Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage
Stationed at Xinye, Liu Bei heard of Zhuge Liang’s talent and called at his cottage in Longzhong three times. The first two times he found him out; the third, he waited respectfully while Zhuge Liang finished his nap. Zhuge Liang laid out the state of the realm for him and proposed the Longzhong Plan: take Jing and Yi provinces first, ally with Sun against Cao. That sincerity bought twenty-seven years of wholehearted service — and "three visits to the thatched cottage" became a byword for the earnest courting of talent.
Crossing the River With the People
As Cao Cao’s army pursued him south, Liu Bei retreated with the hundreds of thousands of common folk who chose to follow, covering barely ten li a day and liable to be overtaken at any moment. His officers urged him to abandon the people and flee light; he answered, "One who would do great deeds must put the people first," and kept them with him. It is the most concrete proof of his benevolent reputation — and it nearly got his army annihilated at Changban. Loyalty and strategy are, sometimes, truly at odds.
The Defeat at Yiling and the Deathbed Charge at Baidicheng
After Guan Yu was killed, Liu Bei ignored his ministers and threw the whole strength of his state into an eastern campaign of revenge against Sun Quan — only for Lu Xun to burn his linked camps across seven hundred li, all but wiping him out. He fell ill at Baidicheng and never rose again, entrusting his son Liu Shan and the whole of Shu Han to Zhuge Liang, with the words "if he proves unfit, you may take the throne yourself" — a single line that says everything about life-and-death suspicion and trust at once.