Restore the real Zhao Yun - a life ended in failure

Zhao Yun, styled Zilong, was born in Zhending, Changshan. According to history, he was "eight feet in length and majestic in appearance", which was a standard Hebei man. Nowadays, many people, influenced by romance and games, tend to regard Zhao Yun as the representative of both civil and martial arts. However, the real Zhao Yun in history is not so much the combination of intelligence and courage, as the fact that he was superior in martial arts but could not command a large army. If he is compared with the generals of his time, he should be similar to Dian Wei and Xu Zhuhai.

When Zhao Yun first came out of the mountains, he could choose two forces, one was Yuan Shao, and the other was Gongsun Zan. Probably considering that he had no prominent background, and Yuan Shao's good generals were like clouds, it would be difficult to be used, so he led some local volunteers to join Gongsun Zan. Of course, the history books borrow his conversation with Gongsun Zan and his choice of Gongsun Zan's motives for the full beautification. (Yun replied, "You don't know which is the Chinese road. The people are all over the country. To deal with the battle against China, it's a battle against benevolence, not against General Yuan." )

After following Gongsun Zan for several years, Zhao Yun finally met a real man with great talent and strategy -- Liu Bei. At that time, Liu Bei, who was living in Gongsun Zan, was short of a major general, and Zhao Yun was very polite to Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun also saw Liu Bei as a man of great success, and they soon fell in love. Before long, Zhao Yun left Gongsun Zan on the pretext of his brother's death. Before he left, he promised Liu Bei that he would never take back morality. Sure enough, soon after Liu Bei's transfer to Yuan Shao, Zhao Yun joined Liu Bei in Ye. To gain Zhao Yun's loyalty, Liu Bei used his best method to "sleep in the same bed" with Zhao Yun, to show his unconditional trust in him. Zhao Yun, who was so favored by Liu Bei, was naturally loyal to Liu Bei. At that time, he secretly recruited hundreds of men under Liu Bei's secret orders. Although historical records do not record the purpose of recruiting these men, it is reasonable to assume that these men existed as Liu Bei's secret guard, so Zhao Yun, as the commander of this force, should have acted as something like Liu Bei's chief of guard.

Then Zhao Yun followed Liu Bei as far as Jingzhou. During this period, he did not make any contribution, because not only the history of his activities in this period is missing, and the most important evidence is that Zhao Yun has not been granted an official post. Then came the most brilliant place in Zhao Yun's life - Dangyang Changban. Being pursued by Cao Cao's elite cavalry all night long, Liu Bei was defeated at Changban. He abandoned his wife and son and fled along with several of his men. The history carries Zhao Yun at this time embracing hind advocate Liu Chan, still protecting Liu Chan's mother Mrs. Gan at the same time, taking them safely out of the war zone in a mess, and with this credit by a seal for tooth door general. This experience is a very important part of Zhao Yun's research, and there is much to discuss. First, when Liu Bei fled at the beginning, key officials such as Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and so on were around, but Zhao Yun was with Liu Chan and his son together, so, his position in Liu Bei's group can play a question mark; Secondly, the record that Zhao Yun was granted an official post only then appeared in the history books, and it was also a very low Yamen general, which further confirmed the conclusion that Zhao Yun had been following Liu Bei for many years, but it was always without merit. And if according to the author's assumption in the previous article, Zhao Yun is based on the identity of the commander of the guard in the Liu Bei Group, then, the above two can have a more satisfactory explanation. It is because of the special identity of Zhao Yun's guard commander, he will stay in the rear in the battle of Changban responsible for the protection of the family, thereby able to protect Liu Chan's mother and son, and Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei should be as a base camp members to meet the enemy together with Liu Bei, and then flee together. As a commander of the guard, it is not as easy as a general in battle to get credit and receive awards, so, normally, Zhao Yun did not have an official post for many years.

Then, the next problem is placed in front of us, why for a long time Liu Bei only used Zhao Yun as a police commander, instead of letting him fight to kill the enemy. Given Liu Bei's ability to employ people, he did not deign to do anything, which should be able to illustrate two points. First, Liu and Zhao had a close relationship. It was because he trusted Zhao Yun that Liu Bei was entrusted with the position of personal guard. Second, Liu Bei thought that Zhao Yun was better at fighting than leading troops, so he did not allow him to lead troops.

After Changban, the book switches directly to Liu Bei's entry into Shu, while Zhao Yun is left in Jingzhou. There is no mention of Zhao Yun's performance in the Battle of Red Cliff or the subsequent Jingzhou Strategy War. However, in the biography of Zhao Yun quoted by Pei Zhu, it is recorded that Zhao Yun was awarded the title of general after the Jingzhou Offensive and led the governor of Guiyang. When Liu Bei entered Shu, he served as the chief of the garrison and later "crossed the river to intercept Abdou" together with Zhang Fei. However, this biography is not rigorous in terms of historical materials, and most of the stories recorded are related to Zhao Yun, whose authenticity remains to be discussed. Although THERE ARE SEVERAL REFERENCES FROM OTHER BIOGRAPHIES CONCERNING ZHAO YUN'S ACHIEVEMENTS, official TITLES, and other important events, we still follow the book.

