History live broadcast: My audience is the ancestors

Chapter 210 Battle of Yiling
My charming and short-lived ancestor: Ahhhhh! He is Zhou Gongjin, that is, how can he be so powerful?
Who in the clouds sent me a brocade letter: Agree! Zhou Gongjin was really a perfect talent, but it was a pity that he died young

Wan Ning can’t sleep. (Guan): Yes, but to be honest, Zhou Gongjin is really awesome.

Wuduyu: Yes, my favorite is Zhou Gongjin

The pig came to the bowl quickly: I remember you said before that you liked Brother Zheng?

Wuduyi: Hahahahaha! Does that mean you only like one ancestor?

My charming and short-lived ancestor: that's true

Su Yue looked at the comments and said, "Okay, that means the next battle will also be in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This time it will be the Battle of Yiling in the Two Fires of Chibi Yiling!"

Early
In July 221 AD, Liu Bei personally led tens of thousands of Shu Han troops to launch a large-scale war against Wu.

At that time, the border between the two countries had moved westward to the vicinity of Wushan, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River had become the main channel between the two countries.

Liu Bei sent generals Wu Ban, Feng Xi, and Zhang Nan to lead about 30,000 people (later Shamoko and other Wuxi barbarians joined, and the total force should reach 50,000) as the vanguard to seize the gorge and invade the Wu territory. Di (now Badong, Hubei Province) defeated the Wu army Li Yi and Liu Abu and occupied Zigui.

In order to prevent Cao Wei from taking the opportunity to attack, Liu Bei sent Zhenbei General Huang Quan to station on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and sent his lieutenant Ma Liang to Wuling to win over the local tribal leader Samoko to raise troops to cooperate with the Shu Han army.

Battle of Yiling
Faced with the strategic attack of the Shu army, Sun Quan rose up to fight.

He appointed Lu Xun, the general of the Right Guard Army and Zhenxi General, as the Grand Governor, and led Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang, Han Dang, Xu Sheng, Sun Huan and other troops, a total of 50,000 people, to the front line to resist the Shu army; at the same time, he sent envoys to Cao Pi to proclaim his vassalage and repair the matter. , to avoid fighting on two fronts (the so-called statement that Liu Bei's front army had 40,000 people was mainly based on the "Liu Bei branch had 40,000 people" stated in Sun Quan's letter for help to Cao Pi at that time).

After Lu Xun took office, through careful analysis of the strength, morale and terrain conditions of both sides, he pointed out that Liu Bei's troops were strong, in a high position and defending danger, with great vigor and eagerness to win. The Wu army should temporarily avoid the Shu army's edge, and then wait for an opportunity to break through. He patiently persuaded the Wu generals to give up their demand for an immediate decisive battle.

Decisively implemented a strategic retreat, retreating all the way to the line of Yidao (today's Yidu, Hubei) and Xiaoting (today's north of Yidu, Hubei).

Then they stopped retreating there and turned to defense to contain the Shu army's continued advance.

And concentrated their forces to prepare for a decisive battle.

In this way, the Wu army completely withdrew from the high mountains and ridges, leaving hundreds of miles of mountainous terrain where it was difficult to deploy its troops to the Shu army.

相持
In the first month of 222 AD, the naval forces of Wu Ban and Chen Shi of the Shu Han Dynasty entered the Yiling area and stationed troops on both sides of the Yangtze River.

In February, Liu Bei personally led the main force from Zigui to Yiting and established a base camp.

At this time, the Shu army had penetrated two to three hundred kilometers into the Wu territory. As it began to be blocked and resisted by the Wu army, its eastward advance came to a halt.

With the Wu army holding on to key areas and refusing to fight, the Shu army had no choice but to set up dozens of camps along hundreds of miles from Wuxia, Jianping (now north of Wushan, Chongqing) to Yiling.

In order to mobilize Lu Xun to fight, Liu Bei sent his former governor Zhang Nan to lead some troops to besiege Sun Huan who was stationed in Yidao.

Sun Huan was Sun Quan's nephew, so the generals of the Wu army requested to send troops to rescue him. However, Lu Xun knew that Sun Huan had won the hearts of the people and that Yi Dao City was well-supplied, so he resolutely rejected the suggestion of dividing his troops to assist Yi Dao, avoiding dispersion and overreaching. The act of consuming troops early.

Battle of Yiling
From the first month to June, the two armies were still at a stalemate.

In order to quickly engage in a decisive battle with the Wu army, Liu Bei appointed General Feng Xi as the chief governor, Zhang Nan as the front commander, and Fu Kuang, Zhao Rong, Liao Chun, Fu Wei, etc. as separate governors. He sent Wu Ban in advance to lead thousands of people to set up camp on the ground. , went to the front of the battle to insult and challenge.

