In July of the 24th year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, guan Yu, the defender of Jingzhou, encouraged by Liu Bei's victory in Hanzhong, prepared to lead an army to attack Xiangfan and expand his military achievements.
Guan Yu led an army to attack Xiangfan
In August, coinciding with the flooding of Xiangfan and Xiangfan, Guan Yu skillfully used a clever trick to flood Cao Cao's Seventh Army sent to reinforce Xiangfan, thus threatening Huaxia and taking the opportunity to besiege the Wei general Cao Ren stationed at Fancheng.
At this critical moment, Cao Cao joined forces with Sun Quan to prepare to jointly deal with Guan Yu. Sun Quan first pretended to send Lu Xun to participate in the battle, so that Guan Yu would take it lightly and dispatch the Jingzhou defenders, but Lu Xun suddenly changed to Yiling in the middle of the way to prevent Liu Bei from reinforcing, and the Eastern Wu general Lü Meng took the opportunity to take Jingzhou directly. Not only did they rebel against the Shu generals Fu Shiren and Mi Fang, but they also cut off the Han River to prevent Guan Yu from escaping by water. On Xiangfan's side, Cao Cao sent the generals Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and others to reinforce Cao Ren. On the battlefield, Xu Huang designed to shake the hearts of the Shu army and defeat Guan Yu. Cao Ren sent troops to cut off the supply of grain and grass in Guan Yu's rear when the flood receded, causing the situation on Guan Yu's side, which had originally taken full advantage, to take a sharp turn.
Guan Yu was killed by Eastern Wu
In October, Guan Yu withdrew his troops and returned to the west, leading the remnants to garrison Maicheng. At that time, Guan Yu was in a situation of isolation and helplessness, coupled with the instability of the army, it was impossible to resist the enemy army, and Guan Yu had to hold on to Maicheng. When Sun Quan sent people to lure Guan Yu down, Guan Yu first pretended to surrender, sent people to fake the illusion of a strict defender on Maicheng, and secretly led more than a dozen soldiers to escape from Maicheng. He did not expect that when he fled to Linfeng, he was unfortunately captured by Lü Meng and later killed by Eastern Wu.
A generation of famous generals in history hastily ended their brilliant lives. Whenever I think about it, I can't help but feel a pang of sighing. While lamenting Guan Yu's death, we can't help but think that Liu Bei, the eldest brother of the "Taoyuan Three Knots of Righteousness", why did he not save this powerful second brother who had repeatedly built up his miraculous feats and helped himself lay down a great country?
It should be known that from July to October of the 24th year of Jian'an, whether it was Guan Yu's brilliant achievements in flooding the Seventh Army and breaking the Wei Army before, or the careless loss of Jingzhou in the back, the defeat of Maicheng to the end of abandoning the city and fleeing, killed halfway, for three months, Liu Bei did not send any troops to the rescue, and Lu Xun's original arrangements for blocking Liu Bei's reinforcements were also frustrated. If we open the picture of history, the truth of the facts may be much more cruel than presented in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Taoyuan Three Knots
The story of Liu Guanzhang's three people Taoyuan Three Knots is not unfamiliar to everyone, the three of them have been sharing weal and woe since the end of the righteousness, supporting each other, and in that chaotic world, they have attacked in many directions, intending to complete the great cause of the Zhongxing Han Room. However, before Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou from Eastern Wu, there was no place to settle down in the strict sense, and he was always driven around. After borrowing from Jingzhou, Liu Bei could be regarded as truly settling down. Later, Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong again, which gave him the capital to compete for the deer and compete with each other.
After stabilizing the forces, a difficult problem facing Liu Bei was how to rectify the internal forces and thus establish a stable political group. Looking at these people who fight with themselves, Ma Chao, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, and Zhuge Liang are all well arranged, at the beginning they were responsible for the role of subordinates and staff, and now they are directly converted into subordinates, but Guan Zhang, who is close to Liu Bei Taoyuan and has a deep affection for his brothers, must be handled carefully.
In fact, Zhang Fei is fine, as the third brother, he has always respected Liu Bei in his heart, and his name is actually a subordinate. In contrast, Guan Yu is a bit less well positioned. Jingzhou, as Liu Bei's base camp, can be said to be the place where Liu Bei settled down before taking Hanzhong, and because of its unique geographical environment, it has been a place where soldiers and families must fight since ancient times. Liu Bei's handing over such an important Jingzhou to Guan Yu was enough to see Guan Yu's position within Liu Bei's clique transcendent. It is just that this transcendent position can be allowed to exist before Liu Bei becomes king. Once Liu Bei became king, everyone's identity would become a vassal, and Guan Yu, who was stationed in Jingzhou, was more like a prince who divided one side, and his status was a bit of an eyesore for an ambitious king. This can be glimpsed from Liu Bei's title to Guan Yu.
Liu Bei was proclaimed emperor
After Liu Bei became king, Bai Guanyu was made a former general, Huang Zhong was a rear general, Zhang Fei was a left general, and Ma Chao was a right general. On the surface, Guan Yu was at the top of the four generals, but in fact his status was no different from that of the others. Zhang Fei had no objection to this, but Guan Yu was not satisfied: "The eldest husband will not be listed with the veterans in the end!" ”。
For Guan Yu's dissatisfaction, Liu Bei did not compromise, and from this point it may be seen that after Liu Bei became king, he inevitably exposed his imperial thinking of "family world".
The so-called imperial thought is that the coast of the four seas can not be the royal land, the coast of the land can not be the king's subject, the world is the emperor's world, and the courtiers are only the auxiliary of the king to govern the world. Under the influence of this kind of thinking, Liu Bei naturally did not want a person of equal status to him in his regime, even if this person had made great achievements for himself and was his second brother. Guan Yu, who was arrogant and conceited by nature, obviously did not realize this, and after Liu Bei became king, he still called himself the eldest brother, believing that his status was equal to Liu Bei, which was extremely fatal to a king.
In addition, when Liu Bei was called the King of Hanzhong, he was already nearly sixty years old, and he had long thought about the inheritance of the throne. The young lord Liu Chan had no great talent, and Liu Bei, who was a father, naturally knew better than anyone. After his death, Liu Chan could not control the situation, and once there was a matter of strong ministers seizing power, then the foundation he had worked so hard to lay was likely to change hands. Therefore, for this purpose, Liu Bei would not elevate Guan Yu's status and leave hidden dangers for his son's future rule.
Therefore, Liu Bei did not agree with Guan Yu's move to send troops to Xiangfan, mainly because he did not want Guan Yu to expand his military achievements and build his prestige. Then later, when Guan Yu lost Jingzhou and suffered from the enemy in his belly, Liu Bei chose to stand by and wait for Guan Yu to return, and it seemed reasonable that his prestige would be damaged.
As Liu Bei's first adviser, Zhuge Liang, after understanding Liu Bei's thoughts, naturally remained silent and ignored Guan Yu's danger. What Liu Bei himself may not have expected was that the speed of the war situation would change so quickly. Ben only wanted to kill Guan Yu's might, but he did not think that Guan Yu would finally be killed by Eastern Wu, and finally cut off an arm and lose a general.
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