Jingzhou was the central diplomatic issue of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. This article attempts to elaborate and analyze Sun Liu's attack on Jingzhou, the equal division of Jingzhou, and the lending of Jingzhou.
Thirteen years after Jian'an, Cao Cao had roughly stabilized the area north of the Yangtze River. He occupied the Kanto and Guanzhong regions, forced his troops to whip and the three northeastern counties of Karasuma, and appeased Ma Teng and Han Sui in Kansai. So he began to develop southward. South of the Yangtze River, there were three forces, namely Liu Zhang of Yizhou, Liu Biao of Jingzhou, and Sun Quan of Yangzhou. Liu Zhang was partial to the Sichuan Basin, lost contact with the Central Plains for a long time, and did not clash with Cao Cao for a time. Sun Quan has always maintained a good relationship with Cao Cao. As early as the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's cousin Sun Ce was made a knight lieutenant; in the third year of Jian'an, Sun Ce sent Zhang Xuan to pay tribute to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao then expressed him as a rebellious general, made him a Marquis of Wu, and worshiped him as a Huijian Taishou; in the fifth year of Jian'an, Sun Ce was assassinated, and Cao Cao's cousin Sun Quan was made a general who was a general who understood Ji Taishou. The two sides can be described as a courtesy exchange. Liu Biao was in Jingzhou, directly approaching Cao Cao's political center Xuchang, and Liu Biao appointed Cao Cao's sworn enemy Liu Bei. As early as the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao noticed threats from Liu Biao and Liu Bei. Therefore, although Liu Biao was the strongest of the three southern forces, Cao Cao was ready to destroy him first.
At first, Cao Cao used Xun Yu's strategy to send troops from Wan and Ye counties in Mingli, but secretly sent elite troops to raid Jingzhou. As a result, shortly after he sent troops, Liu Biao actually fell ill and died first. Liu Biao's son Liu Chun (劉琮) inherited the power of Jingzhou with the support of the Cai family. As soon as Liu Chun took the throne, he faced an overwhelming offensive from Cao Cao; so under the persuasion of the famous soldiers Ku Yue and Han Song, Liu Chun dedicated Jingzhou to Cao Cao. Many people think that Cao Cao's acquisition of Jingzhou was purely a fluke. This is not the case. At the end of the Han Dynasty, due to the persecution of the party and the turmoil of the Yellow Turban, many celebrities in the north migrated to the south to make a living. Although these celebrities were forced to come to the south, their hearts still longed to return to the imperial court. Cao Cao embraced the emperor's self-esteem; in the hearts of many celebrities, to submit to Cao Cao was to return to the embrace of the imperial court. Liu Biao himself was a celebrity, and the officials he appointed were mostly celebrities. So these celebrities summed up and persuaded the new lord Liu Chun to offer Jingzhou to Cao Cao. It can be seen that Cao Cao was able to obtain Jingzhou without bloodshed, which was completely caused by the migration of the population to the south at the end of the Han Dynasty.
After Cao Cao obtained Jingzhou, he immediately took action against the other two forces, Liu Zhang and Sun Quan. First, Cao Cao ordered Liu Zhang, who had not paid tribute for a long time, to send soldiers to the imperial court on schedule. In this way, Cao Cao could control Liu Zhang, but also weaken his forces. In addition, Cao Cao wrote a letter to Sun Quan, asking him to hunt Liu Bei, who was on the run. Its original intention was to test whether Sun Quan listened or not.
As mentioned earlier, Cao Cao and Sun Quan had a good relationship. Yet both sides are wary of each other. During the Battle of Guandu, Sun Ce had organized a sneak attack on Cao Cao's Xu Capital, but was soon assassinated, so he failed to realize this plan. After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao also wanted to take advantage of Sun Ce's funeral and raise an army to attack Wu, but was finally persuaded by Zhang Xuan to dispel this idea. It can be seen that the relationship between Cao Cao and Sun Quan is not intimate, or between warable and non-combatable.
