After Liu Beibai was entrusted with the city, Zhuge Liang did not begin the first Northern Expedition until five years later. If Zhuge Liang could win the Battle of Jieting, then Shu Han would be able to gain a firm foothold in Liangzhou, and his comprehensive national strength would be further enhanced.
But unfortunately, Ma Mo was really not contentious, and the defeat of the Street Pavilion directly led to the failure of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, so that Zhuge Liang had to give up the existing results and could only return to the Dynasty. As for Ma Mo, he was also beheaded by Zhuge Liang's orders shortly after.
Regarding Zhuge Liang's tearful slashing, the reason has always been that there are many opinions. In summary, there are several main reasons.
First, the Ming canonical punishment, military law disposition.
In the Battle of the Street Pavilion, Ma Mo's performance was very poor.
First of all, he lost the battle, not only losing his troops, but also directly leading to the failure of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition.
Secondly, according to Zhuge Liang's deployment, Ma Mo should lead a large army to camp at the foot of the mountain. However, Ma Mo, who was self-clever, disobeyed Zhuge Liang's orders and chose to camp on the mountain. Even if the deputy general Wang Ping tried to dissuade him, he would not listen. Eventually, the water source was cut off by Zhang Gao, and the army directly did not fight and chaos.
In the end, after the defeat of Jieting, Ma Mo did not fight the Wei army to the death, even if he fled back to the Shu army camp, he could accept it. But he did not, but chose to abscond in fear of sin and fled. In other words, Ma Mo was a deserter, and he was later captured by others.
Each of the three crimes of losing a battle, losing soldiers, ignoring the commander-in-chief, disobeying military orders, and absconding as a deserter in fear of crimes is a capital offense. Zhuge Liang's tearful slashing of horses is in line with military law and is completely reasonable.
Second, calm the anger of the people and give everyone an explanation.
The commander of the Battle of Jieting, Zhuge Liang actually had many choices, like Wei Yan and Wu Yi, they were all famous generals who had experienced hundreds of battles and were very experienced, and on the basis of ability and prestige, they were not comparable to Ma Mo.
But even so, Zhuge Liang still tried his best to defy the public opinion and chose Ma Mo, who had never led soldiers to fight. To know that at that time, Ma Mo was just a soldier, that is, a secretary, and let a secretary serve as the commander of the Battle of the Street Pavilion, which was really a bit of a child's play.
Although Zhuge Liang is a minister, because of his mistake in employing people, the street kiosk fails, and Zhuge Liang is not good at explaining it to everyone. What's more, as early as when the White Emperor was entrusted with isolation, Liu Bei warned Zhuge Liang not to reuse Ma Mo. But Zhuge Liang just wouldn't listen, which would undoubtedly make Liu Bei's old troops in the army very dissatisfied.
If the relationship with these people is not handled well, then Zhuge Liang's power and position will be greatly challenged. In this case, Zhuge Liang could only abandon the pawn to protect the car and chose to cut off the horse to calm the anger of the people.
Third, there were many factions within the Shu Han Dynasty, and Ma Mo was actually a political victim.
Although shu Han said that there was only one Yizhou, it was internally divided into four factions:
Before Liu Bei entered Jingzhou, they were represented by Zhao Yun and were known as the Elder Faction;
When Liu Bei was in Jingzhou, the recruited talents, such as Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan, Ma Chen, and others, were called the Jingzhou sect;
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the people who entered Shu before Liu Bei, led by Li Yan, were called the Dongzhou Faction;
Local forces in Yizhou, such as Tan Zhou, Zhou Shu, Du Qiong, and others, were known as the Yizhou faction.
From this, it can be seen that Liu Chan's two great ministers, Zhuge Liang and Li Yan, belonged to the Jingzhou faction and the Dongzhou faction, respectively. Originally, according to Liu Bei's conception, zhuge liang should be in charge and Li Yan should be in charge. But if you want to go north, the army must be in the hands of Zhuge Liang, so Zhuge Liang must arrange more people sent from Jingzhou into the army.
And Ma Mo is the best candidate. After all, Ma Mo's theoretical knowledge is very strong, and what he lacks is only actual combat experience, so Zhuge Liang will try to defy the public opinion and let Ma Mo command the battle of the street pavilion. The purpose was to give Ma Mo the merits of battle, so as to enter the army and compete with Li Yan's Dongzhou faction for military power.
But it is a pity that Ma Mo is really not angry, directly making Zhuge Liang's good wishes into vain, and even more so that Zhuge Liang fell into the inferior position in this factional struggle.
If Zhuge Liang didn't cut off the horse, the Dongzhou faction would not be able to say it, and maybe Li Yan would also make a big fuss about it. In order to avoid these circumstances, Ma Mo was tragically reduced to a political victim.
If Ma Mo can win the Battle of Jieting, then he can definitely be promoted to the rank of knight, and become an important help for Zhuge Liang in the army, and the voice of Li Yan and the Bazhou faction in the army will be further weakened.
But unfortunately, Ma Mo was not only defeated by Zhang Hao, but he himself became a deserter, which cannot be forgiven. Coupled with the fact that he brought Zhuge Liang a series of subsequent troubles, no matter what, it was the right choice to cut the horse.