At the Battle of Xiangfan, Cao Cao sent Yu Ban and Pound De to lead an army to support Cao Ren, but they encountered a flood and were besieged by Guan Yu's army, and Pang Dening died unyieldingly, while Yu Ban led his army to surrender to Guan Yu. Because of this, Yu Ban was much criticized.
After Cao Cao learned of Yu Ban's surrender, he sighed and said, "I have known Yu Ban for thirty years, how could I expect that in a moment of crisis, Yu Ban would be inferior to Pound!" ”
After the Eastern Wu army occupied Jingzhou, Yu Ban was released and ran parallel to Sun Quan on horseback. Yu Flippao raised his whip and scolded Yu Ban and said, "You are a prisoner, how dare you go along with my lord and father!" Subsequently, Sun Quan and the group of courtiers feasted and drank, Yu Ban heard the music and wept sadly, Yu Tuan openly accused Yu Ban of pretending to be pitiful, acting for people to see.
In the second year of the Huang Dynasty, Yu Ban returned to Cao Wei and was once again subjected to endless ridicule and great pressure from public opinion, so distressed that even his beard and hair turned white. However, Cao Pi still did not want to let him go, and on the surface Cao Pi expressed comfort for the ban, appointing Yu Ban as the general of Anyuan, but when he was forbidden to visit Cao Cao's mausoleum, he ordered people to draw a picture of "Guan Yu Zhan Ke, Pound De's anger, and Surrender to the Ban" next to the mausoleum.
Yu Ban saw the picture that Cao Pi used to humiliate himself, and he was ashamed and indignant, and he could not afford to be ill and died darkly. However, Cao Pi did not even spare the dead, and after the death of the forbidden, he gave the forbidden title "Li Hou".
In ancient times, "Li" was a very bad nickname. Yu Fayun: "Killing innocents is known as strong; tyranny without relatives is known as li; cruel and rude is known as fierce; supporting evil and violating righteousness is known as being strong; and the long tongue is evil and evil is known as fierce." After Yu Ban's death, he was given the title of Li Hou (李侯), which shows that Cao Pi's evaluation of the ban was extremely poor.
Pei Songzhi's commentary on the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, speaking of the reasons for Yu's prohibition of being given the title of Marquis Li, said: "Although the law is not pardoned after the siege, the law is not pardoned; the prisoner who sends him is not disobeying the order." Forbidden not to hope for the old friends, but to wantonly kill their hearts, in order to kill the opinions of the people, so the pawn is a prisoner, death and evil, it is advisable. ”
In this passage, Pei Songzhi mentioned the past of Yu Ban's killing of Chang Feng.
In the eleventh year of Jian'an, Chang Feng rebelled, and Cao Cao sent Yu Ban to fight with Xiahou Yuan. Xiahou Yuan captured more than ten strongholds of Chang Feng, forcing Chang Feng to surrender with his hands raised. According to the Tao, Chang Feng should surrender to Xiahou Yuan, but he chose to surrender to Yu Ban because he was an old friend of Yu Ban.
Chang Feng chose this way, obviously hoping that Yu Ban would be able to watch his old friendship go around his life. But Yu Ban did not remember the old feelings and killed Chang Feng.
When Yu Ban was preparing to kill Chang Feng, all the generals of the Cao Army believed that Chang Feng had surrendered and should imprison him and send him to Cao Cao for disposal. Yu Ban said, "Don't you know Cao Gong's orders?" Those who surrender after being surrounded by a large army cannot be forgiven. Obeying and enforcing the law is the integrity of the service of the king. Although Chang Feng is my old friend, how can I lose my temper because of this! In the end, Yu Ban still listened to the opinion of the main general and cut off Chang Feng with tears.
The past of killing Chang Feng was considered by Pei Songzhi to be the crime of "killing innocents" and "tyrannical and unrelated" in Yu Ban, which became one of the reasons why Yu Ban was given the title of Li Hou.
