When it comes to the Three Kingdoms, it is presumable that different people have different versions in their hearts, the most extensive of which is the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by the Western Jin Dynasty historian Chen Shou and the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by the early Ming dynasty novelist Luo Guanzhong. Speaking of the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, later generations have always called it zhengshi, a chronicle work compiled by Chen Shou that took ten years to write, which is a relatively complete record of the turbulent history of nearly a hundred years from the end of the ancient Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Jin Dynasty in China. The latter, on the other hand, is more inclined to the novel, from its popularity, it is definitely far beyond the main history, coupled with the later generations to adapt it and carry out film and television production, resulting in more people being more familiar with Liu Guanzhang in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
People often say that Zhang Fei was a pig killer in his early years, and Guan Yu was also a jujube seller, and even Liu Bei sold straw shoes before he made his fortune, so it seems that these three people are also ordinary people, Liu Bei is also counted, after all, it is still the royal bloodline, but Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, how did they become strong in martial arts, and it was difficult for everyone to fight?
In fact, whether it is Zhang Fei killing pigs or Guan Yu selling dates, these stories are from some folklore and have no historical basis. In Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is indeed explained that Zhang Fei was a pig killer before, but after all, it is a novel of evolution, and it cannot become the real background before the two people started. You know, when Luo Guanzhong wrote the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he referred to a large number of folklore and anecdotal wild history, and how many fictional components there are, we still don't talk about it, but who wants to take the novel as the right history, but it is too shallow.
In fact, in some canonical records, there is no overly detailed explanation of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu's professional background before their departure, and at most it is only said that during the Yellow Turban Uprising, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu enlisted in the army, learned martial arts, and then followed Liu Bei. Throughout the ages, novelists have always liked to depict the stories of grassroots heroes, such as Han Xin, Chang Yuchun, Zhou Bo, etc., which we are familiar with, not all of which are grassroots.
In addition, when it comes to martial arts, the ancients and our understanding of martial arts may also be somewhat different. After all, in ancient times, a person with a strong martial art did not necessarily mean how high this person's martial arts training was, perhaps it was just a weapon with a large waist and a round waist, and could wield a weapon that ordinary people could not easily swing. Looking at the size of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, we can still imagine this.
Therefore, whether it is Zhang Fei or Guan Yu, their martial arts and feats are all worked out step by step, and most of the background stories we see in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are also fictionalizations, which does not mean that these two people were really pig killers and date sellers before, as for the reasons for their high martial arts, presumably they are not as profound as boasted in the speech, it is nothing more than the achievements accumulated in many years of actual combat. What do you think about this?