According to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei took Hanzhong in the sixteenth year of Jian'an (219), established himself as the King of Hanzhong, and crowned Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zilong, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong as the "Five Tiger Generals".
Since then, the 5 of them have been called "Five Tiger Generals", in fact, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which truly records the history of the Three Kingdoms, does not have this description, let alone mention that the 5 people were named "Five Tiger Generals".
There is indeed a "five tiger general" in history, but it did not occur in the Shu kingdom, but in the despised Wei state, and many historians agree with this.
According to the research, it was found that the "Five Tiger Generals" were actually the works of Cao Cao, not from Liu Bei's hand, and the so-called Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Kingdom were just fabricated. So, compared with the "Five Tiger Generals" in the early Tang Dynasty, does the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Kingdom have a chance of winning?
The Five Tigers of the State of Wei and the Tang Dynasty said it
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Volume XVII, records: "Taizu Jianzi martial arts, and the good general of the time, the five sons are the first." That is to say, during Cao Cao's reign, he once selected 5 good generals to be "great generals", and was known as the "Five Tiger Generals".
When the Romance of the Three Kingdoms fabricated this period of history, what happened to the State of Wei was applied to the State of Shu, creating the "Five Tiger Generals" that will be remembered by future generations.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 36, describes the Five Tiger Generals in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as follows: "Guan Zhang is the enemy of all men, and he is the subject of the Tigers of the World... Chao (Ma Chao) blocked Rong Yong... Huang Zhong, Zhao Yunqiang and fierce... Its irrigation, Teng's disciples? ”
In this way, the Five Tiger Generals of the State of Wei were indeed quite rapid, although they were not considered to be the "Five Tiger Generals", but they also gave a high evaluation.
The Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang quote the romance of the Three Kingdoms and line up the "Five Tigers of Wagang", arguing that Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Pei Xingyu, and Shan Xiongxin were the generals of the Five Tigers.
Both books comment that they are rare in history, and if they meet a good general, they will be able to sweep the world. After Li Shimin became their leader, this was indeed the case.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, and Zhao Zilong as having strong fighting power, and the Book of Tang's evaluation of Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin and others is not bad. So, if they really wanted to meet together, how effective were the five tiger generals of the Wei state? The answer is to be "annihilated."
The Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty will be "annihilated"
Before describing the annihilation of the regiment, it must be emphasized that the criterion for comparing the two is based on historical facts, not "deductive novels". In the novel, the combat effectiveness of historical characters can be infinitely enhanced, but this is not the case in the historical records, and everyone's combat effectiveness must be measured according to the results of the battle.
In the historical records, Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin's combat effectiveness was very strong, and Qin Qiong was even considered to be the first fierce general in the early Tang Dynasty. Compared with the Shu Kingdom, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and other historical books describe Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, and Zhao Zilong very little, and there is no single column biography.
For the description of Guan Yu, the "first fierce general" of the Shu kingdom and considered to be a "martial saint", it is basically only a few words, only the records of the stabs of Yan Liang in the ten thousand armies, and nothing else, the Shu Benji commented: "Wei Mouchen Cheng Yu and other salty and flying enemies of ten thousand people are also ... Super faith, the courage of cloth... Zhongchang first ascended to Chen, bravely crowned the three armies..."
Regarding the Huwei general Zhao Zilong, there is no record that he broke into Cao's camp alone and saved Liu Chan and moved Liu Bei, and it was Zhang Fei instead of Zhao Zilong who drank cao jun at that time. The "Biography of Yun Bei" is a separate record of Zhao Zilong, but there is no such thing as "seven in and seven out".
In contrast, the "Five Tiger Generals" in the early years of the Tang Dynasty are described in great detail. Guan Yu, the head of the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty, has the saying that Yan Liang stabbed Yan Liang in the Ten Thousand Armies, and the Records of Qin Qiong in the Book of Tang show that there are many things that kill the leader of the enemy in the Ten Thousand Armies, just as it is called: "Every time the enemy xiao will be sharp, Shu Bao will take it, and take the enemy among the people, it is better to be as good as zhi." ”
Both are the first masters of the Five Tiger Generals, and the comparison between Guan Yu and Qin Qiong can be seen that Qin Qiong has specific data, while Guan Yu's legend is only fabricated, so the difference between the two has already appeared.
