An era of prosperity is bound to be an era of talent flowing; an era of stagnation is bound to be an era of lack of talent. A country's attraction to talents and the degree of concentration of talents are important factors that determine whether a country can prosper and develop.
The reason why the Western Shu regime failed to win the world in the end is a very prominent reflection of this historical logic.
(1) There is a shortage of talents
A country's attack and defense against the outside world must be accomplished by relying on a number of civilian and military generals. In the early Wei period, there were Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Cao Ren, and Xiahou; in the later period, the veteran general Zhang Jaw was still there, as well as Guo Huai, Man Yu, Hao Zhao, and Deng Ai; in the early period of Eastern Wu, there were Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Lü Meng, and Xu Sheng; in the later period, there were Ding Feng, Lu Kang, and so on. These people are all great generals. In contrast, the generals of the Shu State were obviously much less. Before and after the Shu kingdom, the great generals who really played a role were only Guan Yu, Wei Yan, and Jiang Wei. The lack of generals is evident. Let's talk specifically about the lack of talents in the Shu kingdom.
First, the lack of generals in Jingzhou in the early period
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang successively led troops into Sichuan, leaving Guan Yu to guard Jingzhou. As far as the issue of Guan Yuzhen guarding Jingzhou is concerned, the author personally believes that there is not much of a problem. As far as Liu Bei's situation was concerned when he first entered Sichuan, guan yu was a brave and strategic man who was an old subordinate of Liu Bei for many years; the other guan yu had served Cao Cao, and many people in Cao's army were familiar with his bravery and loyalty. What's more, at this time, although Liu Bei was ostensibly a general like a cloud, in fact, it was impossible for others to serve as the town guard of Jingzhou. Zhang Fei had a fierce temperament, lacked the concept of the overall situation, and was not a general who guarded the side of the town and acted alone (later he was not even mixed with a Hanzhong Taishou); Huang Zhong was old; Wei Yan's seniority was too shallow to convince the public; Zhao Yun, the captain of the guard brigade, although he had some wisdom, I am afraid that he was not within the consideration of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang at all. In this way, only Guan Yu remained in Jingzhou.
But this was only the situation before Liu Bei captured Xichuan. After Liu Bei captured Xichuan, the situation changed. At the Battle of Xichuan, Liu Bei surrendered a large number of Sichuan Wenwu. In terms of military generals alone, there were Li Yan, Meng Da, Yan Yan, Chen Zhi, and others; Wei Yan and Liu Feng had also matured at this time and were able to sit on one side. Guan Yu in Jingzhou, on the other hand, originally did not have many regions and troops, plus Guan Yu only had mediocre generals such as Liao Hua and Lu Fang, and only Ma Liang had some strategies. What's more, at this time, the relationship between Wu and Shu was tense, and there was a tendency to trigger it. In this case, jingzhou's important land is still guarded by Guan Yu alone, not to mention that Guan Yu himself is somewhat self-conscious and arrogant, and the loss of Jingzhou is inevitable. At this time, although it cannot be said that Guan Yu should no longer be left to guard Jingzhou, it is obviously a mistake not to add strength to Jingzhou and still let Guan Yu single-handedly take on the big task of guarding Jingzhou.
Soon, Wu Wei secretly united to jointly attack Guan Yu. Cao Ren and Xu Huang were in the front; Lü Meng and Lu Xun attacked in the back. Guan Yu was defeated, and the Jingzhou stronghold was lost. This had an extremely serious impact on the later Zhuge Liang and Wei Wei and so on. The reason for this is that the lack of generals in Jingzhou cannot but be said to be an important reason.
Second, the lack of generals in the Later Period of the Northern Expedition
Zhuge Liang defeated Wei and surrendered the famous general Jiang Wei. The subordinate generals Wei Yan, Ma Dai, Wang Ping, Wu Yi, Zhang Yi, Liao Hua, and so on. But the only people who can really be regarded as great generals are Jiang and Wei. Zhuge was cautious all his life, and he was also good at fighting steadily in the use of troops, so he rejected Wei Yan's suggestion. Inside the Shu army, Wei Yan and Yang Yi fought for power and profit, and although Wei Yan had both wisdom and courage, he despised his colleagues and had an arrogant temperament, which eventually led to internal cannibalism. A generation of famous generals Wei Yan, born into death, died under the knife of his own people. Looking at the State of Wei at this time, in addition to his mortal enemy Sima Yi, there were still famous generals Cao Zhen, Zhang Jaw, Guo Huai, and so on, and there were many soldiers and horses, compared to the generals of the State of Shu, who were still extremely scarce. As for Wang Ping, Wu Yi and others, although they have certain generals, their strength is limited, and compared with Zhang Jaw and Sima Ma, it is naturally difficult to speak the same day. As for Jiang Wei's time, even people like Wang Ping and Wu Yi were already dead. Among the remaining class of martial generals, Zhang Yi was old, but he was restrained by Jiang Wei; Zong Qian and Liao Hua had no great ambitions, and they were single-minded in protecting themselves and had no ambition. In the struggle with Sima Zhao, Deng Ai, and Zhong Hui of Su Shan's power plot, whether it was the offensive and defensive battle of Longxi and the final battle to destroy Shu, the demise of the Shu state was inevitable.
