First, Wei's combat troops

In the battle of Xiangfan, Wei invested three forces: Cao Ren (including Pound He) and Yu Ban He. Now analyze their stress one by one.

1, the strength of the Seventh Army of the Forbidden City

After Guan Yu launched the battle of Xiangfan, because the original Coss troops were too few, this part of the troops was relatively clear, so the Seventh Army led by Yu Jin came to help.

According to the records of Huayang National Records:

Wang Wei sent 30,000 men from the seventh army of General Zuo to save Fan, and the Hanshui River exploded, and all of them were captured.

It can be seen that there are 30 thousand people in the Forbidden Seventh Army.

Some people doubt this. They always thought that Guan Yu captured 30 thousand people by himself after the seventh army was flooded. Supposedly, Yu Jin's original strength exceeded thirty thousand, right?

Actually, it is not.

First, before the imperial army was flooded, Guan Yu fought outside Fancheng. The situation was not fierce, and with the support of Pound's department, there was no loss of troops, but it is very likely that Guan Yu's army was destroyed. According to historical records, Pound once shot Guan Yu in the forehead with an arrow. It seems that Guan Yu suffered in these sporadic battles.

Second, when the Seventh Army was flooded, the Hanshui River overflowed into the battlefield around Fancheng. According to the truth, Guan Yu is an amphibious joint operation. Guan Yu's cavalry must be stationed not far from the Hanshui River, while Yujin is stationed far away from the Hanshui River. When the water reaches the forbidden camp, it will inevitably slow down. It's like pouring water into a big pool with a faucet. Although the water at the "faucet" is surging, the water level in the pool is slowly rising. So the 30 thousand soldiers who were banned had time to escape. They are familiar with the surrounding terrain. When the water level rose, they ran to the surrounding highlands to avoid water, and only a few soldiers died unexpectedly.

Of course, most of the grain, trenches and so on were flooded.

Third, at dawn, Guan Yu took the water army to attack, because Yujin ordered the surrender because all the imperial troops were sheltered from the water on the highland and had no resistance. Only a few people such as Pound are still fighting. It is obvious that very few people died in the battle.

If you ignore the two "very few" (drowning+crawling to death), the reinforcements in the ban are as recorded in Huayang Guozhi:

Wang Wei sent 30,000 men from the seventh army of General Zuo to save Fan, and the Hanshui River suddenly exploded, all of whom were captured. (I added the quotation marks myself)

2, Coss forces

The strength of Cao Rentun Fan has a basic reference data.

According to the biography of the reflection of Cao Incheon:

Thousands of people are guarding the city, and no one is counting boards.

Coss' department has only a few thousand people in Fancheng. According to the language habits of the Three Kingdoms, there may be only two or three thousand people, not more than five thousand.

The forces of Cao Ren's department also include the forces led by Lu Chang in Xiangyang, and the forces of Pound's department in joint operations with Yu Ban's department outside Fancheng. It is speculated that these two forces will not be many.

The sum of the three is more reasonable with 10 thousand troops.

There is a saying that in order to establish Guan Yu's "tall" image, it is insisted that there may be more than 10 thousand Cao Ren's original soldiers, which were left behind after Guan Yu's defeat. In order to prove that Coss was partial to his own army, "Guan Fan" moved out of the record of "Coss begged Guan Yu at the beginning" in the Ji of Emperor Wu, insisting that Coss had planned to attack Jiangling, so there must be a partial army.

This statement is extremely absurd.

First of all, Wei had no strategy to attack Jiangling at that time.

During Cao Ren's stationing troops in Fancheng, Wei was at war with successive years on the East Line and Liu Bei in Hanzhong, and his strength was already tight. In addition, there were constant rebellions in Wei (only recorded in Biography of Cao Ren, there were rebellions of Su Bo, Hou Yi). In addition, if Wei satirized and Sun Wolf rebelled in this period, there was no plan to attack Jiangling in a short time. It should be noted that to attack Jiangling, it is necessary to destroy the entire Guan Yu Group, which is obviously a major military action and cannot be acted rashly under the circumstances at that time.

Second, the so-called "begging for Guan Yu" in the Ji of Emperor Wudi does not mean attacking Jiangling, but only "fighting Guan Yu".

First look at the historical material "The History of the Three Kingdoms and the History of Emperor Wudi":

(2 18) In the winter of October, Wan Shoujiang, Hou Yin and others rebelled, holding Nanyang satrap hostage, robbing officials and people, and protecting Wan. When Coss begged Guan Yu to go to Fancheng, it was the moon that surrounded Wan.

