During his tenure, Hefei became a highly militarised and well-defended military stronghold, which later served as a strategic location in several battles between the rival states of Cao Wei and Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280).
Liu Fu was from Xiang County (相縣), Pei State (沛國), which is located west of present-day Huaibei, Anhui.
[2] In the early Jian'an era (196–220) of Emperor Xian's reign, he met Qi Ji (戚寄) and Qin Yi, two military officers serving under the warlord Yuan Shu, who was based in Huainan (淮南; around present-day Shou County, Anhui).
[3][1] In the year 200,[4] the warlord Sun Ce, who controlled the Jiangdong region, ordered Li Shu (李術), the Administrator of Lujiang Commandery (廬江郡; around present-day Lu'an, Anhui), to attack and kill Yan Xiang, the Inspector (刺史; provincial governor) of Yang Province appointed by the central government.
At the same time, Mei Qian (梅乾), Lei Xu (雷緒) and Chen Lan (陳蘭) had amassed thousands of bandits in Huainan and posed a threat to the central government's control over the region.