The official name of Shu Han is Ji Han, which means the third Han, compared with the "Han" established by Liu Bang and the "Later Han" established by Liu Xiu, liu Bei single-handedly established this "Han" regime, like a minor child, if calculated from Liu Bei's title of emperor, Ji Han only existed for 42 years, if liu Bei seized the first base area of Jingnan Four Counties, Ji Han existed for 54 years.
From having nothing to establishing political power, if you count Liu Bei's early struggles, it took 37 years, and if you count from Liu Bei's seizure of the first base area of Jingnan Four Counties after the Battle of Chibi, it is only a short period of 12 years. According to Zhuge Lianglongzhong's century-long plan for Liu Bei, Liu Bei's ultimate dream was to seize the world and re-establish a new Han Dynasty, just like Liu Xiu did in those days.
The turning point that could make Liu Bei lose his dreams and strength was Guan Yu's fiasco at the Battle of Xiangfan, because of the defeat of Guan Yu, the only famous general of the Shu Han Dynasty, and the regime that Liu Bei had exhausted his life's energy to establish was in internal and external troubles, which led to the Battle of Yiling two years later, so that Ji Han completely lost the ability to conquer the Central Plains and became a divided regime living in the southwest.
Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Zhang Fei
First, why did the Battle of Xiangfan occur?
As for whether Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu to launch the Battle of Xiangfan, or whether Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan without authorization, there has always been a great controversy, and if nothing else, let's say that as a general on the side of the town guard, did he have the right to launch a big war related to the fortunes of the country? Such a war seems impossible, if you let Cao Ren launch a big battle against Ji Han on Cao Cao's back, or let Lu Xun launch a big war against Cao Wei behind Sun Quan's back, Cao Cao and Sun Quan's reaction must be: anger.
The Chronicle of Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms describes the occurrence of the Battle of Xiangfan in only a few sentences:
Twenty-four years later, the first lord was the king of Hanzhong, and Bai Yu was the former general. At the age of one, Yu led the crowd to attack Cao Ren Yu Fan.
It was Liu Bei who first declared himself king in Hanzhong, then made Guan Yu a former general, awarded Guan Yu a rune and an axe, and then in the same year, Guan Yu led an army to launch the Battle of Xiangfan, attacking Cao Ren of Fancheng. Liu Bei also specially sent Fei Shi to grant Guan Yu a seal letter and a rune, but the history books do not record that Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu to launch the Battle of Xiangfan.
The power of the false festival means that it is possible to kill the soldiers and generals who disobey the military order, and represents the exercise of power on behalf of the king, because as a general on the town guard side, if everything can be reported to carry out, many opportunities and time will be lost, but the power to lead the army to launch a war is not within the scope of the false festival, but within the scope of the monarch's duties, and the general who is the town guard side has no right to start a war without going through the monarch.
Guan Yu's Northern Expedition
There is a sentence recorded in the Chronicle of Emperor Wu of the Three Kingdoms, which can be used as a war between wei and Shu before the Battle of Xiangfan:
In the winter of October, Wanshou rebelled against Hou Yin and others, and took charge of Nanyang Taishou, robbing the people and Bao Wan. At the beginning, Cao Ren begged Guan Yu, Tun Fan Cheng, and was the moon envoy Ren Wei Wan.
The winter October here refers to the winter October of the 23rd year of Jian'an, that is, the year before Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan in 218 AD, in October of this year, the Wancheng defender Hou Yin rebelled in Wancheng, and it was Cao Ren who quelled this rebellion, but it is clearly recorded here that Cao Ren led an army against Guan Yu in the south before the rebellion of Hou Yin of Dingwancheng, and this year was in 218 AD.
In other words, Cao Ren was at war with Guan Yu in 218 AD, and the use of "begging" here is used, indicating that Cao Ren took the initiative to attack Guan Yu, and guan Yu's garrison at that time could be in Nan County, Jingzhou, which shows that Cao Ren attacked Guan Yu from Xiangfan to the south, and then there was a rebellion in the rear, so Cao Ren returned to the army to quell the rebellion, and the time when Cao Ren returned to the army to suppress the rebellion was from October 218 to the first month of 219.
That is to say, when Liu Bei fought hard against the Wei army in Hanzhong, Guan Yu of Jingzhou was not idle, and there were sporadic battles with the Wei army, but there was a rebellion in the border area of the Wei state, which led to the wei army commander Zhengnan general Cao Ren who was fighting with Guan Yu returning to wancheng to put down the rebellion, and the main reason for HouYin's rebellion was because the taxes were too heavy, and the reason why Hou Yin dared to rebel was because he had Guan Yu as an ally.
