In 263 AD, in a state of disapproval, the Cao Wei army led by Zhong Hui and Deng Ai succeeded in cutting down Shu, but various matters during the Period of Shu also directly intensified the contradictions between the two men. After the achievement, Zhong Deng was suspicious of each other, killed each other, and staged a tragedy of "two soldiers competing for merit", and finally "success and no return". Through this tragedy, we can also spy on the internal contradictions of the Sima clique and discover the inevitability in the contingency of the problem of "two soldiers competing for merit".
First, sima Zhao's background in Shu
In the later period of Cao Wei, Sima Zhao, with his father and brother, grew rich in wings and did not know the heart of the subject.
In 258 AD, the Book of Jin recorded that there was a proposal for Sima Zhao to "seal the Duke of Jin, add Nine Tin, enter the throne of Xiangguo, and put the Jin State into a lawsuit".
The little emperor Cao Xian did not want to sit still, so he preemptively attacked and led troops to attack Sima Zhao, but his strength was weak, and neither his wisdom nor his strength was that of Sima Zhao's opponents, and he was killed before he could succeed. Under these circumstances, Sima Zhao began to make his own wishful thinking and speed up the process of usurping the throne. But he also knows that if he wants to be fast, he will not be able to reach it, he has done too many shady things, his reputation cannot be popular, and the time is not yet ripe. So Sima Zhao set his sights on the Shu Han in the southwest, hoping to establish merit through the cutting of Shu, get rid of the moral crisis brought about by the killing of the king, add points to his positive image, and obtain political capital. In 263, Sima Zhao ignored the numerous objections and brazenly began the Battle of Shu.
2. Personnel arrangements of the Fashu Group
Sima Zhao, who had accompanied his father Sima Yi in his conquests and killings since childhood, had lived in the army for a long time, was familiar with the army, and made meticulous arrangements for this expedition, in order to complete his contribution to the battle. He ordered the Zhenxi general Zhong Hui to be the commander-in-chief, and as the main force of the Shu Dynasty, he took Hanzhong from the Camel Valley and the Xie Valley; Deng Ai and Zhuge Xu, as partial divisions, sent troops out of Longxi to undertake the task of containment.
From the above arrangement, it can be seen that Zhong Hui was the main general of the Battle of Shu. This is because Zhong Hui was both a staunch supporter of The Shu Dynasty, an important figure in the Sima clique and a think tank of Sima Zhao himself. The Zhong clan and the Sima clan are family friends, and Zhong Hui's father, Zhong Xuan and Sima Yi, are colleagues and have a strong friendship. Zhong Hui was as old as the Sima brothers, and since childhood, the talented Zhong Hui had always been sima shi's private. Deng Ai, on the other hand, was born as a border general, and although he had been in the battlefield for a long time, he had achieved no achievements in politics. Deng Ai was promoted by Sima Yi and did not have a close relationship with Sima Zhao. Moreover, Deng Ai resolutely opposed the shu, and it was only at Sima Zhao's resolute request that Deng Ai finally compromised.
Of course, some people in the DPRK and China have put forward different views, believing that zhonghui cannot be trusted. The important reason for this is that Zhong Hui has no children, but only succeeds his brother's son Zhong Yi. If the clock will have a bad heart, it will have no scruples.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Zhong Yu once secretly enlightened King Sima Wen, and it was difficult to guarantee the art of speech, and it was not allowed to take full-time duties.
As The older brother of Zhong Hui, Zhong Yu naturally knows his younger brother very well. Zhong Yu told Sima Zhao that Zhong would have a city government and should not let him take power alone. However, Sima Zhao, with the arrow on the string at this time, had already made up his mind to reuse Zhong Hui, and he felt that Zhong Hui would definitely not rebel. In order to reassure Zhong Yu, Sima Zhao promised that even if Zhong would rebel, he would never be connected to the Zhong family in the future.
