However, as a literary work, Luo Guanzhong made some revisions to the historical facts when creating it, and also shaped the characters in it, which led to the image of some characters being different from history. For example, there is a rat in the novel who is killed by Zhao Yun, but in history, he is actually a fierce general, and he is Qi Yi.
First, let's take a look at The Performance of Qi Yi in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In the novel, Qi Yi appears in the seventh episode of "'Yuan Shao PanHe Battle Gongsun Sun Jian Crosses the River to Attack Liu Biao'", when the two major warlords in Hebei, Gongsun Zhan and Yuan Shao, face each other across the Pan River, Yuan Shao sends Qi Yi to lead 800 archers, 15,000 infantry are lined up in the formation, and Gongsun Zhan sends Yan Gang to challenge.
When Yan Gang led his army closer to Qiyi's troops, eight hundred archers fired arrows at the same time, and he was about to retreat, but he was "slashed by Koji Yi's horse and danced with a knife", and Gongsun Zhan's troops also collapsed.
Immediately afterward, Qi Yi took advantage of the victory to pursue, "first beheaded the flag general, cut down the embroidered flag", and completed the heroic act of defeating the enemy's sharp spirit by slashing the general and capturing the flag, and even Gongsun Zhan had to temporarily retreat to avoid his sharp edge. However, when Qi Yi penetrated deep into the enemy army, he bumped into the young general Zhao Yun head-on, and Zhao Yun '' raised his gun and jumped on his horse and took Koji Yi directly. The battle was not counted, and one shot stabbed Koji under the horse'' and then '' flew into the Shao army on horseback, rushing left and right, as if entering no man's land. ''
Judging from this record of Luo Guanzhong, in fact, The appearance of Qi Yi was only a stepping stone for Zhao Yun. Luo Guanzhong used his bravery to set off Zhao Yun's "divine bravery", and the short appearance and too hasty death also led to The low popularity of Qi Yi, often regarded as a very weak small role.
Then, from the perspective of the history books, let's see what kind of image the real Yi yi in history is.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Qi Yi defected to Mu Hanfu of Jizhou and became a general under him. However, soon after, Qi Yi found that Han Fu was unambitious and cowardly, so he led his troops to leave Han Fu in the second year of Chuping (191). Han Fu was very angry and quickly sent troops to attack, but Qi Yi relied on his military ability to repel the pursuing soldiers. At that time, Yuan Shao had just arrived in Jizhou and had been coveting the position of Han Fu Jizhou Mu, but suffering from the lack of helpers, he quickly recruited Qi Yi, who had extraordinary combat ability.
Under the joint oppression of Yi Yi and Yuan Shao, Han Fu was forced to surrender his position as pastor of Jizhou, and soon after committed suicide for fear of harm, Yuan Shao became more important to The Meritorious Yi after he entered Hebei. In order to further seize the hegemony of Hebei, Yuan Shao joined forces with Hanoi Taishou Zhang Yang and Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu Yu Fu Luo, and soon after, Yu Fu Luo wanted to leave the alliance, but was rejected by Yuan Shao and Zhang Yang, and in a fit of anger, he took Zhang Yang hostage and fled to Liyang.
Seeing this, Yuan Shao sent Qi Yi in pursuit, and Qi Yi, who was proficient in cavalry combat methods and habits, easily caught up and broke YuFuluo, and has since become more and more trusted.
In the second year of Chuping (191), Gongsun Zhan launched a revenge on Yuan Shao because his younger brother Gongsun Yue was killed by Yuan Shao's general Zhou Ang during the battle. According to the "Hero's Record", the two armies met in the south of the boundary bridge, "Shao Ling Yi took eight hundred soldiers as the first to climb, the crossbow was thousands of zhang, and Shao Zi formed a formation with tens of thousands of infantry. ''
Gongsun Zhan saw that Yuan Shao had fewer soldiers than himself, so he directly launched a charge. But Qi Yi was a brave and resourceful general, who first ordered his soldiers to hide under their shields, and when the enemy cavalry approached, he suddenly jumped up and slashed, and at the same time the crossbowmen fired thousand arrows.
Shi Zai: "'It is all rising at the same time, shouting dust, clashing straight ahead, thundering strong crossbows, and falling in the middle, and the Jizhou Assassination History Yan Gangjia of the Jizhou Assassination Department is more than a thousand levels. The Army was defeated, and it rode on foot and horseback, and did not return to the camp. ''
When Gongsun Zhan saw that things were not good, he led his army to flee, while Yi Yi led his army to Gongsun Zhan's military camp and pulled out his banner standing at the yamen gate to declare victory.
Historically, Zhao Yun did not suddenly kill, and Qi Yi did not end his life like this. A few years after the Battle of Jieqiao, in the second year of Xingping (195), Gongsun Zhan killed Liu Yu, the mu of Youzhou, Liu Yu was known for his moral character, and many of his subordinates were very loyal to him, so they secretly gathered forces to prepare to take revenge on Gongsun Zhan.
Liu Yu had been in Youzhou for many years, and both Han and Xianbei people respected him very much. As a result, the number of soldiers and horses to avenge Liu Yu soon reached tens of thousands, and in order to further weaken Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao sent General Yi yi and other generals to lead the army to assist.
The coalition forces met Gongsun Zhan at Baoqiu and beheaded more than 20,000 people, forcing Gongsun Zhan to retreat to Yijing. Qi Yi did not accept it when he saw it was good, but instead forced Yi Jing, but Gongsun Zhan built Yi Jing indestructible, and even if Qi Yi besieged it for a year, he did not achieve any results.
More than a year later, Yi Yixian could not bear the pressure of logistics and chose to retreat, while Gongsun Zhan instead went out of the city to sneak out of the city when he retreated, seizing the weight of this tired division.
Back in Yuan Shao's account, Qi Yi gradually became arrogant because of his military achievements, and even the Book of Later Han said that he was "arrogant and unscrupulous". So Yuan Shao summoned him to the tent and killed him, and annexed his troops and incorporated them into other units.
Overall, compared to the novel, the historical Yi yi is undoubtedly more courageous and outstanding.