What mistakes did Liu Bei make in the battle of Yiling?

What mistakes did Liu Bei make in the battle of Yiling?

The Battle of Yiling, also known as the Battle of Yiling and the Battle of Xiaoting (Xiaoting, an ancient place name, now the northern part of Yidu, Hubei Province), was a large-scale battle launched by Liu Bei, Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han, against Wu Dong during the Three Kingdoms period. For the battle of Yiling, Liu Bei devoted himself to the whole country, and Soochow also sent elite troops such as Lu Xun to meet the enemy. Of course, I didn't expect that Liu Bei, who fought in the battlefield all his life, lost to the young Lu Xun.

In this war, Liu Beijun was almost completely annihilated and tens of thousands of people were killed. According to Fu Zi's records, Wu Jun wiped out more than 80,000 Shu-Han troops, only Liu Bei survived. In any case, the battle of Yiling was a heavy loss to Shu Han, even no less than Guan Yu's carelessness in Jingzhou.

In the battle of Yiling, Lu Xun was good at correctly analyzing the enemy's situation, boldly withdrawing troops to lure the enemy, concentrating his forces, attacking him unprepared, and skillfully attacking him with fire. In the end, he defeated the aggressive Shu army with 50,000 Wu Jun in one fell swoop, creating a successful example of changing from defending to attacking, reflecting his superb command art and ability, which shows that he deserves to be an outstanding commander-in-chief.

As for Liu Bei's failure, it was not accidental. It was in the battle of Yiling that Liu Bei, as the commander-in-chief of the Shu-Han army, naturally made many mistakes. Then, the question is, what mistake did Liu Bei make in the battle of Yiling, which led to the annihilation of Shu Han?

First of all, on the whole, "promoting teachers with anger", relying on the strong and bullying the weak, made a military taboo. In 2 19, Guan Yu launched the battle of Xiangfan, and Sun Quan sent Lu Meng to attack Jingzhou. In this battle, Lv Meng not only captured three counties in Jingzhou, but also killed Guan Yu and his son. In 220 AD, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor, and formally established Cao Wei. 22 1 year, Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor in Yizhou, with the title of Zhangwu. In the same year, in order to recapture Jingzhou and avenge Guan Yu, Liu Bei led an army to attack Soochow.

After learning that Liu Bei had sent troops, Sun Quan initially sent messengers to make peace, but this was rejected by Liu Bei, who was already very angry because Guan Yu was killed and Jingzhou fell. At the same time, when Liu Bei summoned the soldiers and horses, Zhang Fei, a Shu general, led 10,000 troops from Langzhong to Jiangzhou to meet Liu Bei, but before he left, he was killed by his subordinates Zhang Da and Fan Qiang ("Fan Qiang" in the history book and "Fan Jiang" in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the Ming Dynasty).

In this regard, these two things led Liu Bei to lose his mind gradually, and even "angrily pushed his teacher." The battle of Yiling was precisely because of the anger over the killing of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei that Liu Bei was unwilling to compromise with Dongwu. Under the rash advance of underestimating the enemy, Liu Bei finally let Lu Xun find a flaw and was defeated by the other side. It is true that there is a truth in ancient history that the sorrowful soldiers will win. However, the battle of Yiling lasted from AD 22 1 to AD 222, and the initial morale of the Shu and Han armies was exhausted in the later period.

As far as the second mistake is concerned, in the battle of Yiling, Liu Bei camped in the mountains and gave up the idea of going hand in hand with Lu, which was one of the reasons why he was finally defeated by Lu Xun. At the beginning of this war, Liu Bei sent Wu Ban and Chen Shi to lead the navy to Yiling, while stationing troops on the road. This layout is a great threat to Wu Jun, which is a headache for Lu Xun.

However, it is a great pity that at the beginning of the war, Liu Bei abandoned this layout and put all his troops in the mountains, which made it difficult for the Shu and Han armies to disperse at once and it was obviously inconvenient to move. This arrangement for Liu Bei undoubtedly made Lu Xun very happy.

