Brief introduction of the battle of burning company and battalion

In July of the first year of Zhangwu (22 1), Liu Beiqin led more than 700,000 troops and launched a large-scale war against Wu. At that time, the border between the two countries had moved westward to Wushan, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River became the main channel between the two countries. Liu Bei sent generals Wu Ban and Feng to lead more than 40,000 people as vanguard troops, seized Xiakou, occupied the territory of Wu State, defeated Li Yi and Liu Abe in Wu County (now Badong, Hubei Province), and occupied Zigui. In order to prevent Cao Wei from taking the opportunity to attack, Liu Bei sent Huang Quan, the general of Zhenbei, to the north bank of the Yangtze River, and sent Ma Liang, the deputy commander, to Wuling, in order to win over the local tribal leader Shamok and the Shu-Han army. Facing the strategic attack of the Shu army, Sun Quan stepped forward. General Zhenxi and right-back Lu Xun were appointed as viceroy, commanding Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang, Han Dang, Xu Sheng and other 50,000 people to go to the front to resist the Shu army. At the same time, send messengers to Cao Pi to make up for it and avoid fighting on two fronts.

After Lu Xun took office, through careful analysis of the strength, morale and terrain conditions of both sides, he pointed out that Liu Beibing was strong, well defended, full of momentum and eager to win. Wu Jun should temporarily avoid the edge of the Shu army, wait for the opportunity to break the enemy, and patiently persuade Wu Jun generals to give up the requirement of an immediate decisive battle. Decisively implement the strategic retreat, and always retreat to a front line (now Yidu, Hubei Province) and Xiaoting (now Gubei, Yidu, Hubei Province). Then stop retreating and turn to defense to curb the continued invasion of Shu army. And concentrate our forces and prepare for the camera war. In this way, Wu Jun completely withdrew from the mountainous area, leaving hundreds of miles of mountains that were difficult to deploy to the Shu army.

In the first month of AD 222, Wu Ban and Chen's water army entered Yiling area and stationed troops on both sides of the Yangtze River. In February, Liu Bei personally led the main force from Zigui to Xiaoting and established the base camp. At this time, the Shu army had penetrated 200-300 kilometers into the territory of Wu, and stopped the eastward movement because it began to be resisted by Wu Jun. Under the condition that Wu Jun held the important position, the Shu army had to set up dozens of camps in Wuxia, Jianping (now Wushan North, Sichuan) and Yiling for hundreds of miles. In order to mobilize Lu Xun, Zhang Nan, the former commander-in-chief of Liu Bei School, led his troops to besiege Sun Huan, who was stationed in the Post Road. Sun Huan is Sun Quan's nephew, so the generals in Wu Jun asked for troops to rescue him. However, Lu Xun knew that Sun Huan won the hearts of the people, and Yi Daocheng had plenty of food and grass. He resolutely refused to divide his troops to help Yi Dao, thus avoiding the behavior of dispersing troops and consuming troops prematurely.

From 1 month to June, the two armies were still at loggerheads. In order to fight Wu Jun quickly, Liu Bei frequently sent people to the front to insult the challenge, but Lu Xun ignored it. Later, Liu Bei sent Wu Ban to lead thousands of people to camp on the flat ground, and in addition, he ambushed 8,000 troops in the valley in an attempt to lure the enemy deeper and annihilate Wu Jun. But the plan still failed. Lu Xun's insistence on not fighting undermined Liu Bei's strategic intention of relying on superior forces to make a quick decision. The soldiers of the Shu army gradually lost their fighting spirit and their dominant position. Jiangnan in June is in the heat season, and the heat is pressing, and the soldiers of the Shu army are miserable. Liu Bei was helpless, so he had to transfer the navy ship to land, set up a military camp in the deep mountain forest, rely on the stream, station troops to rest, and prepare to wait until autumn to attack. Because the Shu army is located on the rugged mountain road of 200-300 kilometers in Wu, far from the rear, it is difficult to provide logistical support. In addition, Liu Bei's battalion is within a hundred miles and his troops are scattered, which provides an opportunity for Lu Xun to carry out strategic counterattack.

Seeing that the morale of the Shu army was low, Lu Xun gave up the operational policy of advancing by land and attacking Wu Jun, and thought that the time was ripe for a strategic counterattack. To this end, he wrote to Sun Quan, the king of Wu, saying: "At the beginning of the war, the concern was that the Shu army kept pace with each other and went hand in hand with the land. Now the Shu army has abandoned the ship and camped everywhere. Judging from its deployment, there will be no change. In this way, there is a chance to break the Shu army, and there is no difficulty. " Sun Quan immediately approved Lu Xun's battle plan from defense to counterattack.

On the eve of a large-scale counterattack, Lu Xun sent a small group of troops to conduct a tentative attack. Although the attack failed, it enabled Lu Xun to find a way to defeat the enemy-the method of burning the Shu army company. Because Jiangnan was in midsummer and the climate was sultry at that time, the camps of the Shu army were all built with wooden fences, surrounded by Woods and thatch. In the event of a fire, it will burn to pieces. After the decisive battle began, Lu Xun ordered Wu Jun foot soldiers to raid the Shu army camp at night and set fire to 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 a large army of 5,000 men to break through the front of the Shu army, stabbed 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. Pan Zhang and his men stormed Feng's Shu army and broke it. In Xiaoting, Zhu Gejin, Luo Tong and Zhou Yin cooperated with Lu Xun's main force to attack the Shu army. Defending Yi Dao, Sun Huan also took the initiative to fight. Wu Jun went well, and soon broke through more than forty camps of the Shu army, cutting off the connection between the water army and both sides of the Yangtze River. General Shu, Feng and Sha were killed, and the commanders Lu and Liu Ning surrendered. Seeing the whole line collapse, Liu Bei fled to Ma 'anshan, northwest of Yiling, and ordered the Shu army to defend itself around the mountain. Lu Xun concentrated his forces and was besieged on all sides, annihilating tens of thousands of Shu soldiers. At this time, the Shu army was in flight, most of the casualties fled, and military supplies such as cars and boats were lost. Liu Bei fled overnight and arrived at Shimen Mountain (now northeast of Badong, Hubei). He was chased by general Wu, almost captured, and the defender Fu Tong was killed. Later, relying on the postmen to burn the equipment abandoned by the defeated soldiers and block the mountain road, they were able to get rid of the pursuers and escape into Yong 'an City (also known as Bai Di City, now Fengjie East, Sichuan).

At this time, Huang Quan, the general of the Northern Town of Shu Army, was leading his troops to defend Wei Jun in Jiangbei. After Liu Bei's defeat, Huang Quan's way home was cut off by Wu Jun, and he had to lead the people to surrender to Cao Wei in August.

After Liu Bei fled to Baidi City, generals Pan Zhang, Xu Sheng and others all advocated the pursuit of 56-point victory to expand the results. Lu Xun was worried that Cao Wei would take the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and attack the rear, so he stopped chasing and took the initiative to retreat. In September, Cao Wei really attacked Wu, but because Lu Xun was ready, Wei Jun finally failed. In April of the following year, Liu Bei was ashamed of Yiling's fiasco. He became ill and died in Baidicheng. The battle of Yiling ended like this.

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