It stands to reason that Liu Bei is hot-headed, and the strategist Zhuge Liang should be calm. He should pour some cold water on Liu Bei's hot head to sober him up. However, there is no record of Zhuge Liang's opposition to Liu Bei's attack on Xiangfan. Zhuge Liang is Liu Bei's military adviser. At this time, Zhuge Liang's position was that he was a strategist and a general, in charge of the general's affairs. In other words, Zhuge Liang is in charge of Liu Bei's command, and Zhuge Liang can participate in everything Liu Bei does. Although Zhuge Liang is not a decision maker, he can give advice to decision makers. Visible, in this matter, Zhuge Liang obviously didn't do his duty as a strategist.
As for Zhuge Liang's role in Guan Yu's northern expedition to Xiangfan, there is no clear record in the History of the Three Kingdoms, but the mystery can still be found. The most crucial point is that Guan Yu's invasion of Xiangfan violated Zhuge Liang's early "Long Zhong Dui", no matter the timing or conditions.
Longzhong's strategy is basically Zhuge Liang's military outline to help Liu Bei conquer the world. Zhuge Liang made it very clear in the book "Long Zhong Dui" that the Northern Expedition must meet the following five conditions: First, "there is Rong in the west and Yi Yue in the south", that is to say, it is necessary to have good relations with ethnic minorities in the southwest. But at that time, the relationship between Liu Bei and the ethnic minorities was not good, because although Liu Bei occupied Yizhou, they were outsiders, and the ethnic minorities represented by Meng Huo hated Liu Bei's occupation of their territory, and they would make waves whenever they had the opportunity. When Guan Yu attacked Xiangfan, the problem of ethnic minorities was not solved at all.
The second is "internal governance". The so-called internal governance means developing economy and strengthening national strength. It was not easy for Liu Bei to capture Hanzhong, Sichuan. Liu Zhang is not a fuel-efficient lamp either. Liu Bei fought so hard in Sichuan that even Pang Tong died. After nine years of hard work, Liu Bei got the base area of Sichuan. After nine years of fighting, the army is very tired, Sichuan's economy is seriously damaged, and the people are unbearable. Therefore, Guan Yu's Northern Expedition at this time simply did not have enough strength.
The third condition is to "have a good relationship with Sun Quan", and the importance of the Sun-Liu alliance was analyzed as early as our previous Three Kingdoms series. But at this point, the relationship between Shu Han and Wu Dong has been very tense. Although Sun Liu and his family did not use force in the end, both sides have torn their faces.
In fact, Zhuge Liang himself knows that the alliance between Sun and Liu is unreliable. He once said this to Fa Zheng: "When your master is in public security, the north is afraid of the power of Cao Cao, the east is afraid of the threat of Sun Quan, and your master is afraid of Mrs. Sun." So Zhuge Liang is very worried about the future of Sun-Liu Alliance.
Some people may think that Zhuge Liang is not a god after all and can't be a prophet. It can be predicted that Sun Quan will attack Jingzhou during Guan Yu's Northern Expedition. Zhuge Liang is really not a god, but Zhuge has been cautious all his life. He has always been cautious in fighting soldiers and never takes risks. Guan Yu sent troops to attack Xiangfan, and the Jingzhou city defense was bound to be empty. How could Zhuge Liang be so careless that he didn't remind Liu Bei or Guan Yu Sun Quan that he would suddenly attack and stab him in the back? This is military common sense. How can Zhuge Liang not understand this military common sense? Where's his vigilance?
There is a fourth condition about the Northern Expedition. Zhuge Liang once said that the Northern Expedition would wait until "the world has changed". The change of the world refers to the change of Cao Wei. This change refers to the civil strife within the Cao Wei ruling group, or the peasant uprising and mutiny. In a word, Cao Wei can't send troops until there are internal problems. When Guan Yu went to the Northern Expedition, it was "the world remained unchanged", which means that Cao Wei was very stable internally. At that time, Cao Cao had completely controlled Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty. His name was Wang Wei, and he was going to be emperor soon. And there are not many people who oppose it. Even Sun Quan advised Cao Cao to proclaim himself emperor. Don't say anything changed, it is simply that the world is peaceful and Cao Wei's rule is very stable.
