Influenced by the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", many people believe that during the Three Kingdoms period, the State of Wu was a regime with no great ambitions, and from the beginning of Emperor Sun Quan, the State of Wu was willing to live in Jiangdong and did not consider the establishment of a national political power.
In fact, this perception is a false perception.
Sun Wu Jianguo and Zhuge Liang's helplessness
After the defeat of the Shu Han at the Battle of Yiling, the national strength quickly weakened. In order to prevent Shu Han from being beaten by Cao Pi's collusion with Sun Quan, Zhuge Liang had to send emissaries to the State of Wu to express his reconciliation to Sun Quan, the "King of Wu of Great Wei", and after Sun Quan announced his ascension to the throne as Emperor of the State of Wu, after the news reached Chengdu, it caused a controversy in the Shu Han court.
In the ancient tradition of our country, there are no two days in the sky, and there cannot be two or more emperors under the heavens at the same time. Therefore, when two or more emperors appear at the same time, there is often a phenomenon of not recognizing the other emperor's name: for example, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Emperor and the Song Emperor discussed the title of the Southern and Northern Heavenly Sons of the Two Sides, but was rejected by the Song Emperor.
Therefore, when Sun Quan was proclaimed emperor, some people in the Shu Han court pointed out that Shu Han could not recognize Cao Pi's title of emperor, nor could he recognize Sun Quan's imperial title.
But Zhuge Liang was very realistic, and at Zhuge Liang's suggestion, Shu Han expressed recognition of Sun Quan's imperial title, and Sun Quan also expressed recognition of Liu Chan's imperial title: this mutual recognition of each other's imperial titles was rare in Chinese history.
Sun Quan's ambitions and concessions
In fact, in his bones, Sun Quan did not want to recognize the imperial titles of Cao Pi and Liu Chan. Cao Wei was the number one enemy of the State of Wu, so Sun Quan would not give up on The State of Wu, whether Sun Quan recognized Cao Pi's imperial title or not. And Liu Chan's imperial title, Sun Quan did not want to admit it. But helplessly, Sun Quan did not want to treat Shu Han and Cao Wei as enemies at the same time. Therefore, Sun Quan made a concession: to recognize the Liu Chan Emperor.
Sun Quan's ambitions are great. Among the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the State of Wu actually controlled several prefectures such as Jing, Yang, and Jiao, while the Shu Han dynasty had only one prefecture, Yi Prefecture, and the rest were within the actual control of Cao Wei.
However, in the court of the State of Wu, there were not many states in these thirteen states—this was the "remote state" system in the history of the Three Kingdoms. (Note: Later, in order to show friendship to Shu Han, Sun Quan, while acknowledging the title of Emperor of Shu Han, revoked the post of Wu Guoyi Zhoumu) It is not difficult to see from this that Sun Quan positioned himself as the emperor of the whole world, not the monarch of Jiangzuo.
Bone-like reality
Sun Quan is not a utopian, as a British lord who has been sitting on the side since he was a teenager. Of course, Sun Quan did not put the ideal of "co-lord of the world" in his dream, but also made a series of efforts. However, these efforts were ultimately in vain.
First, at the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, Sun Quan prepared to capture Hefei, which Cao Wei actually controlled, and then drove straight in, but this battle Sun Quan lost.
When Cao Pi had just died, Zhuge Liang planned to take advantage of Cao Wei's new tianzi and the unstable situation to contact Sun Quan to attack Cao Wei in the Northern Expedition, and Sun Quan and Zhuge Liang agreed that the territory of Cao Wei would be divided between Shu Han and the State of Wu. Sun Quan also said frankly: After the fall of Cao Wei, there will be a war between Shu Han and Eastern Wu.
However, this Time the Northern Expedition, Shu Han and Wu Guo were still defeated.
Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, Sun Quan and even Emperor Wu were not willing to favor the side of security: even Sun Hao, the last emperor of the State of Wu, fantasized about destroying the Jin Dynasty and moving the capital to Luoyang. However, the actual failure allowed Wu Guo to exist only in Jiangzuo.