The Formation of the Central Kingdom < The History of the Three Kingdoms> [50th]
Author: Wen Junxuan
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50th three points Jingzhou
It is a consensus to refer to the Three Families of Cao, Sun, and Liu as Wei, Shu, and Wu, but in detail, at the Battle of Chibi, only Sun Quan could use "Wu" to refer to it. Because of the three years of Jian'an, Sun Ce had already won the title of "Marquis of Wu" from the imperial court, while Cao Cao was crowned "Duke of Wei" in the eighteenth year of Jian'an, and promoted to "King of Wei" three years later. As for Liu Bei, in fact, he never had a title in the name of "Shu". In the first year of Jian'an, Cao Cao actually gave him a title of "Marquis of Yiyang Pavilion", but no matter whether he looked good or not, the word Yiyang could not become Liu Bei's political label.
The first title Liu Bei himself gave himself was the "King of Hanzhong" who had been self-proclaimed by Jian'an for twenty-four years. Two years later, Liu Bei saw Cao Pi as the Empress of Han and claimed that the name of the state built by the emperor was also "Han". More precisely, this is not the founding of the country but the succession of the han dynasty. Just like the dynasty established by Liu Xiu, it sees itself as a continuation of Liu Bang's dynasty. In order to distinguish it from the former and later Han Dynasties, it was called the Western Shu, Shu Kingdom, and Shu Han Dynasty, which combined its geographical background. It should be noted that before the abdication of Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Bei did call his regime the Western Shu State. Only after he inherited the Han Dynasty, this name was naturally not recognized.
Of course, the name is only a label, and since it is a conventional statement, when the three-legged geopolitical pattern is formed, it does not matter whether Wei Wu or Shu use it. In this sense, this point in time was when Liu Bei replaced Liu Zhang as The Pastor of Yizhou in the nineteenth year of Jian'an. Before the formation of this ultimate Three Kingdoms structure, the Cao, Liu, and Sun families had already rehearsed a three-year-long Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Jingzhou. In this decade, we will see the phenomenon of three Jingzhou coexisting.
Let's take a look at the situation on Cao Cao's side first. After the defeat of the defense of Jiangling, Cao Cao, who strategically withdrew along the Yangtze River, can be said to have lost Nan County, or it can be said that he did not lose all of them. The reason for this is that cao Cao's territory no longer had nan county, but divided the northern part of the southern county, and established Xiangyang as the seat of governance as the new "Xiangyang County". From a geopolitical point of view, this is equivalent to abandoning the "Jianghan Plain" part of Nan County, and returning the "Han River Passage" between Jingzhou and Dahongshan is the same geopolitical motive as Liu Biao's separation of the "Suizao Corridor" from Nanyang County and the establishment of Zhangling County. However, the response to the threat is reversed.
With the abandonment of Jiangling and the Jianghan Plain, Dangyang, the node connecting the Han River passage to the Jianghan Plain, including the county north of Dangyang (about 60 kilometers northwest of Jingmen City) was also acquired by wu jun. Xiangyang County included Xiangyang, Yicheng (Yicheng, Hubei Province), Zhonglu (southwest of Xiangyang), and Linfeng (northwest of Yuan'an County, Hubei), which had already defected and were quelled by Xu Huang. In addition, Zhangling Commandery lost its geopolitical value due to the fact that there was a wen to sit in Anlu and establish The Wei County of Jiangxia, and after the Battle of Xiangfan, it disappeared from Cao Wei's territory and returned to Nanyang County.
The establishment of new counties is not to arrange more officials, but is based on real geopolitical needs. Usually because the region faced greater military pressure, which could be civil unrest, such as the formation of new counties by the State of Wu after conquering the mountains where there had been repeated rebellions, or the need to defend against foreign enemies, as in the case of Xiangyang County. For the same reason, at the same time as dividing Xiangyang County, Cao Cao was also in the western part of Nanyang County, with Nanxiang County (southwest of Huaichuan County, Henan) as the division of Nanxiang County; and the western part of Nan County was divided into Linjiang County (later Yidu County) under the rule of Yiling (Yichang City, Hubei Province).
