Chapter 17 2. Liu Bei entered Shu

Liu Bei's ambitions are also expanding. Liu Bei, who originally had nothing, was the biggest beneficiary of the Battle of Chibi.He occupied the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River in what is now Hunan, and half of the southern counties in what is now Hubei.Therefore, on the one hand, Liu Bei kept the empty check of Yuzhou Mu, and on the other hand, he started Jingzhou Mu in a serious manner. However, the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River are the poorest places in Jingzhou, so Liu Bei fixed his eyes on Yizhou, the land of abundance.In the summer of the nineteenth year of Jian'an (AD 214), that is, the second year after Cao Cao was proclaimed the Duke of Wei, Liu Bei's army entered Chengdu, and Liu Zhang, the shepherd of Yizhou, opened the door and surrendered.As a result, Yuzhou Mu and Jingzhou Mu Liu Bei became Yizhou Mu again.

When the news came, Cao Cao was shocked and Sun Quan was angry. Sun Quan has long been playing Yizhou's idea.After Zhou Yu captured Jiangling, Sun Quan took control of the Yangtze River defense line from Yiling (now Yichang, Hubei) in the west to Xunyang (Huangmei, Hubei) in the east, and occupied Jiangxia County in Jingzhou, and began to covet Yizhou.His trouble was that Cao Cao refused to take the north route to Hanzhong via Ankang; he took the south route along the Yangtze River and went west, passing through Liu Bei's territory. So Sun Quan proposed to jointly take Shu with Liu Bei.

This is obviously wishful thinking.Sun Quan is in the east, and Liu Bei is in the west. The two armies are fighting together, and Liu Jun can only go first, and Wu Jun will be in the rear.If you can win Yizhou, Liu Jun has become cannon fodder; if you can't win Yizhou, you can squeeze Liu Bei out of Jingzhou. Of course Liu Bei would not be fooled.He knew very well that Yizhou's army was at the front and Soochow's army was at the back. Wouldn't he become a piece of meat caught in the middle?What's more, even if the alliance succeeds in taking Shu, Liu Bei is not willing, what he wants is to monopolize it.

Sun Quan finally failed. So, what about Cao Cao? After the war, Cao Cao occupied Nanyang County in Jingzhou and the other half of Nanjun County (including Xiangyang), and of course wanted Yizhou.Unfortunately, he not only failed to fulfill his wish, but instead gave Liu Bei a chance. In the spring of the sixteenth year of Jian'an (AD 211), Cao Cao threatened to conquer Zhang Lu in the west in order to force Ma Chao and Han Sui to fight against him.Zhang Lu was in Hanzhong, while Ma Chao and Han Sui were in Guanzhong.To attack Zhang Lu, one must go through the defense lines of Ma Chao and Han Sui.This forced the two to rise up and openly rebel against Cao Cao, and Cao Cao famously killed them.

Cao Cao was originally a conspiracy, but Liu Zhang believed it.Liu Zhang is the son of Yizhou Mu Liu Yan, relying on his father's shadow to separate one side.Of course he knows that Hanzhong is the gateway to Yizhou, and he also knows that once Cao Cao has Zhang Lu's military supplies and army, he will be even more invincible in the world, and he is not an opponent at all. Liu Zhang was helpless. At this time, a man named Zhang Song advised him, suggesting that he ask Liu Bei to fight Zhang Lu.Zhang Song said that Liu Yuzhou and the general belonged to the same family, and he was a deadly enemy with Cao Cao.With Liu Yuzhou in Hanzhong, Cao Cao is not afraid when he comes.

Zhang Song's idea is to eat inside and outside, but Liu Zhang has other plans.In fact, he is afraid of both foreign enemies and internal strife, and he is hoping that someone from the Liu family will help him look after the home.So Zhang Song's suggestion was adopted, and Fazheng sent four thousand soldiers to meet Liu Bei. It's a pity that Liu Zhang tried his best, but he didn't expect that Zhang Song and Fazheng were not loyal ministers. They had already planned to dedicate Yizhou to Liu Bei.Therefore, as soon as Liu Zhang's special envoy Fazheng arrived in Jingzhou, he offered Liu Bei a plan to capture Yizhou.

Liu Bei hesitated. Hesitation is justified.After all, he was asked to help, but he took the opportunity to destroy them, which is really unreasonable.Liu Bei also said that I was able to succeed because everything was the opposite of Cao Cao.If he is eager, I will be gentle; if he is cruel, I will be kind; if he is treacherous, I will be loyal.How can you break your trust this time? At this time, Pang Tong came to speak again. Pang Tong, known as "Phoenix Young", seems to be as famous as Zhuge Liang in history, but in fact he is not the same as "Crouching Dragon". His rhetoric to help Liu Bei dispel his worries is even more logical.According to an unreliable historical source, Pang Tong said that it is only natural to annex the weak and attack the ignorant.Wouldn't it be worthy of Liu Zhang to be named a high official in the future?If we don't act now, sooner or later we will make others cheaper.

