Familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang is undoubtedly the star of this era and can be said to be a household name. However, in the late Shu Han Dynasty, the talent withered, except for Zhuge Liang, but there were not too many praiseworthy wise men, in this case, Zhuge Liang paid great attention to cultivating talents and promoting talents, so there was a classic story such as recruiting Jiang Wei. However, during the First Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang brandished a butcher's knife and beheaded his most proud protégé, Ma Chen. You must know that Shu Han obviously lacked wise men, so why did Zhuge Liang kill Ma Chen?
Regarding the death of Ma Mo, in fact, many friends have heard the story of the lost street kiosk. The protagonist is Ma Chen, who sits in the street pavilion, is besieged by Zhang Gao's army, and finally flees in defeat, so he is convicted and beheaded by Zhuge Liang in prison. In this matter, we have to start from the sixth year of Jianxing (228), Zhuge Liang sent troops to Qishan to northern expedition to wei. Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi to occupy Jigu (箕谷, in present-day northern Hanzhong, Shaanxi) as suspects, and personally led an army of 100,000 to raid Qishan (in present-day Gansu), where the Wei army was holding.
Due to the suddenness of Zhuge Liang's troops and the sound of attacking the east and the west, he deceived the local defense of Cao Wei and achieved the record of the three counties falling in the wind. Under these circumstances, the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui personally sat in Chang'an and sent two generals, Cao Zhen and Zhang Gao, to fight against Zhuge Liang. And on this key battlefield, it lies in the throat of the street pavilion, as long as the street pavilion is not lost, Zhuge Liang will successfully take the three counties of Longxi, similarly, if the street pavilion is lost, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition will be considered a failure.
At that time, there were Wei Yan, Wu Yi, Liao Hua, Wu Ban and other people in the army, but Zhuge Liang still promoted Ma Mo against the opinions of the people, appointed Ma Mo as the vanguard, and guarded the street pavilion. However, because Ma Mo violated Zhuge Liang's operational arrangements and abandoned the water source to garrison the troops on The South Mountain, the troops were divided and dispatched chaotically, and Ma Mo's deputy general Wang Ping advised Ma Mo many times in a row, and Ma Mo did not accept his plan. As a result, Zhang Hao cut off Ma Mo's way to get water, launched an attack and defeated Ma Mo, and Ma Mo's soldiers fled in defeat.
The street pavilion failed, and Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was in vain. This also became the direct cause of Zhuge Liang's killing of Ma Chen. However, after the Battle of Yiling, Shu Han's vitality was seriously injured, the talent withered, the shu Han top strategists Fa Zheng, Liu Ba, and others died one after another, and Ma Liang among the reserve cadres was also killed, and there was a serious fault in talent. And Ma Mo happens to be the talent discovered by Zhuge Liang, young, talented, highly literate in military theory, and more importantly, he is Ma Liang's younger brother and has a very close relationship.
Therefore, when Ma Mo made a mistake and Zhuge Liang wanted to punish, from the perspective of his inner wishes, Zhuge Liang did not want to kill Ma Mo, but in the end he was selfless in iron face, did not spare any emotion, brandished a butcher knife, and killed his most proud protégé. In view of this problem, even Jiang Huan felt pity, once saying, "The world is undecided and the wise and scheming people are not hesitant to do it!" "Meaning, now that the world is not yet stable, and there are few Shu Han talents, why should we kill a wise man like Ma Chen?"
In response to such a problem, Zhuge Liang could only silently shed tears, and once again cried, and said sixteen words with tears: "The four seas are divided, and the war between the two sides begins." If the law is abolished, why use the thief and evil! What does this sentence mean, that is, now that the world is in chaos, all sides are in constant war, and the country has not yet been unified, at this time, we cannot abolish the law, otherwise, what will we take to beg for thieves?
To put it simply, Zhuge Liang's fierce efforts to kill Ma Chen were for the sake of 4 words: governIng Shu according to law.
Source: Romance of the Three Kingdoms