introduction
The Analects of Ji Shi has a saying: "I am afraid of Ji Sun's worries, not in the Xiao Dynasty, but also within the Xiao Wall." "The idiom woe to the Wall of Misfortune has since been used to describe the wreckage that occurred at home. The most distinctive embodiment in ancient China is that many princes compete for royal power, so that the power is sidelined; but for a country, if the courtiers are separated from morality and have their own plans, the emperor himself cannot reconcile or control the government, which can also be said to be a kind of disaster. Under such circumstances, the country is bound to fall into internal and external troubles, from the light to the serious injury to the destruction of the country. This was the case in the late Shu Han period during the Three Kingdoms period.
As we all know, after Zhuge Liang's death, he left a large number of loyal talents for Shu Han. Wen had Fei Yi, Dong Yun, Jiang Huan, and others, and the wu generals led by Jiang Wei were not as talented as Zhuge Wuhou, but they were also enough to defend.
▲Stills of Zhuge Liang and Fei Yi
However, "a wise man has a thousand worries, and there will be a mistake", Zhuge Liang arranged the Shu dynasty, calculated Sima Yi in the enemy line, and finally got rid of Wei Yan, who had the intention of rebellion, but in the end he missed one person, that is, his own own son Zhuge Zhan.
01
Zhuge Zhan was an old man, and he was only 7 years old when Zhuge Liang died. Zhuge Liang once commented on his son: "He is intelligent and lovely, but he thinks that he has become a child early, and I am afraid that he will not be a heavy instrument." This means that although Zhuge Zhan is intelligent, he became famous too early, and I am afraid that he will not be able to become a great instrument in the future. Although Zhuge Liang had such a comment about him, as the son of a former leader of the Shu state, Zhuge Zhan was still respected by the whole country. After his father's death, he inherited the title of Marquis of Wuxiang and married a Princess of Shu Han at the age of 17. At that time, once the Shu state had any policy of benefiting the people, there would be rumors that "this was suggested by Zhuge Wuxiang Marquis."
▲Zhuge Zhan stills
However, the actual situation is that Zhuge Zhan does not have such outstanding talents in politics. It was only when he was young that he enjoyed the feeling of the stars holding the moon, and forgot what his father said in the Book of Commandments, "There is no distance without tranquility." Because Zhuge Zhan was too young when Zhuge Liang died, Zhuge Liang could not have trained him as his successor, so he designated Jiang Wei as his successor. Although Jiang Wei was brave and good at war, and also inherited Zhuge Liang's will to restore the Han Chamber, he was still a little powerless under the pressure of Cao Wei's step by step. After Fei Yi's death, the DPRK lost the strength to balance Jiang Wei, who still sent troops for many years, did not pay attention to supplies and logistics, and returned from many military defeats, causing the civilians and generals to deviate from Germany. At this time, Zhuge Zhan took the lead in paying tribute to Liu Chan, believing that Jiang Wei was belligerent and useless, and requested that he be stripped of his military powers and demoted to Yizhou Assassin History.
▲Stills of young Liu Chan and Huang Hao
At this time, another important figure at the end of the Shu Han Dynasty appeared, he was Huang Hao, a eunuch in the inner court who was deeply trusted by Liu Chan. Although Liu Chan himself knew that Huang Hao was a villain, Huang Hao was extremely proficient in eating, drinking, and having fun, and would meet the horses, so although many people asked Liu Chan to dispose of Huang Hao, Liu Chan ignored it. The relationship between Jiang Wei and Huang Hao was not good, but Jiang Wei deliberately submitted to Huang Hao in order not to be stripped of his military power, and after Huang Hao interceded with Liu Chan in the inner court, Liu Chan refuted Zhuge Zhan's suggestion and returned Jiang Wei's original military power in full, and since then Jiang Wei has rarely returned to the dynasty, and Zhuge Zhan has never had the opportunity to fight with Jiang Wei again.
▲ The old version of the Three Kingdoms Jiang Wei stills
If you can't lead the troops outside, then you will make some efforts to eliminate the inner court, which may be some of Zhuge Zhan's ideas when he contributed to the Shu kingdom. So he went to the table to request the disposal of Huang Hao. Zhuge Zhan's influence among the courtiers was still quite large, even Huang Hao had to avoid his sharp edge, in view of the fact that the later lord Liu Chan had great trust in both sides, and did not issue a decree to rebuke either side, the court and the inner court were gradually separated, the inner court was controlled by Huang Hao, and often said to Liu Chan that some Shu states did not have to fight, and the Wei army would please him if it would collapse, and the unsuspecting courtiers above the court requested to fight against the Wei army, and the two sides gradually became opposed.
