Chapter 30 10. The Battle of Yiling

Guan Yu was defeated and died under the attack of Wei Wu. When the news came, Liu Bei cried bitterly.He never imagined that when his career reached its peak, his brother Guan Yu, who had followed him half his life as a soldier, would die.The great sorrow after the great joy is especially unbearable. Liu Bei, who has always been indifferent to emotions and anger, completely messed up his rules this time.Ordinarily, he should calm down to sum up his experience, prepare his troops vigorously, and then avenge Guan Yu.But Liu Bei did not "should". In April 221 AD, he took the throne in Wudan Mountain, now Shuangliu County, Chengdu City.

Liu Bei issued an order to let Zhang Fei rush to Jiangzhou to join him and avenge Guan Yu together.When Zhang Fei got the news of Guan Yu's murder, he cried day and night, his clothes were wet with blood. Now he received Liu Bei's order and was eager to avenge Guan Yu.The next day, the Ministry sent Fan Jiang and Zhang Da to report that they could not complete the preparations within three days, and asked for a grace period.Zhang Fei was eager for revenge, so he couldn't listen to it, so he ordered the two to be tied to a tree, and each of them could be whipped fifty times on the back.Zhang Fei is too strict with his subordinates on weekdays, and often punishes them.Liu Bei often warned him that your killing and cruelty to your subordinates is too much. If you beat the soldiers at every turn and let them continue to serve you, sooner or later you will be killed.After Zhang Fei listened, he remained the same.Sure enough, Fan Jiang and Zhang Da were afraid of being killed by Zhang Fei if they could not complete the task, so they sneaked into the tent while Zhang Fei was drunk, and killed Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei died tragically at the hands of his subordinates, which added a bit of tragedy to Liu Bei's expedition. The sharp sword of revenge was broken before it was raised, and the three sworn brothers were left alone in an instant.Regardless of Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun's dissuasion, Liu Bei led the soldiers of the whole country and embarked on the road of revenge. This is the real Liu Bei. No matter how peaceful and rational he is, at critical moments, he is still a man of temperament.Maybe he was too reckless in his attack on Wu, but who can blame him? Look again, Liu Bei's lineup to defeat Wu is really not strong enough: generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are dead, Huang Zhong has already died of illness, and Ma Chao, Zhao Yun and Wei Yan are left. Opposing to attack Wu was ignored by Liu Bei.On the civil servant's side, counselors Pang Tong and Fazheng have passed away successively, and Zhuge Liang also needs to stay in the base camp.In such a situation of lack of generals, Liu Bei still insisted on attacking Wu.Liu Ye of the Caowei Group once said when analyzing Liu Bei's attack on Wu that the strategic feature of the Liu Bei Group is to use offense as defense, and to show its strength by fighting.That's right, taking offense as defense and taking back Jingzhou are the reasons for Liu Bei's attack on Wu.However, such a desperate posture to attack Wu is the result of bloody avenge for his younger brother.

There was a man named Huang Quan who followed Liu Bei on the expedition. He suggested to Liu Bei that our army goes down the river, and it is easy to advance and difficult to retreat. It is better to let me lead the troops to find out the truth, and His Majesty will sit in the rear and command.But Liu Bei couldn't listen, and he wanted to wash Soochow himself with blood. Liu Bei put on a desperate posture, which naturally made Sun Quan very afraid.In fact, as early as when Sun Quan decided to kill Guan Yu, he began to actively prepare for the battle from all aspects.After Sun Quan killed Guan Yu, he gave Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao, which means that it was Cao Cao's order to kill Guan Yu himself.Cao Cao understood what Sun Quanan had in mind, and he buried Guan Yu generously with the etiquette of a prince, representing that he did not accept this account.

After killing Guan Yu, the Sun-Liu alliance was completely broken.Sun Quan worried that when Liu Bei took revenge, Cao Wei would take the opportunity to lay a black hand on him, so he would openly fall to Cao Wei.After Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi took over his class. In the same year, he forced Han Xiandi to abdicate and became emperor himself.After this incident happened, the Liu Bei Group scolded Cao Pi as a traitor, but Sun Quan didn't respond.In the autumn of 221 AD, Sun Quan simply proclaimed himself a minister.At that time, Sun Quan's subordinates expressed their objection, but Sun Quan took it very openly. He said, didn't Han Gaozu also accept Xiang Yu's title back then?Sun Quan bowed his head and proclaimed himself a minister, in exchange for Cao Pi's neutral position during the Sun-Liu War.

When Sun Quan was ready, Liu Bei also came.In July 221 A.D., Liu Bei launched a war against Sun Quan. Since the war took place in Yiling and Xiaoting, this battle was called the Battle of Yiling and the Battle of Xiaoting in history.The Battle of Yiling, the Battle of Guandu, and the Battle of Chibi are listed as the three major battles in the history of the Three Kingdoms. Liu Bei led his troops to drive straight in, until they reached Xiaoting in Yiling.The commander-in-chief on Sun Quan's side was Lu Xun. After the battle for Jingzhou, Lu Meng died before the celebration meeting.Lu Xun succeeded him and became the fourth governor of Soochow.When Liu Bei arrived in Yiling, Lu Xun also arrived.Lu Xun's subordinates offered to give Liu Bei a head-on blow, but Lu Xun stopped him.Lu Xun said, Liu Bei went down the river eastward with menacing force, now is the time when his morale is at its peak, not to mention the danger of the mountains and the Yangtze River, it is not so easy to attack him, even if he can win a battle, he cannot win all the victories , if we get off to a bad start, it will spoil the overall situation.Therefore, Lu Xun decided to stand still and delay Liu Bei for a period of time until he was exhausted, and wait for the opportunity to move at that time.