Liu Bei met with strong resistance in his offensive in Shu and suffered heavy losses. He was in a dilemma and had to call on Zhuge Liang to lead Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun as reinforcements. At this time, Zhao Yun's position in Liu Bei's group had changed from a simple personal guard to a combat general. At first glance, this contradicts the previous point in the article, but it is not. On the one hand, at this time, Liu Bei has his territory, no longer like before when the need to guard against the hidden harm of others; On the other hand, after the war of Chibi, Liu Bei's power expanded rapidly, but the number of old soldiers around him was too small, and the newly affiliated people in Jingzhou were not assured to give them military power. In contrast, Zhao Yun's loyalty is unquestionable, and even if he cannot unify troops, his martial prowess is always a significant factor in the outcome of the battle. Therefore, in most cases, Zhao Yun was either in reserve or under the command of others. Taking the invasion of Shu as an example, Zhao Yun first "went up Jiangxi" under the leadership of Zhuge Liang, and then led the troops "from Jiangyang on the water to meet Liang in Chengdu". He avoided the head-to-head confrontation with Liu Zhang's main force and never fought Liu Zhang's army alone. After the conquest of Shu, Zhao Yun won the title of general of the army for his efforts in supporting the troops.

After that, there is no record of Zhao Yun in this book for a long time. However, in the other biography of Zhao Yun, it is recorded that Zhao Yun fought with Huang Zhong in the battle of Hanzhong, and Zhao Yun was left in Jiangzhou to support Liu Bei when Liu Bei was attacking Wu in the east. According to the historical data alone, it is doubtful that Zhao Yun, when he met Cao Cao's army in Hanzhong, scared Cao Cao with an "empty city" when the camp was surrounded. It is more likely that Liu Bei was left in Jiangzhou by him because he remonstrated with him before Wei and then Wu.

Jianxing's first year, Liu Chan ascended the throne after the big line of awards, Zhao Yun by the title of the army, the South general, Yongchang Pavilion Hou, and was soon promoted to the town of the east general. These awards should be closely related to Zhao Yun's position in the Shuhan Group at that time. The power of the Shu-Han regime was distributed among the original Congquan Group, Jingzhou Group, and Yizhou Group. After Liu Bei's death, Zhao Yun was the only senior figure left in the group, and after the new emperor ascended the throne, it was common sense to reward the representatives of the three groups to calm the people.

The representative figure of the original group, Zhao Yun special status that brought him honor and status but also meant that he had to be involved in the complex political struggle. The military system of Shu Han was divided into an internal army and an external army. The internal army was commanded by the emperor himself and was controlled by Zhuge Liang during the Jianxing period. The foreign army was the product of the capital governor system implemented by Liu Bei, and its representatives were Wei Yan in Hanzhong and Li Yan in Yongan. Although Zhao Yun was the general of the town East, he did not belong to the foreign army, which is the best evidence. Of course, as has been argued in this paper, Zhao Yun himself could not organize troops, so he would not be given an important position as governor. Therefore, Zhao Yun should belong to the internal army. This also conforms to the "FIVE years, with Zhuge Liang stationed in Hanzhong" recorded in this book, that is, with Zhuge Liang, the general of the northern expedition. It was this expedition that marked Zhao Yun's overall defeat in the internal power struggle and also meant the end of his political life.

In the sixth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang made an expedition to the north. Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi led his troops out of Jigu to attract Cao Zhen's main force, and he led his army to attack Qishan. Zhao Yun, who shouldered the important task, was defeated in the battle against Cao Zhen and was forced to stand firm until the end of the battle. After returning to Chengdu, therefore had been demoted to the town army general, until the death of Jianxing seven years, no promotion. This experience is deceptively simple, but there is much to be said about it. The most important point is that this is the first time in the book that Zhao Yun alone led the army to fight against the enemy army, and the responsibility is quite significant. As a partial division, the purpose is to deal with the Cao army, delay its time to the main battlefield as far as possible, and even cooperate with the main force to attack the enemy before and after, its significance can not be underestimated. It IS SUCH A KEY POSITION, BUT ZHUGE LIANG was JUST ASSIGNED TO a LACK OF experience AND ABILITY TO ORGANIZE TROOPS ZHAO YUN, THIS strategic MISTAKE, NOT UNDER THE misuse OF MA SU.

ZHUGE LIANG'S PERFORMANCE IN THE FIRST NORTHERN EXPEDITION is worth DISCUSSING a lot, but it is not in the scope of this article, put aside for now. The DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF THE NORTHERN EXPEDITION WAS THAT THE NEW JING ZHOU GROUP, REPRESENTED BY ZHUGE LIANG AND COMBINING THE PEOPLE FROM JingZHOU AND THE NEW PEOPLE FROM YINZHOU, CAME TO THE TOP IN THE POWER STRUCTURE OF SHU HAN, WHILE THE FORMER GROUP AND THE FORMER YINZHOU GROUP gradually DECLINED. Especially from the original group, the only elder Zhao Yun from then on, ill and died before long, the original group of hard work and high achievements also disappear at this point.

Although Zhao Yun was almost at the end the identity of a political failure who died of illness, he followed Liu Bei for many years, after all, the so-called no credit also has hard work, plus once in the chaos of the army to save Liu Chan, the element for the Lord of Thanksgiving. So many years after his death, in March of the fourth year of Jingyao before the fall of Shu Han, Liu Chan finally issued an order to posit him the title of Marquis Shunping. This is reflected in the edict of Liu Chan recorded in Zhao Yun's other biography: "Yun Xixian was the first emperor, and his achievements were accomplished. I am young, involved in difficulties, rely on loyalty, and aid in danger. Fu posthumous name so Syria Yuanxun also, discuss cloud appropriate posthumous name." Regardless of the authenticity of the imperial edict, the reasons for Zhao Yun's posthumous title will not be too much deviation. Look at Zhao Yun received the posthumous title and can roughly understand the conclusion of his so-called cover coffin: "soft Xian Cihui Yue shun, deacons have class Yue ping, Keding disaster Yue ping". In other words, Zhao Yun won this award by not mainly war achievements. It is also because of the meritorious deeds that he will become the last group of Shu Han to be awarded the title of resident general.