According to the official history, as a general who can fight on the bloody battlefield, Zhang Liao was the first person in the Cao Wei camp. The annals of the Three Kingdoms lists Zhang Liao as the first of the five generals of the Wei Dynasty. Wang Xin more praised: “there are many famous generals in Cao and Wei, and Zhang Liao is the first.”
Zhang Liao (169-222 years), with the word Wenyuan, was born in Mayi County, Yanmen (now Shuozhou, Shanxi Province).
The biography of Zhang Liao in the annals of the Three Kingdoms once mentioned that Zhang Liao “changed his surname after Ben Nie Yi to avoid resentment”. Nie Yi, the ancestor of Zhang Liao, was the initiator of the famous “Mayi plan” during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. According to historical records, in the first year of Yuanguang of the Western Han Dynasty (134 BC), Nie Yi, a Haoshang in the area of Mayi, Yanmen, was familiar with the Huns and worried about the border of the Western Han Dynasty. He suggested to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty through people that after the marriage, the Han Dynasty had won the trust of the Huns, and as long as he was lured to benefit, he would be able to defeat them. So Nie Yi was ordered to use himself as bait, kiss the Hun camp, and pretend to surrender to the then military minister Shan Yu. He even claimed that he could kill the Mayi county magistrate, force Mayi to surrender, and then get all the property of the city. Believing his words and being greedy for his interests, he immediately planned to start the war. After Nie Yi returned to the Han Dynasty, he falsely called the head of Ma Yi’s chief official as the head of a criminal, to show that the time had come to lure the Hun army into important areas.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent five generals with a total of 300000 horses and horses to ambush in Mayi. These five generals are general Li Guangxiao, the guard, general he Qingche, the grand servant, General Wang huitun, General Li Xicai, the doctor of Taizhong, and General Han Anguo, the doctor of the imperial historian. All leaders belong to Han Anguo, and they agreed to attack vertically when Shan Yu entered Mayi.
The plan was going smoothly. When Chen Liaodan came to Zuoyun, he found that there were only livestock and no one between the cities and fields, so he became suspicious. He sent troops to capture a blockhouse and captured a Wei Shi. Wei Shi exposed the truth that more than 300000 Han troops had been ambushed near Mayi for a long time. Shan Yu, who learned of the plot, withdrew with great surprise, and the ambush of Han troops was useless. “Ma Yi’s plan” also ended in failure. Nie Yi’s devotion to the weeds not only made no contribution, but also became a suspect of both Han and Hungary. In order to avoid disaster, he changed his surname to “Zhang”.
Three hundred years later, a boy from the old Zhang family was born, and he was Zhang Liao. When Zhang Liao was young, he used to be a county official. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, because of his superior force, Ding Yuan, the governor of Bingzhou, was called to work and sent him to the capital. Later, he Jin was sent by the general He Jin to Hebei to recruit troops. When Zhang Liao came back, he Jin’s forces had been eliminated in 189. So he belonged to Dong Zhuo again. Later, Dong Zhuo was defeated, and Zhang Liao and his soldiers belonged to Lv Bu as a cavalry captain. In 198, after Lu Bu was defeated by Cao Cao in xiapi, Zhang Liao led his troops to surrender, was worshipped as Zhonglang general, granted marquis in the customs, and served as Lu Xiang. Later, he was promoted to general PI for his meritorious service.
After Zhang Liao surrendered to Cao Cao, he followed Cao Cao to fight north and south, fought against Yuan Shao, leveled Hebei, conquered Jingzhou, and fought Sun Quan. He made many war achievements, and was called the five good generals of Cao Cao Cao together with Cao Ren, Xia Houyuan, Zhang Ying, and Xu Huang. After Cao Cao exterminated Yuan Shao’s forces, he sent Zhang Liao to govern the counties of the state of Lu, followed Xia Houyuan to exterminate Chang Chen in the East China Sea, and successfully persuaded him to surrender. Later, he went to Liyang with Cao Cao to exterminate Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang allied forces, and was promoted to the backbone general because of his military achievements.
Cao Cao returned, ordered Zhang Liao and le to attack yin’an, and then attacked ye with Cao Cao. It also captured the state of Zhao and Changshan. In 205, Cao Cao successfully exterminated Yuan Tan, captured the seashore, and defeated the thief soldiers in Liaodong. When Zhang Liao brought troops back to Ye City, Cao Cao met Zhang Liao personally, carried a car with Zhang Liao, and sealed Zhang Liao as a general of Dangkou.
