Map of Huanggai Lake
On the Yangtze River at the junction of Linxiang City in Hunan Province and Chibi City in Hubei Province, there is a lake with an area of about 130,000 mu, formerly known as Taiping Lake. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Eastern Wu general Huang Gai used to train water troops here. After the Battle of Chibi, the Eastern Wu monarch Sun Quan rewarded the lake with merit and gave the lake to Huanggai, so it was renamed Huanggai Lake. The Three Kingdoms is an era of heroes, but the lake named after the hero seems to be the only place. The waters of Huanggai Lake are now divided into two, two-thirds of the southwest side belongs to Hunan Linxiang, and one-third of the northeast side belongs to Hubei Chibi. Not far northeast of Huanggai Lake is the Ancient Battlefield of Chibi of the Three Kingdoms. In local propaganda films, the scenery of Huanggai Lake is depicted as a fairyland on earth: The smoke waves are vast, the gulls are flying and the fish are leaping, the are surrounded by willow bushes, and the beach grass is green; especially when the xia wipes the moon and the clouds cover the fog, it is as beautiful as a dream. ”
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, the life of Huang Gai is described as follows: Huang Gai, the character Gongfu, was a native of Lingling Quanling (present-day Lingling District, Yongzhou, Hunan). In his early years, he served as a small official in the county, and was later punished as a filial piety and became a government official. When Sun Jian, the Taishou of Changsha, organized a rebel army against Dong Zhuo, Huang Gai followed him and served as a sima in the army. After Sun Jian's death, Huang Gai followed Sun Ce and Sun Quan again, wearing armor and turning to the north and south, risking death to attack the city and plunder the land. In the Battle of Chibi, Huang Gai accompanied Zhou Yu, the governor of Eastern Wu, to fight against Cao Cao in Chibi, offering a plan to attack cao with fire and destroying Cao's army.
Burning Chibi
In the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Huang Gai's image is even more portrayed as brave and strategic, flesh and blood. The protagonist of the "bitter meat plan" story that is talked about by the melon eaters is Huang Gai. Coupled with Pang Tong's "serial plan" and Zhuge Liang's "borrowing the East Wind" two scenes, the Battle of Chibi was brilliantly interpreted. At that time, Cao Cao's 200,000-strong army pressed the border and joined forces with Sun Liu to confront Chibi on the Yangtze River. Sun Liu's coalition army was only more than 50,000 people, and the pressure was high. Huang Gai then offered a plan to Zhou Yu: Cao Jun came from the north, the soldiers were not used to water warfare, in order to keep the warships stable, they tied the warships together, and if they attacked with fire, they would be able to break the enemy. This plan was in line with Zhou Yu's intentions, but he was suffering from not being able to find a suitable candidate to go to Cao Jun as an internal response. Huang Gai immediately expressed his willingness to go to the surrender. In order to fool Cao Cao, the "anti-plot" of "Zhou Yu hitting Huang Gai" appeared on the scene. The two guys who came from war made this play so realistic that they deceived Cai Zhong and Cai He, who were sent by Cao Cao to spy on intelligence. Then Huang Gai pretended to defect to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao believed it to be true. One night when the southeast wind blew, Huang Gai led a fleet of ships filled with dry firewood to cross the river to Caoying. As the fleet approached Cao Ying, Huang Gai ordered the dry firewood on board to be ignited. The fire ship rushed to Cao Ying by the wind, and the Cao Army warship immediately became a sea of fire. The fire quickly spread to the camp on the shore, and the Cao army was in disarray. Sun Liu's combined forces took advantage of the situation to attack, and cao jun suffered more than half of the casualties. Although the plot in the novel is somewhat exaggerated, Huang Gai is undoubtedly one of the main heroes of the Battle of Chibi.
Zhou Yu hit the yellow cover
Because the story of "Bitter Meat Scheme" is well known, Huang Gai's other deeds have been covered up. In fact, the greatest achievement of Huang Gai's life was not to resist Cao Cao, but to quell civil unrest. The first is Zhenfu Shanyue. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and in the Jiangnan area, strongmen occupied the mountains as kings. These armed groups are collectively known as "Yamakoshi". When Sun Ce and Sun Quan first decided on Jiangdong, there were many mountains in their territory, and they were reluctant to submit to it, which became a problem for Sun Wu's regime. At this time, Huang Gai shouldered the role of "fire captain". Wherever there was a disturbance in the mountains, he sent Huang Gai there to govern. Huang Gai has served as the chief executive of 9 counties, and everywhere he goes, he can stabilize the situation. Later, Huang Gai was promoted to the post of Danyang Duwei and devoted himself to suppressing the strong and the weak, helping the poor and weak, and making Shanyue sincerely subordinate.
Then there is the subjugation of the barbarians. After Eastern Wu secretly attacked Guan Yu and captured Jingzhou, Wuling Commandery (武陵郡, in modern Changde, Hunan) rebelled against Wuxi, and Sun Quan sent Huang Gai to serve as the Taishou of Wuling. Shortly after Huang Gai's arrival, Wuxi Man attacked the city of Wuling County. At that time, there were only five hundred defenders in the county town, and it was in danger, but Huang Gai opened the city gate. After letting the barbarians invade the city, Huang Gai commanded the county soldiers to attack back and forth, killing hundreds of people, and the rest of the barbarians scattered and fled. Huang Gai killed the leader of the barbarians, and pardoned the ordinary barbarians. Within a few months, the rebellion in Wuling County was all quelled. The Marquis of Yi, who had previously disobeyed the jurisdiction of those remote places, also changed to yi festivals and came with gifts to ask for peace. Wuling County has since been stable. Later, Yiyang County , Changsha County ( present-day Yiyang , Hunan ) was attacked by Shankou , and it was Huang Gai who went on a crusade. Because of his merits in quelling the chaos, Huang Gai was given the title of partial general.
Yellow Cover in the TV series
Huang Gai is an official and is very bold. When serving as the commander of Shicheng County, the officials under him always liked to play slippery and difficult to restrain. In order to rectify the unhealthy tendencies and evil tendencies, Huang Gai appointed two officials to be in charge of official duties. Huang Gai openly and honestly said to them: "I have no talent in this county order, but I only won the official by martial arts, and I am not good at administrative affairs." Now that thieves are in trouble, I often have military tasks, and the administrative affairs are entrusted to you two. Do your duty and don't make a mistake. If I find you to have committed treachery and deception, I will punish you severely. I hope you guys are doing your best. At first, the two feared the majesty of Huang Gai and were still able to perform their duties. Over time, these two officials thought that Huang Gai had become a treasurer, and they gradually abandoned their official duties. Huang Gai found that they were slack and lazy, and began to pay attention to their behavior, and found that they had several cases of breaking the law. Huang Gai invited all the officials in the county to come, set up a banquet, and then took out evidence of the two officials' violations of law and discipline and began to hold them accountable. The two officials had nothing to say, and both bowed their heads and pleaded guilty. Huang Gai said, "I warned you long ago that if you dare to test the Fa by yourself, you will never spare it. It's too late to regret it! So the two officials were executed. Huang Gai killed the chicken to show the monkey this trick, which shocked all the officials in the county.
Huang Gai's life, wisdom and courage, both culture and martial arts, played an important role in the establishment and stability of the Eastern Wu regime. After his death, it is said that the people of Eastern Wu missed him. Sun Quan declared himself empress dowager, posthumously commented on his merits, and gave his son the title of Marquis of Guannei. (Text/Xie Zhidong)
Schematic of the Battle of Chibi
(Reprint of old text)