Historical weather in Nan 'an

Speaking of the place name Huarong Road, I don't think everyone will feel strange. In 208 AD, Cao Cao, who suffered a crushing defeat in Battle of Red Cliffs, retreated along Huarong Road and successfully fled back to the Central Plains. Therefore, "Cao Cao defeated Huarong Road" has become the story of the Three Kingdoms that we relish.

Cao Cao defeated Huarong Road

However, although the name Huarong Road is familiar, most people don't know where it is. So, where is Huarong Road? Why didn't Cao Cao take another road at that time, but chose to retreat from Huarong Road?

Next, Bian Xiao answered these questions from both historical and geographical perspectives.

1. Where is Huarong Road?

To say Huarong Road, we must first say Yun Mengze.

In the Jianghan Plain in the pre-Qin period, that is, the delta where the Yangtze River and the Han River meet, there was once a huge ancient lake group called Yunmengze. Its general location extends from the west of Wuhan to the east of Jingzhou today, and its east-west width can reach more than 400 kilometers. Meng Haoran's poem "Yun Qi Fogs Fall, Besiege Yueyang" refers to this place.

However, with the passage of time, Yunmengze gradually disappeared. Due to the siltation of the Yangtze River and the Han River, the landform of Yunmengze has changed greatly. The original lake group was gradually divided and cut off by the land formed by sediment deposition, and became a wetland landform composed of scattered small lakes. During the Three Kingdoms period when Cao Cao lived, it was no longer a lake in Wang Yang, but a muddy swamp filled with weeds and smoke.

The geographical location of the ancient rhyme Mengze and Huarong Road

The Huarong Road we want to talk about is a shortcut to cross this swamp from east to west.

In the northwest of Guyun Mengze, which is the Longwan site in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province today, it is the seat of GuHuarong County. Sima Guang said in "Learning from Your Own Experience": "From this road, we can reach Huarong." It means that the so-called Huarong Road is nothing special, but a road leading to Huarong County.

According to historical records, when Cao Cao passed Huarong Road, "the road was blocked by mud, which made soldiers cut reeds and wormwood to fill the road", and even the phenomenon that "soldiers were trampled in the mud and many people died" appeared. It can be seen that Huarong Road is a muddy path, which is very difficult to walk through swamps and reeds. There is no doubt about it.

Yunmengze scene

Just as Mr. Lu Xun said: There was no road in the world, and more people walked, so it became a road. In fact, there is no "Huarong Road" in this world, but Cao Cao once crossed the Yunmeng swamp and came to Huarong County, so he was remembered by later generations and became a well-known Huarong Road today.

Then, this brings another question: since Huarong Road is a dirt road through the swamp, it is very difficult to walk, so why did Cao Cao escape from this road?

Second, why did Cao Cao take Huarong Road?

To find out this problem, we need to analyze the whole marching process of Cao Cao and Battle of Red Cliffs.

In 208 AD, Cao Cao set out from the Central Plains and prepared to conquer Jingzhou in the south. At this time, Liu Biao, a priest in Jingzhou, died, and Liu Cong, the son of Liu Biao, chose to leave the city and gave Xiangyang to Cao Cao.

Xiangyang has been known as the throat of civil war since ancient times. After taking Xiangyang, Cao Cao entered Jianghan Plain as easy as blowing off dust, continued to pursue Liu Bei south, and once again attacked Jiangling, an important town in Jingzhou.

At this time, Cao Cao captured a large number of foot soldiers, hay and warships in Jingzhou, which was ambitious. He planned to devote himself to World War I and go downstream to annihilate Sun Wu's regime in one fell swoop. So he set off from Jiangling, went down the Yangtze River and went straight to Jiangdong. However, when he arrived in the Wulin, there was a serious plague in the army, and he met Sun and Liu's army led by Liu Bei and Zhou Yu. At this time, Cao Cao can only choose to camp by the Wulin River and confront Sun Liu's allied forces.

Thus, history staged a familiar scene here: Zhou Lang burned Chibi and Cao Cao was defeated.

