In July 221, in order to avenge the defeated and dead general Guan Yu, Emperor Liu Bei of the Han Dynasty raised a large number of troops to the east, pointing directly at the treacherous "ally", Sun Quan of Eastern Wu, in an attempt to retake Jingzhou, which had been captured by Lü Meng, and the great war broke out.
However, only a year later, Liu Bei, who had experienced hundreds of battles and had almost turned to fight in all of China, lost to the ground and was completely destroyed by the fledgling Lu Xun. As the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Liu Ye Biography" quoted in the "Fu Zi" recorded: "Quan general Lu Xun defeated Liu Bei and killed more than 80,000 of his soldiers. ”
After the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei's elite soldiers accumulated over the years were lost, and as for the loss of military food, equipment, armor, warships, and other combat equipment, there were countless more. What is even more frightening is that many generals who can fight and strategists who can fight in battle also died in this battle, such as Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, Ma Liang and others were killed in the fire of Yiling.
It can be said that the Battle of Yiling completely broke the backbone of Shu Han, and the three souls and seven spirits were also scattered in half. If it weren't for Zhuge Liang's heavenly ability, Shu Han would have collapsed long ago. Although it was the State of Wei that sent troops to destroy Shu, in essence, it was Eastern Wu that destroyed the State of Shu. At the Battle of Jingxiang, Lü Meng destroyed Guan Yu's water army; at the Battle of Yiling, Lu Xun destroyed Liu Bei's army. From then on, Liu Bei's dream of unifying China was no longer possible.
So why did Liu Bei, a veteran of a hundred battles, lose to the young Lu Xun? Throughout the ages, politicians, militarists, and scholars have had different opinions. Emperor Cao Pi of Wei once said:
"If you don't know the soldiers, how can there be a seven-hundred-mile battalion that can resist the enemy!" The soldier is a bird of the enemy', and this soldier is also jealous. Sun Quan's affairs are now over. ”
Cao Pi believed that Liu Bei's troops were not enough to destroy Wu, and he also camped for more than seven hundred miles to disperse his own troops.
Some scholars believe that Liu Bei was defeated because he did not pay attention to fire prevention. As the Qing Dynasty Confucian Qian Zhenjun said:
"Lu Xun broke the first lord, and there was no other magic plan, only ordering the sergeant to hold a thatch ear each. The main camp of the first is to cut down grass and trees, so why not? ”
To put it bluntly, if Liu Bei used earth and stone as a camp, Lu Xun would probably not be able to use fire to attack.
Some people also believe that the defeat of the Battle of Yiling was that Zhuge Liang, as the prime minister, not only did not participate in the war, but also did not make a decision, and did not take any position, which is really strange. Just sigh after the defeat:
"If filial piety is present, it will be able to control the Lord and make it not go east; if it goes east, it will not be in danger."
The translation is that if the Fa is in the present, he will certainly be able to pull the lord and prevent him from going on crusade; even if he crusades, he will not be defeated so badly.
So how could Liu Bei win the Battle of Yiling? More than a thousand years later, the great military man Mao Zedong gave his own answer: Liu Bei lost in the movement and did not annihilate the enemy in the movement.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > First, why did Liu Bei camp for seven hundred miles</h1>
As mentioned earlier, Cao Pi joked that Liu Bei had camped for more than seven hundred miles and scattered his troops in such a complex terrain, which was simply the way to defeat. This evaluation seems to be clever, but in fact it is just a kind of paper talk.
Cao Pi himself was a defeated basket, a great literary hero known for his ignorance of soldiers. To comment on Liu Bei, a veteran of hundreds of battles, is actually a layman's evaluation of an insider. Liu Bei's seven hundred miles of camp not only does not reflect his entrustment, but can show his true colors of being a battalion step by step and fighting steadily.
