In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219 AD), Guan Yu led an army from Jiangling to the northern expedition to Xiangfan, he first defeated Cao Ren, and then the flooded Seventh Army defeated the reinforcements of Yu Ban's commander, trapping Cao Ren in Fancheng, and was shocked for a while.
However, at this time, Sun Quan ordered Lü Meng to sneak into Jingzhou, and the general Shi Ren who remained in Jiangling was always despised by Guan Yu, and during Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, Lu Fang and Shi Ren were poorly supplied in the rear, fearing that Guan Yu would punish them after his return, so he surrendered to Lü Meng, resulting in Jingzhou being occupied by Wu forces.
After Guan Yu learned that the rear was lost, he hurried back to the army. As a result, because Jingzhou was occupied, the army was scattered, and the soldiers fled one after another, so they could only retreat to Maicheng, and were eventually captured and killed by the Wu army.
Many people blamed Guan Yu's failure on his excessive pride, his contempt for wu jun, and the small number of troops left behind during the Northern Expedition to Xiangfan, which led to Lü Meng's opportunity. For example, this statement is used in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
However, from the relevant records, this statement is not true.
As early as the twentieth year of Jian'an (215 AD), when Liu Bei captured Yizhou, Sun Quan sent troops to capture the three counties of Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling because he could not take Jingzhou. In order to retake the three counties, Liu Bei personally led an army of 50,000 to the public security, and then ordered Guan Yu to march into Yiyang and confront the Wu army across the Xiang River. Later, it was only because Cao Cao captured Hanzhong and Yizhou was shaken, and Liu Bei was anxious to return to calm people's minds, so he reached an agreement with Sun Quan and divided Jingzhou with the Xiang River as the boundary.
Although the matter was finally resolved peacefully, it showed that there was already a rift between the Sun-Liu alliance and it was impossible to be completely at ease. Therefore, during the Northern Expedition to Xiangfan, Guan Yu not only set up a scout and beacon tower along the Xiang River to warn the Wu army, but also left a lot of troops in Jingzhou.
For example, before Lü Meng sent troops to attack Jingzhou, he once told Sun Quan that although Guan Yu led the Northern Expedition, there were many soldiers and horses left in the rear, and suggested that he first pretend to be ill and return to Jianye for a vacation, and replace his position with the unknown Lu Xun, so as to reassure Guan Yu and let him transfer the troops who remained in Jingzhou to the front line to facilitate the attack on Jingzhou. It can be seen that Guan Yu left a lot of troops in Jingzhou.
However, unlike in the rendition, guan yu transferred most of the defenders of Jingzhou, and in history, after Guan Yu learned that Lü Meng was on leave, he only dispatched some of his men and horses to the north, "slightly withdrawing his troops to go to Fan", leaving not many troops. This can also be proved by the fact that after Mi Fang surrendered, other generals in the city also planned to ambush Lü Meng. If there were not many soldiers and horses in the city, it was obvious that the defenders could not have the courage to do so.
In addition, Jiangling is one of the most important strongholds of the Shu Han clique in Jingzhou, and it is also a big city in Jingzhou, second only to Xiangyang, with thick walls, easy to defend and difficult to attack. In addition, the siege technology during the Three Kingdoms period was still relatively backward, and the defenders had a great advantage, if Mi Fang did not surrender, but insisted on the city, Lü Meng, even if he had the advantage in troop strength, it was unlikely that he would be able to capture Jiangling in a short period of time.
When Guan Yu learned that the Wu army had attacked Jingzhou and thus withdrew to the south, Cao Cao intended to use Guan Yu's hand to deplete the strength of the Wu army, so he ordered his troops not to pursue and let him leave. If Jiangling had not been lost, Guan Yu's military heart would not have been shaken, the soldiers would not have been scattered, and the Wu army's land combat ability was poor, and his chances of returning to Jiangling safely were quite large.
However, even if Guan Yu returns to Jiangling safely, it does not mean that he will definitely be fine.
At the same time that Sun Quan ordered Lü Meng to capture Gong'an and Nan Commandery, he also ordered Lu Xun to lead an army to capture Yidu, Fangling, Nanxiang, and Zigui in western Jingzhou. In this way, the connection between Jiangling and Yizhou had been severed by the Wu army, and the south, east, and west were all Wu troops, and the north was Cao Wei, which became an isolated city.
At this time, the Wu army had a great advantage in terms of troop strength, and if it relied solely on the strength of Guan Yu and Jiangling, it would be very difficult to defeat the Wu army.
Therefore, the final result of this battle still depends on whether Liu Bei can break through Lu Xun's defense line and reinforce Jingzhou in time. Judging from the later Battle of Yiling, it is obvious that this is not an easy task. Of course, at this time, Jiangling had not yet been captured, and the Wu army could not concentrate all its efforts to block the Shu army in Yizhou, but the Shu army also suffered a lot of losses in the Battle of Hanzhong, and had not yet fully recovered its vitality.
Therefore, whether Guan Yu can finally get out of danger is not easy to say.