People in the world often say that "water and fire are merciless", so water and fire can often kill people, today the author does not talk about water, only talk about fire, there were three fires in the Three Kingdoms period, one burned Yuan Shao, one burned Cao Cao, and one burned Liu Bei.
Burned Yuan Shao
"Zizhi Tongjian": "Yuan Shi was heavily multiplied, in the old city, Wuchao, the Tun army was not strictly prepared, if it was attacked by light troops, it did not arrive unexpectedly, and burned its accumulation, but for three days, Yuan Clan defeated itself." the great joy, since the general stepped on five thousand people, all with the yuan army flag, the rank of the horse's mouth, the night from the middle of the road, people hugging the salary... To the end, to the siege, to the great arson, to the chaos in the camp..."
At the time of the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was the most powerful, he occupied four states, there were hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, for a time it can be said that fierce generals are like clouds, strategists are like rain, soldiers are full of food, and the destruction of Cao seems to be at the fingertips. However, Cao Cao was not willing to show weakness, although he was inferior to Yuan Shao in strength, Cao Cao was unwilling to surrender, preferring a bloody battle. Soon the two sides opened up a battle line at Guandu and attacked and killed each other, although Cao Cao achieved certain results, but his strength still could not catch up with Yuan Shao.
Soon, the two armies were deadlocked, and this stalemate lasted for three months, at this time Cao Cao's army was in a predicament, on the one hand, the soldiers were weak, on the other hand, the grain and grass were cut off, at the same time, the rear was not stable, and when Cao Cao was very worried, Xu You came to vote, Cao Cao heard that Xu You came to vote, went barefoot to meet Xu You, and then told Xu You the truth, saying that he had actually cut off the grain and grass and could not last for a few days.
So Xu You offered a clever plan, this plan is to burn Wuchao, at that time Yuan Shao's grain and grass were all gathered in Wuchao, once set fire to Wuchao, it will definitely make Yuan Shao defeated. So Cao Cao took Xu You's advice and personally led a force of five thousand people, dressed as Yuan Jun, under the banner of Yuan Jun, and took a bunch of firewood and grass with them, and used the dark night to take a small road to reach Wuchao. During this period, when Yuan Jun inquired, they said that they had come to reinforce Wuchao on Yuan Shao's orders, thus deceiving Yuan Jun.
After arriving at Wuchao, Cao Cao immediately ordered his soldiers to set fire to it, and organized troops to kill the Yuan army troops defending Wuchao, burning all the grain and grass of the Yuan army, the generals of the Yuan army learned that the grain and grass were destroyed, and surrendered one after another, Cao Cao took the opportunity to send troops to attack Yuan Shao, destroying Yuan Shao's army, and it is said that more than 70,000 Yuan troops were killed, so that Yuan Shao only led eight hundred horses back to Hebei. In this battle, Cao Cao burned Yuan Shao with a fire, which greatly reduced Yuan Shao's strength, and Cao Cao won the victory and laid the foundation for the future unification of the north.
Burned Cao Cao
"Zizhi Tongjian": "It is to take ten Mengchong dou warships, carry dry hagi, dry firewood, fill them with oil, wrap them in a curtain, build a flag, and prepare to walk on the ship, tie it to its tail." First of all, with the book will be left behind, and the deception will fall. When the southeast wind is fast... The officers and men of the military all went out of the camp to stand and watch, and pointed out that they were surrendering. Go to the northern army for more than two miles, at the same time, the fire, the fierce wind, the ship like an arrow, burn the northern ship, extend to the shore camp. ”
After Cao Cao unified the north, he soon decided to use troops to the south, he sent people to build ships, and trained water troops, claiming to be 100,000 elite soldiers, wanting to pacify Eastern Wu in one fell swoop, at this time Sun and Liu were forced to join forces, but their strength was less than 50,000, but they actually hit the stone with pebbles. At that time, many people advised Sun Quan to surrender to Cao Cao, but Sun Quan was determined to fight to the death to protect Jiangdong, and then the two armies confronted Chibi.
