【Attached to the Imperial Court】

In history, after Liu Bei was taken away from Xuzhou by Lu Bu, he began to live under the fence again, first succumbing to Lu Bu, and then being defeated by Lu Bu again, and went directly to Xuchang to attach himself to the imperial court, and at that time the imperial court was Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was the imperial court.

So Liu Bei became Cao Cao's subordinate in this way.

In Cao Cao's group, there are people who have opinions about Liu Bei, thinking that he will not succumb to others in the end, and even ask Cao Cao to dispose of Liu Bei in advance, but Cao Cao not only did not listen to these, but reused Liu Bei and appreciated him even more.

In order to contain Lu Bu, Cao Cao appointed Liu Bei as the pastor of Yuzhou, and gave him soldiers, horses, grain and grass. But later Lü Bu betrayed the court again and sent Gao Shun to attack Liu Bei, and Cao Cao also sent Xiahoudun to support, but he was defeated by Gao Shun, and Peicheng, which Liu Bei guarded, was finally broken by Gao Shun, and Liu Bei abandoned his wife and fled in embarrassment.

In the third year of Jian'an (198), Liu Bei followed Cao Cao to crusade against Lü Bu, Lü Bu surrendered to Cao Cao after being cornered, and later Liu Bei persuaded Cao Cao to kill Lü Bu with the examples of Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo and others, resulting in Lü Bu's final death in Huangquan, and after returning to Xuchang, Cao Cao once again named Liu Bei as the left general, and paid more attention to Liu Bei.

In history, after Liu Bei took refuge in Cao Cao, Cao Cao was still very good to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei was not without gratitude. Once Liu Bei, Guan Yu and others accompanied him

Cao Cao went hunting, Guan Yu persuaded Liu Bei to kill Cao Cao at that time, but Liu Bei thought that Cao Cao at that time was going to help the Han family, and felt that it was a pity to kill him, so he did not agree to Guan Yu.

But after experiencing the "Edict of Clothes" and "On Heroes" incidents, the break between Liu Bei and Cao Cao was inevitable.

[Friend or Foe]

In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), Dong Cheng, a general of the Che Cavalry, got the edict of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and was determined to eliminate Cao Cao, but he could not deal with Cao Cao with his own strength, so he went to find someone else to help, and Dong Cheng found Liu Bei at that time, hoping that Liu Bei would deal with Cao Cao with him, but the emperor's uncle did not agree at first.

Until one time, Cao Cao and the imperial uncle had a meal together, which was also the prototype of the "Cooking Wine on Heroes" that has been rumored for a long time by later generations.

At that time, Cao Cao said to Liu Bei: "If you want to count the heroes of today, only you and me Cao Cao, as for Yuan Shao, there is nothing to be afraid of." Liu Bei was eating at the time, and after listening to it, the chopsticks fell down in fright. There happened to be a lightning strike, and Liu Bei said to Cao Cao as a cover-up: "There is indeed a reason why the sage cloud 'thunderstorm changes'. The power of an earthquake, and that's it! ”

The historical account of this event is simple, but the meaning behind it is quite profound.

Cao Cao's own personality is a very elusive person, Cheng Yu asked Cao Cao to deal with Liu Bei first, which may have made Cao Cao interested in Liu Bei, so Cao Cao took the mentality of a game to test Liu Bei, and Liu Bei's reaction successfully concealed Cao Cao, but it was Cao Cao's temptation that made Liu Bei completely determined.

At that time, Liu Bei was ostensibly taken aback by Cao Cao's words, and then gave Cao Cao a haha with the help of heavenly thunder, but in fact, Liu Bei is also a man with great ambitions, and he is unwilling to succumb to others as Cheng Yu said.

As early as when Liu Bei was a child, he let go of his rhetoric, hoping to take the emperor's special Yubao cover car, and after becoming the pastor of Xuzhou, Liu Bei tasted the taste of power, although Liu Bei is no longer a prince, but his heart is still, and Cao Cao's words aroused Liu Bei's ambition.

At that time, Cao Cao coerced the Son of Heaven and ordered the princes to completely turn Emperor Han Xian into a puppet, Liu Xie was also an adult at that time, so he hoped to regain power, and in this political division, Dong Cheng acted as the vanguard, and Liu Bei, as a descendant of the Han family, stood on the side of the Son of Heaven, which was inevitable.

