In the formal history, Fa Zheng is said to be Liu Bei's mastermind, which means that all of Liu Bei's strategic plans are derived from Fa Zheng, while Zhuge Liang is described as Liu Bei's minister, and the distinction and function between the two people come out at once. This narrative seems to be very different from our conventional Impression of the Three Kingdoms, because in the first impression of many people, zhuge Liang is the most powerful person in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, then where did the statement that Fa Zheng did not die and there were no Three Kingdoms come from, and why was Fa Zheng highly praised by Cao Cao?
Fa Zhengkong has talent and cannot be displayed
Fa Zheng was born in a family of Famous Scholars of the Han Dynasty, his grandfather was the Great Confucian Fa Zhen of the Han Dynasty, the family conditions were good plus the Confucian classics were mastered in his family through memory, so Fa Zheng received a very good education at a very young age, and at the starting line he had already surpassed others by a large margin, and when Fa Zheng grew into a man, it was difficult to become an official through the Han Dynasty's filial piety, because the official system at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty had been destroyed, and everyone was spending money to buy.
In the case that everyone spends money to buy officials to do it, you alone can't change this situation, and at that time, Fazheng's hometown suffered a famine that had not been encountered in a hundred years, and they had no choice but to go to Yizhou with their good friend Meng Da to join Liu Zhang, the Taishou of Yizhou, Liu Zhang was a descendant of Liu Yan, a famous minister of the Han Dynasty, liu Yan knew very early that the imperial court was rotten and that the world was about to be in chaos, so coming to Yizhou as an official was also the idea of dividing the territory and claiming to be a hero.
Yizhou became a place that was not affected by the war at that time, many readers in Hanzhong, Guanzhong, and Longxi came here or went to Jingzhou, Fazheng's good friend Meng Da was reused, but he was only appointed to an official position in a small county order, which did not reach the official position expected by Fazheng, so Fazheng and his colleagues around him did not have a very good relationship, unwilling to exploit the common people with them, and finally Fazheng worked in a county order position for several years and did not get promoted.
At this time, Fa Zheng was actually extremely depressed in his heart, because the relationship with the people around him could not come, and he was often slandered and isolated by his colleagues, so from that time on, Fa Zheng had the idea of finding a way out for himself, and after years of observation, he found that Liu Zhang was a medium person, without the strength of his father to divide Yizhou, but the situation of pleasure was indeed more excessive, and the demise of such a regime was only a matter of time speed, so in the end there was a matter of Fa Zheng turning to Liu Bei.
Fa Zheng's encounter with Liu Bei
Fa met Liu Bei under the recommendation of Zhang Song, at that time Zhang Songbei was praised as the most iron person in the jing territory of Yizhou, because Zhang Song dared to directly insult Cao Cao, not afraid of death at all, Fa Zheng as Liu Zhang's emissary met Liu Bei, received extremely high treatment, Liu Bei was the hero of the world at that time, the story of self-made and corporal Li Xian has long been famous all over the world, for this point fa is convinced, after seeing Liu Bei's actions more firmly believe in their own views, After returning to Yizhou, he conspired with Zhang Song to meet Liu Bei.
Three years later, Cao Cao sent a large army to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, and at this time Liu Zhang had a cold feeling of death and teeth, believing that after Zhang Lu's demise, his own end would not be far away, so he thought that liu bei should be united to guard against Yizhou, and it was impossible to defeat Cao Cao by relying on his own strength alone.
At this time, Liu Bei directly agreed to Fazheng's request, and recovered Fazheng as his chief strategist, Fazheng's analysis of Liu Zhang was that although this person was hot and weak, he was saddled with the reputation of cherishing the people, and he would certainly not use the method of Jianbi Qingye to defend Yizhou, so he suggested that Liu Bei directly attack Yizhou, get the army replenishment from the city, and after capturing Yizhou in the back, he was rewarded for his merits, Fazheng was the chief military merit, Liu Bei also married Liu Zhang's old general Wu Yi's sister as empress in order to buy people's hearts. In this way, the state was initially settled.
When Liu Bei calculated the merits in the army, four people accepted the rewards of 5,000 taels of gold, 10,000 taels of silver, 5,000,000 taels of copper coins, and 1,000 horses of Shu Jin, among these four civil servants were Zhuge Liang and Fazheng, among the military generals were Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Guan Yu actually did not do anything at that time, because Guan Yu was in Jingzhou, his reputation was too big, as the head of the military generals, he was afraid that he would not be happy, and Fa Zheng, as a foreign strategist, suddenly became a reward equal to that of these three people. Immediately, we could see what his position was in Liu Bei's heart.
Fa Zheng strategized Hanzhong
How much Fa Zheng contributed to Shu Han, if Zhuge Liang was Xiao He of Shu Han, then Fa Zheng was Liu Bei's Zhang Liang Zhang Zifang, and Fa Zheng's strategy was jealous of Cao Cao, and several of Fa Zheng's strategies were accurately implemented, which really laid the foundation for the situation of the three divisions of shu Han, Fa Zheng as a civilian official of Shu Han, he and Zhuge Liang were responsible for compiling shu Han's first official law" Shu Ke, after the emergence of this law, It was only then that the internal management between Shu and Han officials began to move on the right track instead of continuing to use the laws of the Eastern Han Dynasty as before.
After stabilizing the country, Fa Zheng pointed out to the point that cao cao's hundreds of thousands of troops at that time did not have a big battle to let Zhang Lu surrender and get the land of Hanzhong, but Cao Cao did not take the opportunity to attack the Bashu region south, but left Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He two generals to garrison, not because Cao Cao was old at this time, his wisdom was not as good as before, but because Cao Cao's strength was insufficient, there must be internal troubles that delayed Cao Cao's energy, and the information transmission at that time was very poor. However, Fazheng was able to analyze Cao Cao's weakness through the strength of the situation, which could not be said to be unwise.
After seeing Cao Cao's weakness, Fa Zheng's strategic plan for Liu Bei Shu Han was to take Hanzhong in the first step, and then encroach on Yongzhou and Liangzhou and the western region, so that he could directly surround Guanzhong and obtain horses from Hexi and the Hu people in the north to form a cavalry that crossed the Guanzhong Plain, and later history proved that Liu Bei did indeed do what Fa Zheng said, successfully defeated Cao Cao and captured the land of Hanzhong, but Liu Bei was too suspicious of Western Liangma Chao and lost the land of Yongzhou and Liangzhou. The strategic plan is only halfway there.
In the second year after the end of the Battle of Hanzhong, Fa Zheng died at the age of 45, and the man who had scared Cao Cao for a long time finally died in front of Cao Cao, and after Fa Zheng's death, Shu Han also lost a new direction in military strategy. Moreover, at that time, Ma Chao's majesty was also enough to get the land of Yongzhou and Liangzhou! It is a pity that Fa Zheng died too early as Liu Bei's mastermind, making Liu Bei unable to see the direction clearly.