MacArthur, a famous american general, once said that "veterans never die, but gradually wither away", which is not only applicable to World War II, but also to the Three Kingdoms era in ancient China. Everyone knows that Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others are all famous generals of the Three Kingdoms, but before they became famous generals, they actually went through decades of military careers and gradually grew into famous generals in the battlefield.
Zhang Fei joined the army with Guan Yu at the age of 19, that is, in 184 AD, Guan Yu was a few years older than Zhang Fei, and he was in his early twenties at this time. By the time Zhang Fei became a recognized general in 208 due to the Battle of Changsakapo, he was already a 43-year-old middle-aged man, and it can be said that these twenty years of military career were enough to make veterans such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei become famous generals.
However, after becoming famous generals, although they bloomed brilliantly and were listed among Liu Bei's Five Tiger Generals, shaking the whole world, they gradually withered away after a short time. By the end of the Three Kingdoms period, the Five Tigers who had shocked the world had died one after another, and the Shu Han seemed to have a situation of talent withering, and even later generations made up the words "there is no general in Shu, Liao hua is a pioneer" to mock this phenomenon.
But is this really the case? Although the famous generals died, the spirit of the veterans still circulated, and in the past few decades, it was enough to make Guan Yu and Zhang Fei become famous generals, and naturally other veterans could become famous generals. During the forty years that Liu Chan was proclaimed emperor, although the Five Tiger Generals had died, he still had ten great generals, and these ten great generals played the role of pillars of the country as the military force of the Shu Han Dynasty.
The ten liang generals were Jiang Wei, Wei Yan, Wang Ping, Deng Zhi, Ma Zhong, Ma Dai, Fu You, Li Yan, Zhang Yi, and Zhang Ling. As a disciple of Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei commanded the army after Zhuge Liang's death, but he did not have as much influence as Zhuge Liang had on Liu Chan, and Liu Chan favored the eunuch Huang Hao, and Zhuge Liang could speak out to rebuke but Jiang Wei could not do anything.
When Cao Wei sent troops, Jiang Wei received a message in advance to write to Liu Chan, asking Liu Chan to prepare early, and made a detailed military force deployment, as long as Liu Chan did so, it was very likely to keep Shu Han from dying, but because Huang Hao was on the side to stop it, Jiang Wei's letter was abandoned, and eventually Shu Han perished. Jiang Wei then surrendered and tried to encourage the Wei army to rebel, but was subsequently suppressed and the entire clan was destroyed.
Wei Yan was a famous general as early as the early Three Kingdoms period, and he had always been used by Liu Bei, but Zhuge Liang did not use him much, and did not use his schemes, resulting in dissatisfaction, and later discord with Yang Yi, and was wiped out of the whole clan. Wang Ping, Deng Zhi, and Ma Zhong, who were guarding Hanzhong, Yong'an, and Nanzhong respectively, were the seats of the Shu and Han frontiers, and Wang Ping commanded the special operations detachment trained by Zhuge Liang: Wudang Flying Army, which made the world even more frightened.
Ma Dai was Ma Chao's younger brother, and he was already a world-famous general before he defected to Liu Bei, and later he was Zhuge Liang's confidant, Zhuge Liang asked him to kill Wei Yan before his death, and he also completed his strength extremely well. Fu You was Jiang Wei's confidant and favorite general, when Cao Wei's army attacked Shu Han, Fu You died in battle while defending the city alone, so he was respected by his opponent Sima Yan and called it "the goodness of the world".
Li Yan was even more powerful, when Liu Bei was entrusted to the orphan in the White Emperor City, he was the same as Zhuge Liang, he built water conservancy projects such as Pujiang Dam and other projects in the local area, which influenced the future millennium, and was also effective in the military, and also participated in the revision of the "Shu Ke", which was an all-round talent. Zhang Yi and Zhang Ling mainly contributed a lot to the defense of Southern Man, and they both quelled the rebellion of Southern Man many times and stabilized the frontier of Shu Han.