Cao Cao was defeated by Chibi, and some people said that the water army was plagued by diseases, why did some people not believe it?
In this article, I will talk to you about this topic.
Regarding the Battle of Chibi, the contents recorded in the respective history books of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu are different, but there is one content that is commonly recorded.
That is, at that time, there was a great plague in cao jun. According to the Book of Wei:
Cao Gong arrived at Chibi and engaged Liu Bei, losing the battle. At this time, a great plague occurred, and many officers and soldiers died, so Cao Gong led his troops back to the north.
In the Book of Shu, it is recorded as follows:
In a major battle with Cao Cao in Chibi, cao jun was defeated and the cao army warships were burned. The ancestors and the Eastern Wu army marched by land and water, and pursued them all the way to Nan County, when the plague was circulating, and Cao Cao's army was dead, so Cao Cao had to withdraw and return.
And in the Book of Wu, it is recorded as follows:
Encountered Cao's army at Chibi and defeated Cao Cao's army. Cao Cao burned the ships that had not yet retreated, led the troops to retreat, and the soldiers died most of them due to hunger and plague.
So in general, wei shu and wu all three parties admitted that there was indeed a great plague at that time. However, when the plague occurred, the three parties clearly disagreed.
Cao Wei said that the plague occurred during the Battle of Chibi, so Cao Cao's defeat of Chibi was mainly caused by the plague.
Shu Han said that the plague occurred after Cao Cao's army defeated Chibi and retreated to Nan County. In other words, cao Cao's defeat at the Battle of Chibi had little to do with the plague. The Eastern Wu side's statement is much the same as that of the Shu Han side. All in all, Cao Junxing was defeated by Chibi first, followed by the plague.
The reason for this disagreement is very simple. Cao Wei wanted to emphasize the Battle of Chibi, which was not a crime of war; Sun and Liu stressed that the victory in the Battle of Chibi was won by us through arduous battle. However, whoever of them is closer to the truth is obviously difficult to analyze the results.
From the information we have now, the only thing that can be determined is that during the Battle of Chibi, the Cao army did have a plague, but it is obviously a bit exaggerated to say that the main reason for Cao Cao's defeat was because of this plague.
More importantly, although the Battle of Chibi was said to be divine, for Cao Cao, it was not a major defeat in the strict sense.
Because, before the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao had successfully controlled Xiangyang and Jiangling, the two most important military towns in Jingzhou, and after the Battle of Chibi, Xiangyang and Jiangling were still in Cao Cao's hands.
Later, Jiangling was lost a year later, and the reason for the loss of Jiangling was mainly that it was too far from Cao Cao's military and political center, and the cost of defending and implementing rescue was too large, so Cao Ren decided to give up after holding Zhou Yu for a year.
However, Xiangyang had always been firmly in cao Cao's hands. In this sense, if Cao Cao had not fought the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's final result would have been to occupy Xiangyang; as for Jiangling, unless Cao Cao had been personally stationed in Jingzhou, the loss was inevitable, just like the later Hanzhong.