To be sure, there are indeed problems with this personnel arrangement of the Fashu Group. The problem is not only the personal problem of Zhong Hui and Deng Ai, but also the huge difference and exclusion between Zhong Hui and Deng Ai. Forcing the two to cooperate has a high probability of producing an effect of one plus one less than two.
The analysis of the differences and exclusions of the main generals Deng Ai and Zhong Hui is as follows:
1. From the perspective of age, Zhong Hui is just in his prime, only 39 years old, and Deng Ai is fast to the age of Gu Rare. The huge difference in age not only makes the two have different ways of thinking, but also causes the two to despise each other: in Deng Ai's eyes, Zhong Hui is a stinking hairy boy who can only move his mouth and talk on paper. Zhong Hui looked at Deng Ai as an old pawn and felt that he was already overwhelmed.
2. From the perspective of seniority, Deng Ai is at the border pass, fighting with Jiang Wei in Longxi for a long time, all the merits are spelled out with real swords and guns, and many years of military career have also brought Deng Ai simple characteristics and the heroism of a martial artist. Zhong Hui, on the other hand, belonged to the second generation of the Cao Wei Gongchen Group, who grew up in a famous family, was born as a civilian official, was young and vigorous, and had a kind of heroism and the conceit of a literati in his chest. The different qualifications of the two are like the opposition of the civilian and military generals, and the two have different experiences, highlighting the personality and lack of commonality, which makes them despise each other.
3. From the point of view of personality, Deng Ai has been rooted in the Longxi front for many years, has rich experience in guarding the border, and the fruitful results achieved cannot help but make him feel arrogant. Deng Ai has the problem of stuttering, and he is not good at words, so he will naturally pay more attention to action. It can be said that it is sensitive to deeds and words. On the other hand, Deng Ai was also a person who spoke bluntly and dared to express different opinions, and when Sima Zhao proposed to cut Shu, Deng Ai resolutely expressed his opposition. After the success of Shu Shu, he ignored Zhong Hui's feelings and blindly expressed himself, which also became an important reason for the tragedy of the two soldiers competing for merit. Again, from Deng Ai's strange attack on Chengdu through the small road, it can be seen that he is extremely brave and daring. All in all, Deng Ai is a proud and brave and straightforward veteran image.
In contrast, Zhong Hui was born from a famous family, and Zhong Hui himself was deeply valued by the Sima brothers. The young and promising Zhong Hui is definitely also an arrogant person. In addition, regardless of Zhong Hui's talents, Zhong Hui also has a strong sense of jealousy and political ambition. It can be known from Zhong Yu's evaluation that "not full-time". Sima Zhao sentenced Zhong Hui to be a shu general, naturally in order to satisfy Zhong Hui's desire for power and meritorious mentality after his achievements.
From the above three aspects, the two are not on the same track at all, and both are eagle-like figures, which is difficult to get along with. In the Battle of Shu mentioned below, Deng Ai's almost provocative attack on Chengdu undoubtedly greatly intensified the already unfriendly relationship between the two men. For the future fire of the two people, laid a very bad inducement. Later generations called it "two soldiers competing for merit".
III. Progress in the Battle of Shu
According to Sima Zhao's personnel arrangements, the Zhenxi general Zhong Hui was the commander and led the main force of Shu to take Hanzhong from the Camel Valley and the Xie Valley, and finally to Chengdu; Deng Ai and Zhuge Xu, as partial divisions, each led 30,000 soldiers and horses out of Longxi, undertook the task of containment, and was responsible for intercepting Jiang Wei and blocking his retreat.
In terms of troop strength, Cao Wei led by Zhong Hui had a total of 160,000 men and horses, while Jiang Wei and Shu Han had 100,000 troops, and Cao Wei had the advantage. The ideal is very full, but the reality is not so full - Zhuge Xu arrived at the agreed place one day late, and Jiang Wei was able to retreat into the Heavenly Danger Sword Pavilion Pass. After that, Jiang Wei relied on his terrain advantages and rich combat experience to enter a stalemate with Zhong Hui's army. Zhong Hui's army could not advance, and there was a shortage of food, and the war was very difficult.
