Liu Bei's Jingzhou strategy occupies an extremely important position in the success or failure of his cause. Jingzhou is not only the foundation for his career to develop and build a country and become an emperor, but also the key to his career being hindered and unable to revive the Han Dynasty as desired.
Liu Bei's Jingzhou strategy is based on Zhuge Liang's Longzhong Pair. Zhuge Liang discussed the situation in the world with Liu Bei in Longzhong and put forward the basic strategy of building a country that crossed the Jing and Yi and entered the Central Plains in the north, so as to "rejuvenate and restore the Han Dynasty" and achieve hegemony. At that time, Liu Bei did not have a piece of his own territory. Taking Jingzhou as a base first, and then developing into Yizhou sichuan, is the core of Liu Bei's national strategy. Zhuge Liang analyzed that at that time, Cao Cao already had a million people, and he ordered the princes not to contend with him; Sun Quan had Jiangdong for three generations and could be used as foreign aid and could not be tried; only Jingzhou, the strategic position was very important and its master could not be defended, this was an excellent opportunity to seize, and Advised Liu Bei not to let it go. Liu Bei fully agreed with Zhuge Liang's analysis. It can be said that Zhuge Liang put forward a set of national strategy based in Jingzhou, that is, Liu Bei's national strategy. However, for Liu Bei, it was not Zhuge Liang who only looked at Jingzhou after he proposed the "Longzhong Pair".
Liu Bei was an extraordinary person who was called "Rare Great Ambition". Although he spent most of his life under the fence, depressed and unmotivated, he always had the ambition of "reporting to the state and going down to Lishu", and encouraged himself to revive the Han Dynasty and achieve a great cause, and he had already shown his heroic nature in the baptism of the crowd competition. Cao Cao had already seen Liu Bei as his potential rival. In 199 AD, when Cao Cao was preparing to fight a decisive battle with Yuan Shao, he said to Liu Bei: If you are the hero today, only you and me, Yuan Shao and the like are not counted. Liu Bei was stunned at that time, frightened off the chopsticks in his hand, and hurriedly used the sky as a cover for thunder. Cao Cao's subordinates repeatedly proposed that Liu Bei was a tyrant in the world and should get rid of him, and Cao Cao regretted that he could not get rid of Liu Bei in time. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao heard that Liu Bei had borrowed from Jingzhou, and the potential opponent had become a fierce enemy of reality, and was greatly shocked, so he wrote a book and threw his pen to the ground. Liu Bei's real rise was after he got Jingzhou and gained a foothold. At first, he was defeated by Cao Cao and defected to Liu Biao, not only because Liu Biao was his distant brother and a relative of the Han Dynasty, but more importantly, he looked at the place of Jingzhou, reflecting his far-sighted strategic vision.
Liu Bei was attached to Liu Biao, and there were seven or eight years from 201 to 208 AD before the Battle of Chibi. During this time, he mainly focused on running Jingzhou.
When Liu Bei arrived in Jingzhou, Liu Biao was very respectful and polite to him on the surface, but in his heart he was very uneasy about him, "'Treat him favorably and not reuse it'", and let him lead his troops to Xinye, which was hundreds of miles away. When Cao Cao sent an army to attack Wuhuan in the north, Liu Bei did persuade Liu Biao to attack Xu Du, but Liu Biao did not listen and lost a good opportunity. Later, Liu Biao regretted it, and Liu Bei comforted him and advised him not to miss future opportunities. Liu Bei knew that Liu Biao would not use his schemes, nor would he entrust him with heavy responsibilities or let him lead a large army to go out, and Cai Mao and others who controlled the real power in Jingzhou at that time had always adopted a cold and exclusionary posture towards him, so he patiently stayed, mainly for the territory of Jingzhou, in order to lay the foundation for Jingzhou and achieve a great cause.
It was precisely from this strategic thinking that Liu Bei carefully befriended Liu Biao's two sons, especially Liu Qi, the eldest son of Liu Biao and who was initially designated as the heir of Jingzhou; he paid attention to making extensive friends with celebrities, recruiting talents, and condescending to the sages, including meeting Sima Hui, the water mirror, and visiting Kong Ming; at the same time, he showed compassion for the people, showed mercy, and made the people know that he was "lenient and benevolent and loved the people", and established a high reputation and a popular image of a politician in Jingzhou. Therefore, although he no longer often rode horses in Jingzhou and fought raw meat, in fact, his political career did not rest leisurely. It was precisely because of his careful management of Jingzhou that when Cao Jun went south, more than 100,000 people from Jingzhou followed him and withdrew, and many Jingzhou scholars also gathered around him, although they were defeated by Cao Cao for a while and lost Jingzhou, but later they took root in Jingzhou and obtained an important base for the establishment of hegemony.
Throughout Liu Bei's political career, Jingzhou was always closely related to the success or failure of his career. Only with Jingzhou could it be possible to enter Yizhou in the west, to form a strong momentum with Cao Cao and Sun Quan, to establish the Shu Han regime, and then to realize the wish of reviving the Han Dynasty. Therefore, he wanted to unite with Sun Quan to fight against Cao Cao, he wanted to borrow Jingzhou from Sun Quan, fight with Sun Quan for Jingzhou, and after Guan Yu lost Jingzhou, he raised the army of the country to take it. In the end, after the defeat in the battle for Jingzhou, his life was ended, and the revival of the Han Dynasty was in vain with his desire to unify the world.