Revealing the Secret: Liu Bei borrows the truth behind Jingzhou.

Revealing the Secret: Liu Bei borrows the truth behind Jingzhou.

In the official records, as the two-part allegorical saying goes: Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou-did he? In fact, Liu Bei's borrowing Sun Quan from Jingzhou is totally false. Let's look at the truth behind Liu Bei's borrowing Jingzhou.

Jingzhou in the Eastern Han Dynasty includes today's Hubei, Hunan and parts of Henan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou. According to Records of Counties and Counties in the Later Han Dynasty, Jingzhou was divided into seven counties, with the Yangtze River as the boundary. Nanyang County is in Jiangbei, Nanjun County and Jiangxia County are mostly in Jiangbei, and the other two counties, Changsha County, Lingling County, Wuling County and Guiyang County are in Jiangnan. In 200 AD, Liu Bei, who was unable to gain a foothold in the north, defected to Liu Biao, a warlord in Jingzhou, and was placed in Xinye County, Nanyang County, where he lived in a long-term sponsor.

In 2008, Cao Cao led an army south, Liu Biao was killed by the earthquake, and his second son Liu Cong surrendered. Liu Bei had to retreat to Jiangling (now Jingzhou City, Hubei Province), and was chased by Cao Cao's cavalry in Changban, Dangyang. Liu Bei fled south in panic and retreated to Xiakou, Jiangxia County (now Wuchang, Hubei Province) to join forces with Liu Qi, the eldest son of Liu Biao. The navy and army are about 20 thousand, which is all his possessions. In the subsequent Red Cliff War, Liu Bei, who was at the end of the road, and Sun Quan of Jiangdong joined forces to defeat Cao Cao with fewer victories. Cao Cao was defeated and fled all the way. Sun Liujun chased Nanjun from Jiangxia.

At this time, the situation of seven counties in Jingzhou is as follows: Cao Cao still controls Nanyang County and a small part of Jiangxia, Liu Bei occupies the Jiangnan part of Jiangxia and Nanjun, Sun Quan captures the rest of Jiangbei in Jiangxia, and launches a tug-of-war with Cao Jun in the Jiangbei part of Nanjun, while the four counties in Jiangnan hold a wait-and-see attitude. Before the Three Kingdoms appeared, the three parties first established the Small Three Kingdoms in Jingzhou.

Liu Bei was the biggest beneficiary of Chibi War and the biggest upstart after the war. After the war, Liu Bei actually broke away from Cao Jun. Taking advantage of the good opportunity of Sun Quan and Cao Cao's protracted war in Nanjun, he led the army south and captured four counties in the south of the Yangtze River, and finally gained a foothold. After a year of bloody fighting, Sun Quan occupied the Jiangbei part of Nanjun, and Cao Cao only owned Xiangyang (now Xiangyang, Hubei) in Nanjun. At this time, Cao Cao and Sun Quan fought in an all-round way on the thousand-mile front in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

After Cao Cao's defeat in Battle of Red Cliffs, he left two strategic corps in Jianghan Plain in the west and Huainan in the east, among which Zhang Liao, the most outstanding general of Cao Cao, was in Huainan. Under the command of Zhang Liao, Sun Quan suffered many unfavorable wars in Huainan, so he could not give consideration to both. Shortening the front is Sun Quan's only choice.

At this time, Liu Bei was helpless because his territory was too small. He hopes to get the jiangbei part of Nanjun from Sun Quan. At this time, Lu Su, Sun Quan's counselor, put forward an idea: hand over the south county occupied by Sun Quan to Liu Bei, and let Liu Bei deal with Cao Cao on the western front. This suggestion was put into practice at once. After Liu Bei entered Jiangling, he set up an administrative center here.

This is a win-win business: Sun Quan was able to shrink his troops and hold the core areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and at the same time gave Liu Bei a favor; Although Liu Bei had to face Cao Cao, a troublesome old rival, he got most of Nanjun, especially Jiangling, a military fortress in Nanjun. Sun Quan's troops in the east can refrain from going against the current. It is really cost-effective to have him in the north to threaten the Central Plains at the nearest distance and Yizhou (now Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces) in the west to attack. No wonder Cao Cao dropped all his pens in surprise when he heard the news. From then on, Liu Bei, the seventh county in Jingzhou, almost occupied the Sixth Five-Year Plan and became the third force that influenced China at that time. This is the truth that Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou.