(2) Shortage of counselors
Compared with the military generals competing for the world, strategists who give advice in the front and govern the country and the country in the rear are also indispensable. In this regard, the State of Wei, no matter how many are in the early period, Zhong Xuan, Chen Qun, Gao Rou, Jia Kui, and so on, although they are not as good as Zhuge Liang, they are also great talents who are good at enriching the country and strengthening the army. The State of Wu had such capable subjects as Gu Yong and Lu Xun successively. In the Shu kingdom, liu bei's early competition for the world was zhuge liang, Pang Tong, Ma Liang, Fazheng and other resourceful strategists. But later, Pang Tong and Ma Liang were killed on the battlefield, and Fa Zheng died young. A rare celebrity, Ma Mo, lost the street kiosk and died in prison. Since then, the Shu kingdom has basically relied on Zhuge Liang alone to support it. As soon as Zhuge Liang died, there was no successor. Fei Yuan's and Jiang Huan's generation were originally Zhuge Liang's team, and their skills were naturally far from each other. During the period when Jiang Huan and Fei Yuan were in power, they had no achievements at home and no special achievements outside. The other Chen Zhen, Xiang Lang, Du Qiong, Xu Ci, Lai Min, and others were either elderly or just Confucian scholars, and if they were to discuss the talents of the country and the state, I am afraid that none of them would be fully praised. The only Tai Zheng did not get the reuse it deserved. The later generation Wang Fuzhi also commented: "Although the reputation of Fei Yuan and Jiang Huan moved at that time, those who could be like Zhong Xuan, Cui Jiao, Chen Qun, Gao Rou, Jia Kui, and Chen Jiao, there were also deaths." "This shows the shortage of strategists in the Shu kingdom."
(3) Loss of employment
In fact, there are still many talents in the Shu Kingdom. However, no one uses it, and the reason lies in its employment and recruitment. In terms of employing people, it mainly lies in the use of talents, nepotism, and jealousy. The western Liang general Ma Chao demoted Liu Bei to a false post, but he had no military power in his hands, so that his ambition was difficult to reward, and he was depressed; Liu Feng, a fierce general with great military achievements, was beheaded for fear that he would threaten Liu Chan's rule; Ma Chen, a famous soldier who should have sat in the middle of the army and offered advice, went to the front to fight, and as a result, he was defeated due to lack of combat experience; the tiger general Li Yan was appointed to transport grain and grass, and was eventually demoted, and a rare famous general was thus beaten; and the resourceful celebrity Peng Yang only offended Zhuge Liang because he was proud of his talents. He lost his life; Zhou Qun, a famous scholar in Langzhong, was killed by Liu Bei for verbal offense to Liu Bei; Xichuan's general Meng Da, who had contributed to Liu Bei's efforts to recover the three counties, was forced to surrender to Wei because of Liu Bei's distrust.
In the later period, Liu Bei's bones were not cold, and the old generals Yong Kai and Gao Ding of Xichuan in southern China colluded with Meng To rebel; the later lord Liu Chan had an affair with Hu Shi, the wife of Liu Yan, the marquis of Shuzhong's old capital, and Liu Yan was beheaded by Liu Chan because of his excessive reactions; Huang Hao's close associate Yan Yu was jealous of Jiang Wei, and finally even famous generals like Jiang Wei had to go to Tuntian to avoid disaster...
Finally, the wise man gradually retreated, and the little man progressed day by day. Huang Hao and Yan Yu monopolized power and corrupted the imperial court; Jiang Shu, Wang Han, and Ma Mi were greedy and afraid of death, and successively betrayed the country and surrendered to the enemy...
alack! The root cause of the decline and fall of the Western Shu is not its poverty, not its small number of soldiers, but its loss of soldiers! Talent is not used, the successor is lacking, can it not die?