In the melee between the two armies, why was Guan Yu defeated by Xu Huang?
There are three reasons for this: First, although Guan Yu's Jingzhou army performed well in waterway amphibious warfare, they were not necessarily able to win against Cao's army in face-to-face land battles.
Secondly, after a long period of field and siege warfare, the Jingzhou army was exhausted. Finally, and more importantly, Guan Yu's number of troops was less than that of Xu Huang. We will analyze this in detail in a subsequent article.
Now, let's work together on the number of troops that Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan. According to the records of the Twenty-two Counties and Four Counties of the Later Han Dynasty, the population of Jingzhou was about 6.28 million in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, and considering the impact of the war and the migration of people from the north, it was estimated that the number of households in Jingzhou was about 1.3 million before the Xiangfan War.
And Liu Bei owns at most a third of them.
The Xiangshui Alliance dealt a blow to Liu Bei's strength, and he had to surrender the two counties to the Sun-Liu coalition army, so that Jingzhou was almost equally divided between Cao, Liu, and Sun.
The two counties of Wuling and Lingling controlled by Liu Bei are located in the remote areas of Jingzhou, and their population potential is difficult to compare with that of Nanjun and Nanyang County, with a population of only about 300,000. So, how many troops can Liu Bei recruit in Jingzhou?
We can take the Tang Dynasty as an example, when there were 9 million households in the country, and the total strength of the Tang army was 600,000, and the household-to-soldier ratio was about 1:15.
Liu Bei has always been known for his love for the people in the Three Kingdoms, and when Dangyang was almost caught up by Cao Cao, his subordinates also advised him to quickly go to Jiangling to save his life, because although Liu Bei had a large number of men and horses at that time, but there were very few armed people, if Cao Cao's army arrived, how would they deal with it?
Liu Bei responded: "Big things must be people-oriented, now that people have taken refuge in me, how can I easily abandon them?" Therefore, we can assume that the conscription ratio in Jingzhou is 1:10.
Then, the total strength of Guan Yu's Jingzhou legion can be calculated: 300,000*10%=30,000. Is this number accurate? We can verify this data through historical data.
When Sun Quan first attacked Jingzhou, he captured the three counties of Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling. Liu Bei refused to give up, he personally led an army of 50,000 from Yizhou to Gong'an, and ordered Guan Yu to send troops to Yiyang to confront Lusu across the river.
When Guan Yu sent troops to Yiyang, his department claimed to have 30,000 people.
In ancient times, the numbers claimed to the outside world often had some moisture, Guan Yu also needed to guard against the Cao army in the north, and Jiangling also needed to leave a garrison, so he could only bring a maximum of 20,000 people to the south, and the other 10,000 to stay in the key towns of Jingzhou.
However, the total number of Jingzhou troops is about 30,000, which has been verified.
Therefore, we can infer that when Guan Yu was in the Northern Expedition to Xiangfan, the troops he could dispatch would not exceed the Battle of Yiyang, Jiangling and Public Security were the key points of garrison, and Yidu, Wuling, and Lingling also needed to be garrisoned, and the troops he could dispatch were only more than 20,000 people at most.
The reason why he risked food shortages and sent Yu Ban's 30,000 elites back to Jiangling was because he understood that with only 20,000 people rushing into the Central Plains, he would soon be overwhelmed by Cao Cao's huge forces.
After Guan Yu went north, he fought with Cao Ren and Yu Ban, and besieged Fancheng for several months, and the army would inevitably be attritional. Moreover, he also needed to divide his troops to surround Xiangyang and Fancheng, and set aside a naval army to control Hanshui and stop Xu Huang's army, and this part of the army would not exceed 10,000 people.
Guan Yu faced Xu Huang, and although he only led 5,000 people into battle, his strength should not be underestimated.
How many people did Xu Huang bring in the ** dynamic incentive plan in February? According to historical records, Xu Huang's directly subordinate army had about 5,000 people, Xu Shang and Lü Jian's Seventh Army had about 30,000 people, and the soldiers of the 12 battalions such as Yin Department and Zhu Gai also reached about 10,000 people, totaling about 25,000 people, almost close to the forbidden Seventh Army.
The Wei army had already surpassed Guan Yu's Jingzhou army in numbers, which was one of the reasons why Xu Huang dared to take the initiative. In addition, the Jingzhou army has been fighting abroad for a long time, and its combat effectiveness has also been affected.
Guan Yu was not ashamed of this result, because his strength was enough to compete with half of Cao Ying's generals. This is Guan Yu's status in the Three Kingdoms era, no one can match!