It was a tragedy that Liu Biao lived during the Three Kingdoms period, because he was already very old and was born during the period of Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty, when his relatives were still in power.
So by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Biao was actually very old. Later Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, etc. of the Three Kingdoms were all born during the Emperor Huan period, so they were much younger than Liu Biao.
Some people say that Liu Biao defended such a huge advantage but did not strive for world hegemony. He really wasted his reputation as an imperial relative. In fact, you are all wrong. Isn't it possible that someone who could calm down the chaotic situation in Jingzhou at that time was incompetent?
Does Liu Biao have it? I think he does. However, because he did not go to the Central Plains to compete, he was regarded as a timid person. However, this is all based on effect. If it were us, we would not necessarily be better than him.
Liu Biao
The battle of Guandu that left the deepest impression on people was the Battle of Guandu. Many people said why Liu Biao didn't participate in the Battle of Guandu? What a great opportunity to annihilate Cao Cao.
Moreover, Yuan Shao also invited Liu Biao to attack Cao Cao. At that time, Liu Biao had 100,000 soldiers and horses, but he did not help, leaving the misunderstanding that he was a mediocre man. Today, I will explain from three aspects why Liu Biao did not help at that time.
Liu Biao, courtesy name Jingsheng, was one of the heroes in the late Han Dynasty and was a pastor in Jingzhou. Everyone has always had a prejudice against Liu Biao, saying that Liu Biao was "too weak" and could only be a "conservative thief".
Everyone’s impression probably comes from the Battle of Guandu. In that battle, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fought fiercely. Then Yuan Shao contacted Liu Biao to send troops. As a result, Liu Biao had 100,000 troops, but he was too timid and did not send troops. In the end Missing the opportunity, Yuan Shao was defeated miserably, and Cao Cao aspired to the north.
Because of this incident, everyone felt that Liu Biao was too weak. If he had sent troops at that time, he would have been able to share Cao Cao's territory equally with Yuan Shao. In fact, it was not that Liu Biao was too weak and unwilling to send troops at that time! It was just that the situation in Jingzhou at that time made it impossible for Liu Biao to send troops!
In fact, not only everyone thought so, but even Jia Xu at the time thought so too. He said this:
Jia Xu said: "Biao, there are three talents in ordinary times; if there is no change, he is doubtful and indecisive, and he is unable to do anything."
It is said that Liu Biao faced a great situation like the Battle of Guandu, but ended up sticking to a miserable place like Jingzhou. It can be seen that Liu Biao was a person who did nothing.
In fact, there is another person who thinks so too. Who is he? He is the famous author of the Three Kingdoms, Chen Shou. What did he say?
"The Biography of Liu Biao": "Taizu and Yuan Shaofang were in a stalemate in Guandu. Shao sent people for help, but they did not come as promised, and he did not help Taizu, hoping to protect the Jiang-Han Dynasty."
Chen Shou said that when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were in a stalemate in the Guandu area, Yuan Shao sent people to ask Liu Biao for help. Liu Biao agreed to send troops, but in the end he let Yuan Shao go, so Liu Biao only wanted to protect Jingzhou.
In fact, Chen Shou is a bit unkind at this point. Earlier, he wrote that Liu Biao "rided into Jingzhou alone" and stabilized Jingzhou with his decisive killing and strategy. Later, he also wrote that Liu Biao sent troops in the Battle of Wancheng. Support Zhang Xiu.
Zhang Xiuliao is Zhang Ji's nephew, who was originally from the Xiliang Army. They are all the mortal enemies of the Han Dynasty! Under such circumstances, Liu Bei still dared to send troops to help Zhang Xiu fight Cao Cao.
So why was Liu Biao afraid to help Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu? How did he suddenly become a "thief guarding the city"? This logic does not hold up!
But I have to admit that Liu Biao did want to protect Jingzhou, and he did let Yuan Shao go, but he couldn't help it! This is because Liu Biao's men rebelled at this time!
At that time, Liu Biao had already prepared his army to attack Cao Cao, but he encountered the biggest rebellion in Liu Biao's life. The rebel was a man named Zhang Xian, who was the governor of Changsha at that time.
Needless to say, Zhang Xian rebelled alone, and he also led three surrounding counties to rebel together! Liu Biao panicked all of a sudden. This meant that most of Jingzhou was no longer in Liu Biao's hands. Do you think Liu Biao could not panic?
Seven counties of Jingzhou
Don't think that Jingzhou is very big. There were 7 counties in Jingzhou at that time. Why worry about such a small rebellion? Because at that time, Nanyang County was basically under Cao Cao's place, and Jiangxia had to guard against Jiangdong. So in fact, Liu Biao had only 5 counties. Therefore, as soon as Zhang Xian rebelled, all four counties under Liu Biao rebelled, which is equivalent to saying that half of Jingzhou was no longer in Liu Biao's hands.