After Lü Meng attacked and killed Guan Yu, Eastern Wu swallowed the Jingzhou area that Shu Han held, including Jiangling, Gong'an, and the four counties of Jingnan, thus blocking Shu Han within the Three Gorges and taking advantage of the geographical advantage.
In July 221, Liu Bei led various armies to attack Eastern Wu. At first, Liu Bei's simultaneous advance by land and water was quite smooth, and soon reached the mouth of the Yangtze River Gorge, and his former army hit Yiling, which is the north bank of the Yangtze River southeast of present-day Yichang, thus opening up a beachhead position and ensuring the smooth flow of troops in the direction of Jingzhou.
Just as Liu Bei was preparing to continue his eastward advance and take Jiangling in one fell swoop, the fledgling Lu Xun was not ready to retreat.
Lu Xun's real name was Lu Yi, and he was from the Eastern Wu clan. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sun Ce forcefully attacked Jiangdong, causing great disasters to the Lu family. (A hundred members of the clan, who have been left from hunger, will be half dead)
In the face of Sun Shi, a powerful invader, Lu Yi not only chose to resist, but chose to give in. He even changed his name to "Sun". According to today's parlance, it is to change your name to "instigation".
Lu Xun's softness was soon appreciated by Sun Quan. After a period of training, Lu Xun finally became the fourth metropolitan of Eastern Wu after Zhou Yu, Lu Su and Lü Meng. Unlike what many people imagined, Lu Xun at this time was not a young general, on the contrary, he was already over forty years old.
In the initial battle with Liu Bei, "Lu Qi" really behaved very "instigated". Obviously, he occupied the geographical advantage of the Three Gorges, but Lu Xun failed to stop Liu Bei's offensive. The Wu army only resisted briefly at the Three Gorges Passage, and then immediately withdrew, and almost all the fortresses along the way were abandoned. At this time, the morale of the Wu army was greatly damaged. Many Eastern Wu generals began to question Lu Xun's use of troops:
To fight against Liu Bei, we should have used troops in the Three Gorges from the very beginning and defended in key areas everywhere, so how could Liu Bei suddenly advance into six or seven hundred miles?
In fact, however, the resourceful Lu Xun had every reason to abandon the Three Gorges. Judging from the geographical situation, Wu and Zigui are remote from the gorge yiling, and the mountain roads on both sides of the strait are rugged, and there are many dangerous rivers and shoals, and the Wu army has fought against the Shu army down the river for nearly a hundred miles, and there is no doubt that it will suffer a big loss.
Moreover, from the perspective of people and people, Liu Bei came with a fierce attack, and his morale was high. In addition, Liu Bei's Shu army was extremely good at mountain warfare, and fighting with the Shu army in the Three Gorges was undoubtedly a short blow, and Lu Xun had no bottom in his heart. Therefore, Lu Xun preferred to abandon the Three Gorges, shrink his troops, and fight a decisive battle with the Shu army at the mouth of the gorge, so as to wait for work.
It can be seen that Liu Bei came out of the Three Gorges in half a year, and it seems that the momentum is like a broken bamboo. In fact, this was all Lu Xun's intention. How could Liu Bei, as an "old ge", not see it? Therefore, when he arrived at Yiling, Liu Bei did not choose to take advantage of the situation to break through the gap and directly attack Lu Xun's camp, but instead camped on the spot.
As for the "seven hundred miles of company camps," it is actually the "tree fence company camp" at key nodes, setting up military stations to maintain the smooth flow of the Three Gorges channel and the transportation of grain, grass, and soldiers. Although Liu Bei's military talent was not high, he was still very experienced, and he would not make a fool of himself to disperse his own forces. Therefore, he still concentrated his main forces on the front line. Therefore, in the history books, there is no shortage of records of "the preparation of the army is very prosperous, and the mountains and valleys are in full swing".
Therefore, Liu Bei's "seven hundred miles of continuous camp" was not a mistake, not a big trust, nor a light enemy, but a cautious performance of steady and steady fighting. He seems to be waiting for the hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River to improve before making a big move.
