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Jingzhou

Both

Liu Biao’s province, divided among Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan after Red Cliffs. Guan Yu held it until Lü Meng’s seizure broke the Sun–Liu alliance.

The frame is historical. Character, dialogue, and scale are often rewritten by the novel.

Modern site
The provincial seat moved. Liu Biao was often at Xiangyang; Jiangling, the seat of Nan commandery, is modern Jingzhou in Hubei
Region
Jing province

Jingzhou was not a single walled city. It was a Han province. Liu Biao’s political center was long at Xiangyang. Jiangling, in Nan commandery, was the military point on the river. The modern city called Jingzhou corresponds mainly to Jiangling, not to the whole province.

In 208 Liu Biao died and Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao. Liu Bei fell back through Xiangyang and Changban. After the Red Cliffs, Cao Cao gave up the Jiangling line. Liu Bei gained a foothold in the south, and Sun Quan reached across the Yangzi. When Liu Bei entered Yi, Guan Yu stayed in Jing. In 219 Guan Yu marched on Xiangyang and Fan, and Lü Meng took Jiangling behind him. Nan commandery passed to Sun Quan, and the alliance broke.

The novel turns “borrowed Jingzhou” into a debt that is forever being called in. In the histories Jing is a running partition: whoever held Jiangling and could look north to Xiangyang held the middle Yangzi.