During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, there were not a few generals who surrendered to the enemy camp, and some generals not only did not get criticized, but instead got the name of loyalty, such as Guan Yu, and some generals said that although they surrendered to the enemy, they did not suffer criticism, such as Huang Quan.
Among them, there is another type of person, who is upside down and capricious, and completely interprets the meaning of the wall grass, and its representative figure is Meng Da.
In 219, Guan Yu led an army to besiege Xiangfan, and at that time, Guan Yu asked Meng Da, who was stationed in Shangyong, for help, and Meng Da refused to send troops under the pretext that Shangyong had just been annexed and had not yet been stabilized. Soon after, Guan Yu was defeated and killed by Lü Meng, to a certain extent, this defeat, Meng Da will bear certain responsibility, if Meng Da sends troops to help, Guan Yu will definitely not be defeated so badly.
Liu Bei was also very displeased with Meng Da because of Guan Yu's death. Meng Da was originally Liu Zhang's general, and after Liu Bei occupied Yizhou, Meng Da defected to Liu Bei. After Guan Yu's death, Meng Da, fearing being killed by Liu Bei, defected to Cao Wei again.
When Meng Da defected to Cao Wei, he also had a name in his hand, that is, the three eastern counties (Shangyong, Fangling, and Xicheng) that had recently been occupied by the Shu army, and soon after, with the help of Meng Da, the Wei army captured the eastern three counties, Cao Pi was happy, changed the three counties to new cities, and ordered Meng Da to be the new city Taishou to guard against the Shu army. In other words, because Meng Da surrendered to Cao Wei, the Shu state lost its strategic position.
Cao Pi was not thin to Meng Da, and Meng Da also regarded Cao Pi as his greatest reliance. Cao Pi's strategic intention, similar to "using Yi to control Yi", was to use Meng Da to restrain the Shu army, in fact, Cao Pi's trust in Meng Da was also reserved. However, in 226 AD, Cao Pi died of illness, Meng Da lost Cao Pi, a great patron, and his friends Huan Jie and Xiahou Shang had also died.
In other words, after Cao Pi's death, Meng Da was in a state of isolation and helplessness for a certain period of time, so Meng Da wanted to return to Shu Han.
It is true that Meng Da is a veritable wall grass, and although the situation in the three countries is deceitful, all forces are very disgusted with such people. Meng Da had offended the Shu state, so he also prepared a second plan, that is, to defect to Eastern Wu.
Historical records record: "Sun Quan, the king of Wu, also recruited, Da Sui backed Wei, and passed through Wu and Shu. ”
In Meng Da's view, the State of Wei may not be able to stay, and if it cannot return to the State of Shu, then switch to Eastern Wu, which is obviously not a matter of stepping on two boats, or even three boats.
At first, Zhuge Liang still hoped that Meng Da could return to the Shu kingdom, and for the national interests, Meng Da's return would allow the Shu state to take back the eastern three counties, which was very beneficial to the entire strategic layout of the Shu state, but Zhuge Liang was extremely distrustful of Meng Da.
After careful consideration, Zhuge Liang believed that leaving Meng Da would do more harm than good, and if Meng Da came back with two sides and three knives, and hooked up with Eastern Wu, the Eastern Three Counties would not only not be able to get it back, but would lead to the Shu army throwing rats and extremely passive.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang decided to use the divisive strategy, with the help of Cao Wei's hand, to get rid of Meng Da, a traitor.
Historical records record that "Da Ze Lian Wu Gu Shu, subliminal map china." Shu Xiang Zhuge Liang hated his repetition and worried about his troubles. Da and Wei Xingtai had a gap with Shen Yi, and Liang wanted to promote his affairs, but he sent Guo Mo to surrender and pass the yi, because he leaked his plot. Da heard that his plot leaked and would raise troops. ”
Meng Da and Wei Xing were too defensive of Shen Yi, so Zhuge Liang sent Guo Mo to pretend to defect to wei and told Shen Yi the news that Meng Da was going to rebel. Zhuge Liang knew very well that in view of the feud between Meng Da and Shen Yi, Shen Yi would definitely take this opportunity to retaliate, so soon, the news that Meng Da was going to rebel reached Sima Yi's ears.
Sima Yi, as the top strategist of the Three Kingdoms, quickly analyzed the origin of the matter, whether Meng Da wanted to defect to the State of Shu or the State of Wu, the greatest loss was still the State of Wei.
Therefore, if you want to stop the Mengda rebellion, you must send troops as quickly as possible, and if you do not seize the opportunity, the consequences are unpredictable.
Soon, the well-informed Meng Da learned that his plan to return to Shu was leaked, and in order to avoid the night long dream, he decided to raise an army immediately. We speculate that at that time, Meng Da did not know that it was Zhuge Liang who wanted to pit him.
Very early on, Sima Yi found that Meng Da was very unreliable, not only seeing the wind and making the rudder, but also having no sincerity to speak of. Sima Yi appealed to The Wei Emperor Cao Rui and suggested that he get rid of Meng Da, but Cao Rui did not agree.
To this day, Meng Da was about to rebel, and Sima Yi could not be allowed to think more, and he must act as soon as possible. Sima Yi thought about it more thoroughly, first, he immediately wrote a letter to appease Meng Da, which read:
"The Shu people are stupid and wise, and they can't help but cut their teeth to the general." Zhuge Liang wanted to break with each other, but there was no way out of suffering. What Mo Zhi said is not a small thing, but it is light and light and makes it revealed, which is easy to know. ”
The general meaning is that we in the State of Wei still have a lot of trust in the general, otherwise we would not entrust the land of the Three Counties to the general, and Zhuge Liang wants to provoke the relationship between you and the State of Wei.
When Meng Da saw Sima Yi's letter, he began to hesitate again, and immediately postponed the dispatch of troops. At the same time, Sima Yi immediately reported the matter to the emperor, indicating the reason for sending troops, and immediately sent troops to Meng Da's headquarters at the speed of a rapid march.
In Sima Yi's view, Meng Da was untrustworthy, and keeping him to continue to play with treasure was harmful to the State of Wei and not beneficial, and only by occupying the three eastern counties first was the safest approach.
At that time, Sima Yi's army was twelve hundred miles away from Meng Da, and meng Da thought that if Sima Yi really wanted to send troops, it would take at least a month, but what was unexpected was that Sima Yi's army arrived at Wancheng in only eight days.
The Wei army immediately began to attack the city, and after 16 days of fighting, Meng Da finally could not hold on, and because of his two-sided and three-blade personality, his nephew Deng Xian, the general Li Fu and others opened the city gates, and finally, Meng Da was beheaded by Sima Yi.
Although Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang are masters of playing with power, and the Three Kingdoms are also full of traps of deception, those conspiracies and tricks are mainly aimed at the enemy, and within their own camp, the most important thing is unity, Meng Da, this kind of wall grass, no matter where it is, will not be respected, and most of these people's ends are defeated.
References: Huayang Guozhi, Book of Jin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Author: Our special guest author Nine Fish Pavilion