The dove occupies the magpie's nest, a Chinese idiom, figuratively occupying someone else's house. From the Book of Poetry, ZhaoNan, Magpie's Nest. During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were many cases of doves occupying the magpie's nest. For example, Yuan Shao was originally a subordinate of Mu Hanfu of Jizhou, but forced Han Fu to give up the throne of Jizhou Mu. Another example is that Liu Bei originally owned the land of Xuzhou, but was mainly opposed by Lü Bu. Of course, for Liu Bei, there was also a time when the dove occupied the magpie's nest, that is, in 211 AD, Liu Zhang, the mu of Yizhou, sent someone to invite Liu Bei to lead an army to Yizhou, thus attacking Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.
In this regard, Liu Bei did not attack Zhang Lu, but instead captured Liu Zhang's Yizhou. It is worth noting that the reason why Liu Zhang, the mu of Yizhou, invited Liu Bei to enter his territory was mainly because he could not eliminate Zhang Lu, so he needed to invite Liu Bei to help. Then, the question is, Liu Bei sits in Yizhou, has a total of 100,000 soldiers and horses, and there are many civilian and military generals, why can't he do anything about Zhang Lu, who has only two counties.
One
In the first year of Xingping (194), Liu Yan died, and his son Liu Zhang took the place. After Liu Zhang, the mu of Yizhou, took the throne, on the grounds that Zhang Lu did not obey his dispatches, he killed Zhang Lu's family, and sent him to attack Zhang Lu with Pang Xi and others, which was repeatedly broken by Zhang Lu. Zhang Lu's parts were mostly in Badi, and Liu Zhang, therefore, made Pang Xi the Taishou of Ba County. As a result, Zhang Lu attacked Ba County. Therefore, for Zhang Lu, he occupied the two counties of Hanzhong County and Ba County. However, even so, Zhang Lu's territory was still far inferior to that of Liu Zhang, who owned the land of Yizhou.
In addition to the vast territory and many soldiers and horses, Liu Zhang had many talents, such as Zhang Ren, Huang Quan, Li Yan, Zhang Song, Fazheng, Pang Xi, Zhang Yi, Wu Ban, Wu Yi and so on. However, in the context of having so many advantages, Liu Zhang is still helpless to Zhang Lu. The reasons for this are mainly divided into the following points. On the one hand, Liu Zhang's Yizhou Mu was inherited, not obtained by his own efforts. For example, in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Biao was able to become the pastor of Jingzhou, in addition to the appointment of the imperial court, but also because he leveled the local warriors in Jingzhou.
Two
Correspondingly, Liu Zhang's father, Liu Yan, was still relatively capable, and through the formation of the Dongzhou Army, he achieved checks and balances on the local warrior clans in Yizhou. However, after Liu Yan's death, Liu Zhang did not have the same prestige as Liu Yan, whether among the soldiers of Dongzhou or among the local warriors of Yizhou. During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, when the masses were chasing deer in the Central Plains, princes without prestige naturally had difficulty controlling the civilian generals under them, such as Mu Hanfu of Jizhou, who was stripped of his territory by Yuan Shao, which is a typical example. After all, the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time could no longer restrain these civilian and military generals, so Liu Zhang wanted to sit firmly in Yizhou and could only rely on himself.
On the other hand, in addition to the inheritance of Yizhou Mu's position, Liu Zhang's personality is also an important reason why he cannot unite Yizhou talents and thus eliminate Zhang Lu. After Liu Yan's death, the Yizhou official Zhao Yun and others supported Liu Zhang because of his gentle and benevolent personality and easy to master. However, such a character of the lord, naturally will also be rejected by some military generals, such as after Liu Zhang's ascension to the throne, the generals Shen Mi, Lou Fa, and Gan Ning rebelled against Liu Zhang, and were defeated by Zhao Yun and defected to Jingzhou.
Three
In the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Zhao Yun launched a rebellion, and Shudi responded in many places. If it were not for the all-out resistance of the Dongzhou soldiers formed by Liu Yan that year, Liu Zhang's Yizhou Pastoral Throne might have been lost in advance. From this, it is very obvious that character determines fate, liu zhang's overly generous character, resulting in his inability to control his subordinates, at this point, Liu Zhang is obviously not as decisive as Cao Cao, and not as determined as Liu Bei. Therefore, when Liu Zhang could not unite Yizhou up and down, naturally there was no way to take Zhang Lu.
In contrast, after Liu Bei entered Yizhou, he was able to repel Cao Cao, who occupied Hanzhong. Compared with Zhang Lu, it is obvious that Cao Cao's strength is stronger, which shows that it is not that Yizhou's strength is not good, but that Liu Zhang cannot give full play to Yizhou's strength. After he ascended to the throne of Yizhou Mu, the rebellions in various places had exhausted him, and there were not many troops to eliminate Zhang Lu, who occupied Hanzhong and Ba County.
Four
Finally, in addition, from the topographic point of view, Hanzhong has the Qinling Mountains in the north and the Daba Mountains in the south, that is, the Hanzhong Basin is just surrounded by mountains, which is undoubtedly an easy place to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, even if Liu Zhang had an army of 100,000 and a large number of talents, it would be difficult to easily break through the defense line in Hanzhong. In summary, in the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211), Liu Zhang, hearing that Cao Cao was going to lead an army to advance into Hanzhong, was very worried, and Zhang Song suggested that Liu Zhang invite Liu Bei into Sichuan and let him attack Zhang Lu and defend Yizhou.
Against the background that zhang lu had been unable to do anything, Liu Zhang learned that Cao Cao was preparing to attack Hanzhong, which made him even more worried. Therefore, Liu Zhang sent Fazheng and Meng Da to lead 4,000 troops to meet Liu Bei, and Liu Bei led Pang Tong, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Zhuo Yi and other generals into Sichuan. In the end, Liu Bei did not meet Zhang Lubing, but instead broke with Liu Zhang completely in 212 AD. After several years of fighting, Liu Bei finally besieged Chengdu in 214, forcing the benevolent Liu Zhang to abandon resistance. On this basis, Liu Bei took Yizhou as his foundation and established the Shu Han Dynasty, one of the Three Kingdoms.