So, if you were Cao Cao, where would you choose to escape in the face of Battle of Red Cliffs's defeat?

First, Battle of Red Cliffs occurred in Jianghan Plain. It can be clearly seen from the topographic map that the northwest of Jianghan Plain is Bashan and Qinling Mountains, and the north is Dabie Mountain, which stretches for thousands of miles. If Cao Cao wants to return to the north, he has to go back the same way, first to Jiangling, then to Xiangyang and then to the Central Plains. There is no other way.

Xiangyang is the only place to return to the Central Plains from Jianghan Plain.

Secondly, Jiangling was the base camp of Cao Cao's crusade against Sun Wu, where a large amount of grain and grass were hoarded. At that time, the people were exhausted and the plague was rampant. Of course, Cao Cao had to return to Jiangling as soon as possible to supplement it in order to stabilize people's hearts.

Since he is going back to Jiangling, Cao Cao also has two choices: land and water. As we know, Cao Cao's warships were all burnt down in Battle of Red Cliffs. He didn't have any boats to take, and even if he did, he wouldn't be stupid enough to choose to sail against the Yangtze River. Therefore, it is impossible for Cao Cao to return to Jiangling along the Yangtze River waterway, and he can only choose land.

Cao Cao's advance and retreat road map

So we can draw a conclusion: Cao Cao had no other better choice at that time, and there was only one way to face him, that is, to take land and return to Jiangling as soon as possible. Therefore, if Wulin and Jiangling are connected in a straight line on the map, it must just pass through Yunmengze and pass through the so-called "Huarong Road".

To quote Professor Zhang Xiugui from Fudan University:

"Huarong Road runs through the middle of Jianghan Plain, with a total length of 150 km, starting from Wulin in Honghu County in the southeast, passing through the former site of Huarong County in Longwan, Qianjiang County, and reaching jiangling county in the northwest."

In other words, the Wulin-Huarong-Jiangling route is the only choice for Cao Cao to escape. Even in the face of the muddy swamp, he will break through. In order to evacuate as soon as possible, he even spared no effort to "make soldiers fill grass and ride too hard", that is, to sacrifice those old, weak and disabled soldiers and use their bodies to pave the way for horses to trample.

3. Is the description of Huarong Road in Romance of the Three Kingdoms true?

Having said that, we have made clear the whole process and reasons of Cao Cao's defeat in Huarong Road. Then, this brings another question: How different is the story about Huarong Road in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms from the real history?

In fact, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a romantic novel after all. In order to make the plot tense and exciting, there will inevitably be some contradictions with historical facts. I will only list three points here:

1. Huarong Road is not a mountain road. Whether it is a novel or a TV series, Huarong Road is depicted as a long and narrow Gu Dao that runs through the mountains. But according to what we said earlier, Huarong Road was located in the center of Yunmengze in ancient times and belonged to the alluvial plain of the Yangtze River and the Han River. In fact, it is a swamp path, and the terrain is very low and flat. It is impossible to have mountains on both sides.

In the TV series, Huarong Road was shot in a long and narrow valley.

2. Cao Cao may not be as embarrassed as we thought. First of all, the main reason for the failure of Cao Jun Battle of Red Cliffs was a sudden plague. Under this plague, Cao Jun has lost its fighting capacity, and Cao Cao has already had the idea of withdrawing troops. Secondly, according to historical records, although Zhou Yu burned some warships, some of them were burned by Cao Cao himself. Imagine that Cao Cao had time to burn the boat, which shows that he didn't run away in such a hurry.

3. Cao Cao didn't meet Guan Yu's interception. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu led the water army to Xiakou to support Liu Bei and followed Liu Bei to Battle of Red Cliffs. At the point in time, it is impossible for him to appear in a vast swamp ahead of time and wait for Cao Cao. In fact, according to the Diary of Three Yang Gong, it was not Guan Yu who chased Cao Cao at that time, but Liu Bei himself. Moreover, Liu Bei only arrived after Cao Cao successfully passed Huarong Road, and did not appear in front of Cao Cao to intercept.