After the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei became the biggest winner, with few casualties and most of Jingzhou. Eastern Wu had lost quite a lot of soldiers and horses, money and food, and without Zhou Yu's efforts to turn the tide, how could it have won the Battle of Chibi? However, the returns obtained by Eastern Wu were very few compared to Liu Bei. Moreover, Liu Bei's strength at that time was not very good, how did he cleverly get Jingzhou? The following is a brief analysis based on relevant information.
First of all, analyze Liu Bei's specific strength at that time.
After Cao Cao moved south, Liu Chun of Jingzhou surrendered without resistance. Liu Bei was in Fancheng at the time, and when he heard the news, he quickly withdrew south. His goal was Jiangling, where Jingzhou had a large number of military reserves. However, Cao Cao did not give him a chance at all, and Cao Cao dispatched the most elite tiger and leopard to pursue three hundred miles a day and night, defeating Liu Bei at The Changbanpo of Dangyang. Liu Bei had no choice but to avoid Jiangxia.
When Zhuge Liang went to see Sun Quan to discuss joint resistance against Cao, he claimed that there were now tens of thousands of people collecting the defeated and Guan Yu's water army, and Liu Qi's Jiangxia people and horses also had tens of thousands. At a glance, it seems that there are still more than 20,000 people, and it seems that there is still a certain strength. In fact, if we analyze it carefully, this is not the case.
Liu Bei's infantry was defeated at Changshanpo and became a ragtag force, and it was impossible to reorganize and put into the battlefield in the short term. And Guan Yu's water army is only a few thousand people, small in scale, and it is difficult to play a big role. Liu Qi's soldiers and horses belonged to the system of Jingzhou, and now that Jingzhou had surrendered, his soldiers and horses were floating in the hearts of the people, and it was even more difficult to use.
Therefore, in the Battle of Chibi, the main role was played by the 30,000 elites of Eastern Wu commanded by Zhou Yu. Liu Bei's troops could only play a certain auxiliary role, not a big role. It was also for this reason that Zhou Yu did not look at Liu Bei's soldiers and horses at all. He fought the Battle of Chibi mainly by relying on his own eastern Wu strength.
Before the Battle of Chibi, we can also see this from the meeting between Zhou Yu and Liu Bei. Between Zhou Yu's words, he did not leave any room for Liu Bei at all, which made Liu Bei feel ashamed.
Second, analyze the two major factors that Liu Bei was able to capture Jingzhou.
One of them was Cao Cao's strategic mistake.
On Cao Cao's side, Cao Cao, while pursuing Liu Bei, shifted the center of gravity of his army to Jiangling. However, after he captured Jiangling and established relatively solid control over the northern part of Jingzhou, he made a serious strategic mistake.
He did not transfer some of his main forces to Jiangnan to take over after the verbal surrender of the Jiangnan part of Jingzhou and take over Jingzhou in an all-round way. At the same time, we will take the opportunity to reorganize the troops and prepare for the next battle. Instead, they were anxious to achieve success and quickly transferred their troops to the east in an attempt to pacify Jiangdong with one blow.
In this way, the entire part of the southern part of Jingzhou River still maintained the situation when Liu Biao was there. Just changed the flag and everything else went on as usual. After the Battle of Chibi, everything changed drastically. After the war, Cao Cao underwent a strategic contraction, transferring the main force back to the north for recuperation, and controlling only Jiangling and Hefei as strategic strongholds in the south for defense. As a result, the counties in the south of Jingzhou are even more isolated.
Second, Liu Beiqiao made Miao ji step by step and captured Jingzhou.
In the later stages of the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu, in order to realize the strategic attempt of "covering the Yangtze River in its entirety", locked his target firmly on Jiangling. He led the main force in pursuit, directly approaching Gangneung, and fighting with Cao Ren. At this time, a dramatic scene began, and Liu Bei began his first step of empty gloves white wolf.
He consulted with Zhou Yu and asked Zhang Fei to lead his troops to attack Jiangling with Zhou Yu, and let Zhou Yu divide himself with 2,000 elite soldiers to attack the four counties of Jiangnan in Jingzhou. From here, we can see the status of Zhou Yu in sun and Liu's coalition army. Liu Bei exchanged Zhang Fei, who had no combat effectiveness, for two thousand elite soldiers who could fight in Eastern Wu and began the process of capturing Jiangnan.
As we know earlier, the four counties of Jiangnan in Jingzhou are now in a state of emptiness and isolation, so Liu Bei quickly took the four counties of Jiangnan without bloodshed. Immediately afterwards, he established his rule in the three counties of Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha under his control, and immediately sent Zhuge Liang to carry out administrative management and enough food and soldiers. At this point, Liu Beicai finally had a relatively stable territory and began to cultivate his own strength.
After a year of confrontation, Cao Ren was finally defeated by Zhou Yu and had to abandon Jiangling and retreat to Xiangfan. Sun Quan controlled half of the original Nan County, achieving the goal of "controlling the Yangtze River in its entirety".
After frequent diplomatic means, Liu Bei also took the Jiangnan part of Wuling County and Nan County into his hands. At this point, the whole of Jingzhou, Cao Cao controlled Xiangyang and Nanyang in the north of Jingzhou, Sun Quan controlled Jiangxia, and the northern part of Nan County. Liu Bei turned out to be the biggest beneficiary of the Battle of Chibi.
After Zhou Yu's death, Sun Quan lent Nan Commandery to Liu Bei, and Eastern Wu fought the Battle of Chibi with all his troops and financial resources, but let Liu Bei pick up a big bargain in vain. Sun Quan fought for a year in Jiangling after the Battle of Chibi, and at the same time fought against Cao Cao in Hefei for a year, while Liu Bei hid in Jiangnan to develop his power.
When Jiangling was taken, Eastern Wu also had to give Jiangling to Liu Bei because of the loss of strength, so Liu Bei helped share part of Cao Cao's pressure. However, he did not expect that Liu Bei refused Sun Quan's crusade against Liu Zhang on the one hand, but he attacked Xichuan himself. No wonder Sun Quan was so angry when he learned of this that he scolded Liu Bei, "Slippery, blackmail is so!" ”
If we don't wear colored glasses to see people, we can say that Liu Bei's series of operations can be described as breathtaking. Liu Bei relied on a series of military and political operations, making Eastern Wu his own migrant worker, letting himself empty gloves and white wolves, gaining territory and troops, and achieving his hegemony.
This was also the place where Eastern Wu later hated Shu Han, and opened the beginning of the rupture of the alliance. Later, Sun Quan, after repeatedly begging for Jingzhou without success, finally attacked Jingzhou and killed Guan Yu, all of which started from this.
How do you think of Liu Beide Jingzhou?
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