When it comes to military generals in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, perhaps most people will focus on famous generals such as the Five Tiger Generals and the Five Sons liang generals. Objectively speaking, the famous players who can still be household names and have a fairly high reputation today do undoubtedly have outstanding talents or have made great achievements. However, in contrast, the less well-known military generals today are not all mediocre and incompetent.
For example, Lü Bu, who was considered by the people to be the strongest combat force in the Three Kingdoms period, but because of his self-indulgence and led to the defeat and death of the soldiers, had such a very good general. This man was a model of a perfect warrior, not only commanding the army well, but also always loyal to Lü Bu, and eventually preferred to be killed rather than surrender. It is a pity that such a good general has not been able to get Lü Bu's reuse, and now he is always ignored and underestimated by the world, he is Gao Shun.
Gao Shun, date of birth is unknown, origin is also unknown, according to the Book of later Han: "Shun is innocent and majestic, less words, the crowd is neat, and every battle must be conquered." In other words, Gao Shun was a man of good character and great prestige, and although he did not speak much in ordinary days, he knew the way of commanding the emperor very well and was good at training soldiers, so the troops he led could be described as invincible. In addition, in the "Hero Record" created by Wang Yue, one of the "Seven Sons of Jian'an", Gao Shun's image has been further improved.
According to the book, Gao Shun was strictly self-disciplined, never drank alcohol, and did not accept gifts from others. When it comes to drinking, many people may think of a famous player who stands in opposition to Gao Shun - Zhang Fei. As a rare fierce general at that time, Zhang Feixiao was brave and good at war, and later gradually learned to use strategy to defeat the enemy. However, Zhang Fei's biggest shortcoming is his love of drinking, in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhang Fei once drank too much alcohol when staying in Xuzhou, which led to the city being taken by Lü Bu, and before he went to Eastern Wu, Zhang Fei also led to his assassination because of the drunken whipping of his subordinates.
Compared with Zhang Fei, Gao Shun does not stick to the wine, which avoids many problems that may be caused by drinking, and he does not accept gifts, which reflects his upright and down-to-earth personality traits. Perhaps it is precisely because of the perfect practice of "strict self-discipline" and the high obedience that is not good at words can win the respect of the subordinate soldiers and build them into an invincible team. For Gao Shun's troops, the "Hero Record" also added: "The more than 700 soldiers will be called a thousand, the armor and fighting tools are all refined and neat, and each attack is unbreakable, called the trap camp." ”
After talking about self-discipline and leading soldiers, let's talk about Gao Shun's loyalty. Although the lord Lü Bu was a capricious person, Gao Shun was loyal and loyal, and seeing that the lord was self-conscious and acted rashly, Gao Shun bitterly advised: "The general's actions are unwilling to think carefully, and he is happy to say wrongly, and the mistakes are uncountable." However, despite Gao Shun's many persuasions, Lü Bu also knew that this subordinate was loyal and reliable, but he did not reuse it, and his advice was also taken as a deaf ear.
In the first year of Jian'an (196), Lü Bu's general Hao Meng raised an army to rebel, and Lü Bu hid in GaoShun's garrison in a hurry, saying that he did not know who rebelled, only that the voice sounded like a Hanoian. When Gao Shun heard this, he immediately guessed that it was Hao Meng, and personally led the soldiers and horses to quickly quell the turmoil. However, after this incident, Lü Bu did not give a commendation and promotion because of Gao Shun's outstanding performance, but was worried that Gao Shun would rebel in the future, so he actually transferred all the soldiers in the trapped camp to his brother-in-law Wei Xu's command, and was only briefly dispatched by Gao Shun during the battle.
Even after being so visibly ostracized and alienated by Lü Bu, Gao Shun still did not hold grudges, but continued to do his best to serve him. In the third year of Jian'an (198), Gao Shun and Zhang Liao joined forces to defeat Liu Bei and Xiahou Huan's soldiers and horses, and captured Liu Bei's wife and children. It is worth mentioning that whether in the records of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Zizhi Tongjian, Zhang Liao, who later ranked as one of the "Five Sons of Liang Generals", was only ranked after Gao Shun, which may indicate that in the battle to defeat Liu Bei and Xiahou Huan, Gao Shun's battle merits or performances were better than those of Zhang Liao, who was later famous.
Shortly after this battle, Cao Cao personally led a large army to attack Lü Bu, and the counselor Chen Gong suggested that he and Gao Shun defend the city, while Lü Bu personally led a fine horse to cut off Cao Cao's grain route, forcing him to retreat due to lack of food. Judging from the fact, Cao Cao did encounter a serious shortage of grain when he conquered Lü Bu, and it was Guo Jiali who led an urgent attack before he attacked Xia Pi City with a single blow. Therefore, if Lü Bu had acted according to Chen Gong's plan, perhaps Cao Cao would have really had no choice but to retreat. However, at this time, Lü Bu missed the opportunity because he was worried that Chen Gong and Gao Shun, who had always been discordant, could not work together while defending the city.
In December of the same year, Wei Huan, who was deeply trusted by Lü Bu and even given the command of the trapped camp, surrendered voluntarily, and Gao Shun was captured by them because he did not want to join the crowd and was tied up and sent to Cao Cao. In order to save his life, even Lü Bu took the initiative to express his willingness to surrender to Cao Cao, but Gao Shun never said a word. In the end, Cao Cao saw that Gao Shun could not use it for himself, so he had to order him to be hanged. In this way, a perfect warrior unfortunately passed away, and a brilliant general star in the sky fell helplessly.