Cao Cao's life was particularly accurate, and when he drank with Liu Bei in his early years, he had prophesied that "today's heroes, only the king and the ear", and at that time Liu Bei was just a down-and-out clan branch, if it were not for Cao Cao's rescue, Liu Bei would have died at the hands of Lü Bu.
Obviously, whether compared with his classmate Gongsun Zhan or Liu Biao and Liu Zhang of the same sect, or the Yuan brothers of the Fourth Dynasty and the Third Duke, Liu Bei's strength was completely an unpopular villain among the warlords of the late Han Dynasty.
However, Cao Cao's prediction finally came true, and Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao and other powerful warlords were defeated one after another, but Liu Bei, who was weak and weak, stood at the top of power and became one of the founders of the Three Kingdoms.
And Cao Cao, it is precisely by relying on a pair of wise eyes and an eclectic view of talent that he quickly gathered a group of elites and achieved the cause of overlordship. Cao Cao's Love Cai, Chen Lin's "Yu Zhou Wen for Yuan Shao" scolded Cao Cao's family over and over again, but Cao Cao still appointed him as a military master to sacrifice wine; Guan Yu ran away, and his subordinates wanted to pursue and kill, but they were stopped by Cao Cao, saying "He is his master, do not pursue him."
This person is Wang Ping, also known as He Ping. According to historical records, Wang Ping "could not write with his hands, and he could not read crosses" and was completely illiterate. Wang Ping was originally a Ben (later Tujia) of Ba County, and when Zhang Lu surrendered to Cao in the 20th year of Jian'an, the Tribes of Du Hu and Pu Hu of Ba County also followed Zhang Lu to Luoyang, and Wang Ping was also among them.
Cao Cao probably did not expect any talents in these Yi tribes, but only for the sake of appeasement, he gave Wang Ping a fake lieutenant position. During the Qin and Han dynasties, lieutenants were mid-level officers, but at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the rise of princes, the title of lieutenant became more and more sealed, and the actual status was not even as good as that of a lieutenant general, not to mention that Wang Ping was still only an agent.
In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, in order to retake Hanzhong, the gateway to Yizhou, Liu Bei raised a powerful army (Shi Zai: Yizhou men in battle, women in luck) to fight Cao Cao, and finally defeated Cao Cao, and Cao Cao had to retreat from Hanzhong.
However, in this battle, Cao Cao's main force was not damaged, and even calmly moved all the people of Hanzhong, but when retreating, the false lieutenant Wang Ping did not follow Cao Cao back to the north, but ran to the Shu Han camp and surrendered Liu Bei. Regarding the "disappearance" of a fake lieutenant in the army, Cao Cao even lazily asked about it, like a blunt weapon, and abandoned it.
Liu Bei was very welcome to Wang Ping's arrival, after all, his own camp of warriors was scarce, not to mention that Wang Ping was still a native of Ba County, and he was very familiar with the geography of Yizhou, so he named Wang Ping a tooth gatekeeper, and at this time Wang Ping was able to consider that he had the title of general and broke away from the ranks of pawns.
However, I am afraid that even Liu Bei would not have thought that this illiterate pawn who surrendered would become the pillar of Shu Han in the future, and he had never been defeated, and he could be called an undefeated general. During Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, because of the defeat in battle, almost all people, including Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun, were punished, but Wang Ping relied on more than a thousand soldiers to block Zhang Guo's pursuit in the Battle of Jieting, and entered the position of general Kou and the Marquis of Fengting, which also made Zhuge Liang look at him with astonishment and became the leader of the elite Shu Han army Wudang Flying Army.
After that, Wang Ping once again repelled the famous Cao Wei general Zhang Guo at the southern siege of Qishan. After Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan drew troops to attack due to discord with Yang Yi, and this general, who was heavily favored by Liu Bei, was defeated by Wang Ping in a battle. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that Wei Yan rebelled and was defeated in a battle, and Ping Zhigong also did it.
Leaving aside Wei Yan's unjust case, at least in terms of commanding the troops, Wang Ping was no less than Wei Yan. The subsequent Defense of Hanzhong confirmed this. Just after Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Shuang commanded an army of 100,000 troops to invade Hanzhong, and Wang Ping relied on less than 30,000 troops to block Cao Shuang to death and defend the northern gate of Shu Han.
In that era when the Jinge Iron Horse was a common thing to win and lose soldiers, Wang Ping, who was only literate for more than ten years, rose to become a famous general in the late Three Kingdoms period with his outstanding military ability and undefeated record. As the Romance of the Three Kingdoms commented: Ping is in the north, and Xian is famous.