Then Zhang Liao led his army to attack Jingzhou, pacified the counties in Jiangxia, stationed troops in Linying, and was granted the title of duting Hou. In 207, Yuan Shang, who accompanied Cao Cao to attack Liucheng, met Wu Huan army on the way. Zhang Liao worked hard and persuaded Cao Cao to go to war immediately. Cao Cao strengthened his behavior and personally awarded Zhang Liao the flag he held. Liao then led the army to attack, smashed the enemy soldiers, and killed Shan Yu in front of the battle.
At that time, Jingzhou was not yet stable, and then when Zhang Liao was still stationed in Jingzhou, there was a sudden rebellion in the army, and the whole army was in chaos in the middle of the night. At this time, Zhang Liao Gu said to the left and right, “don’t disturb. This must not be the whole camp’s rebellion. It must be the person who caused the rebellion and wanted to confuse others.” So the army was ordered to sit still as long as it was not the rebels. Zhang Liao led dozens of his own soldiers to stand in the array. Soon the riot subsided, and the army immediately captured and killed the mastermind, completely calming the situation.
At that time, Lu Jiang people Chen Lan and Mei Cheng occupied Di and other six counties as rebels, so Cao Cao sent Yu Jin, Zang Ba and others to denounce Mei Cheng, and ordered Zhang Liao governor to lead Zhang Ying, niugai and others to denounce Chen Lan. At that time, Mei Cheng pretended to surrender to the ban, and the ban led the army back. Unexpectedly, Mei Cheng took the opportunity to lead the crowd to invest in Chen Lan, and the two camped at Tianzhu Mountain to defend themselves. When Zhang Liao wanted to enter the mountain, all the generals said, “the road of this mountain is dangerous, and it is difficult to go deep into the use of troops.” But Zhang Liao said, “this is the so-called &\8217; one and one, the brave get the front ear ‘(only the brave can move forward).” So they camped at the foot of the mountain, attacked, and finally beheaded Chen Lan and Mei Cheng, and captured all of them. Cao Cao commented on the merits of the generals, saying, “climb the Tianshan Mountain and walk on steep risks to take LAN and Cheng, and the Dang Kou (General Zhang Liao of Dang Kou) also achieved great achievements.”
Zhang Liao is not only good at expedition, but also has a strategic vision. When Cao Cao made an expedition to Yuan Shang in the 12th year of Jian’an, Zhang Liao advised, “Xuchang is now the capital of the world. The son of Heaven (Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty) is living in Xuchang, and you are marching thousands of miles north. If Liu Biao sends Liu Bei to sneak attacks, hijacks the son of heaven and orders the four directions, the situation is dangerous!” Sure enough, after Cao Cao’s Northern Expedition, Liu Bei immediately proposed to Liu Biao to attack Xu, but Liu Biao could not use his plan. But in terms of the situation at that time, it was a mistake in Liu Biao and a fluke in Cao Cao. Zhang Liao’s worry was very insightful.
In his more than 20 years of military career, Zhang Liao was invincible in attack and solid in defense. He had considerable courage and wisdom as a general. The most brilliant peak of Zhang Liao’s military career was the battle of Hefei against Sun Quan. In 208, Cao Cao was defeated in the battle of Chibi. He sent more than 7000 people to Hefei led by Zhang Liao, Li Dian and Le Jin, and sent a guard Xue Ti to send a letter to Zhang Liao, signing “the thief is coming”. In August of the 20th year of Jian’an (215), Sun Quan, the Lord of Wu, personally led 100000 troops to besiege Hefei. There were only 7000 Cao troops stationed in Hefei. There is a wide gap between the two armies. However, at this critical juncture, Cao Cao led his troops to the west again, and was unable to send troops to rescue Hefei for the moment. In such a severe situation, Cao Jun stationed in Hefei is really unlucky. The guards Le Jin and Li Dian looked at each other helplessly. Seeing this, the fierce general Zhang Liao stood up and said, “if Cao Gong is on an expedition today, and if we wait for Cao Gong to send reinforcements to rescue us, even if the reinforcements came, we would have been defeated by Wu Jun long ago. Now the only best policy is to take the initiative to attack when Wu Jun is still on a shaky footing, demoralize him, so as to stabilize the hearts of the people, boost morale, and defend the city. What is the chance of success or failure in this war, do you doubt?”