In this regard, Lu Xun said in a letter to Sun Quan: "I initially suspected that land and water go hand in hand. Now, instead of abandoning the ship, I stand up and camp everywhere. I will observe its layout and there will be no change. " In other words, Lu Xun was a little worried at first, but once Liu Bei all camped in the mountains, Lu Xun was happy. If Liu Bei used the navy to cooperate with the army, Lu Xun would be hard to resist. Moreover, the idea of land and water going hand in hand can also be completely eliminated by Lu Xun's fire attack.

In the battle of Yiling, if Liu Bei kept a certain number of soldiers and horses on the waterway, even if Lu Xun attacked by waterway, the Shu-Han army still had room for maneuver or even counterattack. It was Liu Bei who made this mistake, which caused the Shu-Han army to be almost wiped out in the battle of Yiling.

As far as the third mistake is concerned, this is the staffing of the Shu-Han army. Before the war, Liu Bei should know that this is a crucial war, which determines the direction of the two major forces, Shu Han and Soochow. However, despite the far-reaching impact of the Yiling War, Liu Bei despised his opponent Lu Xun, perhaps because Lu Xun was not famous. More crucially, in the battle of Yiling, Liu Bei led all the little-known teenagers in this battle, and there was no effective adviser to follow him.

Therefore, it can be said that according to such war specifications, such personnel allocation does not match, which is an important reason for defeat. When the battle of Yiling broke out, there were many experienced military generals in Shu Han, such as Wei Yan, Zhao Yun and Ma Chao. But for Liu Bei, he chose some unknown people. Of course, Liu Bei's move may be to train the next batch of talents for Shu Han. However, these generals lacked enough experience, and it was difficult for them to put forward key opinions and suggestions in the battle of Yiling.

On this basis, Liu Bei went his own way in the battle of Yiling, which made him unable to make a reasonable judgment. Finally, as far as the fourth mistake is concerned, Liu Bei delayed too much in the battle of Yiling, and his army was distracted. The battle for Yiling began in 22 1 year. In this battle, after encountering fierce resistance from Lu Xun and his men, Liu Bei began to turn to passive confrontation, not to mention camping in the mountains, saying that the time was actually extended to seven or eight months.

Imagine that in July and August, the soldiers were camping in the mountains all day and had long lost their fighting spirit. How can they have fighting capacity? During the period of the Three Kingdoms at the end of Han Dynasty, if the war dragged on for too long, not only the pressure of logistics supply was great, but also the attacker lost his fighting spirit. And this will undoubtedly bring opportunities to the defenders. When the morale of the Shu army was low, Lu Xun, the general of Soochow, ordered Wu Jun's foot soldiers to raid the camp of the Shu army at night and set fire to it with the wind. During the dinner, the fire was fierce and the Shu army was in chaos.

Lu Xun took the opportunity to launch a counterattack and forced the Shu army to retreat to the west. Wu Zhuran led an army of 5,000 men, broke through the front of the Shu army, plunged into the rear of the Shu army, and surrounded the Shu army in Zhuoxiang (now west of Yichang, Hubei) with the Korean party, cutting off the retreat of the Shu army. After the Shu army broke up, Lu Xun concentrated his forces and was besieged on all sides. At this time, the Shu army was in flight, most of the casualties fled, and vehicles, boats and other materials were lost. In 222 AD, after Liu Bei fled to Baidicheng, generals Pan Zhang, Xu Sheng and others advocated the pursuit of 56-point thrashing to expand the results.

But at this time, Liu Bei assembled scattered troops, and Zhao Yun's rear troops came to help, and the Yongan garrison was nearly 20,000. Lu Xun has lost the opportunity to conquer Yong 'an. Coupled with the scruples that Cao Wei took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and attack the rear, he stopped chasing and took the initiative to withdraw. Generally speaking, in the battle of Yiling, Liu Bei made the above mistakes and was defeated by Lu Xun, which led to the annihilation of the Shu and Han armies and began to decline.