In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the most prominent generals of the Three Houses of Wei and Wu were the five sons of Cao Wei, the five tiger generals of Shu Han, and the twelve tiger ministers of Jiangdong.
The best of them were the Five Tiger Generals of Shu Han, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were famous generals of the "Ten Thousand Enemies" in the Three Kingdoms period, and their martial arts were extraordinary, although their martial arts were not as good as Lü Bu, the first general of the Three Kingdoms, but they were also second only to Lü Bu. Zhao Yun was a "constant victor" during the Three Kingdoms period and was never defeated. Ma Chao is also a top player. As a veteran general, although Huang Zhong's strength was slightly inferior to Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and Ma Chao, he killed Xiahou Yuan at Dingjun Mountain, which also showed the immortal side of his sword.
The two best generals of Cao Wei's martial arts were Dianwei and Xu Chu, and their martial arts could be compared to the Five Tiger Generals of Shu Han, but these two generals had average strategies and a slightly inferior ability to unite the troops, so the five generals with outstanding comprehensive strength of Cao Wei were still the five sons of Cao Wei.
The most capable of the Five Sons was Zhang Liao, who had killed Wu Huandan at the White Wolf Mountain, and in the Battle of Hefei, repelled Sun Quan's 100,000 troops with 800 troops, which made Zhang Liaowei shake Jiangdong. Zhang Gao was an excellent general who had caused many troubles for Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. Xu Huang defeated Guan Yu at the Battle of Xiangfan. Yu Ban and Le Jin are also very capable. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the main tone is to praise Liu Cao, and the five tiger generals under Liu Bei are also stronger in comprehensive ability than the five sons and generals under Cao Cao.
Among the Three Kingdoms of Wei shu and Wu, Sun Quan had the lowest sense of existence, but there were also many famous generals under him, including the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiang Biao, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Gan Ning, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai, Han Dang, Chen Wu, Ling Tong, Ding Feng, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, and Dong Xun. Among these 12 people, there are martial arts masters such as Gan Ning and Zhou Tai, but most of them are slightly weaker in martial arts, so their comprehensive strength is not as good as that of the Five Tiger Generals and the Five Sons.
The fame and strength of the Twelve Tigers of Jiangdong were not as good as those of the Five Tiger Generals and the Five Sons, but many of the Five Sons and Five Tiger Generals died at their hands.
First, the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty
Among the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty, the earliest person to die was Guan Yu.
After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, Guan Yu, who had not yet made any achievements in Jingzhou, was a little anxious, and he took advantage of Cao Cao's defeat and low morale to lead the troops of Jingzhou to attack Cao Wei without asking Liu Bei for instructions. At first, Guan Yu won successive great victories and threatened Huaxia, but during the Three Kingdoms period, for the sake of profit, it was easy for allies to turn against each other. While Guan Yu was fighting cao ren and Xu Huang on the front line, his ally Sun Quan joined forces with Cao Cao to deal with Guan Yu for the benefit of Jiangdong, which eventually led to the confusion of Guan Yu's army and was defeated by Xu Huang and Lü Meng.
When Guan Yu fled to Maicheng with his defeat, he was captured by Ma Zhong, one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong, and beheaded by Sun Quan.
After Guan Yu was killed, Ma Chao, another general in Jiangdong, also died of illness.
After Guan Yu's death, Zhang Fei, who was in love with him, and Liu Bei joined forces to attack Jiangdong, preparing to avenge Guan Yu. Because of Guan Yu's death, Zhang Fei was in a depressed mood and often beat and scolded soldiers. His subordinates Zhang Da and Fan Qiang were unbearable and killed Zhang Fei while they were asleep.
After the deaths of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, there were very few famous generals left under Liu Bei, and the only ones he could rely on most were Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong. Zhao Yun, because of his opposition to Liu Bei's attack on Wu, did not take Liu Bei with him when he conquered Jiangdong, and only took the veteran general Huang Zhong with him. When Huang Zhong was engaged in battle with Pan Zhang, one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong, due to his eagerness to avenge Guan Yu, he was eventually ambushed by Jiangdong and shot by Pan Zhang's general Ma Zhong.
Zhao Yun was one of the five tiger generals, one of the longer-lived, after the death of Guan Yu and others, he also followed Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, and at the age of 70, he fought against the four generals of the Han family, killing Han De, as well as his four sons Han Ying, Han Yao, Han Qiong, and Han Qi. After that, because Zhao Yun was too old, Zhuge Liang did not take him around to fight. Soon after, Zhao Yun fell ill and died in Shu Han.
2. Cao Wei's fifth son, a good general
Cao Wei's fifth son, Xu Huang, was the first to die. In the Battle of Xiangfan, after Yu Ban's crushing defeat to Guan Yu, Cao Cao sent Xu Huang to rescue Cao Ren. Due to the capture of Jingzhou by Jiangdong, Guan Yu was in disarray and was defeated by Xu Huang. Xu Huang was still in hot pursuit and wanted to put Guan Yu to death, but stealing chickens could not be eroded rice, and he was shot by An arrow from Shu general Meng Da. After the soldiers rescued Xu Huang back to the camp, he died without healing.
Yu Ban also died at the Battle of Xiangfan.
After Cao Ren was besieged, Cao Cao sent Yu Ban and Pound To lead troops to rescue Cao Ren. Yu Ban was flooded by Guan Yu because he was not familiar with the local hydrological terrain. After being captured, Yu Ban surrendered to Guan Yu, and Pang Dening died and was killed by Guan Yu. Later, after Yu Ban was rescued by Jiangdong and sent back to Cao Wei, Cao Wei's junchen looked down on him. Cao Pi had people paint murals in the Taimiao Temple that were forbidden to surrender, humiliating them to the forbidden, leading to the end of the forbidden depression.
After Guan Yu was killed, Liu Bei led his troops to attack Jiangdong. Cao Pi began to choose to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and after Liu Bei's crushing defeat to Jiangdong, he took the opportunity to send a three-way army to attack Jiangdong. Jiangdong had already made preparations, and Cao Wei's three major armies were all repelled by him, among which the famous Cao Wei general Zhang Liao, when he was engaged in battle with Jiangdong, was shot by Ding Feng, one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong, and returned to Xuchang and died of serious injuries. Another of Cao Wei's generals, Le Jin, was also shot in the face by Gan Ning, one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong, while fighting against Jiangdong, and soon died of serious injuries.
Zhang Gao was the last of the five sons to die. During Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, he led his troops to take the street pavilion and let Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition fail. Zhang Gao's outstanding ability made the Shu army suffer a lot, but when he later pursued the Shu army, he was ambushed by the Shu army and shot at the wooden gate.
Among the five tiger generals and five sons, Four of them, Yu Yu, Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao, and Xu Huang, died at the hands of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong and their generals.