The ancient poem mentions: "Li Qu has died Guan Yu, and li Ling has fallen with a lonely smile." This sentence is used to describe the General Guan Yu during the Three Kingdoms period, who has used up all his strength to prepare for death. Such a desolate and magnificent image has left endless emotions for future generations, but when Guan Yu is mentioned in the Three Kingdoms period, people all express their feelings of awe, and the word loyalty and righteousness on Guan Yu are worthy of praise and study.
When the word zhongyi was mentioned on Guan Yu's body, no one seemed to object. However, in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, it is recorded that Guan Yu, who was obviously subordinate to the Shu Han Dynasty, actually took the initiative to surrender to Sun Quan of Eastern Wu when he defeated Maicheng. If we look at the deeds of this surrender, can we break the label of loyalty and righteousness on Guan Yu's body? The background of the incident occurred in the follow-up events of the Battle of Hanzhong and the Battle of Xiangfan, that is, between 217 and 220 AD, Shu Han had forced Cao Cao's army to retreat, making Liu Bei's army dominant, at this time, Eastern Wu, as a friendly army, suddenly had a conflict with Shu Han, and the contradiction directly made Guan Yu cannon fodder.
After the End of the Battle of Hanzhong in 219 AD, Liu Bei had already won the victory in Hanzhong and was known as the King of Hanzhong. In order to secure his brother's position, Liu Bei began the Northern Expedition in an attempt to wipe out Cao Wei's army. However, at this time, there was a violation of the covenant between Eastern Wu and Shu Han, which caused Guan Yu's army to go north to be attacked, so he had to flee to Yizhou in a hurry, hoping to save his life.
After the end of the Battle of Hanzhong, the Battle of Xiangfan broke out in the same year. The purpose of the Battle of Xiangfan was to take advantage of the fire to rob Cao Cao, but in this war, Ming Eastern Wu and Shu Han were allies, the main front line was Guan Yu's army, and it was Sun Quan's army that assisted Guan Yu in attacking Cao's army. However, there was a fatal problem on Guan Yu's side, that is, there was a contradiction in the supply of grain from Jingzhou, so in the absence of any way, Guan Yu could only make this decision and rob Sun Quan's grain supply channels.
Originally, Sun Quan did not like Guan Yu very much, because before Sun Quan wanted to marry Guan Yu's descendants of Shu Han, but guan Yu publicly refused, and now he snatched away Sun Quan's grain supply army, which made Sun Quan how can he bear it? The most crucial point is that between 217 and 219 AD, the end of the Battle of Hanzhong gave the Shu Han army the title of King of Hanzhong, so the state of the Three Kingdoms has essentially changed. At that time, the state was not the three kingdoms that people said were standing, but the Shu Han family was dominant, so Eastern Wu, as an ally, had to realize the actual situation, so it was imperative to betray the covenant.
In November 219, Sun Quan's side first took a military action, first sending the fierce general Lü Meng to fight Guan Yu. However, Lu Meng's side is also very clever, and the tactics played are the most euphemistic psychological warfare. First, the families of some of Guan Yu's important generals were brought to Lü Meng's camp and given preferential treatment to their families. After this news reached Guan Yu's camp, the generals instead relaxed their hearts, believing that their families had been properly handled in Lü Meng's army, and their treatment was higher than before, so the military morale within Guan Yu's army suddenly became a mess.
In the last month of 219, Guan Yu had to defeat Maicheng. Because before the defeat of Maicheng, Guan Yu actually made one of the biggest mistakes, that is, he did not block the news of Lü Meng's arrest of the families of his soldiers in time. Later, some historians said that if Guan Yu had urgently blocked the news at that time and issued evil words, saying that Lü Meng had arrested the families of his generals and treated them badly, then the military's heart would inevitably be stable, and the generals would instantly increase their attack power, determined to fight with Lü Meng's army to the death to defend the safety of his families.
But Guan Yu did not do so. Therefore, many of the soldiers who had been taken away from their families wanted to submit to Eastern Wu, so at this time, Guan Yu had lost the hearts of the people, and those who wanted to submit to Eastern Wu wanted to meet General Lü Meng's best gift, which was actually Guan Yu's head. Therefore, when Maicheng was defeated, Guan Yu was not only strangled by the Eastern Wu pursuers, but also some of his internal members were already looking at him.
In desperation, Guan Yu took the initiative to surrender to Sun Quan. In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, it is recorded: "Hou Yu was in Maicheng, and the envoy asked to surrender." The meaning of this sentence is that Guan Yu actually surrendered to Sun Quan of Eastern Wu when he was helpless to defeat Maicheng. But is this an act of greed for life and fear of death, or is it really something else? At this time, people should already have an answer: Guan Yu had to surrender, if you want to play a roundabout policy at this time, temporarily avoid Sun Quan's pursuit, you can only surrender to win more time, at that time Guan Yu was only one or two meters away from Yizhou, this place is also the place where Guan Yu was killed, called Linfeng.
However, as early as November, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu had already issued an order to "cut off at the feather". The meaning of this military order is that whether the pursuers sent by Eastern Wu find Guan Yu or the descendants who want to submit to Eastern Wu, as long as they meet Guan Yu, they can cut and play later. Such an order was tantamount to guan yu sending a message of surrender, but to no avail. Therefore, Guan Yu's desire to surrender is actually acting, trying to buy a time to flee to Yizhou. It's just that Eastern Wu Sun Quan is more desperate, and he has issued a military order early, and he can be hanged when he meets Guan Yu, so even if Guan Yu can act again, there is no way.
In 220 AD, just a few days after the new year, Guan Yu led more than a dozen people to flee in a hurry, but they were still surrounded and suppressed in Linfeng. Later, it was also said that If Sun Quan accepted Guan Yu's surrender, perhaps the alliance between Shu Han and Eastern Wu in the later period could be stabilized, and the situation between the two sides jointly resisting Cao could still exert its greatest advantage. However, sun Quan still did not want to see the allied Shu Han family dominant, killed Guan Yu, and snatched the three counties of Jingzhou, laying the groundwork for the subsequent downhill road.