In 208 AD, Cao Cao led a large army to attack Jingzhou, due to Liu Biao's illness and death, Liu Biao's second son Liu Qi was weak, and when Cao Cao's army attacked, Liu Chun directly surrendered to Cao Cao, resulting in Cao Cao taking Jingzhou effortlessly. When Liu Bei learned the news, he could only flee south, and at Xiakou, Liu Bei met Lu Su, who had come from Eastern Wu, and the two reached an agreement to jointly resist Cao Cao. Later, Lu Su took Zhuge Liang to Eastern Wu and joined Zhou Yu in mobilizing Sun Quan, who agreed to unite with Liu Bei to resist Cao Cao's attack, and At that time, Zhou Yu of Eastern Wu was appointed as the governor of Eastern Wu, leading 30,000 Eastern Wu generals to join forces with Liu Bei and defeat Cao's army in the Chibi area. After that, Liu Bei quickly occupied the four southern counties of Jingzhou, and it was possible to compete for world domination. So before the Battle of Chibi, did Liu Bei have a chance to dominate the world?
Judging from the records of the main history, Liu Bei had four opportunities to dominate the world before, but due to various coincidences, he could not achieve it. The first opportunity arose when Liu Bei led Jingzhou, when the Kwantung coalition army was already divided into two groups, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were a group, Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shu, Kong Rong and Tao Qian were a group, the two sides competed around Hebei and the Central Plains, after Tao Qian's death, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu were both on top of Xuzhou, if at this time Liu Bei could use strong means to control Xuzhou, and win over the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou and Xuzhou, as well as the warlords scattered in Xuzhou, he could become a prince of one side.
The second opportunity was when He regained Xuzhou from Cao Cao, at this time Liu Bei had tens of thousands of troops and controlled most of Xuzhou's territory, if Yuan Shao could attack Cao Cao with Liu Bei at this time, cao Cao would be destroyed, and Liu Bei would also have the opportunity to dominate the world. Unfortunately, Cao Cao personally led a large army to solve Liu Bei, and then immediately guarded against Yuan Shao, which made Liu Bei lose this precious opportunity.
As for the third opportunity, Liu Bei won the support of the Yellow Turban Army in Runan, although this Yellow Turban Army was just a bunch of rogue mountain thieves, but in the context of the Battle of Guandu at that time, this was a force that could not be underestimated, and perhaps at a critical moment it could change the situation of the war, but unfortunately this army was subsequently defeated by Cao Cao's Hui division, leaving Liu Bei with no success. The fourth opportunity was liu bei in Jingzhou to persuade Liu Bei to use Cao Cao's backstabbing Xuchang during his expedition north, but unfortunately, at this time Liu Biao had no intention of chasing the deer in the world, too conservative, resulting in such a great opportunity missed in vain, you must know that Liu Bei at this time has become a guarantee in the north of Jingzhou, but because of Liu Biao's problems, this opportunity is also gone.
The author believes that before the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei still had many opportunities to dominate the world, but unfortunately he was unlucky, which led to the waste of these opportunities.