Wen Cong Hotel

Chibi, formerly known as Shaxian County, was built in the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu.

According to historical records, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bangyuan was the son of Chi Di. The beheading of the son of the White Emperor laid the foundation of the Han Dynasty for 400 years. At that time, the name of Shaxian magistrate was Meichi. When he visited the mountains and rivers in Shaxian, he found many nameless places, so he ordered people to take a number of place names according to the will of the court.

So Mei Xian ordered someone to visit Luo, a veteran who had been practicing in the south bank of Lushui for a hundred years. Luo drew a silk painting for him, in which the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth were used to determine the important place names in the county. The central mountain in Shaxian County is named Jinzi Mountain, and it is 60 miles southeast and northwest with Jinzi Mountain as the center. They were named Shikeng in the east, Liulin in the south, Kuigou in the west and Chibi in the north. The name "Red Cliff" first appeared on the historical geographical map of China.

Emperor Gaozu advocated red, so Meixianling and Luodaochang adopted several names with deficits besides "Chibi", such as Chibilin, Chibilin Lake, Chigangfan and Chimagang.

According to statistics, there are more than 50 accounts related to Chibi in the book The History of the Three Kingdoms. This is because there was a famous battle in Chibi-Battle of Red Cliffs.

In the history of the Three Kingdoms, Battle of Red Cliffs was a great battle. It is said to be "large-scale" because Wei, Shu and Wu all participated in this battle, and many troops participated in it. Cao Jun claimed to be more than 800,000, and Sun Quan and Liu Bei joined forces with 50,000. But in the end, Sun and Liu won a great victory, thus laying the foundation for the tripartite confrontation among the three countries.

Later generations commented that this battle was "one of the famous battles in the history of China, and it was also the first large-scale river battle in the Yangtze River basin in the history of China."

Yes, Battle of Red Cliffs is indeed a very unequal battle.

At that time, Cao Cao had just subdued Liu Cong, the eldest son of Liu Biao, and "took his navy division and hundreds of thousands of infantry". "Hundreds of thousands" means hundreds of thousands? Although the exact number is unknown, at least 300,000 people can use the word "number".

In addition to Liu Cong's "hundreds of thousands" army, Cao Cao's commander-in-chief Zhao Yan led seven armies, including Yu Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Zhao Lu and Feng Jie, and other troops of Cao Cao in the Central Plains also came to Jingzhou to participate in the war. So Cao Cao said in his letter to Sun Quan that he had trained 800,000 sailors and would come to Soochow to hunt with him.

Most later generations think that Cao Cao is bragging and exaggerating his army in a mysterious way, but in the eyes of scholars without white, Cao Cao's words may not be exaggerated.

On the other hand, Sun Liu, the other side of the war, said in The History of the Three Kingdoms, The Biography of Shu Shu: "The patriarch sent Zhuge Liang to tie Sun Quan himself, and authorized Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu and other tens of thousands of water troops." The "tens of thousands" here should be at least 30 thousand This is probably consistent with the record of "all Da Yue, that is, sending 30,000 water troops such as Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu and Lu Su" in the biography of Shu Shu Zhuge Liang.

However, it is recorded in Wu Shuer and Wu Zhuchuan: "Yu and Pu are the left and right governors, each with 10,000 people, and they are prepared step by step." The army sent by Sun Quan has obviously shrunk to 20,000 here. Whether it's 30,000 or 20,000, even if Zhuge Liang said that Liu Bei had 20,000 soldiers and horses when he persuaded Sun Quan to unite against Cao, Sun Liu's joint army would be 50,000 at most.

800,000 to 50,000, the advantage of war is undoubtedly on Cao Cao's side. But Cao Cao was defeated, and he was defeated miserably, even to the point of "most of them died." But the "majority" here can't be the majority of Cao Cao's 800 thousand army, but the majority of the water army he deployed.

Even so, Battle of Red Cliffs's failure was one of the few failures in Cao Cao's military career. So why did Cao Cao fail?

In fact, Zhou Yu predicted Cao Cao's failure in the biography of the Three Kingdoms and Zhou Yu. When analyzing the situation at that time, he said:

This passage of Zhou is also regarded as an analysis of Cao Cao's failure:

A, the northern soil, plus d, Han Sui is still in kansai, for fuck future trouble.

The northern soil here refers to the area west of Tongguan in the north, and refers to the area north of the territory ruled by Cao Wei. Zhou Yu thinks that the north has not been settled, and Ma Chao and Han Sui are still west of Hangu Pass, which is the future trouble of Cao Cao.

