From 238 to 262 AD, Jiang Wei carried out 11 Northern Expeditions in order to inherit Zhuge Liang's legacy of restoring the Han Dynasty, and he himself fell under the insult of being a poor soldier, while the State of Wei was still strong. At that time, the State of Wei was only in power, and the regime had long been controlled by Sima Yi's second son, Sima Zhao.
By 263, Sima Zhao sent Zhong Hui to lead a large army of 180,000 three roads to cut down Shu. At that time, although the Shu Han regime was not as strong as it was then, it also cost the Wei army a lot of money to take Hanzhong. Fortunately, there is another place south of Hanzhong that has not been lost, this place is called Sword Pavilion.
The Sword Pavilion is the place where Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty once wrote the poem "Shu Dao Difficulty", and everyone can feel how dangerous this Sword Pavilion is from Li Bai's verses.
Oh, whoops, The difficulty of the Shu Dao is difficult to go to the Qingtian! Do not communicate with Qin Saitong, you can cross the Emei Peak. The earth avalanche mountain destroyed the hero to death, and then the ladder stone stack square hooked. There is a high standard of the six dragons returning to the sun on the top, and there is a return to the river with a reverse wave on the bottom. The Yellow Crane could not fly, and the ape was eager to climb to the aid. Green mud and plate, 100 steps and nine folds haunting rocks. He sighed on his back and sat with his hands caressed. Lian Feng went to the sky and did not rise to the feet, and the dry pine hung upside down on the cliff. The turbulent waterfalls are noisy, and the cliffs turn into rocks and thunder. The danger is also like this, and the people who are far away from him are foolish. The Sword Pavilion is magnificent and Cui Wei is a husband and wife, and everything is not open.
It was precisely because of the steepness of the Sword Pavilion that Jiang Wei used the only 40,000 Han soldiers in his hand to block the more than 100,000 Cao Wei troops who were in full swing day after day. The casualty rate of the Wei army was much higher than that of the Han army.
Xiao Bian felt that there were two other reasons why Jiang Wei could guard the Sword Pavilion:
First, because behind the Sword Pavilion was the land of Shuzhong, Jiang Wei must have used the example of Cao Jun's slaughter of the city to boost morale. The Han army's family is in the rear, and of course the Han army must desperately defend the Sword Pavilion.
Second, Shuzhong was the rear of the Han army, and Liu Chan was Jiang Wei's backing. Reinforcements, especially grain, were pouring in to the Sword Pavilion. Here, Jiang Wei's support for Jiang Wei with high grain yields is the most powerful. Behind Jiangyou is Chengdu.
With Jiang Wei's stubborn strength, Xiaobian felt that if the Wei army attacked the Sword Pavilion with all its might, it might not be able to take it down, and it might also return to the previous Cao Zhen Cao Shuang Shu, and Jiang Wei took the opportunity to retake Hanzhong. But Jiang Weiwan did not expect that the Wei general Deng Ai from Jingzhou would stage a southern version of the "Meridian Valley Conspiracy" plus "Breaking the Kettle and Sinking the Boat".
There is a very prominent place in the southwest direction of Hanzhong, called Yinping Trail, which is even more dangerous than the Sword Pavilion. Previously, the troops here had been dispatched to reinforce Jiang Wei, so Deng Ai had successfully smuggled yinping from here.
However, although Deng Ai successfully smuggled into Yinping, the 30,000-strong army consumed no more grain every day, and Deng Ai had already run out of food. At this moment, for Deng Ai, it was particularly important to take down the supply station of the Han Army.
Photo: Deng Ai
After taking Jiangyou, Deng Ai's next strategy was to stay here, let his 30,000 lone army get supplies, breathe a sigh of relief, and at the same time cut off Jiang Wei's food supply and cut off Chengdu's connection with The Sword Pavilion. However, the Han army could supply Jiang Wei from other directions, and the Loss of one less supply station for the Han army was not too large. Moreover, Deng Ai was in the bag of the Chengdu Han Army and the Sword Pavilion Han Army, and the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became.
Deng Ai's middle strategy was to attack Jiang Wei with Zhong Hui, but Deng Ai was alone and deep, attacking Jiang Wei, and the rear and right flanks would be completely exposed to the Han army.
Deng Ai's best strategy was to attack Chengdu as much as possible after the supply was finished, and even if Jiang Wei came to the rescue, he could also disperse Jiang Wei's troops to defend Zhong Hui.
