Why did Liu Bei kill his adopted son Liu Feng?

Liu Bei has always established himself with "benevolence" throughout his life, and it is also an important means for him to win over talents. The courtiers who followed Liu Bei were rarely executed by Liu Bei even if they made mistakes, for example, after Huang Quan surrendered to the State of Wei, people around him suggested killing his family as punishment, but Liu Bei refused. It can be seen from this that even such a felony as treason can be tolerated by Liu Bei, so why only execute his adopted son Liu Feng?

Liu Feng's death is recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms: "The lord first blamed Feng for invading Lingda, but did not save Yu. Zhuge Liang was worried about the fierceness of the seal, and it would be difficult to control the emperor after yi shi, so he persuaded the first lord to get rid of it. So he sealed himself and cut himself off. ”。 After this, people believe that Liu Feng's death is mainly related to Guan Yu, and it is Liu Feng's refusal to rescue Guan Yu that led to Guan Yu's defeat of Maicheng, making Zhuge Liang's strategy of sending troops to Wanwan and Luo through Jingzhou into an illusion. In my opinion, this is actually a secondary reason, the real loss of Jingzhou is Guan Yu, and when Guan Yu besieged Fancheng and Xiangyang, he first occupied the dominant position, while Liu Feng had just conquered the three counties of Shangyong, which was not stable internally, and the army was also very tired after the great war, and could not play a role in reinforcements at all, but would be regarded as a "weak point" and attacked by the other side.

The real reason for Liu Feng's death was actually a victim of political struggle. In the Three Kingdoms period alone, tragedies caused by the establishment of heirs were not uncommon. Before Yuan Shao's death, he made his youngest son Yuan Shang the heir, causing his eldest son Yuan Tan to be in the same room as Yuan Shang, and as a result, they were annihilated by Cao Cao. Liu Biao abolished Chang Li and also repeated the mistakes of Yuan Shao, and Jingzhou fell into the hands of others. Coupled with the special identity of Liu Feng's adopted son and his fierce personality, Zhuge Liang could not control it, and once Liu Bei died, the cause that Liu Bei had worked so hard to establish would inevitably suffer heavy damage and fall into recession. Liu Bei was worried about this, so he killed Liu Feng.