Speaking of Zhang Fei, we will think of the image of "leopard head ringing eyes, swallow jaws and tiger whiskers, sound like giant thunder, and the momentum is like a galloping horse" in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In addition, the CCTV version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been a classic hit for more than 20 years. Zhang Fei's image of a "reckless man" who is full of affection and alcoholism is even more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Is zhang fei really such an image in history? Definitely not.
1. Background of origin
Zhang Fei (張飞), a native of Zhuo Commandery (涿郡; present-day Zhuozhou, Baoding, Hebei), was a famous general of the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Fei's Biography" is more brief about Zhang Fei's origin, only saying that he is "a character Yide, Zhuo County people", and there is no record of the others; folklore, Zhang Fei is not only strong in martial arts, but also can write paintings, And The Yuan Wuzhen "Zhang Yide Ancestral Hall" has a poem: "Guan Hou satirizes the Zuo clan, and the car rides more gongshu." Although the culture and martial arts are different, the ancients tasted more than enough. The horizontal spear thinks of the wrist strength, and the image is afraid and difficult. This means that Zhang Fei's calligraphy is very accomplished, and even the famous calligraphers of the Three Kingdoms, Zhong Xuan of the State of Wei and the Imperial Statue of the State of Wu, are inferior to him. The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" volume says that his family is a rich man, but in fact, it does not say what he did, and there is no way to verify the specifics.
2. Three brothers meet
In fact, Zhang Fei knew Guan Yu first, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Han Room called on powerful landlords everywhere to organize armed suppression of rebellions, Liu Bei recruited soldiers and horses with the title of King of Jing in Zhongshan, and captured many people's hearts, this recruitment does not matter, one move has attracted two big heroes, that is, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, after getting to know Guan Yu Zhang Fei, their feelings are very good. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms once recorded: "Sleeping in the same bed, if the brothers are brothers, and the enemies are widespread, standing all day long, following the lords and not avoiding difficulties", from this we can see how good their relationship is. Maybe they didn't expect to be able to achieve a big cause in the world.
In history, there is no such thing as Taoyuan Sanjieyi, and in fact, Guan Yu is one year older than Liu Bei and zhang Fei is the youngest.
3. Defeat and lose Xuzhou
In 196, Yuan Shu attacked Liu Bei and fought for Xuzhou. Liu Bei sent Zhang Fei to guard Xia Pi, while Liu Bei's generals fought a stalemate between Xuyi and Huaiyin against Yuan Shu for more than a month, and they won and lost each other. Yuan Shu wrote a letter to Lü Bu, advising him to take the opportunity to attack Xia Pi and promised to assist Lü Bu with grain and grass after the matter was completed.
The "Hero's Record" records: "Leaving Zhang Fei to guard Xia Pi, he led his troops to fight with Yuan Shu at the Huaiyin Stone Pavilion, and there was more victory and defeat." What is said here is that Liu Bei did indeed leave Zhang Fei stationed in Xuzhou under the seat of pi, and he led his troops and Yuan Shu to start a tug-of-war at The Stone Pavilion in Huaiyin.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms of Shu (Three Kingdoms Chronicles of the Shu Dynasty) records that "Cao Bao, the General of xia pi, rebelled and asked Yingbu. This means that the Xia Pi Shou general Cao Bao secretly colluded with Lü Bu to rebel. The record of the "Hero's Record" is: "Tao Qian sent Cao Leopard to Xia Pi, and Zhang Fei wanted to kill him." The leopards camped themselves and made people recruit Lü Bu. The meaning of this sentence is that Zhang Fei wants to kill Cao Bao, so Cao Bao and his generals hold the camp and send someone to contact Lü Bu.
After the above analysis, it can be roughly deduced that Cao Bao and Lü Bu fought a hard battle with Zhang Fei, and Zhang Fei was attacked internally and externally due to insufficient troops, and lost Xuzhou. It is not like the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" described, drinking alcohol and beating Cao Leopard, Cao Leopard secretly released Lü Bu's army into the city to beat Zhang Fei off guard.
