In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an in 219 AD, Guan Yu went on a solo northern expedition in an attempt to expel Cao Cao's forces from the southern county of Jingzhou. His opponents were Cao Ren and a group of old and weak soldiers under him, as well as Yu Ban and Pang De, who were stationed north of Fancheng.
This is August with continuous autumn rain, and it is also the second month of Liu Bei's reign. The water level of the Han River suddenly increased, and Guan Yu took the opportunity to drain the Han Water outside the walls of Fancheng, and this move almost broke Fancheng.
However, even a hero cannot avoid the fate of coming to an end.
Yu Ban's seven armies were defeated in this battle, and they could only surrender to Guan Yu in the end; Pound held on to the small high ground and fought to the death, but was eventually captured and killed.
Guan Yu took advantage of the victory to pursue, besieged Fancheng and besieged Xiangyang, a battle that made him famous.
In the face of such a situation, Cao Cao hurriedly mobilized elite troops to relieve the siege, and then dispatched Zhang Liao and other armies to help in the battle, and personally commanded it, but he was still worried, and even had the idea of moving away from Xu Du to avoid Guan Yu's momentum.
Xu Huang broke the siege, and Guan Yu was in trouble. It turned out that Xu Huang didn't really want to siege Toutun, his target was actually Sizuntun. After hearing the news, Guan Yu hurriedly brought troops to help, but was ultimately defeated.
During this period, Sun Quan suddenly attacked, and Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes to attack Jiangling, which cut off Guan Yu's back road. Guan Yu had no choice but to withdraw his troops, but on the way back, he did not dare to pass through their defenses because of discord with Meng Da and Liu Feng.
Eventually, he ventured in the direction of Maicheng and was intercepted by Pan Zhang's general Ma Zhong at Linfu, where he was captured and died. Guan Yu's early life was full of drama, and it is deeply regrettable that his heroic career ended in tragedy.
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Guan Yu", Guan Yu's early life has not been recorded in detail, only that he is known as Changsheng, formerly known as Changsheng, is a good man in Hedong, and fled to Zhuojun for some reason.
The reason for this is not clear to us, but it is speculated by other heroes who had similar experiences that it may be related to government corruption and wars in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Hedong was the hardest hit area of the White Wave Thieves at that time, so Guan Yu's hometown Xie County may also be affected.
What we know is that when Liu Bei recruited soldiers and horses in his hometown of Zhuo County, Guan Yu had already followed him, no matter where Liu Bei went, he would follow, their relationship was very good, they were born and died together, and even slept in the same bed.
Although Liu Bei suffered many setbacks in the early days of his career, he still took Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to his old classmate Gongsun Zhan, and was named Pingyuan Xiang, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei also became Sima of other departments, responsible for managing his subordinates.
However, at this time, Guan Yu was still Liu Bei's deputy, often by his side, and people remembered him for his beautiful long beard and called him "beautiful beard", but he did not have many heroic deeds.
As for whether Guan Yu's descendants had survivors when Shu Han fell, we still don't know yet.
Guan Yu was a famous general of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, but his family is very scarce in the official history.
It is said that in the second year of the surrender of Shu Han, Sima Zhao ordered the relocation of Liu Chan and his sons, the ministers of civil and military affairs, and their children to Luoyang, Kyoto, but no descendants of Guan Yu could be found in this team, which was called migration but was actually under house arrest.
According to the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu had at least two sons, Guan Ping and Guan Xing, and a daughter whom Sun Quan had asked for his son, but they both died young.
Later, Guan Tong succeeded Guan Xing as the middle supervisor of Shu Han, and was later recruited as a son-in-law by the later lord Liu Chan, and the official worshiped the tiger Ben Zhonglang general.
After Guan Tong's death, his brother-in-law Guan Yi succeeded him. It is said that Pang De's son Pang Hui killed Guan Yi's family in order to avenge his father, so Guan Yu is considered to have no descendants.
But many descendants disagreed, in the rap lyrics "The Biography of Hua Guan Suo" during the Ming Dynasty, it was said that Guan Yu's wife was called Hu Dingjin, and she was Guan Yu's son Hua Guan Suo also went to Jingzhou to recognize relatives.
In addition, there is also a "Bao Sanniang Tomb" near the ancient city of Zhaohua in Guangyuan, Sichuan, and the remaining handwriting on the tombstone is "The Tomb of the Han General Suo Wife and Mrs. Guan", which also makes people wonder whether Guan Yu really has no descendants.
Despite this possibility, we lack empirical evidence to prove that the Guan family in Changping Village, Jiezhou, has only one lineage of Guan Yu. Guan Yu's hometown should also have descendants of his brother and nephew.
As for Guan Yu's wife's identity, we still know very little. So, what is the relationship between Guan Yu and Diao Chan?
It is rumored on the Internet that Guan Yu married Lu Bu's widow Diao Chan, and it is said that a Qinglong Yanyue knife and two unidentified female corpses were soiled in Guan Yu's tomb, one of which is suspected to be Diao Chan.
Although these stories are all false, it is not for nothing that later generations will associate Guan Yu and Diao Chan. This is related to an interesting experience of Guan Yu. There is no record of Diao Chan in the official history "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but she has attracted many heroes and heroes to be fascinated by it, so that many people in later generations tried to find out her true face.
There are indeed some characters suspected of being Diao Chan in each ** material, including Wang Yun's courtesan, Dong Zhuo's maidservant, Lu Bu's wife and Qin Yilu's wife.