Later generations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms said that Liu Bei's defeat was due to the seven hundred miles of continuous camp, which actually inherited Cao Pi's nonsense. A brother who has not been on the battlefield, what do you know about the use of soldiers?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > second, Liu Bei's fatal mistake</h1>
In February 222, the two armies of Wu and Shu entered a long period of confrontation. For Liu Bei now, there are three routes to choose:
First, go down the river and take Gangneung or even Jianye; second, attack from Jiangbei Yiling Road; third, attack from Jiangnan Yidao. The Shu Han lived in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and had a natural geographical advantage over Eastern Wu, which lived downstream. As the later Lu Kang said:
"If the enemy boats down the river, and the ship is thousands of miles, the stars are galloping and the lightning is running, and the Russians are coming, they cannot help others to save the upside down." This is an opportunity for the safety of the community. ”
At the beginning of The battle, Lu Xun was also worried that Liu Bei would go down the river: "The subject was initially suspicious, and the land and water were advancing..."
It can be said that Liu Bei had already grasped the initiative on the battlefield, and Lu Xun was in a passive situation of being beaten, and the situation was very unfavorable to Eastern Wu.
However, at this moment, Liu Bei sacrificed his faint move. First of all, Liu Bei gave up his ship to land, turning the water army into an army. At the same time, it is also "cutting off the mountains and mountains", and slowly advancing step by step.
In the direction of Yiling in the north of Jiangsu, Liu Bei named Huang Quan and stationed 20,000 elite troops here, in order to monitor the Cao Wei army in the direction of the Central Plains and prevent them from taking advantage of the fire.
In the direction of Yidao in Jiangnan, Liu Bei personally led a large army to attack.
Obviously, Liu Bei adopted the strategy of defending the north and attacking the south. The reason why Liu Bei did not choose to attack Eastern Wu from the direction of Yiling was that he was worried that the Shu army would be attacked by the Wei and Wu armies. Therefore, he concentrated his main forces on Jiangnan Yidao, in a vain attempt to capture The Four Counties of Gong'an and Jingnan (these areas were all the base of Liu Bei's family), and Cao Pi attacked Jiangling from the north to the south, thus restoring the situation before Liu Bei "borrowed Jingzhou". In this way, Shu Han will get rid of the situation of being attacked, and the momentum of attack and defense will be reversed in an instant.
Even from God's point of view, Liu Bei's approach is not wrong. Attacking Jingnan is the safest way to play. However, the problem lies in the fact that Liu Bei fought too "steadily" and gave up the initiative in the great war to Lu Xun.
First of all, "giving up the ship and walking" is very unwise, even if the Yizhou water army cannot be compared with the Eastern Wu water army, it cannot destroy the Great Wall and lose a force with high mechanical power in vain.
Secondly, Liu Bei's progress was slow at step in Jiangnan Yidao, allowing Lu Xun to easily determine the direction of Liu Bei's attack. The west of Yidao was dominated by narrow mountains, and Liu Bei's large army was difficult to deploy, and the advantages of the army could not be exerted. After Liu Bei was blocked by Lu Xun, he had no choice but to camp more than fifty times and pull them into a long snake array.
As a result, Liu Bei's army in the Yiling area was divided into two parts, Huang Quan in Jiangbei and Liu Bei in Jiangnan.
After Liu Bei gained a foothold in Yidao, the first thing he did was to send Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Fu Rong, and others to lead thousands of people to challenge Lu Xun.
Liu Bei's challenge made the eager Eastern Wu generals feel very happy, and after fighting for so long, this time they could finally fight a good battle. Who knew that Lu Xun said that Liu Bei's move must be deceitful and should not be moved lightly. The results later proved that Liu Bei had indeed buried 8,000 ambush soldiers in the valley. However, this time to lure the enemy, it became the only song for Liu Bei to take the initiative to attack.