Cao Cao's warriors were mostly from the north, so most of them were not accustomed to water, and they were not suitable for taking boats, so Cao Cao faced this situation, so he ordered that the ships be connected end to end, so that people and horses were on the boat as if they were on the ground. But in this way, the most afraid of fire attack, so Zhou Yu said to Huang Gai: "Now the enemy is outnumbered, it is difficult to stand for a long time, now that the Cao Army warships are connected, we can use fire to attack cao", in fact, Huang Gai also thinks so.
So Huang Gai staged a bitter plan, tricked Cao Cao, and said that he was willing to take his soldiers to submit to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao believed it to be true and was very happy. On the other hand, however, Huang Gai prepared many warships, filled them with dried hagi and dry firewood, and poured oil on them, while the outside of the ship was wrapped in a curtain and planted with a flag, and finally in order to escape, a small boat was tied behind each warship, which could be described as everything was ready, only the east wind was owed.
At that time, these ships had reached the center of the river, just when the southeast wind was rising, Huang Gai then let the soldiers raise the sails, with the southeast wind, quickly forward, Cao Jun looked at the Wu army from a distance, thinking that Huang Gai had surrendered, and when they were two or three miles away from the enemy army, dozens of warships were on fire, and suddenly the fire was everywhere, and the warships rushed to the Cao Army warships like fire dragons, burning all the Cao Army warships, and the fire once spread to the Cao Army's land camp. In an instant, the fire burst into the sky, covering the sky, Cao Jun was burned to death, drowned countless people, Wu army took advantage of this to launch a fierce attack, greatly broke the Cao army, so that Cao Cao was seriously injured, had to retreat to the north, so it is said that the Chibi Battle burned Cao Cao.
Burned Liu Bei
Zizhi Tongjian: "Nai Shu each held a handful of Mao, attacked with fire, and pulled it out; One Ershicheng, led all the armies, attacked at the same time, beheaded Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, and Hu Wang Sha Moke, and broke more than forty of his battalions." ...... The Han lord ascended Ma On Shan, Chen Bing went around himself, and Sun urged the armies, and on all sides, they collapsed and collapsed, and tens of thousands of people died. ”
After Guan Yu's death, Liu Bei attributed all the blame to Eastern Wu, so he raised 50,000 troops to attack Eastern Wu, vowing to pacify Eastern Wu, Sun Quan could not make peace, and finally decided to fight Liu Bei to the death, they sent the main forces, Shu Han took Liu Bei as the commander, Eastern Wu took Lu Xun as the commander, and at the beginning Liu Bei was strong, penetrating deep into Wu territory for two thousand miles, occupying many areas. Lu Xun, led by defense, constantly retreated, dodging the Shu army's attacks. Subsequently, Liu Bei sent the Shu Han water army to garrison both sides of the Yangtze River, and Liu Bei personally led the main force from Zigui to Yiting and established a base camp.
At that time, Liu Bei used many methods in order to let Lu Xun lead the army into battle, such as storming Sun Huan of Yidao and forcing Lu Xun to send troops to rescue him, but Lu Xun refused to send troops to rescue him, such as provoking before the battle, but the Wu army still could not hold out, such as secretly setting up ambushes, but the Wu army was not deceived. Over time, the morale of the Shu army was greatly reduced. At that time, it was a sweltering heat, the heat was extremely hot, and many soldiers were miserable, so Liu Bei also transferred the water army to the land, and let the soldiers camp in the deep mountains and dense forests, and the troops were repaired and waited for the autumn to fight again.
However, Lu Xun saw the fighter and sent a small force to attack the Shu army, which was defeated by the Shu army, but Lu Xun found a way to fight against the enemy army from the defeat, which was fire attack. At that time, Jiangnan was in the summer, the climate was very sweltering, the Camp of the Shu Army was mostly wooden structures, surrounded by trees and weeds, so Lu Xun ordered the soldiers to hold thatch, take advantage of the night to attack the Shu army, and set fire to the wind, the fire was everywhere, the Shu army was in chaos, Lu Xun took the opportunity to lead the soldiers to launch a fierce attack, the Shu army was defeated, Liu Bei collapsed, the whole line collapsed, and Lu Xun concentrated his forces, besieged on all sides, and liu Bei fought liu bei to escape, and finally had to defeat the White Emperor City, this battle, Lu Xun a fire, burned Liu Bei.
References "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Zizhi Tongjian"