During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's bravery and loyalty were so admired by the people that later monarchs vied to crown him as Emperor Wu. This image has always been Guan Yu's brand logo and is respected by the world.
However, as the saying goes, no one is good for a thousand days, and no flower is red for a hundred days, and Guan Yu has also experienced difficult times. So, why did Guan Yu experience a low point in his life?
When Jingzhou was in crisis that year, why didn't Liu Feng, who was very close to him, lend a hand?
Let's take a historical question: why didn't Liu Bei hold his eldest son Liu Feng responsible? Which sentence of Zhuge Liang was just 11 words, but it made Liu Bei kill the killer and directly kill Liu Feng?
Today, we will delve into the background of Guan Yu's killing and its deep-seated reasons. Guan Yu's bravery and Cao Cao's jealousy made the relationship between Liu Guan and Zhang the foundation of Liu Bei's group, which also decided that Liu Bei left Guan Yu in Jingzhou and entrusted his net worth and life to this righteous brother.
Because no matter how Liu Bei develops in Shu, Jingzhou is their foundation.
The difficulty lies in the fact that Jingzhou was actually borrowed by Liu Bei from others using the moral pressure of his family, and in fact Liu Bei only had the right to use it, not the ownership. This means that once Jingzhou is lost, Liu Bei's logistics in Shu will also be lost, which is very important for Liu Bei at that time.
At the same time that Liu Bei succeeded in capturing Hanzhong, Guan Yu also made a difference in Jingzhou. He led his army to besiege Xiangyang and Fancheng, attracting Cao Cao's generals to come to the rescue.
Yu Ban and Lu Chang in the city formed a situation of internal and external echoes. The god of fate favored Guan Yu, and at this time, it rained heavily, and the torrent swept away Yu Ban's reinforcements, which was the famous flooded Seventh Army in history.
Yu Ban was captured, and Pound was also killed in the later rescue. In the 24th year of Jian'an, in response to the great victory in Hanzhong, Guan Yu assigned generals to stay in Jiangling and Gong'an, and he led the army to besiege Cao Ren's Fancheng and Xiangfan.
Due to Yu Ban's poor decision-making, his team was stationed in the low-lying area of August, which laid the groundwork for the disaster that followed. Some speculate that Guan Yu built a dam to store the flood water and flood the Cao army's camp, but in fact, the environment at that time was enough for Guan Yu to use the terrain to directly destroy the Cao army without such effort.
Cao Cao received the battle report from the front and lost two generals, which made him very angry, so he personally led the army to Jingzhou. For this situation, Guan Yu felt very entangled.
Because the Shu army was in the limelight at that time, it was completely possible to take Xiangfan in one go. But seeing Cao Cao's army overwhelmed, he began to consider using reserves.
Guan Yu knew nothing about Cao Cao and Sun Quan's conspiracy, but they had formed an alliance with the intention of joining forces to destroy him. On the one hand, Sun Quan was threatened by Cao Cao, and on the other hand, he was also jealous of Guan Yu because of his bravery.
At the same time, Sun Quan was also anxious to find back Jingzhou, which he had previously lent to Liu Bei. In this context, Sun Quan began to deceive Guan Yu with lies, sending Lu Xun to show weakness to Guan Yu, claiming that the Sun and Liu families were still allies, allowing Guan Yu to concentrate on dealing with Cao Cao.
In order to win at Xiangfan, Guan Yu withdrew the defenders of Jiangling, leaving Jingzhou empty. The Wu army took the opportunity to capture Jiangling and Gong'an, and cut off the material ** line from Jingzhou to Hanzhong.
Guan Yu was bent on capturing Xiangyang, but he did not know that the base area had been captured by Eastern Wu. His army was routed and had nowhere to go. At this time, he realized that Jingzhou had been recovered by Eastern Wu and had no support.
He decided to take the road to Maicheng and rest and fight again. However, the Shu army had no fighting spirit and fled in all directions. Poor Guan Yu's father and son were captured and died in Huangquan. In fact, Liu Feng and Meng Da were stationed in Shangyong, only three hundred miles away from Jiangling.
If Liu Feng had rescued at that time, Jingzhou might not have been lost, and Guan Yu might have escaped his fate.
When attacking Xiangyang, Guan Yu had already sent a request for assistance to Liu Feng. Later, when Xiangyang was besieged and the battle situation was tense, Guan Yu once again urged Liu Feng to send troops to help, but Liu Feng never responded, and the situation seemed very strange.
From a modern point of view, the reason for Liu Feng's reluctance to send troops is understandable. First of all, Liu Feng is not Liu Bei's biological son, his original name is Kou Feng, because his mother died early, he grew up with his uncle since he was a child.
Kou Feng's uncle was a local gentleman of high status and had a close relationship with Liu Bei. Liu Bei had no son, and Kou Feng's uncle saw this and suggested that Liu Bei accept Kou Feng as his son.
Liu Bei was attracted by Kou Feng's upright appearance and strong martial arts, so he decided to adopt Kou Feng as his righteous son and renamed Liu Feng. Since then, Liu Feng has been following Liu Bei, working together and establishing many achievements.
Liu Bei made the development of Hanzhong a strategic priority, leaving Liu Feng to garrison Shangyong to provide support to Guan Yu. However, Guan Yu made it clear after Liu Chan's birth that Liu Feng was only a righteous son and could not be an heir, which made Liu Feng dissatisfied with Guan Yu.
Therefore, when Guan Yu was in trouble, Liu Feng did not lend a hand, which is understandable. However, the problem is not so simple. Liu Feng had great achievements on the battlefield, had a violent personality, and had his own views on Liu Bei's succession.
He believed that he had the greatest credit, while Liu Chan was too young to take on the big responsibility.
Under such psychological pressure, Liu Feng not only did not respond to Guan Yu's urgent request for help, but rejected Guan Yu's request on the grounds that the situation was unstable. Liu Feng's refusal to save Guan Yu caused Liu Bei's great dissatisfaction, which made Liu Bei's dissatisfaction with Liu Feng increasingly intensified.
Later, Liu Feng lost Shangyong and returned to Hanzhong in embarrassment, where he was severely reprimanded by Liu Bei, after all, Guan Yu was Liu Bei's sworn brother. However, Liu Bei did not take further measures at this time.
Later, Zhuge Liang returned to the court and discussed with Liu Bei how to deal with Liu Feng. Seeing that Liu Bei was still thinking about the father-son relationship with Liu Feng, Zhuge Liang said softly: "Liu Feng has a strong personality, and I am worried that it will be difficult to control in the future." ”
Liu Feng was too conceited and had a strong personality, and Liu Bei thought that he would be difficult to control in the future, so he gave him suicide. Looking back on history, I can't help but sigh at Liu Feng's decision-making mistakes, if he can assist Guan Yu, even if he is defeated in the end, he will not die.