Liu Feng (? —220), born in Changsha (now Xiangyin, Hunan) at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was the son of Liu Bei, Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han. Liu Feng is a man with extraordinary strength and strong character. He followed Liu Bei in the world and made great achievements. However, after Liu Bei's own son Liu Chan became the heir, Liu Feng was excluded and sent to the border town to be stationed in Shang Yong with Meng Da. Later, Guan Yu, a famous soldier, made a northern expedition to Cao Wei and repeatedly asked Liu Feng to send troops to attack Cao Wei. However, Liu Feng failed to send troops without authorization. After Guan Yu's defeat, Meng Da defected from the Han Dynasty to Wei, and Liu Feng also lost to Chengdu. Liu Bei listened to Zhuge Liang's suggestion, blamed Liu Feng and gave him a seal. Liu Feng was originally the son of the Luo Houkou family and the nephew of the Liu family in Changsha County. After Liu Bei took refuge in Jingzhou, Liu Biao, the secretariat of Jingzhou, temporarily stayed in Jingzhou. At that time, Liu Bei had no son, so he took Liu Feng as his son (not his adopted son), but soon Mrs. Gan gave birth to a sinus for Liu Bei. Later, Liu Bei entered Shu and counterattacked Liu Zhang from Jiameng Pass, so Zhuge Liang and others who stayed in Jingzhou were asked to lead troops to reinforce him. At that time, Liu Feng was only in his twenties, but he had already used force, so he led a great army to attack Yizhou in the west with Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei, and the land he passed was invincible. After pacifying Yizhou, Liu Bei appointed Liu Feng as the deputy army corps commander. In the 23rd year of Jian 'an (2 18), Liu Feng followed Liu Bei to attack Hanzhong. In the twenty-fourth year of Jian 'an (2 19), Liu Bei completely occupied the whole territory of Hanzhong, and sent Yidu satrap Mengda to attack Lingxian County below. Later, Meng Da attacked Shang Yong County. Liu Bei secretly worried that Mengda could not win alone, so he sent Liu Feng down from Shunmian Shuinan in Hanzhong to lead Mengda's army. With a great army, Liu Feng joined forces with Mengda Shang Yong and successfully pushed back Shang Yong's satrap Shen Dan. After the occupation of Shang Yong, Liu Feng was transferred to deputy general. In autumn and July of the same year, Liu Bei was crowned King of Hanzhong. Later, Liu Bei did not choose Liu Feng as the heir, but made Adou (Liu Chan), who was only thirteen years old, as the Crown Prince. Liu Feng's situation and position have become more and more embarrassing. When Guan Yu surrounded Fancheng and Xiangyang, he asked Liu Feng and Meng Da to send troops to help, but Liu Feng and Meng Da refused because they were occupied by Shang Yong County for a long time and dared not leave easily. After Guan Yu's defeat, Liu Bei blamed Liu Feng and Meng Da for it. Previously, Liu Feng and Mengda had quarreled and resented each other, so Liu Feng robbed Mengda's ceremonial band. Meng Da was afraid that Liu Bei would punish Guan Yu for failing to rescue him, and resented Liu Feng's behavior, so he wrote to Liu Bei to say goodbye and led more than 4,000 families to surrender to Cao Wei. After the fall of Wei, Meng Da attacked Liu Feng with Xia Houshang and Huang Xu. He wrote to persuade Liu Feng to surrender, advised him to realize his embarrassing position in Liu Bei's camp, and warned him that "you can't stay long in the face of disaster." But Liu Feng wouldn't listen. Later, Shang Yong satrap Shen Dan and Shen Yi betrayed Liu Feng, who was defeated and retreated to Chengdu. After Liu Feng came to Chengdu, Zhuge Liang worried that Liu Feng was "physically strong and fierce, and it was difficult to control after the world changed", fearing that he would threaten Liu Chan's position in the future and cause future disasters, and advised Liu Bei to get rid of it in time. Finally, Liu Bei ordered Liu Feng to be executed. Liu Feng sighed: "I hate Mencius' words!" When Liu Bei heard this, he shed tears for Liu Feng. Judging from the history books, there are two main reasons for Liu