After Cao Cao completed his conquest of the north, he began to move south to Jingzhou in 208 AD, in the same year Liu Biao fell ill and died, Liu Chun surrendered, Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao, fled to Jiangxia County to join Liu Qi, the entire Jingzhou except Jiangxia County, all fell into Cao Cao's hands, so Cao Cao wrote a letter to Sun Quan before preparing for the next step of the war, that is, the Battle of Chibi, the content of the letter is as follows:
Those who are close to him are condemned to the crime, and Liu Qi's hands are tied. Imabari's water army of 800,000 people, Fang and the general will hunt wu.
The meaning of this is: Recently I (Cao Cao) was ordered to fight against the guilty, my banner pointed to the south, Liu Chun tied his hands and captured, and now I manage the water army of 800,000, ready to meet the general (Sun Quan) in Wudi.
Cao Cao
The so-called 800,000 water troops in the Battle of Chibi came from here, but the question is, did Cao Cao really have 800,000 water troops?
Of course, there were no 800,000 people, at that time all the armies in china did not add up to 800,000, let alone 800,000 water troops, according to records, when the Shu Han fell in 263 AD, the total population of Cao Cao's control area was about 4.43 million, the total population of Sun Quan's control area was about 2.4 million, the total population of Liu Bei's control area was only 940,000 people, a total of 7.77 million, less than 8 million people, the year of the Battle of Chibi was 208 AD, there were no 7.77 million people, not even 7 million people. Counting ten people feeding one soldier, the total strength of the whole world at the Time of Chibi was 700,000 people, which was already at the top.
Population and military strength of the three countries
Besides, cao cao could not bring all his troops to the chibi front to fight in a war, his northern border and western border all needed troops to guard, and all counties and cities needed to stay in the army, so Cao Cao's troops invested in the battle of Chibi could never have 800,000 water troops, and the total strength was not 800,000.
Let's take a look at Cao Cao's use of troops, Cao Cao once defeated the Yellow Turban soldiers in Yanzhou, collected 300,000 Qingzhou Yellow Turban soldiers, and drew elite soldiers from them to form Qingzhou soldiers, even if it was ten draws, there were also 30,000 Qingzhou soldiers, this is still Qingzhou soldiers, Cao Cao's troops invested in the Battle of Guandu are also unfathomable, but at least there are 30,000 to 40,000 people, and the opponent Yuan Shao has 110,000 people, it can also be seen here that Cao Cao uses troops and likes to win more with less.
Battle of Chibi
Cao Cao's northern conquest of Wuhuan's troops was even less, only 20,000 to 30,000 people, while Wuhuan had more than 100,000 people, so the southern conquest of Jingzhou's troops would not be much, and then look at how many troops Jingzhou had?
When Jingzhou was in liu biao's hands, the whole of Jingzhou had about 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and when Cao Cao went south to Jingzhou, Liu Chun surrendered, except for Liu Bei and Liu Qi, who nominally all submitted to Cao Cao, and from the historical records, Liu Bei and Liu Qi each had an army of 10,000 people, most of them were water troops, and a small part were army, which was a definite number, because Zhuge Liang explicitly said to Sun Quan when he was on his mission to Eastern Wu:
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Zhuge Liang Biography: Liang Yue: Although the Yuzhou army was defeated at Nagasaka, the current warriors and Guan Yu's water army were 10,000 people, and Liu Qi's Jiangxia warriors were not less than 10,000.
Liu Bei
The meaning of this is that although Liu Bei was defeated at Changsaka, there were almost 10,000 soldiers and Guan Yu's water army returning from Jingzhou, and Liu Qi's soldiers in Jiangxia were not nearly 10,000.
The Jingzhou army actually included the armies of Liu Bei and Liu Qi, in addition to them, Cao Cao collected 50,000 to 60,000 Jingzhou troops, and there is no accurate record of how many troops Cao Cao put in the Battle of Chibi, but it can be estimated:
When Cao Cao was preparing to fight the Battle of Chibi, the soldiers were divided into two roads, one way was the escort Zhao Yu led by Yu Ban, Zhang Liao, Zhang Guo, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Lu Zhao, Feng Kai seven people, according to the later records of Yu Ban leading the Seventh Army, the Seventh Army was about 30,000 people, that is to say, Zhao Yu should have 30,000 people on this road.
Another road led by Cao Cao from Jingzhou, Cao Cao absorbed 50,000 to 60,000 Jingzhou troops, but at least half of them were army, because they had to be scattered throughout Jingzhou, so Cao Cao could not take everyone away to participate in the war, he could only take half of them at most, almost 30,000, this is the surrender army, Cao Cao's headquarters also has people, and it is unlikely to be less than the surrender army, according to zhao Yu's standards, Cao Cao's direct army also has at least 30,000 to 40,000 people, how to be more than the descending army, counting 40,000, Together with 30,000 troops, a total of 70,000 people.
Therefore, the number of troops invested by Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi was roughly clear,
Cao Cao's troops were divided into two routes, one way was that he personally led 70,000 people down the Yangtze River to attack Liu Bei, and the other route was zhao yu leading 30,000 people along the Han River to go south to attack Liu Bei, the total number of people and horses in the two roads was 100,000, which was the total strength of Cao Cao's participation in the Battle of Chibi, but in fact, the army led by Zhao Yu did not participate in the battle, because Cao Cao quickly collapsed after a battle with Sun Liu's combined army, ending the Battle of Chibi
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Sun quan
Let's look at Sun Liu's coalition forces,
The total strength of Liu Bei's side is only 20,000 people, Zhou Yu's side is 20,000 to 30,000 people, in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Zhou Yu biography, it is clearly stated that Zhou Yu is asking Sun Quan for 30,000 troops, and in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Wu Main Biography said that Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu each led 10,000 people respectively, that is to say, the eastern Wu side invested either 20,000 people or 30,000 people, plus Liu Bei's troops, that is, 40,000 to 50,000 people, which is a more accurate number
In fact, the entire strength of jiangdong was almost the same as the number of Jingzhou soldiers in Liu Biao's period, which was also 70,000 to 80,000 people, but Sun Quan only invested 20,000 to 30,000 people in Chibi, and also arranged heavy troops at Jiujiang to prevent the defeat of Zhou Yu on the front line to support, in addition, after the defeat of Cao Cao at the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan himself led an army to attack Hefei, and at the same time, Zhang Zhao led an army to attack Dangtu, but Sun Quan still had sufficient reserve troops, and at the time of the Battle of Chibi, the total strength of Eastern Wu was 70,000 to 80,000 people.