Cao Cao's defeat of Huarong Dao, recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Volume I, Emperor Wu of Wu, and the Records of the Duke of Shanyang reads: "Gong to Chibi, and preparation for war, unfavorable. The public ship was burned, and the army was led back from Huarong Road, but when it was muddy, the road was not clear, and the sky was windy, so that the soldiers were filled with grass, and the riding was passed. ”
Cao Cao, who escaped from Huarong Dao, laughed: "Liu Bei, Wu Li also." But it is necessary to count less than late; to set fire to the envoy early, I have no class. ”
Liu Bei "hurried to arrive", and Cao Cao had already run away without a shadow: "Beixun also set fire to it and had nothing to do." ”
Cao Cao was able to escape from Huarong Dao, whether Guan Yu let him go of his horse in his old feelings, this is really not recorded in the historical data, but there are two things that can be affirmed: First, Cao Cao did escape from Huarong Dao; second, Liu Bei did set a fire in Huarong Dao.
At this time, the problem came out: the Huarong Trail was muddy and the footprints were messy, and the clear-eyed people knew at a glance that the People and Horses of the Cao Army Brigade had passed, and Liu Bei set a big fire at this time, was he going to prevent Cao Ren from counterattacking in Nan County, or was he afraid that Zhou Yu would lightly ride to catch up with Cao Cao? When Liu Bei set fire to Huarong Road, where was Guan Yu Zhang Fei Zhao Yun?
If we look closely at Liu Beiguan Yu Zhang Fei Zhao Yun's resume, we will find that when the Battle of Chibi began, they had already been in Jingzhou for seven or eight years--when Liu Bei was in Jian'an's sixth year (201 AD), Zhuge Liang had just celebrated his twentieth birthday.
Liu Guan, Zhang, and Zhao had been in Jingzhou for seven or eight years, and had already touched the surrounding geographical situation to the bottom, of course, they knew where it was suitable for an ambush, and the ambush location that Liu Bei chose was Huarong Road: drawing a straight line from Wulin to Nan County, Huarong City was right in the center of this straight line, Cao Cao wanted to flee back to Jiangling, taking Huarong County was the easiest route, and there was also a granary of Cao's army in Huarong County at that time.
Liu Bei had already calculated that Cao Cao was going to retreat from Huarong Province, and he knew that setting up an ambush there belonged to Yi Yi waiting for labor—the Cao army that had traveled through dense forests and trekked through swamps might only have 20% or 30% of its combat effectiveness, and it would definitely not be able to break through the defensive line composed of fire and swords and guns.
But for some reason, Liu Bei, who had taken advantage of the time and place, was actually "late" - the muddy road surface of Huarong Road was fifteen miles, and Cao Jun cut down trees and cut grass to lay the mat, and it took most of the day to pass, but Liu Bei waited until Cao Cao passed, and then hurriedly set a fire. This cannot but make people suspect that his fire was burned for Sun Quan and Zhou Yu to see: "I have tried my best to chase after it, and I have set up a pocket array in East China Province, I could have taken Cao A-qi down in one fell swoop, but if it ran too fast, it was still a step late!" ”
Liu Bei's remarks, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu did not accept and had to accept, because like Liu Bei, they also held back bad things, and their goal was to "wish that the supreme (Sun Quan) Wei De would be able to conquer the four seas, encompass Kyushu, and become an emperor." ”
Lu Su's words were very clear: If Sun Quan wanted to unify Kyushu, Cao Cao and Liu Bei were both stumbling blocks to be removed, so the most important thing for Eastern Wu at the moment was not to hunt down and kill Cao Cao, but to take advantage of the opportunity of Liu Bei and Cao Cao to seize as much territory as possible.
Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, Gan Ning, and others were busy grabbing territory, and Liu Bei was not idle, they did not launch a pursuit by Cao Cao, but scattered their men and horses and snatched the fruits of victory with Zhou Yu: "Liu Bei watched Liu Qi assassinate the history of Jingzhou, and led troops to the four counties of Nanlan, Wuling Taishou Jinxuan, Changsha Taishou Han Xuan, Guiyang Taishou Zhao Fan, Lingling Taishou Liu Du all surrendered, and Lujiang camp marshal Lei Xu led tens of thousands of troops to prepare. ”
Liu Bei returned from a fire on Huarong Road, easily took the four counties of Jingzhou, and from then on had the capital to sit on an equal footing with Cao Cao Sun Quan, and Sun Quan knew that Liu Bei had deliberately let Cao Cao go, and he could only eat Huang Lian dumbly: Liu Bei had set up an ambush on Huarong Road like a decent, and our eastern Wu soldiers came back after grabbing some booty, and the eldest brother did not say that the second brother was a fox of a fox on the mountain, so don't talk about anything.
After reading the records of Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms Zhengshi Guan Yu Hua Dao "did not intercept" Cao Cao, we cannot but admire Liu Bei's strategy of Sun Quan: If Cao Cao died in Huarong Dao, then Cao Ying's anger would pour over Liu Bei's head, and Liu Bei, who had only 20,000 horses, would certainly not be able to bear it, and Sun Quan, who had always liked to take advantage of the fire and robbery, could not stand by and watch -- he wanted to "kill Liu Bei to avenge Cao Cheng Xiang", which was a beautiful thing to kill two birds with one stone.
Realistically speaking, when the Battle of Chibi was just over, Liu Bei could not defeat the morale of the Eastern Wu water army, nor could he defeat Cao Cao's remnants of the army—Cao Cao only lost his flesh and muscles in this battle, but did not move his bones, and his first-class strategists and generals returned to Xuchang with all their tails.
At this time, some readers may have to ask: Liu Bei personally went to Huarong Road to set fire, why did Guan Yu Zhang Fei go?
We have to analyze this problem from two aspects: First, Guan Yu was the commander of the water army at that time, and the two troops that Liu Bei participated in the Battle of Chibi, in addition to Liu Qi's 10,000 horses, were the 10,000 water army commanded by Guan Yu. As the commander-in-chief of Liu Bei's water army, Guan Yu could not leave the main force alone and go to Huarong Road to set up an ambush.
Second, when Cao Cao was defeated and retreated, he was very embarrassed, but there was no shortage of strategists in generals, and the desire to survive of the defeated soldiers would also explode into amazing combat effectiveness, in this case, Liu Bei would not build a position and fight with Cao Jun: in the art of war, it is said that the siege of three is missing, the poor Kou should not be chased, Cao Cao's skinny camel is bigger than Ma, if he plays hard, even if he can annihilate them all, Liu Bei will be seriously injured.
Therefore, we can guess that Because Guan Yu had an old relationship with Cao Cao and was commanding the water army to clean up the battlefield, Liu Bei took Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun and hung not far behind Cao Cao's tail, grabbing some prisoners and grabbing some weapons and equipment, as for the rushing march to run in front of Cao Cao, this kind of stupid thing Liu Bei would not do.
As for letting Zhang Fei Zhao Yun intercept and kill the main force of Cao Cao's defeated soldiers along the way, it seems that it can only appear in the novel: at that time, Liu Bei was so angry and horses, using the tactic of adding oil to divide the troops to harass the red-eyed soldiers under Cao Cao's command, it was easy to be surrounded and eaten, and their best way was to gather together - even if the troops were united, they were not superior in numbers.
Liu Bei did put a fire on Huarong Dao, and Cao Cao did run away from Huarong Dao, the order and deep reasons for this, the author was not clear for a while, so I had to ask readers at the end of the article: If Liu Bei rushed ahead of Cao Cao, occupied the position and set fire, could he stop Cao Cao's troops who sacrificed their lives to break through? If Liu Bei captured Cao Cao at Huarong Province, would he have a chance to unify the Three Kingdoms?