The five sons of Cao Cao's generals were undoubtedly outstanding generals comparable to the five tiger generals of the Shu Han Dynasty. In addition to these five people, in fact, Zhu Ling, who was in charge of the army in his early years, was also a rare talent.
"Taizu often hated Zhu Ling and wanted to take his camp. With the forbidden has might, the forbidden will ride dozens of horses, the edict book, the spirit camp to seize its army, the spirit and its people do not dare to move; but the spirit is the governor of the forbidden subordinates, and all the people are shocked. ”
Cao Cao had always loved talent, but why did he restrict the development space of Zhu Ling, a general, and even deprive him of the right to control the army?
First of all, Zhu Ling's position was questionable.
Zhu Lingben was a general under Yuan Shao, and in his early years he was "seconded" to Cao Cao during the battle against Tao Qian. At that time, one piece was seconded, and there were two other generals. After the war was won, the other two military generals greeted Cao Cao and returned to the lord, but Zhu Ling had no intention of going back. All the horses that Zhu Ling brought from Yuan Shao stayed in Cao Ying: Boss Cao, I want to jump ship to your men.
Obviously, Zhu Lingxiang was interested in the development opportunities that Cao Cao provided for his subordinates, and wanted to change to a more promising enterprise to start from scratch. However, for Cao Cao, Zhu Ling's surrender was not necessarily a good thing, and if he was taken in, he would surely offend Yuan Shao. Moreover, Cao Cao was a very suspicious person, and he always felt that the people around him had some kind of ulterior motive, so he thought that Zhu Ling's surrender must have another reason, perhaps he was a spy inserted by Yuan Shao.
Secondly, There is a problem with Zhu Ling's character.
In his early years, while working under Yuan Shao, Zhu Ling was ordered to go to the rebel general Ji Yong in Qinghe. At that time, Ji Yong had already defected to Gongsun Zhan, so naturally he had the support of Gongsun Zhan's reinforcements. The two men and horses fought a fierce battle in Juancheng. Zhu Ling's home was located in Juancheng, so this war was undoubtedly a great disadvantage to him. Sure enough, when the battle between the two armies reached a white-hot stage, Gongsun Zhan brought Zhu Ling's family to the front and coerced Zhu Ling to surrender. In the face of the family who was tied up by the five flowers, although Zhu Ling was sad and mournful, he still decided to put the overall situation first, put aside the cruel words of "once the husband is born with a person, will he take care of the family", and led his subordinates to launch a fierce attack.
Under Zhu Ling's anger, Gongsun Zhan's defense line collapsed, and The city of Juan was successfully captured. In order to vent their anger, Zhu Ling's family was executed before the city was breached. Here, we can read that Zhu Lingqi is an unusual person, quite a style of "great righteousness and annihilation of relatives". However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, where benevolence and filial piety were supreme, this kind of behavior was undoubtedly controversial. In Cao Cao's view, although he was loyal to the lord and quite decisive, this person could not even take care of the lives of his loved ones, so how could he take care of others? In Cao Cao's life history, he once met a similar person- Ma Chao, how dare Cao Cao, who was once bitten by a snake, take another risk?
In the end, Zhu Ling and Cao Cao had an old grudge.
In the early years, Liu Bei Zhu Ling and others were sent to snipe Yuan Shu, but they did not expect that they were still on the march, and Yuan Shu died of illness. During this period, Liu Bei planned to oppose Cao cao and pull up the team to do it himself, so under Liu Bei's arrangement, Lu Zhao and Zhu Ling were taken away. After deceiving Zhu Ling and the two men, Liu Bei entered Xuzhou with a strange army, snatched a piece of land from Cao Cao's hands, and took a plot against the East China Sea.
When such a change occurred, it was naturally unacceptable to Cao Cao, so Cao Cao immediately led a large army to attack Liu Bei and took Xuzhou back. Under Cao Cao's onslaught, Liu Bei once again became a dog that lost his family and could only settle down at Yuan Shao. After the xuzhou plague was quelled, the more Cao Cao thought about it, the more he feared it. Was Zhu Ling a spy under Yuan Shao? If it wasn't for the drama he performed with Liu Bei, how could Xuzhou fall? Therefore, in later wars, Cao Cao never transferred Zhu Ling to the frontal battlefield, for fear that he would help Yuan Shao destroy himself before he turned against him.
In the ninth year of Jian'an, after Cao Cao had conquered Jizhou, he ordered Zhu Ling to stay in Xunan with a new army: "These recruits have never undergone formal training, and military discipline is scattered. When training them, we must be gradual and not rushed. We must observe the military situation and not administer the army too strictly. However, Zhu Ling's training philosophy was contrary to Cao Cao's, and he did not take Cao Cao's words seriously, but as always, strictly governed the army. As a result, it didn't take long for these recruits to mutiny because they couldn't withstand the harsh training environment, and if it weren't for Zhu Ling killing a few recruits who took the lead in the disaster, I'm afraid these people would have made a big deal out of it.
Although the mutiny was suppressed by Zhu Ling, Cao Cao was very annoyed that Zhu Ling refused to listen to his advice.
From these records, it is not difficult to find that Zhu Ling was a rather capable warrior, but his personality was strange and obedient, and his position was not clear, so he was never reused by Cao Cao. In many major battles, Zhu Ling played a huge role as a deputy general, but every time he discussed the merits and rewards, Zhu Ling could not rank up.
Historical records record that Zhu Ling "became a good general after the spirit, and the name Ya Huang and so on", and could not be compared with the five sons of Liang. It was not until Cao Pi came to power that this second-in-command of the army, who had worked hard and made great achievements, was straightened out, and he was still only a "rear general" with low status.
In the autumn of the second year of Taihe (228), the Wei army attacked Wu. Cao Xiu entered Hefei from the south of the LuJiang River, and the Manchu army marched to Xiakou. Cao Xiu went deep into the enemy position. The Wu army broke the stone in Wuqiangkou to intercept Cao Xiu's retreat. Cao Xiu was at odds with the battle, so he retreated. Fortunately, Zhu Ling and others later broke the road and met the Wu army, the enemy army was frightened away, and Cao Xiu's army had to return.
After Zhu Ling's death, he was posthumously honored as The Marquis of Wei.
In the first four years ( 243 ) , Zhu Ling was blessed with a convalescent shrine to Cao Cao.
Resources:
[Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, Zhang Leyu Zhang Xu Biography, Romance of the Three Kingdoms]