Few ancient warriors can leave such a remarkable brilliance in the future generations like Guan Gong, so that once modern people see the word "zhongyi", the first thing that comes to mind is Guan Erye.
Indeed, at least in the novel, Guan Gong's record is very dazzling, Yan Liangwen ugly this level of martial generals, Guan Gong can easily defeat. Hua Xiong, who was flaunting his might, Guan Gong only took a few minutes to remove his head. It can be said that at that time, as long as it was the opponent of the Shu Kingdom, it had suffered the loss of Second Master Guan.
However, how could such a world-renowned general overturn the ship in the gutter of Ma Zhong?
Who is Ma Zhong? The nameless general of Eastern Wu, it is estimated that when he reported his name on the battlefield, no one had ever heard of this figure. Not to mention Ma Zhong himself, even his boss Pan Zhang, as well as Lü Meng and other bigger bosses, their reputations are not as good as Second Master Guan. History is so wonderful, it is such a young general who is not a few levels higher than the miscellaneous soldiers, who picked up a big bargain in the Battle of Maicheng and captured guan Yunchang, an enemy general who made Wu and Wei shudder.
We know that although nominally, the boss of the Shu state was Liu Bei. However, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who led the troops, and Zhuge Liang, who presided over state affairs, were the pillars of the country. The rise of the Shu Han Dynasty is not a one-day effort, nor is it the strength of one person. Liu Bei and his subordinates spent several decades, until in the First Battle of Hanzhong, the Wei army was completely defeated, and Liu Bei locked in the victory, which laid the foundation of Shu Han. After the three divisions of the world, although Liu Bei's territory was not large and there was a big gap between his troops and the other two sides, because Shu Han had a natural geographical advantage, coupled with Liu Bei's strong soldiers and countless talents, Shu Han was enough to compete with other sides.
However, Liu Bei, who had taken advantage of the time and place, made a surprising decision, that is, to dispatch Guan Yu's army guarding Jingzhou to the north to attack Cao Cao.
It is reasonable to say that the Jingzhou garrison is a big matter, so why did Liu Bei easily transfer Guan Yu out?
The price Liu Bei paid for taking Jingzhou, I believe that all the officials are relatively clear, and they really can't understand why Liu Bei made this deployment. In addition, Liu Bei gambled his old capital on the Northern Expedition, but did not give Guan Yu any support. Leaving aside the situation, let's talk about the personal relationship between Liu and Guan.
Didn't Liu Bei consider the safety of his second brother? Why did he let him go deep alone?
As a result, Guan Yu, who was nearly a year old, went deep into the north with a group of men and horses, and successively encountered the enemy generals Cao Ren, Xu Huang, and Yu Ban. The war took three months, and although the results of killing Pound, defeating the Forbidden, and flooding the Seventh Army were achieved, Cao Ren still relied on the fortified city of Xiangyang to resist the Shu army under the city, so that the Shu army did not advance.
The roof leaked in the overnight rain, taking advantage of the fact that Guan Yu and the enemy army started a tug-of-war, and Eastern Wu immediately participated in this war. Because Guan Yu was too deep, he could only allow Lü Meng to easily take Jingzhou, and then go north to attack Guan Yu with the Cao army. At this moment, Guan Yu was forced into a dead end, and it was difficult to support under the attack of the two armies, and in the end, not only was the army completely annihilated, but even the lives of the father and son were lost. Only four months passed since Guan Yu left Jingzhou with his troops until the famous general was killed.
During these four months, the Shu side did not send support. It is reasonable to say that Meng Da and Liu Feng, who were located in Shangyong, should have sent a force to support this ace army, but these two did not respond to the Northern Expedition. In addition, The generals Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Zhao Yun did not move in the slightest, as if they did not know about Guan Yu's Northern Expedition at all. In these few months, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, as leaders and premiers, did not send a single "central telegram," let alone personally go to the front to treat this elite army.
In the entire five chapters of the novel, we can only see Guan Erye rushing to kill on the front line, playing with Wei wu and wu, but we can't see the figure of other generals of Shu Han. Not to mention Zhuge Liang, who was good at using soldiers, wasn't Liu Bei always benevolent? How could he bear to see that his righteous brother was a long time old, still going deep alone, fighting on the battlefield, and resting to the death?
Reading Guan Yu's death, there is a bit of a "conspiracy theory". Clear-eyed people knew at a glance that the strategic deployment of the Shu state was like pushing Guan Yu into the fire pit. However, because the tone of the novel is "honoring Shu and degrading Wei", we do not see any accusations against Liu Bei in the book, but after Guan Yu's death, we see many dog blood passages about Guan Gongxian in the book. No matter how ghosts appear, no matter how dreams they dream, no matter how much the gods blink, what can they change?
Then, what was the intention of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's arrangements, from the sneak attack on Fancheng to the subsequent series of strategic deployments?
The author can only understand that Guan Yu has never listened to the dispatches of The Prime Minister on weekdays, so that in this war Zhuge Liang wanted him to suffer some losses, but he did not expect That Guan Yu would lose his life on the front line - playing smashed. As for Liu Bei, I think he was just a complete fool in this incident.
Is Guan Yu a victim of politics? Today, we have no way of verifying it.
Resources:
【Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"】