Analysis of the Battle of Yiling
Chinese name: The Battle of Yiling
The troops participating in the war: Shu Han and Wu Xi Man Yi; The result of Dongwu
War: Wu was victorious, and Shu Han was badly hurt
Time: July 221-August 222
Location: Yiling
Character: Lu Xun Liu Bei Sun Quan
Details of the battle of Yiling
In the early stage
In July 221, Liu Bei personally led tens of thousands of Shu Han troops. At that time, the border between the two countries had moved westward near Wushan, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River became the main channel between the two countries. Liu Bei sent Wu Ban, Feng Xi and Zhang Nan to lead about 3, people (Sha Moke and other five barbarians joined in the later period, and the total strength should reach 5,) as the vanguard troops, seized the Xiakou, invaded the territory of Wu, and defeated Li Yi and Liu Abe of Wu Jun in the witch land (now Badong, Hubei) and occupied Zigui. In order to prevent Cao Wei from seizing the opportunity to attack, Liu Bei sent the town of North Huang Quan to the north bank of the Yangtze River, and sent Ma Liang, a servant, to Wuling to fight for Sha Moke, the local tribal leader, to join forces with the Shu and Han armies.
facing the strategic attack of the Shu army, Sun Quan rose to the challenge. He appointed the Right Guard Army and Zhenxi Lu Xun as viceroy, and commanded Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang, Han Dang, Xu Sheng, Sun Huan and other departments * * * 5, people to the front line to resist the Shu army; At the same time, he sent an envoy to Cao Pi to make up for it, so as to avoid fighting on two fronts (the so-called statement that Liu Bei had 4, former troops was mainly based on Liu Bei's 4,-member party in the distress letter written by Sun Quan to Cao Pi at this time).
after Lu Xun took office, through careful analysis of the forces, morale and terrain conditions of both sides, he pointed out that Liu Beibing was powerful, defensive, full of momentum and eager to win. Wu Jun should temporarily avoid the edge of the Shu army, wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy, and patiently persuaded Wu Jun generals to give up the requirement of immediate decisive battle. Decisively implement the strategic retreat, and always retreat to the front line of Yidao (now Yidu, Hubei Province) and Xiaoting (now Gubei, Yidu, Hubei Province). Then stop retreating there and turn to defense to curb the continued invasion of the Shu army. And concentrate on the troops and prepare for the camera battle. In this way, Wu Jun completely withdrew from the mountainous area, leaving the hundreds of miles of mountains that were difficult to deploy to the Shu army.
At loggerheads
In the first month of 222 AD, Wu Ban and Chen's water army of Shu Han entered Yiling area and stationed troops on both sides of the Yangtze River. In February, Liu Bei personally led the main force from Zigui to Xiaoting and established the base camp. At this time, the Shu army had penetrated into Wu for 2-3 kilometers, and its eastward momentum stopped because it began to be resisted by Wu Jun. In the case of Wu Jun's holding on to the important place, the Shu army had to set up dozens of camps in Wuxia, Jianping (now Wushan North, Sichuan) and Yiling for hundreds of miles. In order to mobilize Lu Xun, Liu Bei sent Zhang Nan, the former governor, to lead some troops to besiege Sun Huan who was stationed in Yidao. Sun Huan is Sun Quan's nephew, so Wu Jun's generals have asked for troops to rescue him. But Lu Xun knew that Sun Huan won the hearts of all the people, and the city of Yi Dao was well-fed, and resolutely rejected the suggestion of dividing the troops to help Yi Dao, avoiding the behavior of dispersion and premature consumption of troops.
from January to June, the two armies were still at loggerheads. In order to fight a decisive battle with Wu Jun quickly, Liu Bei frequently sent people to the front to insult the challenge, but tracing the cause ignored it. Later, Liu Bei sent Wu Ban to lead thousands of people to camp on the flat ground, and in addition, he ambushed 8, troops in the valley in an attempt to lure Wu Jun into battle and wait for an opportunity to annihilate him. But this plan still failed. Lu Xun's insistence on not fighting undermined Liu Bei's strategic intention of relying on superior forces for a quick victory. The soldiers of the Shu army gradually lost their fighting spirit and lost their dominant position. Jiangnan in June is in the hot summer season, and the heat is pressing, and the soldiers of the Shu army are suffering. Liu Bei was helpless, so he had to transfer the water army boat to the land, set up the military camp in the deep mountain and forest, rely on the stream, station troops to rest, and prepare to wait until the autumn before attacking. Because the Shu army is located on the rugged mountain road of 2-3 kilometers in Wu, far from the rear, it is difficult to provide logistics support. In addition, Liu Bei's battalion is even in a hundred miles, and his troops are scattered, thus providing an opportunity for Lu Xun to carry out strategic counterattack.
Counter-offensive
Seeing that the morale of the Shu army was depressed, Lu Xun gave up the operational policy of going hand in hand with land and attacking the Shu army, and thought that the time was ripe for a strategic counter-offensive. To this end, he wrote to Sun Quan, the king of Wu, saying: At the beginning of the war, what he was worried about was that the Shu army went hand in hand with the land and the river. At present, the Shu army has abandoned the boat and set up camps everywhere. Judging from its deployment, there will be no change. In this way, there is an opportunity to break the Shu army, and there is no difficulty. Sun Quan immediately approved Lu Xun's battle plan from defense to counterattack.
On the eve of a large-scale counter-offensive, Lu Xun sent small troops to conduct a tentative attack. Although the attack failed, it enabled Lu Xun to find a way to break the enemy? -The method of attacking the company battalion of the Shu army by fire. Because it was hot summer in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, the climate was sultry, and the camps of the Shu army were all made of palisades, surrounded by Woods and thatch. Once a fire broke out, it would burn into a piece. After the decisive battle began, Lu Xun ordered Wu Jun's foot soldiers to raid the camp of Shu army by night, and set fire to it with the wind. During the meal, the fire was fierce and the Shu army was in chaos. Lu Xun took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, forcing the Shu army to retreat to the west. Wu Zhu Ran led an army of 5, to break through the front of the Shu army, thrust it into the rear of the Shu army, and surrounded the Shu army in Zhuoxiang (now west of Yichang, Hubei) with Han Dang, cutting off the retreat of the Shu army. Pan Zhang and his men stormed Feng Xi's department of the Shu army and broke it. Zhu Gejin, Luo Tong and Zhou Yin cooperated with Lu Xun's main force to attack the Shu army in Xiaoting. Sun Huan, who defended Yi Dao, also took the initiative to attack and fight. Wu Jun went well, and soon breached more than 4 camps of the Shu army, and cut off the ties between the two sides of the Yangtze River with the water army. Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, the generals of the Shu army, and Sha Moke, the leader of the indigenous tribe, were killed, while Du Lu and Liu Ning disarmed and surrendered. Seeing the collapse of the whole line, Liu Bei fled to Maanshan, northwest of Yiling, and ordered the Shu army to defend itself around the mountain. Lu Xun concentrated his forces, besieged on all sides, and wiped out nearly ten thousand people of the Shu army. At this point, the Shu army was in flight, most of them were killed and wounded and fled, and cars, boats and other military supplies were lost. Liu Bei escaped by night and went to Shimen Mountain (now northeast of Badong, Hubei Province). He was chased by Sun Huan, a general of Wu, and was almost captured. Defender Fu Tong and others were killed. Later, relying on the post staff to burn the equipment abandoned by the defeated soldiers and block the mountain road, they were able to get rid of the pursuers and escape into Yong' an City (also known as Baidi City, now Fengjie East, Sichuan).
at this time, the headquarters of northern Huang Quan, the town of Shu army, was defending Wei Jun in Jiangbei. After Liu Bei's defeat, Huang Quan's return road was cut off by Wu Jun, and he had to lead the crowd to surrender to Cao Wei in August. In the same month, when Ma Liang retreated from the south to the northwest, he was intercepted by Bu Zhi and died.
In this battle, Liu Beijun was almost completely annihilated, and tens of thousands of people were killed. Fu Zi even recorded that Wu Jun wiped out more than 8, Shu Han troops, and Liu Bei was only spared.
After Liu Bei fled to Baidi City, generals Pan Zhang, Xu Sheng and others all advocated the pursuit of victory to expand the results. But at this time, Liu Bei gathered skirmishers and Zhao Yun's rear troops came to help, and the Yong 'an garrison was close to twenty thousand. Lu Xun had lost the opportunity to conquer Yong 'an. Coupled with his scruples about Cao Wei taking the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and attack the rear, he stopped chasing and took the initiative to withdraw his troops. In September, Cao Wei really attacked Wu, but because Lu Xun was ready, Wei Jun finally failed. In April of the following year, Liu Bei was ashamed of Yiling's fiasco, so he couldn't afford to get sick and died in Baidicheng. The battle of Yiling ended like this.
Evaluate the Battle of Yiling
In the Battle of Yiling, Burning the camp? It can be regarded as an important turning point, which is not only the biggest military mistake of Liu Bei, but also an important embodiment of Lu Xun's military strategy. When Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei, learned that Liu Bei had been camping for 7 li, he said to his ministers. Without knowing the soldiers, is there a 7-mile battalion that can repel the enemy? ? What's more, it's difficult for the army to be the enemy's bird? This soldier is also taboo. Sun Quan's affairs have come to an end today. ?
As for Lu Xun's excellent command, the historian Chen Shou of Jin Dynasty wrote in The History of the Three Kingdoms? Wu Shu? The commentary in Biography of Lu Xun wrote:? Liu Bei dominated the world and was feared all his life. Lu Xun was strong in the Spring and Autumn Period, and his fame was unknown. Destroying it, it was not as good as ambition. It is both a strange strategy and a sigh of power, so it helps great things. ?
Lu Ji, a writer in the Jin Dynasty, praised Lu Xun in On Death. Hanwang, also known as the emperor, led the people of Pakistan and Han, took advantage of the danger and changed thousands of miles, and reported Guan Yu's defeat in order to collect the land of western Hunan. And I, Lu Gong, also fell to Xiling, and I was defeated by the division. I was trapped and then helped, and I was desperate for Yongan. After that, the enemy must be defeated, Linchuan will destroy the sharp, and the battle of the cage will not be reversed. ?
Qiu Fugan, the great-grandfather of the Western Qin Dynasty, once said to his generals: Yesterday, Cao Mengde took Yuan Benchu from Guandu, and Lu Boyan destroyed Liu Xuande from Baidi, both of which were slightly taken by power. ?
Luo Guanzhong, a novelist in the Ming Dynasty, wrote three poems praising Lu Xun for the Yiling War. Sit down and talk about the soldiers, press six towers, and arrange bait to catch whales. Three points is more handsome, but also shows that Jiangnan tracing the cause is high. ? The second is:? Tracing the cause of good fortune can divide the worries of Wu. I will fall if I brush my hand, and I will burn the armor of Shu Wang. His achievements have been known for thousands of years, and his reputation has spread to Kyushu. Up to now, in Wuxia, the vegetation is still worrying. ? The third is:? Holding a spear to raise fire and break the company camp, Liu Bei ran to Baidi City in poverty. Once his fame shocked Shu Wei, Wu Wangning disrespected the scholar. ?
Deng Tingluo, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, commented in The Mirror of Soldiers. Sima Yi's choice of Zhu Ran and Wu Ban's choice of Lu Xun will not work, so why not?