Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was a five-time war waged by Zhuge Liang, the shu Han chancellor, from the spring of 228 to the winter of 234, when he sent troops out of Hanzhong during the Three Kingdoms period to unify the Central Plains. Among them, as far as Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition is concerned, because of his surprise and the fact that the Wei state is not very well prepared, it is the most promising one to succeed. During Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding on the right side of Longyou were unable to resist, and Tianshui and Nan'an Taishou even abandoned the defensive city and fled eastward, the Wei generals Jiang Wei, Liang Xu, Yin Xiang, and Shangguan Yan surrendered to Zhuge Liang, and Guo Huai, the assassin of Yongzhou, retreated to Shangyi to wait for help. In an instant, three of the five counties of Longyou (Longxi, Nan'an, Tianshui, Guangwei, and Anding) surrendered to Zhuge Liang, but only Guangwei County and Longxi County refused to surrender. Longxi Commandery Taishou Youchu resolutely resisted.
For this situation, the entire imperial court of Cao Wei was "fearful of the government and the opposition". However, as we all know, because Ma Mo lost the street pavilion, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition ultimately failed. After Ma Mo lost the street pavilion, Zhuge Liang lost an important stronghold, had no basis for retreat, and could not fight any more, so more than a thousand households in Qianxi County withdrew to Hanzhong. Hou MaChen and his generals Li Sheng, Zhang Xiu, and others were executed, and Huang Raid was stripped of military power. So, the question is, when Zhuge Liang first went on the Northern Expedition, why did he send Ma Chenzhen to guard the street pavilion instead of Zhao Yun?
One
First of all, during Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, only Zhao Yun was left with the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han Dynasty, that is, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong, who had already died. On this basis, for Zhao Yun, a famous general, he naturally also participated in Zhuge Liang's first northern expedition to the Central Plains. However, during Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, he did not arrange for Zhao Yun to guard the street pavilion, but entrusted this heavy task to Ma Mo, who lacked actual combat experience. In this regard, in the author's opinion, the reason why Zhuge Liang did not send Zhao Yunzhen to guard the street pavilion during the first Northern Expedition, but used horse rumors, was mainly divided into the following points. On the one hand, during Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, Zhao Yun also had a heavy responsibility.
In the sixth year of Jianxing (228 AD), Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, sent an army to the Northern Expedition, declaring that he would send troops from Xiegu Dao, and made Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi a suspicious army and occupied Jigu. After learning the news of Zhuge Liang's attack, the Cao Wei general Cao Zhen led a large army to block, Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi to block the Cao army at Xiegu Road and himself led the main force of the Shu army to attack Qishan, Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi lost to Jigu due to their weak troops and strong enemies, but Zhao Yun gathered his troops in time and held on to Jigu, without causing major losses. When the Shu Han soldiers retreated, Zhao Yun personally cut off the rear to prevent the Cao army from pursuing, so the losses of materials and personnel were not large. However, this was because Zhao Yun, a veteran general with rich experience, could minimize the losses on the Shu Han side. If you change to other inexperienced military generals, it is likely that the entire army will be destroyed.
Two
Further, in the Battle of Jigu, Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi led only a partial division, as a suspicious soldier to attract the main force of Cao Wei led by Cao Zhen. Therefore, if the two armies really fought, Zhao Yun's side was simply a mantis arm as a car, and it would be destroyed by the other side in an instant. Therefore, in the author's opinion, it is precisely because the difficulty of this battle is too high, in the Shu Han camp at that time, in addition to Zhao Yun, only Wei Yan should be able to do it. Of course, Wei Yan needed to stay with Zhuge Liang at that time and help him attack the city, so Zhuge Liang entrusted this heavy task to Zhao Yun.
