Ping Ping said: The Great War Yiling first looked at the terrain, and Lu Xun was prepared to retreat and then retreat

When it comes to Sun Quan's life, there will be three more wonderful climaxes: one is the Battle of Chibi, the second is the Battle of Hefei, and the third is the Battle of Yiling. Today we will take some time to talk about the Battle of Yiling, which is called "Seven Hundred Miles of Burning Camps" in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In July 221, Liu Bei, who had just ascended to the emperor's throne, led a shu Han army of tens of thousands of people, and launched a large-scale attack on Eastern Wu. Fighting broke out mainly in the area around the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, when the border between Wu and Shu was near Wushan, and Liu Bei sent the generals Wu Ban, Feng Xi, and Zhang Nan to lead elite troops to attack Wu County. The eastern Wu defenders Li Yi and Liu A's troops were quickly defeated, and the Eastern Wu forces abandoned Wu County, retreated along the Yangtze River to Zigui, and then abandoned Zigui and retreated to Yiling. The Shu Han army was like a bamboo, penetrating six hundred miles deep into the Wu Realm. Under such circumstances, the Eastern Wu general Lu Xun faced tremendous internal and external pressure.

Lu Xun was a young general, and his subordinates Pan Zhang, Han Dang, Xu Sheng, Song Qian, and others were veterans who had been in the battlefield for a long time, and these veteran generals expressed great incomprehension about Lu Xun's retreat and retreat. Everyone thinks that a war with the Shu army should occupy a dangerous place, relying on the advantages of mountains and rivers to carry out effective defense, and now you see that this young general knows to retreat, knows to retreat, gives up the dangerous land to the enemy, retreats to the plains again and again, the enemy has gone deep into China's border for more than six hundred miles, and occupies various dangerous areas, how will this battle be fought in the future? In the face of everyone's doubts and objections, Lu Xun was very calm and assertive, and he conscientiously and conscientiously implemented his strategy step by step.

So what is Lu Xun's strategic intention? We only need to find a map of the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River and take a little look at the topography and landform to understand Lu Xun's strategic conception. The area from Zigui to Yiling is located on both sides of the Yangtze River West Ling Gorge, the surrounding areas of Zigui are layered with mountains and mountains, mountains and valleys are deep, there are more than 120 mountains above 800 meters above sea level, and most of the mountains are north-south, and the space in the river valley between the mountains and the mountains is very narrow, which is very unfavorable to the movement and deployment of the large corps. Yiling is the junction of mountains and plains, "the water is here and the mountains are destroyed", that is to say, the water has become wider here, and the mountains have become gentle here.

The terrain of Yiling area is high in the northwest, low in the southeast, surrounded by mountains on three sides, facing the plain in the southeast direction, the highest point is more than 1900 meters above sea level, and the lowest point is only about 50 meters above sea level, showing a clear stepped slope-like terrain. The terrain of the entire battlefield is like a "trumpet", and the surrounding area is a slender and long "trumpet body", and Yiling is this "horn mouth". Lu Xun retreated all the way along the narrow strip, withdrawing his troops to the position of "trumpet mouth", and then concentrating his strength on guarding the throat road.

As a result, Liu Bei's tens of thousands of troops could only be crowded in a narrow strip of land, which was not only inconvenient to mobilize and deploy, but also inconvenient in logistical supply. Tens of thousands of troops lined up in a long snake array, company camps for hundreds of miles, although the total strength of the troops is large, but at each point the strength is very limited. Lu Xun's own troops were relatively easy to concentrate and mobilize in the plains, and the logistics supply was very sufficient.

Obviously, What Lu Xun wanted to use was the strategy of "enticing the enemy to go deep, defending and counterattacking, and breaking through each one"; he repeatedly retreated, leaving the dangerous mountainous terrain to Liu Bei, retreating to the plain area beyond the "trumpet mouth" himself, and then concentrating his troops to form a "fist", while letting Liu Bei's troops disperse in the narrow strip and form a "chain". If this battle is described by a metaphor, it is "sledgehammer smashing iron chains", although "iron chains" have the advantage in total quantity, but it can not withstand the impact of "sledgehammers" in each specific link.

At this moment, in terms of strategic posture, Liu Bei was caught in three obvious passive situations: First, the weather was unfavorable, and when the weather was extremely hot, the area where the Shu Han army was located was high and densely forested, mosquito bites, and plague were prevalent, and the soldiers were overwhelmed; second, the geographical advantages were unfavorable, Liu Bei's tens of thousands of troops were in a narrow strip, it was inconvenient to move, it was inconvenient to concentrate, it was inconvenient to supply logistics and materials, and it was easy to camp in a dense place in the mountains and forests, and it was easy to be burned by others; third, morale was unfavorable, and in the hot weather, In the case of logistical supplies can not keep up, the long war of attrition has exhausted the soldiers, and the morale of the initial brave advance and dare to fight has been exhausted, and replaced by laxity, negligence, and passing.

Under such circumstances, Lu Xun organized his troops to suddenly launch a fire attack, he sent Pan Zhang to lead the troops to attack the forward of the Shu army, and at the same time sent Zhu Ran and Han Dang to lead the troops to boldly intersperse, cutting off the Retreat route of the Shu army, thus forming a situation of "taking the surprise, closing the door and hitting the dog", and finally defeating the Shu Han army and winning a complete victory.

It can be said that the key to the contest between the two armies lies in the contest between the commanders of the two armies, and the contest between the commanders of the two armies is a contest of ideas and strategies. We often say that "there are not many soldiers in the elite, and there are not many soldiers in the strategy," and the young general Lu Xun Lu Boyan is indeed resourceful, and it can be said that he is old and calculating. By constantly retreating, he showed weakness to the enemy, and achieved the purpose of luring the enemy to go deep and break through each one. In particular, by analyzing the time, location, people and various factors, he skillfully used the terrain advantage to launch a fire attack, thus defeating the powerful Shu army in one battle, which was impressive.

In addition, we look at the story of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu burned Chibi with fire attack, Lu Xun used fire to burn the camp for seven hundred miles with fire attack, Zhuge Liang burned the vine armor soldiers with fire attack, in that era of cold weapons, good at using fire attack is really infinitely powerful. In addition, these historical stories also remind us that as the leader of a team, we must attach great importance to fire control work at critical moments, which is exactly "once the fire is difficult to escape, do not grasp the fire and eat the bitter fruit."