By the end of the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Guo, as the only surviving member of Cao Wei's five sons, became Cao Wei's pillar at Guanlong. The Wei army he led repeatedly defeated Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditionary Army, making Zhuge Liang fearful of him. Moreover, he is very capable of fighting well and has great prestige in the military.
Until Zhuge Liang's fourth Northern Expedition retreat, Zhang Gao was the actual leader of Cao Wei's Guanlong Army until he was killed in the wooden gate. After his death, Sima Yi truly had command of guanlong's army.
First, analyze Wei Yan's strength.
Wei Yan was the second general in Shu Han after the Five Tiger Generals. He is the old man who led the orchestra to join Liu Bei's group, and he is deeply respected by Liu Bei. In the early days of entering Sichuan, Liu Bei led only two generals, him and Huang Zhong. In Liu Bei's journey to achieve hegemony, he repeatedly built qigong.
Later, when Liu Bei chose the general who defended Hanzhong, according to the candidate of Hanzhong Taishou who guarded the northern gate of Yizhou, he chose Wei Yan. The history books record:
The ancestor was Bayan as the general of Zhenyuan in Hanzhong, and led Hanzhong Taishou to shock the army. The first lord of the assembly asked Yan Yue, "Now that the secretary of state is entrusted with a heavy responsibility, what does the secretary of state want to do?" "If Cao Cao comes from all over the world, please refuse it for the king; if you will have a crowd of 100,000 people, please swallow it for the king." "The Lord praises goodness, and the multitude speaks loud."
Wei Yan fulfilled his promise with his practical actions. During his time in Hanzhong, there were no accidents in Hanzhong. This allowed Liu Bei to use troops against Eastern Wu with confidence, and Zhuge Liang successfully marched south to southern China. Later, after Wei Yan's death, Wang Ping successfully repelled Cao Wei's attack according to Wei Yan's strategy of defending Hanzhong. Until Jiang Wei changed Wei Yan's strategy, he was immediately attacked by Cao Wei and Hanzhong, and Shu Han then perished.
From here, we can see that Zhang Gao and Wei Yan are the pillars of both sides and play a pivotal role in their respective camps. So, if the two sides meet together, what will it be like?
However, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and in reality, Wei Yan and Zhang Gao had very few confrontations. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Yan and Zhang Gao fought twice. Once, in the Battle of Jieting, Wei Yan and Zhang Gao fought, and Zhang Gao was defeated, leading Wei Yan into an encirclement. The second was the Battle of Mumen, where Wei Yan was defeated and led Zhang Gao into the encirclement. The two hand-to-hand combat can be described as comparable.
From these two encounters, Wei Yan and Zhang Gao both had a consensus that they could defeat each other. The first time, Zhang Gao and Wei Yan fought, Zhang Gao was defeated, Wei Yan went to chase, Zhang Gao himself knew that it was a fraud, but Wei Yan thought that his martial arts were above Zhang Gao, so he was ambushed. The second time was similar to the first time, except that the positions of the two changed.
Judging from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the martial arts of the two are comparable. However, if you take a closer look, it seems that Zhang Gao's martial arts are slightly superior. This is seen from Zhang Gao's actions. The first time Zhang Gao and Wei Yan met, neither of them knew the level of the opponent, so Zhang Gao was defeated, and Wei Yan naturally went after him, thinking that he had defeated Zhang Gao, and as a result, he was ambushed.
However, by the second encounter, the two already had the experience of fighting once and had a certain understanding of the level of the opponent. At this time, Wei Yan was defeated, and Zhang Gao had no doubts, which showed that Zhang Gao believed that his martial arts were higher than Wei Yan's. In this way, the two sides can see some clues.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in order to highlight Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, Both Wei Yan and Zhang Guo became generals under both sides. In fact, in the early stage of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, his main opponent was Zhang Gao. Wei Yan was Zhuge Liang's general and the chancellor Sima who oversaw the front.
From here, Zhang Gao and Wei Yan themselves are not on a horizontal line, and they are not a heavyweight opponent. Therefore, in reality, Wei Yan was rarely likely to fight Zhang Gao.
Wei Yan's possible chance of confronting Zhang Guo was only during Zhuge Liang's First Northern Expedition and Fourth Northern Expedition. The First Northern Expedition at the Battle of Jieting was supposed to be a confrontation between Wei Yan and Zhang Guo, but because Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang disagreed, Zhuge Liang went against everyone's opinions and sent Ma Chen to guard the Street Pavilion and fought a big defeat. Wei Yan also lost the opportunity to confront Zhang Gao.
The Fourth Northern Expedition was at the Battle of Halo city, when Zhang Gao attacked Wang Ping's camp and Sima Yi attacked Wei Yan's camp, but neither was able to win. This time, Zhang Gao also failed to fight Wei Yan. But from the perspective of the results of this battle, because Wei Yan's level was better than Wang Ping's, Wang Ping was able to beat Zhang Gao. Then in such a comparison, Wei Yan would be better than Zhang Gao.
However, Wei Yan did not have the opportunity to fight Zhang Hao alone. The main reason here is that in the First Northern Expedition, Zhang Hao defeated Ma Chen's Battle of Jieting, which seriously stimulated Zhuge Liang and made Zhuge Liang have a serious fear of Zhang Hao. In his heart, he believed that Wei Yan was not Zhang Gao's opponent. Therefore, he never let Wei Yan fight Zhang Guo, for fear of losing this general.
And Wei Yan's heart was unconvinced. Although he thought that Zhang Gao was his opponent, he thought that he could defeat Zhang Gao. Therefore, he was very dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang's prudence and always satirized Zhuge Liang for being timid.
After Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan was full of confidence and believed that he should lead the Shu army to continue the Northern Expedition and eliminate Sima Yi's Wei army. He also made arrangements for future operations and made plans for operations. From here, we can see that in Wei Yan's heart, Sima Yi was not his opponent, so Zhang Gao was even less concerned.
summary:
From the above analysis, we can see that if in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Yan and Zhang Gao fight alone, then Wei Yan and Zhang Gao are on a par. Maybe Wei Yan would be slightly inferior to Zhang Gao, but he could also protect himself and not lose to Zhang Gao.
In reality, it is basically the same as in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Zhang Gao's fighting ability and Wei Yan were similar, basically equal, but Wei Yan was slightly higher than Zhang Gao. If Zhuge Liang hadn't discriminated against Wei Yan so much and let him give him heavy troops, then Wei Yan would have had a chance to defeat Zhang Guo.
What do you think of Zhang Gao and Wei Yan?
Stay tuned and tell the story of the Three Kingdoms and learn about that little-known history.