In the battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu flooded the seventh army and escaped from the ban. Why can't he attack Xiangyang and Fancheng?

To put it simply, it is because the seven flooded armies are fighting wild, and attacking Xiangyang and Fancheng is a siege battle. Field warfare and siege warfare are two completely different ways of warfare.

Field combat means that the two armies do not rely on the city, but fight in array in the field, or rely on the terrain and camp for strength confrontation. For example, the battle of Guandu in the Three Kingdoms period was a field battle.

Siege warfare means that one side relies on the city to hold, and the other side uses various methods and siege equipment to storm the city. In an siege war, you must first break the enemy city before you can attack the enemy. If you can't break the city, it may be difficult to see the shadow of the enemy. For example, after the battle of Nanjun in the Three Kingdoms period and the victory of Sun Liu Hongya, it took a year to continue to lead troops to attack Jiangling City where Cao Ren was stationed.

Let's take a look at how Guan Yu fought in the battle of Xiangfan when seven armies flooded and attacked Xiangyang and Fancheng.

Guan Yu started the battle of Xiangfan in July of February19. Before launching the battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu pushed northward along the Hanshui River from the south county of Jingzhou to Xiangyang and Fancheng, because Guan Yu trained a group of skilled water forces in nearly ten years of governing Jingzhou, and with some water forces left by Liu Biao in Jingzhou, Guan Yu's water force ability should be second only to Wu Dong's.

Xiangyang is on the south bank of Hanshui River and Fancheng is on the north bank of Hanshui River. After Guan Yu arrived in Xiangfan, he easily cut off the connection between Xiangyang and Fancheng by using the water army, and surrounded Xiangyang satrap Lu Chang and General Coss. Then Guan Yu led the remaining military forces to attack the reinforcements sent by Cao Cao, that is, the 30,000 elite troops led by Yu Jin and Pound.

Guan Yu initially launched the battle of Xiangfan, with about 40,000 troops. After hearing that Lu Meng was ill, he almost mobilized another 10 thousand troops. In the later period of the battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu * * * had 50,000 troops to participate in the war.

Coss is a general who conquers the south, and also the commander-in-chief of Jingzhou Military Region of Cao Wei, equivalent to the commander of the military region. He commanded Cao Wei's border guards and surrounded Fancheng after being defeated by Guan Yu. Coss is the commander in chief of Jingzhou Military Region, so he has no shortage of troops. Coss had at least 10,000 troops in Fancheng because of the scattered forces.

Lu is often the prefect of Xiangyang, that is, the length of a county. Lu Chang led the local county soldiers, and the number of county soldiers was small. Xiangyang city's army is five or six thousand at most.

Yu Jin led more than 30 thousand troops, and Cao Wei's garrison in Xiangfan area has reached about 46 thousand. At first, Guan Yu's participation in the battle of Xiangfan was 40 thousand, and later it increased to 50 thousand. Therefore, Guan Yu's strength in the entire Xiangfan campaign is comparable to the total strength of Cao Wei's Xiangfan area.

First of all, it must be explained that in World War I, Guan Yu first attacked Xiangyang and Fancheng, and then completely surrounded Xiangyang and Fancheng. Finally, Cao Cao sent Yu Ban to save Xiangfan, and Guan Yu fought against Yu Ban. It turned out that Guan Yu's 40 thousand people besieged Cao Wei's 16 thousand people, with a ratio of 2.5 1. According to the ancient art of war, people ten times as many as the enemy may be surrounded and annihilated. Obviously, Guan Yu did not attack many people.

Especially in the war, Yu Ban led seven armies with 30,000 men, and Guan Yu dispatched some siege troops to fight against Yu Ban and Pound. The number of troops transferred by Guan Yu is not recorded. According to the military routine, it is not less than 10 thousand, because there are 70 thousand troops in the ban.

Guan Yu was able to defeat Yu Jin and Pound for two fundamental reasons:

1, the weather, it was August, it was the rainy season. In the rainy season, it usually rains all month, occasionally only for a few days. If it rains more, the river will swell. When the river surges, many low-lying places will be submerged by the river, while Yujin and Pound's camps are only low-lying places, and they are all submerged.

Guan Yu has the right to control water, but Cao Jun doesn't. The Seventh Army of the Forbidden City is an army, and there is no water army. If Cao Jun had a water army, Guan Yu could not easily surround Xiangyang and easily cross the Han River to attack Fancheng. If you have seen the phenomenon of flooding in the rainy season in the south, you will understand how important it was for Guan Yu to have a water army at that time.

Because Yujin and Pound's camps were flooded, they had to camp on the highland, and Guan Yu could attack with the water army. Cao Jun had no way to deal with Guan Yu's water army except archery. There was no other way, so Yujin and Pound were captured by Guan Yu, because Guan Yu had the advantage, and Yujin and Pound had nowhere to escape, because Guan Yu's water army sank.

Guan Yu's attack on Xiangyang city is completely different from that on Fancheng. Cities in the Three Kingdoms period were generally earthen walls with a height of about15m. Important and larger cities can even reach 20 meters high, while smaller cities are only about 8 to 65,438+00 meters high. Due to the special geographical location of Xiangyang and Fancheng, the walls of these two cities are at least 15 meters high.

The ancient city is a three-dimensional defense. A ditch was dug outside the city, and there was water in the ditch, which was equivalent to a moat. After crossing the moat, it is the city wall. Generally, there are four gates in the southeast and northwest of the city wall, and there is a tower around each gate, which is responsible for directing operations and collecting intelligence. There is also a gap in the city wall dedicated to attacking the enemy, called the battlements wall.

If you want to capture the ideal city, it is useless even if you have a strong army without siege equipment. The Mongolian hand that swept the world in those days was basically invincible on the battlefield, but it was completely different for siege. It took six years for the Mongols to attack Xiangyang City, and Guan Yu only fought for three months.

Guan Yu must have brought siege weapons, but siege is a very difficult military action. First of all, he has to face the strong fortifications of the enemy. You don't have to pay a lot of casualties to break the city. It is far greater to attack the city with flesh-and-blood siege weapons than to defend it with solid facilities in the city.

Guan Yu's forces did not occupy much advantage in the siege, but rather surrounded and did not attack. Judging from Guan Yu's deployment in the battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu must have surrounded himself for help instead of attacking, consuming the will of Lu Chang and Coss step by step and defeating the reinforcements sent by Cao Wei.

Another, Guan Yu launched the battle of Xiangfan in order to win Xiangyang and Fancheng, not to fight the enemy. If we really want to attack by force, Guan Yu's 50 thousand Jingzhou people will not be sacrificed enough. Guan Yu's strategic purpose is to occupy Xiangyang and Fancheng. If the enemy can retreat or escape without attacking, Guan Yu's goal will be achieved. Guan Yu has no strength, and there is no need to take the lives of many soldiers to forcibly attack the city.

Besides, even if the siege is forced, it will not be won in a short time. Sun Liu's allied forces attacked Nanjun by the afterglow of Battle of Red Cliffs's victory, and attacked Jiangling City where Coss was stationed. They all fought for more than a year, and they were all won after Coss took the initiative to retreat. On the other hand, Guan Yu's strength and strength did not occupy much advantage, and the time was only three months. It is not so easy and extremely difficult to win Xiangyang and Fancheng.