Lü Bu's eight jian generals, Cheng Lian, appeared only twice: once during Lü Bu's defection to Yuan Shao, when he fought against Zhang Yan's more than 10,000 elite soldiers (including thousands of cavalry), and the second time in lü Bu and Cao Cao's "Battle of Xuzhou", where the soldiers were defeated and captured.
Lü Bu's eight strong generals
What kind of person is Cheng Lian? Where did he come from? What was his relationship with Lü Bu? Today, let's take a look at Chenglian qiren.
Cheng Lian, the history books do not explain his origin, but from his participation in the great war against the Black Mountain Army, it can be seen that he should belong to Lü Bu's and state factions. There are four reasons for this:
Chenglian
First, before Lü Bu defected to Yuan Shao, he mainly stayed in three places:
1. Huainan Yuan Shu Department. After Lü Bu defeated Chang'an, the first person to defect was Yuan Shu in Huainan. However, Lü Bu did not stay in Yuan Shu's department for a long time, and he was very unpleasant and ostracized everywhere. The soldiers under Yuan Shu were even more arrogant and arrogant than Lü Bu, and most of them were wine bags and rice bags, and it was impossible for them to abandon Yuan Shu's beautiful life and join Lü Bu. Therefore, Cheng Lian should not be a Huainan person.
Yuan Shu
2. Chang'an Dong Zhuo and Wang Yunbu. Lü Bu had contact with the Central Army and the Liangzhou Army during his period of following Dong Zhuo, but the Liangzhou Army and Lü Bu's Hezhou Army were always at odds, and after Lü Bu killed Dong Zhuo, the Liangzhou Army beat up the Hezhou Army even more (the non-Huizhou Army was not brave, but the Liangzhou Army was absolutely superior in numbers) and drove Lü Bu out of Chang'an. Only a few of the Huizhou troops escaped from Chang'an with Lü Bu, and the Central Army was not taken away by Lü Bu, and they were basically scattered. Therefore, Cheng Lian is unlikely to be the Central Army or the Western Liang Army.
Dong Zhuo
3. And state Dingyuan Department. Lü Bu was initially followed by Ding Yuan, and their concubine was the Hezhou Army. Later, after Lü Bu killed Ding Yuan and surrendered to Dong Zhuo, he took the Hezhou army into several of them, including the elite of the Hezhou Army, the Flying Horse of Hezhou and the lieutenant Zhang Liao. Cheng Lian is good at riding battles (Breaking Zhang Yan), and his greatest possibility is that he is from the Hezhou Army.
Ding Yuan
Second, from the perspective of Cheng Lian's position in Lü Bu's army.
There was a rebellion under Lü Bu (that is, Hao Meng and Cao Sex), after which Lü Bu confiscated some of the military power of foreign troops (non-concurrent state departments), including Gao Shun. Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian were not affected until Lü Bu was finally defeated and captured in Xuzhou, and Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian accompanied Lü Bu and never left. From this point, it can be seen that Cheng Lian, like Zhang Liao, belonged to Lü Bu's concubine and the state army.
Zhang Liao
Third, from the name of Cheng Lian.
The surname "Cheng" was rare among celebrities at that time. The author remembers that the famous one is Cheng Yi, one of Han Sui's "Ten Generals in Guanzhong". Chengyi is a Liangzhou native, Liangzhou and Hezhou belong to the same borderland, and the Hexi region of the prefecture and Liangzhou border, they and the Gyeonggi region (Luoyang Chang'an area) are relatively close, the surnames of the two places may have some kind of origin, plus Lü Bu and Liangzhou people have a deep intersection, so Chenglian should belong to Liangzhou or Hezhou people, of course, this is a bold guess of the author.
Fourth, the relationship between Wei Yue and Wei Xu.
In the great battle with the Black Mountain Army, Cheng Lian had a close comrade-in-arms named Wei Yue, and both he and Wei Yue served as traps (i.e., vanguards) of Lü Bu's army, and this Wei Yue had not appeared since this appearance. We all know that Lü Bu has an old watch named Wei Xu, is there any connection between this Wei Yue and Wei Xu? Why did Wei Xu later take over Gao Shun's trapped camp? I think that from the nepotistic Lü Bu, Wei Yue is very likely to be his other old cousin. Wei Yue may have died in battle later, so he disappeared without a trace, and Gao Shun took his role, and later Lü Bu used Wei to take back the camp.
Wei Yue
It can be seen from the above that Cheng Lian was a general around Lü Bu, and he began to follow Lü Bugan from Hezhou, but he was not a leading general like Zhang Liao, but a vanguard officer directly under Lü Bu, so in all the battles, he was not conspicuous, because he did not lead the army alone. Therefore, when Wei Xu, Song Xian, and Hou Chengdu surrendered to Cao Cao, Cheng Lian still followed Lü Bu.
After Cheng Lian was captured by Cao Cao, he disappeared without a trace, and it is estimated that he was beheaded by Cao Cao like Lü Bu.
(Continues tomorrow)
The author of this article, "Shushan PenMan", focuses on looking at history from different perspectives, copyrighted, and infringement must be investigated.