The three most famous emperors during the Han Dynasty were Liu Bang, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, and Liu Bei, the Emperor of Zhaolie. The three of them are in different historical periods and create different splendors. Among them, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, and Liu Xiu, the emperor of Han Guangwu, successively established the century-old glory of the two Han Dynasties. However, Liu Bei was far inferior to the two ancestors, and could only settle in one corner and realize his dream of becoming emperor.
However, in the impression of everyone, Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms period can be said to be a Ming Jun, who not only holds the Wolong Phoenix Chick in his hand, but also has the Five Tiger Generals as the pioneers, who should dominate the world. But Liu Bei did not restore the Han Dynasty's Jiangshan in the end, and had to claim the title of emperor in Yizhou, what was the reason for Liu Bei's failure?
Liu Bei from the eyes of the world
Many people know Liu Bei and the Three Kingdoms through the novels of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other related derivatives as a channel of understanding. Therefore, from the very beginning of his thinking, Liu Bei was regarded as the first protagonist of the Three Kingdoms period. Cao Cao, on the other hand, became a negative character in the Three Kingdoms period, as he and Liu Bei were always opposite each other.
However, this subverted the cognitive form of the canonical history of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and seriously affected people's true judgment of the historical figures of the Three Kingdoms. In the real history of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei is not a positive character, but Cao Wei is the real winner behind the scenes.
Liu Bei's achievements in history are very limited, compared with the two great emperors who each created two hundred years of imperial work, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, and Liu Xiu, the emperor of Han Guangwu, are completely incomparable. Because his territory was only two Han and thirteen states, the actual controller of Yizhou was a small witch compared to Cao Wei and Sun Quan.
Although from the naked eye, the land area occupied by the Shu Han and the Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei and Sun Quan achieved the establishment of the Three Kingdoms, but in terms of local economic development and talent reserves, the Shu Han can be said to be sparsely populated and economically backward. From this point of view, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was a battle against the sky, but unfortunately it was ultimately lost on hard power.
The starting point of Liu Bei and the ancestors of the two Han Dynasties
Although Liu Bei claimed to be after Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, he still made a living selling straw shoes when he started his career, which can be said to be the starting point of quite a commoner. However, he won the favor of many talents in the name of the Han dynasty. People like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang, and others all joined Liu Bei in the great ideal of reviving the Han Dynasty.
Although he had a talented and fierce general, Liu Bei still fled all the way to defeat and escape, and finally under the acceptance of Liu Zhang, he had a stable place. In the end, Liu Bei also defeated Liu Zhang and captured Yizhou, which led to the pattern of three points in the world later. It can be said that Liu Bei's luck is still quite good, after all, many times it is difficult not to die.
On the other hand, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, although he was only a pavilion chief, attracted talents like Zhang Liang and Han Xin through his charm, and formed a team of 20,000 people to start the journey of creating the Han Room. He broke through the Wu Pass with 20,000 partial divisions and a lone army, and with the strength of one person and one army, he swept away the Qin kingdom that had been difficult to attack in the eyes of the world for hundreds of years, and went to the Hongmen Feast in exchange for Xiang Yu's sealing of the King of Han.
Look at Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, in the Battle of Kunyang, calling the wind and rain, meteorites falling from the sky, gathering and annihilating 420,000 elite government troops with 7,000 daredevils, and destroying a unified empire in one battle. He used his strength to tell the people of the world that he was the one who could unify. Even Liu Xuan did not dare to kill him, and he had to be made the King of Xiao as a sign of appeasement.
And Liu Bei's repeated defeats cannot be compared with the two ancestors.
Liu Bei lost the pattern
Liu Bei was able to attract talent, mainly because he was a relative of the Han Dynasty and was the only one willing to revive the Han Dynasty. In this case, Liu Bei had a political reputation and appeal, which was also the initial reason why talents like Kong Ming, Chen Qun, Chen Deng, and Tian Yu could join the Shu Han camp and not abandon it.
However, Liu Bei completely died of his political reputation and appeal after choosing to defeat Liu Zhang, seize Yizhou, and establish himself as king. From a figure who revived the Han Dynasty, to Liu Bei, who divided one side and claimed to be the king of Hanzhong. He completely became a prince who was no different from Cao Cao and Sun Quan, and also lost the hearts of the people who had been loyal to the Han courtiers.
From then on, Liu Bei lost the opportunity to compete for the world, and it was not until he was alone in the White Emperor's city that he suddenly woke up. However, it was already too late, and the pattern of the world belonged to Cao Wei.
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【Sources: Book of Han, Romance of the Three Kingdoms】