Liu Bei, the character Xuande, was a descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan in the Western Han Dynasty, and by his generation, he was already a pure commoner, weaving mats and selling shoes. However, Liu Beiren was not poor, he had great ambitions when he was a child, and when he grew up, he encountered the rebellion of the Yellow Turban Army. He then made great efforts to actively suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion and make meritorious achievements.
From 184 AD to 219 AD, after decades of hard work, he changed from a cloth to the king of Hanzhong. At this time, Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Hanzhong, and his power reached its peak. However, the good times did not last long, Guan Yu blindly went north, carelessly lost Jingzhou, and Shu Han temporarily lost the strength to dominate the world. Which of Liu Bei's generals could hold Jingzhou?
According to incomplete statistics, Liu Bei had at least seven generals under Him, Including Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Huo Jun, and Wei Yan, of whom only Huo Jun and Wei Yan could hold Jingzhou.
The first candidate who can defend Jingzhou: Huo Jun
Huo Jun, also spelled Zhongmiao, was originally a subordinate of Liu Biao of Jingzhou, who surrendered to Liu Bei after Liu Biao's death from illness and became a general under Liu Bei, following Liu Bei into the Sichuan Campaign.
In 212, Liu Bei and Liu Zhang broke with each other and adopted the military division Pang Tongzhong Strategy to prepare to return to attack Liu Zhang's Chengdu. He thought left and right, thinking that Huo Jun was stable and could take on the heavy responsibility of guarding the rear of Ye MengGuan, so he left him in Ye Meng Guan.
After Liu Bei's army set out, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong was afraid that Liu Bei would not be able to defeat him after he captured Yizhou, so he sent Yang Shuai to persuade Huo Jun to surrender, but Huo Jun was unmoved and sternly refused. Soon after, Liu Zhang sent the generals Fu Ban, Xiang Cun and others to lead more than 10,000 troops to besiege Ye Meng, preparing to raid Liu Bei's rear and completely eliminate Liu Bei's army.
Huo Jun only had a few hundred men at this time, and there was a huge disparity in strength, and if he was replaced by other generals, he would either surrender or flee. However, Huo Jun did not choose these two roads, but led hundreds of people to hold out. At that time, no one was optimistic about Huo Jun, believing that it was only a matter of time before Ye Mengguan fell, as little as a few days, as much as a month.
However, the shocking situation occurred, and for a year it failed to capture the Ye Meng Pass, which was only a few hundred people. Huo Jun not only defended Ye Meng Pass, but also waited for an opportunity to attack, greatly breaking Liu Zhang's army and taking the opportunity to behead the enemy's head.
Huo Jun used hundreds of men to resist Liu Zhang's Shu army for a year, which was an almost impossible task. Therefore, Huo Jun was a rare defensive talent under Liu Bei, comparable to Wei Yan and Cao Ren, and if he was allowed to defend Jingzhou, it would be more than enough.
The second candidate who could hold Jingzhou: Wei Yan
Wei Yan (魏延), also spelled Wenchang, was second only to Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and other five tiger generals. Why is it said that Wei Yan is the second choice to guard Jingzhou? After he was appointed by Liu Bei as the Taishou of Hanzhong, he proposed his defensive strategy of "heavy door strategy" and assured Liu Bei.
Wei Yan said, "If Cao Cao personally leads a large army to attack, I can hold Hanzhong so that it cannot cross the thunder pond one step, and if I only attack in the future, I will not bother the King of Hanzhong, and I will kill the enemy in the future." Wei Yan said and did this, and in the more than ten years that Wei Yan was the Taishou of Hanzhong, Hanzhong was impenetrable. Wei Yan's "heavy door strategy" played a role in the hands of his successor Wang Ping, when the Cao Wei general Cao Shuang led an army of 100,000 to attack, Wang Ping adopted the "heavy door strategy" to keep the enemy out of the country, and finally insisted on Jiang Huan's reinforcements, successfully repelled the Cao army, and won a big victory.
Jingzhou and Hanzhong were both strategic places, Wei Yan could hold Hanzhong, jingzhou was not a problem, there was a high probability of holding Jingzhou.
After analyzing whether Huo Jun and Wei Yan could hold Jingzhou, then analyze why General Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong could not defend Jingzhou.
Guan Yu, blindly in the Northern Expedition, carelessly lost Jingzhou, is already an indisputable fact.
Zhang Fei, who had a bad relationship with Cao Bao, was taken advantage of by Lü Bu to invade xuzhou. In this battle, Zhang Fei lost the wife and children of his eldest brother Liu Bei and fled alone. Just imagine, Xuzhou, Liu Bei's family, Zhang Fei said that if he lost Jingzhou, he often loved to drink, it was likely to be wrong, see the situation is not good, abandon Jingzhou, and escape alone.
Zhao Yun, Liu Bei's bodyguard, was generally responsible for protecting his family and engaging in logistics, such as the Battle of Changshanpo, and Zhao Yun was responsible for protecting Liu Bei's two wives and Xiao Adou. He led the army independently for a relatively small number of battles, and he was not necessarily able to fulfill the heavy responsibility of defending Jingzhou.
Ma Chao, the former general of Xiliang, had a great influence in Xiliang. However, Ma Chao, like Lü Bu, was brave and unscrupulous, and once killed Cao Cao to cut off his beard and abandon his robe, and finally won Cao Cao's divisive plan, broke with Han Sui, and was defeated by Cao Cao. If Ma Chao is in Jingzhou, in the face of a more complex situation in Jingzhou, the strategy is insufficient, and it is difficult to defend Jingzhou.
Huang Zhong, a veteran of nearly seventy years old, is old and strong, and he charges forward every battle. For example, in the Battle of Hanzhong, under the planning of the military master Fazheng, he beheaded The Great General Xiahou Yuan of Cao Wei's Expedition to the West and completely captured Hanzhong. However, Huang Zhong was a warrior who could only fight, and like Ma Chao, he was not strategic enough to be competent for the heavy task of defending Jingzhou.
epilogue
Liu Bei had at least seven generals under Him, namely Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Huo Jun, and Wei Yan, but only Huo Jun and Wei Yan could hold Jingzhou, and the other five generals could not defend Jingzhou for various reasons.
(Main text reference "Sangokushi"))