4. According to the water broken bridge
In 208 AD (the thirteenth year of Jian'an), Cao Cao swung his division south, Liu Bei could not resist the attack of Cao Cao's army by relying on the projectile land of Xinye, and could only lead hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to retreat, and was caught up by Cao Chun's five thousand tigers and leopards at Dangyang, Liu Bei was defeated, only leading dozens of horses to escape, throwing his wife and children to Cao Jun. At the critical moment, Zhang Fei led twenty cavalry to defend the broken bridge, blocking the Cao army's pursuing troops on the other side of the bridge, which bought Liu Bei valuable time to retreat, and Liu Bei was able to escape smoothly. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were known as "ten thousand enemies", and this time Zhang Fei completed the task of breaking the rear with only twenty people, which can be described as a body of courage, without him, Liu Bei may not be able to escape from the siege. After the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei lent Zhang Fei to Zhou Yu to attack Nan Commandery (南郡), and after a year of siege, the Nan Commandery defender Cao Ren (曹仁) fled. After Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou, he appointed Zhang Fei as the general of Yidu Taishou (宜都太守) and Zhengyu (征虏), and was given the title of Marquis of Xinting (新亭侯), which he later transferred to Nan Commandery (南郡). Zhang Fei relied on the river water to block the bridge to stop the enemy, and covered the retreat of the troops according to the water and the broken bridge, which showed that Zhang Fei was brave and good at fighting.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is recorded that flying according to the water and breaking the bridge, the blind spear said: "As Zhang Yideye, you can come to the death together!" "No one dares to come near the enemy, so he is spared."
5. Interpretation of Yan Yan
In 213 (the eighteenth year of Jian'an), Liu Bei broke with Liu Zhang, and the military master Pang Tongzhong was killed. Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun and other Jingzhou soldiers entered Sichuan for reinforcements. When the army arrived in Jiangzhou, the Defender of Jiangzhou, Yan Yan, did not surrender, Zhang Fei attacked it, occupied Jiangzhou, and captured Yan Yan, Zhang Fei shouted at Yan Yan: "When the army arrives, how can you dare to fight with me without surrendering!" Yan Yan replied, "You have unjustifiably usurped our territory, and we only have the severed head general here, not the surrender general!" Zhang Fei was furious, Ling led down and beheaded, Yan Yan's face did not change color and said loudly: "Beheading is beheading, what anger you send!" Yan Yan's arrogance of refusing to surrender touched Zhang Fei, who released him and introduced him as a guest.
However, through the interpretation of Yan Yan, it shows that Zhang Fei is thick and thin, hides needles in the cotton, is a person who cherishes love and righteousness, the so-called hero cherishes heroes, and he pays more attention to Yan Yan's character and personality.
6. The Great Break
In 215, Cao Cao returned to his division due to a rebellion in the rear, leaving Xiahou Yuan to guard Hanzhong on the one hand, and Zhang Gao to invade Brazil on the other hand. Historically, Zhang Gao's army marched to Yanqu (present-day northeast of Quxian County, Sichuan), Mengtou, and Dangshi (present-day Mengshan, Quxian County, Sichuan), and was more than 50 days away from Zhang Feijun, regardless of victory or defeat. Zhang Feisui led more than 10,000 elite troops, avoided the front, and unexpectedly attacked Zhang Guo's army by other provinces, luring Zhang Gao into battle, causing him to fall into a narrow mountain road, and could not save each other, resulting in a fiasco, that is, annihilation. Zhang Gao discarded his warhorse and led only more than a dozen of his men to escape from the mountain trail, leading the remnants back to Southern Zheng. This victory strategically thwarted Cao Cao's plot to enter Bashu, consolidated the "Three Bas", and made it possible for Liu to take advantage of the situation to capture Hanzhong and realize the strategic concept of occupying bashu and the world. Zhang Fei's contribution to the cause of Shu Han was great.
Zhang Gao was one of the "Five Sons of Liang", who made great contributions to Cao Cao, and his ability was beyond doubt in the Battles of Guandu, Guanzhong, and Jieting. Zhang Fei was able to defeat him, indicating that Zhang Fei's military attainment was already at the first-class level, not only courageous, but also strategic.
7. Character defects
According to the description in the history books, although Zhang Fei in history had the advantages of respecting the wise and admiring the gentleman, he also had a weak personality, that is, a bad temper. Originally, as a brave general, it is not surprising that he has gone through twists and turns, and his personality is impatient and even a little irritable; but after decades of galloping on the battlefield, he has been born into death with his soldiers and brothers, and he should at least know the minimum truth of being kind to his subordinates. However, Zhang Fei did not understand this, and was extremely rude to the soldiers, either beating or scolding. This is also a fatal weakness of his. Liu Bei also warned Zhang Fei many times: "Qing's punishment and killing are too bad, and they are also flogging Jian Er day by day, and Ling is at his left and right, and this way of taking trouble is also." But Zhang Fei was still the same as me, and he still took his subordinates out of anger at every turn, which of course aroused the dissatisfaction and even revenge of some subordinates. Sure enough, in June, just as he was preparing to send troops from Langzhong to Jiangzhou to join Liu Bei and fight against Eastern Wu, he was killed by his subordinates Zhang Da and Fan Jiang, who were waiting for him to get drunk. It is certainly deplorable that a generation of tiger generals, whose ambitions were not rewarded, actually died of death. Judging from the achievements of Zhang Fei in history, it is definitely not the reckless and brave general in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".