Why did Guan Yu insist on leaving Cao Cao? Not just Zhongyi, you see how much Liu Bei paid Guan Yu!
Introduction: The most popular warrior in the Three Kingdoms period must be Guan Yu, who killed people and then died in the end of the world when he was young, and also learned a strong skill on the way. After meeting Liu Bei and Zhang Fei in Zhuo County, they became brothers, followed them to fight the Yellow Turban Thieves, and soon after showed their might under the Tiger Prison, and with this merit, they washed themselves and became famous in the world. At that time, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, the two largest princes in the Central Plains, were very eager to recruit him, and Yuan Shao deliberately sent someone to draw his appearance in order to know his whereabouts, and then told the generals in the army who found his tracks and reported them to be meritorious, and recruited him to be directly crowned marquis. At this time, Cao Cao hid Guan Yu in Cao Ying, and originally wanted to recruit him with the high-ranking official Houlu and the beautiful marten cicada, but Guan Yu was not moved, but repaid Cao Cao's kindness and returned to Liu Bei's side. Why couldn't Cao Cao recruit Guan Yu? This is not only because of Guan Yu's loyalty, but also because of Liu Bei's salary to Guan Yu.
First of all, we must know that since Dong Zhuo's chaos in Beijing, the currency circulating in the Han Dynasty was abolished, but the coins were re-minted and replaced with inferior coins, which was mainly to facilitate Dong Zhuo's coinage and allow him to buy more materials and soldiers. It was true that he did this to his own advantage, but because the cost of counterfeiting was very low, the common people of that era also followed the counterfeiting, so that prices rose rapidly, and the major princes began to promote their own currencies. Although Dong Zhuo was later reprimanded, the imperial court was no longer able to change the market environment, so the salaries paid to officials were paid in the way of "half money and half grain".
Let's take a look at Liu Bei's attitude towards Guan Yu at that time, from the beginning of their conquest of the Yellow Turban Thieves to the time when Guan Yu was captured by Cao Cao, the battle achievements they obtained were equally divided among the three people. Liu Bei was appointed by the imperial court as a county commander, and Guan Yu was the county commander; Liu Bei received one hundred and two gold because of his military exploits, and Guan Yu received thirty-two. Later, Liu Bei was worshipped as an emperor by Emperor Xian of Han, and Emperor Xian of Han selected a thousand silk horses from the state treasury to give to Liu Bei, and at this time Guan Yu also received hundreds of silk horses.
Let's look at the price level of that period, one stone is equal to four jun, one jun is equal to thirty catties, and one stone is equal to 120 catties. At that time, one pound was equivalent to our current 250 grams, that is, half a pound. Guan Yu's Feng Lu is 7,000 stones, which is 420,000 catties of grain a year from our current point of view! The grain of that era was mainly millet, and now the price of millet is mainly 5 yuan a catty, and Guan Yuguang's basic salary is 2.1 million yuan a year! Not counting the rewards of gold, silver, or mansions that had been earned in battle, the income properly crushed most people in that period and modern times.
Conclusion: They all said that if they wanted the horse to run, they would let the horse eat grass, and Liu Bei not only regarded Guan Yu as a brother, but also gave him such a high salary, and there were gifts every New Year's Festival. Guan Yu was also not a man with an iron heart, his relationship with his brother was so good, his income was so high, and in that era when Confucianism was prevalent, if he betrayed Liu Bei, he would be infamous for eternity, so Cao Cao could not keep Guan Yu no matter what. It's not just a matter of loyalty, but also of income and principle.