01
Many of Liu Bei's subordinates had previously worked under Liu Biao, and Huang Zhong, one of the veteran generals of the "Five Tiger Generals", was also like this.
Huang Zhong was a beautiful man when he was young, born handsome, and loyal, the family was also very happy, the wife was virtuous and beautiful, and the son was smart and clever.
Their family, living a typical male farming and female weaving life, although not rich, but very happy. In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, happiness came to an abrupt end, and in order to escape the chaos of the war, Huang Zhong fled with his family to the relatively stable Jingzhou and defected to Liu Biao, who made him a general in Zhonglang and stationed him with his nephew Liu Pan in Changsha You County (present-day Zhuzhou You County, Hunan).
In 208, Liu Biao fell ill and died, Cao Cao attacked Jingzhou, Liu Biao's son Liu Chun surrendered, and Huang Zhong also returned to Cao Cao, and was temporarily appointed by Cao Cao as a general of Pei, still stationed in the same place, belonging to Changsha Taishou Han Xuan ("Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Huang Zhong's Biography": and Cao Gongke Jingzhou, a false general, still in office, under the changsha shou Han Xuan).
Huang Zhong, who was highly skilled in martial arts and rarely had opponents, whether under Liu Biao or Cao Cao, had small official positions and were not reused, mainly because he was born a civilian, and in ancient times, when many times he relied on his birth to eat, such buried talents abounded.
But there is no class in ability, and whoever looks down on people who have ability because of class nature is a fool, so when the next year, Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated Cao Cao and occupied Jingzhou and then attacked Changsha, Zhuge Liang said that Han Xuan in Changsha was a straw bag, not to worry about, but he had an old man under him, named Huang Zhong, although he was almost sixty years old, but he was too powerful to be unwanted, and he had the courage of a thousand men.
02
According to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (by the way, there is very little information about Huang Zhong in the main history, and the writing of this article refers to the yanyi, please do not take it as a historical fact) It was Guan Yu, liu bei, the second eldest of the brothers who was ordered to fight In Changsha, this person had a problem, always thought that he was invincible in the world, and he was always arrogant, so when Zhuge Liang asked him to bring more people, he not only did not listen, but also thought that it was an insult to him, and took five hundred school swordsmen and went.
However, although the number is small, the combat effectiveness is equivalent to five hundred special soldiers.
The other side was out of the horse, it was a thousand people, and the leader was the young general Yang Ling.
Guan Yu's name, this young general must have heard of it, but as the saying goes, the newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, not to mention that no matter how powerful Guan Yu is, he is only a person, so Comrade Xiao Yang took out a fearless revolutionary spirit, scolded the battle before arriving, and after only three rounds, he was beheaded by Guan Yu.
Xiao Yang can't do it, or look at Lao Huang.
Although Guan Yu had never seen Huang Zhong before, as soon as he saw the other party's white beard, he knew in his heart: "Who is coming?" Could it be Huang Zhong? Huang Zhong said, since he knows my name, he still came to invade my border, and he is not a little bold! Guan Yu said, I came to take your brain shell!
Talk less nonsense, fight. After playing more than a hundred rounds, there was no difference between victory and defeat, Han Xuan was afraid that Huang Zhong would lose the battle, and Mingjin would collect troops.
The entire Changsha garrison, as far as this old man can fight, if he has a mistake, I can do it, so Han Xuanmingjin collected the troops.
But then he still had to continue to fight, and he fought for three days, the two had not been able to distinguish between victory and defeat, Guan Yu was almost killed by Huang Zhong's arrow (of course, before Guan Yu also deliberately let him go, Huang Zhong's arrow was deliberately deflected, it was a report and a report), and the final result was that Han Xuan's straw bag suspected that Huang Zhong and Guan Yu were secretly communicating, tied him up, and was about to push him out to behead, Wei Yan killed the knife axeman, saved Huang Zhong, and cut Han Xuan by the way.
Changsha belonged to Liu Bei, and Huang Zhong also belonged to Liu Bei.
03
In China, the name "Huang Zhong" is synonymous with the old and strong.
It can be said that Huang Zhong's real ability came into play after returning to Liu Bei, and at that time, he was already over sixty years old, and even if the average life expectancy was much higher than in ancient times, he had reached the age of teasing Sun.
However, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's heavy use of him made people feel very unpleasant.