The geographical axis of Nanxiang is Danshui, a tributary of the Han River, which is located at the exit of Wuguan Road. WuguanDao was an important passage between Guanzhong and Nanyang, and the only thing in the northern core area that worried Cao Cao was Guanzhong, which was full of warlords. The division of Nanxiang County was apparently aimed at Guanzhong to prevent the Liangzhou warlords from intervening in the Jingzhou war. Considering that Lü Bu, Yang Ding, Zhang Ji and other warlords had all used Wuguan to go out of Nanyang, even Gao Gan had tried this way, and Later Ma Chao did oppose it, Cao Cao could be regarded as preparing for the rain. Linjiang County is to control the Three Gorges and defend the western gate of the Jianghan Plain.
Later, after Cao Cao forced zhang Lu to surrender, he placed the middle part of the former Hanzhong Commandery in the middle of Shangyong, Fangling, and Xicheng, and called them the "Three Counties of the East", and at the same time assigned them to the territory of Jingzhou (Xicheng County was renamed "Weixing County", and Fangling County was renamed "Xincheng County"). Considering that Cao Wei soon withdrew from the Jianghan Plain and abandoned Jiangling and Yiling, Wei's Jingzhou later had a total of seven counties, including: Nanyang, Jiangxia, Xiangyang, Nanxiang, Xincheng, Weixing, and Shangyong. In this way, it is still the number of the seven counties of Jingzhou in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Cao Cao's side of how to line up troops in Jingzhou first pressed the table, the most delicate thing now is the relationship between Liu Bei and Sun Quan. The territory was not too big, and Sun Quan definitely hoped to get all of Jingzhou. The real problem is that you can't ignore Liu Bei's existence. The two families' qualitative issue of Jingzhou's ownership involves a famous historical public case - Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou. As for how all this happened, we have to start with the two main warring factions of Eastern Wu: Zhou Yu and Lu Su.
The status of Zhou and Lu in the main warring faction of Eastern Wu is explained in Huang Gai's false letter to Cao Cao. However, although these two people are both main war factions, there are differences in what strategy to use. To put it simply, Lu Su's proposition is "joint Liu kang cao". He was in agreement with Zhuge Liang on this point, who believed that Sun Quan and Cao Cao were too big to fall and could not be plotted. Lu Su, on the other hand, decided that Liu Bei would also have one of the three worlds. More precisely, Lu Su had such expectations. It is believed that Cao Cao has already won two-thirds of the world, and the Eastern Wu family alone cannot resist it, and it is necessary to build an alliance with another force in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River to compete with Cao Cao.
Zhou Yu decided from the beginning that he could rely on Eastern Wu's own strength and rely on geographical advantages to oppose Cao Cao. This strategy is consistent with the "policy on the bed" set by Lu Su in the five years of Jian'an. In other words, Lu Su had already adjusted his bed strategy according to the changes in the situation, but Zhou Yu did not change his original intention. For Zhou Yu, who was bent on preparing to confront Cao Cao in the north and south, Liu Bei's joining was not much without him, and even the alliance should be dominated by Eastern Wu. Of course, this is just Zhou Yu's idea, which does not mean that he will not accept reality for the time being. Gangneung City was fought from thirteen to fourteen years after Jian'an, and finally Cao Ren took the initiative to retreat strategically. During this period, Zhou Yu had to accept the practice of letting Liu Bei capture the four counties of Jingnan.
Liu Bei went to take the four counties of Jingnan, and from a tactical point of view, he was helping Zhou Yu relieve the pressure. After all, the four counties of Jingnan had already been politically subordinated to Cao Cao together with Liu Chun, and Zhou Yu's main force could not be withdrawn on the Front Line of Jiangling, even if the division of troops to take Yiling was limited to ten days, fearing that Cao Ren would take advantage of the counterattack, so Zhou Yu reluctantly agreed to Liu Bei to take Jingnan. In addition, the Eastern Wu side did not think that Liu Bei would go well with the four counties of Jingnan. In terms of Zhou Yu's small calculation, it is best for Liu Bei to fight in the four counties of Jingnan first, so that he has no worries, and then turn back to the four counties of Jingnan to grab the territory after he takes Jiangling.
What Zhou Yu did not expect was that Jiangling was so difficult to fight, and Liu Bei took the four counties of Jingnan so smoothly. Yan Yi had a very wonderful description of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang taking the four counties of Jingnan. In order, the first battle was with Zhang Fei as the vanguard and Zhao Yun as the backup to take Lingling. After that, Zhuge Liang sat in Lingling and divided his troops to take the other three counties; in the second battle, Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei competed for the lead, and Zhuge Liang chose Zhao Yun as the general to take Guiyang; in the third battle, Zhang Fei took Wuling; in the last battle, Guan Yu, who was arranged in the north of Jiangsu, went south to fight for changsha, and with Huang Zhongxiong to pity the hero, and finally helped Liu Bei to take this old and strong general.
