Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Liu Bang and Liu Bei are different

Who is Liu Bang?Not to mention everyone knows.Who is Liu Bei?Everyone knows it without saying it.As the founding monarch of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang's historical achievements are far greater than Liu Bei's; as one of the protagonists in classic masterpieces, Liu Bei's reputation is obviously more than Liu Bang's.Although more than 400 years separated the two fathers, Liu Bei, as the descendant of Liu Bang's grandson Zhongshan King Liu Sheng, was exactly the same as his ancestor Liu Bang in terms of personality, hobbies, ambitions and economic conditions in his early years, quite similar.

Liu Bang was the head of the pavilion in his early years. He was a small official with the size of sesame seeds and mung beans, roughly equivalent to the captain of the brigade (composed of several villages) during the People's Commune period.This kind of low-level civil servant's salary is pitifully low, and he is lazy, drunk and lustful, so his family is poor and clinking.What he likes most, apart from wine and beauty, is to make friends, whether it is a local ruffian or a high-ranking official in the county government.Once, on a business trip, Liu Bang saw Qin Shihuang's car and guard of honor, and he couldn't help feeling envious, and uttered an admiration that shocked the past and the present: "A man should be like this!" Probably since then, he has had the idea of ​​​​doing something big.

Coincidentally, Liu Bei lost his father when he was young, and he made a living by selling straw sandals and making straw mats. When he was 15 years old, his uncle Liu Yuanqi sponsored him to go to school to learn to read.However, Liu Bei does not "study hard and make progress every day", but likes to have fun, pursues clothes, and plays around with friends and companions all day long. Liu Yuanqi can't control him at all, he can only sigh!However, Liu Bei has higher aspirations. When he was playing with his friends, he once pointed to a big mulberry tree in the southeast corner of his house and said that when he grows up, he will be able to often ride in a "Yubao Covered Car" like that mulberry tree. (An ancient royal chariot).

Although both Liu Bang and Liu Bei were ambitious and full of pride, the political directions they chose were completely different. Liu Bang took the revolutionary road of the "rebels". In 209 BC, the last year of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up and established the "Zhang Chu" regime.Liu Bang killed the county magistrate in Pei County and raised troops to respond. Everyone called him "Pei Gong".He called on the local youth to join the procession, and three thousand people were soon assembled.Later, this team joined with Xiang Liang's (Xiang Yu's uncle) team and jointly supported King Chu Huai's grandson Xiong Xin as the new King Chu Huai.In August 206 BC, Liu Bang led his army into Guanzhong, Qin Prince Ying came out, and the Qin Dynasty fell.Soon, Xiang Yu, who had far more troops than Liu Bang, led his troops to take over Guanzhong and control most of the country's territory.Later, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself the overlord of Western Chu and Liu Bang the king of Han, and let him rule Bashu and Hanzhong.

But Liu Bei is an out-and-out "royalist". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government was corrupt, the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the world was in chaos. In 184 AD, Liu Bei relied on money from horse dealer friends to form an armed force of two to three hundred people. After the uprising was suppressed, Liu Bei relied on his military merits to become a county lieutenant (equivalent to a deputy county magistrate) in Anxi (southeast of Ding County, Hebei today), in charge of public security and prison service in a county.In order to seek better development, Liu Bei successively took refuge in Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Liu Biao and others, and finally united with Sun Quan to defeat Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi before gaining a foothold in Jingzhou.In 214 AD, Liu Bei, who was developing westward, led the army to "peacefully liberate" Chengdu, took over Yizhou Mu, became the ruler of the Bashu area like his ancestor Liu Bang, and quickly captured Hanzhong from Cao Cao.

History has pushed Liu Bang and Liu Bei to the same crossroads again, so will their endings be the same? After gaining a firm foothold in Bashu, Liu Bang adopted Han Xin's strategy of "building plank roads openly and crossing Chencang secretly" to attack the Guanzhong area. Next, his army grew from small to large, from weak to strong, and his territory became larger and larger. The self-willed Xiang Yu rushed to the Wujiang River.Xiang Yu was defeated, drew his sword and killed himself, and Liu Bang unified most of China (at that time, there was a Nanyue Kingdom in Guangdong and Guangxi, and it was later submitted to the central government).The little pavilion chief who envied Qin Shihuang back then actually turned his back on the south and turned his back on the north, and became the emperor, and created a four-hundred-year-old country of the Han Dynasty, which is much better than Qin Shihuang's short-lived dynasty!

According to the blueprint drawn by Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Dui", Liu Bei also wanted to rush out of Shu, point his sword at Chang'an, and then sweep the Central Plains to dominate the world.It's a pity that the luck was not good, and there was no holiday. Liu Bei died of illness in Baidi City after losing the battle of Yiling, leaving this burden to the loyal Zhuge Liang.Zhuge Liang left Qishan six times, and his successor, Jiang Wei, conquered the Central Plains nine times. Although he also achieved some victories, the situation changed. So in the end, it can only be a spring dream gone away, leaving regrets in the world.

Liu Bang and Liu Bei were similar in the early years, and then one rebelled and the other defended the emperor, but they all came to the same goal by different routes, and both occupied the land of Bashu.Both of them went north to Guanzhong to sweep away the ambitions of the world. In the end, the former's grand plan was displayed, "Wei Jia Hai Nei returned to his hometown, and An's warriors guarded the four directions", while the latter "swallowed Wu with hatred" and collapsed in Yong'an Palace. Left behind the eternal lament.The taste here is worth pondering for future generations.