Liu Bei was originally just a poor boy who knitted straw shoes, and had no other resources except for the nominal gimmick of "After the King of Jing of Zhongshan". It is no exaggeration to say that Liu Bei's success, although it is a factor of serendipity and coincidence, is more about relying on his own humiliation and hard work, as well as the caution of "preferring to miss and never do wrong". Liu Bei's enduring humiliation and hard work have been discussed in many articles, and we have talked about it before, so I will not say more about it here. In the following, we will focus on Liu Bei's caution of "preferring to miss and never make a mistake".
In the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao led his army south, and Liu Chun, the pastor of Jingzhou, surrendered to Cao Cao. Before Liu Chun surrendered, he did not inform Liu Bei, who was stationed in Fancheng, and when Cao Cao's army arrived at Wancheng, Liu Bei sensed that the situation was not right, and quickly sent someone to ask Liu Chun, and Liu Chun asked his subordinate officer Song Zhong to go to Fancheng to inform Liu Bei.
When Liu Bei learned the news of Liu Chun's surrender, he was shocked and angry, and scolded Song Zhong: "How can you people do things like this, didn't you tell me earlier, isn't it too much to talk about it now that a catastrophe is imminent?" The more Liu Bei thought about it, the angrier he became, and he pulled out his sword and pointed at Song Zhong, saying, "Even if you cut off your head now, it will not be enough to relieve the resentment in my heart, and as a big husband, I am ashamed to kill you people when I am parting!" ”
After letting Song Zhong go, Liu Bei immediately summoned his subordinates to discuss countermeasures. Zhuge Liang and others persuaded Liu Bei to take the opportunity to send troops to attack Liu Chun and take Jingzhou.
Liu Bei said: "When Liu Biao was dying, he entrusted the orphan Liu Chun to me and asked me to take care of it on my behalf. I can't do anything that violates faith and is only for personal gain. Otherwise, what face will I have to see Liu Biao after I die! "I'd rather miss the great opportunity to seize Jingzhou than do anything wrong and let myself be treacherous."
Then, Liu Bei decided to lead his men to evacuate Fan Chou, and when passing through Xiangyang, he stopped his horse and called out to Liu Chun, who was afraid and did not dare to show his face. Many of Liu Chun's right and left cronies and people from Jingzhou followed Liu Bei away. Liu Bei deliberately went to Liu Biao's tomb to pay homage and bid farewell with tears. When they arrived in Dangyang, there were already more than 100,000 people following Liu Bei, as well as thousands of heavy trucks, who could only walk more than ten miles a day, which seriously affected the speed of the army's withdrawal.
Someone advised Liu Bei: "You should act quickly to protect Jiangling." Although the number of soldiers is large now, there are not many soldiers wearing armor who can fight, if the Cao Army comes, how to resist! Liu Bei said: "To achieve great things, we must take the people as the foundation, and now that the people have come to attach themselves to me, how can I bear to abandon them and go away?" ”
Cao Cao knew that Jiangling was stockpiled with military supplies, and he was afraid that Liu Bei would arrive first and occupy Jiangling, so he left him to be heavy and lightly armed. After arriving in Xiangyang, hearing that Liu Bei had passed, Cao Cao personally led 5,000 elite cavalry to chase after him, running for more than three hundred miles a day and night, catching up with Liu Bei at Changsaka in Dangyang County. Liu Bei had no choice but to abandon his wife and son, and fled on horseback with Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and dozens of others, and Cao Cao captured a large number of people and horses.
Liu Bei did not heed the advice and resolutely evacuated with 100,000 ordinary people in Jingzhou, which on the surface seemed to be a very wrong decision. But in fact, While Liu Bei paid a heavy price for this, he also gained people's hearts. For a person who aspires to compete for the world, the human heart is the truly most priceless asset. From this point of view, the decision to evacuate 100,000 ordinary people also reflects Liu Bei's character of "preferring to miss and never do wrong".
In the sixteenth year of Jian'an, Liu Zhang, the mu of Yizhou, heard that Cao Cao was going to lead an army to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, and took Zhang Song's advice and sent Fa Zheng to Jingzhou to invite Liu Bei to Shu.