This is really unreasonable, but fortunately what Liu Bei wants is just an explanation.In December of the 16th year of Jian'an (AD 211), Liu Bei left Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei to guard Jingzhou. Zhao Yun was the backup. Liu Zhang also rushed from Chengdu to Fucheng (Fu read Rufu, now Mianyang, Sichuan) to greet him personally, and gave Liu Bei a lot of funding.At this time, Liu Bei "merged an army of more than 30,000 people, and the supplies of vehicles, armor and equipment were very abundant", which was enough to deal with Zhang Lu. So, has he gone? No. Liu Bei did not come to fight Zhang Lu, but to seize Yizhou.Therefore, he stopped at Jiameng (Jia read as Jia, now Guangyuan, Sichuan) between Fucheng (Liu Zhang's site) and Yangpingguan (Zhang Lu's site), and then he planted kindness, bought people's hearts, and waited for opportunities.

Opportunities come and go. In October of the seventeenth year of Jian'an (AD 212), Cao Cao conquered Sun Quan in the south.In December, Sun Quan asked Liu Bei for help.Liu Bei pretended to write a letter to Liu Zhang, saying that Sun Quan was close to him, Guan Yu was weak in Jingzhou, and Zhang Lu was just a self-defense thief, so there was nothing to worry about.Therefore, Liu Zhang was asked to give another 10,000 horses and military supplies, so that he could return to Jingzhou for rescue. Liu Zhang had doubts about Liu Bei's actions in Jiameng, but he was even more suspicious when he heard that he "wanted to travel eastward", so he only gave four thousand soldiers and halved the rest.Zhang Song was shocked when he heard the news, and wrote to Fazheng, saying: Our business is about to be completed, how can we fall short?As a result, Zhang Song was denounced by his elder brother Zhang Su, the prefect of Guanghan, and Liu Zhang put him in prison and beheaded him.

Zhang Song's impatience and Liu Zhang's suspicion gave Liu Bei an excuse to attack Shu.At that time, Pang Tong proposed three strategies: top, middle and bottom. The best strategy was to select elite soldiers and travel day and night to surprise Chengdu;Liu Bei adopted Pang Tong's middle strategy, killing Yang Huai and Gao Pei, the guards of Baishuiguan (in today's Qingchuan, Sichuan), and then counterattacked and captured Fucheng. In May of the eighteenth year of Jian'an (AD 213), Liu Bei marched from Fucheng to Chengdu.In May of the following year, Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu to guard Jingzhou, and Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun led the army into Shu, divided the troops into multiple routes, and captured the city.

In the summer of this year, Liu Bei conquered Luocheng (Luo read as Luo, in the north of Guanghan, Sichuan today), joined forces with Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, and entered Chengdu.At this time, Ma Chao also led his troops to join him, and Liu Zhang had become a shackle. So Liu Zhang looked up to the sky and sighed and said: Our father and son have been in Yizhou for more than 20 years. We have treated the people with no kindness or virtue.Then he opened the city gate and surrendered to Liu Bei. This is probably what Cao Cao did not expect.Otherwise, he wouldn't have been unaware and unmoved for two and a half years, but would have swaggered at Sun Quan instead. In fact, Liu Bei's opportunity was given by Cao Cao.When he threatened to conquer Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang led wolves into the house; when he really conquered Sun Quan, Liu Bei took the opportunity to make trouble; It is said that after Liu Bei captured Fucheng, he held a banquet to celebrate his victory.In this regard, Pang Tong expressed disapproval.Perhaps, his conscience found out.Perhaps, he wanted to remind Liu Bei not to get carried away.Anyway, at the banquet, Pang Tong said with a distasteful voice: I am afraid that I am not a soldier of the benevolent if I am happy to occupy other people's territory. At this time, Liu Bei was already drunk, so he flew into a rage and said: "King Wu defeated Zhou, singing before and dancing after, isn't he also a benevolent man?"Get out of here! Later, Liu Bei felt something was wrong and called Pang Tong back. Pang Tong didn't apologize, and just sat down and ate and drank. Liu Bei asked: Who was wrong just now? Pang Tong said: "The monarch and his ministers are not right." Liu Bei laughed and continued drinking and having fun. That's right, Liu Bei can and should laugh.Previously, he had changed hands five times, lost his wife four times, and spent half of his life in trouble, with a bumpy journey, and now he has finally made it through. Sun Quan couldn't laugh.