For the Wei Shu wu three-party regime at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, I think everyone will not be unfamiliar, and friends who are familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms should have found a problem.
Before Cao Pi became emperor, although the forces of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan had been fighting each other, the main struggle had always come from Cao Cao and Liu Bei. Eastern Wu, on the other hand, has almost always acted as either a bystander or because of its own interests, temporarily forming a short alliance with one of Cao Cao or Liu Bei's forces to deal with the other side together, and almost never has an example of a big war against one side alone.
Eastern Wu only faced Cao Cao's army unilaterally twice. Once, in 213 AD, after the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao once again led an army to the south, claiming to have raised 400,000 troops. However, although the Cao army achieved remarkable results in the early stage of the campaign, it had to retreat because Eastern Wu built the Fusukou, and the army could not overcome the natural danger of the Fusukou. Another time was in 217 AD, when Cao Cao marched south again after pacifying Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, but although this time he achieved considerable success, it was still difficult to break through the mouth of The Beard. So after Sun Quan asked for surrender, the two sides also withdrew.
However, after Cao Pi became emperor, all this changed drastically, and the situation in the entire Three Kingdoms suddenly changed. The war between the forces of the Three Kingdoms gradually began to tilt toward Eastern Wu. Instead of focusing on Shu Han, Cao Wei launched one onslaught after another against Eastern Wu, the most famous of which were the following two.
1, after the Battle of Shu Wu Yiling
Huang Chu 3 years (
222 years
Cao Pi took the opportunity to lead a large army south to attack Sun Quan, and promulgated the "Edict of Cutting Wu" to encourage the generals to know:
"The southern expedition marched to encircle Jiangling and obtain more boats and ships. Behead the captives, and surrender the prisoners. Cow wine day. ”
Unfortunately, although Cao Pi's army was frequently reported, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and other soldiers and horses defeated Sun Sheng, destroyed Lü Fan, burned Zhuge Jin, and almost laid siege to Jiangling, the core town of Eastern Wu.
Unfortunately, at this critical moment, Cao Pi actually fell seriously ill, coupled with the unusually stubborn defense of Eastern Wu. Therefore, Cao Pi could only shake hands with Eastern Wu and make peace, and resigned.
2, the Battle of the Stone Pavilion between Cao and Wu
The Battle of Shiting took place in 228 AD and was a major battle between the two countries over the Jianghuai region. The State of Wu lured Cao Xiu, the governor of the State of Wei, into the depths of Wu with the deceitful surrender of The Taishou Zhou Of Poyang in order to encircle and suppress them. Cao Xiu, the state of Wei, led an army of 1.0 million and raised two other large armies to penetrate deep into Wudi.
Cao Xiu's army naturally did not gain any benefits, Cao Xiu was deeply besieged by Lu Xun, and the three major armies of Eastern Wu Lu Xun, Zhu Huan, and Quan Chun defeated Cao Xiu's army at Shiting, or relying on Jia Kui's rescue to successfully retreat with the defeated remnants of the army. However, at this one stop, Cao Xiu fell ill and died not long after returning to Luoyang.
Why, then, did Cao Pi, as empress dowager, abandon his confrontation with his old enemy, Shu Han, and instead devote greater energy to Eastern Wu, which had always been more obscure than the other two countries?
1, the changes in the strength of Wu and Shu
Before Cao Pi ascended the throne and became emperor, the strength of the Shu state was always stronger than that of the Wu state, and even before Jingzhou was lost, the strength of the Shu state was already faintly in opposition to Cao Wei.
First the Battle of Hanzhong, then the Battle of Jingxiang, before the intervention of external forces, the strength shown by the Shu Han army was not weaker than that of the Cao Wei army. It can even be said that after these two major wars, it has always been Cao Wei who suffered losses. It was only in the middle and late stages of the Battle of Jingxiang that Eastern Wu suddenly fell to Cao Wei, and all of them gave Shu Han a fatal knife behind their backs, which led to the final defeat of Shu Han and the loss of Jingzhou.
