The Battle of Yiling, which took place during the Three Kingdoms period, became well-known because it was cited by Mao Zedong in "The Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War" as a typical example of "the weak give way first, strike later, and thus win" as a typical battle. This battle, because of its far-reaching influence, is known as one of the three major battles of the Three Kingdoms period. Due to the defeat of this battle, Liu Bei's Shu Han suffered heavy losses and basically lost the ability to compete for the world, and Liu Bei was also ashamed and resentful, and died of illness.
According to the assessment of various quarters, Liu Bei still had a certain advantage in the early stage of the campaign. Liu Bei was a veteran of the battlefield, and he was jealous of Cao Cao, and since he dared to launch this battle, he had a certain degree of certainty of victory. So where did he lose? We can see from the course of the campaign that Liu Bei encountered six situations that he never expected in the battle, which eventually led to his defeat.
First, what Liu Bei did not expect was that there was no unity of opinion among Wu's subordinates.
From the records in the history books, we can see that before the campaign was launched, the opposition of Liu Bei's camp was extremely great. Regardless of the objections of the indigenous officials in Yizhou, even Liu Bei had been following him around, and Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, and others who had come with him from Jingzhou had clearly expressed their disapproval of cutting down Wu. Until the final dispatch, Liu Bei could not completely solve this problem.
In order to prevent a change in Yizhou, Liu Bei was forced to strengthen the defense of Yizhou first. Zhuge Liang stayed in Chengdu, and Zhao Yun stayed in Jiangzhou, and at the same time made arrangements for Han and zhong. In this way, Liu Bei could only lead the remaining 40,000 or 50,000 people to cut down Wu, and could not use the largest army. It failed to form the greatest advantage over the Wu army, which affected the war situation.
Second, the second thing Liu Bei did not expect was the accidental death of the general's strategist.
After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, his men were really full of talents and strong soldiers. On the battlefield, there are Fa zheng and others to give advice and advice, and the army has five tiger generals dispatching and commanding. But who would have thought that in the short time since, these talents have withered away. After the fall of Jingzhou, Guan Yu's army was wiped out, and then Huang Zhong fell ill and died, Ma Chao was unable to participate in the battle due to illness, and even Zhang Fei was murdered by his subordinates before the war. The loss of these generals caused Liu Bei to be forced to personally command the battle, and most of the generals in the army were newly promoted generals, making it difficult to stand alone, which seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the army.
Later generations talked about Zhang Fei's death and said that once Zhang Fei died, the Shu army could not come out. That is to say, the Shu army did not have the command of a general who could fight in the usual battle. In fact, we can also see that once Guan Zhang died, Liu Bei's elite water army was uncommanded, unable to go down the river before, and unable to communicate between the north and south of the great river after the sneak attack. It seriously affected the operations of the Shu army.
Relative to the loss of the generals, the biggest blow to Liu Bei's clique was the death of Fazheng. In Liu Bei's lifelong conquest, what he lacked most was a strange man who could give advice and advice. Fa Zheng just made up for this role. During the Battle of Hanzhong against Cao Cao, with Fazheng's plan, Cao Cao was eventually defeated. After the defeat, Cao Cao sighed: "I know that Xuande will not do this, and he will be taught by others." Zhuge Liang also sighed after the Battle of Yiling, "If Fa Xiaozhi is still there, he will be able to stop the Lord's Crusade; even if he can't stop it, if he accompanies the Crusade, he will certainly not return home in a big defeat." ”
Third, what Liu Bei did not expect was that his opponent was actually Lu Xun.
The art of war is cloudy, knowing oneself and knowing the other, and never losing a hundred battles. When Liu Bei and Eastern Wu were good, they were familiar with the middle and upper-class figures of Eastern Wu. Since the deaths of Zhou Yu, Lu Su, and Lü Meng, Eastern Wu had basically no generals who could be compared with Liu Bei. Liu Bei also calculated this accurately, and only then did he dare to boldly send troops. He may even be ready for a duel with Sun Quan.
But what he never expected was that Sun Quan actually used the unknown scholar Lu Xun. Lu Xun knew Liu Bei very well and was able to speculate on Liu Bei's actions. However, Liu Bei did not understand Lu Xun, did not know all his situation, and was difficult to make corresponding countermeasures, and tied his hands and feet in the battle. At this point, Liu Bei suffered a big loss. For example, Liu Bei let his subordinates flatten the village, and he himself led his elite troops to ambush the valley. All the generals of Eastern Wu had to attack, but only Lu Xun saw through Liu Bei's plan and forbade the dispatch of troops, allowing Liu Bei to return without success.