On this basis, if Zhao Yun is allowed to go to the town to guard the street pavilion, there is indeed a chance to block Zhang Gao at the street pavilion. Because in the Battle of Jieting, Ma Mo violated Zhuge Liang's festival at Jieting, took troublesome measures, abandoned water sources even more, and chose to climb Nanshan to defend rather than occupy the town under the mountain; the general Wang Ping had repeatedly advised, but Ma Mo did not accept it. After Zhang Gao arrived, he surrounded the mountain, cut off the water source of the Ma Chen army on the mountain, and launched a large-scale attack, breaking the Ma Chen army, scattering the soldiers and soldiers, and collapsing into an army. Therefore, as long as Zhao Yun followed Zhuge Liang's previous arrangements, he had every opportunity to guard the street pavilion. However, there would probably be no problem on the side of the street pavilion, but naturally there was no suitable candidate for the Battle of Jigu, which attracted cao Wei's main force. If Ma Mo had been allowed to command the Battle of Jigu, it was likely to bring greater losses to shu Han.
Three
In this regard, in the author's opinion, in the Battle of Jigu, the reason why the suspicious soldiers led by Zhao Yun were able to attract the main force of the Wei state led by Cao Zhen and prompt the other side not to act rashly at first was also because of the prestige accumulated by Zhao Yun for many years of conquest. Zhao Yun followed Liu Bei for nearly thirty years, successively participated in the Battle of Bowangpo, the Battle of Changsakapo, the Battle of Jiangnan Pingding, and single-handedly commanded the Battle of Jinchuan, the Battle of Hanshui, and the Battle of Jigu, all of which achieved very good results. Therefore, for Zhao Yun, a veteran who has been famous for a long time, Cao Zhen is naturally more familiar. Therefore, when Zhao Yun appeared with a small number of soldiers and horses, Cao Zhen did not dare to act hastily at first. And this will undoubtedly buy Zhuge Liang a certain amount of time to pacify Long Right.
However, because Ma Mo lost the street pavilion, Zhao Yun's side could not continue to contain Cao Zhen. On this basis, because Ma Mo was an inexperienced military general, if he was allowed to command the Battle of Migu, not only would it not play a role in containing Cao Zhen, but it would bring greater losses to Shu Han. On the other hand, during zhuge liang's first northern expedition to the Central Plains, the reason why he used Ma Mo to guard the street pavilion was also to train Ma Mo as a general, so as to provide more talents for Shu Han.
Four
Finally, Ma Mo initially followed Liu Bei into Shu as a Jingzhou official, and successively served as Mianzhu County Ling, Chengdu County Ling, and Yue Yue Taishou. Ma Mocai's qi apparatus exceeded that of ordinary people, and he liked to discuss war strategy, and Zhuge Liang, the chancellor, was deeply attached to him. It is worth noting that when Liu Bei was dying, he said to Zhuge Liang: "Ma Mo's words are exaggerated, beyond actual talent, and you cannot appoint major events, you must examine him more." However, Zhuge Liang also thought that this was not the case, and let Ma Mo join the army, and often met and talked about the conquest strategy, from day to night. Therefore, Zhuge Liang was very important to Ma Chen, a general, especially before Jiang Wei surrendered to Shu Han, Ma Mo was probably one of Zhuge Liang's successors. On this basis, during the first Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, Zhuge Liang chose to entrust the task of guarding the street pavilion to Ma Mo in order to test and cultivate Ma Mo. If Ma Mo could accomplish this task, then he could have completely marched among the military generals of the Shu state, and even after Zhuge Liang's death, he took on the heavy responsibility of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.
However, the final situation shows that Ma Mo, like Zhao Kuo, is a man of paper, and when he really encounters a test, he often does not follow the actual situation, but acts on his own, and finally suffers defeat. In the Battle of Changping, Zhao Kuo talked on paper, causing Zhao Guo to lose 450,000 elite soldiers. In the Battle of Jieting, Ma Mo did not listen to advice, resulting in the first Northern Expedition of the Shu State to Cao Wei. To a certain extent, it was precisely because Ma Mo's talent training plan ended in failure, prompting Zhuge Liang to set his sights on Jiang Wei and others. As for Wang Ping, who put forward the correct opinion in the Battle of Jieting, he also came to prominence and became a major general in the middle of the Shu Han Dynasty. And this, perhaps, is "Sai Weng lost his horse, and he knew that it was not a blessing". What do you think about that?