Liu Bei has always been revered as a loyal minister, a benevolent and a wise man in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
His story from the Three Knots in Taoyuan, to the Battle of Chibi, and then to the White Emperor City Tuogu, deeply touched the people of later generations, making them full of admiration and nostalgia for him.
After watching the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, have you ever been curious about one thing?
That is, Liu Bei has a sleeping dragon and a phoenix, and he is an outstanding person, why did he not succeed in the end? In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei's talents seem to be better than Cao Cao and Sun Quan, with the wisdom of the Wolong and Phoenix Chicks, and the courage of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, these are unrivaled geniuses.
Why did Liu Bei not be able to revive the Han dynasty in the end, although he was assisted by a group of ministers? The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as China's most influential **, has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
However, what we can't ignore is that it is only a **, which is very different from the real history.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has always been accused of having a tendency to worship Liu and suppress Cao, especially from the perspective of Liu Bei and the orthodoxy of the Han family. However, the real historical facts show that Liu Bei's military generals were not as good as Cao Cao's.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms exaggerated several of Liu Bei's ministers and generals to highlight the quality of Liu Bei's talents.
However, in fact, except for these top talents, Liu Bei's other subordinates can only be said to be mediocre.
Judging from the overall strength, Liu Bei's team is really far inferior to Cao Cao.
Liu Bei's generals and civil officials were far inferior to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao, with the support of the Yingchuan Shi clan and the Northern Dashi clan, far surpassed Liu Bei.
In addition, the Cao Wei regime implemented the nine-product Zhongzheng system, which was far superior to Liu Bei's Shu Han in talent selection and inheritance.
Therefore, in the later period of the Three Kingdoms, the Wei State was still full of talents, and after the death of the older generation such as Liu Guanzhang, Shu Han basically had no talents who could show their hands.
The fall of Shu Han is reasonable, because it started too late.
Of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Wei unified the north, Eastern Wu occupied the southeast, and Liu Bei's Shu Han was only southwest of An. Liu Bei was still adrift at the time of the Battle of Guandu, and he did not even have a stronghold, while Sun Quan's Eastern Wu was laid a solid foundation in Jiangdong by his father and elder brother.
By the time of the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao had almost completely unified the north, Eastern Wu barely occupied the southeast, and only Liu Bei owned only a small part of Jingzhou.
One step at a time, one step at a time.
Although Liu Bei rose rapidly after the Battle of Chibi, he then sat on Yizhou, forming a situation of three kingdoms.
However, when the Three Kingdoms had been formed, Liu Bei had no chance to take advantage of it, so he could only join forces with Eastern Wu and start a head-to-head battle with Cao Wei.
He started too late, resulting in the weakest of the Three Kingdoms, and the eventual demise is understandable.
The southwest region was sparsely populated during the Three Kingdoms period, and its overall strength was not strong.
Although the current Sichuan Bashu region is known as the land of abundance and rich in products, it was a veritable barren land at that time.
During the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the north where Cao Cao was located was the political, economic and cultural center, and more than seventy percent of the population lived here.
The ancient south was not fully developed and was considered a barbarian land in the eyes of the Central Plains.
It was not until the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty and the migration of the Central Plains families to the south that China's political and economic center began to gradually move south.
However, during the Three Kingdoms period, the south was not an ideal place.
In fact, judging from the population alone, the combined population of Shu Han and Eastern Wu cannot be compared with Cao Wei.
In ancient times, population was the most important resource, and without it, all plans would be unsustainable.
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were talented, but Shu Han was the weakest, with insufficient population and soldiers, and was destined to fail to turn the tables.
Although Liu Bei had an opportunity, he missed a good opportunity in his early years, and when he was hegemonic in the southwest, the momentum of the Three Kingdoms had been achieved, and the strength of Shu Han was weak, and there was no hope of victory, so he could only leave regrets that would be regretted by future generations.