Chapter 23 3. Greengage boiled wine

After Lu Bu was eliminated, Cao Cao gave Liu Bei the title of "Left General" and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei the title of "Zhonglang General".In the Three Kingdoms period, General Zuo was a military post inferior to General General, General Hussars, General Chariots and General Wei.However, it sounds beautiful, but it has no real power. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Liu Bei is a hero, and Cao Cao's subordinates also realized that keeping Liu Bei would be a disaster sooner or later.Cheng Yu once advised Cao Cao: "I think Liu Bei is both talented and popular. He will not be reconciled to being under others for a long time. It is better to solve the problem earlier." Cao Cao thought that now is the time to win people's hearts. He will lose the hearts of the people in the world, so let's keep his life. Guo Jia also meant this, so he didn't attack Liu Bei.

Of course Liu Bei knew his situation. His countermeasure was to keep a low profile and rarely go out. He worked as a vegetable farmer in the vegetable garden of General Zuo's Mansion every day and concentrated on developing green vegetable bases. Cao Cao couldn't hold back his curiosity. Could it be that Liu Da'er will put down his ambition and focus on the countryside?So he sent someone to find Liu Bei, intending to talk to him and see what kind of medicine he was selling in this gourd. At that time, it was the turn of spring and summer in 199 AD, the season when plums were ripe. Cao Cao took Liu Bei to the garden, pointed to the plum tree, and first told Liu Bei a story: "When I was marching, there was no water to drink, and the soldiers died again. Thirsty and tired, I told the soldiers that there was a plum grove in front of them, and there were many green plums in it to quench their thirst. The soldiers salivated when they heard this. Now that the plums are ripe again, I cook them with green plums. Some wine, please come and taste."

They were drinking wine when dark clouds appeared in the sky. Cao Cao said, "Look at the old saying that dragons follow clouds and tigers follow wind. Where there are clouds, there will be dragons, and when there are winds, there will be tigers. Look how the clouds in the sky look like Dragons, the characteristics of dragons are that they are fickle and ambitious, just like heroes. Why don't we discuss who is a hero today?" Liu Bei said: "I, Liu Bei, am not qualified to discuss heroes. No one I know Many." Cao Cao said, "It doesn't matter, you don't know anyone, but you've heard it before, and you can see who are heroes?" Liu Bei mentioned Yuan Shu, and Cao Cao replied, "There are dry bones in the tomb." Liu Bei said again Yuan Shao and Cao Cao replied: "There is nothing to worry about." In this way, Liu Bei made a list, all of which were rejected by Cao Cao.Liu Bei said, then I don't know who else is a hero.Cao Cao pointed at Liu Bei with his finger, then pointed at himself, and said, "To talk about the heroes of the world today, there are only Liu Shijun, you and Cao Cao."

When Liu Bei heard this, he panicked all of a sudden, the vegetables that he had planted for so long were all in vain, and he saw through them, should he kill me next?While eating, the chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground with a bang.Cao Cao said, why are you doing this?Just as the thunder was rumbling in the sky, Liu Bei quickly covered it up and said, "Oh, look, this thunder scares me like this."It is said that Cao Cao just heard Liu Bei's explanation, thinking that Liu Bei had limited courage, so he dispelled his doubts about him. Afterwards, Cao Cao was not completely relieved, so he sent someone to follow Liu Bei's mansion to peep.Seeing that Liu Bei was still as usual, leading some servants to pick up vegetables in the vegetable field, Cao Cao believed that Liu Da'er had indeed lost his ambition, and devoted himself to farming, giving up the idea of ​​entering politics.

It's a pity that the scheming Cao Cao missed Liu Bei for a while and mistook Liu Bei.How many blows Liu Bei has experienced without giving up his ideals, how can he be willing to retire to the countryside this time?All of these are just acting for Cao Cao.But Liu Bei already knew that staying with Cao Cao meant he would spend his whole life farming, so he began to look for opportunities to leave. Liu Bei was looking for an opportunity, and the opportunity came to him.Yuan Shu had been the self-proclaimed emperor for two years, and all the people betrayed his relatives. He couldn't stay in Huainan any longer, so he went to Qingzhou to join Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan.How could Cao Cao tolerate this clown who betrayed the court?He planned to send someone to intercept and kill Yuan Shu.Who should I send?Liu Bei hurriedly came to express his opinion that he was going to Xuzhou to intercept Yuan Shu.Cao Cao didn't think about it, and agreed with Liu Bei to go with General Zhu Ling.Liu Bei was afraid that Cao Cao would change his mind, so he hurriedly led his troops to Xuzhou on the pretext that the fighter opportunity was fleeting.

