Zhuge Liang has been in the army for many years, and he should know very well that "victory and defeat are common affairs of soldiers", so it is said that if he loses a battle, he will kill the general, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others should also be killed. Was Zhuge Liang's military law too severe? But what was the reason for The Horse's Beheading? Is it just because of the lost kiosk? In real history, was Matthew's crime too heavy, and was his crime beheaded?
In 228 AD, Zhuge Liang's army came out of Qishan, he took Ma Mo as the forward, the overseer was in front, in the position of the street pavilion, and encountered zhang Guo, the forward of the Wei army, Ma Mo did not listen to Zhuge Liang's military orders, gave up the water to defend the mountain, did not hold the city, and finally was cut off by the Wei army, the street pavilion was painfully lost, and finally there was the story of Zhuge Liang tearfully cutting off the horse.
Zhuge Liang convicted Ma Mo of not obeying orders, giving up water to guard the mountains, and not holding the city. In fact, looking at this crime alone, there is something unreasonable, Ma Mo was a former military commander, and there was no telephone at that time, how could he have been in contact with Zhuge Liang, if he reported everywhere, he would definitely miss the fighter. This time in battle, Zhuge Liang tried to dispel the public opinion and let Ma Mo fight, as a former military general, Ma Mo must have a lot of power, how could Zhuge Liang kill him because he disobeyed the order? The ghost believes.
Regarding Zhuge Liang's killing of Ma Mo alone, scholars throughout the ages have studied it, and some scholars believe that Zhuge Liang killed Ma Mo in order to hide his eyes and ears, especially the local forces in the Shu state, such as Wei Yan and Wu Yi, at that time Zhuge Liang did not use these generals, just used Ma Mo as a forward, these people were already very angry, the victory did not say anything, did not kill him if the battle was lost, if in the future war, the local forces of the Shu state did not listen to the dispatch and bad things, so Ma Mo would die.
Moreover, Liu Bei also had a special affection for Wei Yan and these Shu forces, and he always had prejudices against Ma Mo, and when he died, he did not forget to remind Zhuge Liang that Ma Mo was an exaggerated person and could not be reused, the previous emperors said so, and Zhuge Liang added another sense of confidence when he killed Ma Mo. This involves the issue of attitude towards the ancestor Liu Bei, which must be handled with caution.
The above research is indeed worth learning, but the real reason why Zhuge Liang killed Ma Mo may be him. According to the theory of Sun Tzu's Art of War, all soldiers are high and evil, Guiyang is lowly and yin, according to the study of current scholars, the street pavilion located in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, is a place where there is no danger to defend, so the tactics of Ma Moshe Water Guarding the Mountain are correct.
The reason for his defeat is the same as zhao yunbing's defeat in Jigu, Ma Mo can say that he is a soldier on paper, but Zhao Yun, who has won every battle, cannot say so, you can say that Ma Mo's practical ability is weak, but you cannot doubt Zhuge Liang's preparations for the Northern Expedition.
When the small street kiosk failed, Zhuge Liang retreated to Hanzhong. Therefore, the real reason for the failure of the street pavilion and the defeat of Qishan is as recorded in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": the combat effectiveness of the Shu army is too weak. The soldiers guarding the street pavilion, "the soldiers were scattered", Zhao Yun was more than Cao Zhen's soldiers, but many of the soldiers were "afraid of the situation", resulting in a fiasco.
In this regard, Zhuge Liang had to analyze the reasons for the failure, and wrote in the "Biography of Zhuge Liang in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms" that the military quality of the Shu army was poor, and the generals could not understand the canon law, and it should be known that Ma Mo, as the main general before the war, once absconded in fear of crime.
Therefore, in order to strictly enforce military discipline and comprehensively rectify the army, so as to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, Zhuge Liang must find a negative teaching material to deter the whole army, and he will kill people. Zhao Yun was defeated in battle, did he dare to take him to open the knife, he was Liu Bei's brother, so Ma Mo acted as a negative teaching material, and this teaching material was also very good to use, he was Zhuge Liang's most powerful protégé, Zhuge Liang dared to take him to open the knife, let alone others, so Ma Mo's death was actually a pawn in Zhuge Liang's military strategy.
Ma Mo was beheaded not only because of the loss of a small street kiosk. Therefore, although Ma Mo did not fear his sins and surrender to the enemy, and realized his mistake, he also left a suicide note to Zhuge Cheng before his death, which made the officers and men of the whole army cry bitterly, but Zhuge Liang finally killed Ma Mo to thank everyone.
Although there are still various mysteries in the beheading of Ma Mo, in short, it still caused Zhuge Liang to "die before he was born, and the hero was full of tears", which made posterity sigh.