Then compare the records in the biography of the reflection of Cao Incheon:

Re-levy General Nan with benevolence, fake festival, Tunfan, Jingzhou town. After Yin rebelled, thousands of people were near the county. Ren led the troops to attack Yin, beheaded them, and returned to Fan, that is, worshipped General Nan.

Comparing the Ji of Emperor Wudi and Cao Renchuan, we can see that the so-called "Cao Renqiu Guan Yu" only means that Cao Ren is guarding Jingzhou to resist Guan Yu's attack (or harassment).

The History of the Three Kingdoms is based on Wei, and the word "begging" is used in many places. For example, Zhuge Liang later made a northern expedition to Wei, and Wei resisted Zhuge Liang's invasion and used the word "seeking clarity". The "seeking knowledge" here does not refer to Zhuge Liang's army that sent troops to attack Shu, but only to resist Zhuge Liang's invasion.

Two other examples,

Biography of Yu Ban: In the twenty-fourth year of Jian 'an, Mao was in Chang 'an, which made Cao Ren beg Guan Yu as a model and sent him to help him.

Biography of Huang Xu: After sending Huang to help Cao Ren discuss Guan Yu, he moved to Wan.

In these two places, Coss fought Guan Yu in Fancheng and was called "begging Guan Yu".

Third, Coss' troops in Fancheng were very few.

Quote "Coss Biography" in front:

Thousands of people are guarding the city, and no one is counting boards. Feather came to the city by boat, surrounded by several weights, isolated from the inside and outside, and ran out of food, so reinforcements could not come.

Coss had only a few thousand troops, and it didn't take him long to "eat without food", indicating that there was not much food. Therefore, there can be no army before Fancheng. Besides, Fancheng is a small town, so it is impossible to gather too many troops.

3. Huang Xu's troops.

Huang Xu's army, historical records have two parts.

Part of it is "sending Coss to beg Guan Yu to move Wan". Most of these troops are temporarily recruited ("How many recruits will be flaunted" in Huang Xuchuan), and the number is small and the combat effectiveness is poor. Therefore, Cao Cao clearly put forward that "gather troops first, then seek" (Biography of Huang Xuchuan).

The second part is Cao Cao's Twelve Battalions, including Yinbu and Zhugai, each with thousands of people, about 12,000 people.

It is reasonable to calculate the sum of these two forces as 1.5 ~ 1.8 million.

To sum up, in the battle of Xiangfan, Wei's troops participating in the war were:

Coss department (including Pound and Lv Changjun) is 10,000, Yu Ban department is 30,000, and Huang Xu department is less than 20,000, totaling 50,000 to 60,000 troops (among which 30,000 soldiers are flooded).

Second, Shu soldiers participated.

Guan Yu's attack on Xiangfan can be divided into two parts. The first part is the troops that attacked Xiangfan in the early stage, and the second part is the follow-up troops transferred by Guan Yu after the flooding of the Seventh Army. The number of the two forces, unknown in history, is analyzed as follows.

1, first estimate the total strength of Jingzhou area.

During the period of Liu Biao, there were hundreds of thousands of troops in Jingzhou. The northern part of Jingzhou under Guan Yu's supervision fell, and then the eastern part fell. However, Liu Bei's troops and Liu Qi's troops in the north of Jingzhou are all Liu Bei's. In 2 15, when Wu Dong captured the eastern part of Jingzhou, Guan Yu transferred 30,000 soldiers at one time, and the total strength of Jingzhou was naturally much more than this.

For reference, when Liu Bei died, there were less than 50,000 Shu soldiers, but seven years later, there was only one Yizhou, and the strength soared to 1.3 million. Jingzhou has a good foundation. Liu Bei and Liu Qi had 20,000 soldiers in Chibi before the war. Later, Liu Biao's "Cao Jun" was destroyed in Battle of Red Cliffs, and tens of thousands of soldiers were available. Moreover, the four counties in the south of Beijing are rarely destroyed by war, so they can recruit a large number of soldiers. It has been used for nearly ten years before and after, and it is not a problem to recover to100000.

Considering that about 40 thousand people were taken away by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, it is reasonable to calculate that Guan Yu had nearly 60 thousand people in Jingzhou in 2 19.

In addition, in 2 15, Liu Bei came from Zhong Shulai to fight Jingzhou, with 50,000 soldiers. Whether he brought them all back is unknown in history. Maybe we can leave some soldiers for Guan Yu.

In a word, the strength of Jingzhou in 265438+2009 is 60,000, which is an objective estimate.

2. Guan Yu sent troops to Xiangfan in the first wave.

This part of the troops, at least more than thirty thousand. Based on:

First, Wei sent 30 thousand soldiers to help defend.

