In the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (215 AD), Sun Quan personally led 100,000 troops north to attack the Cao Wei regime's military stronghold of Hefei on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which was the largest and most active attack launched by Eastern Wu against Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, and as a result, he was defeated by the Cao army general Zhang Liao's 7,000 men and horses outside Hefei, and the commander Sun Quan was almost taken prisoner.
Xiaoyaojin was defeated miserably, and the direction of Xuzhou was not suitable for attack
The disastrous defeat of this campaign, especially the bitter lesson that Eastern Wu poured out its troops to the whole country, but lost thousands of cavalry of the Cao Army, made Eastern Wu thoroughly reflect on its future strategy. Before the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, Eastern Wu's strategic focus was on the direction of Huaiyang and Xuzhou, that is, the southeastern region of Cao Cao's territory. Among them, the Huaiyang area has no danger to defend, and the few large cities in which the rivers are long and long, and they are easily divided and surrounded.
Xuzhou is located in the northern Jiangsu Plain, the terrain is a horse Pingchuan, which is the place where the northern cavalry is used, Eastern Wu has always been known for water army combat, and cavalry duels have been repeatedly defeated. More importantly, Xuzhou has been a place of contention since ancient times, with the powerful Zang Ba's army stationed in Qingzhou in the north, and xudu in the south being the seat of the Cao Wei regime, even if Eastern Wu luckily took Xuzhou, it would be difficult to hold it for a long time.
Lü Meng offered advice and turned to attack the middle reaches of the Yangtze River
In view of this situation, the Eastern Wu general Lü Meng clearly pointed out: "Now in Hebei, the new Yuan, Fu Ji you, Ji Ji, did not have time to look east." Xu Tu guarded the soldiers, smelled nothing, and went to self-keke. However, the terrain is land-based, and the horse rides. The Supreme Being (referring to Sun Quan) has xuzhou today, and he will come to fight for it in the next few days, although he will guard it with 70,000 or 80,000 people, and he should be worried. It is better to take the feather, all according to the Yangtze River, the situation is better. ”
That is to say, instead of wasting troops in field battles with the Cavalry of the Cao Army, it was better to give full play to the water warfare expertise of the Eastern Wu army, turn the battlefield to the Yangtze River, and occupy the Jingzhou area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The land there is no worse than Xuzhou, and in the words of Lu Su, the governor of Eastern Wu: "Fu Jingchu is adjacent to the country, the water flows down to the north, the Jianghan outside, the mountains and mausoleums inside, the golden city of Solid, the fertile wilderness, and the people are rich." If there is a basis for it, the assets of this emperor are also".
Jingzhou was of great significance to the consolidation of Eastern Wu
At that time, Jingzhou was of great significance to the Three Kingdoms of Wei Shu and Wu. If Shu occupies Jingzhou, it can take advantage of the geographical advantage of "connecting Wuhui in the east and Tumba Shu in the west" and is in the active position of attacking and retreating. It is also possible to attack the Central Plains from both Xiangfan and Hanzhong at the same time, and achieve the goal of "reviving the Han Dynasty and returning to the old capital". Wei zhan jingzhou, then the Yangtze River natural danger is shared with the Shu and Wu families, at any time can go up and down the river, north to Xichuan, south and east of the river, and finally unify the world.
But jingzhou is even more important to Eastern Wu, which is located in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and to the east is the three gorges, the throat waterway of the Izukawa River, which is also a natural barrier to encircle Xichuan. Stretching from Jingzhou to the east to the sea, the Yangtze River stretches for thousands of miles, which is the natural geographical dividing line between the north and the south, and is also the widest line of defense that the southern regime can rely on. Occupying Jingzhou, the west can take advantage of the Three Gorges natural danger to stop the Shu Han forces in the east of Sichuan; the north can use the advantages of the water army to cross the river with the Cao Wei regime to rule, thus ensuring the stability of the Jiangdong regime.
After some planning, Sun Quan made up his mind and turned his troops to Guan Yu, who was stationed in Jingzhou.