For Sun Quan, Jingzhou is the only way for him to develop. Since the time of Sun Ce, the Sun clan has not stopped its military operations to the west, and has attacked Huang Zu in Jiangxia, Jingzhou four times. Originally, before Liu Biao's death, Sun Quan was ready to attack Jingzhou. As a result, Cao Cao suddenly occupied the northern part of Jingzhou. The southern part of Jingzhou was owned by Liu Biao's old ministry headed by Liu Qi and Liu Bei. If Sun Quan agreed to Cao Cao's request to hunt Liu Bei, on the one hand, he would obey Cao Cao's orders, and on the other hand, he would cede Jingzhou to Cao Cao because he defeated Liu Qi, Liu Bei, and others for Cao Cao, and cut off the road of westward expansion. However, if Sun Quan rejected Cao Cao, he would definitely have a big fight with Cao Cao. So Sun Quan entrusted this headache to his ministers for consultation. The main subordinate faction, led by Zhang Zhao, immediately proposed to submit to Cao Cao. As mentioned earlier, Cao Cao was able to successfully obtain Jingzhou, mainly relying on the support of famous people in the south. Zhang Zhao, like Ku Yue and Han Song, was a celebrity who moved to the south; after Sun Ce's death, Zhang Zhao maintained mutual relations with the northern government. His view of surrendering Cao best represents the idea of the Lord's descending faction: "Rejecting the Lord with a subject, and going against the path." It can be seen that these celebrities have a kind of "positive", "reverse" and "jun" and "subject" thoughts in their hearts. They blindly set up Cao Cao to represent the Han Chamber, so they were very superstitious about him. However, Zhang Zhao and others only talked about the Tao, so Sun Quan, who had great ambitions, was quite dismissive of their views, and he valued Lu Su's views more: "Fu Jingchu is adjacent to the country, the water flows smoothly to the north, the Jianghan is outside, the mountains and tombs are blocked inside, there are golden cities, there are thousands of miles of fertile wilderness, and the people are rich, if there is a basis, the capital of this emperor is also." Now that the table is newly dead, the two sons are not harmonious, and the generals in the army have each other. Jia Liu Bei tianxia xiong, and the has a gap, in the table, the expression of evil and its ability can not be used also. If you are prepared to cooperate with him, and if you are in harmony with him, it is advisable to be at peace and to be allied with him; if there is a violation, it is advisable not to try to do so, so as to help the great things. Su please be ordered to hang his second son, and comfort those who used them in his army, and said that he would be prepared to make an envoy to care for the people, and to rule Cao Cao together with one heart and one mind, and to be happy and obey his orders. If it is harmonious, the world can be determined. If you don't hurry up now, I'm afraid it will be the first thing to do. ”
Lu Su's general intention was nothing more than to persuade Sun Quan to ignore Cao Cao and capture Jingzhou. However, he raised a very key question, that is, "Liu Bei's world is a tyrant, and there is a gap with Cao." As mentioned earlier, Cao Cao was able to take Jingzhou mainly because the celebrities of Jingzhou had their hearts set on the imperial court. However, Cao Cao did not win the hearts and minds of the people in Jingzhou. Cao Cao only had the support of the celebrities, who mostly came from the north. However, the true natives of Jingzhou and some large clans did not support Cao Cao. As a result, many residents preferred to follow Liu Bei and flee rather than stay under Cao Cao's rule. Liu Bei operated in Jingzhou for some time, and although he did not develop military strength, he established a good reputation. After Liu Chun surrendered, he quickly received the submission of the Jingzhou natives and Liu Biao's old forces, and moved to Jiangling. On the way to the transfer, Liu Bei carried a large number of residents. This is the story of Liu Bei crossing the river with his people. Many people think that Liu Bei's move is to use the people as a shield. Not really. Liu Bei wanted to stop Cao Cao's offensive at Jiangling and use this as a base to occupy Jingzhou. He and his people crossing the river were nothing more than to win over some Jingzhou residents and Liu Biao's old department as his political capital, and to concentrate and strengthen the anti-Cao forces in Jingzhou. Liu Bei did not flee in the face of the great enemy, but led the people across the river. This kind of behavior made Liu Bei very appealing in Jingzhou, and even later he was able to summon the four counties in the south of Jingzhou in one fell swoop. What Lu Su saw was Liu Bei's appeal and the remaining anti-Cao forces in Jingzhou. Lu Su believed that although Cao Cao had liu biao's troops and some officials, he did not win the hearts and minds of Jingzhou; therefore, if Sun Quan could use Liu Beishan, he could use the anti-Cao forces in Jingzhou to drive Cao Cao out of Jingzhou. Of course, Sun Quan could not only use Liu Bei to drive Cao Cao out of Jingzhou, but also use Liu Bei to rule Jingzhou for a long time. Just as the so-called people who win the hearts and minds of the people win the world, Lu Su's strategy grasped Cao Cao's weakness of being unpopular and fiercely prescribed the right medicine.
