"Guarding the river will guard Huai". The significance of the Huai River to Eastern Wu is self-evident.
Therefore, Eastern Wu Junchen repeatedly tried to attack Huainan, but he was never able to do so.
Strength
Eastern Wu was based on water divisions, Shu Han was known for mountain warfare, and Cao Wei was known for its comprehensive strength and infantry and cavalry combat strength.
The so-called strength and weakness naturally depend on where everyone fights and how they fight.
Cao Cao swept through the north, but was defeated in Chibi and Hanzhong.
Liu Bei was able to defeat the Cao army in the Mountains of Hanzhong, but was crippled at Yiling.
Sun Quan was so bullish that he was able to defeat Liu Bei in Yiling, but he lost people at Xiaoyaojin and lost his family.
Therefore, according to their own advantages, finding a suitable method of warfare is the most important.
The idea of Eastern Wu raiding Huainan
Although the borders of Wei and Wu were long, the focus of the Northern Expedition of Eastern Wu was only in Huainan.
In the east, Guangling is shallow in the waterway from Huai into the Yangtze River, and it is inconvenient to travel by boat, which is not conducive to giving play to the advantages of the Wu Army's marine division.
Xiangfan to the west was very close to wan and luo, the center of Wei rule, and it was very convenient for the Wei army to garrison itself or to help it.
Only in the direction of Huainan, it is relatively easy to make a breakthrough.
Between the Huai River and the Yangtze River, the river network is longitudinal, which is conducive to the Wu Army's advantage of boating.
After Cao Cao moved the population of Huainan, it was difficult to raise heavy troops south of Hefei, and reinforcements from Shouchun were far away from Hefei, and the Wu army often got the opportunity to fight the "time difference".
Therefore, since Zhuge Jin and others lost their troops in Jingzhou, the focus of Eastern Wu's Northern Expedition has always been in Huainan.
However, after all, the Huainan water network is not the Yangtze River, it is difficult to form a strategic barrier to protect the Wu army's water division, the overall strength is at a disadvantage, and the Wu army, which lacks infantry and cavalry combat strength, does not dare to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Wei army here.
Therefore, although Eastern Wu used troops against Huainan many times and on a large scale, most of them were "coming and going in a hurry."
This also doomed the Wu army to be unable to use direct means to vigorously complete its contribution to the battle.
They chose the strategy of holding back steadily, weakening and exhausting their opponents with limited counterattacks, and waiting for favorable opportunities to attack on a large scale.
Stage 1: Defensive counter-attack
After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao shifted the focus of his southward march to Huainan. He was determined to use Huainan as a base to seize the mouth of the river and suppress Eastern Wu.
Therefore, in this stage of combat, Sun Quan's guiding ideology is: to focus on defense, to launch a destructive counterattack according to the opportunity, and even to counterattack on a large scale.
1. Diversionary attack: In the year after the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan led an army to attack Hefei.
Sun Quan was frightened by the false news, thinking that the Cao Army army would come to the rescue and retreated.
Although it is said that Sun Quan brought 100,000 troops with him in this battle (not credible), considering that the main generals of Eastern Wu at that time, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lü Meng, Gan Ning, Ling Tong, and others were all attacking Jiangling, it is reasonable to believe that Sun Quan's offensive against Hefei this time was a diversionary attack, with the purpose of planning Zhou Yu to capture Jiangling and stabilize the defense of Jiangling.
2. Destructive attack: Anhui City Offensive.
In 212, a controversial decision was made: the migration of the huainan population.
As a result, a large number of huainan people moved south to Sun Quan's office, resulting in a sparse population in The Caozhan district of Huainan and difficulty in supply.
In order to alleviate the difficulties, Cao Cao ordered Zhu Guang to build and cultivate the city in Anhui.
Sun Quan came to make trouble, and Lü Meng destroyed the city in half a day!
3. Fight back: The Battle of Xiaoyaojin.
In 215, Cao Cao's army expeditioned to Hanzhong, and Hefei had only 7,000 defenders.
The opportunity came, and Sun Quan besieged Hefei.
Unfortunately, Zhang Liao was "wei zhen xiao yaojin", and Sun Quan lost his life and almost lost his life.
Although this large-scale counterattack was very humiliating, on the other hand, it also showed that at that time, the northern economy had not recovered, Cao Cao still had a lot of trouble, and Sun Quan could still get the opportunity to counterattack in a large-scale counterattack.
As Liu Bei began to move north, Cao Cao's troubles would increase, and Sun Quan's opportunities would be more and more!
The first inflection point: turn the muzzle of the gun
Under Sun Quan's defensive counterattack, the situation has quietly changed.
1. Due to Sun Quan's destruction of the Huainan base and Cao Cao's erroneous migration policy, the Cao-occupied area of Huainan was sparsely populated and could no longer become a base for Wu.
2. Cao Cao was in serious trouble.
Sun Quan and Cao Cao tossed back and forth in Huainan, cheapening Liu Bei.
With Liu Bei gaining a foothold in Xichuan, he has begun to move north in a big way.
On the other hand, due to the frequent wars in Huainan, Cao Cao's troops in the direction of Huainan reached the Twenty-sixth Army, which contained a large number of manpower and material resources.
As a result, Cao Cao's forces in the northwest, Jingzhou, and the central plains were seriously insufficient.
For a time, Cao Cao was defeated at the Battle of Hanzhong, the Battle of Xiangfan was in trouble, and the people of Henan were in trouble.
3. Turn the muzzle of the gun.
At this time, Eastern Wu faced two choices: (1) avoiding the heavy troops of the Cao army in Huainan and attacking Xuzhou.
Sun Quan and Lü Meng judged: If they go north to capture Xuzhou, they will definitely succeed, but it is only a question of whether they can hold it.
(2) Play Guan Yu.
Sun Quan and Lü Meng chose to fight Guan Yu and attack Nan County.
Regardless of whether Sun Quan and Lü Meng's choice at that time was the most in line with the interests of Eastern Wu, it is undeniable that Eastern Wu missed the best and only opportunity to advance north.
Stage 2: Limited offense
After Sun Liu turned his face, Sun Quan could only defend himself against Cao Wei and did not dare to cause trouble.
It was not until zhuge liang's Northern Expedition began that Sun Quan began to redeploy his attack on Cao Wei.
Compared with the Shu Han in the west, the Eastern Wu Northern Expedition was very "witty".
1. Lure the enemy deep and annihilate the enemy's living forces.
Sun Quan ordered Zhou Qu to surrender fraudulently and lured Cao Xiu to take over. Cao Xiu was almost annihilated.
After inflicting heavy losses on the main force of the Wei army in Huainan, Zhu Yi and others advocated a rapid counterattack.
However, because of Lu Xun's resolute opposition, the Wu army did not launch a further offensive.
2. Harassment war.
(1) In 230, Cao Zhen attacked Shu in a big way. Sun Quan led an army to attack Hefei.
The Cao army was urgently mobilized to fight, and Sun Quan pretended to retreat.
Man Yu saw through Sun Quan's attempt and insisted on not withdrawing, and after Sun Quan came to Hefei, he had no opportunity to take advantage of it and retreated.
(2) The three ways of the eight brains of the virtual head.
In 234, in order to cooperate with Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition, Sun Quan launched the "unprecedented scale" of the three wei dynasties. ，
Results... When the main force of the Wei army came to the rescue, the coaxing Wu army immediately retreated.
The second inflection point: Hefei moved to the city
After the death of Zhou Yu, Lu Su and other outsiders, Lu Xun and other local scholars in Jiangdong occupied the main leadership positions.
The large-scale conscription of troops for the Northern Expedition was not in the interests of the Jiangdong Shi clan, and their attitude towards the Northern Expedition was relatively conservative.
Therefore, although they achieved such a big victory as the Battle of Shiting by luring the enemy deeper through strategy, they still did not launch a large-scale counterattack.
However, even so, Wu Shu's cooperation with the Northern Expedition still caused Wei a lot of headaches.
Under the attacks of Zhuge Liang and Eastern Wu, the main force of the Wei army rushed back and forth, exhausted.
Yang Fu's description of the Wei army is: 100,000 troops, east and west, no day's entertainment on the border, farmers and farmers, and the people are hungry.
To this end, Man Pet and others proposed a way out of the predicament: Hefei moved the city.
The old city of Hefei, on the edge of Chao Lake, when Wu Jun came, he could rely on the waterway to form a siege. Reinforcements must break through the siege before they can enter Hefei.
Therefore, once there was a war in Hefei, the Wei army must quickly come to the rescue.
Therefore, the State of Wei moved Hefei west and built a new city.
The new city is far away from the waterway, and Wu Jun is far away from the waterway, and the threat is greatly reduced.
Stage 3: Fight hard
After the deaths of Sun Quan, Lu Xun and others, the "hawk" Zhuge Ke came to power, and he organized a large-scale Northern Expedition.
Zhuge Ke was besieging the city this time to help, and he really wanted to lure the Wei army to a decisive battle.
In the face of Zhuge Ke's onslaught, Cao Wei had confidence in Hefei New City, and did not panic and came to the rescue, but stood still and waited for Zhuge Ke to be tired.
As a result, the veterans of Zhuge Ke's division were tired and forced to retreat.
With the move of Hefei to the city, the Northern Expedition of Eastern Wu could not tire Cao Wei, but could only tire himself!
Eastern Wu's last attempt was during the Three Rebellions in Huainan.
During zhuge rebellion, Eastern Wu sent 80,000 troops into the Battlefield of Shouchun.
Sadly: I can't go back to heaven!
Inability to return to heaven
After Sun Quan's death, Eastern Wu launched some large-scale battles.
However, the time had passed, and there was no way to go back to heaven.
Zhuge Ke attacked Hefei in an attempt to achieve a decisive battle.
However, after Hefei moved the city, it was more difficult to capture, and Zhuge Ke could not wait for the main force of the enemy army to be consumed.
During the Battle of Shouchun, Eastern Wu threw in 80,000 troops, but Sima Zhao on the opposite side brought 260,000 troops, and even Zhuge Birthday in Shouchun City had 150,000 or 60,000 people!
Powerless to go back to heaven!
Due to the overall strength gap, especially the lack of infantry and cavalry combat strength, the Wu army did not fight with the main force of the Wei army, but adopted a limited counterattack strategy, which was pragmatic.
Therefore, Wu Jun had been given the opportunity.
During the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, Sun Quan attacked the hefei lone army with absolute superiority, and as a result, he not only did not seize the opportunity, but instead appeared foreign.
While Liu Bei's clique moved north in a big way, and when Cao Cao was elbowed in Hanzhong and Jingzhou, Eastern Wu also had the opportunity to get good opportunities in Huainan and Xuzhou.
In the Battle of Shiting, most of Cao Xiu's army was destroyed, and if Eastern Wu attacked Huainan in a big way, it could not be said that it would be able to advance to the Huai River, but it was not without a chance to compete.
Eastern Wu versus Wei was weak and strong, and the opportunities were destined not to be too many.
When the opportunity arises, if we do not seize it, it is related to our thinking.
The Jiangdong Shi clan was reluctant to recruit troops on a large scale, and the Eastern Wu Junchen regarded the danger of the Yangtze River as the only lifeline strategy, which made them always extremely cautious about the Northern Expedition.
As a result, Eastern Wu became the longest-lived regime in the Three Kingdoms, but with hundreds of thousands of troops, it was never able to achieve any substantial results in the Northern Expedition.