Obtaining Hanzhong was the peak of Liu Bei's career, and Huang Zhong's beheading of Xiahou Yuan shook the world, which meant that Liu Bei completely sat on the throne of Hanzhong, and the situation under the world began to become more and more confusing.
How good is Xiahou Yuan?
First, he and Cao Cao were in a close relationship and had a great friendship.
Cao Cao's wife and sister are Xiahou Yuan's wife, and Cao Cao always punishes Xiahou Yuan for making trouble in his hometown, and the two people can be said to be good enough to wear a pair of pants.
Second, Xiahou Yuan was Cao Cao's confidant general.
Cao Cao had been following Xiahou Yuan since Chen Liu raised an army in December 189. During the Battle of Guandu, Cao's army lacked grain and grass, and it was Xiahou Yuan who tried every means to escort grain and grass to stabilize Cao Cao's army. Xiahou Yuan was also very good at a thousand-mile raid and had outstanding military achievements.
Third, Xiahou Yuanwei shook off the right.
In 211 AD, Cao Cao defeated the combined forces of Ma Chao and Han Sui to achieve the Great Victory in Weinan. Since there were still many rebel forces in the area, cao Cao could not always stay there, so Xiahou Yuan took on the heavy responsibility of guarding Guanzhong and Liangzhou.
The area guarded by Xiahou Yuan was a gathering place for Han Chinese and other ethnic minorities, and the local people were fierce, and xiahou yuan's pressure was very great. But Xiahou Yuan did not disappoint Cao Cao. He defeated Liang Xing and the remnants of Ma Chao and Han Sui, sweeping through the major ethnic minorities. It only took more than a month to eliminate Song Jian, who had been changing his name to king in Liangzhou for more than thirty years, and even Cao Cao praised him as a tiger step and a right hand, and he was invincible and lamented that he was inferior.
Fourth, he was the supreme military commander of the Western Front of the Cao Army.
In 215, Cao Cao attacked Zhang Lu, and Xiahou Yuan led a large army to form a corner with Cao Cao's main army. Every time Cao Cao met with his generals, Xiahou Yuan was always by his side. Later, Cao Cao defeated Zhang Lu, and Xiahou Yuan became the general of Zhenxi (征西) to guard Hanzhong, in charge of the southwestern defense.
It can be seen that Xiahou Yuan was very important to Cao Cao, he was Cao Cao's brother in life, and he was also a general with great military achievements. The town guarded the southwestern half of Cao Cao's country, and as long as there was Xiahou Yuan, Cao Cao did not worry about a fire in the backyard.
Since ancient times, Hanzhong has been a place of contention for soldiers, and as early as the Warring States period, it was repeatedly contested by the State of Chu, the State of Qin and the State of Ancient Shu. Later, the State of Qin occupied Hanzhong as a base for the southern Parth Shu and attacked the State of Chu in the east. During the dispute between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, Liu Bang also gradually recovered his military inferiority through Hanzhong's advance into Guanzhong.
For Liu Bei, Hanzhong was the key to his survival, and without Cao Cao's army in Hanzhong, he could drive straight into Chengdu. At this time, Liu Bei was fluttering on all sides. On the Jingzhou side, Eastern Wu Sun Quan was looking at the tiger, and Yizhou could be robbed by Cao Cao at any time. If Liu Bei occupied Hanzhong, then Yizhou would become a stable rear. You can either take Chang'an directly, or you can rely on Jingzhou. Only in this way can the general trend of the three divisions of the world be truly accomplished.
Cao Cao and Liu Bei were well aware of the importance of Hanzhong, and both sides invested the top troops for this place.
In addition to letting Guan Yu guard Jingzhou, Liu Bei personally led the army to go out. Leading the strategists Fazheng, the famous minister Huang Quan, the military generals Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, etc., the future five tiger generals went to four, in order to capture Liu Bei in Hanzhong. The men fought in front, and the women escorted grain and grass, which was a war that Liu Bei could not lose.
Cao Cao's side was also elite, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, Cao Xiu, and Cao Zhen of the Eight Tigers of the Sect Were all dispatched, and Zhang Guo, Xu Huang, and the famous yongliang generals Guo Huai and Cao Cao Yizi Cao Zhang, among the five sons of Liang, were all gathered in Hanzhong.
In 215, Sun Quan asked Liu Bei when he could return Jingzhou, but Liu Bei adopted a policy of delay, and Sun Quan felt that Liu Bei had been tricked, so he sent the general Lü Meng to attack Jingzhou. Liu Bei personally led 50,000 soldiers to support Guan Yu, but by this time Cao Cao's army had already arrived in Hanzhong. Liu Bei had no choice but to negotiate with Sun Quan to divide Jingzhou equally. In Liu Bei's mind, the status of Hanzhong was obviously more important than that of Jingzhou.
Since 217 AD, Liu Bei has dispatched several elite generals to attack Hanzhong, but in the end they have failed. This time Liu Bei personally led a large army to attack Xiahou Yuan, and the two sides won and lost each other. Later, Liu Bei listened to Fa's advice to enter Dingjun Mountain, and Xiahou Yuan thought that he had an opportunity to rush to compete, hoping to eliminate Liu Bei in the area of Dingjun Mountain.