Fifth, Zhuge Liang's strategic plan is that the northern expedition of Shu Han must be divided into two ways. From different directions, Jingzhou Army attacked Wancheng and Luoyang, and Yizhou Army attacked Chang 'an, and launched a pincer-like offensive like a vise, which made Wei difficult to take care of. However, Guan Yu's Northern Expedition only dispatched Jingzhou Army, but Liu Bei's main force in Yizhou did not move, so that Guan Yu's Northern Expedition was divided. Isn't this completely contrary to Zhuge Liang's own right decision in Longzhong?
Why didn't Zhuge Liang remonstrate?
Zhuge Liang knows Liu Bei very well. After Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor, the first thing he did was to announce the mobilization of the national army to crusade against Soochow and recover Jingzhou. Of course, it was a wrong decision, but Liu Bei was already the emperor. Anyone who wants to remonstrate will lose his head if he doesn't do well. Only Zhao Yun ignored it and gave a lot of reasons to resolutely oppose Liu Bei's attack on Wu. Liu Bei was really furious and didn't listen to Zhao Yun. Not only did he not listen, but he didn't want to let Zhao Yun go. Keeping Zhao Yun in the rear was actually putting Zhao Yun aside.
According to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun is a general with five tigers. In fact, Zhao Yun's officials are much less than Guan, Zhang, Ma and Huang Dou. Guan Yu is a former general, Zhang Fei is a general riding chariots, Ma Chao is a general in title of generals in ancient times, and Huang Zhong is a post-general. They are all generals with heavy numbers, but Zhao Yun is just a general of Yi Jun, a general with miscellaneous numbers. Obviously, Liu Bei doesn't like Zhao Yun very much because he is too honest and frank. When Liu Bei was ready to attack Wu, another minister called, and he also protested that the weather was bad and he could not attack. As a result, Fu Qin's fate was even worse, and he was almost killed. Thanks to the mediation of ministers, Liu Beicai saved Fu Qin from death and put him in prison. It was not until the death of Liu Bei that Fu Qin was released from prison. Later, Liu Bei was defeated by Wu, and the fire burned 700 Li, almost completely annihilated. At this time, Zhuge Liang said: "If Faxiaozhi is still alive, he will certainly be able to persuade the master not to attack Wu. Even if the country attacked Wu, if the law was filial, it would not be a fiasco. " This is simply "wise after the event", indicating that Zhuge Liang did not give advice at that time, probably because he had a thorough understanding of Liu Bei's character and temper. Liu Bei was furious and went his own way. Zhuge Liang felt that it was useless to say anything, and it was useless to remonstrate. It was better not to remonstrate. However, at this moment of national interest, as a minister, he should do his duty, not to mention Zhuge Liang, as a strategist and prime minister, he should do his duty. Lin Zexu, a national hero, once said: "If you are greedy for the life and death of the country, why not avoid it in every cloud has a silver lining?" . Does it mean that as long as it is beneficial to the country, even if it is worth buying with your life, it can be avoided because of disaster?
Besides, Zhuge Liang can always help Guan Yu wholeheartedly even if he can't convince Liu Bei, right? Guan Yu is famous for his arrogance. For example, when Liu Bei attacked Yizhou, Ma Chao from Xiliang came to Liu Bei. Ma Chao is an Iliad. Even Cao Cao, who regards the hero of the world as a rat, is afraid of three points when he sees Ma Chao. Ma Chao came to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei was of course happy, so he was named General Pingxi, which was equivalent to Guan Yu. This angered Guan Yu at once. Guan Yu wrote to Zhuge Liang and asked who Ma Chao could compete with. Zhuge Liang immediately sent a letter back to Guan Yu, saying that Ma Chao was both brave and brave, and his martial arts were almost the same as Zhang Fei's. They can be neck and neck, but compared with your beard, he is still a little short, because your beard has unparalleled martial arts and is the best in the world. These words put Guan Yu outside the cloud nine. Guan Yu was arrogant, which made him even more arrogant. He was so proud that he showed Zhuge Liang's letter to the guests around him. Since then, Guan Yu's mind has become even hotter. He really thinks that Laozi is the best in the world. Zhuge Liang will only harm Guan Yu, who is not an ordinary general. He guarded Jingzhou and shouldered almost half the heavy responsibility of the Shu-Han regime. As the saying goes, pride goes before a fall. Guan Yu was so arrogant that he ignored Sun Quan because of his arrogance. Finally, in Maicheng, Zhuge Liang was the real person in charge. Looking through the reflection, I didn't see the historical records that Zhuge Liang reminded Guan Yu to pay attention to good relations with Wu Dong when he left Jingzhou. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Kongming left Jingzhou for Yizhou, he told Guan Yu that the eight-character motto "Rejecting Cao Cao in the north and Sun Quan in the east" was completely invented by Luo Guanzhong.