The four counties that rebelled were Wuling County, Lingling County, Guiyang County, and Changsha County. This can be found in the book
"(Zhang Xian) first worked on Lingling and Guiyangchang, and he was very popular among Jiang and Hunan."
With such a big rebellion, Liu Biao himself was so worried that he couldn't care about Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's affairs, so it's not that Liu Biao was too weak at all.
It's just that Liu Biao couldn't spare his hands at all. If it hadn't been for this rebellion, Cao Cao's life would definitely not have been easy.
Let's talk about why Zhang Xian rebelled at this time. I think there are two key factors in Zhang Xian's rebellion. One is the encouragement of Zhang Xian's adviser Heng Jie, and the other is Liu Biao's own reasons.
1. Zhang Xian’s adviser Heng Jie added fuel to the flames
At first, Liu Biao agreed with Yuan Shao and attacked Cao Cao together. As a result, Zhang Xian's subordinate Heng Jie came to persuade Zhang Xian not to follow Liu Biao. Although Cao Cao was the weak side in the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao's "serving the emperor to command the princes" was unmatched by anyone.
As for Yuan Shao, he was self-righteous and rebellious, so it was more reliable to surrender to Cao Cao. Zhang Xian listened to Hengjie's lies and raised troops to resist Liu Biao, but there was also the shadow of Cao Cao here.
Who is Hengjie? It turns out that this person was Xiaolian who was recommended by Sun Jian before. It's no wonder. He probably wanted to avenge Sun Jian. Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, a little person who had been ignored before came out and gave Liu Biao a knife!
"I raised Changsha and three neighboring counties to reject the request and sent envoys to visit Taizu."
2. Liu Biao prides himself on being noble
Liu Biao considered himself a member of the Han clan, and the people he usually interacted with were from famous families, so the people around him were basically from big families, such as Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue, Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and others.
But precisely because of this bad habit, many people with real abilities have been buried, such as Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wenpin, etc. In fact, Zhang Xian is also such an unpopular person.
Liu Biao
This is also documented:
"It's not very polite to show off his character. Envy is because he harbors a grudge, so he rebels against Biao Yan."
Then many people will say, why didn't Liu Biao replace these unpopular people? That was actually Liu Biao's own carelessness, because he gained Jingzhou too easily and used many tricks. Therefore, Jingzhou seemed strong, but its actual foundation was not solid!
I still remember when Liu Biao was full of fighting spirit and rode into Jingzhou alone with no soldiers around him. At that time, Jingzhou was facing the threat of Yuan Shu and he had no soldiers and horses, so he had to resort to opportunistic methods.
Liu Biao's advisers Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue and others gave the suggestion that during the beheading operation, the thieves in Jingzhou seemed very strong, but in fact they were all powerful people but they only needed to kill the leaders to pacify Jingzhou.
Then recruit talented people, guard Xiangyang in the north, and occupy Jiangling in the south. In this case, Yuan Shu would be helpless. So what Liu Biao did was:
"Then he sent people from Yue to lure the clan thieves, and they killed all fifty-five of them. They attacked and captured the gongs, and they might be given the title of tribe. Only the Jiangxia thieves Zhang Hu and Chen Sheng supported the gongs and occupied Xiangyang, so they sent Yue and Pang Ji Danqi went to surrender, and the south of the Yangtze River became peaceful."
In this way, Liu Biao pacified Jingzhou without any blood. In fact, this did not reflect his talent. He just relied on his mouth and conspiracy to easily pacify the south of Jingzhou.
Although it is easy to do this, it leaves a huge hidden danger later, that is, there are no confidants of Liu Biao in Jingzhou. If you say Cai Mao and the others, you are wrong. The relationship between the two is at most a cooperative relationship. .
Liu Biao is too old
Zhang Xian was a thoroughly poor scholar, and Liu Biao despised him from the bottom of his heart. However, Zhang Xian had good relations with the other four counties. When Zhang Xian rebelled, the other four counties also followed Zhang Xian in rebellion.
In order to successfully resolve this rebellion, Liu Biao tried his best, and was suppressed and beaten by Zhang Xian for a time. In the end, Zhang Xian died of illness, and Liu Biao was able to pacify Changsha County, and then went south to pacify other counties.
While Liu Biao was fighting hard at home, he finally quelled the civil strife, and Cao Cao also won a complete victory in the Battle of Guandu. At that time, I had no choice but to watch helplessly. It can be said that Zhang Xian's rebellion disrupted the overall deployment!
In the Battle of Guandu, Liu Biao did not go to aid Yuan Shao. It was not that Liu Biao was too cowardly, but the Zhangxian Rebellion at that time forced Liu Biao to be unable to aid Yuan Shao. Of course, it would be strange if there was no trace of Cao Cao in it.
What's more, what you get by trickery is not yours after all. You have to fight it down step by step, then it is yours, for example, Li Shimin.