Another reason why Yu Ban was given the title of Marquis Of Li was that he ruled the army too harshly, causing many soldiers to dislike him.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms says: "The forbidden army is strictly organized, and the thieves and treasures are not allowed to enter privately, and the reward is particularly heavy." However, the ruler of Ephraim did not win the hearts of the people. "The consciousness is that the forbidden army is strict, but whenever there is a captured property, it is never enriched, and the reward for the soldiers is fair. However, Yu Ban liked to rule his subordinates by laws and regulations, so he did not win the hearts of the soldiers.
Leading his troops to attack the Qingzhou soldiers who participated in the plundering was a typical example of yu ban on using laws and regulations to rule the army too harshly.
In the second year of Jian'an, Zhang Xiu rebelled and launched a surprise attack on Cao Jun. Cao Cao was caught off guard and fled with his army.
Some of the troops left behind by Cao Cao were Qingzhou soldiers. The main component of the Qingzhou army was actually the Yellow Turban Army, when Cao Cao defeated the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou, collected 100,000 people, and formed the Qingzhou Army. These Qingzhou soldiers, usually restrained by people, can still follow the rules, but in the case of Cao Cao himself fleeing for their lives, the Qingzhou soldiers' thieves rose again, and immediately started their old business, fleeing for their lives all the way and plundering all the way.
At the time of the great chaos of the Cao army, Yu Ban led hundreds of subordinates to fight and retreat, and on the way encountered the Qingzhou soldiers plundering, he was furious, led his army to attack the Qingzhou soldiers, and severely punished some of the Qingzhou soldiers who participated in the looting.
After Cao Cao gathered his army, the Qingzhou soldiers accused Cao Cao of being banned. Some people advised Yu Ban that the Qingzhou soldiers had already announced your complaint to the Lord, and you should hurry up and explain the situation to the Lord.
However, Yu Ban believed that the most urgent thing for Cao Jun at the moment was to prepare to resist Zhang Xiu's pursuing troops, and it was not a top priority to defend Cao Cao. In this way, Yu Ban waited until after commanding Cao Cao's army to set up a fort and make defensive preparations, before going to see Cao Cao and explaining the situation to Cao Cao.
In short, it is precisely because Yu Ban likes to rule his subordinates with laws and regulations and is not close to human feelings, so he will be considered "killing innocents; tyrannical and unrelated; cruel and rude." In addition, in the Battle of Xiangfan, Yu Ban surrendered to Guan Yu, which constituted "supporting evil and violating justice". Therefore, after the death of the forbidden, he would be given the title of Li Hou by Cao Pi.
There is a folk saying, "a handsome cover a hundred ugly", but when it comes to the forbidden place, it has become "an ugly cover a hundred ugly".
Cao Cao actually did not have any objections at that time, but just sighed and said, Why didn't Chang Feng come to surrender to me, but went to yu Ban to surrender. For the forbidden troops to attack the Qingzhou soldiers, Cao Cao not only did not criticize, but gave Yu Ban a very high evaluation, praising Yu Ban for not being in danger, having an open mind, and having the style of an ancient famous general. Cao Cao's original words at that time were: "The general (referring to the forbidden) is in chaos and rectification, fighting for violence and strongholds, and there is an immovable knot, although the ancient famous generals, why add!" ”
It can be seen from this that whether it was Yu Ban killing Chang Feng or Yu Ban leading the army to attack the Qingzhou soldiers, these were all problems in Cao Pi's view later, and in cao Cao's view at that time, they were not actually problems. If you look at the advantages, Yu Ban can even gain a good reputation for impartiality, strict management of the army, and the style of famous generals in ancient times.
What really made Yu Ban change from "one ugly covering a hundred ugly" to "one ugly covering a hundred ugly" was that he surrendered to Guan Yu in the Battle of Xiangfan.
Yu Ban surrendered to Guan Yu, cao cao could not understand, cao pi could not tolerate it. In Cao Pi's view, no matter how many sweat and horse battles were made for Cao Wei's birth and death before the ban, as long as he surrendered to Guan Yu, it was unfaithful and unjust, and it was unforgivable. Therefore, even if he died of shame and indignation, Cao Pi would also be given the title of "Li Hou", so that he would be left behind for thousands of years and spurned by future generations.