Liu Bei's Northern Expedition
In addition to hou Yin's rebellion in Cao Wei's territory, there were also Wei Irony conspiracy counter-cases in Yicheng, Ji Ben conspiracy in Xu Du, and Sun Wolf rebellion in Luhun, and these rebellions or rebellions all had Guan Yu's shadow in them, Guan Yu probably found the opportunity to attack Xiangfan, and at the same time, in order to alleviate the military pressure faced by Liu Bei in Guanzhong, Guan Yu should report to Liu Bei at this time that he should take the opportunity to go north to Xiangfan, first, Cao Wei had civil unrest, which was a good machine; second, if the Northern Expedition in Jingzhou, it could reduce the pressure in Hanzhong.
There is no doubt that Liu Bei absolutely agreed with Guan Yu's Northern Expedition at the end of 218 and the beginning of 219, we must pay attention to this time node, without Liu Bei's consent, Guan Yu could not advance north, from the perspective of Guan Yu's water army in the Battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu was advancing on land and water, so before the outbreak of the Battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu spent several months continuously advancing north along the Han River, which was agreed by Liu Bei.
And in both the "Biography of Wen Hui of the Three Kingdoms" and the "Zizhi Tongjian", there is an incident about the wei state of Yangzhou's assassination of Shi Wenhui's evaluation of the Battle of Xiangfan, which is as follows:
Twenty-four years after Jian'an, Sun Quan attacked Hefei, and all the prefectures were in charge. Shi Feiqian, who was said to have stabbed Shi Feiqian in Yanzhou, said: "Although there are thieves here, there is not enough to worry about, but there are changes in the south." Now the water is born and the zixiao county army has no far-reaching preparations. Guan Yu is sharp, taking advantage of the benefits and approaching, and will surely be troubled.
Here it is recorded that Sun Quan had an attack on Hefei in 219 AD, when the Wei state of Yangzhou assassinated Shi Wenhui that Sun Quan was not harmful, but was worried about the safety of the Zhengnan general Cao Ren in Fancheng, knowing that Sun Quan sent emissaries to make peace with Cao Wei as early as 217 and re-established a political marriage, Sun Quan's strategy after 217 should be to plan the strategy of capturing Jingzhou, Sun Quan deliberately attacked Hefei should be a feint, creating an illusion for Guan Yu, so that Guan Yu felt that the opportunity to attack Xiangfan had come. Luring Guan Yu to send troops, and then Sun Quan had the opportunity to secretly plot to capture Jingzhou, which was a big game of chess.
Liu Bei
Therefore, under the influence of many factors, Guan Yu reported to Liu Bei to send troops to attack Xiangfan, Liu Bei agreed, and then Guan Yu began to move north, before Guan Yu had yet reached Xiangfan, Liu Bei had already driven Cao Cao away in Hanzhong, captured Hanzhong, and at the same time called him the King of Hanzhong, and then Liu Bei sent Yidu Taishou Mengda north to attack Shangyong, and at the same time sent Liu Feng from Hanzhong to the east along the Han River, commanding Meng Da's soldiers and horses, and together with Meng Da, he captured the three counties of Shangyong, knowing that Meng Da's Yidu Taishou originally belonged to the jurisdiction of Guan Yu in Jingzhou.
Therefore, the outbreak of the Battle of Xiangfan was a superposition of various factors from beginning to end, one was the rebellion within Cao Wei, the second was Sun Quan's attack on Hefei, and the third was that Liu Bei needed Xiangfan to reduce the pressure in Hanzhong, and the superposition made Guan Yu feel that there was an opportunity to go north to Xiangfan, so he wrote to Liu Bei, Liu Bei agreed, and then Guan Yu began to send troops north, until July 219, Guan Yu hit the core area of Xiangfan
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Therefore, the Battle of Xiangfan was not launched by Guan Yu without authorization, but was launched according to normal procedures reported by Guan Yu and agreed by Liu Bei
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Second, the course of the Battle of Xiangfan
After Guan Yu launched the war, by July 219, he attacked Xiangfan, besieging xiangyang city guarded by Xiangyang Taishou Lü Chang on the south bank of the Han River, and also besieging Fancheng, which was guarded by the general Cao Renzhen of Zhengnan, and soon the left general Yu Ban and the General Pang De of Liyi also came to the rescue under the orders of Cao Ren, and was defeated by Guan Yu using the han water that was rising in the rainy season, at this time Guan Yu was already intoxicated by the victory of the war, and insisted on expanding the war.
Originally, it was only a small-scale war to seize benefits and support Liu Bei in Hanzhong, because Guan Yu's great success made Guan Yu's confidence expand infinitely, which in turn made Guan Yu's nature of the war change and become a strategic purpose of capturing the Xiangfan region of Cao Wei, which was equivalent to expanding the war, and at this time Liu Bei had just claimed that the King of Hanzhong had returned to Chengdu shortly after.
