Liu Bei Borrowed Jingzhou

Liu Bei borrows money from Jingzhou: historical truth and strategic game The saying "Liu Bei borrowed from Jingzhou - never repaid the loan" is widely circulated, but the historical truth is actually the exquisite political game during the Three Kingdoms period. Liu Bei did not borrow the entire Jingzhou, but only the Jiangling area at the core of Nanjun. There are seven counties in Jingzhou, and they were divided into three parts after the Battle of Chibi: Cao Cao took Nanyang County and the northern part of Jiangxia County, Sun Quan took the southern part of Jiangxia County and most of Nanjun, and Liu Bei captured the four southern counties of Jingzhou. After Zhou Yu died of illness, Liu Bei asked to borrow Nanjun on the grounds that the land was small and it was difficult to secure the people. Lu Su advocated borrowing land and wanted to use Liu Bei's western front to fight Cao Cao to reduce the pressure on Soochow; Sun Quan weighed the situation that Hefei on the eastern front was threatened by Cao Cao and needed allies to resist Cao Cao, and finally agreed to shrink the defense line and focus on Jiangdong. After Liu Bei captured Yizhou, Sun Quan sent Zhuge Jin to ask for its return, but Liu Bei excused it by saying "take coolness and return Jingjing". Sun Quan sent Lu Meng to seize three counties, which coincided with Cao Cao's attack on Hanzhong. Liu Bei was afraid of losing Shu territory, so the two sides reached an agreement on the demarcation of the Xiang River: Changsha, Jiangxia, and Guiyang returned to Wu, and Nanjun, Lingling, and Wuling returned to Shu. Jingzhou has a key geographical location, and Zhuge Liang called it "a country that uses force." This matter was definitely not Liu Bei's fault. The four counties in Jingnan took it upon himself. It was actually Sun Liu's strategic arrangement to resist Cao. The differences in cognition between the two sides were finally balanced by demarcation. This incident is not only the embodiment of a complex game, but also an important turning point for the Sun-Liu alliance from unity to division.