In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Liu Bei won the Battle of Hanzhong and established himself as the king of Hanzhong. After ascending the throne, Liu Bei rewarded his subordinates with a large number of rewards, among which Guan Yu, who had followed him for many years in the southern expedition to the north and was awarded the heavy responsibility of guarding Jingzhou, was the highest rank among the generals. Regrettably, in his second year as a former general, Guan Yu was defeated by a sneak attack by Eastern Wu, and at the same time, Liu Bei's desire to revive the Han Dynasty became even more out of reach.
Throughout the history of the Shu Han Dynasty, there were a total of five former generals, that is to say, there were four in addition to Guan Yu. So, who are the remaining four, and who among them can be said to be truly worthy of the important official position of former general?
First of all, the five former generals of the Shu Han Dynasty, in addition to Guan Yu, were Li Yan, Yuan Qiang, Deng Zhi and Hu Ji, of which Li Yan and Deng Zhi may be more well-known. Li Yan was born in Nanyang Commandery (南阳郡), Jingzhou, and was placed under Liu Bei's command when he entered Shu, and was given the title of General of Taishou (太守) and Xingye (興業將軍) after the pacification of Chengdu. After this, Li Yan was also ordered to work with Zhuge Liang, Fazheng and other important ministers to formulate the Shu Branch, the basis of Shu Han law, and his status was further enhanced.
In the third year of Zhang Wu (223), Liu Bei was worried and angry after the defeat of Wu, and finally died of illness in the White Emperor's City, and before his death, he was isolated by Zhuge Liang and Li Yan. It is reasonable to say that these two people should cooperate in the future to jointly support the Shu Han regime, but Li Yan gradually became a rift with Zhuge Liang. In the fourth year of Jianxing (226), Li Yan was made a former general and responsible for guarding the rear during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. After another four years, Li Yan was promoted to the rank of general of the Hun Horse, and was ordered to lead an army of 20,000 to Hanzhong to deal with Cao Zhen, the governor of Cao Wei who was moving south.
In the ninth year of Jianxing (231), Li Yan was ordered to be responsible for the supply of grain and grass during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, but it was a rainy season at that time, and the transportation of grain and grass was difficult, so he wrote a letter explaining the situation and asking Zhuge Liang to withdraw his troops, and Zhuge Liang also agreed. However, when Zhuge Liang really retreated, Li Yan deliberately pretended to be incredible, claiming that the grain and grass were very abundant, in order to cover up his dereliction of duty in failing to supply good grain and grass. In the face of Li Yan's "performance", Zhuge Liang directly presented his contradictory letters to the later lord Liu Chan.
Compared with Zhuge Liang's dedication to the country, Li Yan has always cared more about his own interests, and the reason why Zhuge Liang treated him kindly before was also to exchange his interests for his dedication to do things. However, Li Yan's shirking of responsibility really angered Zhuge Liang, so the latter wrote a letter of impeachment and deposed him as a commoner. Despite being reduced to a commoner, Li Yan had been expecting that one day Zhuge Liang would be able to use him again because of his talents. In the twelfth year of Jianxing (234), Zhuge Liang died of a serious illness, and Li Yan knew that there was no possibility of being used again, so he also fell ill and died.
As mentioned above, Li Yan was promoted to general of the Hussars after he had been a general for four years, and it was Yuan Qi who replaced him as the former general. Yuan Qi was born in Yingchuan County, and his previous experience is unknown, and his exploits in the Shu Han Dynasty are unknown, except that in the second year before he was crowned a general, he accompanied Zhuge Liang in impeaching Li Yan, who had lied to evade responsibility. After Zhuge Liang's death, Yuan Qiang was promoted to the post of general of Zhengxi, and the former general was succeeded by Deng Zhi.
Deng Zhi was born in Xinye County, Yiyang County, and settled in Shu at the end of the Han Dynasty, and became the governor of Pi Di. After Liu Bei entered Shu, he happened to pass by Picheng, had some exchanges with Deng Zhi, and was surprised by his talent. Since then, Deng Zhi has gradually begun to emerge, rising from county order to Taishou and becoming Shangshu again. In the third year of Zhang Wu (223), Deng Zhi sent an envoy to Eastern Wu, not only repairing the alliance between Shu Han and Eastern Wu that had broken down due to the Jingzhou problem, but also forming a deep friendship with Sun Quan, the lord of Wu.
During the First Northern Expedition, Deng Zhi was given the title of General of the Central Supervision Army and Yang Wu, and was ordered to work with the famous general Zhao Yun to attract the enemy's main force, and although he failed to win, he accumulated valuable combat experience. After Zhuge Liang's death, the original former general Yuan Qiang was promoted, and Deng Zhi succeeded him as the former general. Nine years later, Deng Zhi was promoted to the rank of CheQi general, and Shu Han also ushered in the last former general, Hu Ji.
Hu Ji and Deng Zhi were compatriots, both born in Yiyang County, who had been cited by Zhuge Liang as the main bookkeeper and praised by the latter for daring to speak out. After Deng Zhi was promoted to the rank of CheQi general, Hu Ji succeeded him as the former general, and after the death of the general Wang Ping, he was succeeded as the governor of Hanzhong, and later became the general of Zhenxi and the general of the Right Horse. In the nineteenth year of Yanxi (256), the general Jiang Wei sent an army to the Northern Expedition and agreed with Hu Ji, who was already a general in Zhenxi, to meet the division in Shangyi, but Hu Ji did not arrive, and the isolated Jiang Wei was eventually defeated by Deng Ai.
Judging from the above, among the four former generals of Shu Han since Guan Yu, although Li Yan was capable, but his heart was not right, he had meritorious deeds against Shu Han, and in the end he was depressed and could only be said to be self-inflicted; Yuan Qi's deeds are unknown, but from the historical records are very little, there should be no outstanding contributions and wonderful performances; Deng Zhi's achievements are mainly reflected in maintaining relations with Eastern Wu, and he has made few meritorious achievements in leading troops; Hu Ji was appreciated by Zhuge Liang, but the specific achievements are also not recorded. Only one missed engagement led to the defeat of Jiang Weibing. In general, only Deng Zhi may not be worthy of the position of former general among the four, and the reason why the other three can hold this position may be mainly because the Shu Han talent is withered.