With Sun Quan's consent, Lu Su went to Jingzhou to meet Liu Bei and made an alliance request to him. Liu Bei had just suffered a crushing defeat at that time. Lu Su said that Liu Bei's troops were "not a colonel", that is, only a few thousand people. There may be exaggeration here, but Liu Bei's small number of troops is certain. Liu Bei meant that he wanted to maintain his power by using Sun Quan's military strength, and Sun Quan wanted to use Liu Bei's fame to win the support of the people in Jingzhou. So the two hit it off and reached an agreement on the alliance. From a practical point of view, Liu Bei at that time was still attached to Sun Quan.
Soon, Cao Cao attacked Liu Bei with his division, but was defeated by Chibi under the joint battle of Liu Bei and Zhou Yu, and a year later lost Nan Commandery, and could only return the large army to Xiangyang, and never planned to go south. During the year, Liu Bei recruited Changsha County, Wuling County, Lingling County, and Guiyang County. It can be seen from this that Liu Bei's appeal in Jingzhou can never be underestimated. At the same time, Sun Quan also captured Nan Commandery and worshipped Zhou Yu as Taishou. At this time, Sun Quan was faced with a new development problem, that is, to take Yizhou in the west, or to stabilize Jingzhou, Yangzhou and attack Hefei in the north. The radicals Zhou Yu and Gan Ning all suggested that yizhou be taken to the west. In addition, Sun Quan felt the pressure from Liu Bei. At that time, Liu Bei and Liu Qi recruited people from Jingzhou and quickly expanded their power with their appeal. Zhou Yu and Lü Fan suggested that Liu Bei be placed under house arrest and manipulate his subordinates. However, Sun Quan did not blindly follow the advice of Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Lü Fan and others. He took more rational action. He focused his energies on Xuzhou in the north, and after Zhou Yu's death, he ceded Nan Commandery to Liu Bei in order to win Liu Bei over.
Where is Sun Quan's foresight in nam-gun's outcast? This must start from the overall situation at the end of the Han Dynasty. At the end of the Han Dynasty, commerce in the north developed rapidly, resulting in many peasants losing their jobs and becoming displaced. Because the commerce in the south was not developed at that time, some northern displaced people settled in the south and developed agriculture. Another part of the displaced people became Yellow Turban Thieves (some of the Yellow Turban Army at that time fought with their families) and were killed by the suppression army (only Cao Cao did not completely kill the Yellow Turban Army). This led to a sharp decline in the population of the North and an increase in the population of the South. At the same time, after Dong Zhuo moved the capital and the Kwantung rebels broke up, the north was constantly fighting for many years, while the south was relatively stable, although there were occasional wars, but it was not large-scale. As a result, not only did the North become less populous, but commerce and agriculture did not develop; the Economy of the South was much more substantial. Therefore, although Cao Cao unified the north and had strong strength, its internal economy was still relatively backward. Sun Quan was located in Yangzhou, and although his overall strength was far worse than Cao Cao's, most of his people were rich. Here we need to introduce a concept, that is, the density of strength. Although Cao Cao's apparent strength was stronger than Sun Quan's, its strength density was very low. After seeing this, Sun Quan thought that he still had the strength to compete with Cao Cao, so he moved the capital to Moling, built a wet dock, and prepared to go north to compete with Cao Cao. However, Sun Quan had two battlefields to fight at that time, one was Hefei in the east and Xiangfan in the west, so why did Sun Quan only choose Hefei? This begins with Sun's military system and internal turmoil. Sun's military system was private, with every general having a part, while the central government, sun quan himself, did not have many troops. At the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu needed 50,000 people, but Sun Quan told him that "soldiers are difficult to join", and only gave Zhou Yu 30,000. It can be seen that Sun Quan really does not have enough military strength. And from many foreign battles, it can also be seen that most of Jiangdong's troops are scattered among the generals. In this state of affairs, Sun Quan could only concentrate the men and horses marching all the way, and could not do both east and west. So Sun Quan had to choose one of the two battlefields of Hefei and Xiangfan. The Danyang region in Yangzhou has deep and steep mountains, and many clan forces occupy the mountains as kings and oppose the government. This is the Yamakoshi forces. Although Sun Quan attacked Huang Zu four times and fought against Cao Cao at Chibi, he never solved the fundamental problem of internal stability. Therefore, before developing externally, Sun Quan believed that it was necessary to eliminate the hidden dangers of mountain crossing. If Sun Quan chose the battlefield against Cao in Hefei, he could concentrate an army to attack Hefei on the outside and Pingshanyue on the inside, so that one army could be used for both purposes. If Sun Quan chose the battlefield in Xiangfan, he would need to organize another army of Pingshan Yue, but as mentioned before, Sun Quan did not have such military strength. Therefore, Sun Quan identified the battlefield against Cao in the Hefei area. However, Sun Quan had to take into account the safety of the Xiangfan area. At the same time, Sun Quan had already formed a grudge with the Jingzhou people in the four wars against Huang Zu, so sun Quan did not have the political capital to rule Jingzhou at this time. Under the balance, in order to narrow the defensive line and concentrate his forces on attacking Cao Cao, Sun Quan handed over Nan Commandery to the prestigious Liu Bei and let him temporarily take care of Nan Commandery. So Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou.
However, Ming only borrowed one county from Nan County, so why should liu Bei borrow Jingzhou? This takes into account the geographical location of South County. Nan Commandery (南郡) was a key point in the Jingzhou land owned by Sun Quan and Liu Bei that bordered Cao Cao's forces, and had an extremely important military advantage. First of all, Nan County is a place of use, as can be seen from the two things that Cao Cao left Cao Ren to shou Nan County and Guan Yu's Northern Expedition. In addition, Nam Gun is surrounded by Dongting Lake, which is a place for training water troops. At the same time, the Han River connecting Yizhou is located in the territory of Nan County, so Nan County is also an indispensable military stronghold for entering Shu. It can be seen that those who support the south county can go north, can go west, and can also train troops. Based on the above three points, Sun Quan handed over Nan Commandery to Liu Bei, which undoubtedly shows his intention to completely abandon the development in Jingzhou and give up the main battlefield of Jingzhou to Liu Bei. Thereafter, during the twelve years that Liu Bei occupied Nan Commandery, Sun Quan did not have a major military conflict with Cao Cao in Jingzhou. Therefore, the so-called Liu Bei borrowing Jingzhou does not mean that Liu Bei borrowed the land of Jingzhou, but that he borrowed the geographical advantages of Jingzhou and the main battlefield in Jingzhou.
At this point, the play of borrowing Jingzhou was completely completed. Later, Sun Quan lost on the battlefield of Hefei, and remembered occupying the Xiangfan battlefield, so he sent Zhuge Jin to ask Liu Bei for Nan Commandery. At this time, Liu Bei had already occupied Yizhou. It has been said before that the Han River connects Yizhou and is located in the territory of Nan County; if Liu Bei returns The South County to Sun Quan, he will lose control of the Han River Valley; so he is not prepared to return the South County. So Sun Quan and Liu Bei began the battle for Jingzhou. That's the aftermath.