02
In the sixth year of Jing Yao (263 AD), Deng Aiqi attacked Yinping, and there were no generals in Shuzhong who could meet the battle, and Zhuge Zhan was ordered to lead an army to meet Deng Ai. Although Zhuge Zhan had a talented name when he was young, and his wisdom was also recognized by his father Zhuge Liang, he had not participated in the war before, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was a "soldier on paper", but such a person was responsible for commanding on an important battlefield on the eve of the fall of the country, and the scarcity of talents in the Shu state can be seen from this. In the "Battle of Mianzhu", Zhuge Zhan led the sergeant and the Wei army to the end, and finally died in Mianzhu himself, fulfilling the righteousness of the Zhuge family and guarding the Shu Han Mountains with his life for a period of time. Before his death, Zhuge Zhan left a suicide note saying that he had three sins: "You can't except Huang Hao, you can't control Jiang Wei, and you can't defend the country in battle." ”
▲ Stills of the old version of the Three Kingdoms Deng Ai
In fact, both the first and third sentences are well understood. When the great eunuch Huang Hao gradually had the tendency to control the court, the group of courtiers was almost everyone was cursed, but Liu Chan was well protected, and the history of the late Eastern Han Dynasty was about to be staged, and countless people suggested that Liu Chan kill Huang Hao without success, and Zhuge Zhan, as a courtier, was naturally distressed about this. On the other hand, Zhuge Zhan, as a general of the New Branch who lacked actual combat experience, was still very unfamiliar with the battlefield, and it was very normal for the phenomenon of "fighting and not being able to defend the country", but at least he did not make 400,000 Zhao troops be killed together like Zhao Kuo, but used his life to guard the honor of the Zhuge family and the wind and bones of Shu Han.
In contrast, it is strange that "jiang wei cannot be controlled" actually became one of the three major sins--after all, Jiang Wei was also one of the pillars of the late Shu Han Dynasty, capable of fighting good battles and being loyal, and even after Liu Chan announced his surrender, he still planned a mutiny in an attempt to rebel against Wei and revive the Shu state. But there is no doubt that neither Jiang Wei nor Zhuge Zhan has the ability to impress everyone like Zhuge Liang. One of them, as zhuge liang's hand-picked heirs, and the other as the inheritors of Zhuge Liang's bloodline, it seems reasonable to compete for the military power and discourse power of the Shu Han Dynasty. Coupled with the fact that huang hao and the like were in turmoil in the inner court, most of the generals and their descendants who could fight good wars grew old or died in battle, and the defeat of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms War became a fixed situation.
▲ After the lord Liu Chan came out of the stills
Zhuge Zhan's "three sins" before his death can be regarded as a relatively accurate definition of his own life. Zhuge Liang once wrote in the Book of Commandments: "If you are slow, you cannot exert your spirits, and if you are dangerous, you cannot cure sex." "Zhuge Zhan may not have been obscene, but he has lived in danger since he was a child because of the pursuit of everyone. When his political and military talents could not convince the public, he hoped to rise up the sky of the Shu kingdom like his father, and take the political power and military power into his own hands, so that he had a very bad relationship with the other two major figures at the end of the Shu kingdom, Jiang Wei and Huang Hao. Although Zhuge Zhan's last words are more regrettable, we can still see from it that in the chaotic situation of the imperial court and the centrifugation of the monarchs and subjects in the late Shu Dynasty, I am afraid that Zhuge Zhan, who was too conceited and hoped to monopolize power, would bear the main responsibility for this.
epilogue
To some extent, it is precisely because Zhuge Zhan's own ability is limited and he is greedy for power that various problems will occur. Jiang Wei, as the executor of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition policy, hoped to strengthen the internal cohesion of the Shu Han Dynasty and maintain the crumbling regime, and ordinary civilian officials did not understand his painstaking heart, even Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan took the lead in opposing it.
▲Stills of Wenchen in the Three Kingdoms period
Can there be no growing gap between the civilians and the military generals? Moreover, Zhuge Zhan did not listen to Huang Chongsu's advice to take advantage of the danger, lost the military plane, and foolishly ran out of the city to fight with Deng Ai, resulting in the loss of the last living strength of Shu Han, and there was no chance of overturning, and the Later Lord was forced to surrender. If Zhuge Zhan has accurate self-knowledge and honestly becomes a xunqi and mascot, at least it will not add to the chaos and help. If Zhuge Liang knew underground that the three points of the world he had worked so hard to promote were buried by his son, what kind of mood should he feel?
References: Analects of the Ji Clan, Book of Commandments, Romance of the Three Kingdoms