Following the Battle of Chibi in 208 AD, a great battle ensued on the Cao and Sun defense lines, the Battle of Nan County.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", this passage is wonderful: Zhou Yu and Cao Ren fought each other for more than a year, and finally taking advantage of the opportunity of the Wu army to pursue Cao Jun, Zhuge Liang sent Zhao Yun to steal Nan County, making Zhou Yu vomit blood on the spot. It became the main plot of "Zhuge Liang's One Qi Zhou Gongjin".
Of course, these are all additional plays in Luo Guanzhong.
So the question is, what happened to this South County War?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > six will guard Jingzhou</h1>
For Jingzhou, Lao Cao's heart is a little complicated, and the geographical location of this place is both important and awkward:
First of all, it is important, Lu Su and Zhuge Liang both believe that "the water flowing in this place is smooth to the north, the Han River is outside, the mountains and mausoleums are blocked inside, there is the solidity of the golden city, the fertile wilderness, the people are rich, and if there is a basis, the capital of this emperor is also." ”
The second is embarrassment, in the late Han Dynasty, Jingzhou was basically at the intersection of major forces, occupying here, east can attack Jiangdong, west can attack Yizhou, north can be close to the Central Plains. In other words, it's a crossroads. And this location also determines that Jingzhou is a piece of fat that everyone wants to nibble on. Although Lao Cao held Jingzhou in his hands, Liu Bei and Sun Quan were all looking at him.
This area of Jingzhou may be a typical "can prevent thieves from stealing, can not prevent thieves from worrying"!
In order to prevent "thieves from stealing", Lao Cao also made a large capital in Jingzhou before retreating north, and he left six generals to defend, namely: Cao Ren Shou Nan Commandery, Le Jin Shou Xiangyang, Manchu Shou Dangyang, Xu Huang Shou Fan Cheng, Li Tong Shou Runan, and Wen Ping Shou Jiangxia. Note, friends familiar with the Three Kingdoms will definitely be able to see that these six people are all well-known generals of the State of Wei, generally speaking, handing over Jingzhou to them, Lao Cao can indeed rest assured, but the problem is that they will face Zhou Yu, and Liu Bei.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="116" > is close to Gangneung</h1>
In fact, since the return of old Cao Bei, Liu Bei and Sun Quan have been worried about "dividing the cake" in Jingzhou, and they have divided their labor like this: the Sun family is the main attack on Nan County, and the Liu family is responsible for cleaning up the periphery.
Need to say a little, why did Nan County become the main dish of the Sun family? That's because among the seven counties of Jingzhou (there are also nine counties), the fatter ones are Nanyang County, Nan County, and Jiangxia County, of which the richest Nanyang County is firmly held by the Cao family in the north, and Jiangxia County has been substantially divided by Cao, Sun, and Liu Sanjia, so the south county that is relatively south has become the first "unlucky egg" in this war. Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), the seat of nan commandery, became the main battlefield of this great war.
Since the war was fought, it was necessary to ask for people and money, and for the thick walls of the city, Zhou Yu was not polite, and he managed Sun Quan to ask for 20,000 people in one breath (the number is not very certain). This number, Boss Sun inhaled a cold breath, hesitated for half a day, the centaur can give, but there must be a vice general - Cheng Pu.
Let's try to understand The mind of Boss Sun: in the Battle of Chibi, it was life and death, and Sun Quan could only choose to believe Zhou Yu. And now, every inch of land laid by Zhou Yu will be engraved with the mark of "Zhou Gongjin". This feeling, as the boss Sun Quan, naturally did not feel good in his heart, and if Zhou Yu had other ideas, who in the entire Jiangdong Realm could balance him? Therefore, he must send cheng pu, who he trusts, to be both a deputy general and a supervisor! Perhaps this is what Sun Quan called the Imperial Heart Technique.
In December 208, Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu were assembled, and the Eastern Wu army marched towards Jiangling.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="119" > capture Yiling</h1>
On the eve of the start of the great war, Gan Ning jumped out: We should first attack Yiling. Why do you want to fight Yiling first? Because Yiling was in the north of Jiangling, taking this place could effectively prevent the reinforcements of the Cao army, and the defense here was empty.
Zhou Yu listened, the idea is good - who comes up with the idea and who works, Gan Ning you go to take down Yiling for me!
Gan Ning led the order to attack Yiling, and it turned out that Gan Ning's luck was too good - Yiling was not empty, but there was almost no garrison, and Gan Ning entered the city with the pace of "six relatives do not recognize". Not only that, but Gan Ning also recruited troops and horses in the city, expanded his armaments, sharpened his knives, and was ready to stab his knives from the rear of Gangneung.
