Liu Zhang was a warlord who divided Yizhou at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Yizhou was firmly in the hands of their family from his father Liu Yan. After Liu Yan occupied Yizhou, he did two things in order to achieve the goal of occupying the mountain for a long time, the first thing was to attack Yizhou Haoqiang, and the second thing was to support the Taiping Sect Zhang Lu.
Yizhou is located in Shudi, where mountains and rivers serve as a barrier in the midst of chaos is an ideal place to divide. Liu Yan sent Zhang Lu to Hanzhong to kill Han Dynasty officials and occupy a dangerous place, and then he wrote to the imperial court that Zhang Lu would cut off the key point and no longer maintain regular contact with the imperial court. In this way, Liu Yan became the Emperor of Tu again in Yizhou, but what he did not expect was that his move left a big trouble for his son Liu Zhang.
After Zhang Lu arrived in Hanzhong, Liu Yan lost control of him. First, Zhang Lu killed Liu Yan's general Zhang Xiu and took his soldiers and horses and occupied Hanzhong as Emperor Tu. After Liu Yan's death, Zhang Lu was even more dismissive of Liu Zhang. In a fit of rage, Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's mother and brother who remained in Shudi, so that Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu formed a bloody vendetta. Zhang Lu's accumulation of strength in Hanzhong repeatedly harassed Shudi, which made Liu Zhang's head burn.
Zhang, the character Jiyu, attacked the Yan position, while Zhang Lu was slightly arrogant, did not accept Shunzhang, Zhang killed Lu's mother and brother, and became an enemy. The Biography of Liu Ermu in the Book of the Three Kingdoms
Why would Liu Zhang be bullied by Zhang Lu when he occupied a hundred thousand yuan in the Shu region? On the one hand, Liu Zhang was not as authoritative as his father Liu Yan, and his subordinates were alienated from him. On the other hand, Liu Zhang is not a sage who can make good use of talents. Liu Zhang, who was initially worried about internal and external troubles, thought of asking for foreign aid, and the first foreign aid he looked for was actually not Liu Bei but Cao Cao.
Before the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao led a large army to attack Jingzhou and had the potential to unify the world. At this time, Liu Zhang took the initiative to send someone to contact Cao Cao to express his intention to surrender, and Cao Cao crowned Liu Zhang as a general of Zhenwei in the name of the imperial court. Liu Zhang thought that he would be safe by hugging Cao Cao's thigh, but he did not want Cao Cao to retreat to the north in a big defeat at the Battle of Chibi.
It just so happened that Liu Zhang's subordinate Zhang Song had been despised by Cao Cao, so under the persuasion of Zhang Song, Liu Zhang found Liu Bei. Liu Zhang and Liu Bei reached an agreement, Liu Bei proposed that Liu Zhang attack Zhang Lu, and Liu Zhang funded Liu Bei's soldiers and horses. It was not the first time that Liu Bei had given assistance to others, and Liu Bei had led troops to assist Tao Qian when Cao Cao was fighting Tao Qian. If Liu Zhang paid a little attention, he would find that Liu Bei was a person who could not please. After Tao Qian invited Liu Bei, Liu Bei was soon supported by Tao Qian's subordinates and later became the lord of Xuzhou. Liu Bei is an easy person to win the hearts and minds of the people, and this is his terrible point.
I think it is not so much that Liu Bei seized Liu Zhang's territory as that Liu Zhang's subordinates overthrew him. The people liu zhang sent to contact Liu Bei were basically rebelled against by Liu Bei, such as Fazheng and Meng Da. These people were all influential figures in Shudi. From Liu Zhang's point of view at that time, it was indeed difficult to occupy Shu land with Liu Bei's strength.
At that time, Liu Bei's strength was not strong when he entered Shu, although he occupied Jingzhou, he had Cao Cao to the north and Sun Wu to the east surrounded by strong enemies. Therefore, Liu Bei's soldiers and horses brought into Shu land would not be too many, and after receiving reinforcements from Liu Zhang, Liu Bei's soldiers and horses were only more than 30,000 people. These soldiers and horses were not all Liu Bei's, and from the later events, it can be seen that Liu Zhang's own family and horses sent to reinforce Liu Bei were all reversed by Liu Bei.
Zhang Zeng took the lead in the army, attacked Zhang Lu, and then ordered the White Water Army to be supervised. The first lord and the army of more than 30,000 people, the car armor equipment is very rich. The Biography of the Three Kingdoms Chronicles of the Shu Dynasty
When Liu Bei attacked Liu Zhang, he did not encounter any resistance, and Liu Zhang's subordinates Li Yan, Yan Yan, and others successively surrendered to Liu Bei's account. Only when Luocheng was in Luoyang, he was stubbornly resisted by Liu Zhang's army, because it was Liu Zhang's son Liu Xun who guarded Luocheng. Liu Bei's military master Pang Tong was killed during the attack on Luocheng, and Liu Bei suffered few losses in other parts of Shu prefecture except for some losses at Luocheng.
Before Liu Zhang invited Liu Bei to enter Shu, he must have assessed Liu Bei's strength. He believed that Liu Bei's military strength was not enough to occupy Shu land, but he completely ignored Liu Bei's ability to buy people's hearts. If Liu Zhang's men could fight for him to the death, then even if Liu Bei's strength attacked Shudi, it was likely that the entire army would be destroyed. From this point of view, it is incomplete to assess a person's strength only by looking at his appearance.