The story of the Three Kingdoms War in this issue is found in the ninety-sixth episode of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which takes place during the Battle of Shiting, and the relevant characters are Zhou Qu, Lu Xun and Cao Xiu. The synopsis is as follows:
Cao Xiu, the governor of Sima Dadu of Yangzhou in Cao Wei, sent a message to Emperor Cao Rui of Wei, saying that he was the Taishou Zhou of Eastern Wu's Poyang Prefecture asking for a letter to surrender, hoping that Cao Rui would approve his sending of troops to assist. Sima Yi believed that Cao Xiu's judgment was very accurate, and offered to lead an army to assist Cao Xiu. However, the Jianwei general Jia Kui objected. He believed that this was likely to be a ploy by Eastern Wu to lure the enemy and should not be trusted. In the end, Cao Rui agreed to Cao Xiu's plan and sent Sima Yi to assist Cao Xiu together with Jia Kui.
Sure enough, Zhou Qu's surrender was a ploy by Eastern Wu, hoping to trick Cao Xiu into deception. To this end, Sun Quan specially summoned Wen Wu for consultation. The chancellor Gu Yong believed that only Lu Xun could defeat Cao Xiu. Therefore, Sun Quan appointed Lu Xun as the general of the auxiliary state and the marshal of Pingbei Capital, commanding the Wu army on the front line. At the same time, Sun Quan also appointed the general Zhu Huan as the left governor and Quan Chun as the right governor, and together with Lu Xun commanded 700,000 troops and marched in three ways.
Before the battle, Zhu Huan, the governor of Zuo, proposed to Lu Xun that once Cao Xiu's army was defeated and retreated, he could only choose one of the two mountain roads of Jiashi and The Trailer, and he was willing to lead his troops to guard these two mountain roads together with Quan Chun, which showed that Cao Xiu was completely annihilated. However, Lu Xun believed that Zhu Huan's plan was inappropriate and refused to accept it, which made Zhu Huan indignant.
Soon after, Cao Xiu led his troops to Anhui City, and Zhou Qu personally greeted and vigorously encouraged Cao Xiu to continue to march. However, the Jianwei general Jia Kui believed that the main force of the Wu army must be stationed in Anhui City, and suggested that Cao Xiu postpone the advance and wait for his army to arrive before carrying out a two-way attack. However, Cao Xiu believed that Jia Kui was trying to rob him of his own head, and in a fit of rage, he deprived Jia Kui of his military power, left him in the camp, and led the main force to Dongguan himself.
The war mentioned in the novel did occur in history, and later generations called it the "Battle of Shiting", which was also the first large-scale war launched by the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui after succeeding to the throne. However, the cause of this war is slightly different from the description in the novel. In the novel, this battle is Sun Quan's initiative. In real history, this battle was a revenge battle taken by Sun Quan after two consecutive defeats.
Sun Quan's first defeat was in July of the fifth year of Huang Wu (226 AD). At that time, Sun Quan personally led an army of 50,000 to attack Shiyang, and sent the left general Zhuge Jin to attack Xiangyang and Xunyang, but the result was that Sun Quan was disgraced. Sun Quan besieged Shiyang, but was stubbornly blocked by the defender Wen Ping, and attacked for more than twenty days without any progress, and was forced to withdraw. Zhuge Jin's battle was even worse, and he was attacked head-on by Sima Yi, the general of Cao Wei's Fu army, and suffered heavy casualties. Not only that, Cao Xiu also led his troops deep into Eastern Wu's Yanchun County and Lujiang County, defeating the Wu army defenders. Sun Quan's attack failed, and Jiangdong was invaded, which made Sun Quan furious.
In order to save face, Sun Quan planned to launch an attack on the Xiyang area of Cao Wei's Yiyang County the following year. Who knew that just as he was preparing for the battle, Sun Quan's intentions were once again recognized by the former general Of Cao Wei. Man Yu immediately made an emergency deployment of the defense of Xiyang and the surrounding areas. Seeing that the fighter had been lost, Sun Quan had no choice but to order the abandonment of the attack plan.
The two consecutive defeats made Sun Quan very angry, and Zhou Qu's trick of surrender appeared in this context. At that time, Eastern Wu Poyang Taishou Zhou Qu proposed a trick to try to lure Cao Xiu deep into Eastern Wu territory, and then surrounded him with the main force of the Wu army.
For Zhou Qu's deception, Cao Xiu's performance is not as easily deceived as the novel says, but half-believing and very cautious. In addition to maintaining correspondence with Zhou, Cao Xiu also secretly sent people to Eastern Wu to investigate. In this regard, Eastern Wu had long been prepared. Under sun quan's personal deployment, several groups of Eastern Wu Zhongshu lang came to Poyang and publicly accused Zhou Qu, making the incident boiling over and making everyone known, and finally making Cao Xiu believe that it was true. Therefore, Cao Xiu wrote to Cao Rui and asked for troops to receive Zhou Qu.
In the novel, it is mentioned that Sima Yi agreed with Cao Xiu's request to send troops, but Jia Kui raised objections. In real history, this is not the case. Judging from the relevant historical materials such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Jin, Sima Yi was in Wancheng at this time and did not participate in the decision-making before the battle, let alone put forward any opinions to Cao Rui. Jia Kui's opposition was after the war began, not before the war. However, from the historical data, of course, there was indeed a Cao Wei minister who saw through Zhou She's fraudulent plan and suggested that Cao Rui abandon the battle.
This man's name was Jiang Ji. Jiang Ji served in the Yangzhou area for many years and was very familiar with the strategy and tactics of Eastern Wu. As early as the thirteenth year of Emperor Jian'an (208 AD), Jiang Ji offered advice to defuse Sun Quan's siege of Hefei. Therefore, Jiang Ji saw at a glance the huge risk hidden in Cao Xiu's plan and spoke out to stop it.
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Biography of Jiang Ji, when Cao Rui summoned Wen Wu to discuss Cao Xiu's march into the army, Jiang Ji proposed: "Go deep into the land and confront the Quan Jingbing, while Zhu Ran is waiting in the upper class, and after taking the rest, the subjects did not see his benefits." However, Jiang Ji's opinion was not adopted by Cao Rui. Cao Rui not only agreed to Cao Xiu's battle plan, but also ordered Cao Xiu to lead Wang Ling and 100,000 other people from Shouchun to enter the city of Anhui to deal with Zhou Fang, and also ordered Sima Yi, Jia Kui and others to assist. At this point, the Battle of Shiting broke out.
As the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui was young and vigorous, he needed a big victory to establish his own image. Therefore, he would take Cao Xiu's advice. At the same time, in order to ensure the success of the campaign, Cao Rui also sent Sima Yi, Man Yu, Jia Kui and other Cao Wei generals to assist, the overall idea is very clear, the goal is also very clear. If it were not for Cao Xiu's big mistake in the course of the war, the final outcome of this war would be difficult to predict. As for what fatal mistakes Cao Xiu made in this battle, and listen to the next decomposition.
Reference books: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Jin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms