The Battle of Yiling was a war that Liu Bei had to fight, and the Shu Han regime established by Liu Bei with his life's energy and personal prestige could not be left unchecked because Sun Quan had sneaked into Jingzhou, otherwise both the people's hearts and minds of the Shu Han regime and the international prestige would be greatly weakened, and even Zhuge Liang was silent and tacitly supported the war launched by Liu Bei, but Liu Bei launched an obviously impatient war at the wrong time.
When the news of Guan Yu's murder at the Battle of Xiangfan reached Yizhou, Liu Bei must have been furious, and his three counties of Jingzhou were taken by his former allies in a sneak attack, whether to avenge Guan Yu or to achieve the goal of retaking Jingzhou, Liu Bei would never sit idly by, although before the war, Shu Han lost a large number of famous generals, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were killed, Huang Zhong died, Fa Zheng died of illness, and failed to prevent Liu Bei from starting a war.
Liu Bei launched the Battle of Yiling
Liu Bei first fulfilled his lifelong ideal of fighting the world, declared himself emperor, and then two months later began to launch a war, Liu Bei and most of his generals and soldiers from Jingzhou had accumulated countless anger in the early stages of the war, with this group of soldiers, Liu Bei's army initially progressed extremely smoothly, all the way smoothly, and in half a year, Liu Bei advanced to the vicinity of Yiling, that is, near today's Yichang, and was blocked by Lu Xun's use of the dangerous terrain here, and the two sides began to enter a period of confrontation.
Liu Bei sent at least 50,000 troops in this battle, including 10,000 barbarian troops of Sha Moke, from the siege of the Eastern Wu army to the time yiling was blocked, the weather had turned into a hot summer, at this time no matter what method was used, the Eastern Wu army no longer fought, at this time Liu Bei made two major mistakes:
The first is to abandon the water army.
The second is to camp in the dense forest.
Map of the Battle of Yiling
The first mistake led to Eastern Wu using the water army to send the army behind Liu Bei's army and complete the ambush, which is why the Shu army casualties were so large. The second mistake led to Eastern Wu using fire to defeat Liu Bei, which was an important reason for Liu Bei's defeat at the Battle of Yiling, he forgot the Battle of Chibi 13 years ago, how Eastern Wu defeated Cao Cao, more than forty camps of the Shu Han army were breached by Eastern Wu, and then there was the Eastern Wu army's pursuit of the Shu Han army, most of the Shu Han army was killed, some surrendered, and a small part fled back to Yong'an with Liu Bei.
The list of generals killed in the Shu Han Dynasty was: Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Sha Moke, Fu Wei, Zhao Rong, and Ma Liang.
Feng Xi was the highest-ranking general killed in the Battle of Yiling, Feng Xi was the forward governor of Dadu, a general who accompanied Liu Bei into Sichuan to capture Yizhou, a native of Nan Commandery in Jingzhou, and a native of present-day Gong'an County, Hubei. Zhang Nan was a forward general in this war and a native of Jingzhou, who had accompanied Liu Bei into Sichuan to capture Yizhou. Sha Moke was the leader of the Wuxi Barbarians in Wuling County, Jingzhou, and Liu Bei paid a lot of money to invite him to participate in the war. If you think about it, such a high-level general was killed in battle, which shows how tragic the war was at that time!
Wu Ban
Fu Wei was a native of Yiyang County, Jingzhou, a native of present-day Zaoyang, Hubei Province, who served as a viceroy, and in order to cover Liu Bei's escape, he resolutely did not surrender and died in battle, Zhao Rong was also Liu Beibei's governor, who died in the Battle of Yiling, Ma Liang was a native of Xiangyang Yicheng, Jingzhou, the boss of the Five Permanents of the Ma clan, the elder brother of Ma Chen, very talented, holding the position of a servant, was a close minister of Liu Bei, and died on the battlefield.
The list of Shu Han surrenders to Eastern Wu was: Huang Quan, Du Lu, and Liu Ning.