I'm afraid Zhou Yu's statement here is wrong, because Battle of Red Cliffs took place in 208 AD, which is the 13th year of Jian 'an. At that time, Ma Teng, Ma Chao's father, was persuaded by Zhang Qian to become an official in the DPRK and was appointed as Wei Yan. Ma Chao's two younger brothers Matthew and Ma Tie were also appointed as captains of chariots and horses. Only Ma Chao stayed in Liangzhou, was appointed as a partial general and curator, and continued to command Marten's troops, that is, where the vest troops were originally located, and still stationed in Li Huai (now southeast of Xingping City, Shaanxi Province).

However, it was after AD 2 1 1 that Ma Chao and Han Sui joined forces with Han Sui against Cao Cao. Of course, the existence of Ma Chaohe does not only show that the north has not been completely unified by Cao Cao, but has always been Cao Cao's external confidant.

Second, give up the pommel horse, fight for the boat, and compete with wuyue who is not directed by China.

As a famous strategist in the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao naturally had to understand this tactic of fighting. However, since Liu Cong surrendered, Cao Cao got all the naval warships in Liu Cong, so he pinned his hopes on Jingzhou Navy, hoping to use them against Wu Jun. Unfortunately, he was wrong. He hoped to take Jingzhou Water Army as the main force, and then take advantage of the absolute strength to cross the river, but he overestimated Jingzhou Water Army and underestimated Wu Jun and the Yangtze River.

Besides, Cao Cao's commander-in-chief Zhao Yan's seven armies, Yu Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Zhao Lu and Feng Jie, were born in the north for a long time and were unfamiliar with water warfare, so Cao Caocai connected the two ends of the warship with chains to alleviate the turbulence of the warship in the wind and waves, which led to the fire attack and fiasco in Wu Jun.

About the course of this fire attack, the records of Volume 54, Nine Biographies of Wu Shu, Zhou, Lu Su and Zi Jian in the History of the Three Kingdoms are basically the same.

In fact, the plan of fire attack is not as stated in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu wrote the word "fire" in their palms at the same time, and then decided on the plan of "fire attack" It was Zhou Yu's Ministry Huang Gai who put forward the fire attack. Huang Gai said: "Now that the enemy is outnumbered, it is difficult to persist with them for a long time. Cao Jun is connected with warships, and they can be defeated and fled with fire attack. "

So Huang Gai used a dozen Meng Chong warships. Chongchong is the main ship of the ancient water army, with a long and narrow hull and strong maneuverability, which is easy to collide with enemy ships. Huang Gai filled the boat with dry reeds and dead wood, poured oil on it, wrapped it in a tent outside, planted flags, prepared a canoe in advance, and connected it to the stern of the warship for easy escape.

Huang Gai first sent a letter to Cao Cao, assuming that he would surrender. The southeast wind was blowing hard at that time. Huang Gai put ten warships in front, and when he reached the middle of the river, he hung up the sails, and the rest of the ships moved forward in order. Halfway through the exercise, he raised his sail and ordered the soldiers to shout, "We have come to surrender!" " "The soldiers and officers in Cao Cao's army stood outside the barracks, watching, pointing and talking about Huang Gailai's surrender.

When the ship was two miles away from Cao Jun, Huang Gai ordered all the ships to ignite at the same time. The fire was fierce, and the ships flew like arrows, burning all the Cao Jun ships in the north and spreading to the barracks on the shore. After a while, smoke and flames filled the sky, and Cao Cao's men were burned to death and drowned a lot. Zhou Yu and other elite troops followed closely, beating gongs and drums and attacking on a large scale. Cao Jun was defeated.

The whole process of fire attack is so simple. Without Zhou Yu's "danger" and Zhuge Liang's "borrowing from the east wind" This is just the plot added by Luo Guanzhong in the novel, and the record of this matter in the History of the Three Kingdoms is also very simple.

"Wei Yishu Wu Di Ji" records: "Going to Chibi is not conducive to preparing for war." So there was a great epidemic, many officials died, and they led the troops back.

The biography of Shu Shu II Tai Shang Huang records: "The Tai Shang Huang sent Zhuge Liang to bind Sun Quan himself, and authorized tens of thousands of water troops such as Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu to join hands with the Tai Shang Huang to fight Cao Gong in Chibi, smash him and burn his ship." My ancestors went hand in hand with Wu Jun by land and water, catching up with Nanjun. At that time, he was ill, and many northern troops died, so Tso Gong took him back.

"Zhuge Liang Chuan Shu Shu Wu" is even simpler: "Cao Gong was defeated by Chibi and led the army to Ye."