Regardless of the real history, this order alone is wrong. The county seat of Lingling County is Quanling, corresponding to the current Lingling District of Yongzhou City, Hunan Province (formerly Lingling County); the county seat of Guiyang County is Chenxian County, corresponding to the current Chenzhou City of Hunan Province; the county rule of Wuling County is Linyuan, corresponding to the current Changde City of Hunan Province; and the county rule of Changsha County, Linxiang, corresponds to the current Changsha City. The locations of these four cities in Jingnan are: southwest, southeast, northeast and northwest. Since Liu Bei moved south from the Jiangling front instead of the Chibi battlefield, the order of taking the four counties should be Wuling, Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling (which is also arranged in the history books).
In other words, the Lingling that was first taken by Liu Bei in the rendition was actually taken last. After Liu Bei gained four counties, he garrisoned his own army at Wuling and arranged for Zhuge Liang to be stationed in the other three counties of Lingling, and the central task was to collect local money and grain taxes for the front line. The point to be said here is that Mr. Kong Ming is indeed an all-rounder. Ordinary military divisions, who have a general view of the general plan, are not good at doing grass-roots and logistical things, but Zhuge Liang's evaluation of the Shu Han Dynasty after he did the Shu Han Dynasty was "no matter how big and thin the political affairs are salty and salty", and he personally did all big things and small things. Although everything has a benefit and a disadvantage, from the perspective of doing things, it is indeed perfect.
However, Zhuge Liang's seat is actually not Lingling City, but corresponds to the "Linyi" in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. This is a newly built county after Zhuge Liang settled in, corresponding to the current Hengyang City in Hunan Province, although it was assigned to part of the land setting of Lingling County, but administratively it belonged to Changsha County (because it was also included in part of the land in Changsha County).
Administrative attribution is not the focus, the focus is on the location of Linyang or Hengyang City. Geographically, this point is the confluence of the Xiangshui River and its left and right bank tributaries, the Shuishui and the steaming water, and the upper reaches of the Xiangshui River, together with these two tributaries, can perfectly radiate most of the three counties, which can be regarded as the geographical center of southern Hunan. In terms of the needs of the Governor-General's three counties, there is no more suitable than this geographical hub.
As for putting Changsha at the end and arranging for Guan Yu to go to "battle Changsha", one is because in real history, Guan Yu first has to carry out the task of the Northern Absolute Cao Ren Hou Road; second, Changsha has Huang Zhongzai, who was later ranked with the Five Tiger Generals, which can allow Guan Yu to stage a heroic and heroic drama, which can add a touch of legend to this martial saint. So in real history, has all this happened? The answer is no. In the biographies of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, there is no comment on their performance in the Battle of the Four Counties of Jingnan. In the historical records of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, it is only mentioned that Liu Beinan conquered Jingnan, and the four counties were all surrendered, and then zhuge Liang's governor of the three counties was written.
This means that Liu Beinan's collection of the four counties of Jingnan is actually very smooth, which can be regarded as a look at the wind. This is related to Liu Bei's popularity in Jingzhou and Jingnan, as mentioned earlier that Liu Bei's righteous son Liu Feng, the father and mother clan are both Changsha Wang clan, indicating that Liu Bei had already anticipated jingnan when Liu Biao was not dead. By the way, guan Yu was arranged to go to Changsha in the rendition, so that the latter thing could not be justified. Both the yanyi and the history books have words that Guan Yu heard that Huang Zhong was ranked as the general of the Five Tigers, and then became angry. Guan Yu's original words were "The eldest husband will not be in the same line as the veterans in the end!". It was Zhuge Liang who wrote to Guan Yu and put on a top hat for him to suppress this matter. If Guan Yu and Huang Zhong had fought a draw that day, or even showed mercy to each other's subordinates, there would have been no anger on Yu.
