In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there is a particularly classic episode, which is 'Tiger Prison Pass Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu'.
In the novel, at that time, the princes of various places were forming teams to attack Dong Zhuo. But as a result, Dong Zhuo sent the general Lu Bu to block the attack of the coalition forces in the area of Tiger Prison Pass.
And because Lu Bu was too brave, the coalition army sent several generals into battle, but Lu Bu was killed on the spot.
At this critical moment, the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang stepped forward and finally joined forces to defeat Lu Bu. And after this battle, the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang were completely famous all over the world.
From the perspective of literary and artistic works, the three heroes vs. Lu Bu is actually a very successful plot. Because of this plot, the debut of the three brothers Liu Guanzhang is extremely glorious.
But be warned: none of the above exists in the canonical history!
In real history, there is no Three Heroes fighting Lu Bu! There is no warm wine to kill Huaxiong! Even whether the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang participated in the crusade against Dong Zhuo or not, future generations will not be able to figure it out!
In addition, in the historical Dong Zhuo crusade, it was actually Cao Cao and Sun Jian who really fought hard battles. However, in comparison, Cao Cao was more miserable. At that time, Cao Cao had just led his troops over, but he was defeated by Xu Rong, a general under Dong Zhuo, and was almost wiped out.
Only Sun Jian, after going all the way north, fought back and forth with Dong Zhuo. And that Hua Xiong also died in the hands of Sun Jian. In the end, it was Sun Jian who captured Luoyang.
As for the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang, I'm sorry, at this point in time, they are really just nobodies. And Liu Bei really began to become famous, in fact, two years after the end of this war, Liu Bei's rescue of Beihai began.
If we want to really explain the situation at that time, we actually have to talk about the specific situation of Liu Bei at that time.
After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Liu Bei joined the army as soon as possible and began to participate in the war to suppress the Yellow Turban Army. However, it may be because Liu Bei joined the army relatively late, and in this wave of war, he actually did not gain too many military exploits.
It wasn't until another four years later that there was a man named Zhang Chun on the side of Youzhou who united Wuhuan to rebel! In the process of quelling Zhang Chun's rebellion, Liu Bei finally made enough military achievements. Then, with this exploit, he became the county lieutenant of Anxi County.
But as a result, not long after becoming the county lieutenant, Liu Bei was embarrassed by the local superintendent. After that, there is the story of the famous 'Angry Whip Inspector'. There was indeed an angry whip in the official history, but it was not Zhang Fei who started at that time, but Liu Bei himself.
And then, because of the beating of the superintendent, this county lieutenant naturally couldn't do it. After this breath, Liu Bei could only resign and leave. In the years that followed, Liu Bei repeated the process. first joined the army again in Danyang, and then made meritorious service again in Xiapi, because of his merit to become the county of Xiapi.
But not long after, it was probably Liu Bei who was embarrassed by his boss again, and then he had to resign again.
In this way, after several years of continuous mixing, Liu Bei still achieved nothing. So a few years later, Liu Bei finally made up his mind to defect to his old classmate Gongsun Zhan.
When Liu Bei was a teenager, he studied under the Great Confucian Lu Zhimen. It was at that time that Liu Bei got acquainted with his classmate Gongsun Zhan, and the relationship between the two was quite good.
However, in comparison, Gongsun Zhan's family background is much better than Liu Bei. Their family is on the northern border side, and they have a lot of influence. And in the past few years, Gongsun Zhan's career was much smoother than Liu Bei's.
Because the family is more powerful, Gongsun Zhan successfully passed the filial piety assessment and got the official establishment shortly after graduation. After that, Gongsun Chan entered the army to work. And then, not long after Gongsun Chan just entered the army, that Youzhou Zhang Chun began to rebel.
In the next two years, Gongsun Chan officially participated in the war to suppress Zhang Chun, and made great contributions. In this process, Gongsun Chan not only improved his position rapidly, but also trained an elite team, which is the famous 'White Horse Yicong'.
After that, Gongsun Zhan took this army to follow Liu Yu, the new boss in Youzhou, and helped Liu Yu resist Xianbei and Wuhuan.
Relying on Liu Yu's support, in the next two years, Gongsun Chan rapidly expanded the army, and soon became a powerful military boss.
Therefore, by the time Liu Bei went to Gongsun Zhan, Gongsun Zhan already had an army of tens of thousands. At that time, Gongsun Zhan was stationed in Youbeiping County, which is today's Tangshan in Hebei. This kind of status is obviously much better than Liu Bei's.
And then, after Liu Bei went to Gongsun Zhan, Gongsun Zhan didn't forget his old classmate. Under the recommendation of Gongsun Zhan, Liu Bei was directly appointed as Sima of the other department and began to help Gongsun Zhan do things.
Here's one more thing: The so-called Sima of other departments is actually a very embarrassing position. In the official system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sima of the other department was a low-level officer with no establishment. By analogy in modern times, it is roughly equivalent to an 'independent battalion commander'.
In other words, at that time, Gongsun Chan gave Liu Bei a supernumerary 'establishment', allowing Liu Bei to lead an army by himself. But in other aspects, there is basically not much support that Gongsun Chan can give.
