Civilization
A plague in the Three Kingdoms ends the bloody battle
Seetao 2020-02-12 16:59
  • The epidemic occurred in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and was related to the battle of Xiaoyaojin. This plague caused huge casualties.
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The epidemic mentioned here occurred in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, but it was not the one that occurred during the Chibi War. This epidemic was related to the Battle of Xiaoyaojin.

Twenty years after Jian'an (215 years), Cao Cao and Sun Quan fought in Hefei. In this battle, Cao Jun defeated the attack of 100,000 horses led by Sun Quan with 7,000 horses. Sun Quan himself was in danger twice, Wu Jun lost his soldiers, and Cao Jun led Zhang Liao's military career to the peak. Zhang Liao's name has since been linked to Hefei Xiaoyaojin. This battle was also Sun Quan's biggest defeat in his life. With many people and a mighty general like a cloud, he was beaten hard to parry, and his morale was greatly injured.

Later generations commented on the victory of the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, on the one hand, due to Zhang Liao and others who were brave in combat, faced strong enemies, dared to take the initiative to attack, and compared with less than one-tenth of the power, the enemy shrank back and forth. On the other hand, people also highly value Cao Cao's knowledge and kindness. Although Cao Cao was not in the front line of Hefei, he left a secret letter a year ago, as if he had predicted what would happen later, and gave clear instructions on how to use soldiers. Cao Cao knew that Zhang Liao, Le Jin, Li Dian, and others were not convinced by each other and usually did not buy each other's accounts. Therefore, the enemy rejection plan was kept secret for the time being. He believed that Zhang Liao and others could focus on the overall situation and encourage each other. Surprisingly winning.

Later generations talked about the success or failure of this battle, and generally attributed the reasons to the above two aspects. However, there may be a more important reason that has been overlooked: the plague that prevailed in Sun Wu's army weakened the fighting force, which forced Wu Jun to retreat. "Biography of the Three Kingdoms · Gan Ning Biography" states: "Twenty years after the establishment of Jian'an, he has attacked Hefei, will have an epidemic, and the military has all been drawn out. Only a thousand tigers were killed by cars, and Lu Meng, Jiang Qin, Ling Tong, and Ning were in power. It ’s a happy escape. ”The“ military forces have been drawn out ”here means that there was a plague at that time and Sun Wu ’s army was forced to withdraw from the affected area. The reason why Sun Quan withdrew his troops was that he had at least experienced the plague of the Battle of Chibi, and knew the severity of the plague. Therefore, the so-called 800-thousand-thousand-story legend has an important relationship with the plague. Without this plague, Sun Quan, who has an absolute advantage, may not retreat actively.

In February of the following year, Cao Cao returned to Shexian from Hanzhong and did not stay in the base camp for a long time. In October, Cao Cao sent troops from Hexian to Hefei. He had to deal with a problem left by the Hefei battle and look for new fighters. Cao Cao took this battle very seriously, and brought his wife, the eldest son, and his eldest son, Cao Yu. Cao Yu's eldest son, Cao Rui, and her daughter, Dongxiang Princess, were also accompanied by her grandmother.

After the army arrived in Hefei, they took a short break. Cao Cao heard Zhang Liao and others report the progress of the battle in Hefei. After that, Cao Cao added troops to Zhang Liao's headquarters, allowing him to move to Juchao. Juchao is located in the south of Tongcheng County, Anhui Province today. It is upstream of Yanxukou, only over 100 miles away from Yanxukou, and close to Wancheng. In the first month of the 22nd year of Jian'an (217), Cao Cao also arrived in Juchao. His idea was not to rush to attack the beard mouth first, but to retake Wancheng first, and then take a steady and steady approach to completely remove the nail from the beard mouth. .

Coincidentally, the plague that broke out more than a year ago has made a comeback, and the "Three Kingdoms · Sima Lang Biography" records: "Sergeant's Plague, Langgu inspections, to medicine." Cao Cao appointed Luzhou Assassin's History, Sima's elder brother Sima Lang personally went to the army to console the sick soldiers and soldiers. As a result, Sima Lang was unfortunately infected and died. This time the plague was delayed by Cao Jun's actions. Cao Cao knew better how much the epidemic in the army would cause combat damage, so he dared not take it lightly and withdrew.

The plague eventually affected the entire North and the Yangtze River, killing thousands of people. Cao Zhi wrote in the article "Speaking of Epidemic Gas": "In the 22 years since Jian'an, radon has become popular, families have the pain of zombies, and the chambers have wailing lamentations. Or they knocked at the door, or they lost their lives. I think it was done by the ghost and god of the epidemic. If the person suffers from it, he will be heard by the son of the brown rude and the ears of the prince of the chrysalis. The Ruofu Temple is located at the home of Dingshi, the door of the heavy mink, if it is fresh. It ’s an epidemic when you ’re in the wrong place during the cold and summer months.

According to Cao Zhi's records, the plague caused huge casualties. At that time, people had very limited medical knowledge. Some people thought that the plague was a ghost and gods making waves. Cao Zhi disagreed with this view. He thought it was a plague caused by the imbalance of Yin and Yang in nature. There are no ghosts and gods, Cao Zhi feels ridiculous to those who insert peach charms to drive out ghosts.

It is worth mentioning that famous writers such as Xu Qian, Chen Lin, Ying Ye, Liu Ye died of this plague, while Wang Ye died during this march. It is speculated that this may also be related to this plague. In other words, the seventh son of Jian'an died almost at the same time. At the same time that the plague caused heavy damage to Cao Cao's army, it also caused irreparable losses to the cause of literature.

Heroes are in troubled times, and it is easy to produce excellent literary works and writers in troubled times. Previously, the world was in turmoil, but literature suddenly emerged. The Jian'an writer group represented by San Cao and Jian'an Seven Sons created a peak in the history of Chinese literature, but the plague in the last year of Jian'an suddenly interrupted this glory. Xu Qian After five people died in the same year, together with Kong Rong, who was killed by Cao Cao 9 years ago, and Ruan Yue who died 5 years ago, the seven sons of Jian'an were annihilated here.

Three years later, Cao Cao, the leading figure of Jian'an Literature, also died. Cao Yong became emperor, and his energy in literary creation became less and less. The history of Chinese literature quickly turned from a glorious period to a trough. With the formation of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, there has been some improvement. Editor / Zhao Yongjing

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