In addition, Zhao Yun was really arranged to be the Taishou of Guiyang, and refused to be the original Guiyang Taishou Zhao Fan, and married the widowed sister-in-law Fan to him. Zhao Yun's reason for rejecting Zhao Fan is that we are all surnamed Zhao, and your brother is my brother (your sister-in-law is my sister-in-law). The real reason is that he believes that Zhao Fan was forced to surrender by the situation, and he did not know what his intentions were in doing so. I don't want to let my reputation for loyalty be tarnished by lust. Later, Zhao Fan did indeed escape, and Zhao Yun, who did not take fan, was not implicated by him. This plot is fully recounted by the interpretation.
Then let's talk about what happened after Liu Bei took the four counties. Seeing that Liu Bei had collected Jingnan effortlessly, the Eastern Wu side was very shocked. Zhou Yu's side fought hard with Cao Ren for more than a year, and it was not until the end of Jian'an's fourteenth year that he took Jiangling, and Liu Bei easily gained four counties. Originally, Liu Bei was a typical example of repeated defeats and battles, and the soldiers on the Eastern Wu side somewhat looked down on him, thinking that the credit for the Battle of Chibi should be Zhou Yu and Eastern Wu. In this way, Liu Bei's image was erected in Eastern Wu.
Don't underestimate this, if Liu Bei did not do this, his relationship with Eastern Wu would be similar to his relationship with Liu Biao, but the identity of the guest army. In the final analysis, whether it is an ally or an opponent, if you want others to respect you, you must use strength to prove it, and being able to "surrender without fighting" is the highest realm of war. What made Eastern Wu even more speechless were those Liu Biao's old departments in Jiangbei, who saw Liu Bei gain a firm foothold in Jingnan and went south to defect to Liu Bei. Here we must explain the ownership of Liu Qi and Jingzhou Mu.
Since Jiangxia was already eastern Wu as agreed, Liu Qi went south to Jingnan with Liu Bei. Considering that Liu Qi was Liu Biao's eldest son, Liu Bei established him as Jingzhou Mu. However, not long after arriving in Jingnan, Liu Qi soon fell ill and died. Liu Biao had no descendants, and everyone thought that Liu Bei should take over. Cao Cao had already taken away all those who opposed Liu Bei's ascension to the throne, and now that he had his own territory, Liu Bei did not make a gesture this time and sat in the position of Jingzhou Mu.
If Sun Quan and Zhou Yu could comfort themselves when they saw that the people of Jingzhou had returned to Liu Bei, liu bei was stained with Liu Qi's light, then even in the land of Jianghuai, there were people who led their troops to Jingnan to defect to Liu Bei, and there was no way to comfort themselves. Liu Bei's taking of Jingnan, Liu Qi's death from illness, and Zhou Yu's death from Jiangling all occurred in the fourteenth year of Jian'an. Also in this year, a Lujiang man named Lei Xu led 50,000 people to surrender to Liu Bei in the south, and Jianghuai, as the geographical interest area of Eastern Wu, and Lujiang, as part of Yangzhou, had always been a place that the Sun family had painstakingly managed, but this kind of thing happened.
The causes and consequences of this matter will be interpreted in the "Battle of Hefei" section later. This series of events, especially the Lei Xu Incident, greatly affected Sun Quan's view of Liu Bei, and the change in attitude toward Sun Quan in the history books used the three words "slightly afraid". This "slightly" is not a slight meaning, but a "gradual" meaning, which is not to say that Sun Quan will be afraid of Liu Bei, but to say that Sun Quan feels that Liu Bei is more and more important. In this case, Sun Quan recognized Liu Bei as The Pastor of Jingzhou, and Liu Bei represented Sun Quan as the Pastor of Xuzhou. Of course, Emperor Xian of Han, who was in Cao Cao's hands, would not really receive these recitals. According to the operation process at that time, it was nothing more than writing a sonata and publicizing it, and proving the legitimacy by yourself.
Since Liu Bei justifiably became a Jingzhou pastor, Eastern Wu could no longer make a state pastor. Therefore, Zhou Yu, who was in charge of Jingzhou for Sun Quan, was given the post of Taishou of Nan Commandery. Liu Bei needed to choose a seat of government for his half of Jingzhou. Jingzhou was the governor of Jingzhou before Liu Biao's arrival, and it was in Linyuan, Wuling County. In order to cope with the pressure from the north, Liu Biao moved the prefecture to Xiangyang. If xiangyang cannot be selected, Gangneung is the best choice, but Jiangling is now sitting in the position of Zhou Yu. Although Linyuan is said to be the old rule, it is a bit far from the Yangtze River and is not suitable for being a wartime political center. So Liu Bei built a public security city (the county seat of Hubei Province) on the south bank of the Yangtze River, 30 kilometers south of Jiangling City, with it as the new "Jingzhou City".
