Chapter 55 Jingkou Agreement

"Borrowing Jingzhou" is also one of the powder kegs repeatedly discussed by later historians, scholars, and quasi-scholars in the history of the Three Kingdoms, and it often sparks controversy. Some people think that the Sun family fought the Battle of Chibi, and the Sun family also took Jiangling. Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou and refused to return it, which is obviously playing a rogue. But another group of people believed that Jingzhou was originally Liu Biao's Jingzhou, or it was also Jingzhou of the Han Empire, not the private territory of his grandson's family.Since Liu Bei and Zhou Yu joined forces to conquer Jingzhou, he should also have a share. The "borrowing" is just the Sun family's diplomatic rhetoric and political language.

This kind of debate is not historical, but rather legal, much like arguing over the sovereignty of a small island in international law.However, there was no international law in the Three Kingdoms era, and domestic law was fragmented, so it was really a thankless task to discuss the affairs of Sun and Liu.The author wants to come, in the final analysis, there is only one sentence: soldiers never tire of deceit.Strength determines everything, and whoever has the hardest fist will own Jingzhou—this is war. Let's first take a look at the situation in Jingzhou at the beginning of the fifteenth year of Jian'an.

At that time, Jingzhou was three-pointed, and Cao Cao's forces retreated to the north of the Han River, controlling all of Nanyang County, as well as the northern part of Nanjun and Jiangxia County.The coast of the Yangtze River from Shaxian in Jiangxia to Jiangling in Nanjun became the domestic waterway for the Sun family.The four counties south of the Yangtze River are Liu Bei's new territory. This is only a rough division. Judging from the development before and after the war, Liu Bei's power may not be limited to the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River. Guan Yu's navy is still patrolling the Han River in theory, and may occupy several small counties in the north of Jiangling.The Yiling (Linjiang County) area at the junction of Jingzhou and Yizhou may also be controlled by Zhang Fei's troops.Liu Bei's own troops probably stayed on the south bank of the Yangtze River to guard the camp for Zhou Yu.

In addition to these original troops, Liu Bei's military strength had another major supplement at the end of the 14th year of Jian'an. It was an army composed of tens of thousands of Huainan people, and the commander was Lei Xu.They wandered from Lujiang to Jingzhou, and begged General Liu Zuo to take them in.For Liu Bei, this is really a good thing. Speaking of this Huainan wandering army, we have to mention an old friend——Yuan Shu. It is said that in the fourth year of Jian'an, when Yuan Shu was defeated in Shouchun, several of his generals stationed abroad still had considerable strength.In addition to Liu Xun who was stationed in Wancheng in the south of Lujiang River, Chen Lan and Lei Bo who were stationed in Lushan Mountain in the north of Lujiang River (about today's Lu'an City, Anhui Province) were equally powerful. The rich agricultural and fishery resources in the area, as well as the topographic barriers of the Dabie Mountains, formed several independent military groups, each with tens of thousands of troops, forming a powerful force between Cao Cao and Sun Quan.

After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao decided to attack Sun Quan from Huainan instead.When Zhou Yu was still fighting with Cao Ren in Jiangling, and Liu Bei was busy stabilizing Jingnan, Cao Cao had already trained a new navy from his hometown Qiao County (more than 20 years later, Sima Yi formed the Jingzhou Navy) . In July of the fourteenth year of Jian'an, this freshly baked navy entered the newly built Huainan important town of Hefei through the Guohe, Huaihe, Feishui and other waterways, preparing to be ashamed of the Red Cliff.The former Yuan Shu forces in Huainan became the main obstacle preventing Cao Jun from continuing to advance south.

Facing the Huainan armies that have settled in the mountains for ten years and have formed a climate, Cao Jun's front-line generals almost mobilized, Zhang Liao, Yu Jin, Zhang Jai, Zang Ba and other troops attacked Chen Lan and Mei Cheng respectively, and another heavyweight commander in Cao Jun Xia Houyuan was in charge of attacking Lei Xu. After all, the anti-government armed forces could not defeat the government's regular army. The Huainan armies could not withstand the fierce offensive of Cao's army and were defeated one after another. In addition to these Huainan troops, the vast Jingzhou is also Liu Bei's human resource pool.After the Battle of Chibi, Jingzhou scholars rushed into Liu Bei's camp frantically, including Ma Liang who was "the best with white eyebrows", Liao Li who was "the best talent in Chu", and Jiang Wan, Xi Zhen, Yin Guan, Pan Jun and others. The batch of heroes also became Liu Bei's younger brother successively at this time.