But Lu Xunjun kept his temper and ignored it.

Later, Liu Bei sent Wu Ban to lead thousands of people to set up camp on the ground, and he also ambushed 8,000 troops in the valley, trying to lure the Wu army into battle and wait for an opportunity to gather and annihilate them.

But this plan still failed to succeed.

Lu Xun insisted on not fighting, which destroyed Liu Bei's strategic intention of relying on superior troops to achieve a quick victory.

The officers and soldiers of the Shu army gradually lost their fighting spirit and lost their active advantage. June is the scorching summer season. The heat is so intense that the officers and soldiers of the Shu army are suffering terribly.

Liu Bei had no choice but to move the navy boats to the land, set up military camps in deep mountains and dense forests, close to streams, and stationed troops to rest and prepare to wait until autumn before launching an attack.

Since the Shu army was located on a rugged mountain road 200 to 300 kilometers away from the Wu border, far away from the rear, there were many difficulties in logistical support. In addition, Liu Bei's hundred-mile company camp had scattered troops, which provided an opportunity for Lu Xun to carry out a strategic counterattack. .

Counterattack
Seeing that the Shu army's morale was depressing and they had given up the policy of advancing on both land and water, Lu Xun believed that the time was ripe for a strategic counterattack.

For this reason, he wrote to Sun Quan, King of Wu, saying: At the beginning of the battle, what I was worried about was that the Shu army would advance by land and water, and the Jiajiang River would go straight down. At present, the Shu army is on land and setting up camps everywhere. Judging from its deployment, there will be no changes.

In this way, there will be an opportunity to take advantage of it, and there will be no difficulty in defeating the Shu army.

Sun Quan immediately approved Lu Xun's battle plan to shift from defense to counterattack.

Battle of Yiling
On the eve of launching a large-scale counterattack, Lu Xun first sent a small force to conduct a tentative attack.

Although this attack failed, it enabled Lu Xun to find a way to defeat the enemy - the method of attacking the Shu army camp with fire.

Because it was the hot summer season at that time, the climate was sultry, and the Shu army's camps were all built with wooden fences, and they were surrounded by woods and thatch. Once a fire broke out, they would be burned to pieces.

After the decisive battle began, Lu Xun ordered Wu's soldiers to each hold a handful of thatch, raid the Shu army camp at night, and set fire to the wind.

Suddenly the fire became fierce and the Shu army was in chaos.

Lu Xun took advantage of the situation and launched a counterattack, forcing the Shu army to retreat westward.

Battle of Yiling
Liu Bei broke through the siege at night and escaped. Fu Wei, the general of the Shu army, led his troops to surround the back hall. They fought until all the soldiers were dead, and Fu Wei became stronger and stronger.

The people of Wu ordered him to surrender. Fu Xu scolded: "Wu Gou! General An Youhan surrendered!"

In the end, Fu Wei fought hard and died.

However, Wu general Sun Huanbu, who set out early, walked ahead of Liu Bei and cut off Liu Bei's main route back to Yizhou.

When Liu Bei arrived at Shimen Mountain (now northeast of Badong, Hubei Province), he was almost captured by Sun Huan's tribe.

Liu Bei had to cross mountains and cross dangers before he was able to get rid of his pursuers and escape into Yong'an City (also called Baidi City, east of Fengjie, today's CQ City).

At this time, Huang Quan, the general of the Shu Army in Zhenbei, was defending the Wei army in the north of the Yangtze River.

After Liu Bei's defeat, Huang Quan's return route to the west was cut off by the Wu army. Huang Quan was ashamed to surrender to the Wu army, so he had no choice but to lead his troops northward in August and surrender to Cao Wei.

In the same month, Ma Liang was intercepted and killed by Wu General Bu Zhao while he was retreating from the south to the northwest. Only Xiang Chong's army returned to Shu from Yiling intact.

In this battle, tens of thousands of Shu Han soldiers died and surrendered. "Fu Zi" even records that the Wu army destroyed more than 80,000 Shu Han soldiers, and Liu Bei only escaped with his own life.

After Liu Bei fled to Baidi City, Wu generals Pan Zhang, Xu Sheng and others advocated taking advantage of the victory to pursue and expand the results.

But at this time, Liu Bei gathered his scattered troops and Zhao Yun's rear army came to help. The Yong'an garrison was close to 20,000, and Lu Xun had lost the chance to capture Yong'an.

In addition, he was worried that Cao Wei would take the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and attack the rear, so he stopped the pursuit and took the initiative to withdraw his troops.

In September, Cao Wei did attack Wu, but because Lu Xun had been prepared, the Wei army finally returned without success.

In April of the following year, Liu Bei was so humiliated by the defeat at Yiling that he fell ill and died in Baidi City.

This is how the Battle of Yiling ended.