In fact, Jingzhou was not the most important geographical location of the Three Kingdoms, at least in the early Three Kingdoms period, no one or force had the idea of fighting Jingzhou, which was the reason why Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao was able to have no special wars in the 18 years from 190 AD to 208 AD.
Beginning with Dong Zhuo's rebellion, the late Eastern Han Dynasty entered a period of local mass hegemony, and the local officials of the original Eastern Han Dynasty either dominated one side or annexed the surrounding areas, and began a chaotic period of Qunxiong dividing and competing for hegemony, such as Yuan Shu occupying Nanyang and Huainan, Yuan Shao occupying the four prefectures of Hebei, Cao Cao occupying Yanzhou, Liu Zhang occupying Yizhou, Sun Quan occupying Jiangdong, Ma Chao and Han Sui occupying Guanzhong and Liangzhou, and only Liu Biao occupying the seven counties of Jingzhou.
Dong Zhuo's rebellion
From the perspective of historical development, the most important places in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were the four prefectures of the Central Plains (Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Silizhou) and the four prefectures of Hebei (Jizhou, Hezhou, Qingzhou, youzhou), because this was the core living area of the Eastern Han Dynasty and even the entire Chinese nation, which is commonly known as the Central Plains, and the Chinese peoples have occupied the Central Plains since ancient times, so the most fierce and lively places for the war are the Central Plains and Hebei.
The Central Plains also refers to all the areas between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, where the core area of China is also the core area of China, so the first to bear the brunt of the war is here, when the Central Plains was in chaos, many displaced people fled south to Jingzhou, Yizhou and Yangzhou to avoid the war, so in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the early years of the Three Kingdoms war were in the Central Plains, and far away from the Central Plains, Yizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, and even Jiaozhou were temporarily calm, and there was no particularly big war.
The real importance of Jingzhou was from 208 AD to 280 AD when the three kingdoms were unified into the Jin Dynasty, and the fundamental reason was because: if you want to unify the world, Jingzhou has become more important than ever
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Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of Han to Xuchang
If you just occupy the Central Plains, Jingzhou is not important, if you want to unify the world, then Jingzhou is very important, because the terrain of Jingzhou is in the middle of the whole of China, and connects the south with the Central Plains, just look at the map,
If you take the Qinling Mountains- the Huai River as the dividing line between the north and the south of China, then the area from the Qinling Mountains to the Huai River is thousands of kilometers long, and if the northern regime wants to go south to control the world, you will find that only Jingzhou is the most convenient place
Why is Jingzhou most important for unifying the north and south?
This is the geographical location of Jingzhou determined, the northernmost part of Jingzhou is Nanyang County, here is the southernmost gateway of the Central Plains, but also the most populous county in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are more than a million people, even more than a state, here is not only a large population, but also the Central Plains into the south of the best way to go, because the Nanyang Basin on both sides of the terrain is dangerous, only the middle position through Xiangfan - Dangyang - Jiangling line to reach the Jianghan Plain, this line is like a narrow corridor, to ensure the north-south traffic artery, And this road can be easily passed by cavalry.
Battle of Guandu in 200
Look at the west of Guanzhong want to go down, can only pass through eight hundred miles of QinChuan, Shu Road is difficult, it is difficult to go to Qingtian, indicating that Guanzhong is very difficult to go south, it is not conducive to the operation of the large army, from Guanzhong through the South of Qinling is a forced choice, and then look at the Jianghuai region in the east, where the water network is dense, the rivers are longitudinal, and there is also the Yangtze River to divide the north and south into two places, the Yangtze River in the era of cold weapons is an absolute natural danger, and if the northern regime does not have a water army, it is difficult to break through the southern defense line.
Therefore, under the trade-off, the breakthrough point of Cao Cao's war to unify the south was placed in Jingzhou, so the Cao Wei forces occupying the Central Plains, under the leadership of Cao Cao, began to go south from Nanyang-Xiangfan-Dangyang-Jiangling, because from here to the south, there were two strategic advantages:
First, it is possible to cut off the connection between Yizhou and Yangzhou, cut off the waterway of the Yangtze River, blockade all exchanges between Yizhou and Yangzhou in the economy, and control Jingzhou, just like a sharp knife inserted by the northern regime into the south, which is the first step in unifying the entire south.
The Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Nan County took place in Jingzhou
Second, controlling Jingzhou is equivalent to cracking the natural danger of the Yangtze River, the Yangtze River, the danger is in the Jingjiang River, the Yangtze River controlled by Jingzhou is located in the middle reaches, if you control the Yangtze River in Jingzhou, it is equivalent to controlling the natural dangers in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, you can attack the Eastern Wu regime downstream by land and water, and at the same time you can attack the Yizhou regime upstream in the west by land and water, killing two birds with one stone.
This is the important role that Jingzhou highlighted after Cao Cao unified the entire north, if Cao Cao did not unify the entire north, he would not be in a hurry to attack Jingzhou, so in terms of importance, Jingzhou is second to the Central Plains.
In addition, the development of the situation in the Three Kingdoms also made Jingzhou more and more important, because after Cao Cao accepted the surrender of Jingzhou, he lost the Battle of Chibi, and lost all the territory south of Xiangfan in Jingzhou, and was divided between sun quan and Liu Bei, so after the Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Nan County, Jingzhou was jointly occupied by the three families, which became the junction of the three forces, and it was also the front line.
In 219, Guan Yu lost Jingzhou
In the decade from 209 AD to 219 AD, Jingzhou became the only place where the Three Kingdoms met, that is, the front line of the Three Kingdoms, and then the geographical location of Jingzhou became important again, and if the three families wanted to eat the other side, the direction of the troops could only be Jingzhou, so when Sun Quan secretly attacked Jingzhou and swallowed the three counties, Liu Bei could still only fight from Jingzhou, so when Cao Pi wanted to cut down Wu, part of the troops came from Jingzhou.
From 219 AD to 280 AD, these 61 years, shu Han forces withdrew from Jingzhou, Jingzhou became the front line of Cao Wei and Eastern Wu, but the junction of the three families is still in Jingzhou, Jingzhou is still the front line, so it is important, in 263 AD, Sima Zhao's Cao Wei destroyed Shu Han, there is a route along the Yangtze River down the east side of the Eastern Wu, and most of this route is in jingzhou territory, even if the later Western Jin Dynasty destroyed Eastern Wu, half of the breakthrough direction is Eastern Wu, And this breakthrough direction also comes from Jingzhou.
Jin-Wu confrontation
Therefore, Jingzhou is very important in the middle and late period of the Three Kingdoms, mainly because in the middle and late period, Jingzhou became the front line and transit area of the Three Kingdoms or two countries, and who can control Jingzhou marks who can unify the world, Jingzhou is very important in the strategy of unifying the world, which is also the important reason for Jingzhou.