First of all, in the history book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", in the biography of Guan Yu himself on the Shu Han side, there is no mention of the matter of the Absolute Northern Province, but it is Li Tongchuan on the Wei side who explicitly mentions the matter of Guan Yu's "Absolute Northern Province". It shows that this is Li Tong's praiseworthy point, and for Guan Yu, it is either a defeat or an innocuous thing. If Guan Yu had a great merit when he was in the Northern Province, then Chen Shou would definitely write a big book in Guan Yu's biography.
So, how many generals did Guan Yu compete with during the entire period of the Absolute North Province, and how was the victory or defeat?
First of all, the conclusion: Guan Yu's northern province was relatively unsuccessful, and it played a small role (only delayed li tong's rescue of Cao Ren). The people who have played against Guan Yu in the North Road must have Li Tong, and it is more likely that there will be Xu Huang and Full Favor, and it is unlikely that there will be Le Jin and Wen Ping.
Time possibility of the North Province: Guan Yu was extinct once at the beginning of the Battle of Nan County, and Guan Yu was eliminated once at the end of the Battle of Nan County, which is unlikely to be extinct for a whole year.
The historical data is as follows:
The "Note of Pei Song" in Zhou Yu's biography: "Ren shou Jiangling City, there is a lot of grain in the city, enough to cause disease." Zhang Yide sent a thousand people with Qing, and Qing divided two thousand people to chase me, so that after cutting ren from Xia Shui, Ren Wenwu would enter and leave. "Yu benefits from two thousand people."
Li Tongchuan: Liu Bei and Zhou Yu besieged Cao Ren at Jiangling and sent Guan Yu to the North Province. Tong led the crowd to attack, dismounted and pulled out the antlers, and fought and advanced, in order to meet the benevolent army and bravely crown the generals. Passage was sick at the age of forty-two.
Liu Beichuan: The first lord sent an envoy to warn Zhang: "Cao Gong marched on Wu, and Wu was in danger. Sun Shi and Gu Ben were fangs, and Lejin and Guan Yu resisted in Qingni, and now they did not go to save Yu, entered Bi Dake, and invaded the state border, and their worries were even worse than Lu.'s. Lu self-guarding thief, not enough to worry about also. ”
Wen Pingchuan: Discussing Guan Yu with Le Jin, having meritorious service, entering the Marquis of Yanshou pavilion and currying favor with the rebellious general. He also attacked Yu Yu and burned his ship at Jingcheng.
Le Jin Biography: Later from Pingjing Prefecture, Liutun Xiangyang, Guan Yu, Sufi, etc., all left, and the barbarians in the valleys of the Nan County entered and descended. He also asked Liu Bei to be depressed about Dupu and Jingyang Changliang, all of which were greatly broken.
Xu Huangchuan: He also negotiated with Man yu Guan Yu in Hanjin, and Cao Ren against Zhou Yu at Jiangling.
Sun Quanchuan: Cao Gong Suibei returned, leaving Cao Ren and Xu Huang at Jiangling, so that Le Jin would guard Xiangyang.
First of all, exclude Wen Ping and Le Jin: Liu Beichuan's definite time period is during Liu Bei's entry into Shu, not during the Battle of Nan County, and Liu Bei's biography and Le Jin biography can be echoed, and Le Jin chuan and Wen Ping zhuan can be echoed.
In this way, the battle went roughly as follows:
In the seventeenth year of Jian'an, Liu Bei told Liu Zhang that Lejin was fighting with Guan Yu, and if he did not return, Lejin would probably defeat Guan Yu and attack Jingzhou. Subsequently, Guan Yu retreated from Qingni to Xunkou, Wen Ping Lejin defeated Guan Yu together in Xunkou, Wen Ping pursued guan Yu from Xunkou to Hanjin to defeat Guan Yu and burn his ship at Jingcheng, Le Jin directly turned from Xunkou to Xiangyang and attached to Linfeng and then attacked Jingyang. This series of events is relatively complete, in the 17th and 18th years of Jian'an, it was basically excluded that it occurred during the period of Absolute North Province.
Then look at Xu Huang's biography: Xu Huang's biography mentions that Xu Huang first fought Guan Yu at Hanjin and then defended the city with Cao Ren, so it is basically certain that Xu Huang and Man Yu were sent to attack Guan Yu. If they defeated Guan Yu, then The Historian should be able to record breaking or knocking away. On the other hand, if Guan Yu won the battle against Xu Huang and Man Yu, it would be recorded in Guan Yu's biography, and the historian would write down such contents as "Xu Huang and Man Yu attacked Yu Buke", but there was no such record in various Three Kingdoms history books. Therefore, Xu Huang and Man Yu's attack on Guan Yu this time basically belonged to the fact that Guan Yu had just started fighting, but Guan Yu withdrew soon after. Xu Huang did not chase after Guan Yu because of Cao Ren's emergency, but rushed to support Cao Ren and a military struggle broke out with Zhou Yu's army. Guan Yu failed to stop Xu Huang from rescuing Cao Ren.
Look at Li Tongchuan again: get off the horse and pull out the antlers to be shortlisted, and fight and advance, in order to meet the Ren Army and bravely crown the generals. Li Tong's response to Cao Ren's incident should have occurred at the end of the Battle of Nan County, when Cao Ren was about to flee, Li Tong went south, "and the battle was before", then, contrarian reasoning, Guan Yu's side is "defeated and retreated". Cao Ren's army led by Cao Ren also succeeded in leaving Nan County and returning to the north without any effort, without any contest with Guan Yubu. It shows that the North Road has been beaten unimpeded by Li Tongbu, and Guan Yu has lost the Battle of the North Province.
There is a view that Guan Yu stayed in North Province for a year, which is basically impossible.
First, Guan Yu could not have brought his own grain and grass to stay behind the enemy for a year, how much grain did he have to bring? Moreover, Guan Yu was fighting in the battlefield behind enemy lines, which was extremely dangerous, and if he did not get it right, he would be attacked by Li Tong and Cao Ren from the north to the south, and became li Tong and Cao Ren's "steamed egg".
Second, in the middle of the Battle of Nan County, the two sides did not fight each other for several months, and Sun Quanchuan recorded that "Ren and Yu defended each other", not like Zhuge Liang and Hao Zhao's crazy attack and defense, and there was no siege and siege during this time. At this time, Guan Yu dared to suddenly rush into the North Province? If so, I am afraid that Guan Yu will be made into a "sandwich" every minute. What's more, Guan Yu and Liu Bei were not so stupid.
It is estimated that Guan Yu carried out a battle of absolute north province in the early and late stages of the battle of Nan County, each lasting about 2 months, counting the journey from Xiashui to Hanshui to North Road, the two times from the original north province to the battlefield and from the battlefield to the original place also took a total of 1 to 2 months, these things took almost half a year, the remaining second half of the year is a period of truce in the middle, Guan Yu should rest in his own base camp during this period.
From the above, it can be seen that the Absolute North Province should fight twice, the first time and Xu Huangman's pet basically did not fight hard, it was not long after the first contact Guan Yu ran, and the second time facing Li Tong, Guan Yu was beaten while fighting and retreating. In itself, two small battles were still drawn and one defeat, and Chen Shou was embarrassed to record it in Guan Yu's biography. Li Tongchuan naturally recorded Guan Yu's defeat, showing the bravery of Li Tong and the brave generals who fought and won the championship before. As for Li Tong's death, it is written in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that he died of "getting sick", not being hacked to death by Guan Yu.
Therefore, the statement that Guan Yu absolutely fought in the Northern Province and hacked Li Tong to death for a year was really unreliable.
Welcome to everyone's attention.