In 208, a far-reaching war broke out in Chinese history, and it was the Battle of Chibi. After the war, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei became the three main separatist forces. Although Cao Cao defeated Chibi, he still occupied eight of the 13 states of the former Eastern Han Dynasty, including Ji, Qing, You, He, Yan, Yu, Si, and Xu, with the largest population and military strength. In addition, he controlled the central government and had the political advantage of blackmailing the Sons of Heaven to order the princes. However, after the Battle of Chibi, cao cao's rule of the Yellow River valley suffered a long period of military disasters, the anti-war sentiment of the government, the public and the people has reached a critical point, has endangered Cao Cao's rule, many hidden anti-Cao forces seized the opportunity of Cao Cao's defeat to attempt to launch an operation to overthrow Cao, such as the famous Yidaizhao incident. More importantly, Cao Cao gradually grew older and had to plan for the problems behind him. Therefore, Cao Cao had to spend considerable time and energy to solve internal affairs. As a result, Liu Bei, the uncle of the Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty, who had been wandering all his life, temporarily got a respite, and the strategic planning across Jingyi began to improve the schedule. Three years later, a war gave Liu Bei, who already controlled most of Jingzhou, an opportunity to enter Sichuan.
Liu Bei recruited talents
In March 211, Cao Cao sent Zhong Xuan to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong. Guanzhong Ma Chao, Han Sui, and other powerful warlords feared that this was Cao Cao's strategy of "false road cutting", so they raised troops to block it. In September, Cao Cao defeated the Kansai coalition and entered Longyou. The news came, which triggered the fear of Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang's cold lips. At this time, Zhang Song of Litong Liu Bei took the opportunity to persuade Liu Zhang to befriend Liu Bei. Soon, Fa Zheng, who was then a lieutenant in the military council, served as an emissary to welcome Liu Bei into the river. Therefore, in December 211, Liu Bei left Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and other towns to guard Jingzhou, and Zhao Yun led sima to stay in the camp to resist the rear. With the assistance of the military commander Pang Tong, he led tens of thousands of infantry to Go back to Shangyi Prefecture in Jiangxi. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that Liu Zhang "enshrined the first lord in the place, and the first lord entered as if returning". It means that Liu Bei entered the river as if he were returning home, not only did not encounter obstacles, but also received rich hospitality from the Shu army.
Liu Bei and Liu Zhang
After arriving in Fucheng, Liu Zhang held a grand welcome ceremony for Liu Bei, and the generals of both sides drank for more than 100 days. Subsequently, in order to ensure that Liu Bei defeated Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang also gave Liu Bei 200,000 grain and rice, thousands of horses, thousands of vehicles, and a large number of silk brocades. In addition, Liu Zhang also assigned command of the Baishuiguan garrison in northern Yizhou to Liu Bei. At this point, Liu Bei "merged with more than 30,000 people, and the vehicle armor equipment was very rich", and its strength was enough to march north to Zhang Lu. However, After Liu Bei's army reached Yemeng Pass, it stopped advancing. A sentence in the Zizhi Tongjian is even more explicit, "Beibei to Ye meng, not both to please Lu, thick trees and kindness to win the hearts of the people." "Houshu Ende's reason is very simple, that is, Liu Bei intends to prepare for the attack on Chengdu.
Pang Tong offers a plan
How to attack Chengdu? His adviser Pang Tongjin offered the three strategies of taking chuan. The best strategy, selected warriors run day and night to attack Chengdu. Liu Zhang was neither brave nor prepared for war, and if the army suddenly arrived, he could capture it in one fell swoop; zhongzhi, annexing the BaishuiGuan garrison, relieving his worries, and then going straight to Chengdu; the next strategy, returning to the White Emperor City, and converging with the elite Xutu Sichuan in Jingzhou. Although Pang Tong has always been inclined to the top strategy, Liu Bei believes that although this strategy can be successful militarily, it will be unpopular with the people in the long run, which is not only not conducive to establishing an image in the future, but also conducive to the conquest of the entire territory of Yizhou. The next strategy is equivalent to abandoning the previous achievements, and Liu Bei will not accept it. Therefore, Liu Bei adopted the "middle strategy". At this time, Sun Quan's clique, which was attacked by Cao Cao, sent an urgent document to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei immediately asked Liu Zhang to return to Jingzhou to assist in the battle.
