Cao Wei had five generals who were good at playing forwards, that is, the five good generals who were talked about, namely Zhang Liao, Le Jin, Yu Ban, Xu Huang and Zhang He, all of whom were good at fighting and had outstanding achievements. However, among the five good generals, only Yu Ban left the stain of surrender. He surrendered Guan Yu in one battle, but was subsequently captured by Eastern Wu and eventually repatriated to Cao Wei. This stain not only ruined his reputation, but also led to his tragic end. In the end, Cao Pi killed people and took his life.
It stands to reason that it is normal for a military general to surrender on the battlefield, and it is not a big deal, besides, after Yu Ban surrendered, he did not do anything to damage Cao Wei, why can't he be tolerated?
The root cause of everything came from the heavy rain that had been falling for more than ten days, which not only extinguished Cao Cao's dream of dominating the world, but also changed Yu Ban's fate.
In 219 AD, there was still a year before Cao Cao's death. In this year, Cao Cao was still eager to unify the world, so he sent Yu Ban to lead seven armies to reinforce Cao Ren in Fancheng, intending to seize the strategic Jingzhou to the south. At this time, it was Guan Yu, the general of Shu Han, who was sitting in Jingzhou, and it must be a tough battle next. But the weather is not beautiful, in the autumn, it rained for more than ten days in a row, and the Han water swelled, almost overflowing. Guan Yu seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and directly came to a desperate embankment to release water, so that the flood instantly arrived in Fancheng, and drowned many soldiers, and Yu Ban's Seventh Army suffered heavy losses.
At this time, Fancheng became a water city, and the flood was several zhang deep, so Yu Ban had no choice but to lead the remnants of the defeated army to avoid the water at a high place. Next, Guan Yu sent a naval army to besiege Yu Ban, and under the greeting of ten thousand arrows, Yu Ban actually surrendered to Guan Yu.
When Cao Cao learned the news of Yu Ban's surrender, he was very disappointed and said: "I have worked with Yu Ban for more than 30 years, but I didn't expect that at a critical moment, he was not as good as Pang De." "Let me say here that Pang De was born as a military general in the Xiliang system, and he surrendered from Ma Chao, and he is at most a second-rate military general in Cao Ying, who is a famous general. As a general, Pang De fought Guan Yu to the end and was finally captured. However, he swore not to surrender and was killed by Guan Yu.
Yu Ban is different, he is Cao Cao's confidant and favorite general, in the sequence of the five good generals, Yu Ban is the only military general who was given a fake festival by Cao Cao. The power of the fake festival is very great, and he does not have to report to Cao Cao to deal with urgent matters, which shows how much Cao Cao trusts him. Yu Ban's surrender failed Cao Cao, and then compared with Pang De, it could only be a complete disappointment. Cao Cao was disappointed in him, what kind of good face can Cao Pi have for him.
There is also an important point, Yu Ban made Cao Cao lose face. Cao Wei occupied the entire north and was the strongest and most powerful party in the Three Kingdoms. However, when attacking the weaker side, the generals raised their hands and surrendered, which made Cao Cao lose face, seriously hit Cao Wei's morale, and there was no hope of dominating the world.
It has happened many times in history to humiliate one's monarch because of the surrender incident. For example, during the unification war of King Qin, there was a military general named Fan Yuzhi who surrendered to other countries, which made King Qin very embarrassed, and the angry King of Qin had itchy teeth, and he wanted to kill Fan Yuzhi by all means. You must know that the army of the Qin State at that time was all falling apart, and it was like a bamboo to fight anywhere. Once someone surrenders, they break the myth of their own invincibility, and such an outcome is difficult for the monarch to accept, and he feels like he has lost face.
It can be said that from the moment Yu Ban surrendered, the Cao Wei group had abandoned him. Two years later, Yu Ban was sent back to China by Sun Quan. For this tainted general, although Cao Pi had the intention to kill him, he was afraid that this move would chill the hearts of the soldiers, so he chose a more heart-wrenching way to treat him.
Cao Pi asked people to draw a few pictures in Cao Cao's cemetery in advance, one painted a picture of Guan Yu's attack, one painted Pang De's anger, and the other was a picture of Yu Ban's surrender, and then asked Yu Ban to go to the cemetery to pay tribute to Cao Cao. When Yu ** got to those pictures, he was ashamed and angry, and soon he died of depression.