Hello everyone, welcome to historically accurate
In today’s episode, I will continue to talk about the story of Liu Bei
In my last episode (Liu Bei 4/7)
I talked about how Liu Bei took over Yi Province from Liu Zhang in 214 AD
and completed the “Longzhong Plan” proposed by Zhuge Liang
When Sun Quan heard the news, he felt quite jealous
After all, in 208 AD, Liu Bei was still being chased after
by Cao Cao and fled to Eastern Wu to join Sun Quan for protection
In the end, he depended on Sun Quan to
defeat Cao Cao at Red Cliffs at one blow
In just 6 years, Liu Bei had changed from a pitiful man
with no troops and no territory
to a major warlord owning half of Jing Province
and almost the entire Yi Province
and his military strength had become comparable to that of Eastern Wu
It was hard for Sun Quan to take
Moreover, Sun Quan believed that
the Nan Commandery in Jing Province was only lent to Liu Bei by him
(But in fact, Liu Bei had given Xia Kou and
other regions to Sun Quan in exchange for Nan Commandery)
As a result, in 215 AD
Sun Quan asked Liu Bei to return Jing Province (Nan Commandery)
Liu Bei certainly wouldn’t return it since
it provided vital connections between Yi Province and Jing Province
He said that he would return Jing Province
to Sun Quan after conquering Liang Province
Sun Quan got so angry that he sent Lü Meng to
attack and conquer three commanderies:
Chang Sha, Ling Ling and Gui Yang
This greatly angered Guan Yu, who was guarding Jing Province
and Liu Bei, who was far away in Yi Province
Liu Bei led an army of 50,000 troops to station in Gong an
and ordered Guan Yu to garrison Yi Yang to confront Sun Quan
And at the same time, Cao Cao had already started to
attack Zhang Lu in Hang Zhong and
completely defeated him and seized Han Zhong in November 215 AD
Hang Zhong Basin, where Han Zhong is located
is an extremely important strategic location
Han River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River
passes through Hang Zhong from west to east to reach Nan Yang Basin
Guan Zhong Plain, which is north of Han Zhong
has always been one of the
power centers of various dynasties in the Central Plains
Han Zhong Basin and Guan Zhong Plain are
separated by the Qin Mountains and are linked by only 4 passes
(Chen Cang Pass, Bao Xie Pass, Tang Luo Pass and Zi Wu Pass)
from west to east
Long You Region, which is located northwest of Han Zhong
is a barrier between the Central Plains and nomadic peoples
such as the Qiang and is linked to Han Zhong by Qi Shan Pass
To the south of Han Zhong Basin is Si Chuan Basin
which was Yi Province
Han Zhong Basin and Si Chuan Basin are
separated by Da Ba mountains and are connected from west to east
by three passes (JinNiu Pass, Mi Cang Pass and Li Zhi Pass)
Han Zhong Basin is connected to the
important areas in all directions;
therefore, it has always been a strategic location since ancient times
This strategic location was occupied by Cao Cao at that time
directly threatening Liu Bei’s Yi Province
Therefore, Liu Bei decisively made peace with Sun Quan
With Xiang River as the boundary
Chang Sha and Gui Yang in the east were given to Sun Quan
and Nan Commandery, Ling Ling and Wu Ling in the west
were given to Liu Bei
After everything was arranged
Liu Bei led his army back to Yi Province
Cao Cao, on the other hand
didn’t aggressively attack Yi Province after conquering Han Zhong
Cao Cao only left Xiahou Yuan, Zhang He, Xu Huang and Guo Huai
to guard Han Zhong and retreated with his main force himself
Zhang He repeatedly invaded the boarder of Ba Commandery
and forced the local population to relocate
But in the end, Zhang He was defeated
by Zhang Fei with strategy at Wa Kou
So Zhang He withdrew to Nan Zheng and
Cao army became completely defensive in Han Zhong
In 217 AD, Fa Zheng and Huang Quan believed that
there must be civil strife in Cao Cao’s own territories
since Cao Cao didn't continue to attack Yi Province
and only left Xiahou Yuan, Zhang He and others to guard Han Zhong
Therefore, they advised Liu Bei to attack Han Zhong
Liu Bei immediately took their advice
In the winter of 217 AD, Liu Bei led his main force
including Fa Zheng, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Gao Xiang, Chen Shi and others