After Fa zheng arrived in Jingzhou, he betrayed Liu Zhang, and suggested that Liu Bei take advantage of Liu Zhang's cowardice and incompetence, with Zhang Song as his internal response, and seize the opportunity to seize Yizhou. Pang Tong also advised Liu Bei to take Yizhou, saying: "Jingzhou is desolate and ruined, the talent has been exhausted, there is Sun Quan in the east, and Cao Cao in the north, it is difficult to win the ambition." Nowadays, Yizhou has a million hukou, fertile land, rich property, if you really get Yizhou as capital, you can become a great cause! ”
Liu Bei said, "The only one who is on the same page as me is Cao Cao. Cao Cao is harsh, I am generous, Cao Cao is fierce, I am merciful; Cao Cao is deceitful, I am faithful; always contrary to Cao Cao, things can succeed. What if we now lose faith in the world because of greed for small profits? This shows that Liu Liu had the intention of seizing Yizhou, but because he was afraid of faith and people's hearts, he wanted to give up, "rather than miss it, never do wrong."
Pang Tong saw the situation and advised: "When there is chaos in the world, it is not possible to calm it down by one method. Moreover, annexation is weak, attacking ignorance, obtaining by uncivilized methods, and then governing by proper methods, these behaviors are all advocated by the ancients. If, after the matter is settled, giving Liu Zhang a vast fiefdom is not against faith! If we don't take Yizhou, Yizhou will eventually fall into the hands of others. ”
Liu Bei thought that Pang Tong was right, so he decided to leave Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and other defenders of Jingzhou and lead his army into Yizhou.
After Liu Bei entered Yizhou, Liu Zhang ordered all the counties and counties along the way to entertain liu bei, so that Liu Bei could be at home and hurry, and provided Liu Bei with the materials he needed, and the various materials given to Liu Bei before and after were hundreds of millions. After Liu Bei arrived in Fu County, Liu Zhang even personally led more than 30,000 infantry and cavalry to Fu County and warmly greeted him.
At this time, Zhang Song secretly asked Fa Zheng to suggest that Liu Bei attack and kill Liu Zhang while meeting with Liu Zhang in Fu County. Pang Tong also said to Liu Bei: "If Liu Zhang is captured at the time of the meeting, the general will not have to use force to sit in a state." ”
However, Liu Bei believed that this matter could not be rushed, and would rather miss the great opportunity to kill Liu Zhang and seize Yizhou than to do anything wrong, saying: "Just entering someone else's territory, Ende and Xinyi have not yet shown it, and they cannot do this." Liu Zhang thus escaped the disaster and was able to return to Chengdu safely. After receiving a large amount of financial support from Liu Zhang, Liu Bei marched north to Reach Ye Meng, spread grace, and buy people's hearts.
At Yemeng Pass, Pang Tong proposed to Liu Bei the "upper, middle, and lower" strategies for capturing Yizhou. The best strategy was to select elite soldiers, take advantage of Liu Zhang's lack of defenses, take Chengdu directly in the night, and pacify Yizhou in one fell swoop; the middle strategy was to claim to return to Jingzhou on the grounds that there was an emergency in Jingzhou, trick Liu Zhang's subordinates Yang Huai and Gao Pei into coming, take the opportunity to annex their troops, and then march to Chengdu; the next strategy was to return to the White Emperor City, unite with the forces of Jingzhou, and then slowly plan a way to advance into Yizhou.
For Pang Tong's "upper, middle, and lower" three strategies, Liu Bei finally adopted the middle strategy, but did not adopt the upper strategy, which also reflected his cautious character of "preferring to let go and never make mistakes".
In short, Liu Bei is a heroic figure with a cautious personality and attaches great importance to faith and people's hearts, and if he does not have full certainty of a thing, or if this thing violates faith and people's hearts, he will choose to "rather miss than do wrong." And this choice, to a large extent, helped Liu Bei gain the hearts of the people, so that he could succeed.
Finally, by the way, in the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei was defeated precisely because he violated his principle of "preferring to miss and never do wrong".