The eastern Wu generals also wanted to take the initiative to attack, but Lu Xun refused on the grounds that "he was prepared to go east, his vigor began to be strong, and he took advantage of the high defensive danger, it was difficult to attack, and it was difficult to overcome it when he attacked vertically".
In Lu Xun's view, the current situation of stalemate was actually beneficial to Eastern Wu. Lu Xun believed that if he confronted the Shu army in the "plain wilderness", it would be difficult for the Wu army to resist the Shu army's onslaught, which was What Lu Xun was most worried about. However, Liu Bei just chose to march in the mountains, but his advantages were lost, and after a long time, he would be tired of running for his life, and the Wu army would hold the dangerous pass and wait for work, which could be doubled with half the effort.
So why did Liu Bei turn a good position battle into a stupid battle?
As we all know, Liu Bei is not a big military expert, and the basic skills of marching and arraying may be there, but it is not possible to be flexible. As Lu Xun said, "Finding preparations for marching before and after, more defeats and less successes, inferring this argument, is not enough to be concerned." "To put it bluntly, it is that Liu Bei has lost more battles in his life and won fewer victories, and there is nothing to worry about."
The reason why Liu Bei fought a "dumb battle" in Yidao was actually to replicate the victory of the Battle of Hanzhong. Liu Bei had a wealth of experience in stalemate warfare, and in the battle into Shu, the confrontation between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang's troops was often calculated over the years. In the end, they all won.
However, Liu Bei forgot one thing, and there was a variable around him at that time, that is, fazheng who was good at scheming. With the help of Fazheng, Liu Beicai could only grasp the enemy's inadvertent flaws and thus win a surprise victory. For example, in the Battle of Hanzhong, it was Fa Zheng who came up with the anti-guest-oriented strategy, and beheaded Xiahou Yuan at Dingjun Mountain, thus laying the foundation for a total victory. However, it is a pity that Fa Zheng died young, and Liu Bei no longer has anyone around him who can make a strange plan.
As for Zhuge Liang, he had to sit in Chengdu and buy grain and grass for Liu Bei. Moreover, ingenious strategies are not Zhuge Liang's strengths. Like Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang was also more proficient in specific battle formations, preferring to take the battalion step by step and push the opponent flat. Therefore, in the Battle of Yiling, Zhuge Liang, as Liu Bei's chief adviser, did not make a decision. Because of the loss of Fa-rectification, it was Liu Bei who was finally found to be flawed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="80" > third, Liu Bei's defeat</h1>
After half a year of stalemate, the temperature in the Yiling area gradually turned hot. Liu Bei, who was over sixty years old, began to be a little confused. Under the heat, the plague of the Shu army was epidemic, and the fatigue of the division veterans gradually appeared. Lu Xun found that Liu Beibing was becoming more and more passive, and there was a scene of "no rebirth". So Lu Xun immediately made a decision to eliminate Liu Bei, and it was at this time.
First, Lu Xun challenged Liu Bei with Sun Huan. In this regard, Liu Bei naturally could not ask for it, so he made a big move and surrounded Sun Huan.
However, what Liu Bei did not expect was that Sun Huan was just a decoy for Lu Xun to mobilize him. Lu Xun's real purpose was Liu Bei's camp. At this time, Sun Huan's situation was precarious, and he constantly asked Lu Xun for help. However, Lu Xun suppressed Sun Huan's letter of request for help, and instead ordered the army to immediately march towards Liu Bei's camp. At the same time, Lu Xun also issued an order that all the soldiers should be armed with a handful of thatch
At this time, the rainy season has just passed, and the grass and trees of Yidao have been roasted yellow by the heat. Wu Jun touched the front of the Shu army camp and began to set fire to the wind, and the Shu army was caught off guard and was in chaos in an instant.
