks. A rebel soldier picked up the reed arrow and ran to report to a commander on a white horse, saying the city's arrows were exhausted and they were reduced to shooting reeds. Zhang Xun immediately identified him as Yin Ziqi and ordered his lieutenant Nan Jiyun to shoot. Nan Jiyun drew his bow and fired, striking Yin Ziqi squarely in the left eye. The rebels rushed Yin Ziqi to safety and hastily retreated, giving the defenders of Suiyang a brief respite.
But before long, Yin Ziqing reinforced his army with tens of thousands of fresh troops and laid siege to Suiyang once more, adopting a strategy of prolonged encirclement to starve the city's defenders and civilians into submission.
Under siege by rebel forces, the city's food supplies were quickly exhausted. Soldiers kept dying from starvation or in battle, leaving only 600 men. Zhang Xun shared every hardship with his troops, eating anything that could fill their stomachs—first their warhorses, then they "caught sparrows and dug for rats," netting birds and hunting rodents from their burrows. Not a single person considered opening the gates to surrender.
After running out of arrows and food, the city of Suiyang finally fell to the rebel forces, and Zhang Xun, Xu Yuan, and over thirty other commanders all died a heroic death.
Later, people used the idiom "Catching Sparrows and Digging for Rats" to describe the desperate situation of a besieged city with no reinforcements and exhausted food supplies.
Source: *New Book of Tang*, "Biography of Zhang Xun"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "罗雀掘鼠" came to describe how the desperate situation of a besieged city with no reinforcements and exhausted food supplies.