Liu Bei-the Biggest Winner of Red Cliff (Three Kingdoms 55)
History of China-Three Kingdoms
Previous Chapter ：What Happened After the Battle of Red Cliff
Catalog of Three Kingdoms’ history
At the beginning of 209 A.D., after the Battle of Red Cliff , Zhou Yu周瑜 led the main force of Eastern Wu across the Yangtze River and stationed on the north bank to confront Cao Ren曹仁 in the city of Jiangling江陵.
At this time, Liu Bei was also in the army with Zhou Yu, he knew the importance of Jiangling, but he had too few soldiers, and the task of frontal attack he was neither involved in, nor capable of taking the lead, so the situation was very embarrassing. So Liu Bei took the initiative to say to Zhou Yu: "Jiangling city is rich in food and supplies, I'm afraid it's hard to conquer, I'll send Zhang Fei to lead 1000 fierce soldiers to help you to attack the city together, and you'll also share 2000 soldiers with me, I'll look for a chance to go to cut off the connection between Jiangling and Xiangyang襄阳, Cao Ren will definitely abandon the city and flee." Zhou Yu also wanted to use Liu Bei's power to take Jiangling City as early as possible. So he agreed to Liu Bei's request.
Liu Bei, after getting this supplement of 2,000 soldiers , he actually did not go north himself, but sent Guan Yu关羽 to go around the back to perform the task of blocking the way to the north, while Liu Bei himself led Zhao Yun赵云, Zhuge Liang诸葛亮 and others to go south to attack the four commanderies in Southern Jingzhou.
Liu Bei went south, although it is under the name of the Provincial Governor of Jingzhou, Liu Qi刘琦, but in fact, from this time onwards, the interests of the two families of Sun and Liu are stirred together, and it was already impossible to distinguish between them:
Liu Bei fought in four commanderies in southern Jingzhou, borrowed 2000 soldiers from Zhou Yu, and when the job was done, the Eastern Wu had to share the profits. While Zhou Yu attacked Jiangling, Zhang Fei assisted from the side, Guan Yu played guerrilla behind the enemy lines , when the city fell, Liu Bei also have to share the profits. From then on, the two families in Jingzhou each recorded a small account, on the surface they're working together, but secretly they are preventing each other from eating more and taking more.
Before the Battle of Red Cliff, Cao Cao had ordered Liu Ba刘巴, a famous scholar from Jingzhou, to pacify the four commanderies in southern Jingzhou, and the governors of these commanderies surrendered to Cao Cao. Now that Cao Cao's army has lost the control the Yangtze River, and the connection with southern Jingzhou has been severed, the four commanderies have become virtually ownerless. Moreover, the southern Jingzhou is not a strategic place, with fewer soldiers and mighty generals to defend it, so it's too easy to take it down.
As soon as Liu Bei led his army southward, the Governors of Wuling武陵, Changsha长沙, Guiyang桂阳 and Lingling零陵 ,all chose to surrender voluntarily.
It was at this time that Huang Zhong黄忠, a fierce general from Nanyang, joined Liu Bei's army. Huang Zhong had been appointed by Liu Biao刘表 as a General of the Household中郎将, and was stationed in You County攸县 of Changsha, following Liu Biao's nephew, Liu Pan刘磐.
Both Liu Pan and Huang Zhong were fierce generals, so the two often went east into Yangzhou’s territory to attack and plunder, and no one could beat them. After Sun Ce孙策 took charge of YangZhou扬州, he appointed his mighty general Taishi Ci太史慈 to deter Liu Pan and Huang Zhong.
When Cao Cao conquered Jingzhou, Liu Pan had already been dead, so he appointed Huang Zhong as an acting Associate-Genera裨将军, under the command of the governor of Changsha. When Changsha surrendered to Liu Bei, Huang Zhong then followed Liu Bei's command.
In the same year, Sun Quan attacked Hefei合肥 for the first time and ended in failure. In order to completely solve the problem of roving bandits in the area to the south of Huai River, Cao Cao dispatched Xiahou Yuan夏侯渊 and other generals to Lujiang庐江 Commandery to conquer Lei Xu雷绪 and other bandits, who were former generals under Yuan Shu袁术. After Lei Xu was defeated, he led more than 50,000 of his subordinates and family members to join Liu Bei.
Soon after ,Liu Qi fell ill and died, his subordinates together recommended Liu Bei to be the Provincial Governor of Jingzhou. It turned out that Liu Biao's former subordinates and the local scholars and powerful people in Jingzhou also came to Liu Bei. For example, Ma Liang马良, Xi Zhen习桢, Yin Guan殷观 and others. It is probable that Wei Yan魏延, a Yiyang man, also submitted to Liu Bei at this time with his subordinates.
At this time ,Liu Bei held the southern part of Jingzhou, received the soldiers and horses of the four commanderies, after Lei Xu's troops and Liu Biao&Liu Qi's former troops, his strength has reached to several tens of thousands of soldiers. At the age of 49 years old , Liu Bei, thus becoming the biggest beneficiary of the Battle of Red Cliffs. In the past 25 years since he started his military career in Zhuo commandery涿郡, except for a brief period of time when he occupied Xuzhou, Liu Bei has always lived a life as a vassal, and has been repeatedly treated as a mercenary soldier. It is not until today that he is truly considered a warlord.
Liu Bei then enthroned the meritorious ministers in his capacity as the Provincial Governor of Jingzhou, appointing Guan Yu as the General of Sweeping Away Bandits,the later Governor of Xiangyang; Zhang Fei as the General of Conquering Enemy 征虏将军,the later Governor of Yidu宜都, with the title of Marquis of Xin village; Zhao Yun as the Supporting General偏将军, concurrently serving as the Governor of Guiyang; and Zhuge Liang as the Strategy General of Household军师中郎将, stationed at Linzheng临蒸, responsible for the management of the government of the three commanderies of Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling, with Liu Bei himself stationing his army in GongAn公安.
A new and powerful force was born from then on. At this moment, Liu Bei, I'm afraid no one can underestimate him anymore!
To be Continued.
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