During the Three Kingdoms period, when it came to the famous combination of martial generals, many people's first reaction was the Shu Han Five Tiger Generals. As far as the five tiger generals Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, and Ma Chao were influenced by literary works such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty had a very high reputation. However, in the right history, the five sons of Cao Wei were obviously not inferior to the existence of the five tiger generals of the Shu Han Dynasty. Wuzi Liang refers to the five generals of Cao Wei's forces during the Three Kingdoms period, namely the former general Zhang Liao, the right general Le Jin, the left general Yu Ban, the general Zhang Guo of the Zhengxi Cheqi, and the right general Xu Huang.
When Chen Shou, the author of the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, wrote the Seventeenth Volume of the Book of Wei, he passed on the five men together, recounting the life deeds of the generals, and commented: "(Wei) Taizu Jianzi martial arts, and the good general of the time, the five sons are the first", so modern people call it "Five Sons Liang General" or "Wei Five Sons". Among the five sons, Zhang Liao and Zhang Gao followed Cao Cao relatively late, for example, Zhang Gao only surrendered to Cao Cao during the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD, and Zhang Liao returned to Cao Cao around 199 AD. Correspondingly, as far as Lejin is concerned, lejin began to follow Cao Cao as early as 190 AD. However, Lejin's final official position was only that of a right general. So, the question is, among the five sons of liang, Le Jin was the first to follow Cao Cao, why is the official position not high?
One
First of all, Lejin was born in Yangping County, Weiguo, as early as 190 AD, Lejin followed Cao Cao because of his courage, as an official. In the first year of Chuping (190), Cao Cao personally went to Yangzhou to recruit troops due to the shortage of soldiers. Le Jin was sent back to Yangping County, where he recruited more than a thousand men, and later joined Cao Cao in Hanoi and was promoted to the rank of Military False Sima and Lieutenant of Chen. Therefore, among the five sons of liang, Le Jin was the first to follow, that is, the time that Xu Huang, Yu Ban, Zhang Liao, and Zhang Gao followed Cao Cao was after Le Jin. In the first year of Xingping (194), Le Jin attacked Lü Bu in Puyang, Zhang Chao in Yongqiu, and Qiaorui in Ku County, all of whom were first to ascend to the battlefield and had meritorious service, and were enfeoffed as marquis of Guangchangting.
Among them, as far as "first ascending to the front", the emphasis is on Lejin to be the first soldier. As a general, Lejin could have commanded in the rear, but often chose to rush to the front. And this is undoubtedly the best embodiment of Lejin's bravery. In the third year of Jian'an (198), Le Jin marched from Zhang Embroidery to An Zhong, surrounded Lü Bu in Xia Pi, and broke his dispatch of military generals. In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), he attacked Liu Beiyu and Xiao Pei again, and both won the victory and was made a lieutenant of Qiu Kou. Before Zhang Liao, Zhang Gao, and others defected to Cao Cao, Lejin was favored by Cao Cao, participated in many battles in Cao Cao's early days, and made great achievements.
Two
In the fifth year of Jian'an (200), the Battle of Guandu broke out between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. In the Battle of Guandu, Le Jin and Yu Ban led five thousand infantry to attack Yuan Shao's camp. In the ninth year of Jian'an (204), Le Jin attacked Yuan Shao's sons Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang's brother Yu Liyang and beheaded his general Yan Jing. In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), when Jingzhou had not yet been annexed, Le Jin was sent to The Tun Army at Yang Zhai. Later, from Pingjing Prefecture, liutun Xiangyang. In the first month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an (213), Le Jin and Guan Yu fought at Qingni (青泥, located in the eastern part of Zhongxiang, Hubei Province), and after a period of stalemate between the two sides, Le Jin repelled Guan Yu and Sufi. In the face of Guan Yu, the head of the Five Tigers of the Shu Han Dynasty, Lejin not only did not have the slightest fear, but also won the victory, which was obviously commendable.