Feng's death. First, Liu Bei held a grudge against Liu Feng for not sending troops to help Guan Yu, which led to Guan Yu's defeat in Maicheng. Besides, as Zhuge Liang said, Liu Feng was a strong man and worried that he would pose a threat to his successor Liu Chan in the future, so he gave Liu Feng the death penalty. It can be seen from the passage "My late master wept for it" that Liu Bei had the will to bear it, but it was indeed a last resort. In fact, Liu Feng's death was also due to the fact that this person did not distinguish the overall situation, did not recognize his unfavorable political stance in time, and did not make favorable decisions. In Meng Da's words, it is: "It is unwise to stay when you know that disaster is coming." To be fair, Liu Feng did not disappoint Liu Bei. As for his failure to send troops to help Guan Yu, it was not the direct cause of Guan Yu's downfall. Guan Yu turned to Liu Feng for help before the defeat, not when Guan Yu was besieged in the novel. The History of the Three Kingdoms records that "Guan Yu surrounded Fancheng and Xiangyang, and even called Guan Yu, so that he sent troops to help." Guan Yu asked for "help" rather than "rescue", and Guan Yu was not at a disadvantage when he led the army to besiege Xiangfan. Therefore, Guan Yu's downfall cannot be directly attributed to Liu Feng's failure to send troops to help, and even if some of Liu Feng's divisions join the battle, it will not necessarily affect the result. Even if Liu Bei resents Liu Feng emotionally, there is no need to kill him, not to mention his feelings for Liu Bei and his son. Therefore, not helping Guan Yu is obviously not Liu Feng's "crime" described in the novel, so what is Liu Feng's cause of death? In fact, it can be seen from the surrender book that Mengda gave him.

There are many words in Meng Da's surrender book, but there are only two reasons: First, Liu Feng has been in a very embarrassing and unfavorable position in politics since Adou became a prince; Second, those who know the times are wise. "It is unwise to wait for the disaster when you know it is coming." Liu Feng's "disaster" mentioned by Meng Da is actually the conclusion drawn by referring to the first truth. Liu Bei adopted Liu Feng not because he was cute, nor because he was brave and invincible. Liu Bei's aim is to solve the problem of no heir for nearly half a century. Unfortunately, shortly after Liu Feng was adopted, Liu Bei had a son. When Adou was young, Liu Bei's career had not been completed, so the problem of heirs was not to be mentioned, so people (Liu Bei's men) ignored it. Perhaps the existence of Liu Feng at this time has nothing to do with this. However, when Liu Bei became the queen of Hanzhong, he always had to determine the heir in the legal sense, that is, clearly declare who was the Crown Prince. As a result, the flowers fell to Adou, and Liu Bei always hoped that the great cause could be inherited by the descendants who were related by blood. The existence of Liu Feng at this time is redundant. However, if Liu Feng is really weak, neglects his duty, has no meritorious military service and plays the fool, maybe people will not notice his redundant existence. However, contrary to expectations, Liu Feng was too conspicuous. Although his military exploits are not outstanding, they are "numerous". The worst thing is that he is strong-willed and arrogant. His intolerance can be seen from his forcing out of Mengda. Adou was young. When Liu Bei was alive, Liu Feng might not dare to make a move. But if Liu Bei dies, he is young and weak, and his ministers and brothers are arrogant. Naturally, it will be "ignoring the corpse and fighting for armor", which may turn into a temple tragedy in which the imperial court seized the throne and internal friction continued. This is what Zhuge Liang foresaw but didn't want to see, and it was also what Liu Bei shuddered, and even people of insight could think of it with their toes. Therefore, Meng Da said almost nakedly in his letter: "The troubled times have not been abolished." There is no disaster that is not due to the abolition and establishment of heirs.

