Why Hefei is the Only Choice in Sun Quan's Northern Campaigns 1（Three Kingdoms 57）
History of China(Three Kingdoms)
Previous Chapter ：Jiangling Campaign: A Neglected All-Star Clash
Catalog of Three Kingdoms’ history
In December 208 A.D., Zhou Yu周瑜 and Cheng Pu程普 led the Wu’s army to attack Jiangling江陵 together with Liu Bei, and at the same time, in order to cooperate with the military actions of Zhou Yu and others and open up the eastern front battlefield, Sun Quan personally led a mighty army to attack Jiujiang九江 commandery.
At the late Han period, Yangzhou扬州 had seven commanderies, Jiujiang commandery and Lujiang庐江 commandery were to the west of the Yangtze River, Wu吴, Danyang丹阳, Kuaiji会稽, Yuzhang豫章 and Luling庐陵 commanderies were to the east of the Yangtze River.
194AD, Yuan Shu袁术 ,who was in JiuJiang, ordered Sun Ce孙策 to lead his troops to take over Lujiang commandery and then appointed Liu Xun刘勋 as the governor of Lujiang, thus Jiujiang and Lujiang became the core of Yuan Shu's ruling area.
Later, Sun Ce crossed the Yangtze River and captured five commanderies in Jiangdong. In June 199 A.D., Yuan Shu died of illness in Shouchun寿春, and his subordinates fled, Jiujiang descended into a land without masters. So Cao Cao’s chief adviser ,Xun Yu荀彧 , recommended Yan Xiang严象 as the Provincial Governor of Yangzhou as to take control of Jiujiang Commandery, thus Jiujiang been taken over by Cao Cao.
Five months later, Sun Ce, together with Zhou Yu, led an attack on Lujiang. Liu Xun刘勋, the governor of Lujiang, was defeated and surrendered to Cao Cao with the remnants of his army and his counsellor Liu Ye刘烨. So the most of Lujiang came under Sun Ce's rule.
This was the general situation of the seven commanderies of Yangzhou before Sun Ce's death, with the intact Jiujiang and a small part of Lujiang going to Cao Cao and the rest to Sun Ce.
At the beginning of 200 A.D., the battle of Guandu官渡 broke out, Sun Ce secretly planned to sneak attack Xuchang, and making preparations for it, one of which is to order his man, Li Shu, to attack and kill Yan Xiang, Cao Cao’s Provincial Governor of Yangzhou, in order to annex Jiujiang and occupy the whole Yangzhou.
However, the God does not bless the talent, in April Sun Ce was assassinated, Li Shu was later beheaded for disobeying Sun Quan, The Statecraft of Eastern Wu quickly turned from expansion to defense.
Therefore, although Yan Xiang was dead, Jiujiang did not fall into Sun's hands. At that time, Cao Cao was so busy in the war against Yuan Shao that he had neither time to take care of JiuJiang, no mention sending troops there. So in his haste, he appointed Liu Fu刘馥 to be the new Provincial Governor of Yangzhou.
At first, the capital of Jiujiang Commandery was in Shouchun寿春, while the capital of Yangzhou was Liyang历阳. After Liu Fu came to Jiujiang alone to take up his office, he thought that neither Liyang nor Shouchun was suitable to be a strategic fortress.
By examining the terrain in detail, finally he found an excellent location: Hefei合肥！
In that age of cold weapons in which cavalry was the king in the war, the origin of high-quality warhorses in China was almost exclusively in the north, and due to this constraint, the southern regime's disadvantage in land warfare was often very great.
Conversely, benefiting from the well-connected water network, the southern navy was significantly stronger than that of the north.
However, if the regime in JiangDong wanted to threaten the regime in Central Plains through waterways, there were only three routes it could take:
1.The Han River汉水 waterway on the west
2.The Luxu river濡须水-Shi River施水-Fei River淝水 waterways on the middle
3.The Northern Jiangsu waterway on the east.
Among these three waterways, the most unreliable is the northern Jiangsu waterway. At the late Han & Three Kingdoms period, the northern Jiangsu plains were densely swamped and sparsely populated, if a mighty army marching here would not only be unable to get food and supplies, but even the river channels would be frequently blocked, resulting in the stranding of warships, which was very unreliable.
The Han River waterway in the west could lead from the Yangtze River along the Han River to Xiangyang襄阳 and FanCheng樊城, and then northward along the Yu淯 River to Wancheng宛城, the capital of Nanyang南阳 commandery.
This waterway was densely populated with cities and towns, well supplied, and the Han River and Yu River were so smooth that there was no problem of siltation affecting navigation. But there are 3 key difficulties in trying to go this way:
First, the area of Jingzhou's Nanjun南郡 and Jiangxia江夏, through which the Han River flows, needs to be controlled by Wu, or else their warships will easily be cut off from their retreat. Only after Zhou Yu defeated Cao Ren and captured Jiangling, did they dare to go north along the Han waterway.
Secondly, the Han River waterway is easy to be stuck in the Fortress of Fancheng, as long as the Northern regime sends troops to guard Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River , the southern warships will not be able to enter Nanyang, and will not be a threat to the Central Plains core area.
For example, ten years after,in the Battle of Xiang-fan（Xiangyang&Fancheng）, Guan Yu has firmly controlled the rights of the Han River waterway, besieged Fancheng's Cao Ren for half a year, but only in vain, once his rear way is cut off, all the troops will be destroyed in the end.
Thirdly, even if you capture Fancheng and reach Wancheng along the Yu river River, the waterway also ends here. Because there was no waterway from Wancheng to Xuchang or Luoyang洛阳, the navy could only abandon ship and go ashore. In this hundreds of miles of open plains, once encountered the elit cavalry from the Central Plains, it is very difficult to win.
Moreover, Wancheng is thousands of miles away from Jiangdong, which makes it difficult to contact and support.
As a result, the west road of the Han River waterway was even more unrealistic for Sun Quan, so the middle waterway of the Ruxu-Shi-Fei Rivers waterway,became the best option, and arguably Sun Quan's only option.
To be Continued.
Your support is my greatest motivation!
