Lyu Meng Captures Jiangling

History of Three Kingdoms 114

In November, 219 AD, Lyu Meng(吕蒙) arrived at the city of Gong’an(公安) at the head of the Eastern Wu fleet and sent Yu Fan(虞翻) to lobby the defending general Shi Ren(士仁).

When Shi Ren was initially reluctant to meet him, Yu Fan wrote to him, "Now that our troops are approaching the city, your scouts are simply too late to react. Now that General Lyu Meng has cut off all your escape routes, once he orders the attack on the city, your clan will no longer exist, won't it be too late to surrender at that time? I hope you will consider this carefully! "

When Shi Ren saw the letter, he immediately decided to open the city and surrender. After the Wu army entered Gong’an, Yu Fan said to Lyu Meng, "We should let our army stay behind to defend the city, and I will lead Shi Ren's army to persuade Mi Fang(糜芳) to surrender, just in case there is any change. "Lyu Meng agreed, so Yu Fan led Shi Ren to the city of Jiangling(江陵).

Mi Fang, who was already terrified by the fear that Guan Yu would punish him when he returned, now stood on the city's head and saw that Shi Ren had already surrendered, and realized in his heart that there was no way back for him, so he decisively opened the city and surrendered.

Seeing that this military operation is going so well, Lyu Meng is also a bit relaxed and is even ready to gather his troops to celebrate outside the city.

At this moment, Yu Fan once again advises Lyu Meng to be careful of ambushes in the city. In the big city of Jiangling, only Mi Fang is on the same side with the Wu army, but it is hard to say about the other generals in the Shu army, so he should let the army enter the city as soon as possible to control the situation. Lyu Meng instantly came to his senses.

At that time, there was indeed an ambush inside the city, which was unsuccessful because Lyu Meng acted quickly. After stabilizing the situation in the city, Lyu Meng began to pacify the families of Guan Yu and other generals in Shu army, sending people to comfort the elderly at least twice a day, sending food and clothes to them, and sending medicine to those who are sick, and sealing all the properties in the mansion and the warehouses to wait for Sun Quan to come and dispose of them.

In addition, Lyu Meng strictly ordered the Wu army not to harass the people, not to affect their normal life, and not to loot any of their goods. A soldier in Lyu Meng's tent, who was Lyu Meng's fellow countryman, was executed by Lyu Meng just because he took a bucket hat from the people privately. During the execution, Lyu Meng had tears in his eyes and managed to move the whole army and the people in the city with these cheap tears. After that, the whole army had a clean atmosphere, even to the extent of "not picking up anything on the road".

When the news reached Guan Yu's army, Guan Yu, in shock, immediately withdrew his siege of Xiangyang(襄阳) and immediately assembled his troops in preparation for recapturing the city of Jiangling. On the way back, Guan Yu sent messengers to rebuke Lyu Meng several times, and in the meantime, scouted the situation in the city.

These men were always treated generously by Lyu Meng after entering the city, and Lyu Meng never restricted their freedom, allowing them to roam around the city as they pleased, visiting all the houses as they liked , and encouraging the families in the city to write letters to the soldiers at the front to report their well-being for Guan Yu's emissaries to take back to them.

I have to say that Lyu Meng's trick is very clever. But Guan Yu is not completely without a chance, at this time Guan Yu has no less than 30,000 soldiers, and Jiangling has just been occupied by the Wu army, the hearts of the people in fact did not fully subservient. If Guan Yu decisively chose to isolate the emissaries, intercepted the letters, and lied that the families in the city had been killed by the Wu army, so as to build up the morale of the common enemy, there may still be a slight chance to turn the tide.

However, Guan Yu has always been very kind to his soldiers and is not willing to deceive with lies. As a result, when the soldiers saw the letter, they all knew that their homes were safe and sound, and that they were treated even better than in the past, so their military spirit instantly collapsed, and the unmotivated soldiers began to flee in large numbers ever since.

When news of Wu's capture of Jiangling reached Fancheng(樊城), Cao Ren(曹仁) summoned his generals to discuss the matter, and they all said, “Now while Guan Yu is in trouble, if we send troops after him at this time, we can surely capture him!” Only Zhao Yan(赵俨) advised, “Sun Quan stole Guan Yu's rear and succeeded by a fluke, and now he's worried about Guan Yu returning to rescue it, so it's all the more reason for us to let Guan Yu go against Sun Quan. If our army goes back to forcing our way across the Han River and chasing after Guan Yu, Sun Quan will see our army as his top enemy, which I'm sure the Prince of Wei(Cao Cao) will be able to consider as well."

So Cao Ren took Zhao Yan's advice and lifted his state of readiness. When Cao Cao learned of Guan Yu's retreat, he indeed immediately gave Cao Ren the order to stay put and not to pursue, exactly as Zhao Yan had judged.

A month ago, faced with a secret letter from Sun Quan, Cao Cao listened to Dong Zhao's(董昭) advice and ordered Xu Huang(徐晃) to reveal Sun Quan's plan to sneak up on Jiangling to Guan Yu. Now Cao Cao is adamantly unwilling to pursue Guan Yu. In addition to thinking about the battle ahead, I'm afraid that Cao Cao also, from the depth of his heart, really doesn't want to see Guan Yu lose his life at the hands of a villain.

Since Guandu(官渡), Cao Cao and Guan Yu have never met, but they have always admired each other.(yes,the story of HuaRong Road didn't happen in the history)

A great drama of life will end, who has never died since ancient times? The end of the hero, should play a song of triumph, Or wrapping the body in horse leather. But isn't it the bleakest tragedy in the world to die under an ally's hidden arrow?

Guan Yu is arrogant,but he had been accepted as a hero by later people, while Cao Cao is now known as the “treacherous hero of the chaotic world”. If they were both less than perfect heroes, what about Sun Quan? Can he deserve to the word “hero”?