Stills of Liu Zhang
Liu Zhang was already on guard against Liu Bei's immobility, so this time he did not allocate Liu Bei's military resources in full, so Liu Bei took advantage of this matter to make a big fuss and wanted to provoke the soldiers. Neiying Zhangsong, who was lurking by Liu Zhang's side, did not know it, thinking that Liu Bei really wanted to return to Jingzhou, and wrote a letter to stop it. His brother Zhang Su was afraid of being implicated and took the initiative to report Zhang Song to Liu Zhang. Shi Zai, "Zhang's Harvest Cut Loose". In this regard, the contradiction between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang began to become public. Subsequently, Liu Zhang ordered the Guanshu generals in Yizhou to forbid the delivery of documents to Liu Bei. Using this as an excuse, Liu Bei immediately made a response and deployment: Huang Zhong and Zhuo Bing were sent to Fucheng to open the avenue for Liu Bei's main army to enter Chengdu. He himself went north to Baishuiguan to eliminate Liu Zhang's old generals Yang Huai and Gao Pei, and took the wives and children of Baishuiguan's generals hostage, and then led the Baishuiguan generals south to meet Huang Zhongshi. In view of Liu Bei's disadvantage of going deep alone and without any rear support, Liu Zhang built three lines of defense at the front of Chengdu, Fucheng, Mianzhu and Luoxian in an attempt to fight a protracted war to drag it down. In addition, Liu Zhang also sent the general Fu Ban and Xiang Cun to lead more than 10,000 elites to attack Liu Bei's base area of Yaomeng when Liu Bei and the Shu army were fighting in Mianzhu. If you look at the future Liu was hindered by Luocheng, and his military division Pang Tong was also shot by the Shu army, if the Shu army attacked Ye MengGuan successfully, it is likely to turn the tide of the war in one fell swoop. However, Liu Zhang miscalculated, and shu jun hit a hard nail in Ye Meng.
Liu Bei into the Sichuan route
At that time, Huo Jun, an unknown general of Liu Bei's clique, was stationed at YemengGuan, who at that time only controlled the hundreds of garrisons. It was by relying on these hundreds of people that Huo Jun persisted in Ye Meng for a year. After a long siege of the city, the Shu army gradually became tired and sluggish. Huo Jun saw the timing and attacked the Shu army in the first battle, and killed the Shu general Xiang Cun. It can be said that the defense of Ye Meng Pass not only affected Liu Bei's battle to take the river, but also affected the Battle of Hanzhong 3 years later. In this regard, just look at the Golden Bull Road connecting Hanzhong and Chengdu.
Looking at the route records of jinniu road, its narrative is roughly as follows: from Mian County in the west through Qingyang Town, Da'an Town, and Jinniu Town, turning south into Wuding Gorge, passing through Drip Water To Ningqiang County; then turning southwest from Ningqiang County to the southwest through Huangbayi and Qipanguan to the banks of the Jialing River in Guangyuanjing, Sichuan; then the Shunjialing River through Mingyue Gorge and Thousand Buddha Cliffs to Guli Prefecture, turning southwest through Lizhou to cross the Jialing River orange bai ferry to Zhaohua Ancient City (Ye Meng); and finally entering Jianmen Pass to reach Zitong, Mianyang, and entering the Chengdu Plain. In fact, the route recorded above is the Golden Bull Road of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was not the case before the Southern and Northern Dynasties. From the pre-Qin period to the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the route of the ancients to and from Hanzhong and Sichuan was: from the southwest of Mian County to Da'an Town and Yangping Pass in Ningqiang County to Yanziquan, and then crossed the Jialing River, through Guangping and Jintou Temples to baishui pass at the confluence of the Bailong River and Jialing River, and then along the Bailong River to Zhaohua Ancient City, Jianmen Pass, Zitong, Mianyang, Guanghan to Chengdu, which is the way sima mistakenly cut the Shu in the Warring States period.
Taurus Road
In summary, it can be seen that neither the Golden Bull Road in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties nor the Golden Bull Road before the Northern and Southern Dynasties can turn a blind eye to Ye Mengguan. Of course, you can also avoid Ye Mengguan. However, before the attacker was sure to conquer the sword gate in a short period of time, it was necessary to take into account the problem of the back road being cut off. Later, Liu Bei used Ye Mengguan as a springboard blood battle to win Hanzhong. Then, he specially set up Zitong County, which was the god of the First World War, such as Ye Meng, Baishui, Jiange, Jiangyou, and Fucheng. Unfortunately, Huo Jun did not live long and died less than forty years later. Both Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang expressed great sorrow for Huo Jun's death. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei took great care of Huo Jun's son Huo Yi, not only nurturing him in the palace, but also cultivating him with all his heart. Later, Huo Yi also lived up to expectations and became a general who was the only one in the late Shu Han Dynasty, ensuring the stability of the southern central region.