Why didn't Zhuge Liang send reinforcements?
Guan Yu lost Jingzhou and defeated Maicheng. Finally, he was captured alive by Lv Meng and presented his head to Cao Cao. The battle of Jingzhou was not only a fatal battle against the Shu-Han regime, but also failed to realize Zhuge Liang's carefully designed strategic plan of Longzhong-China confrontation. The "revival of the Han Dynasty" eventually became a bubble, and Shu was devastated.
Some experts believe that when Guan Yu attacked Xiangfan, his forces were strong and his troops were sufficient, and Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were not needed to send reinforcements. So, is Guan Yu's strength really enough? There is no clear record of Guan Yu's strength in the history books. According to the "Three Kingdoms", "There are 30,000 feathers". In this way, the troops that Guan took out to attack Xiangfan were very limited, not exceeding 20 thousand at most. Guan Yu, who flooded the Seventh Army, captured many Cao Jiabing, but can he use these soldiers to make them fight back? I don't think so. Guan Yu is usually arrogant. He has a bad relationship with his own people. How can we let him do the ideological work of prisoners?
Then Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang clearly saw that Guan Yu could not attack Xiangfan because of insufficient troops. Why don't they send more reinforcements to him? Some people say that this is because Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang don't know the situation at the front and have no time. In fact, the battle of Xiangfan began in July of the 24th year of Jian 'an and ended in January of the 25th year of Jian 'an. The whole process lasted for half a year, and Chengdu never sent a single soldier to reinforce. If Guan Yu had drowned the seventh army and won the battle, it might be understandable that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang did not send him more troops. It is doubtful that Cao Cao sent a large number of troops to Fancheng, but Chengdu did not give Guan Yu more troops.
There are two very important historical materials to prove that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had enough time to send troops to save Guan Yu. One is that after Lu Meng captured Jiangling and public security, he sent Lu Xun to attack Yidu, Zhijiang, Yiling and Zigui, the border cities of Shu. As a result, all these cities were captured by Lu Xun, so the territory of Wu extended to Baidi City, the western border of Shu. This historical material appeared in the biography of the Three Kingdoms and Sun Quan. Another piece of historical data is more important, that is, Fan You, the Yidu magistrate appointed by Liu Bei, abandoned the city and fled back to Chengdu. Fan You fled in November of the 24th year of Jian 'an. This historical material is in Lu Xun Biography. This historical material is too important! Because even after Lv Meng occupied Jiangling, he immediately blocked the news. Guan Yu's Jingzhou soldiers were all captured by Lv Meng, and no one can report back to Chengdu, but Fan You, the magistrate of Yidu, must know. Now that Yidu has been laid down, Jiangling and Gongan in front must have been lost. For such an important matter, Fan, do you dare to run back and report without rolling or climbing?
Moreover, after Liu Bei captured Hanzhong, in order to strengthen the connection between Chengdu and Hanzhong, more than 400 post stations were built from Chengdu to Baishuiguan, just to ensure the smooth traffic in the front and back. Later, Liu Bei launched the battle of Yiling. From Chengdu to Yichang and Wuchang, Hubei, there were swift horse spies everywhere, who cultivated intensively and kept abreast of the enemy's situation. Today, this is basically a "spy job".