As soon as Cheng Yu and Guo Jia heard that Liu Bei had escaped, they came to Cao Cao as an afterthought: "Liu Bei can't be let go!" Letting Liu Bei go is tantamount to letting the tiger go back to the mountain, and there will be disasters in the future.Only then did Cao Cao wake up, but he was too late to regret it. After gaining freedom, Liu Bei fled Xuchang with his brothers, just like a bird escaped from a cage and a fish returned to the sea. Liu Bei never came back. When they arrived in Xuzhou, Liu Bei stopped Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu had no choice but to return to Shouchun, and soon passed away in the desolation of not even being able to drink a bowl of honey water.Yuan Shu ran this trip in vain, as if it was only to fulfill Liu Bei.After beating Yuan away, Liu Bei never returned to Xuchang, and Commander Zhu Lingguang went back to Xuchang alone.Liu Bei continued to move forward all the way, and led a team with his brothers to Xiapi City, Xuzhou.

At this time, the governor of Xuzhou was Che Zhou. Perhaps because he had been suppressed for too long in Xuchang, the wildness and rebellion that Liu Bei used to hide was aroused. sent out of the country", but went up and slaughtered the court official Che Zhou, and occupied Xuzhou again.When Liu Bei returned to Xuzhou, not only his brothers were happy, but the people of Xuzhou were also very excited. The amiable and lovely old leader came back again. The counties and counties immediately rebelled against Cao and returned to Liu, and Liu Bei's team grew rapidly.Liu Bei was also unambiguous, let Guan Yu guard Xiapi, and then entered Xiaopei by himself, standing on the front line, and forming a joint attack on Cao Cao with Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao sent Liu Dai and Wang Zhong to beat Liu Bei, but Liu Bei beat him all over the place.Liu Bei also said to them in a very high-spirited and unrestrained manner: "It's useless to come to a hundred people like you. Even if Mr. Cao came by himself, it's hard to say who wins and who loses!" Cao Cao knew people the most in his life. Now that he misjudged Liu Bei, his heart was already hurt. Hearing Liu Bei's coquettish challenge, how could he swallow this breath? Even in the busy schedule of the Guandu War, he still took a moment Er rushed over to clean up Liu Bei himself.Liu Bei expected that Cao Cao would have a hard time dealing with Yuan Shao, and it was impossible to have a chance to deal with him, so he said a big word.Unexpectedly, Cao Cao was much more aggressive than he imagined, and guessing that Yuan Shao was slow to react, he took advantage of this time difference to fly over to find trouble with him.

Liu Bei was leisurely sitting on the mountain watching the duel between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao and the two tigers. When he heard that Cao Cao was coming, he didn't have much to say, just one word - run, turn the horse's head, and once again lost his wife and children and ran away. Cao Cao defeated Liu Bei with lightning speed, captured Guan Yu alive, and regained Xuzhou.Liu Bei ran all the way to Yuan Shao.After the Battle of the White Horse, Yuan Shao sent Liu Bei to pursue Cao Cao. Cao Cao dropped his luggage to attract Liu Jun to fight for it, and then suddenly rushed down from the mountain, beating Liu Bei's men to pieces, and Liu Bei fled like a rabbit again.

After this war, perhaps because he was too embarrassed to stay with Yuan Shao after the defeat, or because he sensed that Yuan Shao was about to lose, Liu Bei decided to leave Yuan Shao.He suggested to Yuan Shao that he go to Liu Biao and unite with Liu Biao to encircle Cao Cao, and Yuan Shao readily agreed. In the autumn of 200 AD, Liu Bei left Yuan Shao and went to Runan with a small number of troops.After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao came to Runan to fight Liu Bei himself.Liu Bei was very self-aware, and fled away before the fight started.After this escape, Liu Bei completely left the Central Plains and came to Jingzhou.Since then, he has never set foot on the land of the Central Plains again.

The ruler of Jingzhou was Liu Biao, the shepherd of Jingzhou. Liu Biao warmly received Liu Bei and handed over Xinye in the north of Jingzhou to Liu Bei.Here, Liu Bei spent seven years of peaceful life until he met Zhuge Liang.Zhuge Liang's plan to divide the world into three parts, we have already described in detail in the first chapter.Zhuge Liang not only described to Liu Bei the blueprint for three parts of the world, but also pointed out to Liu Bei that his most urgent task at this time is to find a base of his own. From Gongsun Zan, Tao Qian, Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, to Liu Biao, Liu Bei has changed six masters; from Pingyuan, Xiaopei, Xuzhou to Xinye, none of the land belongs to Liu Bei.When will we be able to have a base of our own, no longer rely on others, and realize the grand ambitions in our hearts?Can seven years of submersion be exchanged for a chance to soar into the sky? Lao Tzu once said: "The weak overcome the strong, and the soft overcome the hard. No one in the world knows it, and no one can do it." Liu Bei is well aware of this truth. People generally like to show off their strength, but don't know the subtlety of being weak.In fact, staying weak can allow people to save their lives when they are in a trough, so as to wait for the opportunity to come and soar to the sky again.It is not easy to overcome obstacles in adversity, and it is even more difficult to hide your strength and bide your time in adversity, because it tests a person's inner resilience and persistence in beliefs.Whether it is a grand strategy for world hegemony or a philosophy of life to ease personal circumstances, the significance of keeping a low profile is far-reaching.