At the beginning, Cao Cao was kind to Liu Bei, so Liu Bei may have been embarrassed to betray Cao Cao, but now Liu Bei feels that Cao Cao has seen his ambitions, so Cao Cao's classmates have to be sorry.

Under these circumstances, Liu Bei soon reconnected with Dong Cheng, joined Dong Cheng's faction, and jointly decided to deal with Cao Cao together.

【Recapture Xuzhou】

But after Liu Bei and Dong Cheng joined forces, they were not ready to deal with Cao Cao, and another incident happened.

At that time, Yuan Shu, who was at the end of his rope, was preparing to go north to join his nephew Yuan Tan, and Yuan Tan also had the intention of sending troops to meet Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu had to pass through Xuzhou Xiapi on his way to Qingzhou, and Cao Cao was ready to stop this, so he sent Liu Bei and Zhu Ling to attack Yuan Shu (Note 1).

After knowing that Cao Cao sent Liu Bei out, Cheng Yu and Guo Jia immediately felt bad, and said to Cao Cao: "If Duke Ming didn't get rid of Liu Bei the day before yesterday, I can't wait for you, but if you borrow troops from him today, he will definitely have different intentions." When Cao Cao heard this, he immediately regretted it and sent someone to chase him, but it was too late.

Cao Cao sent Liu Bei to intercept Yuan Shu, probably because he saw that Liu Bei was the assassin of Xuzhou and was familiar with the situation in Xuzhou. But after all, Liu Bei is a person with great ambitions, and Cheng Yu has told Cao Cao about this, so which of Liu Bei's scares really blinded Cao Cao and made Cao Cao lose his vigilance against Liu Bei, otherwise Cao Cao's fine people would let Liu Bei go to Xuzhou.

This incident was also recorded in "Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Dong Zhao", when Dong Zhao persuaded Cao Cao: "Liu Bei is brave and ambitious, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are his assistants, I'm afraid Liu Bei's mind is really hard to say!" As a result, Cao Cao replied, "I have promised him." This shows that Liu Bei may have taken the initiative to ask for help.

Liu Bei, as the original lord of Xuzhou, was ready to betray Cao Cao, and the people of Xuzhou also had no sense of belonging to him because Cao Cao had slaughtered Xuzhou many times, so letting Liu Bei return to Xuzhou was equivalent to letting the tiger return to the mountain, and Cao Cao was 100% wrong in decision-making in history.

Liu Bei seized this opportunity, he marched to Xiapi after Yuan Shu's death, killed the Xuzhou assassin appointed by Cao Cao, and left Guan Yu to guard Xiapi, so that he could exercise the duties of Taishou and return to Xiaopei himself. Liu Bei's prestige in Xuzhou was not low in the past, so the East China Sea Changfeng and Xuzhou counties returned to Liu Bei, Liu Bei has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and once again obtained Xuzhou as his base, and accumulated strength as foreign aid for Dong Cheng and others.

In order to fight Cao Cao, Liu Bei chose to unite with Yuan Shao in the north. At that time, Yuan Shao had basically unified the north, and Cao Cao did not dare to easily lead the army to crusade against Liu Bei in order to deal with Yuan Shao, so he sent Liu Dai, a man from Shi Peiguo, and Wang Zhong, a general of Zhonglang, to lead an army to crusade against Liu Bei, but both were defeated by Liu Bei.

Cao Cao's mistake in history was very fatal, when Liu Bei captured Xuzhou, it was a critical moment for Yuan Shao and Cao Cao to confront each other, and Xuzhou and Qingzhou under Yuan Shao, Yanzhou and Yuzhou under Cao Cao's control were all connected, Liu Bei chose to be in Yuan Shao's camp, which was equivalent to Cao Cao's backyard fire, so before the decisive battle with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao must first solve Liu Bei, otherwise Liu Bei will become Cao Cao's confidant.

On the other hand, the small actions of Dong Cheng and others were finally noticed by Cao Cao.

Note 1: This incident is recorded in Hu Chong's "Wu Calendar" and contradicts the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms".