After Cao Cao eliminated the Yuan clan in the north and annexed the four northern states, he was originally the most powerful prince who was closest to dominating the world at that time, and then Cao Cao led his army south, and easily captured Jingzhou, and defeated Liu Bei in Dangyang, when Cao Cao's sweep of the world made people feel inevitable.

But unexpectedly, after Cao Cao occupied Jingzhou, he made many mistakes, resulting in a crushing defeat of Chibi to the Sun-Liu coalition army, and then Cao Ren and others failed to keep Jiangling, and Cao Cao's forces were driven out of the south of the Yangtze River, and it was no longer invincible.

[The so-called general trend]

Cao Cao's unification of the world was not formed overnight, but this is undoubtedly starting from Cao Cao's move of the capital to Xuchang and the coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes.

In the first year of Jian'an (196), Cao Cao moved the capital to Xuchang, controlled the Son of Heaven, and controlled the righteousness of the imperial court in his hands, and his prestige increased greatly, and the world's heroes came to vote one after another, which laid an unparalleled advantage foundation for Cao Cao's later hegemony in the world.

And Cao Cao took advantage of this advantage to eliminate Lu Bu, who was not subordinate to the imperial court, defeated Yuan Shu, who was self-proclaimed emperor, annexed Zhang Xiu, a subsidiary of Liu Biao, and occupied Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou and other places close to the four states, becoming the second strongest prince only in strength to Yuan Shao at that time.

Then Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu, and then replaced him as the strongest prince in the world at that time, and Cao Cao's domination of the world had initially taken shape.

Controlling the righteousness of the Son of Heaven and his own strong strength are enough to tilt the scales on the clouds in favor of Cao Cao.

After that, Cao Cao was victorious, successfully eliminated the Yuan brothers in the north, and seized the four prefectures of You, He, Hebei, and Qing in the north, and more than doubled his power and territory, and the northern half of the Yangtze River in China was already occupied by him.

Cao Cao then turned his attention to Jingzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, and easily seized it, and his forces began to cross the Yangtze River. Among the remaining princes at that time, Gongsun Kang was in Liaodong, and the princes of Guanzhong and Guanxi led by Ma Chao and Han Sui had been obeying the imperial court for many years, Liu Zhang of Yizhou was greatly touched by Cao Cao's southward trip to Jingzhou, and took the initiative to submit to Cao Cao, and Zhang Lu of Hanzhong had no intersection with Cao Cao in the territory, and the weak power of Jiaozhou in the south was not to worry.

However, Cao Cao's forces surrounded them from the north and west, and if Cao Cao was willing, he could even mobilize Jiaozhou and block the Sun-Liu Alliance from three sides, leaving them only with the vast sea to the east.

After Cao Cao seized Jingzhou, his trend of dominating the world was basically clear, and at that time it seemed that no one could stop Cao ****, and no princes were even qualified to be Cao Cao's opponents.

But it was in this situation that Cao Cao was defeated in Chibi, and he was defeated in the case of dominance, according to historical records, there were only two battles in the Battle of Chibi, and Cao Cao had already returned with a heavy defeat, but did Cao Cao lose to Zhou Yu and Liu Bei? No, he just lost to himself again like he did when he was in Wancheng.

The Battle of Guandu and the Battle of Chibi were both classic battles in the history of the Three Kingdoms in which fewer won more, and after the Battle of Guandu, the trend of Yuan being strong and Cao Cao was completely reversed, and Cao Cao began to suppress the Yuan group in the north until they were completely wiped out.

However, the Battle of Chibi did not completely reverse the situation at that time like the Battle of Guandu, not because the importance of the Battle of Chibi was lower than that of the Battle of Guandu, but because the strength of the Sun-Liu Alliance at that time was too much worse than that of Cao Cao. Before the Battle of Guandu, although Yuan Shao was stronger than Cao Cao, the two were still heavyweight princes, so Cao Cao was able to completely reverse the unfavorable situation against Yuan Shao after winning the decisive victory in the Battle of Guandu.

However, the Sun-Liu Alliance and the Cao Cao Group were not of the same level at all at that time, before Guandu, Cao Cao's weakness was weak, and before the Battle of Chibi, the weakness of the Sun-Liu Alliance was completely weak, so even if Zhou Yu and others won a big victory in the Battle of Chibi and set off a lot of ripples, they still failed to reverse the general trend of Cao Cao's domination of the world.

Therefore, if Zhou Yu, Liu Bei and others want to change the general trend at that time, they still need to win another key victory, and a big victory in Chibi alone cannot solve all the problems.

At this time, the victory of the battle of Jiangling is very critical, if Zhou Yu and others win this battle, the south of Nanjun and the four counties south of Jingzhou will no longer belong to Cao Cao, Cao Cao's forces will be expelled from the south of the Yangtze River, if Zhou Yu and Liu Bei lose, it means that Cao Cao can make a comeback at any time, from the road, from the water to attack Jiangdong and Jiangxia County at will, the situation of the Sun-Liu alliance will return to before the Battle of Chibi.

Fortunately, Zhou Yu successfully conquered Jiangling and achieved another key victory, after the Sun-Liu coalition army won the Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Jiangling in succession, Cao Cao's threat to Jiangdong really came to an end, and the general trend of his domination of the world underwent a fundamental change.

Before the Battle of Chibi, why did he think that Cao Cao had the general tendency to dominate the world, because he was theoretically invincible at that time, and no prince could stop Cao Cao's progress, even if Cao Cao failed, it would be considered a short-term defeat. But after the Cao Cao group lost in Chibi and Jiangling one after another, this situation was changed, these two defeats meant that Cao Cao was not invincible, and the Sun-Liu alliance had the power to confront Cao Cao, and after they captured Jiangling, they could also use the Yangtze River to defend Cao Cao, and it was difficult for Cao Cao to go south easily.

After that, Liu Bei swept Jingzhou, seized the four southern counties of Jingzhou, and borrowed Jiangling from Sun Quan, essentially becoming the new master of Jingzhou, and Sun Quan sent Buqi south to occupy Jiaozhou, greatly expanding his territory.

At this time, the general trend of the world changed to Cao Cao and Sun Liu's alliance across the river, Sun Quan and Liu Bei not only had the power of self-protection in front of Cao Cao, but also could launch a counterattack, as Cao Cao's biggest enemy at that time, Sun Quan, had repeatedly gone north to crusade against Cao Cao's important town in the Jianghuai area, and Cao Cao also formed a long-term confrontation in the Jianghuai area.

It can be said that after the Battle of Chibi-Jiangling, the prototype of the three-point world has been formed, and although Cao Cao was still the strongest prince at that time, he had lost the best opportunity to dominate the world, and he could not have a better chance to unify the world than this time.

PS: The next volume starts tomorrow.