In 2 1 1 year, Cao Cao turned his attention to Han Sui and Ma Chao in Shaanxi and Gansu, and sent troops to Guanzhong, threatening Yizhou. Liu Zhang, the warlord of Yizhou separatist regime, was dizzy and invited Liu Bei to send troops to help defend. Liu Bei, a lean man, didn't miss this gift delivered to the door. He agreed, led the army into Sichuan, and then went to war with Liu Zhang. After three years of hard struggle, Liu Bei occupied all Yizhou except Hanzhong, while Jingzhou was handed over to Guan Yu for defense. As soon as Cao Cao's threat was lifted, the contradiction between Sun and Liu came. At this point, Sun Quan proposed to Liu Bei that Liu Bei should return Jingzhou in his hand to Wu Dong, but Liu Bei disagreed.

What Liu Bei got from Sun Quan was just the northern part of Nanjun (excluding Xiangyang), which should be returned, but Nanjun is the transportation hub and military center connecting Jingzhou and Yizhou, so Liu Bei naturally didn't want to give up. As for the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River, it has nothing to do with Sun Quan. Under the rules of the game of "the gun is the king of grass", whoever shoots first is his, and of course he can't give it to Sun Quan. There has been a huge rift in the Sun-Liu Alliance. The request was rejected, and Sun Quan sent troops to attack Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang counties, and Liu Bei fought side by side with Guan Yu. The two sides are arguing over this, and a big war is inevitable.

At the critical moment, Cao Cao, who had succeeded in Shaanxi but Gansu, sent troops to Hanzhong and unexpectedly played the role of "peacemaker". Liu Bei worried about losing Yizhou and made peace with Sun Quan. Sun Quan had little chance of winning, so the two families re-divided Jingzhou, taking Xiangshui as the boundary, and the three counties of Changsha, Jiangxia and Guiyang in eastern Hunan belonged to Sun Quan. Nanjun, Lingling and Wuling in Xiangxi belong to Liu Bei. For Sun and Liu, this result is fair, but Sun Quan's requirements have not been fully met. In his view, Jingzhou is located in the upper reaches of Soochow, which is a great threat to Soochow. Jiangling must be controlled and Liu Bei's army must be driven out of Jingzhou.

In 2 19, Liu Bei and Cao Cao fought fiercely for Hanzhong, and Cao Cao gathered heavily in Hanzhong. Liu Bei is under great military pressure. In order to cooperate with Liu Bei's Hanzhong campaign, Guan Yu of Jingzhou mobilized Cao Cao's main force from the east, started the northern expedition from Jiangling, and annihilated more than 30,000 people in Cao Jun in Xiangyang, which greatly shocked China. In the situation of fighting on two fronts, Cao Cao weighed the importance of Hanzhong and Xiangyang, and decided to give up Hanzhong, guard the Qinling Mountains, prevent Liu Bei from entering Guanzhong and return to the East to face Guan Yu. So Liu Bei got Hanzhong, and his power reached its peak.

At this time, Guan Yu did not return to Jingzhou in time, hesitated, and was not alert enough to Sun Quan's ambition. Finally, a slip of the foot makes a lasting regret. This winter, Guan Yu, who was tired of being a veteran, was defeated by Cao Cao in Xiangyang. Sun Quan took the opportunity to send Monroe to capture the three counties in Xiangxi that he dreamed of. Guan Yu was captured and killed by Sun Quan on his way home, and Liu Bei's forces were completely expelled from Jingzhou. In this incident, Sun Quan felt that the time was ripe, and the mature Sun Quan was no longer afraid of Cao Cao, not to mention Liu Bei, who had taken refuge. So Sun Quan launched an army to win Jingzhou. At this point, the alliance between Sun and Liu was completely broken, and Zhuge Liang's strategic idea of northern expedition from Jingzhou and Yizhou was also shattered.