Here is the geographical background of this public security city. This name has nothing to do with the police, and got its name because Liu Bei was honored by his subordinates as "Gong" according to the custom, and the meaning of public security is liu Bei's residence here. In addition, the Public Security City has another geographical label in the history books, "Youjiangkou". The Youjiang River is not a tributary of the Yangtze River, but a branch line of the Yangtze River in this area. At that time, the river and the river were still the exclusive names of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, but all the names with rivers and rivers were branches of the two major rivers, such as the "Qinghe River", which was once one of the former roads of the Yellow River.
The specific direction of the Youjiang River is diverted from the old county seat (old town) of Songzi City, Hubei Province, and then connected to the main river of the Yangtze River in present-day Gong'an County, and some of the rivers overlap with the Songzi River, which is still responsible for flood distribution. In the case that the territory is temporarily limited to the land of Jiangnan, that is, across the river from Jiangling and can be accessed to the Yangtze River water conservancy, the mouth of the Youjiang River is the best choice for Liu Bei. The new city needed population and a whole set of administrative teams, and Liu Beisui moved the closest to The Gong'an City, also located on the side of the Youjiang River, under the wuling County (present-day Hubei Province, ten kilometers southwest of the county seat of Gong'an County). Just like when Huang Zu built a city in Xiakou, he moved the shaxian county nearest to xiakou as a whole.
How to carry out geopolitical planning on Liu Bei's side is not the key to the problem, the key to the problem is that the choice of public security city is not within the scope of the four counties of Jingnan, but within the administrative scope of Nan County. As mentioned earlier, Wuling County, which borders Nan County to the north and south, is not along the river, and the entire area along the Yangtze River is the territory of Nan County. At present, Hubei and Hunan provinces also follow this law to demarcate their borders. In other words, Liu Bei got not only the four counties of Jingnan, but also the part of Nan County south of the Yangtze River.
This part of the land of Nan County was not forcibly occupied by Liu Bei, but was "lent" by Zhou Yu to Liu Bei. Later, Liu Bei went to Jiangdong to meet Sun Quan, and said that the land lent to him by Zhou Yu was a little small, not enough to accommodate his subordinates. It can also be said that when Liu Bei took the four counties of Jingnan, he used the public security as a base to subdue the four counties one by one to the south. Zhou Yu was actually helpless to admit this reality. If the two families still want to maintain an alliance and reduce disputes, it is indeed the best chance of win-win situation.
No matter what zhou yu and eastern Wu were about Liu Bei's occupation of the land of Jiangnan, there was a fact that existed objectively, and Eastern Wu suffered a great loss. According to the tacit understanding reached by the two sides, it should be Liu Bei taking the four counties of Jingnan, and the southern counties and Jiangxia belong to Eastern Wu. Considering the core position of Nan County and Jiangxia County in Jingzhou, the distribution of Eastern Wu was not a loss. The problem was that Eastern Wu actually only had half of Jiangxia County, and because of several major battles in a row, the population was not much left; Nan County was not only cut off by the Cao and Liu families, but also Jiangling was Cao Ren's initiative to retreat, and according to the practice at that time, the population must have been moved to xiangyang.
Taking the administrative structure of the eight counties of Jingzhou as the leader of the Battle of Chibi, the Jingzhou obtained by Eastern Wu was only two broken counties, which could only be counted as one; Cao Cao's side took Nanyang and Zhangling in its entirety, half of Jiangxia plus the northern part of Nan County, which was equivalent to the territory of three counties. Liu Bei's side not only took the four counties, but also got the Jiangnan land of the South County. And because he was not involved in this stage of the war, the population and productivity of Liu Bei's territory were better maintained than those on the Eastern Wu side.
Eastern Wu, who contributed the most to the Battle of Chibi, had the lowest returns. Liu Bei, the weakest of the three parties, became the biggest winner. Obviously, for this situation of three points of Jingzhou, the Eastern Wu side is extremely dissatisfied, and the current pattern is not the final pattern of Jingzhou.
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