Battle of Xiaoting

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Battle of Xiaoting
Part of the Three Kingdoms period
Date 222 AD Location Yiling, Hubei Result Decisive Wu victory
Combatants
Shu Han	Eastern Wu
Commanders
Liu Bei	Lu Xun
Strength
50,000+	50,000
Casualties
Tens of thousands	Minimal

Three Kingdoms
Yellow Turbans – Dong Zhuo – Jieqiao – Wancheng – Xiapi – Yijing – Guandu – Bowang – Changban – Red Cliffs – Tong Pass – Hefei – Mount Dingjun – Fancheng – Xiaoting – Southern Campaign – Northern Expeditions (Jieting – Wuzhang Plains) – Shiting

The Battle of Xiaoting (猇亭之戰), also known as the Battle of Yiling (夷陵之戰), is a battle in 222 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. It was fought between the Kingdom of Shu and the Kingdom of Wu in the plains of Yiling. The decisive battle here halted Liu Bei's invasion of Wu and eventually led to his death.

Contents 1 Background 2 The battle 2.1 First blood 2.2 Turn of the tide 3 Aftermath 4 Fictional events

[edit] Background

Liu Bei, enraged at the execution of his sworn brother Guan Yu at the hands of the Kingdom of Wu in 219, led an attack force to the plains of Yiling. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it was dramatized by Luo Guanzhong to be 750,000 soldiers. Days before the Shu Kingdom mobilized its forces to attack Wu, Zhang Fei, the other sworn brother of Liu Bei, was assassinated by his own subordinates in retribution for treating them unfairly. The fact that these conspirators fled to Wu further enraged Liu Bei, who attacked Wu blindly against his officers' advice. The ablest of Shu's generals and the best troops were committed to this one campaign of retribution, with the exception of Zhuge Liang, who was left in charge of the domestic affairs of Shu, and Zhao Yun, who was ordered to look after logistics.

[edit] The battle

[edit] First blood

Initially, Liu Bei made significant progress and pushed into the heart of Wu. However, this was the result of a stratagem by the Wu commander Lu Xun to sacrifice land in return for time to mobilize. As the supply lines from Chengdu grew longer, the Shu troops grew weary. The Shu forces were mostly infantry, much better in mountainous terrain than the Wu marines. As they advanced into Wu, the terrain became flatter, giving the Wu cavalry and navy a great advantage over the tired Shu infantry.

At the Battle of Yiling, Lu Xun, a competent young strategist was given command of the Wu forces. While many of Wu's older officers questioned putting such a youth in charge, Lu Xun had been hand-picked by the ruler Sun Quan as the successor to previous Wu commander Lu Meng. Under his direction, the Wu forces refused to fight in mountainous terrain and stayed in their forts, thus taking away Shu's battlefield advantage. As Shu's supplies dwindled, the summer came on. Summer in those regions was extremely hot that year, and killed off many plants and shrubs, as Yiling was right on the Yangtze River next to a great forest. Liu Bei's forces were camped right outside the forest when Lu Xun took command, and soon the summer heat started affecting morale.

[edit] Turn of the tide

Lu Xun then adopted a brilliant waiting strategy. Liu Bei's men challenged and taunted Lu Xun to send his forces out beyond his walls, but Lu Xun ordered his gates shut and refused to meet the taunts. Heat waves plagued Liu Bei's men during the standoff, and Liu Bei finally had to move his entire army, against Ma Liang's advice, into the forest for shade, in the dead heat of summer. Liu Bei's fatal error was exploited that night when Lu Xun's saboteur crept behind Liu Bei's camp through the use of the navy and set the entire Yiling camp on fire. The woods, fueled by dead plants and dry air, erupted into wildfires that could not be put out, and as the Liu Bei's men rushed for the water, Wu archers shot them down. Furthermore, when Shu attempted a counterattack, Pan Zhang's forces rushed forward, breaking the lines as they reformed, making retaliation impossible. A rockslide at Ma'an Hills dealt the final blow. Liu Bei narrowly escaped with his life to Baidicheng (White Emperor City) with less than a thousand men. Afterwards, the stress of the crushing defeat and the loss of his beloved generals took their toll. Extremely ill at the age of 63, Liu Bei's life ended at Baidicheng. Ma Liang, Liu Bei's military adviser for the Wu Retribution Campaign and the person who advised him not to camp in the forest, died in an uprising in Wu Ling.

[edit] Aftermath

The Battle of Yiling in 222 sealed Shu-Han's fate as most of the entire army was killed or captured in a period of 2 days. Thereafter Shu-Han's power was directed by Zhuge Liang, who eventually established ties with the Eastern Wu.

The prestige of such a victory established Wu as the undisputed ruler of southern Jingzhou. Lu Xun, the young general who defeated Liu Bei, won recognition throughout the land as a great strategist. This battle marked the beginning of Lu Xun's illustrious career within the Wu hierarchy, culminating in his becoming the Prime Minister of Wu.

Liu Bei's death also led to the ascension of his less capable son Liu Shan, who would eventually lead Shu-Han to defeat.

[edit] Fictional events

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Wu general Gan Ning is slain by the barbarian king Shamoke, who was asked to participate by Liu Bei. Likewise, the elderly Shu general Huang Zhong is also killed in battle by an arrow fired by the Wu general Ma Zhong.

In reality, General Gan Ning and General Huang Zhong had both passed on before the campaign took place. Gan Ning died of illness (rumoured to be dysentery) and Huang Zhong most likely died of old age or illness.

The Wu general Zhu Ran was not slain by Zhao Yun while pursuing Liu Bei. As a matter of fact, Zhu Ran outlived Zhao Yun.

Pan Zhang was not killed by Guan Xing (who was a civil administrator, not a general), but died of illness. Similarly, the Wu generals Xie Jing, Li Yi, and Tan Xiong were not slain by Guan Xing and Zhang Bao (who, likewise, is not recorded to have participated in any battles).

Prior to the battle, Ma Zhong was not slain by Mi Fang. Further, Mi Fang, who had defected to Wu while serving Guan Yu, never attempted to return to Liu Bei's service, but served Wu until his death.

Zhuge Liang was never opposed to the Wu campaign, but stayed behind to defend Chengdu. Zhao Yun did oppose the campaign, however.

The numbers in the novel are greatly exaggerated for Shu, stating that Liu Bei gathered around 750,000 troops including troops from the western Qiang tribe.

Also in the novel, Lu Xun was trapped in Zhuge Liang's Stone Sentinel Maze while in pursuit of the fleeing Liu Bei. He was guided out by Huang Chengyan, Zhuge Liang's father-in-law, who explained the array to Lu Xun. Lu Xun then exclaimed that he can never top the genius of Zhuge Liang.