In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Sun Quan defeated Huang Zu and occupied Jiangxia, which opened the door to Jingzhou.

Because Sun Quan and Cao Cao have already lost in the race against time, and the end of losing is very bad.

【Race】

After Dong Zhuo's rebellion, the world's heroes were divided, Haojie occupied one side, after more than 10 years of competition and competition, the unfit were eliminated, the trend of great unification slowly emerged, Jian'an five years (200) when the two strongest princes Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in the Guandu decisive battle divided the victory and defeat, Cao Cao replaced Yuan Shao became the most powerful princes at that time, and controlled the imperial court, coerced the Son of Heaven and ordered the princes, set strength and righteousness in one, was the closest to the unification of the world at that time, and the most promising.

At this time, Sun Quan had just ascended to the throne, and he had to spend a lot of time and energy to stabilize the internal situation first, and then he could withdraw his hands to expand his territory. At that time, Cao Cao was north of Sun Quan, and he couldn't be offended, so he could only aim at Liu Biao in the west.

Liu Biao is a natural enemy for the Sun family in Jiangdong, in history, Sun Quan and Sun Ce's father Sun Jian was shot by Huang Zujun because of the crusade against Liu Biao, on the other hand, defeating Liu Biao and occupying Jingzhou is of great strategic significance to Sun Quan's group, in Sun Ce and Zhang Hong's "Jiangdu pair" and Sun Quan and Lu Su's "couch pair" Jingzhou is regarded as a necessary goal.

Jingzhou is roughly located in the south of the Yangtze River, extending in all directions, connecting Sili, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Yizhou and Jiaozhou, but also has a vast area, rich in products, holds the Yangtze River natural insurance, can be perfectly connected with Yangzhou, is the important place of the soldiers, but also the goal of Sun Quan.

At this time, Cao Cao has become bigger, Sun Quan has to consider Cao Cao's possible future southward, and to resist Cao Cao, the Yangtze River itself is the best line of defense, but the premise is that Jingzhou cannot be captured by Cao Cao, once Jingzhou is captured by Cao Cao, then Sun Quan's Yangtze River defense line is meaningless, for this consideration, Sun Quan must also control Jingzhou in his own hands.

After Yuan Shao's defeat, the Yuan group in the north still had a great threat to Cao Cao, so Cao Cao was mainly conquest of the north at that time, which also gave Sun Quan time and opportunity, if Sun Quan could occupy Jingzhou before Cao Cao completely eliminated the Yuan clan and pacified the north, then Sun Quan would gain control of the south of the Yangtze River, even if Cao Cao went south after a big move, he could completely rely on the Yangtze River to resist,

If Cao Cao was caught in the war in the north, Sun Quan could even take advantage of the weakness to go north, or continue to crusade west against Yizhou and take Jiaozhou in the south, further expand his power in the south, and rule with Cao Cao by dividing the river.

Therefore, if Sun Quan wants to occupy a favorable position in the confrontation with Cao Cao in the future, he must control Jingzhou in his hands, and the first step in seizing Jingzhou is to eliminate Huang Zu who is entrenched in Jiangxia.

But in fact, Sun Quan's actions in this regard were still relatively slow, Sun Quan was able to crusade against Huang Zu for the first time after basically stabilizing the interior in the eighth year of Jian'an (203), but the second time was a full four years apart, and he was able to send troops in the twelfth year of Jian'an (207), and after no success, Sun Quan sent a large army to the west for the third time the following year.

Why is the interval between the second and third time relatively short, because Sun Quan is in a hurry. In the twelfth year of Jian'an (207), the four northern states had been basically seized by Cao Cao, and there was not much time left for Sun Quan, and at that time, let alone Jingzhou, Sun Quan had not even beaten down his gateway Jiangxia, so how could he not be in a hurry.

Fortunately, the successive years of combat were not fruitless, and Sun Quan finally eliminated Huang Zu and gnawed Jiangxia, but all this lost its meaning after Cao Cao officially went south.

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao personally led a large army south to crusade against Jingzhou, Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao died of illness, and his successor son Liu Cong saw that Cao Cao was powerful and surrendered without a fight, and Jingzhou fell into the hands of Cao Cao.

Sun Quan then lost 100% in the race against time.

【Desperate Situation】

The fall of Jingzhou was catastrophic for the entire Sun Quan group, which meant that they had lost the Yangtze River and had even been completely surrounded by Cao Cao's forces.

Judging from the map of the situation at that time, you can see how much the situation is for Sun Quan. The Jiangdong controlled by Sun Quan is located in the southeast, and its north is Yangzhou Jiujiang County, Xuzhou Guangling County and Yuzhou Runan County, these places have long been controlled by Cao Cao, the west is Jingzhou, and now it is basically Cao Cao, the south is Jiaozhou, and the person in charge of Jiaozhou at that time was Shi Xie, at this time he has not yet attached to Sun Quan, and has maintained tribute to the imperial court, after Cao Cao controlled Jingzhou, it is self-evident how Shi Xie will stand in line. This means that Cao Cao's forces had formed a semi-circle of encirclement of Sun Quan at that time.

Sun Quan was basically isolated by Cao Cao at that time, in addition to Cao Cao's external environment was also very stable, the princes in Guanzhong did not threaten Cao Cao, Liu Zhang of Yizhou sent envoys to Cao Cao three times in a row to show goodwill, and the north had already been pacified, so Cao Cao could concentrate on dealing with Sun Quan.

And in terms of strength comparison, it is even more desperate, although Yuan Shao was stronger than Cao Cao before the Battle of Guandu, but the two were at least an order of magnitude of princes, but before the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan's strength could not be compared with Cao Cao at all, a very simple fact, at that time, Sun Quan controlled more counties than Cao Cao's controlled states.

At that time, Sun Quan's command controlled the counties including Wu County, Huiji, Danyang, Lujiang, Yuzhang and Luling, even if it included the Luling County that originally belonged to Yuzhang, it was six counties when it was full, and what about Cao Cao?

Cao Cao had already controlled Yanzhou, Xuzhou and Yuzhou before Guandu, and after eliminating the Yuan clan in the north, he also got Youzhou, Bingzhou, Qingzhou and Jizhou, plus Jingzhou just obtained by going south, this is already eight states, not counting half of the Sili actually controlled by Cao Cao and Jiujiang County, which Jiangdong did not get.

Don't be hindsighted, just judging from the situation at the time, the situation Sun Quan faced was too bad, and the contrast in strength between him and Cao Cao was too great, and it was really more difficult for him to defeat Cao Cao than to ascend to the sky.

But who can Sun Quan blame, is he himself did not grasp the opportunity, Cao Cao completely pacified the north after the official crossing after the first time Jian'an six years (201) sent troops to the north to the twelfth year of Jian'an (207) to pacify Wuheng, a full seven years, during this time Cao Cao swallowed the Yuan group with similar strength to him, and also went north to defeat the Wuheng people, and in the twelfth year (207) Sun Quan did not even fight Jiangxia, at that time Liu Biao and Sun Quan were also a level of princes.

Cao Cao ran to win, as the winner of this race, the reward he got was an almost sure victory, which was a matter of course, and Sun Quan, as a loser, what he got was almost a desperate situation, which can only be blamed on himself.

But even a desperate situation is not entirely hopeless.

PS: The chapter of the Sun family will be temporarily stopped here, and the next chapter will enter the chapter of Liu Biao and Liu Bei in Jingzhou.