Since Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang and moved west to Chang'an, the Eastern Han Dynasty had essentially entered a state of chasing deer. At this special moment, a special profession emerged, the guest general, represented by Liu Bei and Lü Bu.
The last time I wrote about Lü Bu, I mentioned the guest general slightly. Today, taking the opportunity to write about Liu Bei, I will talk more carefully about what a "guest general" is.
When one person or group leads an army to another, there are usually three situations:
The first scenario is to surrender all rights and unconditionally accept the other party's adaptation, and the end result is that the soldiers will be separated, but their vested interests will usually be respected.
The most typical example is Xu Chu's defection to Cao Cao.
Before defecting to Cao Cao, Xu Chu was also a figure of independence. According to the history books, in order to defend his homeland, he organized thousands of people to form an army.
Xu Chu zi Zhongkang, Yu Guo Ren also. It is more than eight feet long, with a waist of ten circumferences, a majestic appearance, and a brave spirit. At the end of the Han Dynasty, thousands of families of young people and clans were gathered together to strengthen the wall to the Imperial Court.
However, after Xu Chu surrendered to Cao Cao, he never had the opportunity to lead his family soldiers to fight alone, so that when later generations talked about Xu Chu, they all thought that he was only Cao Cao's escort commander.
For the loyal Xu Chu, Cao Cao never treated him badly, and the family soldiers who had followed Xu Chu were also heavily rewarded by Cao Cao.
At the beginning, Chu Suo would conquer the tiger warriors, Taizu thought that all the brave soldiers were also, and on the same day, he worshiped as a general, and then dozens of people who were knighted as generals, more than a hundred lieutenants and lieutenants, all swordsmen.
The second scenario is to preserve the independence of the army, but to be willing to accept constraints in other respects, and the end result is to ensure a certain degree of independence, but the power will be greatly reduced.
The most typical example is Li Dian's defection to Cao Cao.
In the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Li Dian's sense of existence is not strong, because he is not a good general of the five sons, and his death time is relatively early. However, according to the records of the history book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Li Dian's position in Cao Cao's clique was obviously stronger than that of a full-time migrant worker like Xu Chu.
Li Dian's subordinate father was also a big man on his own before he defected to Cao Cao, with thousands of soldiers and horses under his command.
Li Dian zi Mancheng, Shanyang giant savage people also. The pawn is from the father's dry, has a majestic spirit, and has thousands of guests in the Chengshi family. In the first peace, with the multitude following Taizu,
After defecting to Cao Cao, Li Dian's uncle Li Qian did not accept Cao Cao's change, and his army was still the standard Li family army.
After Li Qian's death, this Li family army was controlled by Li Qian's son Li Quan; after Li Quan's death, this army was controlled by Li Dian.
As Li Jiajun changed hands twice and the Cao Cao clique grew stronger, Li Diancai eventually lost the opportunity to hold a private army and became a full-time migrant worker of the Cao Cao clique like Xu Chu.
There are more than 3,000 families of the Dian clan, ju cheng clan, who petitioned to migrate to Wei County. ...... More than 13,000 mouths of the Suibu Qu clan lived in Yi. Taizu Jiazhi (太祖嘉之), a general who moved to break the prisoners.
The third situation is to retain the independence of the army, while refusing to accept any form of infiltration by the other side, and the final result is to fully guarantee independence, but can only become a "guest general".
Liu Bei and Lü Bu are both such people, and although they have turned to others, they have always been able to ensure their independence, and this is the root cause.
No one would think that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were not Liu Bei's hardcore subordinates, and that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had accepted Liu Bei's appointment as early as when Liu Bei was the Plain Order.
The first lord is the plain phase, with yu and fei as other simas, and the division is divided into sub-divisions.
Zhao Yun, Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, and Sun Qian all became Liu Bei's private subordinates for almost the same reason.
The first lord was suitable for Jingzhou, and Zhu Zhu was first known to Liu Biao, and Zhu was the left general to engage in Zhonglang.
Before the lord went to Jingzhou, Yong, Lu Zhu and Sun Qian were both engaged in Zhonglang, often as talkers, and exchanged missions.
Liu Bei had repeatedly defected to various warlords, but the above-mentioned people had always been directly subordinate to Liu Bei, and no one had ever been able to dispatch these people without Liu Bei's consent.