Of course, Huang Zhong himself did not have this feeling, he just felt that when he was old, he would be appreciated by people, perhaps it was providence, but if he did not work hard, he would no longer have the opportunity to make meritorious achievements and honor his ancestors, and he would fail to live up to this providence.
An ambitious man, the purpose of life, is not this? So despite his age, he also has to work as hard as the young man, and even more than they do, because the young man still has time and opportunities, and his time and opportunity are much less than theirs.
So, whenever there was a battle to be fought, he was "the first to go", scrambling, afraid not to let him go - he had to seize every opportunity.
Then there is the "courage to win the three armies" - once you get the opportunity to fight, you must take out the strength to suckle, so that you can achieve results.
And this kind of "courage" has nothing to do with whether he is strong in martial arts.
There is a saying that Huang Zhong seventy does not obey the old, he does not dare to obey ah, once he serves, he is really old, no one uses him, he will not have a chance.
So he is not afraid of heaven, and he is most afraid of people saying that he is old.
It is estimated that he asks every day: Leader, is there a battle today? No? What about tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow?
04
Born in that chaotic world, are you still afraid of not fighting?
In his own opinion, although he is old (although he does not admit it, but it is a fact), he still has a lot of value.
In the eyes of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, although he is old, he still has a lot of use value.
Especially Zhuge Liang, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms shows that their use of Huang Zhong is obviously full of badness.
For example —
Huang Zhong adopted the strategy of arrogant soldiers, even pretending to fail in several battles, and later took advantage of Cao Jun's slack night attack on Cao Jun, defeating Cao Jun, and then taking advantage of the hot iron to kill Shangtiandang Mountain, killing Han Hao, burning Cao Jun's grain and grass, and sending Yan Yan to secretly attack Zhang Guo, forcing Zhang Guo to abandon Tiandang Mountain.
People just came down from the battlefield, the breath was not even, the anxious Liu Bei wanted to eat hot tofu again, said, Huang Lao General is indeed a god of martial arts, and has made a great contribution, but there is also a Dingjun Mountain, if you can also take it down, it will be great, Hanzhong will be stable, the general dares to go? Take down the Dingjun Mountain, you can be promoted.
Who said that Zhuge Liang would play the Radical Technique? Liu Bei played, not bad at all, maybe Zhuge Liang, or learned from him.
Since Huang Zhong is most afraid of others saying that he is old, of course, he is also afraid of people saying that he is timid, what is not dare to do, a chest pat, wrapped in Lao Huang's body!
This is like a small worker at a construction site, just moved a bunch of bricks, the boss said, there is a pile there, you continue to move, after moving to add chicken legs to you, the small worker is obviously tired, should take a break, raise the spirit, tomorrow to dry, but heard that there are chicken legs, I want to continue to work.
However, whether you want to do it or not is one thing, and whether you have the strength to do the rest of the work is another matter.
Don't worry, Zhuge Liang has a way.
05
If Liu Bei let an exhausted small worker continue to brick a little, it is a little bad, then Zhuge Liang gave this small worker hormones and let him regain his strength, it is not a little bad.
He gave Huang Zhong that needle hormone, and it was like this: "Although the old general is a hero in the world, the Xiahou Yuan who is guarding the Junshan Mountain is also very powerful, much more powerful than Zhang Guo, who lost at your hands." I see, or I personally go to Jingzhou, change Guan Yu back, let Guan Yu go, otherwise this battle will not be won. ”
These two people will not only be radical, but also act, and the double reed is particularly good.
Huang Zhong was indeed "deceived" - what are you doing? Really think I'm old and not useful? Lian Po is not old at eighty years old, can he still eat a bucket of rice and ten pounds of meat in one meal, I am not yet seventy years old, is this called old? Give me three thousand people, the vice generals don't want it, I will bring Xiahou Yuan's brain shell to you, otherwise I will bring my own brain shell to see you! ”
Since the big words have been spoken, it is necessary to win, and for a small worker who has just finished moving a pile of bricks and has not yet had time to catch his breath, the only way to move another pile of bricks without stopping is to desperately.
Judging from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Huang Zhong is completely deadly rhythm -
Huang Zhong took the lead and galloped down the mountain, as if the world was collapsing. Xiahou Yuan was caught off guard, and was driven under the cover by Huang Zhong, shouting loudly, like a thunder roar. Before Yuan could meet each other, Huang Zhongbao's sword had fallen, and he even had his head and shoulders, and cut it into two pieces. ”
Rushing down the mountain first, it is like the world is collapsing - this is not to care about nothing, and what is it to play with your life?
