During the Three Kingdoms period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three military groups of Wei, Shu and Wu showed a full momentum and divided the world into three parts. The Battle of Chibi, which took place in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), was a turning point in the formation of a three-legged momentum. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao temporarily lost the strength and opportunity to unify the world, and Sun Quan's rule was consolidated. Liu Bei was able to gain a respite and seized the opportunity to march south to Wuling, Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling, and the four counties of Taishou surrendered successively. Soon after, Liu Qi fell ill and died, and Liu Bei became a Jingzhou pastor, Tunbing Youkou, and changed the oil mouth to Public Security (Hubei Public Security). Later, in order to strengthen Sun Liu's alliance and jointly defend Cao Cao, Sun Quan married his sister to Liu Bei. He also accepted Lu Su's suggestion and lent Nan Commandery to Liu Bei, the so-called "borrowing Jingzhou". At this point, Liu Bei's foothold in Jingzhou had stabilized. According to the strategy of Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Pair", Liu Bei's clique began to plan to seize the land of Yizhou in the west. Soon after, a great opportunity to capture Yizhou fell from the sky, and Liu Bei could have almost not wasted a single soldier to capture Yizhou, but because of a principle he insisted on, he missed the opportunity. Later, it had to take a lot of trouble, and after several fierce battles, it took to capture Yizhou.
Yizhou included all of present-day Sichuan and most of Yunnan and Guizhou, with a vast area and fertile land, and was known as the "Kingdom of Heaven". At the beginning of the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao was powerful, and Liu Zhang, the ruler of Yizhou, submitted to Cao Cao. After Cao Cao's defeat, Liu Zhang broke off relations with Cao Cao. Sun Quan also planned to attack Yizhou with Liu Bei, but Liu Bei refused. The lord of Yizhou was faint and incompetent, which made the social contradictions in Yizhou sharp and complicated, and even people of insight in Yizhou were disappointed. Therefore, in the early days of the Battle of Chibi and after the war, Liu Zhang successively sent Zhang Song and Fa Zheng to meet Liu Bei. Both of them also persuaded Liu Bei to seize Yizhou, and told Liu Bei in detail about the geographical situation of Yizhou, the money and grain in the government treasury, and the weapons of men, horses, and weapons, and even drew a detailed map of the geographical situation of Yizhou's mountains and rivers to Liu Bei. After Zhang Song and Fa Zheng returned to Yizhou, they persuaded Liu Zhang to make peace with Liu Bei and plotted to find an opportunity to welcome Liu Bei into Shu. Liu Bei's adviser Pang Tong also advised Liu Bei: "If you don't seize Yizhou now, Yizhou will be cheaper sooner or later." ”
However, in the face of "people", Liu Bei repeatedly hesitated.
In the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211), Cao Cao prepared to send the general Zhong Xuan to lead an army to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong. Hanzhong is the gateway to Yizhou, and once it is lost, Yizhou is not guaranteed. Liu Zhang was very scared. Zhang Song took the opportunity to say to Liu Zhang: "Liu Bei and you are both royal relatives, and you are also Cao Cao's enemies, good at using troops, please ask him to fight Against Zhang Lu, Zhang Lu will be defeated, Yizhou will be more powerful with the land of Hanzhong, and it will be too late for Cao Cao's army to come." Although Huang Quan and others said that this was to lure the wolf into the room, Liu Zhang still followed Zhang Song's advice and sent Fa Zheng to lead four thousand troops and bring a generous gift to meet Liu Bei.
Being able to lead troops into Sichuan in a justifiable way was a great opportunity for Liu Bei to seize Yizhou, and when Fa Zheng saw Liu Bei, he said: "Liu Zhang is cowardly, and with Zhang Song as an internal response, he will certainly be able to seize Yizhou." After success, with the help of Yizhou's dangers and obstacles, make good use of the wealth there, and do not worry about not being a big deal. Liu Bei said yes, but in his heart he felt that this matter was not moral, and he still hesitated. However, at the urging of the military generals, Liu Bei still set off. After he led tens of thousands of troops to Fu County, Yizhou, Liu Zhang personally rode out of the city to greet him, and made Liu Bei the Grand Sima and a lieutenant of the leading division, and then handed over the White Water Army commanded by Yang Huai and Gao Pei to Liu Bei and asked him to fight Zhang Lu.
Zhang Song asked Fa Zheng to remind Liu Bei to take advantage of the opportunity to attack and kill Liu Zhang, seize the opportunity to seize Yizhou, and then compete with Cao Cao. Pang Tong also agreed to this. However, Liu Bei believed that the teacher was unknown in this matter, and morally would give people a handle, which was not good for himself. Therefore, Liu Bei rejected the suggestions of Pang Tong and Zhang Song, and still followed Liu Zhang's orders and led about 30,000 troops to march in the direction of Zhang Lu. However, to say that Liu Bei is really willing to fight zhang Lu for Liu Zhang's sake is also false. Therefore, after Liu Bei led a large army to Ye Meng, he no longer advanced, but stationed troops on the spot to wait and see the situation.
In the seventeenth year of Jian'an (212), Cao Cao attacked Sun Quan. Sun Quan asked Liu Bei to come back to the rescue. Liu Bei then borrowed 10,000 troops and weapons and grain from Liu Zhang. Liu Zhangzheng was angry about Liu Bei's crusade against Zhang Lu's "failure to work", and wanted to borrow 10,000? Liu Bei's calculation was really good. But it was not good not to borrow, so he lent Liu Bei four thousand soldiers and coped with the matter. Liu Bei was furious at this time: "I solicited haoqiang for Liu Zhang, but Liu Zhang was so stingy. ”
After saying that, he packed up his troops, stopped fighting Cao Cao, and rushed straight to Liu Zhang.
After many battles, Liu Bei finally succeeded in capturing Yizhou, but Zhang Song and other civilian generals and many non-commissioned officers were killed. If Liu Bei had seized the opportunity to seize Yizhou for the first time, these people could have safely assisted Liu Bei. When Liu Bei first had the opportunity to attack and kill Liu Zhang to capture Yizhou, he was not sure, and later Liu Bei garrisoned in Yemeng, not so much as waiting for the opportunity to capture Yizhou, but rather as an excuse to wait for the capture of Yizhou. It can be seen that Liu Bei is a person who cares greatly about reputation, which is probably related to his early life experience, often people who grow up in poor environments are more sensitive and care more about reputation and other people's opinions.