Fourth, what Liu Bei did not expect was the ruthlessness and injustice of the people in Jingzhou.
Liu Bei thought that he had been in Jingzhou for a long time and had kindness to the people of Jingzhou, so when he sent troops, he deliberately slowed down his pace, hoping to get the cooperation of the Jingzhou side. At the same time, Liu Bei sent Ma Liang to Wuling County with gifts, and in response to the Wuxi Barbarian Jun, he formed a barbarian army of tens of thousands of people to cooperate with Liu Bei.
But to Liu Bei's extreme disappointment, the people in Jingzhou were silent, and none of them responded to Liu Bei. It is really "every time the righteous slaughter the dog generation, the negative heart is mostly a reader." Those so-called famous and prestigious people are morally inferior to the uncivilized barbarians who have no culture.
Fifth, what Liu Bei did not expect was that Lu Xun actually used fire to attack and sneak attack to defeat himself.
Liu Bei had been in battle for a long time, and the Shu army he commanded was good at mountain warfare, and in the early mountain battles, the Wu army, which was good at water warfare, was not an opponent at all, and was repeatedly defeated. In the stage of stalemate, the Shu army built the camp very carefully. Liu Bei used to use fire to conquer the enemy, how could he not pay attention to guarding against fire attack? Who expected that Liu Bei would eventually be planted on the fire attack.
On the eve of Lu Xun's attack, Lu Xun had his men attack a camp of the Shu army first, and was defeated. This shows that the Shu army led by Liu Bei was still very well guarded. However, it was such a tight defense system that was finally attacked by Lu Xun with a sneak attack with fire, which was really unexpected by Liu Bei and never expected.
Sixth, liu bei did not expect the sixth thing: Cao Pi was a stupid and incompetent monarch.
Liu Bei's attack on Eastern Wu also had a fantasy in his mind, that is, Cao Pi's cooperation. When Cao Cao died, Liu Bei sent someone to mourn in an attempt to reconcile with Cao Pi. However, Cao Pi simply rejected Liu Bei's emissaries. Cao Cao, such a heroic figure, gave birth to such a stupid and incompetent son as Cao Pi, which was really unexpected. No wonder Cao Cao was so hesitant when choosing Cao Pi as his heir.
When Liu Bei and Lu Xun were at odds with each other, if Cao Pi sent troops to attack the rear of Eastern Wu, Eastern Wu would surely perish. However, from the perspective of the situation, Liu Bei could only occupy the homeland of Nan County, while Cao Pi could occupy most of the land of Eastern Wu across the Yangtze River. The situation was absolutely favorable to Cao Pi. Liu Bei and Lu Xun were in a position to hold each other, Liu Bei's army was good at mountain combat, and it was not difficult to transport down the river in the rear. In contrast, Lu Xun was in an unfavorable strategic position between Cao Wei and Shu Han, and the situation was much more difficult. With each day of stalemate, the danger of Eastern Wu increased by one point. This was also one of the reasons why the Eastern Wu generals were eager to fight Liu Bei.
Cao Pi's subordinate Liu Ye and others also suggested to Cao Pi to attack Eastern Wu. However, in this situation where the heavens gave half of the country to Cao Pi, Cao Pi stubbornly and resolutely did not attack Eastern Wu. After Eastern Wu won the battle, it attacked Eastern Wu again. I really don't know how Cao Pi's brain grows. Such a stupid and incompetent person actually said that Liu Bei did not know the soldiers, and I wondered what qualifications he had to say Liu Bei? Encountering an incompetent and stupid monarch like Cao Pi was also something that Liu Bei could not have imagined. It can be said that Lu Xun and Liu Bei held each other for seven or eight months that Cao Pi gave to Eastern Wu. Without Cao Pi's stupidity, Eastern Wu could not have won.
Liu Bei encountered these six situations that he had not expected at all, and was finally forced to fail. It is true that the heavens and the earth are working together, and the heroes are not free. Liu Bei could only look up at the sky and sigh in the White Emperor City, "I am humiliated by Sun, am I not a heavenly evil!" ”