page_title: Sun Quan
section_title: Uneasy alliance with Liu Bei
hierarchical_section_title: Sun Quan / Uneasy alliance with Liu Bei
caption_attribution_description: Statue of Sun Quan, founding emperor of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China
context_page_description: Sun Quan, courtesy name Zhongmou, formally known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. He inherited control of the warlord regime established by his elder brother, Sun Ce, in 200. He declared formal independence and ruled from 222 to 229 as the King of Wu and from 229 to 252 as the Emperor of Wu. Unlike his rivals Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Sun Quan was much younger than they were and governed his state mostly separate of politics and ideology. He is sometimes portrayed as neutral considering he adopted a flexible foreign policy between his two rivals with the goal of pursuing the greatest interests for the country.
  Sun Quan was born while his father Sun Jian served as the adjutant of Xiapi County. After Sun Jian's death in the early 190s, he and his family lived at various cities on the lower Yangtze River, until Sun Ce carved out a warlord regime in the Jiangdong region, based on his own followers and a number of local clan allegiances. When Sun Ce was assassinated by the retainers of Xu Gong in 200, the 18-year-old Sun Quan inherited the lands southeast of the Yangtze River from his brother.
context_section_description: Immediately after Cao Cao withdrew, Sun Quan took over the northern half of Jing Province. Liu Bei marched south and took over the southern half. The Sun-Liu alliance was further cemented by a marriage of Sun Quan's younger sister, Lady Sun, to Liu Bei. Zhou Yu was suspicious of Liu Bei's intentions, however, and suggested to Sun Quan that Liu be seized and put under house arrest (albeit be very well-treated) and his forces be merged into Sun's; Sun Quan, believing that Liu Bei's forces would rebel if he did that, declined. Sun Quan did agree to Zhou Yu's plans to consider attacking Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu (who controlled the modern southern Shaanxi) to try to take over their territories, but after Zhou Yu died in 210, the plans were abandoned. However, Sun Quan was able to persuade the warlords in Jiao Province to submit to him, and they became part of his domain. He then yielded parts of northern Jing Province to Liu Bei as well, agreeing with Liu that the south was insufficient to supply his troops. At the same time, Sun Quan appointed his subordinate Bu Zhi as the Inspector (刺史) of Jiao Province to replace Lai Gong. Shi Xie led his followers to submit to Bu Zhi's governorship. Sun Quan took over the entire Jiao Province.
  In 211, Sun Quan moves his headquarters from Dantu to the city of Moling, and in the next year he rebuilt the walls and renamed the city Jianye. This new location gave him better control of the Yangtze River and better communications with his various other commanders. He also constructed fortresses at Ruxu, since Lü Meng anticipated an invasion there from Cao Cao.
  The invasion Lü Meng expected came at the start of 213. Sun Quan personally led the army there to resist Cao Cao and relied heavily on the fortresses Lü Meng built to give his soldiers strong positions from which to defend. At one point, Cao Cao tried to send his navy across the river to break Sun Quan's lines, but Sun Quan's own ships surrounded them and destroyed them. Due to the stalemate in the war, Sun Quan drove a big ship to enter the military camp of Cao cao on the other side of Yangtze River to observe his enemy situation. Cao Cao was very impressed with the military discipline of his opponent so he said that he should have a child like Sun Quan and didn't launch an attack on this occasion. Sun Quan ordered people to play music on the ship and returned to his camp safely. Ultimately, Lü Meng's defences held and Sun Quan wrote a letter to Cao Cao to warn that the spring rains would come a month later, Cao Cao had to take his advice and pull back.
  After Cao Cao's defeat at Ruxu, many people along the Yangtze River fled south to join Sun Quan. With the exception of Wan County and the immediate area, the region became abandoned. In 214, Cao Cao sent a man named Zhu Guang to Wan County with orders to revitalise the region and bring it under Cao Cao's control. Zhu Guang began extensive agricultural projects, and he also stirred up bandits and malcontents into rebellion in Sun Quan's territory. Lü Meng feared that if Zhu Guang's programmes were successful, it would make Cao Cao's hold in the area unbreakable and urged for a campaign against Huan. Sun Quan followed Lü Meng's strategy and used the seasonal flooding to travel to the city by boat, which allowed them to attack unexpectedly. Rather than a lengthy siege, Lü Meng, Gan Ning and Ling Tong led a quick strike and broke Zhu Guang's defences, capturing the city.
  After Liu Bei's conquest of Yi Province, he was able to supply his troops on his own, so Sun Quan sent Lu Su as an emissary to demand for the return of Jing Province, but Liu Bei refused. Sun Quan then sent Lü Meng and Ling Tong to lead 20,000 men to attack southern Jing Province and they succeeded in capturing Changsha, Guiyang, and Lingling commanderies. Meantime, Lu Su and Gan Ning advanced to Yiyang (益陽) with 10,000 men (to block Guan Yu) and took over command of the army at Lukou (陸口). Liu Bei personally went to Gong'an County and Guan Yu led 30,000 men to Yiyang. When an all-out war was about to break out, the news that Ca
caption: Statue of Sun Quan.
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