However, it is human nature that Liu Bei will not change Liu Feng as the heir because blood is thicker than water. Then, the only way to avoid tragedy is that redundant existence must disappear. Although this is not the end that Liu Bei wants to see, at least it is more in the interest of Liu Bei's camp to get rid of Liu Feng than the temple tragedy mentioned above. So Mengda told us, "It's better to kiss than to be apart. There may be kindness and love, and sometimes. " (It's not that relatives like to leave, and it's not that relatives like to see their loved ones suffer disasters. Sometimes it's because family ties are transferred to others and they like to change objects. Sometimes slander and alienation)

Liu Feng's death is believed to be because he threatened the position of the late ruler Liu Chan and had to be removed from office. But was it because of Zhuge Liang's persuasion that Liu Bei had to force him to death? Liu Bei respects Zhuge Liang, but he is not obedient. He won't do such a rude thing just by listening to one side of the story. In fact, even Mengda can see through the facts that Liu Bei can't see? Liu Bei ascended the throne in Wang Qian, Hanzhong, and sent Liu Feng from Hanzhong to Shang Yong to support the operation. Later, he was ordered to stay in Shang Yong, so it can be seen that he was not only worried about Mengda's occupation of Shang Yong. Liu Bei sent him away from him, apparently because he didn't want to make disputes within the camp because of the heir problem, so he had to let Liu Feng leave the trouble spot in Hanzhong, because Liu Bei was not cruel enough to want to get rid of him at that time. However, Liu Bei's momentary weakness may have caused a bigger problem. He gave Liu Feng lofty status and power and let him leave the town. This will eventually become a time bomb, and the explosion time may be set when Liu Bei dies. Liu Feng later retreated and fled back to Chengdu, and Zhuge Liang's worries were finally solved. So he advised Liu Bei to cut the grass and get rid of the roots on the grounds of "sealing Ling Da, not saving the feathers", otherwise it would be "celebrating the death of his father, leaving Lunan unfinished". Liu Bei knew that this kind of thing would be solved sooner or later, and if it continued, it would be chaotic. When he thought of Yuan Benchu and Liu Jingsheng, two "vivid and typical negative textbooks", Liu Bei, as a hero in troubled times, can definitely make a tragedy, because to prevent a bigger tragedy from happening, as Meng Da said: "Take advantage of the situation, turn relatives into enemies, and the situation is not close!" Zhuge Liang only played the role of voluntary reminder in the meantime. In fact, Liu Bei probably made up his mind long ago. In fact, Liu Fenghe 1500 years later, the Japanese Guan Bai Toyotomi Hidetsugu is very similar, and Taige Toyotomi Hideyoshi also adopted Hidetsugu as his son's successor. Later, Xiuji came to be an old son and regarded him as a pearl. But at this time, Hidetsugu, as the heir, is an established fact, and he is justified. However, the cunning Hideyoshi tried to frame the crime and forced the tragic Hidetsugu to commit suicide. The similarity between these two historical facts is almost pure coincidence, but this is politics, and this is what politicians have to bear. In fact, this kind of thing has been interpreted countless times in human history, so it is not so much similar to the law as that Liu Feng died under this political law. He may have thought of it long ago, when Dou Deng was in the throne; Or have awakened, when reading the surrender book of Mengda. So he finally said, "I wish I could use Mencius' words!" "Liu Bei is very sad to do such a thing. History records that he shed tears for it, but he never regrets it. Almighty people know the necessity of some sacrifices. It was Liu Feng's last sentence that made Liu Bei cry. Even though Liu Feng may have realized the ending, he is probably naive or sentimental. In a word, he didn't choose to betray Liu Bei and didn't let Liu Bei down. However, Liu Bei will always be responsible for the overall situation. Fate made him decide to sacrifice Liu Feng, so he shed tears. He shed tears for the cruel choice he had to make, and also for Liu Feng's unwise and gratified choice not to betray. This is the tragedy, the tragedy of two people, the tragedy of Liu Feng and Liu Bei.