For the new Nanjun prefect Zhou Yu, these Liu Bei's troops, which are constantly expanding and scattered like cockroaches, are an annoying and unsolvable problem.If they stay at the garrison, the Jiangdong Army will not be able to force it.In desperation, Zhou Yu had no choice but to take a small step back and give Liu Bei the part south of the Yangtze River in Nanjun. First, this "Jiangnan Land" is connected to the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is inconvenient for Zhou Yu to control it; second, it is a warning to Liu Bei: You already have Your own territory, hurry up and get out!

Of course, Liu Bei accepted this small gift with pleasure. He began to build a city at the mouth of the Youjiang River, named Gong'an, and made it the base camp of Liu's group. In fact, everyone on the earth knows that Liu Bei wants more than these, his goal is the whole Nanjun. On this day, Zhou Yu was looking at the map of Jingzhou in Jiangling City. He discovered to his dismay that Liu Bei's forces were all to the west, south, and north of him, and his only backup, Cheng Pu, was in Shaxian, two hundred and fifty kilometers away. It can be connected with Jiangling by the Yangtze River waterway.The soldiers he brought from Jiangdong became less and less, while Liu Bei's troops increased exponentially.

Thinking of this, the arrow wound on his waist began to ache again. At this time, news came from Jiangling's intelligence department: Liu Qi, the former governor of Jingzhou, died of illness, and Liu Bei had already set off for Jiangdong to visit Sun Quan, preparing to discuss the ownership of Jingzhou's sovereignty. Zhou Yu was stunned for a moment. Since Cao Cao's army entered Huainan last year, he had more or less sensed a discordant atmosphere in Sun Quan's shogunate: Sun Quan withdrew from Chaisang and moved to Jingkou in the east, which is today's Zhenjiang area in Jiangsu. Among the troops attacking Jiangling, Cheng Pu was stationed in Shaxian, Lu Meng returned to Xunyang, and Lu Su was recalled to Jingkou, leaving Zhou Yu alone on the westernmost Jiangling front line.

Zhou Yu thought to himself that Liu Bei must have seen this too. When Fankou first met more than a year ago, he didn't think much of this wandering warlord who had been defeated in all battles, but now he has to admire Liu Bei's strong mass base and his ability to see through stitches. If he continues to develop like this, The results of the Jiangdong people's hard work in the past year are very likely to fall into the hands of this hero. So Zhou Yu made up his mind: Nanjun cannot be let go, and Liu Bei, a serious problem in his confidant, must be dealt with. He immediately wrote a letter to Sun Quan, saying that Liu Bei is a generation of heroes, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are "bear and tiger generals", and the entire Liu Group will never be controlled by others. Therefore, the best way is to use money, luxury houses, etc. , the beautiful woman lured Liu Bei to stay in Jiangdong, and then separated the two groups of Guan and Zhang into two places, and each followed the generals of Jiangdong to fight. Such a big event can be decided.If these three people get together and give them land, one day they will get out of control, and it will be too late to regret.