Hearing that Yiling was lost, Cao Ren was also anxious, so didn't this become an enemy in the belly and back? He sent a large army to prepare to pull out Ganning first.
Cao Ren's army strength was about 6,000, while Ganning only had about 1,000 men, and Yiling was just a small city and could not be defended by risk.
This is fun, the big battle has not yet begun, Gan Ning instead of the first emergency. So, did Zhou Yu save Gan Ning or take the opportunity to storm Jiangling?
Some people said: Our troops are not superior in the first place, if we divide our troops to save GanNing, maybe we will be raided by Cao Ren, or we will give up Ganning, right?
In this regard, Lu Meng can not agree: his brother, say give up and give up? You're not going to go!" Boss Zhou, we can first divide the troops to rescue Gan Ning, let Ling Tong strictly guard the camp, within ten days, he will be absolutely fine.
Zhou Yu thought about it, and finally adopted Lü Meng's opinion and personally sent troops to rescue Gan Ning.
Seeing the arrival of reinforcements, Gan Ning also killed from the city, and under the attack of two sides, Cao Ren's besieging forces were defeated. On the way back of the Cao army, Lü Meng also left a back hand, and he set up a bunch of roadblocks on the road that the Cao army had to pass, people can cross, but horses can't! At this point, the Cao army suffered another loss, and many cavalry could only abandon their horses and flee, and Zhou Yu, who was pursuing him, picked up three hundred horses alone—just like today's land combat troops suddenly captured three hundred enemy tanks.
After the victory in the Battle of Yiling, the morale of Zhou Yu's side was greatly boosted, as if it had seen the victory of the Battle of Nan County.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="120" > bull golden three hundred warriors</h1>
Wu Jun wanted to take advantage of this victory and take Nan County with a single blow, but a reversal followed:
At the beginning of 209 AD, the morale of the Wu army crossed the river to attack Jiangling, which was about to besiege the city. As a famous general of Cao Wei's generation, Cao Ren understood that he absolutely could not let Wu Jun comfortably besiege the city, and he wanted to give Wu Jun a dismount.
How to play it? Recruit death squads! At the call of Cao Ren, Wei Jun produced a fierce man, Niu Jin, and about 300 daredevils who did not die.
We don't know whether Cao Ren's chicken soup was well poured or if these three hundred people really didn't want to die, they opened the city gate under the leadership of Niu Jin and rushed towards the Wu army, which was several times larger than themselves! This active "sending people's heads" style of play suddenly blinded the Wu Army's forwards, and after only a few moments of kung fu, the Wu Army was cut down by Cao Jun's "Di Li Click".
Despite this, Niu Jin only had 300 people after all, and with the arrival of the follow-up Wu Army, his men and horses were also under heavy siege. According to the general understanding, in this case, it is only a matter of time before the cao army's death squad is completely destroyed.
However, after Cao Ren, who was standing at the head of the city, saw it, he suddenly became angry: Give me a horse! I'm going down to save my brothers!"
Cao Ren's shouting, but the left and right personnel were frightened, and they jumped out to persuade him: Boss, then there are only a few hundred people downstairs, and if it is gone, it will be gone, can you not send people's heads again?
Listening to these words, Cao Renquan listened to the wind, and with more than a dozen of his own soldiers, he opened the city gate and killed the battle circle. Only one charge went in, and the cattle gold was fished out. But for Cao Ren, it was not enough for only Niu Jin to come out, and he killed it again and fished out the remaining surviving daredevils.
Cao Ren's performance shocked everyone at once, and Cao Jun's morale was even more boosted, sighing: This Cao Ren is really a heavenly general!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="121" > Liu Bei's peripheral battle</h1>
Just when the Cao and Sun families were beating you to death, the third party Liu Da'er was not idle, and he began to "sweep" the periphery.
How to play it? The first is to take the opportunity to harvest the territory of Jingzhou that no one cares about, that is, the four counties of Lingling, Guiyang, Changsha and Wuling. The second was to send Guan Yu to constantly sabotage in the north and cut off other reinforcements to Cao Ren, which is the legendary "Absolute North Province".
I have to say that these four counties of Lingling, Guiyang, Changsha, and Wuling really had the meaning of "grandma is not in pain, uncle does not love" at that time, after Cao Cao withdrew to the north, he did not strengthen the defense of these four counties at all, all by their own survival, just this paper paste-like defense, can it block Liu Da's ears like a wolf? Of course not! Under Zhao Yun's attack, the four counties of Jiangnan quickly fell to their knees, and more than half of Jingzhou's territory fell into Liu Bei's pocket at once, and a feeling of fullness struck instantly.
