A descendant of Prince Zhongshan Jing. Liu Bei was a straw mat weaver before the Yellow Scarves Uprising. He met Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and became sworn brothers at the Peach Garden and vowed to combine their strengths and efforts to restore peace and order to the country. Liu Bei had some success in quelling the Yellow Scarves early on but he didn't manage to get a foothole in the central plains. Subsequent defeats and tragedies led Liu Bei to seek shelter under Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao.
Though Liu Bei has the desire to restore peace and order to the country, he was rather disheartened by his defeats. By then Liu Bei was already 40+ and accomplished so little. This is especially so when compared to the progress of Cao Cao and Sun Ce. Cao Cao by then had the whole of the central plains under his control and the young Sun Ce had lands south of the Yangtze river (Chang Jiang) while Liu Bei is still seeking shelter under Liu Biao.
The turning point finally came when he met Xu Shu and have him as his military advisor. Astonished by Cao Ren's defeat by Xu Shu, Cao Cao agreed to implement the scheme by Cheng Yu to trick Xu Shu over to Cao Cao's side and suceeded. Before Xu Shu left he told Liu Bei about Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong. With sincerity and persuasion from Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang left seclusion to assist Liu Bei in forging an empire thus this marks the start of Liu Bei's rapid progess to empire building though not obvious at first. Liu Bei managed to escape to Jiang Xia despite the onslaught of the Cao army's bid to conquer the south. Liu Bei managed to gain control of Jingzhou after the Wu Kingdom defeated the mighty Cao army at the battle of Chibi.
Advised by Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang that Jingzhou cannot be held on to for long term due to its high chance of attack by the other two kingdoms although its advantage lies on that very point, Liu Bei on the pretext of helping to defend Yizhou from Zhang Lu led an expeditionary army into Yizhou. However events don't turn out as it should be and relations with Liu Zhang of Yizhou turned scour. Liu Bei tried to secure a way back to Jingzhou by attacking Jiameng Pass. The battle didn't go well and Zhuge Liang led reinforcements out to rescue Liu Bei leaving Guan Yu to defend Jingzhou. The combined forces managed to subdue Yizhou and conquer Chengdu. During the process Ma Chao came over to Liu Bei's side.
Alarmed by the aquisition of Yizhou by Liu Bei, Cao Cao launched an attack on Zhang Lu's Hanzhong to pave the way for an invasion to eliminate Liu Bei. The aquisition of Hanzhong worries Liu Bei as it is the strategic gateway into Yizhou. Preparations were soon made and the battle to wrestle control of Hanzhong from Cao Cao succeeded. This point marks the pinnacle in Liu Bei's career as the King of Hanzhong with parts of Jingzhou and Shu under Liu Bei. However this pinnacle of success is short-lived. Cao Cao and Sun Quan forged an alliance and launched a joint invasion on Jingzhou which was under the care of Guan Yu. Jingzhou thus collapse under the weight of a two prong attack and Guan Yu together with his adopted son Guan Ping was captured and executed.
Overswept by anger and fury by the death of his sworn brother Guan Yu, Liu Bei launched a punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Wu in a bid to avenge Guan Yu's death. The war goes well initially and the Shu army penetrated a few hundred kilometers into the Wu Kingdom in their bid to crush the Wu Kingdom at their capital Jianye before being repelled by Wu's newly appointed commander-in-chief Lu Xun. Liu Bei managed to escape to Baidicheng where he grieved too much and fell sick. A sickness he didn't recover and died. Before his death, he entrusted the kingdom to Zhuge Liang's hands and bid his sons to look to Zhuge Liang as their father.