According to the original plan, after Zhuge Xu and Deng Ai completed the containment of Jiang Wei, they met with Zhong Hui and joined forces to attack Shu. However, the containment task was not completed on time, and at this time, Deng Ai would meet with Zhong Huishi again, which had no great significance. Deng Ai believes that instead of being trapped and dying with Zhong Hui, it is better to find a new way for himself. Therefore, because Deng Ai was familiar with the terrain of Longyou, he led his troops to march 700 miles from the Yinping Trail, opened a road in every mountain, built a bridge in the water, entered Shu from Long, and appeared from the rear of the Shu state at the mouth of the Youjiang River to a great extent, and after capturing Mianzhu, he took advantage of the situation to capture Chengdu in one fell swoop, captured Liu Chan, and thus declared the demise of the Shu state.
Fourth, the two soldiers strive for merit
Although Deng Ai's surprise attack destroyed the Shu state, it also greatly worsened the relationship between Zhong and Deng—Deng Ai, as a partial teacher, took Zhong Hui's Shu head gong. After that, Deng Ai made up his own mind and began to demote the king of the Shu kingdom to the throne, which was an extremely serious provocative signal in the eyes of Zhong Hui, and it was clear that Deng Ai was proud of his achievements and did not take zhong hui in his eyes. At this time, Jiang Wei's surrender to Zhong Hui instead of Jiang Wei was even more inflammatory, which completely ignited Zhong Hui's anger - Jiang Wei learned that Liu Chan had been captured and that after the fall of the Shu state, he plotted to use false surrender to provoke Zhong and Deng to fire in the hope of restoring the country, so he praised Zhong Hui and denounced Deng Ai's behavior.
Zhong Hui has always respected Jiang Wei, who is similar to his own identity and status, and has a "Confucian general" style, and believes that Jiang Wei's words are true. At the same time, Zhong Hui joined forces with Deng Ai's overseer Wei Wan to falsely accuse Deng Ai of rebellion, so Sima Zhao ordered Deng Ai's arrest and escort him back. Although it is far-fetched to say that Deng Ai plotted rebellion, it is not empty--Deng Ai, without Sima Zhao's permission, wantonly rewarded the Shu state as a vassal, which indeed challenged Sima Zhao's authority and was labeled "disrespectful". To be fair, Deng Ai at this time was still more meritorious than excessive, so Sima Zhao only arrested Deng Ai at this time, and there was no more violent reaction.
After the arrest of Deng Ai, Zhong Hui had actually become the leader of Shudi. Only Deng Ai was jealous of Zhong Hui, and after Deng Ai was detained, Zhong Hui immediately rushed to Chengdu and commanded the army. At this time, Zhong Hui's ambitions were rapidly expanding, and he thought that his fame was incomparable, and he was unwilling to be subordinate to others. In addition, the elite soldiers were all in their own hands, so they raised troops to rebel.
Zhong Hui originally planned to send Jiang Wei to lead the Shu army out of the Xie Valley, first occupy Chang'an, and then send troops to seize the world. Sima Zhao heard the wind and led an army of 100,000 to Chang'an, ready to deal with it. Zhong Hui then took Jiang Wei's advice and prepared to kill the generals in case they rebelled, but they missed the wind. Zhong Hui loved qiu Jian, who originally belonged to Hu Lie's troops, and he pitied Hu Lao, sent his relatives to send food and Hu Lie, and told Zhong Hui to prepare to kill them, and Hu Lie wrote a secret letter asking Qiu Jian's relatives to send his son Hu Yuan outside the city.