And in this way, in the next two years, Liu Bei began to help Gongsun Zhan do things.
It was at this time that Emperor Ling of Han died in the capital. After that, He Jin was killed, Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, deposed Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty, and the princes of various places began to raise troops against Dong.
At this time, Liu Bei, as a low-level officer under Gongsun Zhan, obviously had no chance to stand in line independently. Whether he can participate in the war or not mainly depends on whether Gongsun Chan wants to participate in the war or not.
But the key is that Gongsun Chan at this time, he himself doesn't really want to participate in the war.
The general situation at that time was like this: Gongsun Chan had tens of thousands of troops at this time and directly controlled the area of Youbeiping County. But he was able to grow to this level, mainly because for a period of time before, Youzhou Mu Liu Yu had always supported him.
After Dong Zhuo abolished the emperor, in the first round, Dong Zhuo first vigorously wooed Liu Yu and promoted Liu Yu to the position of Grand Sima. So in the first round, Liu Yu didn't want to lead troops to crusade against Dong Zhuo.
It was not until Dong Zhuo abolished Emperor Shao of the Han Dynasty, supported Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and moved the capital to Chang'an with Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, that Liu Yu's attitude began to change gradually. At that time, Liu Yu's son was also in the capital. And Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty asked Liu Yu's son to secretly leave Chang'an, go to Liu Yu to report the news, and let Liu Yu lead troops to save him.
As a result, Liu Yu's son, not long after he came out, was intercepted by Yuan Shu. Then Yuan Shu asked him to write a letter, forcing Liu Yu to lead his troops, come over and join Yuan Shu, and everyone attacked Dong Zhuo together.
And when this letter was delivered to Liu Yu, Liu Yu himself really wanted to lead his troops to the war. But Gongsun Zhan, on his side, tried his best to stop it, and didn't want Liu Yu to send troops. The reason given in the history books is that Gongsun Chan thinks that Yuan Shu will rebel in the future. However, many historians in later generations believe that Gongsun Chan did not want to contribute at this time, and he wanted to continue to stay in Youzhou and continue to grow his strength.
In this historical plot, there are more people who appear, and the plot naturally seems a little chaotic. Anyway, there is no dispute that Gongsun Chan himself did not want to participate in the war at that time. However, under the pressure of Liu Yu and the request of Yuan Shu, Gongsun Zhan still sent his younger brother Gongsun Yue to lead troops to watch.
So, what is Liu Bei doing during this period?
The answer is no! Because in the official history, there is no record of Liu Bei's events during this time!
At that time, Liu Bei was only an independent battalion commander and did not have the qualifications to act alone at all. If he can participate in the war, then he can only follow Gongsun Yue and go to war together.
But the problem is that this Gongsun Yue, after arriving at Yuan Shu's side, did not participate in the war at all! He was directly instructed by Yuan Shu to attack Yuan Shao's side, and then died directly on the battlefield!
In short, in that war between the princes against Dong, except for Cao Cao and Sun Jian, no one had ever fought Dong Zhuo head-on! Although these Taishou and Thorn Shi in various places raised troops one after another, they were all afraid of Dong Zhuo's might. Or they just want to fight for their own territory at all, and they never want to really fight with Dong Zhuo.
And in this way, Liu Bei, as a small person at that time, was not qualified to participate in the war alone. Therefore, many people in later generations believed that Liu Bei may have only done some 'auxiliary' work at that time and did not really participate in the war.
And most importantly, there is no such battle in history as the Tiger Pass! And the so-called coalition forces at that time did not really complete the assembly.
Yuan Shao, Wang Kuang, Zhang Yang and others were stationed in Hanoi County. Zhang Miao, Liu Dai, Qiao Mao, Yuan Yi, Bao Xin, Cao Cao and others stationed troops in sour jujubes. Yuan Shu and Sun Jian were stationed in Luyang. Kong Lingtun soldiers Yingchuan, while Han Fu stayed in Yecheng.
The places where they are actually far from the real Tiger Prison Pass. The only one who hit the Tiger Prison Pass in the war was Cao Cao himself. But as a result, as soon as Cao Cao came over, he was almost wiped out by Xu Rong.
At that time, Lu Bu, judging from the time, should have been busy helping Dong Zhuo dig graves and collect military expenses. In the later period, there was no record in the history books that Lu Bu defended the Tiger Pass alone. At that time, Lu Bu was actually attacking Sun Jian with Hu Zhen, another general of Dong Zhuo. And in the end, they were defeated by Sun Jian.
As for why there was a plot of 'Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu' in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" later, this is purely Luo Guanzhong's 'Chongliu and Cao'.
You must know that later, the three families of Wei, Shu and Wu stood on three legs. And Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian also experienced this Dong Zhuo crusade at the same time. But in this war, both Cao Cao and Sun Jian played key roles. Only Liu Bei did not participate in the war at all.
If the novel is really written like this, it will inevitably make people feel that Liu Bei is inferior to Cao Cao and Sun Jian. So in the novel, the author forcibly added drama to Liu Bei and added a plot of 'Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu'.
But in the official history, Liu Bei at this time really has no influence. At least compared with Cao Cao and Sun Jian, Liu Bei at this time can really only be regarded as a small person.