Liu Bei holds the Wolong Zhuge Liang and the Phoenix Chick Pang Tong, these two wise men are outstanding representatives of the Shu and Han dynasties in Chinese history, and are respected as the Wolong and Phoenix Chicks. However, despite Liu Bei's possession of these two brilliant strategists, he was unable to finally unify the country.
* The reason for this state of affairs can be traced from historical records and Pang Tong's last words before his death.
In the era of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei's Shu Han faced a formidable challenge from Cao Wei and Sun Wu. Despite the support of Wolong and Fengxiao, Cao Cao and Sun Quan's Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Zhang Zhao and other strategists were equally excellent, making the three-legged situation difficult to break.
Liu Bei's relatively weak political, military, and economic foundations made his path to domination of the world difficult.
Liu Bei had a vast territory and strong economy in the Central Plains, while Sun Quan occupied strategic points in the Yangtze River Valley. In contrast, Shu Han's territory was small and the terrain was dangerous, which undoubtedly brought great challenges to its military operations.
Although Liu Bei had a resourceful strategist, the constraints of resources and geography made it more difficult to achieve his goal of dominating the world. In addition, Pang Tong's last words before his death also revealed some key factors that restricted Liu Bei's domination of the world.
On his deathbed, Pang Tong left his last words, "The land of Shu is not the east and west", which expresses the particularity of the geographical location of Shu Han, located in the center of China, surrounded by mountains and inconvenient transportation.
This situation left Shu Han militarily isolated, making it difficult to respond quickly to changes in the war situation. Pang Tong's last words revealed the disadvantages of Shu Han's geographical location, and also revealed that the road to unifying the world was full of difficulties.
In general, although Liu Bei was assisted by Zhuge Liang of Wolong and Pang Tong of Fengxiao, he was unable to complete the great cause of unifying the world in the face of strong opponents of Cao Wei and Sun Wu, as well as a relatively weak political, military, and economic foundation, coupled with geographical limitations.
Pang Tong's words before his death provide an interpretive perspective that the geographical location of Shu Han had a significant impact on his unification of the country. Although Liu Bei failed to achieve his ambition of unification in his lifetime, his perseverance and unremitting efforts left a profound impact on later history.