The rivers flow eastward, the heroes rise and fall, the three kingdoms stand together, and the reckless heroes emerge. What affected the entire pattern of the world were the three major battles of the Three Kingdoms period.
Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and sometimes the gains and losses of a battle are enough to rewrite the pages of history. People are familiar with the bravery and heroism of the first two battles, but the last battle of Yiling may be poorly understood, and some people may not even know about it at all.
In fact, the Battle of Yiling played a decisive role in the pattern of the Three Kingdoms and had a far-reaching impact.
This was a key battle that decided the fate of Shu Han, and it was also the tragedy of Liu Bei, the Zhaolie Emperor of Shu Han, who died in the White Emperor City. So, what exactly is this battle? How much loss did Shu Han suffer because of this?
War, as a major national matter, needs to be treated with caution and detailed planning before it can be carried out, whether it is a strong country or a weak country. After the Battle of Chibi, the alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei became precarious as Cao Cao's imminent threat disappeared.
Liu Bei seized the opportunity of Cao Cao's new defeat and seized part of the city of Jingzhou, which caused dissatisfaction among the Sun Quan group of Eastern Wu. Since Eastern Wu was dominated by naval armies, it could not confront Liu Bei's army on land, so it could only endure for the time being, waiting for the opportunity to recapture Jingzhou.
Although armed conflict has not broken out on the surface, the seeds of war have been planted. Liu Bei used this part of Jingzhou as a base area, and his strength increased greatly, and he took Yizhou by chance, connecting its territory into an iron bucket.
In the Battle of Hanzhong, Liu Bei successfully defeated Cao Cao, which made a major change in the balance of power between Cao, Liu and Sun. Liu Bei, who was originally the weakest, became strategically advantageous because he owned parts of Yizhou, Hanzhong and Jingzhou.
At this time, Liu Bei's army had high morale and was invincible. However, if Liu Bei's group wants to unify the world, Jingzhou will become the decisive key.
Jingzhou, located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, is of great strategic significance. Liu Bei's troops from Jingzhou to the Central Plains and from Hanzhong are as different as a world of difference. But Liu Bei has always hoped to be like the ancestor Liu Bang, Kuang to support the Han family, and dominate the world, seeing that this goal is about to be achieved, but Sun Wu intervened, Liu Bei was extremely angry in his heart.
Liu Bei's heart burned with raging anger, whether it was to realize his imperial hegemony or to avenge Guan Yu's death, he decided to ignore the dissuasion of Zhuge Liang and other ministers, and devoted the whole country to attack Wu.
However, this move cost him a lot and even ruined his hope of unifying the world. Eastern Wu was very surprised by the large-scale attack launched by Liu Bei, after all, the current Liu Bei is no longer what he used to be, the Shu army is even stronger, and land warfare has always been the weakness of Eastern Wu.
However,"First be invincible, and wait for the enemy to be victorious", Liu Bei still decided to take the risk of attacking.
At the critical moment, Sun Quan urgently appointed Lu Xun as the governor of the capital and ordered him to lead his army to resist Liu Bei's attack. At the same time, he also wrote a letter to Cao Wei, asking Cao Pi to send troops to assist.
Under the leadership of Liu Bei, the Shu army marched towards the Wu realm, but the good times did not last long, and Lu Xun continued to resist on the way of Liu Bei's march, which seriously slowed down the advance of the Shu army. In the end, the two armies reached a stalemate, and Liu Bei sent people to Lu Xun's camp many times to scold the battle, but Lu Xun turned a blind eye and stuck to the camp and did not attack.
Due to geographical factors, Liu Bei was also helpless against Lu Xun's military strategy, so he decided to order the soldiers to set up a company camp in the Yiling area, because the Shu army was large in number, and the company camp stretched for hundreds of miles.
Liu Bei originally came with a grudge, and his emotions had already affected his military judgment. At the same time, the Shu army was not familiar with the terrain of Eastern Wu, and it would be good if it could go straight into the hinterland of Eastern Wu in one go, but Lu Xun avoided their edge and could not hold out, which greatly damaged the morale of the Shu army.
As time passed, the two armies faced each other for seven or eight months, and the Shu army had fallen into a situation of low morale and the soldiers had no fighting spirit. The Eastern Wu army was recuperating during this time, waiting for a decisive battle with the Shu army.
Lu Xun decided to launch **, and found that the Shu army camp was connected to the mountains and forests, which was conducive to escaping the heat, but also gave Lu Xun the opportunity to launch a fire attack. He crushed Liu Bei's Shu army in one fell swoop with fire, and took the opportunity to chase down the defeated soldiers for hundreds of miles, almost turning Liu Bei into a prisoner of Eastern Wu.
This is the embodiment of Sun Tzu's Art of War "The Way to Victory", which is to ensure your own safety first, and then look for opportunities to defeat your opponent. Shu suffered serious losses in this battle, and it can even be said that it returned to the pre-liberation period overnight.
The grain, grass and equipment that had been accumulated for many years were destroyed in one fell swoop, so that there are historical records that the army led by Liu Bei, a total of more than 80,000 people, was defeated, and only Liu Bei escaped by chance.
In this battle, many of Liu Bei's generals were unfortunately killed, including Zhang Nan, Feng Xi and others, and some were captured and surrendered. When Fu Wei broke through the siege, he was unfortunately trapped and resolutely refused to surrender, and finally died heroically.
The most important thing is that the elite strength of the Shu army, those veterans who have gone through many battles, are heavy, and after this battle, Shu Han lost the last chance to unify the world.
Liu Bei went through hardships, and finally saw the dawn of the great cause in his later years, but he fell short because of his mistakes. He fell ill in shame and despair, and finally died in the White Emperor City, entrusting all his military and political power to Zhuge Liang.
The failure of this battle of Yiling has also become Zhuge Liang's "Teacher's Table"."When he was ordered to defeat the army, he was ordered to be in danger"The classic**. Therefore, war should be seen as a helpless option"Soldiers, murder weapons, saints have to use them as a last resort"。
Liu Bei's defeat in the Battle of Yiling was mainly due to his impulsive behavior, not making adequate preparations and plans before sending troops, and not conducting exhaustive intelligence collection and analysis.
At the same time, he was stubborn and ignored the advice of think tanks such as Zhuge Liang. When the war reached a stalemate, he failed to detect and respond to the situation that was unfavorable to him in time, and failed to adjust his strategy in time.
This led to eventual failure and incalculable losses.