Before Liu Qi died, why didn't he hand over the 60,000-strong army to Liu Bei? It turns out that this army is not simple
Introduction: The most tragic person in the Three Kingdoms period should be Liu Qi, the eldest son of Liu Biao of Jingzhou Mu, who was appointed by the emperor as Jingzhou Mu, but he had no soldiers and no power, in order to consolidate his position, he could only marry Cai Shi, who was from the Jingzhou clan, and then gave birth to Liu Zong, a younger son. Although Liu Qi was the eldest son, he had no chance of winning in the face of the hard-line Cai family and the extremely powerful Cai family, and he could not even guarantee his own life safety. At this time, he asked Zhuge Liang about countermeasures, and Zhuge Liang told him why he did not stay away from this political whirlpool. So Liu Qi requested to serve as the Taishou of Jiangxia, nominally defending Against Eastern Wu for Jingzhou, but in fact wanting to save his life, and thus completely losing the status of the heir of Jingzhou. What is strange is that Liu Qi believed zhuge Liang Liu Bei very much, but why didn't he hand over the 60,000 troops to Liu Bei before he died? Today we're going to talk about that.
Liu Bei ran to Jingzhou that year, Liu Biao was wary of him but also used him, arranging for him to defend against Cao Cao in XinyeCheng, jiangbei, where Liu Bei also recruited heroes from all over the world, and later here Zhuge Liang came out of the mountains. Because Liu Bei's ability is very large, his reputation gradually started in Jingzhou, Liu Qi, as the eldest son and mediocre in intelligence, naturally wanted to get Liu Bei's help, so he repeatedly begged Liu Bei, often sending him gifts, and the two often exchanged letters.
Liu Qi relocated to Jiangxia shortly after Zhuge Liang's suggestion, and soon after Cao Cao also began to march south, when Liu Biao fell ill and died, Liu Qi, as a son of man, did not even have the qualifications to go to worship his father, and it is conceivable how strictly Cai Shi had controlled Jingzhou. Because of Cao Cao's great power, the heir Liu Zong led all the soldiers of Jingzhou to surrender to Cao Cao under the guidance of the Cai family, but Liu Qi was persuaded by Liu Bei to become independent, and with the 60,000 troops in hand and then allied with Eastern Wu, there was still a possibility of recapturing Jingzhou in the future.
Unfortunately, on the eve of the outbreak of the Battle of Chibi, Liu Qi fell ill and died, which can be said to have died young, but he only handed over 20,000 troops to Liu Bei before his death. Didn't he have an army of sixty thousand, and why did he do it? In fact, this group of troops was the original Jiangxia defenders and newly recruited soldiers, Liu Qi's army to Liu Bei was the original Jiangxia defenders, they were well trained and fought with Jiangdong for many years, and their combat effectiveness was extraordinary. But the newly recruited 40,000 non-commissioned officers had not yet formed a fighting force, and now only Jiangxia's finances, a county could not afford to raise that few soldiers, so he dismissed the 40,000 rabble.
Although Liu Bei only got a seemingly small number of 20,000 troops, it should be known that all of them were elite, and he had no strength in his hands after being defeated by Cao Cao, and these 20,000 troops were the capital of his reversal and his trump card in allying with Jiangdong. After Zhuge Liang sent an envoy to Eastern Wu, with his precise strategic intentions and eloquent eloquence, he finally persuaded Liu Sun to join forces, borrowed a lot of bows and arrows through grass boats in advance, and then burned Cao Cao's million army with a fire at the Battle of Chibi, thus allowing Liu Bei to truly control the entire territory of Jingzhou and begin to have the strength to dominate the world.
Conclusion: Liu Bei can have such a brilliant life, in addition to his own skills, there are few noble people to help. Liu Yuanqi, who funded him when he was young, was one, and Mi Zhu, who funded him when he arrived in Xuzhou, was also one, and after the defeat of Xinye, he was already very depressed, at this time Liu Qi funded him with 20,000 soldiers and horses, and finally Liu Bei could rely on these troops to turn over, and Liu Qi could also be said to be his nobleman. We don't know if Liu Bei thanked them after he became emperor. But their merits can be seen, and history has recorded a strong stroke against them.