People familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms know that Wei Shu Wu's three great regimes, including five well-known generals, made great contributions to the establishment of Liu Bei's Shu Han regime, and later people also called these five people "Five Tiger Generals" to show their respect.
These five people were Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, and Ma Chao, who were the best generals under Liu Bei and Liu Bei's most trusted confidants.
Just as the so-called tiger father has no dog, with the status of the five tiger generals in the Shu kingdom, their sons must not be far behind under the protection of their father. However, this was not the case, among them, Zhao Yun's son was killed on the battlefield, while Zhang Fei, the most courageous and loyal of the Five Tiger Generals, chose to betray the country and seek glory, and the descendants of the other three took different paths.
Guan yu
Guan Yu, as Liu Bei's brother-in-law, was one of the first people to follow Liu Bei to fight the world, he was born in martial arts, his personality was bold and free, he bravely moved forward in battle, and never said defeat. He dared to go deep into the Wu camp with a single knife, but he had a strategy on the battlefield and never dared to be brave.
As Liu Bei's loyal subordinate, he was concerned about the country and the monarch. When Liu Bei and Cao Cao were hunting, he advised Liu Bei to take this opportunity to kill Cao Cao to avoid any trouble, proving that he was also a person with deep foresight, but Liu Bei chose to be merciful to Cao Cao's men because of the benevolence of the woman, and let go of this good opportunity to kill Cao Cao.
As it turned out, Guan Yu was right, Liu Bei's benevolence gave Cao Cao a chance to breathe, and the Wei regime later became more and more powerful and invincible. After Guan Yu's death, he was revered by later generations as "Martial Saint" and won his posthumous name with the word "Zhongyi".
He also had two sons, the eldest son Guan Ping fought with his father on the battlefield since he was a child, and later died in Maicheng with his father Guan Yu, and the second son Guan Xing survived because he did not go to the battlefield with his father.
However, such seemingly peaceful days did not last long, and after Guan Yu's death, his former enemies Pound's family came to the door. It turned out that in the Battle of Xiangfan, Guan Yu killed the Cao general Pang De, which sowed the seeds of hatred in the heart of the young Pang De's son Pang Hui.
After the Shu Han regime was overthrown, Pang Hui killed Guan Yu's descendants and avenged his father, including Guan Yu's second son Guan Xing. Guan Yu spent almost all his life on the battlefield, and also made great achievements for the Shu state, although his final end was to die on the battlefield, but he also died with the honor of fighting for the country.
But his descendants were humiliated and died rather unseemly. When the protection of the state and family disappeared, Guan Yu's descendants were also reduced to fish and meat to be slaughtered.
Huang Zhong and Ma Chao
Huang Zhong was the eldest of the five generals and belonged to the type of "late bloomer". But the precipitation of the years brought Huang Zhong a wealth of experience, he was brave and good at war, and was good at observing the battlefield situation, and also knew the art of war, as a general, he led the troops to fight extremely cautiously, never rushed out of the army, for people are also very calm and reliable, deeply respected and trusted by Liu Bei.
However, Because of his old age and infirmity, Huang Zhong did not survive until the day when the Shu Han regime was established, but died of illness a year before the establishment of the regime, which was lamentable. He once had a son named Huang Xu, but he died shortly after his birth, so the Huang Zhong clan did not leave a descendant, and gradually disappeared in the history of future generations.
Ma Chao was the most handsome and handsome of the Five Tiger Generals, he followed the great warlord Han Sui against Cao Cao in his early years, and later after Han Sui was defeated by Cao Cao, he turned to the warlord Zhang Lu, in one battle, he was favored by Liu Bei because of Xiao Yong's good fighting, and under the persuasion of Liu Bei, he finally chose to submit to the Shu Han regime and join Liu Bei's command.
Ma Chao had three sons, the eldest son was killed by Cao Jun, the second son Ma Qiu was killed by Zhang Lu, and the younger son Ma Cheng, who inherited Ma Chao's title after Ma Chao's death, lived a stable and smooth life, and later there was no record. In addition, Ma Chao also had a daughter, who eventually married Liu Bei's son Liu Buri.
Compared with Huang Zhong's miserable old age, Ma Chao was still lucky, at least leaving a pair of children, and he was quite good under his shade. But the death of his two sons has always been a pain that Ma Chao can't forget in his heart, but in this chaotic world, it is not easy to survive by chance, even if such an excellent general as Ma Chao is difficult to save all his children.
Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei
Zhao Yun was the most stable of the Five Tiger Generals. He was a general of Gongsun Zhan in his early years, but after Youzhou was occupied, Gongsun Zhan chose to set himself on fire, and Zhao Yun also defected to Liu Bei.
However, unlike the other four generals who often went to the battlefield, Zhao Yun had always guarded Liu Bei's side, acting as a "guard chief" and closely protecting Liu Bei's safety, so his status among the five tiger generals was relatively low, but Liu Bei was particularly assured of him, otherwise he would not have been put around.
Zhao Yun had two sons, the eldest son Zhao Tong was responsible for guarding the palace ban, doing work similar to his father Zhao Yun, although there was no Qing Shi left a name but also safe and smooth, the younger son Zhao Guang was a general, perennially followed Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition, in a battle to cover the retreat of the commander unfortunately died in battle, sacrificed his life for the country.
Zhang Fei was born rich and had the same brotherhood as Liu Beiqing, he was grumpy, but he was very researched in combat, and he fought many victorious battles with his army, and the establishment of the Shu Han regime was indispensable to his efforts.
But Zhang Fei also has his own shortcomings, he will not win people's hearts, his attitude towards his subordinates is very bad, often whipping his subordinates, and finally being stabbed to death in the military tent by the intolerable subordinates Fan Jiang and Zhang Da.
Zhang Fei's eldest son Zhang Bao died early, and there is no record left in history, the younger son Zhang Shao served as a servant in the Shu kingdom, and when the Shu state was endangered, he took Liu Chan's palace seal and surrendered to The Cao Army Deng Ai, and this act of treason and seeking glory was also insulted by posterity.
Zhang Fei also had two daughters, all of whom later married Liu Chan as empress, and after the fall of the Shu Kingdom, these two women were also recorded, and presumably the ending was not very good.
brief summary:
In the chaotic years of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it was not easy to save yourself.
Although the Five Tiger Generals enjoyed a supreme position in the Shu Kingdom, the risks they endured were unimaginable to ordinary people, and this risk would also be transferred to their descendants. The sons of the five generals either died prematurely, or were killed in battle or killed by the enemy, an outcome that ordinary people did not dare to bear.
Some of them also relied on the remnants of their fathers to seek idle official positions and obtained a stable life, but they will not leave more records in the history books; even more betray the reputation of their fathers and betray the country and seek glory, which not only ruined the reputation of their ancestors, but also were scorned and scolded by the world, and their lives were even more tormented.