During the Three Kingdoms period, the princes fought endlessly for the sake of territory and interests, and it was common for the warlords of all sides to surrender to this prince today, and it was also common for them to surrender to that prince tomorrow. Of course, there is no shortage of loyal people, thus leaving many touching stories of loyalty in history.
Among these loyal figures, the most famous is undoubtedly the "martial saint" Guan Yu, but in fact, in the history at that time, some people were more loyal than Guan Yu, and today we will discuss a historical figure of the Three Kingdoms who is more loyal than Guan Yu, and even can be said to be the first person in the Three Kingdoms, after all, Guan Yu also surrendered to Cao Cao in disguise and accepted Cao Cao's favor.
This person was Wang Lei, the warlord of Yizhou at that time. The comparison between Wang Lei, the Guanghan people, and Liu Zhang's subordinates Zhang Song, Fazheng, Meng Da and others at that time shows his loyalty, and compared with those centrists who "don't care about themselves and hang high", they can also see their fierceness. Moreover, from the situation of warlord division at that time, Wang Lei was also a figure who truly understood the essence of Liu Bei.
In the sixtieth episode of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Zhang Song suggested that Liu Zhang welcome Liu Bei into Sichuan, Wang Lei said to Liu Zhang: Liu Bei wanted to harm Cao Cao before surrendering to Cao Cao, and later joined forces with Sun Quan to resist Cao Cao and used a plan to seize Jingzhou. Zhang Lu and others violating the boundary are only the diseases of ringworm scabies on the surface of the skin, while Liu Bei once enters the river is to lure the wolf into the room, and the heart is in serious trouble.
From the first dialogue between Wang Lei and Liu Zhang, we can see that Wang Lei is not only loyal but also sees the essence behind Liu Bei's benevolence. Just as Wang Lei said, Liu Bei's so-called benevolence and righteousness are only his means of buying people's hearts and minds, but only his way of dominating the world, and he will never be soft in the face of political capital such as territory and population. Later, under the constant advice of Zhang Song and others, Liu Zhang made up his mind to go to Fucheng to meet Liu Bei, and Wang Lei began to die again. As Liu Zhang prepared to leave the city gate, Wang Lei held a sword in one hand and a book of advice in the other, hanging upside down on the city gate. After Liu Zhang got the letter of advice, he found that he still advised him not to welcome Liu Bei into the river, so he was furious and did not listen to his words, and as a result, Wang Lei cut off Bai Aya and crashed to death at the city gate.
Everyone also knows that later facts have proved that Wang Lei's judgment is completely correct. Wang Lei's understanding of Liu Bei can be said to be quite thorough, Liu Bei is not a bad character, but in the chaotic world at that time, any ambitious person was based on territory and interests, and would not talk about private morality when facing territory and actual interests, but unfortunately Liu Zhang did not see this clearly, and finally took matters into his own hands, lured the wolf into the room, and let Liu Bei take Yizhou.
Wang Lei's loyal and righteous behavior was recognized and praised at that time and in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and after Wang Lei's death in the original text, Mr. Luo Guanzhong felt his loyalty and wrote: "Hang up the city gate upside down and hold the edict, and fight to repay Liu Zhang for his death." Wang Lei's deeds are basically the same in the main history and the story of Yanyi, although Zhongyi unfortunately did not meet the hero, and it was only a flash in the pan in history, and it had little impact on future generations.
And why is it said that Wang Lei is the first person to be loyal and righteous? At least two points are incomparable to others, the first is that Wang Lei only followed Liu Zhang from beginning to end, and truly achieved the two masters of loyalty and non-doing, and everyone knows that in the chaotic world at that time, especially in the face of failed warlords, its subordinates can do so very little, although Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang and others are also from the beginning, but after all, Sun Quan and Liu Bei are warlords who laugh to the end. Frustrated Zhi and others were also loyal and righteous people who would rather die than surrender, but in fact, Frustrated Zhi was Han Fu's adviser before.
Secondly, throughout the history of the Three Kingdoms, only Wang Lei was really able to do death advice, and although the rest of the figures also had many advices, there were actually very few people who could mainly give death advice. As the saying goes: a good bird chooses a tree to perch, and a good subject chooses the Lord. It seems that Liu Bei, who surrendered to the Han Dynasty and had the name of benevolence and righteousness, was not unacceptable at that time, but Wang Lei was so resolute. Some people may say that Wang Lei was foolish and loyal, but his behavior was still very touching and admirable in the chaotic world at that time.
Other historical articles of Hu Kan's literary history:
After the death of a generation of male lords, the tomb became a dung pit, and the old man renovated the latrines and unveiled the earth-shattering ancient tomb
Everyone knows that "no poison is not a husband", but only by connecting with the previous sentence can we correctly understand the true meaning
Cao Cao missed two major generals, one ruining his chance to unify the world, and the other ruining future generations
The thousand-year-old tomb, after more than twenty times of theft, has not lost a single piece of cultural relics, and I have to admire the wisdom of the ancients
Did Sun Ce really die at the hands of Xu Gongmen? Maybe this was just a conspiracy plotted by Cao Cao