As a result, the initiative in the Battle of Yiling was completely transferred to Lu Xun's hands. Subsequently, the Wu army and the armies came out in unison, cutting Liu Bei's long snake array into several pieces. All the camps of the Shu army were attacked and thus broken. In a short period of time, more than 40 camps of the Shu army were broken.
Liu Bei saw that the situation was not good, and quickly led the main force to withdraw from the siege and leave. However, Sun Huan allowed you to escape, dragged the knife to pursue, and directly cut off Liu Bei's back road. Subsequently, Lu Xun's main force arrived and besieged Liu Bei with Sun Huan. Under the siege on all sides, the Shu army was defeated, and tens of thousands of people were killed on the spot.
In the end, Liu Bei broke through by chance, burning the clothes and armor abandoned by the defeated army along the way, blocking the road. Soon after, however, Wu Jun killed again. Fu Rong stepped forward and voluntarily broke the queen, only to be killed by Sun Huan.
Liu Beiwan did not expect that his hero I would be chased by Sun Huan, a junior, with no way out of the sky and no door to the earth. In the end, Liu Bei crossed the mountains and took a small road, and only then did he escape into the White Emperor City.
In this battle, Liu Bei's tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were completely destroyed. Huang Quan, located in Jiangbei, was cut off by the Wu army and caught in the middle of the attack between the Wei and Wu armies. In desperation, Huang Quan led 20,000 people to surrender to Cao Pi. The Battle of Yiling ended with the total destruction of Liu Bei's army. Liu Bei lost countless battles in his life, but this time he lost the most, losing almost all his capital. After Liu Bei's death, he left Zhuge Liang and Liu Chan with a huge mess. If it were not for Zhuge Liang's talent, Shu Han would have perished long ago.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="93" >4. Mao Zedong's Conspiracy</h1>
In the eyes of many people, Lu Xun's fire attack tactics were the key to winning the victory at Yiling. However, in the view of the great military master Mao Zedong, the fire attack was by no means the main factor in Liu Bei's defeat. His defeat was entirely due to the loss of the initiative on the battlefield, the passive response to the battle, and the loss of the fighter in vain.
After reading the biography of Lu Xun, in response to Qian Zhenjun's view that "Liu Bei was defeated by not doing a good job in fire prevention", Mao Zedong commented:
"The soil and stones cannot be long, and the food is insufficient." It is advisable to go out of the Lishui River Basin and go straight out to the west of the Xiangshui River, because grain is in the enemy's land, and a mobile war is fought, so that the enemy is scattered, and the response is overwhelmed, and it can be broken by each one. ”
Liu Bei's defeat lies in the "long battle" and in the fact that "the veterans of the division are tired and cannot be revived." Even if the fire prevention is done well, the hearts of the army will be shaken because of poor grain, and at that time, Lu Xun will still catch the flaw and fight a war of annihilation.
Therefore, Mao Zedong believed that Liu Bei's way to win was to turn defense into attack, give play to the advantages of upstream mobility, and go straight into the Xiangshui River and penetrate deep into the enemy's hinterland. This is not only because of the enemy's food, but also disperses the enemy's troops, which is a typical thinking of external operations.
In Mao Zedong's military dictionary, there is never a point of passive defense, and at the first opportunity, Mao Zedong will seek an external attack and mobilize the enemy, thus annihilating the enemy in the movement. The thousand-mile leap into the Dabie Mountains was a model for Mao Zedong's external operations. In this way, you can turn passive into active.
It was a pity that Liu Bei missed the fighter in vain. He was too superstitious about position warfare, and stationing a large army between lofty mountains and mountains was tantamount to tying his own hands and feet, so how could he not be defeated? Mao Zedong once commented that Liu Bei was "resourceful and indecisive," which is not unreasonable. To win with the right, with the odds. To win, you can't help but take risks.
In the author's opinion, among all the famous people, Mao Zedong's evaluation of the Battle of Yiling is the most pertinent and most refined.