Chen Shou juxtaposed Zhang Liao, Le Jin, Yu Ban, Zhang Gao, and Xu Huang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and later became the five sons of Cao Wei. However, as one of the five sons, why did the other generals have outstanding merits, but Lejin seems to have no merit, and did the five sons of Lejin waste their reputation?
First, what are the credits of Lejin?
This is not the case. Looking at Lejin's biography, although there is no record of the general breaking the army, his merits are not many.
In 190 years, where Cao Cao started his army, Le Jin joined Cao Cao, and his first credit was to recruit more than a thousand troops. Don't underestimate this thousand people, at this time Cao Cao did not have the Qingzhou Army, all relying on the troops brought by Xiahou Huan, Cao Hong, Li Dian and others, and his men were only swing people, and Cao Cao still had to personally recruit troops.
The credit for the second phase of Lejin was between the battles of Lü Bu, Zhang Xiu, and Guandu until the pacification of Hebei. At this time, Cao Cao's army was in the period of expansion of the basic plate, and it was also the main stage of Lejin's meritorious service.
At this stage, almost all of Cao Cao's major battles, large and small, were involved in Lejin, and there were also records of individually attacking Yu Jian in shooting dogs, attacking Liu Bei in Xiaopei, not hitting the Yellow Turban in Le'an, not conquering Yongnu, and not recruiting Gao Gan, and the main credit for killing Yuan Shao's general Chun Yu Qiong, and taking the lead in the battle against Puyang, Xia Pi, and Nanpi.
At this stage, Lejin was able to be made a marquis. In 206 AD, Cao Cao was still playing to Emperor Xian of Han, juxtaposing Le Jin, Zhang Liao, and Yu Ban.
The last stage of Lejin was the confrontation between the Jingxiang Front and the Eastern Front after the Battle of Guandu. At this stage, Cao Cao's basic plan had been roughly determined, and Lejin had moved to the defensive front line of WuShu.
Therefore, at this stage, important battles such as the Battle of Chibi have lost the record of Lejin's participation in the war, but instead repeatedly tug-of-war with Guan Yu on the Jingxiang front and again with Sun Quan on the Eastern Front. The most famous is the Battle of Xiaoyaojin in cooperation with Zhang Liao and Li Dian, and Lejin's personal merits are also the killing of Liu Bei's Subordinate Linfeng Chang Dupu and Jingyang Changliang Da.
At this stage, the status of Lejin rose very slowly, first, because the status of Lejin was already higher, and second, the credit was not so obvious. In the last years of his life, Lejin was able to fake the festival and be named a right general.
In 218, Lejin died.
Second, is Lejin not worthy of the name?
The title "Five Sons of Liang General" comes from Chen Shou, who said in the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms Zhang Leyu Zhang Xulie", in the process of Cao Cao's work, these five generals with different surnames contributed the most, and can be called the good generals at that time (Taizu Jianzi Wugong, and Shi Zhiliang General, the five sons first).
The description of Lejin is that Lejin is known for his bravery and courage, but his deeds are not well documented, perhaps omitted in the notes, not as detailed as Zhang Liao's record (Lejin is famous for his xiaoguo, and his actions are not unheard of). Or there are omissions in the annotations, which are not as detailed as Zhang Liao and Xu Huangzhi).
In other words, Lejin's reputation and status at that time were good generals, but his military exploits were not recorded in detail. Chen Shou didn't know what was going on, and the reason why they wanted to record these people in the same column was because they had been awarded the title of cao wei's high-ranking military attaché,the general of the front and back left and right.
But Chen Shou is only a few decades away from Lejin, just like the deeds of the founding generals of the Republic are still being praised, and since Lejin has a reputation, it means that there are still some influences, which should not be unworthy of the name.
So, why did Lejin's credit book only include Cao Cao's conquest of various places and the killing of several county governors?
Third, the status of Lejin
Judging from the status of Lejin, Lejin was made a marquis in 194, a holiday festival in 214, and a right general in his later years (unknown).
Also as an early general of Cao Cao, he was given the title of Marquis in 197, the Holiday Festival in 209, and the General of the Left in 216. Zhang Liao, who defected in the later period and had the most outstanding military ability, was made a marquis in 206, a holiday festival in 209, and a former general in 220.
From this point of view, among the five sons, Le Jin was the earliest to be crowned marquis and the first to be the general of the Four Directions, but the false festival was later than Zhang Liao and Yu Ban.
In the Han system, no marquis could be made without military merit. Although there was some relaxation in the late Han Dynasty, it was generally the same. The four generals were also sealed by military merit. The false festivals were mainly used to restrain the armies.
It is worth noting that before Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of Han, the title of Marquis of Lejin was still stretched, which showed that Lejin was not a vain name.
Therefore, we can think of it this way, Lejin is the earliest of the five sons to make meritorious contributions, and the military merit is not inferior to that of the forbidden Zhang Liao, but the credit of Lejin is mainly in the early days of Cao Cao's army, and unlike Zhang Liao, Lejin's credit is mainly to charge the front rather than command the army.
Because Cao Cao's position in the early days was not yet prominent, the records of his subordinates were not detailed; because they were mainly charging into the battlefield and following Cao Cao's conquests, Cao Cao's military achievements were outstanding at the time of expansion, but there were not many deeds after Cao Cao's basic stability in the later period. This is a good explanation for why Lejin is famous but not well documented.
At the same time, if we take the Five Sons liang as a horizontal comparison, we will find that Lejin is the only one of the five sons who defected to Cao Cao at the beginning and did not live to the founding of Cao Pi.
Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang Jaw all later defected to Cao Cao, and although Yu Ban also defected to Cao Cao at the beginning, the stain of surrendering to Guan Yu in his later years was too great.
Therefore, the Cao Wei Empire wanted to set a model among Cao Cao's old subordinates, and Lejin was brave and courageous, loyal, and his merits were not small, so it could be used as this model. Only then did we have the situation that in Chen Shou's time, the merits were no longer obvious, but the reputation was still there.
Therefore, Lejin is not without merit, but the credit lies in "courage" and not in "Shuai", and the credit is in the early days of Cao Cao and not after the founding of the country, so although the merit of Lejin is not small, there are not many records. As a good general of the five sons, Lejin is worthy of the name.