What Happened After the Battle of Red Cliff (Three Kingdoms 54）
History of China
Previous Chapter ：The Reason Why Cao Cao Lost the Battle of Red Cliff
Catalog of Three Kingdoms’ history
In December 208 AD, Cao Cao withdrew to Jiangling江陵 after his defeat at Red Cliff, the Sun-Liu alliance took advantage of the victory and settled on the south bank of the Yangtze River, across the river towards the city of Jiangling.
Before Cao Cao returned to the north, he arranged for Cao Ren曹仁 to guard Jiangling, Man Chong满宠 to guard Dangyang当阳, and Yue Jin乐进 to guard Xiangyang襄阳, and ordered Xu Huang徐晃, who was stationed in Fancheng樊城, to move south to help Cao Ren.
At this time the fierce general Gan Ning甘宁 told their commander Zhou Yu，that he could take chance of that Cao Ren had not yet reacted, and he himself would lead an elite force of several hundred men to sneak into Yiling夷陵 with Light Armour. Yiling was the gateway from Jingzhou westward into Yizhou益州, and its strategic position was critical, so Zhou Yu approved the plan.
Gan Ning led his troops to Yiling by day and night. When he arrived, he found the place was really weakly guarded, so he captured it in one stroke. Upon learning the news, Cao Ren immediately sent his troops to try to recapture Yiling. At that time, Gan Ning only had a few hundred soldiers , and together with the soldiers just surrendered, he had only about 1,000 men, but Cao Ren sent a full 5,000 to 6,000 men.
Cao's army staged a series of strong attacks and set up high platforms outside the city, shooting arrows into the city. Gan Ning had difficulty in resisting, so he quickly sent his men out of the city to ask for help from Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu asked his generals for their opinions, but they all agreed that it would be inappropriate to divide their forces to rescue Gan Ning at this time, because they did not have enough soldiers to defend their battalion.
These generals were not willing to rescue Gan Ning, by the reason of worrying that the battalion would be empty after splitting up the troops, I am afraid that is only one reason, there are two other points that they are not convenient to explicitly say:
Firstly, to rescue Yiling, it is inevitable to start a land battle with Cao's army which was besieging the city. The land battle is different from the water battle, facing the famous Cao’s army, the generals from JiangDong had no idea in their hearts.
And the second is Gan Ning's identity. Gan Ning was a native of Ba Commandery in Yizhou, and he was a bandit before he became an officer under Liu Yan刘焉, the then Provincial Governor of Yizhou. After Liu Zhang刘璋 succeeded to the throne, Gan Ning rebelled but was defeated, so he went east to join Liu Biao刘表, the Provincial Governor of Jingzhou and then follow Huang Zu黄祖, the Commanderial Governor of Jiangxia江夏. During this period, he even shot and killed Wu’s General , Ling Tong's凌统 father, Ling Cao凌操. Shortly before the Battle of Red Cliff, did he lead his troops to defect to Sun Quan.
The several lords along the Yangtze River, Gan Ning can be said to have joined them all over. Although Gan Ning is valiant, but his experience in Wu is too light, and his previous record was so bad. That is why the generals are unwilling to risk their lives to save him, and intend to watch him die on his own.
Only Lu Meng吕蒙 strongly advocated to rescue Gan Ning, he said to Zhou Yu, "I will go with you to rescue Gan Ning, we can send people to block the mountain road with big woods, the enemy cavalry can't get through, they had to get off their horses and walk，then we can defeat them and even get their war horses. On this side of the battalion that you can let Ling Tong stay behind, I guarantee that even if Cao Ren attacks us, Lin Tong will have no problem holding out for 10 days!"
Zhou Yu took Lu Meng's advice and personally led his army to Yiling and blocked the retreating way of Cao's army. Upon arrival, Zhou Yu commanded his generals to attack Cao's army at night, and Cao's army was defeated, with more than half of them killed or wounded, and the remaining part fled in the night. Zhou Yu led his troops to follow closely behind, and Cao's army soon encountered a roadblock, the cavalry really abandoned their horses and fled on foot. The Wu army captured 300 horses alone, which boosted their morale.
After returning to battalion in triumph, Zhou Yu then ordered his main force to cross the Yangtze River and began to attack the city of Jiangling on the northern bank.
At that time, thousands of Wu's vanguard had crossed the river first, Cao Ren stood on the city's head and saw the scene, first ordering his general Niu Jin牛金 to lead 300 men to engage. Niu Jin was very valiant, but he could not help that the Wu army was growing in number and he was soon surrounded.
Seeing that Niu Jin's 300 men were about to be engulfed by the Wu army, the generals and officials who watched from the city's top were in horror. Only Cao Ren was so spirited and hot-blooded that he shouted to his surrounding, "Bring me my warhorse!!!!!!"
Chen Jiao陈矫,Cao Ren’s Chief of Staff , knowing that Cao Ren wanted to go out of the city to save Niu Jin, advised, "The enemy's morale is high and they are outnumbered, so please give up these hundreds of men, General! Don't risk your life!"
Cao Ren ignored it and immediately put on his armour and mounted his horse, taking only dozens of his personal guards , riding out of the city!
At this time, Cao Ren was still a hundred paces away from the Wu army, Chen Jiao and others thought that Cao Ren was just waving his flag across the moat to make noise for Niu Jin and keep the enemy at bay. However, Cao Ren did not hesitate for a moment, he crossed the moat and rushed straight into the enemy, hacking and charging all the way, and actually killed a bloody road to save Niu Jin and the others.
However, a small number of Cao's soldiers were still trapped in the depths of the encirclement and failed to rush out. Cao Ren then turned around and burst into the enemy formation again, and with another bout of frantic hacking and slashing like no one's land, he finally rescued all the remaining Cao’s soldiers.
The Wu army chased after him, Cao Ren turned back and killed several people by himself, the Wu army was terrified, no one dared to go forward again.
When Cao Ren returned to the city, Chen Jiao and others kneeled under Cao Ren's horse and cheered, "General ! You are really the God of War ！"
From then on, when the generals and soldiers in the city mentioned Cao Ren's heroism, they all admired him. This time it was obvious that Cao Ren did it on purpose, he saw that the Wu army had thousands of men and ordered Niu Jin to bring only 300 men to challenge them. Afterwards, he himself went to fight with only a few dozens of men to boost their morale by winning a glorious victory with fewer men.
This really did play a very good effect, the whole army quickly get rid of the battle of Red Cliff, the state of shock and uncertainty, back to the Cao’s army before ，which was invincible, fearless and courage. If not, I am afraid that the city of Jiangling would have been lost long ago. Cao Ren is indeed a courageous and resourceful general who can take on a great responsibility.
Under the city of Hefei合肥 five years later, how similar Zhang Liao's张辽 pose was to that of Cao Ren today. The Wu army’s fighting on land seems to be very afraid of this kind of life-reckless charging method. Small units follow the main general to charge into the Wu army's formation, repeatedly charging like Gods of the War, often with unexpected results.
When the battle report reached the rear, Cao Cao was so pleased that he advanced Cao Ren from Marquis of Capital Village都亭侯 to Marquis of Anping village安平亭侯.
This time, Zhou Yu and Cao Ren, the two unique commanders, were really a match. One of them saved Gan Ning, the other saved Niu Jin, both of them built up their reputation and boosted their morale in the process of saving the generals under their command, so it is considered that each of them has played a good hand of cards.
The first battle was a 1:1 draw. After the prelude, the battle for Jiangling, the city at the heart of Jingzhou, was officially staged.
To be Continued.
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