According to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei obeyed Fazheng's plan and sent Huang Zhong to ambush him halfway up Dingjun Mountain, where he drank tea in accordance with his own laws and regulations. Xiahou Yuan was furious when he saw Liu Bei's attitude, and personally led 400 soldiers up the mountain to arrest Liu Bei, at this time Huang Zhong, who was ambushing on the mountainside, quickly attacked and killed Xiahou Yuan in one fell swoop after receiving the order, and broke into Xiahou Yuan's camp to massacre him, and Xiahou Yuan's troops collapsed.
What kind of impact did Xiahou Yuan have on the overall situation of the world after xiahou yuan's death?
First, Cao Cao's army on the western front suffered a crushing defeat.
Xiahou Yuan has been operating on the Western Front for many years and has long been the soul of the Western Front. Suddenly learning that the commander was killed in battle, the entire Cao army in Hanzhong was in a state of panic, and the combat effectiveness declined seriously. If it were not for the efforts of Zhang Guohuai and others to rescue them, the Cao army in Hanzhong would be in danger of being completely annihilated.
Second, Huang Zhong was canonized in the first battle.
Without the merit of killing Xiahou Yuan, Huang Zhong could not have become one of the Five Tiger Generals. Liu Bei was also very aware of how much Huang Zhong's merits were, and after he declared himself the King of Hanzhong, he made Huang Zhong a rear general, which made him a top general of Shu Han on a par with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Third, it eventually led to the loss of Hanzhong.
When Xiahou Yuan was still alive, he and Liu Bei fought on a par, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse after Xiahou Yuan's death. There was no longer any soul figure in Hanzhong who could stand up to Liu Bei. Liu Bei once said that at this time, even if Cao Cao personally came, there was no way, Hanzhong was already in my pocket, which showed how important Xiahou Yuan was.
Cao Cao's army did not reach Hanzhong until eight months later, but it was too late. There was no meeting with the Hanzhong Cao Army at its peak. At this time, Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong burned cao jun's grain and grass. Although Cao Cao personally arrived, Cao Cao was still very depressed militarily, and coupled with the fact that many soldiers had fled from the burning of grain and grass, Cao Cao had no choice but to abandon Hanzhong. Liu Bei took the victorious Yu Wei of Hanzhong and captured the Three Eastern Counties in one go, which was also the first time that Liu Bei and Cao Cao defeated Cao Cao alone on the frontal battlefield.
Fourth, Hanzhong became Liu Bei's pocket, and the situation of the Three Kingdoms was completely formed.
Liu Bei's strategic thinking was very correct, he would rather divide Jingzhou equally with Sun Quan than take Hanzhong first, and only by taking Hanzhong would he have a truly stable sphere of influence. Therefore, in the same year that he took Hanzhong, he immediately proclaimed himself the King of Hanzhong. He also attached great importance to the defense of Hanzhong, and Qian Gang arbitrarily ordered Wei Yan to defend the town, and Wei Yan did not live up to Liu Bei's high hopes.
Fifth, after the Battle of Hanzhong, Cao Cao set a strategy of attacking from the east and defending the west.
Cao Cao originally thought that Shudi was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and if he attacked Liu Bei first and fell into a state of stalemate, Sun Quan would take the opportunity to attack his Huainan region, and Cao Cao at that time did not have the ability to fight on liu bei and Sun Quan on two fronts.
Therefore, Cao Cao always sent troops to guard strategic places such as Chang'an. If the Shu Han attacked, the Cao army could not hold out on the border, and when the Food Supply of the Shu Han was not enough, it could naturally retreat, so that Cao Wei could trap the Shu Han in the southwest direction at the lowest cost.
As for the long border between Cao Wei and Sun Wu, with only one river blocking it, this was much easier than attacking Liu Bei. Sun Wu distributed many important cities along the river, all of which were the targets that Cao Wei could choose to attack. After the Battle of Yiling, the Shu state was seriously injured, and at this time, it was necessary to give priority to suppressing Eastern Wu.
For Cao Wei, the best way was to actively prepare for war. Cao Wei occupied the richest area in the world, and the soldiers were well fed, and the longer the time dragged on, the more favorable it was for Cao Wei. As long as there is an absolute power gap in the later period, the Shu and Wu states will inevitably have a war.
This is also an important reason why Zhuge Liang constantly attacked the State of Wei, he was very aware of the gap in strength between the two sides, and only when the gap in strength was not very large could he gain a glimmer of life, and in the later period, Cao Wei's standing army was as high as 500,000, and the Shu and Wu states added up to less than half of it.
Sixth, it triggered Guan Yu to launch the Battle of Xiangfan.
When Guan Yu discovered his own great victory in Hanzhong, Guan Yu hoped to take advantage of Cao Wei's heavy losses to expand the results, so a few months after the end of the Hanzhong War, Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan, killing Pound's flooded Seventh Army. Because Sun Quan did not want Liu Bei to become bigger, and he did not want to see Liu Bei defeat Cao Wei, he sent Lü Meng to sneak into Jingzhou and cause Guan Yu to be defeated and killed, and the pattern of the world changed again.
The defeat at the Battle of Chibi by Cao Cao made Sun Quan, the defeat at the Battle of Hanzhong made Liu Bei, and the death of a Xiahou Yuan caused great changes in the world. The changes caused by Huang Zhong's killing of Xiahou Yuan to the world were not inferior to Guan Yu's careless loss of Jingzhou.
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