After this, LeJin attacked Linfeng (林沮, located in Yuan'an County, Hubei Province) and Jingyang (景阳, located in the north of Zhijiang County, Hubei Province), and attacked Liu Bei's subordinates Lindupu and Jingyang Changliang, both of which were greatly destroyed. In July of the nineteenth year of Jian'an (214), Lejin was enlisted from Sun Quan and obtained a false festival. In October of the same year, Cao Cao returned from Hefei and stayed in Hefei with Zhang Liao and Li Diantun. Lejin increased the number of households by 500, and before that, a total of 1,200 households. Before and after the Battle of Hefei, Cao Cao increased Lejin's five hundred households, made a son of a marquis, and Promoted Lejin to the rank of Right General. In the twenty-third year of Jian'an (218), Lejin died, and he was known as the Marquis of Wei. Therefore, for Lejin, the highest official position in Cao Wei was the Right General. In this regard, in the author's opinion, among the five sons of liangjun, Le Jin's final official position is lower than that of Zhang Liao and Zhang Gao, and higher than that of Xu Huang and Yu Ban.
Three
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the official positions of military generals ranged from high to low, roughly the following: general (Great Sima → Hun Cavalry General→ Che Riding General→ Wei General→ The Four Generals Before and After the Left and Right Generals→ the Four March Generals→ the Four Town Generals→ the Si'an Generals→ the Siping Generals→ the Miscellaneous Generals → Partial Generals. Among them, as far as the four generals before and after the left and right are concerned, they usually rank after the general, the general of the hussar, the general of the car, and the general of the guard. Among the five sons of Cao Wei, Xu Huang was promoted to the post of rear general, and Yu Ban served as a left general.
Although the left general and the rear general are on a par with the right general, they are ranked after the right general. For the four generals, the order is actually the former general, the right general, the left general, and the rear general. Therefore, for Lejin, as the right general of Cao Wei, he was slightly higher than Xu Huang and Yu Ban in terms of official positions. However, Lejin's official position was after Zhang Gao and Zhang Liao. On the one hand, as far as Zhang Liao was concerned, in the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220), Cao Cao died, Cao Pi became the King of Wei, and Zhang Liao was transferred from the rank of general of Zhengdong to a former general, and his brother Zhang Xun (or "Zhang Fan") and a son of The Marquis. At the same time, Zhang Liao was given as many as a thousand horses and as many as ten thousand valleys.
Four
Finally, as a former general, Zhang Liao's status was naturally above Lejin. On the other hand, in the third year of Taihe (229), Zhuge Liang once again went out of Qishan and launched a fierce attack on Chen Cang. Zhang Gao marched day and night to reach Southern Zheng, and Zhuge Liang did retreat. Cao Rui ordered Zhang Guo to return to the capital and appointed him as the general of the Zhenxi Che Riding Army. For Zhang Gao, as a cheri general, he was more than one notch higher than the right general in terms of status. In this regard, in the author's opinion, although among the five sons of liang generals, LeJin followed Cao Cao the earliest, but Lejin's official position was not high, that is, it could only be said to be decent. The reasons for this are mainly divided into two points. As far as the first point is concerned, it is because Lejin's death is relatively early. Among the five sons of Cao Wei, Le Jin was the first to die, that is, before Cao Pi officially established Cao Wei, Le Jin died. And this prompted Lejin not to wait for the moment when Emperor Cao Pi of Wei rewarded his subjects.
If Lejin had died after 220 AD, then, considering that he had been serving Cao Wei for decades, Cao Pi would have obviously considered promoting Lejin to an official position. On the other hand, although Lejin followed Cao Cao earlier, he made many military achievements. However, for Lejin, it lacks a very shining record. Correspondingly, Zhang Gao defeated Ma Chen at the Battle of Jieting, causing the Shu Han chancellor Zhuge Liang to lose his first Northern Expedition, and Zhang Liao severely injured Sun Quan in the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, causing Eastern Wu's 100,000 troops to collapse into an army, which is a memorable achievement. Therefore, Zhang Liao and Zhang Gao's official positions among the cao wei generals eventually came to the top, ranking ahead of Le Jin. In summary, among the five sons of Cao Wei, Le Jin followed Cao Cao for the earliest time, and even the longest, but did not obtain a higher military general official position.