"Guan Yu"

This work is based on the historical facts of "Three Kingdoms", stripping away the filter of folk mythology, focusing on the complete life tragedy of Guan Yu when he was in Jingxiang from the 14th to the 24th year of Jian'an, and delving into the roots of his strong and selfish character and lifelong obsession with revitalizing the Han Dynasty. The story begins with Guan Yu taking over Jiangling's military affairs, and there are three fatal dangers at the beginning: internally he strictly enforces grain and grass collection, and he has deep resentments against Mi Fang and Shiren; externally, he coldly rejects Sun Quan's marriage, saying "Tiger girl Anken marries dog son" completely tears apart the Sun-Liu alliance; in his heart, he hides the old wounds of Xia Piqiu's Du family being taken away, and the oath to restore the Han Dynasty that he made with Ji Ben, Geng Ji, and Wei Huang in Xudu in the first year of Jian'an. For more than ten years, Guan Yu painstakingly weaved an internal response network in the Central Plains, and successively contacted Xudu court officials, Nanyang Houyin, and Yecheng Wei Xi, with the intention of attacking Cao Cao from the north and the south. Patrolling the Han River, sending secret envoys back and forth, and reading "Spring and Autumn" at night under the tent, he devoted countless days and nights to planning the Northern Expedition, but selectively ignored the rear defense and despised Soochow's ambitions. After Lu Xun's humble words showed weakness, he mobilized all the Jiang defense troops and rushed to Xiangfan. Just as the Han River surged, the water flooded seven armies in the First World War, shocking China, and his achievements reached their peak. However, it was extremely prosperous and then declined in an instant: Ji Ben, Hou Yin, and Wei Xi were destroyed one after another, Lu Meng crossed the river in white clothes, and Mi Fang and Shi Ren opened the city and surrendered to Wu. Guan Yu was attacked from both sides, and his army was disheartened during the withdrawal. He went to Shangyong to ask for help but was rejected by Liu Feng, and was trapped in Maicheng. When he broke out, he was captured in Zhangxiang. He would rather die than surrender. The novel interweaves fiction and reality, using old brocades, ancient slips and other old objects to connect Xu Du's past, completely presenting the fierce conflict between heroic ideals and character shortcomings. The ending also draws on Chen Shou and Yang Xi's historical commentaries to tell the story of the eternal tragedy of a generation of heroes being defeated by shortcomings. Purpose: 1. **Dialectic of Human Nature, Deconstructing Symbols**: Breaking the deified label of "perfect martial sage" among the people, not only praising loyalty, but also fully describing the two sides of Guan Yu's "heart to prosper the Han Dynasty" and "headstrong and conceited, narrow-minded", proving that heroes also have fatal character flaws, and that ordinary people's obsessions and shortcomings can overturn grand plans. 2. **Character is the tragic core of destiny**: It points out that the defeat of Jingzhou was not simply a sneak attack by Soochow and the defection of his subordinates. The root cause was Guan Yu's long-term character shortcomings - he despised his allies, criticized his subordinates, acted arbitrarily, insisted on a single-line Northern Expedition and ignored the overall hidden dangers. It explains that a person's biggest enemy is always his own character. 3. **The desolate background of ideals in troubled times**: Guan Yu's only belief in helping the Han Dynasty throughout his life, and he spent more than ten years building an internal response network in the Central Plains. He was full of sincerity, but his plans were ruined step by step due to his own shortcomings. He wrote about the powerlessness and desolation of pure idealists in troubled times who were unable to resist their own weaknesses and changes in world affairs. 4. **Historical speculative value**: By contrasting the evaluations of two historians, Chen Shou and Yang Xi, it breaks away from the black and white judgment perspective and objectively looks at the merits and demerits of historical figures. Loyalty is worthy of praise, and perverse mistakes cannot be covered up. It conveys the idea of ​​looking at history objectively and dialectically examining human nature.