When Hu Yuan heard the news, he led the soldiers and horses of the base battalion to make a big move, and the remaining battalions were unwilling to rebel with Zhong Hui, and the mighty killing would enter the city. A mutiny occurred, and Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei died in the rebellion. Fearing that his conspiracy with Zhong Hui would leak, Wei Ou sent people to hunt down and kill Deng Ai's father and son, and eventually ended up with their lives.
Zhong Hui took Hanzhong, and Deng Ai smuggled yinping and took Chengdu. After the destruction of Shu, the two soldiers competed for merit, and both paid the price of their lives.
Fifth, the confrontation between the warrior clan and the cold door is seen by the two soldiers competing for merit
Through this tragedy, we can also peek into the internal contradictions of the Sima clique and discover the inevitability of the contingency of the problem of "two soldiers competing for merit"—that is, the confrontation between the sergeant clan of the Sima clique and the Cold Gate. The core figure group in the Sima clique, that is, the shiren group, has gradually taken shape since the Cao Wei period, most of them are famous, and they are friends with the Sima clan, and there is a general mentality of pampering and fixing the position, and suppressing the children of the Hanmen, resulting in the opposition between the Shi clan and the Hanmen, which also weakens the ruling foundation of the Sima clique.
Deng Ai came from a humble background, from the cold gate, although he had many years of combat experience, he was never able to integrate into the core of the Sima clique. Because of stuttering, it was certainly difficult to carry out the conversation activities that were popular at that time, and naturally it was impossible to establish a good relationship with the scholar group to sing and harmonize with each other. Deng Ai's stuttering was often teased, so he did not have a good feeling for the scholars.
Zhong Hui himself was a member of the celebrity group at that time, and naturally did not want to "collude" with Deng Ai, who was born from the grass people, and had a strong contempt for Deng Ai in his heart. At the same time, Zhong Hui is a person with a strong desire for power and a strong sense of revenge, and Deng Ai's arbitrary behavior and changing the battle plan are giving Zhong Hui an excellent opportunity, which must be used by Zhong Hui to put him to death and then quickly. All in all, the reason why Zhong Hui wants to get rid of Deng Ai is on the one hand related to his personality, reflecting Zhong Hui's personal dissatisfaction with Deng Ai; on the other hand, it is influenced by Zhong Hui's origin and status, expressing the suppression of the han disciples by the scholar group.
From the events behind Zhong Hui and Deng Ai, we can also clearly see the rejection of the Cold Gate by the sergeant group of the Sima clique: the so-called Rebellion of Deng Ai was completely a fictitious thing, and Deng Ai's father and son were killed, and his wife and grandson were exiled to the Western Regions. After that, very few people were willing to speak up for Deng Ai and defend himself, until Emperor Wu of Jin issued an edict: "Deng Ai has meritorious deeds, and does not escape punishment when he suffers, and his descendants are subordinate to the people, and his concubine Sun Lang is the middle of the lang." At this time, he only made Deng Ai's grandson an official, but did not rehabilitate Deng Ai, but only said that Deng Ai did establish meritorious service, although he was guilty, he did not escape, but did not involve the hat of rebellion that Deng Ai was holding on his head.
When dealing with the real rebel Zhong Hui, he only executed those who participated in the rebellion. Although his adopted son Zhong Yi was also executed, the Zhong family was not implicated, a large number of Zhong's sons were pardoned, and the official titles were not stripped, and Sima Zhao still showed trust in them.
Through the "two soldiers competing for merit" and Sima Zhao's different treatment of the two and their heirs, it can be seen that the core figure of the Sima group is a group of scholars composed of noble children, and a cold soldier like Deng Ai is ultimately incompatible with it, is excluded, and cannot go to the forefront. The current Deng Ai, later Wang Mao, Shi Bao, all of them are like this.
The opposition between the Warrior Clan and the Cold Gate is a lose-lose situation, and there is no winner. The solidified ruling class could not maintain long-term rule in the end, which was also a small enlightenment given to us by the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, which were the strongest and difficult to produce a stable political power.