Therefore, Deng Ai followed the allusion of Xiang Yu breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat 450 years ago and attacked Jiangyou. In the face of the morale of the Wei army, JiangYou also thought that the Sword Pavilion was lost, and surrendered without a few defenses, and after Deng Ai took Jiangyou, he only made a little supply, and immediately attacked south towards Chengdu.
In ancient times, after the weak transmission of information, the Chengdu side did not know about Jiang Wei's situation, and thought that the Sword Pavilion had been lost. In the face of Deng Ai's divine soldiers descending from heaven, the later lord Liu Chan adopted the following methods:
1. Strengthen the city defense of Chengdu and tun tian in Chengdu City.
2 Send out distress letters to all parts of Shuzhong and let everyone come to qinwang.
Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan and Huang Quan's son Huang Chong, sent 3 to lead the Yulin army to attack.
4 With the Wu-Han alliance, a distress letter was sent to Eastern Wu Sun Xiu.
However, in the Battle of Mianzhu, because of the dangerous terrain occupied by Deng Ai, the Han army was defeated, and Zhuge Zhan, his son Zhuge Shang (that is, Liu Chan's grandson), Zhang Fei's grandson Zhang Zun, and Huang Chong, were martyred for the Han Dynasty. Deng Aibing approached the city and besieged Chengdu.
At this time, the Jingzhou faction and the Elder Faction that came with Liu Bei in the DPRK were either dead or dying of old age, and Zhuge Zhan's loyal han courtiers were all killed in battle, and the Yizhou faction headed by Yu Zhou occupied public opinion and became an important reference for Liu Chan's decision-making. Under the persuasion of Tan Zhou and others, Liu Chan Kaesong surrendered, and Deng Ai ordered Liu Chan to issue an edict to the troops in central Shu to stop resisting and surrender immediately.
Because there were too many mountain roads in Shuzhong and Liu Chan surrendered too quickly, the qin king's army, including Jiang Wei's main force, was still halfway through, and they received Liu Chan's surrender order, and everyone had no choice but to surrender to the Wei army nearby.
Sun Xiu, the Wu lord who had received Liu Chan's distress letter at that time, immediately took three actions after learning of Shu's difficulties.
First, the general Liu Ping was sent to Nan County, the northernmost part of Jingzhou, to discuss the direction of the march.
Second, let the veteran general Ding Feng attack Shouchun to divide the power of Cao Wei.
Third, Let Ding Feng's younger brother Ding Feng directly lead troops into Shudi to rescue.
However, these three rescue operations were all terminated because Liu Chan surrendered too suddenly, and it was not long before Sun Xiu, who was less than 29 years old, ended up depressed because of this incident, after all, Shu Han was gone, and his lips were cold.
Pictured: Sun Xiu, played by Pan Yueming in the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
To xiaobian to say ah, even if Deng Aibing came to the city, Liu Chan still had several ways to turn over.
Method one, stick to Chengdu. At that time, Liu Bei also besieged Chengdu with tens of thousands of troops for a year, and at this time, the strong defense of Chengdu could hold Deng Ai for at least 3 months, and three months was enough for soldiers from other parts of central Shu to serve the king. After the troops from all over Shu central Shu arrived, they may not be able to have a big battle with Deng Ai.
However, this method is also risky, after all, there are many surrendered warriors in the DPRK who welcome the Jiupin Zhongzheng system. If Liu Chan insisted, they would not be able to secretly open the city gate to let Deng Ai in.
Method two, according to the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms", Liu Chan wanted to flee to Nanzhong at that time. Zhuge Liang captured Meng Seven, allowing the Han to gain a firm foothold in Nanzhong. If Liu Chan fled to Nanzhong, he should be welcomed by the barbarians in Nanzhong.
But this method also has risks, risk one, if Cao Wei or the Jin Dynasty bribed the barbarians with greater interests, the barbarians could not guarantee that they would not submit to them, and then they would have to betray Liu Chan.
Risk two, even if the barbarians were loyal to Liu Chan, most of the southern central region was mountainous, and agriculture was too backward compared to the Chengdu Plain, which held Dujiangyan. At that time, cao wei or jin dynasty elite soldiers with the Chengdu plain will be killed in the south, and how long will even the barbarians who zhuge Liang could not defeat at that time resist?
Method three, break through or fight to the death, directly attack Deng Ai. If successful, Shu Han avoided a crisis; if it failed, Liu Chan had five sons and two younger brothers also had sons, leaving a testament for the ministers to support and confront Cao Wei for a long time. Others are not easy to say, but Jiang Wei will definitely fight to the end.