It is said that Qin Yilu's wife is very attractive, and Guan Yu once asked Cao Cao to marry her, but Cao Cao "kept her for himself".
This story was later annexed to the story of the Yuanren miscellaneous drama "Guan Gong Cutting Diao Chan under the Moon". Therefore, although Guan Yu did not marry Diao Chan as his wife, people's good wishes for heroes and beauties made Diao Chan a legendary character who was married to Guan Yu.
At the same time, it also reflects people's attention to the anecdotes of the competition between Guan Yu and Cao Cao.
According to "Shu Ji" and "Huayang National Chronicles", Guan Yu and Cao Cao had a competition for beauty, but this did not affect Guan Yu's later image of loyalty. Whether Guan Yu will turn his face with Cao Cao for a beauty is still unknown.
Although Liu Bei and Cao Cao had a close relationship, because Liu Bei participated in Dong Cheng's "Cloth and Belt Edict" incident, Cao Cao led an army to attack Liu Bei, Liu Bei recaptured Xuzhou, and Liu Bei and Guan Yu also became Cao Cao's prisoners.
Cao Cao did not anger Guan Yu because of Liu Bei's rebellion, but worshiped him as a partial general and treated Guan Yu with courtesy. Soon after, Guan Yu also returned to Cao Cao, assassinating Yan Liang in Yuan Shao's army and bringing back his head, much to Cao Cao's admiration.
Cao Cao knew that Guan Yu did not intend to stay in Cao Ying for a long time, so he rewarded him more generously, but Guan Yu still decided to go to Yuan Ying to meet Liu Bei. Despite Guan Yu's risky actions, he decided to meet Liu Bei, which showed his extraordinary courage.
Cao Cao sent Cai Yang to attack Gong Du and others, the Runan thieves who were united with Liu Bei, not to hunt down Guan Yu.
Cao Cao's special treatment of Guan Yu showed his appreciation for Guan Yu, and although Guan Yu was later killed, Cao Cao still held a grand funeral for him with the "Princes' Ceremony".
Sun Quan bears some responsibility for Guan Yu's death. There was a lot of discord between Liu Bei and Guan Yu and Sun Quan, and as the decision-maker of Eastern Wu, Sun Quan could have ordered Guan Yu's life to be left in advance.
But in the end, Sun Quan still chose to kill Guan Yu. From Sun Quan's point of view, he has many reasons to kill Guan Yu. There was a gap between Sun Quan and Liu Bei and Guan Yu, and Guan Yu also rejected Sun Quan's family affairs.
On the issue of Jingzhou and Yizhou, Liu Bei acted alone many times, and the relationship between the two sides became increasingly tense. In short, before Guan Yu besieged Xiangfan, the Sun-Liu alliance actually existed in name only.
However, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and other key figures in the Shu Han group all misjudged Sun Quan's intentions and were overconfident that Sun Quan's primary target was Cao Cao. However, Sun Quan had already changed his mind, and he planned to plot against Shu Han and make things desperate.
Therefore, the name Guan Yu will definitely die.
Guan Yu's battle made Cao Cao withdraw from Xu County in a hurry, could Sun Quan not panic? Compared with Cao Cao, Sun Quan's panic was even worse. If Guan Yu captures Xiangfan, Liu Bei's financial and manpower in Shu is sufficient, will he go straight down the river and destroy Sun Quan in one go?
Jingzhou was much more important to Eastern Wu than Shu Han. At such a tense moment, Sun Quan proposed to marry Guan Yu, apparently in order to win over Guan Yu. But is Guan Yu really arrogant enough not to take Sun Quan in his eyes?
He even scolded Sun Quan's son as a "dog", saying "how can a tiger girl match a dog", comparing himself to a tiger and Sun Quan to a dog. You must know that the Sun-Liu alliance had not broken down at that time, even if Guan Yu didn't know much about politics, would this make the Sun-Liu alliance collapse?
This may be the time when Sun Quan needs his help.
February** Dynamic Incentive Plan Of course, Guan Yu has many arrogant and arrogant performances in the history books, such as writing to Zhuge Liang to ask about Ma Chao's martial arts talent, seeing Zhuge Liang reply that Ma Chao is inferior to him, Guan Yu is very happy to hand over the letter to the guests and staff to circulate; Another example is that in "The Chronicles of Liu Xian", it is said that Guan Yu is listed with Huang Zhong, and so on, but this is not enough to show that Guan Yu offended Sun Quan without thinking.
If we look at this problem from another angle, Sun Quan tested Shu Han's intentions in the name of marriage, and Guan Yu's reaction just gave Sun Quan a hint that after Shu Han captured Xiangfan, the next target of action may be Jiangdong.
Prior to this, Liu Bei had repeatedly wanted to expand his territory on the Jingzhou issue, so it was possible that Sun Quan would act first to attack Shu Han. If Guan Yu's performance in the siege of Xiangfan was not so good, Sun Quan might have to think about it carefully, but Guan Yu's ability to fight on the water made Sun Quan feel a great sense of crisis.
What are Sun Quan's strengths? It's a powerful water army, but it's no longer an advantage. Guan Yu has already shocked Huaxia, and he will inevitably be able to shock Jiangdong. Sun Quan took precautions, in fact, killing Guan Yu didn't need to think too much.
Unfortunately, Guan Yu received a "surrender table" from Cao Jun that Sun Quan surrendered to Cao Cao, but he ignored it and did not expect Mi Fang and Fu Shiren to surrender.