The Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu were in constant disputes, and each of the three camps had its own master. Generally speaking, the war generals of the three parties were clearly distinguished and each had its own master. After Wei, Shu and Wu established their respective political powers, it was rare for them to surrender to the other side. Especially the Xiahou family like Xiahou Ba, who was a direct descendant of the Cao Wei regime in the authentic sense, but had a surrendered general like Xiahou Ba, which is naturally a story. A lot.

Unfortunately, as the official history of "Three Kingdoms", since Cao Wei is orthodox, it is naturally "respectful and taboo" for a rebel like Xiahou Ba, and it is not detailed. However, we can also roughly infer the story behind Xiahou Ba based on some historical data.

1. Xiahou Ba’s family is a family with a story.

In the Three Kingdoms, when talking about the Xiahou family, they are generally equated with Cao Cao’s Cao family. This origin is reflected in the following three levels.

The first level:

Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was the adopted son of the great eunuch Cao Teng. Cao Song's original surname was Xiahou. In this way, Cao Cao can also be called Xiahou Cao.

When Pei Songzhi annotated "Three Kingdoms", he quoted "Cao Man's Biography" annotated by Wu people of the Three Kingdoms: Song, the son of Xiahou family, the uncle of Xiahou Dun, and Cao Yudun's brother.

Xiahou Ba is the general of Zhengxi and the Marquis of Bochang Ting Xiahou Yuan.

The second level:

Xia Houyuan has another relationship with Cao Cao, that is, Xia Houyuan’s wife is Cao Cao’s sister-in-law, and they are brothers-in-law, which is equivalent to the relationship between Sun Ce and Zhou Yu. , based on this argument, Cao Cao is Xiahou Ba’s biological uncle.

The third level:

Xia Houyuan has another relationship with Cao Cao, that is, Cao Cao was involved in a criminal case in his hometown, and Xia Houyuan helped cover up the crime, so Cao Cao was not involved. Being implicated and imprisoned, it can be said that Xia Houyuan and Cao Cao were brothers who died.

It can be seen from the above three levels of relationships that Xiahou Ba’s family is actually Cao Cao’s family. It's a life-long friendship.

As for Xiahou Ba’s family, there is also a saying that their ancestors were Liu Bang’s childhood friend, the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, Ruyin Marquis, and Tai servant Xia Houying. Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Ba, Xiahou Xuan, and Xiahou Zhan who wrote "Book of Wei" during the Three Kingdoms period are all descendants of Xiahou Ying.

2. Xiahou Ba also has a sister with a very interesting story.

"Three Kingdoms? Biography of Xia Houyuan" quotes "Wei Lue" and says: At that time, there was great chaos in Yan and Henan. Yuan was hungry and abandoned his young son, leaving his younger brother and orphaned daughter alive.

After the Yellow Turban Uprising of the Three Kingdoms, the world was in chaos. Just as Cao Cao wrote in "Hao Li Xing": White bones were exposed in the wild, and there was no rooster crowing for thousands of miles. ?This is still the case among the people, and the Xiahou family, a wealthy family, is also miserable. This is in line with the famous saying: ?When an avalanche occurs, no snowflake is innocent. ?

Around 187 AD, Yanzhou and Yuzhou were suffering a double blow from locust plagues and military disasters. Xiahou Ba’s father, Xia Houyuan, killed his young son alive in order to save his dead brother’s orphaned daughter. After starving to death, the orphan girl who survived was Xiahou Ji, and she became Xiahou Ba's sister.

Because her biological father died early, and her uncle Xia Houyuan was kind to raise her, Xiahou Ji should have a very deep feeling for Xiahou Ba's family.

In a blink of an eye, it was 200 AD. Xiahou Ji went to the mountains to chop firewood alone. She got lost and was rescued by Zhang Fei, a hero. After Zhang Fei learned about Xiahou Ji’s life experience, he was moved and embraced the beauty. , married Bai Fumei.

This Zhang Fei was Zhang Yide, a Yan native who was fraternal with Liu Bei and Guan Yu. At that time, he was fighting guerrillas with Liu Bei in Runan, cooperating with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in the frontal battle in Guandu.

"Three Kingdoms? Xia Houyuan Biography" quotes "Wei Lue": In the early days of Jian'an, in the fifth year of Jian'an, Shiba Congmei was in the thirteenth and fourth year of his life. He went out to collect firewood in this county and got it from Zhang Fei. Fei found out about the daughter of a good family, so he took her as his wife, gave birth to a daughter, and became Queen Liu Chan.

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In fact, official history shows that Zhang Fei was not a rough and tumble man. "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. The Biography of Zhang Fei" records: Fei loves to respect gentlemen but does not care about villains.

After Zhang Fei married the daughter of the Xiahou family, the couple were very affectionate. Ji also became the emperor of the Shu Han Dynasty and the mother-in-law of the later master Liu Chan.

"Three Kingdoms" Wei Shu Xia Houyuan quoted from "Wei Lue": Yuan died at the beginning of the year, and Fei's wife invited him to bury him. ?

In 219 AD, Xiahou Ji's uncle Xia Houyuan was killed by Huang Zhong in Dingjun Mountain, Hanzhong. Xiahou Ji specifically appealed to Liu Bei through Zhang Fei and requested that Xiahou Yuan be buried generously.

The killing of Xia Houyuan was a very exciting event for Liu Bei's Shu Han group. As a result, Huang Zhong was directly promoted from the general of the general to the general of the rear.