If the warlords of all walks of life whom Liu Bei had defected wanted to disrupt the formation of Liu Bei's army at will, and had crossed Liu Bei to give Guan Yu Zhang Fei and others several ranks in a row, then Liu Bei would certainly not be happy.
Our question now is: When Liu Bei's army went to cao, yuan shao, liu biao, and others, it maintained the absolute independence of its own army, so why did Cao Cao and others accept him?
In fact, when explaining this problem, we can probably know why Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei rarely fought beautiful battles that people talked about in the early days, but they were still praised by the world as the famous generals of the world.
Because Liu Bei wanted to maintain his independence and the conditions he proposed were so harsh, he had to help Cao Cao and others gnaw hard bones. Otherwise, Cao Cao and others were not fools, so why accept him?
In other words, Liu Bei promised them the following condition: I Liu Bei surrender to you, and independence must be guaranteed. You can entrust me with the most dangerous and difficult tasks. As long as you can provide me with enough logistical support, I will never let you down.
It is precisely for similar reasons that although Liu Bei and others often lose battles, absolutely no one will doubt their military ability, because the battles fought by Liu Bei and others are probably gnawing hard bones, and replaced by others, they must have pulled their teeth off long ago.
This also explains another problem: no matter who Liu Bei defects to, he has always maintained an independent position. But those who accept Liu Bei's trust will feel that it is worth the money.
As long as you pay some money, you can get back a capable free thug, why not enjoy it?
When Liu Zhang felt that he was threatened by Zhang Lu and Cao Cao, he immediately planned to ask Liu Bei for help, also out of this mentality, although some people said that Liu Bei was a tiger and wolf, but Liu Zhang weighed it up and still thought that Liu Bei was more reliable than Zhang Lu and Cao Cao.
Is Liu Zhang wrong? In a sense he was right. So many people had accepted Liu Bei's surrender, and some people would have told them at that time: Liu Bei was a tiger and wolf. But so what? They still asked Liu Bei to help, and Liu Bei didn't go anywhere.
As the saying goes, "a good warrior has no outstanding merits", Liu Bei and others have fought too many defeats in this life, but they still receive a lot of praise, which is enough to show the ability of Liu Bei's group.
Some people may say: "Liu Bei often lacks soldiers and major generals, and they are all helped by people he has turned to to make up for it, so how to ensure independence at this time?" ”
Yes, Liu Bei often finds people to borrow soldiers or even generals, but this shows that Liu Bei is a "guest general", because this is the difference between "seeping sand" and "sending red envelopes".
What is "sand seepage"? It is that I pay for people, and then interfere with your platoon and personnel appointment and removal;
What is "Giving a Red Packet"? Even if I pay for people, then I may be able to interfere with your platoon deployment, but I will definitely not interfere with your personnel appointment and dismissal.
For example, when Liu Bei helped Tao Qian, the troops were too small, and Tao Qian gave Liu Bei 4,000 soldiers and horses, is this "seeping sand"? No, because Tao Qian could not interfere with Liu Bei's platoon arrangements and personnel appointments and removals.
The Lord of Shixian had more than a thousand soldiers and a thousand horsemen of Karasuma in Youzhou, and a few thousand hungry people. Having arrived, Qian took the Danyang Soldiers for four thousand benefits to the Lord, and the First Lord went to Kai Guiqian.
For example, after Yuan Shu's usurpation, Cao Cao sent Liu Bei to block Yuan Shu, and sent Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao to Liu Bei as his deputy. No. Because Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao may be able to interfere with Liu Bei's platoon deployment, but they definitely cannot interfere with Liu Bei's personnel appointment and dismissal.
Yuan Shu wanted to pass through Xuzhou north for Yuan Shao, and Cao Gong sent the first governor to supervise Ling Ling and Lu Zhao to strike. Before he arrived, he died of illness.
What is it like for various warlords to "infiltrate sand" into The Liu Bei clique? Sorry, the history books do not record it. However, judging from Liu Bei's frequent departures from various warlords, either he had successfully completed his task, or the warlords of all walks of life planned to "infiltrate sand" for Liu Bei, so Liu Bei fled.
A more typical example is Liu Bei's performance at the Battle of Guandu.