The camera turns back to Liu Bei. His visit to Jingkou this time, just as Zhou Yu expected, was to try his best to gain complete control over Nanjun, but this approach also attracted a lot of noise: Zhuge Liang believed that Liu Bei would be detained if he entered Jiangdong alone. Dangerous, this is tantamount to giving Zhou Yu the public security court for nothing. But Liu Bei did not accept such a risk assessment, he still decided to meet the legendary Jiangdong young master in person (the two had never met before). According to Liu Bei's own recollection afterwards, his adventurous visit this time was completely a last resort.After all, if the Jiangdong Army takes root in Nanjun, he may not even get half of the pie in the future, so this risk is worth taking. However, the author believes that Liu Bei should have reasonably assessed the risks in advance, and believed that in the case of Cao Cao's forces in the north, Sun Quan still had to rely on his strength in Jingzhou.In other words, Liu Bei is full of self-confidence. Judging from the current subjective and objective situation, Sun Quan will not only dare not touch him, but will also take the initiative to hand over the ruling power of Jingzhou. In this way, in the second half of the fifteenth year of Jian'an, Liu Bei, who was 49 years old, and Sun Quan, who was 28 years old, the two giants in the late Han Dynasty, met for the first time in their lives in Jingkou. At the meeting, Liu Bei said in a low voice: Due to too many people and horses attached, the small piece of land in the south of the Yangtze River allocated by Zhou Yu is not enough to accommodate it. I hope that I can borrow the land of "several counties" in the east of the Yangtze River and hope that General Sun will be fulfilled. How Sun Quan responded is not recorded in historical materials, but the turmoil outside the venue is more eye-catching. In addition to Zhou Yu's secret letter, Lu Fan, a veteran left behind in Jiangdong, also advised Sun Quan to detain Liu Bei, but Lu Su put forward a different opinion.He said: Cao Cao's strength is still strong, and the Sun family has not yet won the hearts of the people when they first won Jingzhou. It is best to rely on Liu Bei's popularity in Jingzhou to increase Cao Cao's enemies. Sun Quan finally adopted Lu Su's opinion. Not only did he not detain Liu Bei, he also recognized Liu Bei's status as the new Jingzhou shepherd, and agreed that he would supervise the Jingzhou counties other than Jiangxia. In order to repay Sun Quan's kindness, Liu Bei played Sun Quan as a chariot general (a rank higher than Liu Bei's left general), led Xuzhou pastoral, and recognized Sun Quan's mastery of the East. The development of the above situation was completely in Liu Bei's imagination, but then, Sun Quan did something that Liu Bei couldn't even guess - Sun Quan sent his sister as an accessory to Jingzhou. Gave it to Liu Bei. Buy one get one free, Liu Bei has made a lot of money this time. The matter of Sun Quan's marriage to his younger sister is a slow watch, and the current "Jingkou Agreement" has set the tone for the policy of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two parties.However, after all, the agreement was only in black and white. Regarding the division of the actual territory and the army, Sun and Liu did not discuss further.Zhou Yu was still in Jiangling, Sun Quan didn't want to touch him, and Liu Bei naturally didn't want to stay in Jingkou for more. When leaving Jingkou, Liu Bei said to Sun Quan in private: "Duke Zhou Jin is versatile in both civil and military affairs, and the hero of thousands of people, but I think he is quite ambitious, and I am afraid he will have the heart of disobedience." Poor Zhou Gongjin, who was thousands of miles away in Jiangling, worked hard for the Sun family's career, but in the end she was sued by Liu Bei.Fortunately, Sun Quan had always trusted Zhou Yu, and did not take Liu Bei's "kind reminder" seriously. In addition, Lu Su, Zhou Yu's hidden stake next to Sun Quan, did not listen to his command, which made him completely lose control of the Jingkou talks. When the news reached his ears, Liu Bei had already become his leader. immediate boss. What's even more exasperating is that Liu Bei had just left Jingkou before he issued a new personnel order.He appointed Guan Yu as the prefect of Xiangyang, general of Dangkou, stationed in Jiangbei, and changed Linjiang County to Yidu County, and appointed Zhang Fei as prefect of Yidu, General of Zhenglu, and Marquis of Xinting. Compressed by two-thirds. Here is a little explanation, "Xiangyang County" and "Linjiang County" are not Liu Bei's inventions, but Cao Cao's ideas. Cao Cao took Jingzhou more than a year ago, and immediately divided Nanjun. Yiling three counties in the west of Nanjun were separated to form Linjiang County, and Xiangyang, Yicheng, Linju and other counties in the north of Nanjun were separated to form Xiangyang County. Only Jiangling, Zhijiang, Dangyang and other counties remained in the Nanjun area. In other words, Liu Bei secretly changed the concept and did not move Zhou Yunan County's position as the prefect. Instead, he made Guan Yu the Xiangyang prefect and compressed Zhou Yu in Jiangling.The appointment