Guan Yu lost Jingzhou
Because the situation was indeed extremely favorable to Guan Yu, xiangyang and Fancheng, strategically important areas in the central Cao Wei Theater of Operations, were surrounded by Guan Yu's heavy troops, and the 30,000 men of Cao Wei's forbidden Seventh Army were also annihilated by Guan Yu in one fell swoop, and if they took another step forward and captured Xiangyang and Fancheng, they would be able to go north to Wancheng, and then threaten the core areas of the Central Plains such as Luoyang and Xudu.
The more Guan Yu's confidence doubled, the more danger came, under the deception of Sun Quan, Lü Meng, and Lu Xun, Guan Yu transferred all the Jingzhou troops to the front line to attack Xiangfan, and then, unexpected circumstances occurred, in October 219, Sun Quan took advantage of the empty opportunity in Jingzhou to order Lü Meng to cross the river in white clothes and seize Jingzhou, the three counties of Jingzhou were returned to Eastern Wu Sun Quan, and Guan Yu's tens of thousands of Jingzhou troops on the Xiangfan front became rootless water, the defeat was decided, and he was unable to return to heaven.
Therefore, although Guan Yu's tens of thousands of elite troops faced Xu Huang's new army, they were still defeated, not guan Yu's army was not able to fight, nor was guan yu's command ineffective, but the news that Jingzhou was being attacked by a sneak attack came, Guan Yu and the Jingzhou army had no intention of fighting, the army was defeated like a mountain, when Guan Yu was defeated in Maicheng, tens of thousands of troops were only two or three hundred people, so Guan Yu was captured, the three counties of Jingzhou were returned to Eastern Wu, and the Battle of Xiangfan ended.
Iii. The impact of the Battle of Xiangfan on Ji Han
The direct losses were nearly 200,000 square kilometers of land, nearly 600,000 people, thousands of middle- and lower-level officials at all levels, 50,000 elite Jingzhou troops, and a small number of grain, taxes, and other materials in the three counties of Jingzhou, which was equivalent to losing half of the strength of Liu Bei's regime.
Guan Yu defeated Mai Cheng
The indirect loss was the loss of prestige of Liu Bei's regime, the morale and confidence of The Officials and Soldiers of Ji Han were greatly damaged, the reputation of Liu Bei's life was damaged, and the resulting Battle of Yiling brought about the loss of tens of thousands of elite soldiers, the loss of countless middle- and lower-level non-commissioned officers, and the loss of confidence of countless boosts, but the biggest loss was that Liu Bei and the Jihan regime he founded forever and completely lost the confidence and strength to unify the world.
The fundamental reason for all this is the Battle of Xiangfan, which not only turned Ji Han from strong to weak, but also a turning point in the Ji Han regime, but also a turning point in the establishment of the Three Kingdoms, and it was Ji Han who lost the strength of a single family that allowed the situation of the Three Kingdoms to be maintained for decades.
If we must find the person responsible for the defeat of the Battle of Xiangfan, then Liu Bei is undoubtedly the first responsible person, as the supreme leader of the Jihan regime, his orders and will determine the prosperity and weakness of the regime, and Guan Yu, as the second responsible person, obviously bears the responsibility for the defeat of the war and the responsibility for insisting on expanding the war and abusing his power.
Fourth, the reasons for the defeat of the Battle of Xiangfan
Liu Bei was proclaimed emperor
The main reason for the failure of the Battle of Xiangfan was that Sun Quan, as a superficial ally, secretly attacked Guan Yu's base area of Jingzhou Three Counties, resulting in tens of thousands of Jingzhou troops becoming rootless water, and all of Guan Yu's troops on the front line lost the possibility of continuing to fight, which was more serious than the harm caused by Guan Yu's defeat at the front, if there was no sneak attack by Sun Quan, Guan Yu would not lose all the territory and troops even if he was defeated on the front line, at most he could return to Jingzhou, but Sun Quan's sneak attack on Jingzhou was different, completely letting Guan Yu lose the possibility of turning over. Fight the Jihan regime until liberation.
Liu Bei, as the supreme leader of the regime, in Jingzhou, the land of four wars, in the nearly seven months since the outbreak of the war, not only did not strongly support Guan Yu, but also did not prevent Eastern Wu Sun Quan from looking at Jingzhou, and did not expect that his brother-in-law would actually surrender, as long as the Jingzhou defenders resisted strongly, Lü Meng would not take Jingzhou so easily, and when Guan Yu arrived, Jingzhou might have a turnaround, but everything was hypothetical, and Liu Bei had to assume this responsibility.