After the Battle of Chibi, the situation of the Three Kingdoms was formed. Sun Quan consolidated his position in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; Liu Bei occupied most of present-day Hubei and Hunan, and then sichuan, controlling the upper reaches of the Yangtze River; Cao Cao's power remained largely in the Yellow Sea basin.
Among the three kingdoms, the state of Wu is located on the southeast coast, and it is a country founded by a water army, so it attaches great importance to the construction of boat divisions. Wu had a large shipyard in Jian'an (present-day Jian'ounan, Fujian). A powerful fleet of five thousand warships was built. In order to secure Jiangdong, Wu placed the main force of the water army on the Yangtze River, and built a water fortress in the north to defend against the Wei army, and placed the Yangtze River town of Yichang in the west to prevent the Shu army, while using the naval fleet to expand the coastal southward expansion.
In 230 AD, Sun Quan sent the generals Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to lead a large fleet of ten thousand people to reach Qizhou and Yizhou (present-day Taiwan). This is a historical record of the first time that the people of the mainland have arrived in Taiwan. In 233 AD, Wu sent the general He Da to lead a large fleet of 10,000 people north along the coast, reaching Liaodong through the treacherous Chengshan Cape, and another squadron reached the mouth of the Yalu River. In 242 AD, the Wu general Nie You led a huge fleet of 30,000 people south, sailing to Zhuya, Dan'er (present-day Hainan Island, Guangdong), and also through the Qiongzhou Strait, to the southern region of present-day Vietnam.
Seventeen hundred years ago, the Fleet of the State of Wu had sailed above the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas of the motherland, and galloped in the middle of the ocean, which showed that there had been great development in shipbuilding, navigation and naval construction at that time.
However, with the recovery and development of the northern social economy, the power of the Wei state became increasingly powerful. In 263, the State of Wei destroyed the State of Shu. In 265 AD, Sima Yan, the grandson of Sima Yi, a bureaucrat of the State of Wei, deposed Emperor Wei, seized power, proclaimed himself emperor, established the Jin Dynasty, and established the capital Luoyang, which is the historical Western Jin Dynasty.
In order to unify the whole country, Sima Yan was determined to destroy the State of Wu in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In accordance with the strategic plan of the great general Yang Hu, he mainly made two major decisions.
First, Yang Hudu oversaw the military forces of Jingzhou, stationed in Xiangyang, controlled the strategic places in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and carried out political offensives to win the hearts and minds of the Wu people and the military. The Wu people came and went, and let them stay, without abuse or restriction; if the marching army entered the Wu territory, all those who cut the grain for grain paid according to the price; even the famous general of the Wu state, Lu Kang, was sick, and Yang Hu also gave medicine. In this way, the army and people of the State of Wu were gradually won over, so that when Yang Hu died in the future, the generals of the Wu State Guarding the Border also wept over it; later, when Du pre-conquered Wu, Jiangling and other places did not fight, which was really the result of Yang Hu's implementation of the correct strategy.
Second, in view of the fact that the State of Wu had both the natural dangers of the Yangtze River and a powerful naval fleet, it was necessary to establish a naval fleet in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to destroy Wu. Therefore, Yang Hu recommended that Wang Jun supervise the military forces of Xian Prefecture and General Jia Longjun to build warships in Sichuan, train the water army, and prepare to go down the river and destroy Wu in one fell swoop.
In the second year of the Jin Dynasty (276 AD), Yang Hu saw that his strategy of dismantling the enemy had paid off, and the famous Wu general Lu Kangye had died, so he wrote to Sima Yan, the emperor of JinWu, proposing to destroy Wu. He pointed out that although the State of Wu had natural dangers on the Yangtze River, it could be broken, especially its ruler Sun Han was extremely brutal, and the people of the State of Wu were even more miserable than the masses of the Shu State in the past, and they should seize the opportunity to send a large army of land and water to the east, so that "with a corner of Wu, the people under the present, the situation is scattered, and all the preparations are urgent." However, at that time, Sima Yan still needed to consolidate the interior, and Gansu still had worries about the future, so he failed to send troops to attack Wu in time.
After Wang Jun arrived in Sichuan, he actively built warships as a preparation for the annihilation of Wu. The warship he built, the largest square one hundred and twenty steps, can carry as many as 2,000 people, surrounded by wood as a village, open four doors, the deck built a lookout, the ship can gallop horses, it is really "the grandeur of the boat, since ancient times."