Li Dian and Zhang Liao have always been estranged. However, at this critical juncture, hearing Zhang Liao’s words, he made an impassioned statement and said, “since the general has made up his mind about this national event and is desperate for his own life, can we give up the general righteousness for our own sake?” Therefore, Zhang Liao recruited 800 people who dared to follow, and suddenly killed the Wu formation at dawn. It was a truce until the middle of the day, causing heavy losses to the Wu army. In this battle, “(Zhang) Liao Peijia held a halberd, first boarded Chen, killed dozens of people, and killed two generals.” Sun Quan was caught off guard, and 100000 troops were forced to retreat to a highland. Later, I saw that there were few soldiers in Zhang and Liao, “but I gathered around Liao and counted them.”. Zhang liaojun rushed left and right. He was too brave to act. At one time, he fought out of the siege with dozens of people. Later, seeing that most of his men were still surrounded, he turned back and rescued his subordinates. Sun Quan’s army “is invincible, and there are no dares”. A big war lasted from early morning to noon, and Sun Quan had no choice but to retreat.
Later Sun Quan “stayed in Hefei for more than ten days, but the city cannot be pulled out, but retired”. When Sun Quan and his generals traveled to the north of Xiaoyao Jinbei, they were just detected by Zhang Liao. The Liao Dynasty led the cavalry to come suddenly. Gan Ning, Lu Meng and other Wu generals fought with the Liao Dynasty, while Ling Tong led his own soldiers to protect his power. When Sun Quan retreated to Xiaoyaojin bridge, he saw that the south of the bridge had been demolished and that there was no plate left. At this critical juncture, Sun Quan came to the supervisor Gu Li in a hurry. After Sun Quan sat on his horse, he whipped fiercely, making Sun Quan fly over the bridge with the help of the galloping horse, and survived. The history of this war called Zhang Liao Wei Zhen Xiaoyaojin, which was a famous example of the battle between Wei and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period.
After this battle, Cao Cao praised Zhang Liao and paid homage to general Dong. In the 21st year of Jian’an, Cao Cao levied Sun Quan again. When the army arrived in Hefei, Cao Cao inspected the place where Zhang and Liao fought in the past and praised it for a long time. Later, Cao Pi, who succeeded to the throne, commented, “in the battle of Hefei, Liao and Dian dynasties used 800 soldiers and 100000 thieves. Since ancient times, they have used troops, which has never been seen.” And praised it for “this is also the call of the tiger in ancient times.” “Seventeen biographies of Liao in the annals of the Three Kingdoms” (Zhao Hu is a general of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty who is as famous as Uncle Fang, Yin Jifu, Qin Zhong, etc.)
Since then, Zhang Liao stationed troops in his nest (south of Huitong City, Jin’an) as a general of the east to prevent Sun Quan. After Cao Pi took over the throne, he moved Zhang Liao to be a former general and also made his brother and son princes. Sun Quan rebelled again, and Cao Pi sent Zhang Liao back to Hefei, the Duke of Jin. Cao Pi allowed his mother to drive and send his family to the place where he stationed, which was a supreme honor at that time. After Cao Pi became emperor, he made Zhang Liao the Marquis of Jinyang and increased the number of food towns to 2600 households. In the second year of Huang Chu’s reign, Cao Pi also built houses for Zhang Liao, built halls for his mother, and sealed the pawns who followed Zhang Liao as Huben.
Unfortunately, Zhang Liao got sick at this time. Cao Pi sent Liu Ye, the bodyguard, to take the imperial doctor to see the disease, and even personally went to his camp to greet him with his hand, gave him royal clothes, and sent imperial officials to deliver royal food. When the disease of Zhang and Liao recovers slightly, Liao will return to tun. At the right time, Sun Quan rebelled. In the third year of the beginning of Huang Dynasty, Cao Pi sent Zhang Liao by boat and stationed with Cao Xiu on the Linjiang River in Hailing. Sun Quanzhi told his subordinates that although Zhang Liao was ill, he should not be taken seriously Its fear is like that of Zhang Liao. In the same year, Zhang Liao fell ill and Cao Xiu attacked Wu, defeating Wu general Lu Fan.
Before long, Zhang Liao died of illness in Jiangdu, Wei lost his pillars, and a generation of famous generals fell. Cao Pi shed tears for it, and his posthumous title was gang Hou. His son Zhang Hu inherited his title.