Let's see how many reinforcements Cao Cao sent: the first batch was the seventh army led by Yu Jin and Pound, which was wiped out by Guan Yu. Then, Cao Cao sent his five tiger generals-Huang Xu's troops. They learned a lesson from the last ban. In the case of insufficient troops, they just hold their horses and fight Guan Yu. Cao Cao successively supplemented his follow-up troops and sent the third and fourth batches of troops. It is estimated that Huang Xu's strength at this time is at least around 50,000, plus Fancheng Coss' army, which has formed a trend of internal and external attack. Cao Jun has an overwhelming advantage over Guan Yu. Not counting this, Cao Cao was not at ease and ordered the troops in Hefei and Zhang Liao to be transferred. Zhang Liao is the leader of General Cao Cao's Five Tigers. Sun Quan was defeated in Hefei, which had a great impact on xiaoyaojin and almost captured him alive. Therefore, in order to deal with Guan Yu, Cao Cao took out all his ace troops. Not counting this, Cao Cao felt that he could not stop the town, so he decided to "personally levy." He commanded hundreds of elite troops to Mobei, not far from Xiangyang. Cao Cao fought many big battles, fought many tough battles and encountered many difficulties in his life, but it seems that he has never spent so much effort to fight Guan Yu and mobilized the whole country like this.
Hu Sansheng, who has made comments on Zi Tong Zhi Jian, has commented on this matter. He said, "Even if Monroe doesn't attack Jingzhou, Guan Yu will be defeated by Cao Cao. Guan Yu is no match for Cao Cao. Later, Cao Cao used Monroe's hand to deal with Guan Yu, but he wanted the snipe and clam to compete and take advantage of the fisherman himself. " Wang Fuzhi, a great thinker in the late Ming Dynasty, also commented: "It is really unpredictable for Monroe to attack Jingzhou, but if Monroe does not attack Jingzhou, can Guan Yu subdue Cao?" Guan dealt with Coss, but did not deal with Cao Cao. "Great minds think alike. Later historians and thinkers basically agreed on this incident.
During the World War I in Jingzhou, it was not only a member of Shu Jiang who lost, but also a strategic place. What it loses is the excellent situation of Shu Han Jiangshan, which has just improved! The traditional view always blames Guan Yu's negligence for this failure. Of course, as the commander-in-chief of this campaign, Guan Yu is indeed responsible, and he also paid a painful price for his head falling to the ground. But Zhuge Liang's responsibility as a strategist is more important, but can we conclude that Zhuge Liang "killed Guan Yu by Jingzhou"? And who is responsible for Guan Yu's death?
Guan Yu's helpless battle of Jingzhou, in terms of time and information, Shu Han has enough time and opportunity to save Guan Yu at this time. If Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang learned that Guan Yu had lost Jingzhou, they would immediately send troops to save Guan Yu day and night, and there might still be a chance, not too late.
At that time, Guan Yu left a considerable number of troops stationed in the base camp to guard against Wu Dong's sneak attack, which shows that Guan Yu still had some vigilance. However, Guan Yu's troops attacking Xiangfan were too few, and Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang refused to supplement Guan Yu's troops. Even Liu Feng and Meng Da, who were close at hand, refused to come from Shang Yong to support Guan Yu. Guan Yu was helpless in every way, so he moved the idea of transferring troops to guard Jiangling and the public security base camp. However, Guan Yu still hesitated and dared not make up his mind. After all, Guan Yu has been resourceful for decades, but he is not a brave man without any military knowledge.
Lv Meng and Lu Xun saw Guan Yu's predicament, so they made good use of their sleeves. First of all, Lv Meng pretended to be ill, left his department and pretended to return to Jianye (today's Nanjing) to recuperate. Later, Lu Xun succeeded Lv Meng and wrote a letter to Guan Yu, saying that under the command of General Guan Yu, it was as easy as blowing off dust and achieved brilliant results, even when Han Xin was fighting in Huaiyin, which made Guan Yu confused. Guan Yu was drunk by Lu Xun, and decided to draw out all the troops in Jingzhou to reinforce Fan Cheng. This is, of course, Guan Yu's fault. He was deceived and conspired with Lu Meng and Lu Xun.