War was imminent, and Emperor Sun Hao of wu remained as old as ever, fainting and brutal, drunk and unprepared. The general Lu Kanglao had long suggested that strategic places such as Xiling (西陵, in present-day Yichang, Hubei) and Jianping (present-day northern Wushan, Sichuan) in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River should be held to stop the Jin army from descending the river. Wang Jun built a large warship in Sichuan, and the broken wood flowed down the river, and Wu Guo Jianping Taishou Wuyan took it and presented it to Sun Hao, clearly pointing out: "The Jin State must have a plan to attack the State of Wu, and the defenders of Jianping should be increased. Sun Han still ignored this suggestion.
After several years of meticulous preparation, Wang Jun suggested to Sima Yan to attack Wu. He pointed out: Sun Hao's absurdity and cruelty, and the masses are all resentful, is a good time to destroy Wu. Once Sun Hao dies, and then there are intelligent and capable people to succeed him, the internal relations will be adjusted, and the weak enemy will become a strong hand; moreover, we have been making warships for seven years, and we are constantly damaged; I myself am seventy years old, when I will die, it is really difficult to say, once these three aspects change, it will be quite difficult to attack the State of Wu. Therefore, the good timing of the present cannot be lost. Sima Yan accepted Wang Jun's suggestion and decided to send an army to attack Wu.
In October of the fifth year of Xianning (279 AD), Sima Yan sent an army of 200,000 troops, with Jia Chong as the governor, Yang Ji as the deputy, water and land cooperation, and six roads to cut down Wu.
In the first month of the first year of Taikang (280 AD), Wang Jun and Tang Bin led a powerful fleet of 70,000 sailors from Sichuan and floated east. On the first day of February (18 March 3), Danyang City (present-day Southeast of Hubei) was conquered.
In order to prevent the attack of the Western Jin Dynasty, the State of Wu adopted a passive defensive method, setting up obstacles on the important waterway of the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of the Xiling Gorge, installing iron chains to block the river on the surface of the river, and laying many long iron cones under the water to block the dangerous channel. Wu Guo believed that the water here was turbulent, the two sides were steep cliffs, and these obstacles were set up, and the ships rushed in, either being punctured by the iron cone and sinking, or slamming into the chains and destroying the ships, and the Western Jin fleet was absolutely unable to pass, so no army was sent to garrison.
After Wang Jun learned about the obstacles set up by the enemy, he carefully designed and built dozens of large rafts, each with more than 100 steps in size, on which were equipped with camouflaged straw men wearing armor and holding weapons, so that the sailors who were familiar with the flow of the river channel were able to support them, and opened the way in front of the great fleet. In order to break the iron locks that straddle the river, Wang Jun designed and made a kind of torch, each more than ten meters long, dozens of thick, filled with sesame oil, installed in front of the warship, encountered iron chains, hung the torches on it, lit the torches, burned it soft and then cut it. These creations of the Western Jin Dynasty's water army effectively broke down the water and water barriers set up by the State of Wu and destroyed the blockade line on the river that the King of Wu considered impregnable.
Wang Jun then led his fleet down the river, capturing Xiling (present-day Yichang, Hubei) on the third day of February (March 20), and on the fifth day of the first month (March 22) conquering Yidao (present-day Yidu, Hubei) and Lexiang (present-day northeast of Songzi, Hubei), killing Lu Jing, the governor of Wushui' army, and with the strong cooperation of the army, he went straight to Jianye.
At this time, Sun Han sent the guerrilla general Zhang Xiang to lead a water army of 10,000 people to go up against the current and intercept the Western Jin fleet. However, Zhang Xiang saw that Wang Jun's naval fleet was hiding the flag and the sound was mighty, and as a result, it fell without a fight. At this time, the State of Wu no longer had the strength to stop the powerful water army led by Wang Jun, and the Western Jin Fleet reached the city of Jianye (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu). On March 15 (May 1), the Jin army entered Jianye, and Sun Han surrendered. After three months of fighting, Wang Jun's water army won a complete victory with the strong cooperation of various large armies, destroyed the State of Wu, ended the situation in which the Three Kingdoms were established, and unified the whole country.
In the Battle of the Western Jin Dynasty against Wu, the water army led by Wang Jun actually played a leading role, and the battle to break through the obstacles and fortifications in the water and water was a key battle. The seventy-year-old veteran general Wang Jun, who exquisitely designed and made rafts and torches, successfully commanded the battle to break through obstacles, and then swung his army down the river and captured Jianye with a single blow, and was indeed a great admiral. A dry year before the invention of mines, Wang Jun's outstanding tactics for breaking down obstacles showed the outstanding wisdom and outstanding talents of our people. Liu Yuxi, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Xisai Mountain Huaigu":
Wang Junlou ship under Yizhou, The Jinling King's qi was gloomy. Chihiro iron lock sinks to the bottom of the river, A piece of stone descended from the flag.
This is the poet's highly generalized and vivid description of this war.