But it was also after the Jingxiang War that the balance of strength of the Three Kingdoms underwent a subtle change. Shu Han, who had lost Jingzhou, suffered a serious blow, not only was the overall strength damaged by nearly half, but the territory in his hands was only left with Yizhou and yizhou. Although Yizhou, as the country of Tianfu, is famous for its vast land and treasures, it is a fatal flaw, that is, the land is large and sparsely populated.
What was the war fought in ancient times? It is nothing more than one person, the era of cold weapons does not have such a modern large-scale killing force, the so-called big war is to say that the fight is white, which side has more people, who has more people, who can win, with less victory over more battles. And how could the sparsely populated Yizhou provide enough troops for the Shu Han? Of course, the answer is impossible, which is why zhuge liang's number of troops was no more than 100,000 after zhuge liang's northern expedition.
Later, Shu Han and Eastern Wu broke out a protracted Battle of Yiling, in which the only remaining strength of Shu Han was depleted by Liu Bei. If he could win, it would be fine, but Liu Bei lost, and the result of the defeat was that Shu Han, who was already sparsely populated and had few soldiers, was completely reduced to "
There is no one in Shu
"The embarrassing situation, the strength once dropped to the freezing point.
In contrast, Eastern Wu, at this time, not only seized Jingzhou to fight the Yangtze River alone, but also recovered Jiaozhou, and the bingfeng pointed directly at the land of lianghuai, and the development momentum was uncontrollable, posing an unprecedented threat to the south of Cao Wei. Especially in the Battle of Yiling, no one expected that Eastern Wu, who had previously been cautious and cautious on both sides, actually defeated shu Han, who had always been steady on eastern Wu at the battle of Yiling.
At this time, Shu Han had completely lost the strength to threaten Cao Wei, and could no longer pose any danger to Cao Wei in the short term. Eastern Wu, under the obscurity of Taoguang for many years, has become a giant that cannot be ignored, but it has brought a non-negligible threat to Cao Wei.
Therefore, at this time, Cao Wei will inevitably choose to vigorously suppress the strength and development of Eastern Wu to avoid it from continuing to grow, resulting in a complete inability to control in the future.
2, the geographical conditions of Wu and Shu
In fact, it is reasonable to say that when the strength of the Shu kingdom is weakened to the extreme, it is also a great idea to take the opportunity to quickly cut off the Shu kingdom and eliminate a major future hidden danger. But the truth is not so simple.
The Shu Han, who had experienced the great defeat of Yiling, had lost the strength to threaten Cao Wei. Moreover, due to the precarious terrain in central Shu, they who lost Jingzhou could not directly launch a powerful attack on Cao Wei's territory, and could only sit in Yizhou. However, although Shu Han lost its geographical advantage of advancing northward, Cao Wei also lost the way to launch a major war against Shu Han.
When Jingzhou is there, jingzhou can still be used as a breakthrough. However, when Jingzhou was not there, in the face of the mountains and valleys of Yizhou, Cao Wei could not get his mouth even if he was full of sharp teeth, and the terrain of Yizhou, which limited the development of Shu Han, also became their protective umbrella.
Even if Cao Cao was able to conquer the natural dangers in Shu, he did not do so in a short period of time. However, once Cao Wei launched a long-term offensive with Shu Han, it was bound to make Eastern Wu take advantage of the loophole.
On the other hand, Eastern Wu, although it occupied Jingzhou to fight alone on the Yangtze River, but "
Guarding the river will guard Huai
Eastern Wu, which lacked the defensive line in the Lianghuai region, was also equivalent to having a large area of land directly exposed in Cao Wei's field of vision, and a horse Pingchuan could drive straight in. Again, although Eastern Wu was sitting in Jingzhou, Jingzhou could also become a breakthrough for Cao Wei, and Cao Wei could launch a raid on Jingzhou with half the effort.