Let's talk about Guan Yu's "Absolute North Province", it is reasonable to say that the "Absolute North Province" also had a great impact on the Battle of Nan County, and the relevant records should be many, but the historical record of this matter is very vague, it is not recorded in the "Shu Shu Guan Yu Biography", but in the "Wei Shu Li Tong Biography", and it is very simple: Liu Bei and Zhou Yu surrounded Cao Ren in Jiangling, and did not send Guan Yu to the North Province. Tong led the crowd to attack, dismounted and pulled out the antlers, and fought and advanced, in order to meet the benevolent army and bravely crown the generals. Passage was sick at the age of forty-two. This record is very interesting: Li Tongyong crowned the generals, but suddenly fell ill and died in the middle of the road. As for whether Li Tong's death is related to Guan Yu, we can only make up for it. In addition, in the "Biography of Xu Huang" and "The Biography of Le Jin", there are also records of "Absolute North Province", but they are also flashy and unclear.
Moreover, there is no record of how many people and horses Guan Yu has under his command. As early as before the war, Liu Daye had made a "one thousand for two thousand" deal with Zhou Yu because of the small number of soldiers: Liu Bei traded with Zhou Yu for two thousand soldiers in Eastern Wu with his own one thousand soldiers + Zhang Fei. That is to say, Zhang Fei directly participated in the Battle of Nan County under Zhou Yu.
In summary, Guan Yu's troop strength, we can only roughly guess that it is the two thousand people that Zhou Yu lent him. This point of guerrilla warfare can be, and the frontal decisive battle with the Cao Army is really not enough to see.
In view of the overly fragmented records, it is difficult to restore the process of Guan Yu's "Absolute North Province", but the result is generally like this: Li Tong did not complete the task, he "died of illness" on the way to reinforcement; Man Yu also tried to reinforce, but ultimately failed to reach Nan County; Xu Huang fought with Guan Yu many times on the way to reinforcement, although he finally reached Nan County, but the time was greatly delayed.
We can basically think that Guan Yu basically completed the task of "Absolute North Province", and the Six Armies left by Cao Cao failed to effectively reinforce Cao Ren.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="122" > the decisive battle of Gangneung without truth</h1>
If the battle between the two outposts of Cao Sun belongs to cao ren and Niu Jin, then the real decisive battle should belong to Zhou Yu's show time, but strangely, the historical account of this period is very vague, with only a few words: Naidu Tun North Bank, Keqi War. Yu pro-horse across the horse To chen, will be in the middle of the right flank, sores are very bad, then return. After Ren Wenyu did not get up, Le Bing Chen. Yu Nai Zi Xing, the case marching camp, the agitated officials, Ren Yu is retired.
Here, we translate: After Wu Jun crossed the river, he and Cao Ren agreed on a deadline for a decisive battle. Zhou Yu personally commanded the front line, but was shot in the right rib by a stray arrow and was seriously injured. Cao Ren heard the news and led his army to attack, but Zhou Yu suddenly appeared, and the morale of the Wu army was greatly boosted, and Cao Ren could only retreat.
However, this battle was not the final battle between the two sides, because after that, the two sides were deadlocked for a year, and Shi Zai "(Wu Army) killed and wounded a lot", and Cao Ren abandoned the city after heavy losses. As for what exactly happened this year, we can only make up for it ourselves. But it is conceivable that this is definitely an extremely fierce offensive and defensive battle, the two sides are full of famous generals, fighting for more than a year, the personnel and resources of Nan County are constantly depleted, and under the action of Liu Bei and Guan Yu's peripheral cutting off, Cao Ren finally could not hold on and retreated.
Regarding the true appearance of this paragraph, it has naturally become a decisive battle without truth.
It should be noted that in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the famous general Tai Shi Ci died in this battle. But in fact, Tai Shi Ci had died as early as 206 AD and did not participate in the Battle of Nan County.
Soon after, Zhou Yu, who was seriously injured because of the Battle of Nan County, also died unexpectedly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="123" > postscript</h1>
The Battle of Nan County was finally over, but this was the beginning of the famous Three Kingdoms Terrier "borrowing Jingzhou": soon after, Liu Bei, who occupied the four counties of Jingzhou, borrowed Nan County from Sun Quan on the grounds of "Governor Jingzhou". Later, Sun and Liu clashed many times because of the problem of Nan County, and even eventually evolved the result of Lü Meng's white-clad crossing the river to secretly attack Guan Yu.
Nan County, like a powder keg at the end of the Han Dynasty.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zizhi Tongjian