Some people say that Guan Yu was defeated and took Maicheng, and Linfeng was captured because Liu Bei did not arrange a capable strategist around Guan Yu to assist Guan Yu in defending Jingzhou. Some people also said that even if Liu Bei equipped Guan Yu with a powerful strategist, it would not change the outcome of Guan Yu's defeat. What the hell is going on?
Personally, I think that Liu Bei has no extra advisers to send to support Guan Yu in Jingzhou, and even if he arranges competent strategists around Guan Yu, he will not be able to avoid the tragedy of Guan Yu losing his city and land and being in a different place, as analyzed below.
First of all, Liu Bei had no one to send, and only two of his four great strategists, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, and Fazheng, were left.
Liu Bei has always attached great importance to martial arts and light literature, and there are many generals under him, such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong, as well as generals such as Wei Yan, Wang Ping, Liu Feng, and Meng Da, but there are very few strategists, and even fewer strategists who can stand alone. Liu Bei had great strategists such as Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Fa Zheng, and when Guan Yu was fighting Wei, there were only two people, Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng, Xu Shu switched to Cao Cao for his old mother, and Pang Tong died in Fengpo.
When Liu Bei first entered Yizhou, he only took Pang Tong with him, and as a military division, he left Zhuge Liang in Jingzhou and assisted Guan Yu in defending Jingzhou as the most determined rear. However, Pang Tong had bad luck and was ambushed in Luofengpo and died. This caused huge losses to the Liu Bei Group. Because Liu Bei was not as talented as Cao Cao, there were five great strategists in Guangda, including Guo Jia, Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, and Jia Xu, and he only had two top strategists, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, and Fa Zheng barely counted one. After Pang Tong's death, Liu Bei transferred Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and most of the civil and military officials to Yizhou to assist in the capture of Yizhou.
At this time, only Guan Yu was left in Jingzhou, an important general. The rest are second-rate characters. For example, Guan Ping is still a young general, Zhou Cang is carrying a knife, Liao Hua is also a hand, Mi Fang is relying on the nepotism of his sister Lady Mi to ascend to the throne, Fu Shiren is a guy who has more than enough success and failure, only Ma Liang and Wang Fu are left, and they can barely get by. However, the two of them may have certain achievements in internal affairs and logistics, but for the two armies to fight and the overall situation, the level is almost the same.
Second, even if Liu Bei sent a powerful strategist, Guan Yu would not necessarily be able to obey his words.
The only people Liu Bei could get his hands on were Zhuge Liang and Fazheng. In the Battle of Hanzhong, it was naturally impossible for him to send zhuge Liang and Fazheng to Jingzhou, where there was no war. At this time, There was no major war in Jingzhou, and it was allied with Eastern Wu, while Cao Cao's attention was in Hanzhong and he could not take care of Jingzhou for the time being. Hanzhong is exactly where people are employed, Liu Bei's main force, most of the generals and soldiers, are in Hanzhong, and both sides are desperately trying to occupy Hanzhong, constantly investing troops. In the end, Cao Cao was older, feeling that Hanzhong was like "chicken ribs", and after losing soldiers and breaking the general, he had no choice but to retreat, which was considered to be a abandonment of Hanzhong.
At this time, Liu Bei won the final victory in the Battle of Hanzhong, but he won a crushing victory, and the already barren mountainous area of Yizhou was even poorer. Zhuge Liang was the most adept at logistics and local internal affairs at that time, and Liu Bei needed Zhuge Liang to stabilize The Rear Yizhou and govern the localities. Therefore, Liu Bei could not reassign Zhuge Liang to Jingzhou to assist Guan Yu in defending Jingzhou.
From this point of view, if Liu Bei wanted to send a powerful strategist, he could only straighten out the law. Fa Zheng was good at making strange plans, and once made great contributions to Liu Bei's capture of Yizhou and Hanzhong, such as offering a plan, so that Huang Zhongjin beheaded Cao Cao's general Xiahou Yuan. He was highly praised by Chen Shou and could be with Cheng Yu and Guo Jia under Cao Cao. Comparable. Chen Shou commented on Pang Tong and Fa in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as follows:
Wei Chen, the zhong uncle who unified xun yu, the evil of Cheng and Guo?
However, Fa zheng's military ability was there, and he also gave a strange plan, but guan Yu might not be able to listen to his words. If Fa Zheng accepted Liu Bei's instructions, he entered Jingzhou and assisted Guan Yu in defending Jingzhou together. Guan Yu may wonder if someone is saying bad things about himself in front of the ears of his eldest brother Liu Bei and wants to seize his power. Therefore, Guan Yu, who was already arrogant, if he had his own careful thoughts, wild thoughts, and a thousand miles away from Yizhou, he could not meet Liu Bei in person and explain clearly in person. This lays the foundation for the disunity of the record.
Even if Zhuge Liang entered Jingzhou, he assisted Guan Yu and guarded Jingzhou. Guan Yu did not necessarily listen to the words of the military master Zhuge Liang. There are already many precedents for this. For example, Hua Rong Dao, Guan Yu confronted the military master Zhuge Liang, openly disobeyed the military order, and released the Han thief Cao Cao. Another example is that he said that he remembered Zhuge Liang's eight-character policy of "east and Sun Quan, north rejectIng Cao Cao" in Jingzhou, and with a very arrogant attitude, he rejected Sun Quan's proposal for marriage. In the end, Sun Quan and Cao Cao joined forces to attack Guan Yu, and Guan Yu suffered the consequences of his own.
Except for his eldest brother Liu Bei, guan Yu could listen to the words of his eldest brother Liu Bei, and the words of the rest of the people could be listened to when he wanted to, and he could not listen to them at all if he did not want to listen. Guan Yu was so arrogant, which was also the reason why Liu Bei did not send his right-hand strategists and cadres into Jingzhou after his victory in the Battle of Hanzhong, and he was afraid that most of the generals and Guan Yu would not be able to come together and cause contradictions, so it was better not to send them.
Summary: Liu Bei deployed the main force in Hanzhong, competed with Cao Cao for Hanzhong, and had no extra troops to reinforce Jingzhou. On the other hand, Jingzhou did not have a major war, nor did it need too many troops and strategists. Even if Liu Bei sent his right-hand men Fa Zheng and Zhuge Liang into Jingzhou, it would not necessarily be able to avoid the end of Guan Yu's defeat.