The law of using soldiers, when on the defensive, has the advantages of waiting for work and convenient logistics, and the number of soldiers used is generally less than the offensive force. If Guan Yu's potential is not great, there is no need to send 30 thousand troops to help. You know, Wei had just lost Hanzhong at that time, and his troops were not strong. (At that time, Guan Yu, who Wei didn't know about the attack, was even named "warrior saint" by later generations, hehe)

For example, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was huge, and Wei Jun only sent 50,000 soldiers (according to Zhuge Liang, this 50,000 serenade was within Zhuge Liang's strength).

Second, Guan Yu took the initiative to attack a fortified city like Xiangfan, knowing that Wei Congress would send more troops to help soon. If there is no more than 30 thousand troops, it is purely a fight.

3. Guan Yu's second wave of reinforcements.

Guan Yu lost his guard because Wu Dong pretended to be friendly with him. In order to capture Fancheng and Xiangyang, Guan Yu constantly assigned Jingzhou defenders to the front line of Xiangfan.

See the biography of the reflection of Monroe:

Believing it, he stepped back slightly and walked to Fan.

"Slightly withdrawing troops" here means "gradually withdrawing troops" in modern Chinese.

This part of the troops will not be less, and it is estimated that there should be 1 10,000 to 20,000 people. The basis is as follows:

First, almost all the troops behind Jingzhou were evacuated, which made Fu and Mi surrender without a fight.

Although Fu and Mi are very dissatisfied with Guan Yu, they will not betray Liu Bei on their own initiative. What's more, after Guan Yu attacked Xiangfan, he entrusted the important task to two people. It can be seen that the relationship between Guan Yu and Fuxi and Mi Zhu has not reached the point of incompatibility. If Jingzhou's strength is sufficient for World War I, it will not surrender easily. During the Three Kingdoms period, thousands of people were guarding the city and it was difficult to capture it quickly. There are many such cases. Therefore, after Guan Yu retired, the total strength of Jingzhou was limited to 10,000 (but scattered).

Subtraction shows that the total strength of Jingzhou is nearly 60,000 (in terms of 60,000), the first wave took more than 30,000 (in terms of 35,000), and the last wave took the most 1 10,000 (in terms of 6.5438+0,000). It can be seen that the second wave has 1 10,000 or 20,000 troops (calculated by 654.38+0.000).

Second, The Book of Wu records how Lu Meng and Lu Xun deceived Guan Yu.

Biography of the Three Kingdoms of Monroe:

Shu Meng said, "If you ask for a soldier now, you may be caught in the future. Mongolia often falls ill, and seeks advice from the people to build a business, in the name of treating diseases. On hearing this, I will retreat to Xiangyang. The army floats on the river and attacks it day and night, attacking its emptiness, then the south county can go down and the feathers can be birds. " Therefore, it is called illness, strength is dew, calling for redemption, and yin is scheming. Believing it, he stepped back slightly and walked to Fan.

Lu Xun's "reflection" has a lot of space to record it:

Lv Meng said that he was eager to set up an enterprise, but he went to see it and said: ... (A few hundred words are omitted here) Yu Lanxun's book means that he is modest and self-reliant, which means that he is safe and carefree. Chen Qi is an important place for birds because it has an open shape.

It can be seen that Lu Meng and Lu Xun's bluff against Guan Yu has a very remarkable effect. Guan Yu withdrew a large part of the troops originally guarding his hometown to the front line of Xiangfan in batches.

This part of the troops, calculated by "1 10,000 to 20,000 people", is obviously appropriate. If these troops were too few, there would be no need to write a great book about how Dongwu cheated Guan Yu.

Third, while Guan Guan surrounded Xiangyang and Fancheng, he also divided his forces to control the Hanshui River. Without enough troops (more than 40,000), it is difficult to do so.

Guan Yu's siege did not depend entirely on the help of floods. After the flood receded, Guan Yu continued to attack the city until he was defeated by Huang Xu.

Fourth, Guan Yu's troops, the first wave of 35 thousand, the first and second wave of total troops to 50 thousand as the lower limit. However, considering that Guan Yu's army broke up after his defeat in battle, Huang Xu attack and Wu Dong attack, it is estimated that Guan Yu's troops used to attack Xiangfan before and after will not exceed 50,000.

Guan Yu's total strength in the first and second waves of attacking Xiangfan and Shu's total strength in the battle of Xiangfan was about 50,000 people.

To sum up the full text, the forces of Wei and Shu in Xiangfan War are as follows:

Wei's total strength is less than 60,000 (including 30,000 Han River floods), and Guan Yu's total strength is 50,000.