"Wu Shuer's Biography" records: "Yu and Pu are left and right governors, each with ten thousand people, keeping pace with the times. Chibi joined forces and defeated Cao. " The public burned the rest of the ships and then retreated. The soldiers were hungry and most of them died. "

Biography of the River Table also describes Cao Cao's evaluation of the defeat of Chibi: "Battle of Red Cliffs, worthy of his illness, burned out alone, which made Zhou famous."

This seems to be Cao Cao's self-mockery, but it also illustrates a problem, that is, Cao Cao's failure was not entirely due to Huang Gai's fire attack, which did not cause too much loss to Cao Jun, but Cao Cao's "self-retirement" made Zhou Yu famous. As for why "self-retirement" should be carried out by "burning the ship", it is not clear.

From this perspective, Cao Jun's statement that "more than half of the dead" is unreliable. What kind of tragedy would it be if more than half of the 800 thousand army died? Therefore, the root cause of "most of the dead" may be the "foot soldiers are hungry and epidemic" mentioned in "The History of the Three Kingdoms".

Third, the soil and water do not learn, get sick, and the foot soldiers are hungry.

Almost all the records quoted above mentioned the word "epidemic", which seems to be a major reason for Cao Cao's failure. However, The History of the Three Kingdoms doesn't tell us exactly what happened, and Li Yousong, the chief physician who graduated from Fujian Health School, thinks in his article that the reason why Cao Cao defeated Chibi and schistosomiasis was a disease called acute schistosomiasis. This seems to confirm what Cao Cao said, "Battle of Red Cliffs is worth the disease". However, many records in the History of the Three Kingdoms emphasize "epidemic", and "disease" and "epidemic" are two different concepts.

Li Yousong believes that the battlefield in Battle of Red Cliffs was precisely the area where schistosomiasis was seriously prevalent at that time, which was the infection season of schistosomiasis. Battle of Red Cliffs starts in winter, but Cao Jun migrates and trains in autumn. Cao Cao's water army was infected with schistosomiasis before the Middle War in Battle of Red Cliffs, and it took more than a month to get sick, which made it exhausted and vulnerable in the war. However, Liu and Sun's troops have been engaged in production and life in schistosomiasis endemic areas for a long time, and the soldiers have more or less developed certain immunity.

However, this view doesn't make sense either. Cao Cao's water army mainly comes from Jingzhou Water Army in Liu Cong, and the immunity of these soldiers to Schistosoma japonicum should be similar to that of Sun and Liu Lianjun, so the "epidemic situation" infected by Cao Jun should be a plague or something, and the infection range is large and the speed is fast.

Fourth, it's cold now, and there is no grass for horses.

Cao Cao's army is good at cavalry and infantry. As the saying goes, "the soldiers and horses have not moved, and the food and grass go first." The expedition to Jingzhou, Cao Jun will certainly have many difficulties in logistics supply. It was winter at that time, so many horses needed forage that could not be solved on the spot, even the horses could not eat, and soldiers were more likely to starve to death. Coupled with the spread of the plague, as recorded in Wu Shuer's Biography, "most soldiers died of hunger."

Under the double blow of hunger and plague, Huang Gai's fire attack plan succeeded easily, and Cao Cao's defeat was also expected.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) Chen Wende's theory of "southeast wind"

Chen Wende, who holds a master's degree from Chengda Institute of Politics in Taiwan Province Province, China, and is currently the chairman of Qide Preschool Bonus Co., Ltd., analyzes the reasons for Cao Cao's defeat in his book The History of Cao Cao's Hegemony. He blamed Cao Cao's failure on the southeast wind. He thinks that Cao Cao is cautious in using his troops. The defeat of Chibi is because Zhou Yu may have concealed a climatological fact when analyzing the reasons for Cao Cao's failure. Because in Dongting Lake area, due to the topographic wind, when the weather clears up, southeast wind may blow to confront it. This was unexpected by Cao Cao, who grew up in the north, but it became the "geographical advantage" occupied by Wu Jun, so there was a military coup of "burning Chibi".

It turns out that this "southeast wind" is not borrowed by Zhuge Liang, but seems to be "providence". Heaven wants to defeat Cao, and naturally there is southeast wind to help.

Pei Songzhi, the author of Notes on the Three Kingdoms, said in his evaluation of Battle of Red Cliffs:

However, Cao Cao failed in Battle of Red Cliffs after all. Wu Bai scholar suddenly thought that if there were no resistance from Sun and Liu, Cao Cao would be able to cross the river smoothly, and the history of China would not once again enter the era of unification.

However, history has no ifs, leaving only many sighs.