As the supreme commander of the western front of the Cao Army, Xiahou Yuan, who had fought everywhere in Lujiang, Taiyuan, Weishui, Anding, Saibei, and Jiangzuo, and who had made great military achievements, was no worse than Huang Zhong, and the reason why he did not even have the opportunity to fight back was entirely because he was caught off guard, which was equivalent to being surprised by Huang Zhong.
Even if Xiahou Yuan had a little bit of preparation, things might not be like this.
Huang Zhong won, but winning was a bit of a fluke.
In fact, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang also understood that Huang Zhong was not necessarily Xiahou Yuan's opponent, and the only possibility to defeat Xiahou Yuan was to fight with him, whether he lost or won, depending on the luck of the old general.
So the question arises: Didn't Zhuge Liang always be cautious and never take risks? Is this swelling?
I can't think about it carefully, because I am extremely afraid to think about it: this old general who does not obey the old himself is old after all, and the value that can be used is getting less and less, and it is not impossible to squeeze it dry at once while he still has a little surplus value.
This is also the reason why they did not use young generals to "fight" with Xiahou Yuan.
Fools will also calculate: the surplus value of a young general is much greater than that of an old man who is about to die!
06
Fortunately, the old general had good luck and won the fight.
That is, he still has surplus value, so continue to squeeze.
In 220, Guan Yu was killed by Wu Bing, and in order to avenge his second brother, Liu Bei raised an army to attack Wu.
Before the battle, Liu Bei played that set again: since the ancient heroes came out of the youth, the veterans were useless.
If you really think that the veteran is useless, you don't say it in front of the old guy, don't let him hear it, but he doesn't, he says it in front of the old guy, who said he didn't mean it?
In that year, Huang Zhong was already seventy-five years old, equivalent to ninety years old now, and it was indeed old and too old for a general who went into battle to kill the enemy.
Let such an old man go to the end, how can he bear it? But Liu Bei didn't care, he just squeezed his surplus value, and if he didn't squeeze it, it would be gone.
Huang Zhong was most afraid of others saying that he was old, when he was seventy years old, and still afraid when he was seventy-five years old, so he listened to Liu Bei's words, went out without a word, took a knife to the horse, took five or six people, and went straight to the front.
It is indeed not suitable for him to charge into the battlefield personally, so when the people on the front line saw him, they were very strange: "The old general has come from afar, what noble work?" ”
Huang Zhong said breathlessly, some people actually say that I am old, I want him to see today, i am not really old!
Coincidentally, he wanted to kill Wu to prove that he was not old, and the front line reported that Wu Bing had arrived, and When Huang Zhong heard this, he immediately went out of the tent to prove that he was not old, and people could not stop him.
When he cut off the enemy general's historical relics under his horse in only three rounds, which annoyed another Wu general, Pan Zhang, who shouted loudly and wielded a large knife to kill.
What Pan Zhang wielded was actually Guan Gong's Green Dragon Crescent Moon Sword!
That year in Changsha, Huang Zhong and Guan Yu fought a vicious battle and fell off their horses, thinking that they would undoubtedly die, but it was this knife that did not fall for a long time.
At that time, although he and Guan Yu were enemies, how could he not be his savior as an enemy?
Seeing things and thinking of people, Huang Zhong was furious, and his body erupted with infinite strength, Pan Zhang could not fight, he turned around and fled, and Huang Zhong chased after him on horseback.
After all, the old general was old, and the generals were afraid that he would lose, so they all advised him to return to the camp, and Wherever Huang Zhong was willing, he shouted loudly while chasing: "The thief will leave!" I now avenge Guan Gong! ”
After chasing for more than thirty miles in one breath, suddenly shouting loudly, the enemy's ambush troops poured out of the nest and surrounded Huang Zhong in the center, Huang Zhong was hit by an arrow, still fighting hard, and the reinforcements had lost too much blood when they arrived...
Before he died, the last words Huang Zhong heard were liu Bei's words: "Let the old general be wounded, and the mistake of degeneration is also too!" ”
It's really a cat crying rat fake mercy, before you said in front of the old general, saying that the veteran general is useless, stimulating the old general to fight for you, but there is no such fake feeling!
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Huang Zhong died of illness, but in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Luo Guanzhong arranged such an ending for Huang Zhong, was it to explain the ugliness of human nature? I believe that different readers will taste different flavors.