3, the capriciousness of Wu Shu and Eastern Wu
The most important means of survival of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period has always been a diplomatic means. The strongest diplomatic means are not Zhuge Liang, who is the confucian of the tongues in the script, but the most prosaic country of the three forces in Eastern Wu.
During the Chibi War, because the eastern Wu side could not resist Cao Wei's army, and Sun Quan naturally could not abandon his father and brother's inheritance, he joined forces with Liu Bei to resist Cao Cao. At this point, the two forces of Wu and Shu have formed long-term alliances, but this so-called long-term does not seem to be as long as imagined.
In the Battle of Jingxiang, Eastern Wu threw itself into cao Wei's arms in order to gain the Jingzhou region. Moreover, after Cao Pi was proclaimed emperor, Sun Quan officially sent envoys to take the initiative to request to become a vassal of the State of Wei, becoming the King of Wu, a great general, and a leader of jingzhou under the wei state.
However, after the Battle of Yiling, Sun Quan, who had defeated the Shu state, seemed to have the confidence to not only violate the original agreement with Cao Wei, but also completely betrayed the State of Wei in October of the same year and tore up the covenant between the two countries. It was also this betrayal that completely angered Cao Pi, and even wrote the famous "Edict of Cutting Wu", and immediately launched an attack on Eastern Wu.
After that, Sun Quan saw that he could not resist Cao Pi's army, and he hurriedly and panickedly once again took the initiative to negotiate peace with Cao Wei and called him a tribute. However, after Cao Pi's death, Sun Quan believed that Cao Wei was bound to be in chaos, coupled with the fact that Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of Shu Han at this time, continued to practice the strategy of "Longzhong Pair" for the success of the northern expedition in the future, united with Wu to resist Cao, lobbied Eastern Wu, and restored diplomatic relations with Eastern Wu, so Eastern Wu rebelled against Cao Wei again and joined forces with Shu Han again.
Eastern Wu was like this, relying on strong diplomatic ability, capricious between Cao Wei and Shu Han, left and right to strengthen itself, and relying on external forces to deal with the immediate crisis and seek current interests. However, in this way, it was bound to usher in Cao Wei's dissatisfaction and jealousy, afraid that one day Eastern Wu would find an opportunity to give himself a fatal blow to his back when he was not defensive, just like he was seeking Jingzhou at that time.
Therefore, between the enemy who is bright and upright and the enemy lurking in the shadows, it is natural that the latter is a greater threat, so Cao Wei will inevitably choose to attack Eastern Wu first.
4, to avoid Eastern Wu continue to fish for profits
The two major forces of Shu Han and Cao Wei were undoubtedly the real enemies of the Three Kingdoms period. One is to usurp the Han family's world and stand on its own, and the other is to aspire to restore the Han family's world. So these two countries have been fighting for life and death from the beginning.
As for the Eastern Wu, their way of survival and development took the opportunity to develop when Shu Han and Cao Wei fought and died, seeking to expand their strength by taking territories that did not belong to the two countries for the time being, or uniting with the forces of one of them to seek the territory of the other.
It is also in this way that although Eastern Wu seems to be the most unknown of the three forces, its strength has been steadily developing. The other two countries have experienced many major losses of strength, but Eastern Wu has not suffered any major blows.
In order to prevent Eastern Wu from continuing to develop and grow, taking advantage of the fact that its strength had not yet developed to the point of being unmanageable, giving it a major blow and consuming its strength was naturally the best choice for Cao Wei at that time.
summary
Whether it is a strong attack on one side of the force, it actually depends on the impact of the situation. After Cao Pi succeeded to the throne and before Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, between Wu and Shu, there was undoubtedly a greater hidden danger and danger to Eastern Wu, so Cao Wei would inevitably give priority to attacking Eastern Wu.