Although Liu Bei's luck was a little worse, his personality charm was indeed not said, and he had contact with many top-level strategists and fierce generals in the Three Kingdoms period, such as Chen Deng, Tai Shi Ci and others; but perhaps his strength was too weak, or maybe his luck was too bad, and there were not many who could follow Liu Bei like Zhao Yun.
Now let's take stock of who the five great strategists who influenced Liu Bei's life are:
First place: Xu Shu
Xu Shu's real name is Xu Fu, and he is a disciple of the Han Dynasty. In his early years, he avenged people, changed his name to Xu Shu after being rescued, and prayed to his teacher. Later, he took refuge in Jingzhou with Shi Guangyuan of the same county, and had close contacts with Sima Hui, Zhuge Liang, and Cui Zhou. When Liu Beitun was stationed in Xinye, Xu Shu went to surrender and recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei.
When Xu Shu went south because his mother was captured by Cao Cao, Xu Shu had no choice but to bid farewell to Liu Bei and enter Cao's camp. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Wei, Xu Shu was promoted to the rank of Right Lieutenant General and Yushi Zhongcheng (御史中丞). However, Xu Shu refused to serve Cao Wei from beginning to end, and was later artistically processed into "Xu Shu entered cao camp and did not say a word", which was widely circulated.
Although in the main history, Xu Shu did not seem to have helped Liu Bei much, and the so-called Cao Wei army was purely fictitious, but Xu Shu recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei, which was one of the biggest helpers.
Second place: Zhuge Liang
Does Zhuge Liang still need to say more? The one who had the deepest influence on Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang lived in seclusion in Xiangyang Longzhong in his early years, and later Liu Beisan Gu Maolu invited him to assist Liu Bei in establishing the Shu Han. After the establishment of the Shu Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang was given the title of Xiang Xiang (丞相) and Marquis of Wuxiang (武乡侯), who cares for the people internally, shows his rituals, agrees on official positions, obeys the system of power, is open-minded, preaches justice, and unites with Wu to resist Wei.
In order to realize the political ideals of the Xingfu Han Dynasty, the Northern Expedition was carried out several times, but it failed due to various factors, and finally died of illness in Wuzhangyuan in 234 AD at the age of 54. Liu Chan posthumously honored him as the Marquis of Zhongwu, and later generations often honored him as Marquis Wu and Marquis Zhuge Liang. The Eastern Jin Dynasty posthumously honored him as the King of Wuxing because of his military prowess.
The relationship between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang was really like a fish in the water, Liu Bei had a rough and tumble in the first half of his life, even if it was difficult to get territory, he was quickly lost; but with Zhuge Liang's assistance, he first occupied Jingzhou, then got Bashu, and went north to capture Hanzhong, and occupied one of the three parts of the world.
Third place: Pang Tong
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong are collectively referred to as "Wolong Phoenix Chicks", which shows that this is a recognition of Pang Tong's ability. In the canonical history, Pang Tong was also quite recognized by Sima Hui, but Pang Tong's greatest ability was to recognize people, first belonging to Eastern Wu, and then defecting to Liu Bei.
He also served as an important strategist under Liu Bei and worshiped with Zhuge Liang as a general in the military division. Entering Sichuan with Liu Bei, when Liu Bei broke with Liu Zhang, he offered three strategies from the upper and lower levels, and Liu Bei used one of them. When he entered Luo County, Pang Tong led the people to attack the city, but unfortunately died in the middle of the stream, only thirty-six years old, and posthumously awarded the title of Marquis of Guannei and Marquis of Jing.
Pang Tong's main contribution to Liu Bei's clique was to enter Shu, and put forward three plans for Liu Bei, the upper, middle, and lower, and finally Liu Bei chose the middle plan, and now it is speculated that if it were not for Pang Tong's death in battle, Zhuge Liang could continue to sit in Jingzhou, then Guan Yu would not have lost Jingzhou?
Fourth place: Fa-rectification
Fa Zheng was originally a subordinate of Liu Zhang, and Liu Bei persuaded Liu Zhang to surrender when he besieged Chengdu, and then he and Liu Bei advanced into Hanzhong and offered a plan to behead Cao Cao's general Xiahou Yuan. Fa Zheng was good at plotting, deeply trusted and respected by Liu Bei, and was praised by Chen Shou as Cheng Yu and Guo Jia under Cao Cao's account.
Liu Bei ascended the throne as the King of Hanzhong, and Feng Fazheng was made Shang Shuling (尚書令) and a general of the Protector Army. The following year, Fa Zheng died at the age of forty-five. Fazheng's death made Liu Bei very sad and cried for several days. Posthumously honored as the Marquis of Yi, he was the only minister of Liu Bei's era with a courtesy title.
After the failure of Liu Bei's eastern expedition against Sun Wu, Zhuge Liang sighed: "If Fa Xiaozhi is still there, he will be able to stop the Lord's Crusade; even if he cannot stop it, if he accompanies the crusade, he will certainly not return in defeat." ”
Fifth place: Huang Quan
When Huang Quan was young, he was a county official, and later the governor Liu Zhang recruited him as the chief of the book; later, he was sent out as the governor of Guanghan County for advising Liu Zhang not to meet Liu Bei. After Liu Bei occupied Shu Land, He made Huang Quan a partial general. Later, liu bei was given plans to occupy Hanzhong, and people only knew that the strategy of attacking Hanzhong mainly relied on Fazheng, but they did not know that these plans were first conceived by Huang Quan for Liu Bei.
Liu Bei's first act as empress dowager was to send his army to attack the state of Wu in the east, nominally to avenge Guan Yu; Huang Quan went to dissuade him, and Liu Bei not only did not listen, but instead made him a general of Zhenbei, supervising the defense of the Northern Jiangsu army against the State of Wei, and Liu Bei himself was on the Front Line in Jiangnan.
After Liu Bei's defeat at Yiling, because the road back to Shu was completely blocked by the Wu army, Huang Quan's army could not return to Shu, so he had to lead his men to surrender to the State of Wei. In accordance with the regulations, the relevant departments reported that they wanted to arrest Huang Quan's family, and Liu Bei said: "I am sorry for Huang Quan, and Huang Quan is not sorry for me." So he still treated his family as before.
Later, Huang Quan took the Yizhou Assassination History and moved into Henan. Sima Yi took him very seriously and asked Huang Quan, "How many people like you are in Shuzhong?" Huang Quan replied with a smile: "I didn't expect to be valued so much by you." Sima Yi said in a letter to Zhuge Liang: "Huang Gongheng is a cheerful person, who often gets up from his seat and talks about you with admiration. ”
These five strategists who had a great influence on Liu Bei, although Liu Bei wanted to reuse them well, Xu Shu had to surrender to Cao Wei in the north, and the early death of Pang Tong and Fazheng was a huge loss for Liu Bei; and the last Huang Quan, who could fully become the talent of Shu Han, was forced to surrender to Cao Wei in the north, leaving only Zhuge Liang to support.