As we know, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were the first people to conquer the world with Liu Bei, and almost no one in Liu Bei Group can compare with them in terms of qualifications and ability. When Liu Bei led the army into Sichuan to attack Shu, he gave his home area Jingzhou to Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei was later transferred to Shu to take part in the battle against Shu and Hanzhong. When Hanzhong was conquered, people thought that Zhang Fei would definitely become the satrap of Hanzhong. Because at that time, two places were extremely important to Liu Bei. The first place is Jingzhou, the former rear area of Liu Bei and the place where he started. This land of geomantic omen is guarded by Guan Yu. The other is Hanzhong, which is an important gateway to Sichuan and can be said to be Liu Bei's "national gate".
If Zhang Fei can be the Hanzhong satrap in terms of ability and relationship, Liu Bei gave people a surprise at that time, that is, Liu Bei promoted Wei Yan to be the Hanzhong satrap. This result even surprised Zhang Fei at that time, because Zhang Fei thought Hanzhong was a satrap. Hanzhong satrap Zhang Fei missed such an important position, and Liu Bei specially arranged Wei Yan to be Hanzhong satrap. Does this mean that Liu Bei is more inclined to Wei Yan at this time? Has Zhang Fei's position in Liu Bei Group declined?
Let's take a look at Liu Bei's arrangement for Zhang Fei. Although Zhang Fei did not become the satrap of Hanzhong, Liu Bei later worshipped Zhang Fei as the right general and took a holiday. At this time, the place where Zhang Fei was guarding was Brazil County, and the place where he ruled Brazil County was in Langzhong. Geographically, Brazil County is just behind Hanzhong, and Zhang Fei is stationed in Brazil, holding some troops. Here, we can find the answer from the biography of the Three Kingdoms. Later, after Guan Yu was defeated and lost Jingzhou, Liu Bei prepared to attack Wu on a large scale and ordered Zhang Fei to lead troops from Langzhong to meet the enemy. The original text recorded in the history book is: "attack Wu first, fly and lead 10 thousand troops, from Langzhong to Jiangzhou." It can be seen here that Zhang Fei has at least 10,000 elite soldiers in Langzhong. Moreover, Zhang Fei can exercise the power of "fake festival", that is, he can mobilize his troops independently without asking Liu Bei in wartime.
Above we said that Brazil County was close to Hanzhong, and Zhang Fei fought back with more than 10,000 elite soldiers in Brazil County. From this, we can easily see that Liu Bei's arrangement is meaningful. First, Wei Yan was stationed in Hanzhong. If Wei Jun invades, Zhang Fei can lead troops to reinforce at the first time, and Zhang Fei has the right to exercise the "holiday". Wei Yan still has to obey Zhang Fei when necessary. Although on the surface, Zhang Fei is only helping to defend Hanzhong, in fact, he is not only stronger than Wei Yan, but also has more military forces in his hands than Wei Yan. Liu Bei's arrangement can be said to exercise Wei Yan's independence without weakening Zhang Fei's position, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
In addition to the above reasons, Liu Bei also knows Zhang Fei. According to the biography of Zhang Fei, the chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei once warned Zhang Fei: "Your punishment and killing are too bad. You whip athletes every day and let them run around. This is also the way to take trouble. " Here, Liu Bei clearly pointed out to Zhang Fei that he used severe punishment and loved to whip soldiers, but he still stayed with the whipped soldiers, which was a self-defeating practice. But it's a pity that Zhang Fei didn't listen to Liu Bei's advice, so Liu Bei was also worried that it would be dangerous to put Zhang Fei on the front line, so he sent him back to Brazil to station. However, although Zhang Fei did not serve as the satrap of Hanzhong, his power was far greater than that of Wei Yan, and he played a great role in the defense of Hanzhong in the rear area of Hanzhong.