But why did Guan Yu fall for it? If he has enough troops, will he still be fooled by Lu Xun? So in the final analysis, the responsibility of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang is not to send more reinforcements to Guan Yu.
And if Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang send reinforcements, even if they can't achieve their goals, Guan Yu will have been killed before the reinforcements arrive, and it finally makes sense for Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang to handle this matter. As the saying goes, "Man proposes, God disposes". Although the success or failure of a thing is decided by God, you always have to make a plan. If you don't even plan, what's the explanation? The problem is, after searching the "Three Kingdoms" and "Pei Songzhi Note", there is not a word, not even a word related to the record of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang discussing how to send troops to save Guan Yu.
When Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong, he was also stubbornly resisted by Xia and Zhang He. After more than a year of attack, I couldn't beat it. Liu Bei was in a hurry and felt that his troops were not enough, so he quickly asked Zhuge Liang to send more reinforcements. Zhuge Liang thinks that at this critical moment, "men want to fight and women want to transport", that is, all young men have to go to the front, and women can't be idle at home. They must be transport soldiers to transport food and materials to the front. As Zhuge Liang sent a large number of reinforcements in time, Liu Bei finally seized Hanzhong from Cao Cao. It can be seen that both Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang have a deep understanding of the difficulty of siege. When Cao Cao sent a large number of reinforcements to reinforce Fancheng, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were indifferent. I really don't know what Ann's heart is.
It is not only Zhuge Liang's problem that Guan Yu left Maicheng, but also Liu Bei, who has a brother relationship with Guan Yu, has great doubts. Why didn't Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang save Guan Yu? There must be a reason. Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu have contradictions, and Liu Bei also has contradictions with Guan Yu.
The contradiction between Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu Let's start with the contradiction between Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu in national interests. As we all know, the core of Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Dui" is to unite Wu against Cao, and the policy of uniting Wu against Cao was formulated by Zhuge Liang himself and was Zhuge Liang's overall strategy. Zhuge Liang's attitude towards Sun-Liu Alliance is very firm. Although this is Zhuge Liang's major policy, Guan Yu does not seem to approve of Sun's alliance with Liu. There is a story in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sun Quan once sent Zhuge Liang's younger brother Zhu Gejin to propose to Guan Yu, saying that Sun Quan had a son and Guan Yu had a daughter. Sun Quan wants to form children in-laws with General Guan. After the marriage, they can deal with Cao Cao. Unexpectedly, Zhu Gejin's proposal touched the dust on his nose. Guan Yu lost his temper and pointed to Zhu Gejin and said, "Will my tiger girl marry her son?"
This story is basically in line with history, except for the sentence "Will my tiger girl marry her son?" Luo Guanzhong added it through imagination. The original text of "The History of the Three Kingdoms" wrote: "You can't get married if you insult your ambassador." That is, Guan Yu not only refused to marry Sun Quan, but also scolded Sun Quan. In fact, Guan Yu insulted Sun Quan not only this time, but also more seriously. According to Guan Yu Chuan Pei Songzhi Note, when Guan Yu surrounded Fancheng, Sun Quan offered to help Guan Yu and sent troops to help him attack Fancheng. Guan Yu hated Sun Quan's later statement, even swearing: "Sun Quan, you coward, how dare you? If I shoot Fan Cheng down, I will kill you. "
Scorpion is an animal, similar to fox and wolf. Guan Yu called Sun Quan a scorpion, but in fact he called Sun Quan an animal, an animal, not a human being! Sun Quan was a hero in the Three Kingdoms period and the monarch of the State of Wu. How can he stand such an insult as Guan Yu? No wonder he betrayed others and sent Monroe to attack Jingzhou. And after Guan Yu was captured alive, he was not taken to Sun Quan, but was beheaded on the spot by general Pan Zhang and Ma Zhong. Sun Quan hated Guan Yu so much that he ordered his generals to execute Guan Yu immediately on the spot without asking for instructions. It can be clearly seen from here that Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu are really incompatible in the strategic policy of uniting Wu against Cao.