Your favourite historical personality

[Jolt]

Again some new unwelcoming fact, I always did knew Liu Bei was a greyed out character but still prefered to remember him as a true peoples' man, I still hopes that he does displayed some virtue in real life that correspond to the novel.

Still thanks for the facts.

He wasn't as famous as the Romance makes out of him, for instance:
- There was no beatiful Peach Garden Oath. They just swore brotherhood normally.
- He played a very minor role in the Yellow Turban rebellion. Hardly could he have saved an Imperial Governor such as Dong Zhuo.
- It wasn't Zhang Fei who whiped the Imperial Emmissary asking for a bribe for the eunuchs. Liu Bei did it himself.
- Tao Qian (Xu Governor) didn't offer his land to Liu Bei. It was Mi Zhu who did it, along with Chen Deng and Kong Rong. He also never offered Xuzhou to Lu Bu.
- He never was acknowledged as the "Imperial Uncle", despite this nickname being widely used in the novel after the audience with Emperor Xian.
- Certainly did not rely on Xu Shu to defend Xinye from Cao Ren and Li Dian. He arranged and carried out the defense himself. (Which worked brilliantly, imo)
- It was after this time that Zhuge Liang was employed into Liu Bei's service, at Xu Shu's recomendation and while Xu Shu still served Liu Bei. The Three Visits did exist though.
- Also defeated Xiahou Dun at Xin Ye, not Zhuge Liang nor Xu Shu (Who had already left Liu Bei, anyhow).
- Had than three sons and some daughters (Which were, unfortunately, captured by Cao Chun at Changban Slope)
- Zhou Yu's attempted assassination at Chi Bi battle was non existent. Although Sun Quan was advised by Zhou Yu and Han Ze to keep Liu Bei hostage during his visit to Wu, no such attempt was made, and Liu Bei left without incident.
- Huang Zhong was not chief commander of Shu’s Hanzhong campaign. Liu Bei was (Once again, brilliantly conducted).
- Commanded between 40–80,000 troops at Yiling; far fewer than the 700,000 or so mentioned in the novel. Wu on the other hand had several hundred thousands. It is magnificent to see Liu Bei, already an Emperor and unused to commanding armies, beat Wu's armies repeatedly and force them on the defensive with a gigantic inferior army ratio.

All in all, Liu Bei was really an ordinary warlord. Still he is my favourite character of the Romance, with Zhuge Liang behind him as a close second. Guan Yu is too incredibly over-rated. He might be by far the most overrated character of the entire novel:

- Didn't kill Hua Xiong (Dong Zhuo's uber-like general), Sun Jian's troops did that themselves.
- Did not give specifics terms of surrender to Cao Cao (Shocking isn't it? Cao Cao had just probably murdered his own sworn brothers, and he joined unregretably. No more noble conduct)
- Never killed Wen Chou (Yuan Shao's uber-like general), who actually died in battle with Cao Cao after falling for a plot.
- Guan Yu did not ‘traverse five passes’ and ‘slay five generals’. Cao Cao admired his honor and sense of duty, and allowed him to leave. In majority, the characters that appeared in this novel event were fictional.
- After Cao Cao was throughly defeated in Chibi, Guan Yu did not meet with and spare Cao Cao at Huarong (Again, no more honourable conduct).
- Did not ‘fight with and release’ Huang Zhong. Han Xuan and Huang Zhong surrendered of their own accord.
-Did not plan to duel Ma Chao when he was promoted. Simply sent a letter asking how they compared (No honourable pride and sense of demonstrating he was uber-leet, since he wasn't and would probably have been pwned by Ma Chao should any such event had happened; Zhang Fei didn't duel Ma Chao either).
- In the novel Lü Meng feigned illness to trick Guan Yu. Historically, Lü Meng was truly ill (Poor Guan Yu, tricked by a non-existent trick. >_>)
- The flooding of Fan Castle was not Guan Yu’s stratagem. It was a natural occurrence (Guan Yu had no clue it was going to happen).
- Guan Yu was executed without Sun Quan's knowledge or consentment (The poor guy :P)

Many more nifty things haven't happened in real history. :P