of Zhang Fei was even more fatal. Yiling was originally taken down by the Jiangdong army with all their might. Zhang Fei may have been sent to stay behind later, but now he is turning his back on the hostess. Facing the shameless pressing of the Liu Bei Group, Zhou Yu couldn't bear it.Regardless of the arrow wound on his body, he insisted on going to Jingkou to meet Sun Quan. Facing Sun Quan, he proposed a crazy battle plan: attack Bashu. The specific plan is: Zhou Yu himself will march into Yizhou together with Danyang prefect and Fenwei general Sun Yu, annex Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu in one go, and then Sun Yu will stay in Bashu and form an alliance with Xiliang Ma Chao, while Zhou Yu will return to Xiangyang and split the road Attack, crusade against Cao Cao. Sun Yu was Sun Quan's cousin and the most important general in the Sun family at that time. He once cooperated with Zhou Yu to attack the Shanyue people in Danyang County. Most of them are led by Sun Yu. However, even if Zhou Yu and Sun Yu are "a pair of jades", when Jingzhou is not yet stable, it is really a risky move to send troops to Yizhou. Let alone the strength of the troops, the supply alone is a big problem.Furthermore, if you really want to attack Shu, you will have to pour all the power of the whole country. In this way, the land of Wu will be empty. What if Liu Bei or Cao Cao take the opportunity to attack?How could Zhou Yu, who has always been shrewd, make such a low-level mistake? However, what is even more incredible is that Sun Quan actually approved it! Some scholars once believed that this was Zhou Yu's anger with Sun Quan, and some people said that this was Zhou Yu's last fight before his death.So the reason why Sun Quan recognized it, can it also be interpreted as "also in a fit of anger"? However, from a pragmatic point of view, the author thinks that this is a reminder from Zhou Yu to Sun Quan. In the harmonious atmosphere of "Sun-Liu friendship" at that time, Zhou Yu wanted to use the attack on Shu to remind people who are close to Liu that they must not be deliberately attacked by Liu Bei. Blinded by the illusion he created, he is by no means as innocent as he appears on the surface. Liu Bei is a hero, and both Jingzhou and Yizhou are his coveted targets. His existence will pose a huge threat to Jiangdong's hegemony.The author thinks that this is what Zhou Yu wants to tell everyone. In this way, it is not difficult to explain Sun Quan's weird behavior. He responded to Zhou Yu's "Liu Bei is not credible" with "recognition". Whether you believe it or not, anyway, I believed.This is Sun Quan's attitude. As a result, Zhou Yu was forced into a corner and had to return to Jiangling for preparations.He was depressed at first, but the more than 2,000-kilometer journey between Jiangling and Jingkou made his arrow wound worse. On the way back to Jiangling, when he passed Baqiu, Zhou Yu finally couldn't bear it anymore, and died of illness at the age of thirty-six. age. Regarding the cause of Zhou Yu's death, there is no clear record in the history books, but only two simple words: sickness and death.However, scholars of later generations generally believed that it was caused by the recurrence of the arrow injury. The so-called "disease death" may be caused by recurrence of arrow injury or other diseases. In short, the cause of death is unknown.Here, the author puts forward a bold hypothesis for readers' reference. Do you still remember that more than a year ago, it was in Baqiu that Cao Jun encountered a strange plague. As a result, hundreds of thousands of lives were taken away, which indirectly led to the defeat in the Battle of Chibi.But now Zhou Yu also died in Baqiu, and the cause of death was mysterious. Could it be that the "Bakiu virus" from the past still remained, and Zhou Yu was weak, so unfortunately he was infected and died? But no matter whether it was the recurrence of the arrow injury or the virus infection, Zhou Yu's death is an indisputable fact. The young talent who was called Zhou Lang by countless Jiangdong people, the elder brother who supported Sun Quan's superiority and turned the tide, the Zuo Dudu who burned down the mighty Cao Cao in Chibi, and the most dazzling military star of that era , finally did not escape the ultimate fate of human beings, turned into a dazzling star, fell into the long river of history, leaving infinite myths for future generations. The great river goes east, the waves wash away, and there are romantic figures through the ages.On the west side of the old base, the human way is, Zhou Lang Chibi of the Three Kingdoms.The rocks pierced through the sky, the stormy waves hit the shore, and thousands of piles of snow were rolled up.Picturesque, a moment how many hero.Thinking back to the time when Gongjin was young, Xiao Qiao was married for the first time, and she was majestic and heroic.Feather fans and scarves, while talking and laughing, masts and sculls are wiped out in ashes.If you travel in the motherland, you should laugh at me passionately, and you will be born early.Life is like a dream, and a bottle is still pouring into Jiangyue. Su Shi's eternal poem "Nian Nujiao Chibi Nostalgia" is the best portrayal of Zhou Yu's life.