In July of the 19th year of Jian 'an (2 14), Cao Cao went to Sun Quan again. Xun You, the mastermind, died on the way to the army, and Cao Cao could not hide his grief. In October, Cao Cao returned to Xudu from Hefei. Only Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Le Jin, with 7,000 soldiers, stayed behind. In the 20th year of Jian 'an (2 15), Sun Quan personally led 100,000 soldiers and horses to attack Hefei, showing Sun Quan's determination to seize this important town. However, in the second battle of Hefei, in the early stage of the campaign, Zhang Liao led 800 troops to attack Wu Dong10,000,000 troops, all the way to Commander Sun Quan.

At the end of the campaign, Zhang Liao led the pursuers to defeat Sun Quan, Gan Ning, Ling Tong and others, and almost captured Sun Quan alive again. After this battle, Zhang Liao had a great influence on Jiangdong. But in any case, Sun Quan led 654.38+ ten thousand troops to attack Hefei this time, which still attracted the attention of Cao Wei. So, here's the problem. What was Liu Bei doing when Sun Quan started the Hefei War? Why didn't he respond to Dongwu? That is, when the Battle of Hefei broke out, why didn't Liu Bei take the opportunity to attack Cao Wei?

one

First of all, when Sun Quan was in Battle of Red Cliffs, he made an alliance with Liu Bei against the powerful Cao Wei. Although Battle of Red Cliffs was defeated, the overall strength of Cao Wei was still significantly higher than that of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. On this basis, the alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei naturally has reasons to continue. Sun Quan and Liu Bei cooperated with each other in battles such as the Battle of Nanjun. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, during the Second Hefei War, Liu Bei not only had to cooperate, but also used this opportunity to achieve the effect of killing two birds with one stone, that is, Cao Wei could not take care of both.

So, here's the problem. What was Liu Bei doing when Sun Quan started the Hefei War? In this regard, in the year before the Battle of Hefei, that is, the nineteenth year of Jian 'an (2 14), Los Angeles was besieged for nearly a year before it was conquered, and Liu Bei was surrounded by Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. When Liu Bei sent Du You to Jianning, Li Hui said that he would drop Ma Chao. In this context, Ma Chao came to Chengdu, and Liu Bei ordered him to lead the army north, which was a shock.

two

After Liu Bei surrounded Chengdu with Ma Chao, he sent Jian Yong to surrender to Liu Zhang, and then led Yizhou Pastoral, which enabled many talents in Shu. In this regard, in my opinion, in 2 14 AD, Liu Bei just pacified Yizhou. As we all know, before Liu Bei, Ada and Liu Zhang had been operating in Yizhou for many years. Although Zhang Song, Li Yan, Fa Zheng and Meng Da all took refuge in Liu Bei, there are still many civil servants and military commanders loyal to Liu Zhang in Yizhou. In this context, although Liu Bei defeated Liu Zhang, it took him some time to appease Yizhou counties, so as to stabilize his position in Yizhou.

So when the battle of Hefei broke out in 2 15, Liu Bei had no spare energy to attack Cao Wei. Moreover, if Liu Bei sent troops to attack Cao Wei, it would give the forces loyal to Liu an opportunity. If this happens, Liu Bei is not only in danger of losing Yizhou, but may even have no way out of Jingzhou. On the other hand, in 2 15, Liu Bei led a great army to conquer Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, which put Liu Bei in a very dangerous situation.