During the Battle of Guandu, Cao Ren said to Cao Cao: "The southern counties thought that our army was trapped in Guandu and could not rescue them, but Liu Bei was suppressing the territory with a large army at this time, and their betrayal was a normal thing. However, Liu Bei had just led Yuan Shao's soldiers, and he was definitely not well commanded, and he could be killed by casual fighting. ”
Ren Yue: "The southern army has a current emergency, and its momentum cannot be saved, Liu Bei is approaching with a strong army, and his betrayal is guyiye." The new general Shao Bing was unable to use it, and the blow could be broken. ”
Cao Cao listened to Cao Ren's words, took time out to clean up Liu Bei during the confrontation with Yuan Shao, and immediately beat Liu Bei to the point of losing his armor and running back to Yuan Shao.
The logic of this matter should be like this: "Guest general" Liu Bei came to Yuan Shao's side and received the task of "harassing Cao Cao from the rear", because Liu Bei's strength was insufficient, so Yuan Shao gave him a lot of soldiers and horses, but these soldiers and horses Liu Bei did not command smoothly and was defeated by Cao Ren.
Liu Bei took Yuan Shao's money and took Yuan Shao's army to do the task, but the mission failed, can Yuan Shao give him a good look?
At this time, if Liu Bei did not find a way to make up for his mistakes as soon as possible, he could only accompany himself to Yuan Shao.
To this end, Liu Bei came up with an idea: he was willing to contact Liu Biao in the south on behalf of Yuan Shao, because they were all relatives of the Han Dynasty.
In the process of marching, Liu Bei defeated Cao Cao's general Cai Yang, which was a nail in the south.
After accepting Liu Zhang's invitation, Liu Bei again used the excuse that he did not have enough troops, so Liu Zhang gave Liu Bei a lot of military supplies and troops.
Zhang Zeng took the lead in the army, attacked Zhang Lu, and then ordered the White Water Army to be supervised. The first lord and the army of more than 30,000 people, the car armor equipment is very rich.
If according to Liu Bei's past history, Liu Bei has a high probability of being able to complete the task, even if the mission fails (such as failing to block Cao Cao for Yuan Shao), Liu Bei can find a way to make up for it.
In general, Liu Bei at this time was very trustworthy, and he was fully worthy of Liu Zhang's trust.
But what Liu Zhang did not expect was that the anti-bone boy headed by Zhang Song had already betrayed him, and after Liu Bei weighed the pros and cons, he felt that it was more cost-effective to seize Xichuan than to talk about credit, so Liu Bei did not talk about credit this time, but took Xichuan with his backhand.
The funny thing is that when Liu Bei captured Xichuan, he wanted to set up that when he was there, he marched under the banner of "revenge for Zhang Song".
Later, it was Pang Tong who directly punctured this diorama: Liu Zhang asked us to help, but we took away his foundation, what is there to be happy about?
Tong Yue: "The kingdom of the people is regarded as happy, and the soldiers of the non-benevolent are also." The first lord was drunk and angry: "The king of wu cuts the silk, sings before and dances after the dance, and the unkind are evil." Improper words, it is advisable to get up quickly! So the patrol retreated.
For Pang Tong's argument, Liu Bei was of course very angry, but he did not surrender to Pang Tong in the end, after all, he also did not do things authentically, plus Pang Tong was still useful at this time.
The above is the main reason why Liu Bei was active in the chaotic world at the end of the Han Dynasty as a "guest general", and he had the ability and a fixed team.
But this statement is really detrimental to the sanctity of imperial power: a capable and powerful tyrant can actually be a mercenary at the end of the Han Dynasty? On the surface, it seems that the Great Han is indeed not dead, but in fact, is this not "the emperor's new clothes"?
Therefore, when many people talk about the special experiences of Liu Bei and others, they will repeatedly emphasize their official positions: in short, Liu Bei and others are officials appointed by the Han court, and they naturally disdain cao cao and Yuan Shao and other people as horses.
I can't say that this has nothing to do with official positions, but blindly emphasizing official positions and ignoring Liu Bei's independent team is not to give up the end?
If Liu Bei did not have the ability, or if Liu Bei's team was all Lü Bu's virtue, he would not be a "guest general", because his subordinates would compete for independence to become "guest generals".
From this point of view, Liu Bei's official position is the table, and Liu Bei's outstanding talent and team cohesion are the inside.