In July 219, Liu Bei proclaimed himself the King of Hanzhong and appointed Xu Jing as Taifu(太傅), Fazheng (法正) as Shangshu ling (尚書令), Guan Yu (关羽) as a former general, Zhang Fei (張飞) as a right general, Ma Chao (马 Chao) as a left general, and Huang Zhong as a rear general.
Prior to this, Zhao Yun had been promoted by Liu Bei to the rank of general of the Yi Army, and Wei Yan was appointed as the Taishou of Hanzhong.
For Zhao Yun's General Yijun, many people feel that it is not at all in the same grade compared to the generals of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong. Because, the generals before and after, left and right, are all zheng'er bajing zhengyi generals, as for the general of the Yi army, he is obviously a miscellaneous general. In this regard, I was very confused about people, why couldn't Zhao Yun be named a legitimate general?
In fact, the main reason was that Liu Bei needed to balance the interests of the major factions within himself, which was the intentional or unintentional sacrifice of Zhao Yun.
At that time, there were four main factions within Liu Bei's clique, one was the Yan faction headed by Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Jian Yong; the second was the Jingzhou faction headed by Zhuge Liang, Huang Zhong, and Wei Yan; the third was the Yizhou faction headed by Xu Jing, Pang Xi, Sheyuan, Fazheng, and Li Yan; and the fourth was the Liangzhou faction headed by Ma Chao.
Among these four major factions, the Yan faction has followed Liu Bei for the longest time, almost from the time of Liu Bei's debut, who began to chase, is Liu Bei's most trustworthy and reliable force, from a reasonable point of view, Liu Bei should reuse them, let them all sit in the front row. The question is, if Liu Bei did this, what would the people of the other three major factions think and think?
In this context, Liu Bei is typically playing a small group of individuals, so will the people of the other three major factions still follow Liu Bei with a dead heart? Is there still a future for Liu Bei's group?
In particular, the Jingzhou faction and the Yizhou faction, which are Liu Bei's most core and important forces now, without their full support, Liu Bei will not only be unable to stand in Jingzhou, but his Yizhou will also be in constant civil strife, let alone consolidate Hanzhong.
Therefore, when Liu Bei discussed the reward of merit and deeds, he naturally had to balance the interests between these four major factions, and let everyone eat meat as much as possible, instead of the Concubine faction eating meat, and other factions could only drink soup.
At that time, Liu Bei's hardcore concubines had already occupied two of the positions of the four legitimate generals before and after, and if Zhao Yun was brought up again, the other factions would not blow up the nest! Because, isn't that stark repression and distrust of other factions?
It should be known that although Zhao Yun was Liu Bei's hardcore concubine, the problem was that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei began to follow Liu Bei in 185 AD; and Zhao Yun did not officially follow Liu Bei until 200 AD.
That is to say, Zhao Yun followed Liu Bei more than ten years later than Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, so the actual status of the three of them was different, and Zhao Yun could only be regarded as the second generation of the Concubine Faction.
More importantly, in the official ranking of Liu Bei Group, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei can be ranked in the top ten, and with Zhao Yun's resume and jianghu status at that time, it is obviously impossible to rank in.
In this regard, we can look at the table of everyone persuading Liu Bei to enter the Hanzhong King:
"In the autumn of that year, the Qunchen supported the establishment of the first lord as the King of Hanzhong, and the emperor said, 'Ma Chao, the Marquis of Duting, the General of Pingxi, the general of The Left General, Xu Jing, the general of the Left General, Xu Jing, the general of the Battalion, Pang Xi, the general of the Battalion, the general of the Zhonglang Army, the general of the Army, the general Zhuge Liang, the general of the Army, the general of the Army, the general of the Army, the、、、 general of the Army, the general of the Army, the general of the Army, the General
In this ranking, Ma Chao ranked first, Guan Yu ranked sixth, Zhang Fei ranked seventh, Huang Zhong ranked eighth, and Zhao Yun did not even have a name.
In this sense, whether from his past qualifications or the status of the jianghu, Zhao Yun is actually not comparable to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. It's just that Zhao Yun is legendary, and Liu Bei's trust in him is almost the same as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and his status is special (responsible for Liu Bei's security work), so he can be juxtaposed with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
The problem is that if, in the formal job arrangement, Liu Bei directly promoted Zhao Yun to one of the four legitimate generals, then Liu Bei's intention to play a small group was too naked.
In other words, Liu Bei could trust Zhao Yun very much, and even let him actually have a lot of power, but in a formal position, it must also be regarded as seniority, and granted according to military merit, which is the most basic rule.
In this context, Liu Bei could only sacrifice Zhao Yun and give the remaining left generals and hou generals to Ma Chao, the representative of the Liangzhou faction, and Huang Zhong, the representative of the Jingzhou faction, respectively. What's more, the past qualifications, status and family background of the two of them were also much higher than Zhao Yun.
As for the Yizhou department, because it did not have an advantage in the position of military general, it could only be compensated in the civilian position, so Xu Jing, the largest land snake in Yizhou, directly became the head of the Wen chen, and at the same time, Pang Xi and Sheyuan were also ranked ahead of Zhuge Liang, and as for Fazheng, Liu Bei's trust in him was once more than Zhuge Liang.