These words did not convince his subordinates. People had not witnessed the military exploits of this young governor with their own eyes, so they were not convinced by him. They guessed that he probably used such nonsense to cover up his cowardice.Everyone harbored resentment in their hearts, but they were helpless.Lu Xun ordered the troops to retreat in large strides, leaving hundreds of miles of mountains to Liu Bei. Seeing that Soochow refused to fight, Liu Bei took the initiative to provoke and sent Zhang Nan to Yidao to besiege Soochow's Anton General Sun Huan.This time the soldiers of Soochow lost their temper again, and said: "Sun Huan is a relative of the king of Wu, you should send troops to rescue him, Commander." The city of Dao is solid and has enough food and grass, so I don’t need to bother. When I defeat Liu Bei here, he will naturally be relieved there.”

Seeing that Lu Xun never showed his face, Liu Bei's morale was gradually failing, and he couldn't sit still anymore, so he ordered his subordinates to take thousands of old and weak soldiers to the plain to lure the enemy, while he led eight thousand elite soldiers to lie in wait until Lu Xun came out. Just hit him hard.The generals of Soochow couldn't help laughing when they saw a group of old and weak soldiers showing off their power there. Isn't this courting death?He asked Lu Xun to fight again.Lu Xun was still calm. He shook his head and said, "This must be a trick. If you don't believe me, you just wait and see." Sure enough, Liu Bei lay in the grass for a few days, but he didn't see Lu Xun being fooled. He had to lead eight thousand people from the ambush circle Ri walked out.The generals of Soochow took a look and convinced Lu Xun.

The confrontation between the two sides lasted for several months.Seeing that Lu Xun never came out to fight, Liu Bei began to prepare for a long-term residence.He spread out his troops from Wu Gorge to Yiling, and established dozens of villages, which stretched for more than 700 miles.In the leap June of this year, the weather was extremely hot. Liu Bei sympathized with the soldiers and sent all the soldiers on board to go ashore to escape the heat. When Liu Bei made long-term preparations, Lu Xun decided to attack.The generals of Eastern Wu were confused again. You didn’t fight Liu Bei when he first came and hadn’t gained a firm foothold. Now that Liu Bei has occupied so many places and has established a firm foothold, it’s probably inappropriate to fight him.Lu Xun said, the reason why I didn't fight at first was because Liu Bei was very cunning, well-informed and experienced in combat.When he first came, his morale was high and he had a lot of ideas. At that time, it was definitely not easy to fight him; now it is estimated that Liu Bei will never recruit again, and his soldiers are exhausted. This is the best time to attack.

Having said that, Lu Xun still held his breath, and only sent a unit to fight Liu Bei to try it out, but he was defeated in one fight.The generals were in an uproar again, saying, look, once you fight, you will be defeated. Now it is clear that you can't fight. Isn't this death for nothing?Lu Xun said calmly, don't be afraid, I already know how to deal with him. It turns out that Lu Xun discovered Liu Bei's flaw, which is the Qibaili joint venture.It is said that when Cao Pi heard about Liu Bei's formation, he smiled and said, "Liu Bei doesn't know how to fight after all. If he joins forces for seven hundred miles to resist the enemy, he will definitely lose. Just wait, the victory of Soochow is coming soon. "In addition, Liu Bei moved all the water troops to the shore.Lu Xun once said in a letter to Sun Quan, what I am most afraid of is that Liu Bei will advance by water.Now that Liu Bei has taken the initiative to turn the navy into an army, Lu Xun is more sure of victory.

He immediately ordered the troops to assemble, and let the soldiers each take a handful of thatch to attack Liu Bei, and when the time came to attack a battalion, he would burn a battalion.The soldiers were ordered to rush up, kill and set fire, and set fire to the company camp. Liu Bei's forty camps were all uprooted in a blink of an eye.Liu Bei was caught off guard and unable to fight back, so he turned around and ran to Ma'anshan. Lu Xun chased after him and surrounded Ma'anshan.At this time, Liu Bei's side had collapsed. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed and burned to death, leaving only a few followers around him.They escaped from Ma'anshan in the dark and fled to Wu County.Finally fled into Baidi City. After arriving at Baidi City, Liu Bei looked up to the sky and sighed, "I really didn't expect to be defeated by this kid Lu Xun. It's probably God's will."After experiencing this catastrophic blow, the Kingdom of Shu basically lost its ability to compete for the world.Liu Bei, who fought all his life, did not expect that when he was 60 years old, he lost to the unknown Lu Xun who was less than 40 years old.From then on, Liu Bei's first life's fame was in vain, while Lu Xun became famous all over the world by his military exploits in burning the company. Liu Bei believed that his loss to Lu Xun was due to God's will, rather than improper strategy.In fact, Liu Bei lost this war precisely because of human strategy.Lu Xun once analyzed three reasons why Liu Bei must be defeated. One is to work on an expedition, the other is to battalion for a hundred miles, and the third is to leave the boat and go.Not only did Lu Xun know himself and the enemy, but he was also calm and calm in the process of coping, and he was able to strike late.In contrast, Liu Bei was full of blood and impetuous, and there was a loophole in his plan, which allowed Lu Xun to take advantage of the loophole.Wang Yangming once explained his way of winning all battles in this way: "But the knowledge is pure and solid, and it is a skill to raise the heart." It was like this in the battle of Yiling, where the heartbeat lost to the heartlessness.