Compared with the three cao sun and liu, Sun Quan belonged to the second generation of the rich and took the position of the lord of Jiangdong directly from his brother Sun Ce, just like a pie falling from the sky. Although Cao Cao can also be regarded as a founding generation, his family foundation is relatively strong, his grandfather and father are in important positions, and the difficulty index of starting a business is not too high. Compared with Cao Cao and Sun Quan, Liu Bei was very pitiful, empty of the title of royal descendant, in fact, there was not much difference from starting from scratch, and eventually became a figure who was indistinguishable from Cao Cao, relying on benevolence and indomitable perseverance.
There are many deeds about Liu Bei's benevolence, Zhang Fei drank and misbehaved, resulting in the loss of Xuzhou, and even Liu Bei's family members were captured by Lü Bu, Zhang Fei felt sorry for his eldest brother, and he had to apologize for his death. Liu Bei, who was very affectionate and righteous, resolutely prevented the third brother from committing suicide, and said: "Brothers are like brothers and sisters, wives are like clothes; clothes are torn, they can still be sewn; broken hands and feet, can be continued?" Zhang Fei was moved to a mess, such a righteous big brother, it is difficult to find with a lantern, and he is willing to go up the knife mountain and go down to the sea of fire for him.
Cao Cao personally led a large army to conquest, Liu Bei had to retreat from Jingzhou, and with more than 100,000 people in Jingzhou, the speed of travel was seriously affected, and his subordinates advised him not to bring so many people, otherwise Cao Jun would soon catch up, and there would be no way out. Although Liu Bei was very aware of the dangers he faced, he could not bear to abandon the people and said to his subordinates: "The great affairs of Fu Ji will be people-oriented, and now that people are returning to me, why should I bear to abandon them." It can be seen from this that Liu Bei's benevolence is not pretend, but a benevolence from the bottom of his heart.
According to historical records, Liu Bei had four wives, namely Lady Gan, Lady Mi, Lady Sun, and Lady Wu, and the concubines of the empress dowager were not counted. Lady Gan and Lady Mi died early, and Sun Quan obeyed Zhou Yu's strategy and used his sister Sun Shi (Sun Shangxiang in the Rendition) as bait to trick Liu Bei into jiangdong and force him to return to Jingzhou, only to lose his wife and fold the army, not only did not take back Jingzhou, but also ruined his sister's life's happiness.
Later, Lady Sun was taken back to Jiangdong and never returned, the position of the main chamber was vacated, and under the persuasion of the Qunchen, Liu Bei married a woman surnamed Wu. As a party tyrant, Liu Bei had nothing to blame for marrying his wife, but Wu Was not only a widow, but also Liu Zhang's sister-in-law, and you can imagine how angry and embarrassed Liu Zhang had to be. Why did Liu Bei, who was known for his benevolence and righteousness, marry the widow Wu Shi and later crown her as empress?
Wu was previously the wife of Liu Zhang's brother Liu Mao, who married earlier than 194 AD, while Liu Bei married Wu in 214 AD, a full twenty years apart. It is not difficult to deduce that Wu is at least thirty years old, or even over forty years old, even if she was outstanding in appearance before, at this time she is no longer young, it can be said that people are old and yellow, Liu Bei married her is by no means to look at her appearance, there must be a deeper reason, to be precise, nothing more than the word "interest".
Wu's elder brother Wu Yi (吴懿), who was deeply respected by Liu Zhang, the mu of Yizhou, held heavy troops in high power and had considerable prestige in Yizhou. After Liu Bei pacified Yizhou, Wu Yi also became Liu Bei's subordinate, but despite this, no one knew whether Wu Yi was sincerely surrendering or whether it was a stopgap measure. In order to win the hearts and minds of the people, Fa Zheng and others asked Liu Bei to marry Wu Yi's sister, and through the way of marriage, let Wu Yi follow Liu Bei with a dead heart, so that he could gain a firm foothold in Yizhou as soon as possible.
At first, Liu Bei did not agree, perhaps feeling that Wu's beauty was no longer there, or a widow, and her ex-husband was Liu Zhang's brother, Liu Bei and Liu Zhang belonged to the same clan, and they could not face it. After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Bei believed that the advantages of marrying Wu outweighed the disadvantages, it didn't matter if the drift was not beautiful, as long as he could get the support of Wu Yi and others, everything was worth it. Therefore, Liu Bei na Wu was made a lady and called the empress dowager empress. Wu did not give birth to a son and a daughter to Liu Bei, but after Liu Chan succeeded to the throne, he honored her as empress dowager until his death in 245.