Huang Quan was leading 10,000 people north of the Yangtze River to defend Against Cao Wei, and after the Battle of Yiling, Huang Quan's return route was cut off by the Eastern Wu army and could not return to Yizhou, so Cheng Jian led his army to surrender to Cao Pi. Du Lu and Liu Ning were generals in Liu Bei's hands, and when there was no way to escape, they led their army to surrender.
The list of those who successfully escaped back to Yong'an with Liu Bei were: Wu Ban, Liao Hua, Xiang Yu, and Fu Kuang.
In the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei lost six generals, surrendered three generals to the enemy, and suddenly lost 9 generals, as for the loss of soldiers, basically 50,000 troops were completely destroyed, and there were not many troops who fled back to Yong'an with Liu Bei, only to know that Xiang Yu had brought back an army intact, but a thousand people, the rest were all defeated and fled back.
Ma Liang
Carefully analyzing liu Bei's losses in the Battle of Yiling, except for Huang Quan, the others were basically Jingzhou people, including ordinary soldiers under him, and the Jingzhou people also accounted for the majority, many of these people were veterans who entered Yizhou with Liu Bei ten years ago, and many of these troops participated in the Battle of Hanzhong, that is to say, this was Liu Bei's army that had experienced hundreds of battles and was composed of Jingzhou people, and now all of them were lost.
From the defeat of Guan Yu at the Battle of Xiangfan, coupled with the defeat of Liu Bei at the Battle of Yiling, Shu Han lost nearly 100,000 elite field troops, while the grass-roots and middle-level generals were countless, and at the same time, they also lost the three counties of Jingzhou forever, resulting in the Shu Han forever losing the strength and possibility of unifying the world, and also making longzhong's strategic planning a flower in the water and a moon in the mirror, which was unrealizable.
So if Liu Bei did not launch the Battle of Yiling, or if there were no losses in the Battle of Yiling, would it make the later Northern Expedition of Zhuge Liang easier? Is it possible for Zhuge Liang to unify the world?
After the Battle of Liu Beiyiling, he was orphaned
What is the most lacking thing about Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition? The first is the means of transporting grain, because Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition can only be carried out from Hanzhong Northern Expedition, hanzhong Northern Expedition needs to pass through the Qinling Mountains in the eight hundred miles, which is the traditional sense of the Shu Road, the road is very difficult to walk, but as long as there are enough grain transport troops, it is not too big a problem, did not Liu Bang's ten-year army also pass through the Qinling Mountains and enter Guanzhong from Chen Cang?
Second, there is a relative shortage of troops and grass-roots generals, so that people like Ma Mo must be sent to the front line as generals, and Ma Mo's defeat was very important in Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition.
If those 9 generals were not dead, and 50,000 Jingzhou soldiers were not lost, they could help Zhuge Liang to advance more in the first Northern Expedition, think about it, if the town guarding the street pavilion was feng Xi, Zhang Nan, and Huang Quan, the street pavilion would not be lost, if there were such strategists as Ma Liang, Zhuge Liang would not use his brother Ma Chen, plus the assistance of 50,000 Jingzhou soldiers, in the street pavilion properly block Zhang Guo, so that Shu Han could occupy the five counties of Longxi.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition
I think Zhuge Liang can fight a tug-of-war with Cao Wei in the area of Longyou and Liangzhou, at least temporarily occupy the five counties of Longyou, and then may threaten Liangkuo, cutting off the connection between Guanzhong and Liangzhou is the second step of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the first step of occupying Longyou can definitely be achieved, as to whether it can occupy Liangzhou, it is not necessarily.
Because Cao Wei launched one attack after another with great strength in the back, in the face of absolute strength, unless the situation in the world reversed, it was impossible to win, so there was a high probability that Zhuge Liang might take Long Right, and then confront the Wei army in Liangzhou and Guanzhong, and finally Zhuge Liang bowed down and died, and it should be impossible to unify the world, because without the situation, Cao Wei in the north was already a unified regime.