Xiahou Ji dared to stand up and ask for a generous burial for Xiahou Yuan, who was already in the enemy camp, out of gratitude to her uncle, which showed Xiahou Ji's kindness and virtue.

3. Xiahou Ba himself is also a very story-telling person.

Xia Houba, whose courtesy name is Zhongquan, is the daughter of Xia Houyuan, the general who conquered the West, and the sister of Cao Cao's wife, Ding. With this relationship, coupled with his outstanding civil and military skills, he stood out and was promoted to General You, the Protector of Shu, and the Marquis of Bochang Ting. He became an important general-level figure in Wei's resistance to the invasion of Shu Han in the middle and late Three Kingdoms period. He was also a Cao family member. One of the few generals in the family who holds military power.

At that time, the person who controlled the military power in the court on behalf of the Cao family was Cao Shuang, the general and the minister of Tuogu. The Cao family and the Xiahou family were originally from the same family. Cao Shuang also valued Xiahouba, his cousin, and specially arranged for Xiahouba and his cousins ??to marry him. My nephew Xia Houxuan, the general who conquered the west, guarded Longxi together and was responsible for the operations on the western front.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. In the first year of Jiaping (249), Sima Yi launched the Gaopingling coup, designed to kill the general Cao Shuang and replaced him. In this way, the military and political power of the Cao Wei Group fell into the hands of the Sima family.

In order to consolidate his own power, the wily Sima Yi began to purge Cao Shuang's remaining forces, summoning the Western General Xia Houxuan and the Right General Xia Houba to return to the court, and replaced them with his direct descendant Guo Huai.

Xiahou Ba naturally felt like a mirror in his heart, knowing that this was Sima Yi depriving the Cao Wei clan of military power, and that returning to the court would mean death.

We know that Xiahou Ba’s last choice was to defect to the Shuhan Group.

According to common sense, Xiahou Ba's father Xia Houyuan died at the hands of Liu Bei, and he had an irresponsible and mortal hatred with the Shuhan Group.

However, at this moment, the court that Xiahou Ba was loyal to was controlled by the Sima family. He would die if he went back. Although Shu was an enemy country, his sister Xiahou Ji was now the emperor of Shu Han. Liu Chan's mother-in-law, in this way, she is also the father-in-law of the country, a standard maternal relative. This is very remarkable. In the Han Dynasty, which focused on governing the country with filial piety, maternal relatives generally had high power and status.

Another thing that attracted Xiahou Ba was that Jiang Wei was also promoted to general, but he was very successful in the Shuhan Group. It would not be too bad for him to join him himself.

So after some calculations, Xiahou Ba made up his mind to defect to the Shuhan Group.

There are not many records in official history about Xiahou Ba's performance after defecting to Shu Han. In fact, this is easy to understand. With his family status and experience, Xiahou Ba was definitely an important figure in the Three Kingdoms. However, because of his surrender to the enemy, Chen Shou, the author of "Three Kingdoms" as the historian of Cao Wei, did not take any measures? "Spring and Autumn Brushwork" downplayed the description of Xiahou Ba and concealed many of his experiences.

But from a few words, we can also see two points:

First, Xiahou Ba still has the status and status of a relative in Shu Han;

Secondly, Xiahou Ba still enjoys Jiang Wei's respect and trust.

"Wei Lue": When Jiba entered Shu, Zen met him, and explained: "Your father was killed in Xingjian'er, not by the hands of my ancestors." He pointed to his son and said: "This is the nephew of the Xiahou family." ?Hou Jiajue favor.

Liu Chan was indeed very polite to Xiahou Ba, his uncle. He not only took the initiative to explain the death of his father, but also allowed his son to recognize Xiahou Ba as his uncle, and treated him favorably, and was appointed as a charioteer. General, it can be said to be the ultimate glory.

Out of gratitude, Xiahouba was also very dedicated to the Shu Han's campaign to conquer Wei, and participated in Jiang Wei's wars against Wei many times.

Once, Jiang Wei asked Xiahou Ba to help analyze the current war situation. When the Shu Han launched an attack, there was a young man named Zhong Hui who was very good. He would definitely become a strong enemy of Shu and Wu in the future and had no choice but to do so.

According to historical records, Xiahou Ba’s greatest military exploit was his counterattack in the 18th year of Yanxi (255). He, Jiang Wei, Zhang Yi and others led tens of thousands of people out of Didao and divided their troops into three groups to attack Wei. Kingdom, defeated Wang Jing, the governor of Yongzhou, killed tens of thousands of people, and achieved the "Great Victory in Taoxi". This was also the most brilliant achievement Jiang Wei achieved in his repeated Northern Expeditions.

As for Xiahou Ba’s final life ending, there is no record in official history. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms states that Xiahou Ba was shot dead by Deng Ai during the Battle of Taoyang. This possibility should be unlikely, otherwise Chen Shou will definitely write a special book in "Three Kingdoms".

Based on the above analysis, Xiahou Ba was born in a famous family and had an inseparable relationship with the Cao family, the Zhang Fei family, and the Shu Han royal family. In the first half of the year, he served as Wei's emperor against Shu, but in the other half of his life, he spent the rest of his life fighting for Shu against Wei. It is indeed very strange, but it can also be seen that Xiahou Ba's outstanding character of bravery, calmness, good understanding of general trends, and loyalty has made him a great career in troubled times.