to take JinNiu Pass to attack Yang Ping Pass
Zhang Fei and Ma Chao led another army
including Wu Lan, Lei Tong and Ren Kui to
take JinNiu Pass and then Chen Cang Pass
They were stationed at Xia Bian in order to
cut off the supplies from Xi Liang to Han Zhong
These arrangements marked the official start of the
pinnacle campaign of Liu Bei’s life – Han Zhong Campaign
Ma Chao, as the former warlord of Xi Liang
had a great influence in the region
During this campaign, Lei Ding of the Di
(a nomadic people in Xi Liang)
led more than 10,000 people from 7 tribes to
rebel against Cao Cao in Wu Du Commandery to support Ma Chao
As for Cao Cao, he was also well prepared
after hearing that Liu Bei was coming to attack him
Xiahou Yuan, the commander of Cao army
led Xu Huang to station themselves inside Yang Ping Pass
Zhang He was stationed in Guang Shi to guard Ma Ming Ge Pass
Cao Hong and Cao Xiu came from Chang An
through Chen Cang Pass to help
These generals under Cao Cao were all
capable of fighting and conquering enemies well
and only Cao Xiu was new
So who was Cao Xiu
He was a prominent figure among the sons and nephews
of Cao Cao’s family, brave and resourceful
Cao Cao thought highly of him
On this expedition, Cao Cao entrusted Cao Xiu with the elite
"Tiger and Leopard Cavalry" and said to him,
“Although you are nominally a military staff officer
you are actually the supreme commander of this army”
After hearing this, Cao Hong, the supreme commander
passed the command to Cao Xiu and
became the deputy commander himself
However, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao, who were far away in Xia Bian
didn’t know the change and still thought that
Cao Hong was the supreme commander of this Cao army
As long-term rivals, they were well aware of Cao Hong’s limitations
In January 218 AD, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao decided to
split their troops into two groups and stationed one group in Gu Shan
They threatened that if Cao Hong attacked Xia Bian
they would attack Cao Hong in the rear
The purpose was to deter Cao Hong from
launching an attack until the troops were fully assembled
As expected, Cao Hong didn’t dare
to continue advancing after hearing the threat
But Cao Xiu said
“If they really plan to attack us in the rear
they will definitely do it secretly without telling us
Now that they are stationing their stoops
in Gu Shan with such a big fanfare
there is only one possibility, that is
their troops haven’t been fully assembled yet
and Xia Bian is poorly defended
We will win for sure if we attack Xia Bian now
and Zhang Fei will have to retreat”
Cao Hong took Cao Xiu’s advice
raided Xia Bian and won a big victory
Lei Tong and Ren Kui were killed in battle
Wu Lan was killed by Qiang Duan
another tribal leader of the Di
on his way to Han Zhong and his head was sent to Chang An
Zhang Fei and Ma Chao also had to
retreat in March 218 AD after losing Xia Bian
Since then, Cao army had a firm control over Chen Cang Pass
Cao army won big in the first round
In May 218 AD, Lui Bei’s army arrived outside Yang Ping Pass
Yang Ping Pass was located in an
area of strategic importance and hard to access
It was also heavily defended by Xiahou Yuan
Therefore Liu Bei had no choice but to
confront Xiahou Yuan for the time being
After a month or two of observation
Liu Bei decided to first send Chen Shi to lead 10,000 troops to
raid Ma Ming Ge Pass north of Yang Ping Pass at night
Although Zhang He, who was stationed in Guang Shi
was in a high position, Chen Shi attacked so fiercely
that Zhang He gradually couldn’t resist
Zhang He himself had to lead
his retinue to fight in the battlefield
At this critical moment, Xiahou Yuan urgently sent
Xu Huang to help Zhang He at Ma Ming Ge Pass
The arrival of Xu Huang turned the tide of battle
Chen Shi couldn’t resist and was completely defeated
Many of his soldiers were pushed down the cliff
from the narrow mountain path
causing a lot of deaths and injuries
It can be said that Cao army won again in the second round
We will stop here due to time limit
In the next episode I’ll tell you how Liu Bei came up
with some brilliant ideas and won the biggest victory in his life
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See you next time!