The other four tigers can also be compared. Although Cheng Yaojin only had one and a half moves, he was very good at using soldiers and horses, and once defeated and won in case of injury; Pei Xingyu was evaluated as a "ten thousand enemies", who could achieve "every attack and battle, all should be invincible", and the war he commanded was basically undefeated; Luo Shixin joined the army at the age of 14, had a high command talent and combat strength, and once killed the leader of the enemy in the ten thousand armies; Shan Xiongxin was also very powerful, and Li Shimin, who was considered to be strong in martial arts, recognized him as a master, if he was very serious at that time, There was no later Tang Taizong.
Weapon craftsmanship is an essential element of victory in war
Putting aside the history and the interpretation, there are three reasons that the Five Tigers of the Shu Han Dynasty will be annihilated. First, the level is different, and the ability of the Shu Han Five Tigers to lead the troops cannot be compared with the Five Tigers of Wagang.
Fighting wars does not rely on "all armies taking the head of the enemy from them," but on the art of command and strong strength. Statistics found that the State of Shu was the smallest of the three kingdoms, the smallest in population and army, and did not have the strength to defeat the other two countries, which can also explain why the State of Wei destroyed the State of Shu first and then the State of Wu.
Unlike the Five Tigers of Wagang, they not only have a vast territory, but also a steady stream of soldiers, and naturally they will win easily.
Second, in terms of weapons and equipment, the Shu state was inferior to the Tang Dynasty. The Three Kingdoms were formed in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after nearly 200 years of the Taiping Dynasty, and the weapons and equipment were not fundamentally reformed.
Unlike the Tang Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty unified the world for a very short time, before which there were nearly hundreds of years of war, weapons and equipment have been upgraded, even the worst equipment is stronger than the Three Kingdoms period. Therefore, the Shu army could not withstand the attack of the Tang Dynasty army at all.
The third is a comparison of cavalry strength. The Shu state basically had no cavalry, more infantry. Judging from the confrontation between the Song Dynasty and other dynasties in the north, the infantry absolutely suffered losses in the process of fighting. In addition to infantry, the Tang Dynasty also had strong cavalry, which were enough to occupy an absolute advantage and destroy the shu state's troops.
Xiang Yu, who had infinite strength, could not yet block the attacks of several thousand people from Liu Bang, so how could Guan Yu and other historical materials not record in detail be able to compare and compare with each other? Not to mention the Five Tigers of Wagang.
The determining factor of ancient wars was population, which could not only bring a steady stream of troops to the country, but also maintain the continuous supply of national logistics and materials, so that the war would continue. Although the sui and early Tang dynasties were in a scuffle, the material was richer than that of the Three Kingdoms period, and the population was greatly improved.
Excluding these factors that determined the fundamental victory of the war, even if the Five Tigers of Wagang were compared with the Five Tigers of the Shu Kingdom, the latter would not be able to achieve victory. Judging from his resume, Guan Yu is a jujube seller and has not undergone professional martial arts training, while Qin Qiong not only reads a lot of books, but also receives quite professional guidance, and there is certainly no comparison between the two.
Of course, with the spread of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Five Tigers of the Shu Kingdom were more famous than the Five Tigers of Wagang in the early Tang Dynasty, and they did not represent themselves, but a certain concept in Confucian thought, so they had to be famous.
epilogue
History has no ifs, much less can it be compared with each other. A good example is the time of the discovery of the New World, when Europeans could represent a very advanced industrial civilization, and when they encountered Indians who had not yet left the primitive social period, the two could represent different historical differences.
Despite the considerable differences, the Europeans were not rivals of the Indians. Later, with advanced weapons and pit deception, the Europeans eventually succeeded in winning the initiative. This example is sufficient to illustrate that when two different forms or represent histories of different periods are compared, the latter often achieves the final victory. Although the latter is not as good as the former in terms of physique, the latter has enough strength to destroy the former.
Resources
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Book of Later Tang