Method four, surrender to Eastern Wu. Even if you surrender to Eastern Wu, you can't surrender to the usurper Cao Wei, which is a matter of great righteousness. Moreover, Eastern Wu would not kill Liu Chan. On the contrary, Eastern Wu is also likely to use Liu Chan's influence to take advantage of the Wei army's unstable foothold in Shuzhong to enter Shuzhong, and Eastern Wu has obtained Shu land and can engage in the Northern and Southern Dynasties with the Cao Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Of course, this method also has risks, Liu Chan may be affected by the later Eastern Wu infighting, and before Sun Hao can take the throne, he will be killed by the Jiangdong family. You must know that those Jiangdong clans only wanted to protect themselves, and did not want the Northern Expedition to cause fire at all, and Zhuge Jin's son Zhuge Ke was killed because of his single-minded Northern Expedition.
It seems that the above four methods are not good enough, so the best way for Xiaobian to give Liu Chan to flip is to flee to Jiangzhou, where there are several conditions for flipping.
Condition 1: Jiangzhou's terrain is dangerous, the soil is fertile, and it is not a problem to defend the fields for several years. Even if the grain is really exhausted, the Eastern Wu in the east and the barbarians in the south will support the grain.
It should be noted that when Sun Xiu sent people into Shu to rescue Liu Chan, it should be sincere, and if Liu Chan could lead the Han army to insist on resisting and not surrendering, Eastern Wu would definitely give enough assistance to share the pressure that Cao Wei gave him. After the surrender of the Shu Han Dynasty, Eastern Wu had no choice but to attack Jiangzhou and seize this important place in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to ensure the safety of Jingzhou.
In fact, in 269 AD, five years after Liu Chan surrendered to Wei, Eastern Wu fought very hard in Jiangzhou, and the defender of Jiangzhou at that time would be Luo Xian, an old minister of The Ji Han Dynasty. Luo Xian's superior, Yan Yu, was summoned by Liu Chan to Qinwang that year, leaving only 2,000 soldiers for Luo Xian, and Luo Xian relied on these 2,000 soldiers to resist the onslaught of tens of thousands of Wu troops such as Lu Kang for more than a year, which also showed the danger of Jiangzhou and the Three Gorges.
Pictured: Three Gorges in the Renminbi
Condition 2: Jiangzhou is close to Jingzhou, most of the Jingzhou faction is the place where the fresh blood of the Jingzhou faction can be most replenished, the original defender Yan Yu and Luo Xian, who later repelled Eastern Wu, are both Jingzhou people, and the Jingzhou faction is the most supportive of the Han dynasty in Liu Bei's clique. Liu Chan can play a role in responding to everything here. And the White Emperor City has the relics of Liu Bei, the king's qi still exists, and if Liu Chan and Liu Chan's sons can give orders here, they will certainly be able to make the people and barbarians from all over Shuzhong come to qin the king.
Condition 3: Jiangzhou is geographically important and is the border with Eastern Wu. Cao Weiru attacked from the north, and the Daba Mountain was steep and not so easy. If Cao Wei attacked from the west, he would directly face the fortified and dangerous Three Gorges River defenses. Even if it really can't be defended, reinforcements can be put into Eastern Wu at any time. Eastern Wu himself knew that he and Liu Chan were dead, and they also counted on Liu Chan's influence in Shu to oppose Cao Wei.
Condition 4: After Sun Xiu's death, The internal affairs of Eastern Wu were a miasma of black smoke and serious internal attrition. Jingzhou can be retaken. Jingzhou is a talented person, Jingzhou is the closest place to the Central Plains, with the strong influence of the Jingzhou party in Jingzhou Yizhou, you can re-plan Longzhong pair.
Condition 5: In order to make up for the lack of population, Cao Wei and the Jin Dynasty immigrated many nomadic people to come in and cultivate the land. If the generations of monarchs after Liu Chan could hold the Jin Dynasty to the death and slow down the Yizhou in the east and Tuntian in the west, the Jin Dynasty would impose heavy taxes on the peasants in order to deal with the Jihan regime, and the nomads and poor people would be dissatisfied with the rule of the Jin Dynasty, and perhaps they would support the Han and fight back.
This article is written by "Water Town Sun Wenli", the special author of "The Heroic Dream of famous generals through the ages", and it is forbidden to reprint it without the author's authorization