At the beginning of the chaotic situation at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Yan, a man of insight in the Liu family of the Eastern Han Dynasty, accurately realized that the next era would be chaotic, so he asked the imperial court to be a pastor for Yizhou, and was sent to the local government to be a local official. His request was granted, and Liu Yan became the first Yizhou Pastor, setting a precedent for the division of the prefecture at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In this regard, Liu Yan was the forerunner of the chaotic princes in dividing the places, but the chaotic world was already inevitable, and the wars that arose in various places made the people displaced. On the contrary, after Liu Yan entered Yizhou, he avoided the chaotic war in the Central Plains and the responsibilities he should assume as a descendant of the Han Dynasty. Yizhou, the land of Bashu, is rich in products and simple folk customs, and there are many local scholars, such as the Zhang family.
In Liu Yan's time, the Zhang family served wholeheartedly, but in the era of Liu Yan's son Liu Zhang, Zhang Song, an outstanding figure of the Zhang family, could not be displayed because he consciously worked under Liu Zhang, so he wanted Liu Bei to replace Liu Zhang and become the master of Yizhou.
However, Zhang Song was ultimately a hundred secrets, and his plan was leaked to his brother Zhang Su.
Zhang Su informed his brother of his brother's plot to the lord Liu Zhang, and eventually Zhang Song was beheaded by the angry Liu Zhang. In fact, Zhang Su and Zhang Song are brothers whose blood is thicker than water, so why does Zhang Su bear to denounce his younger brother Zhang Song? In the author's opinion, there are the following reasons.
Fear of being implicated and endangering the whole family
After Zhang Song and Liu Bei secretly came, some letters were inevitably transmitted to each other. When Liu Bei was preparing to leave Yizhou for some reason, Zhang Song was worried that Liu Bei's departure would make his plot frustrated, so he hurriedly wrote a letter to keep Liu Bei. Unfortunately, the people who handled the affairs under Zhang Song's door were a bit confused, and actually sent such extremely confidential letters to the concierge of Zhang Su's family. Zhang Su learned of his brother's conspiracy with Liu Bei to capture Yizhou.
After Zhang Su knew about this, his first reaction was that Zhang Song's behavior was a major crime of conspiracy against his relatives, and he was worried that he would be implicated, so he chose to kill his relatives and denounce his brother. The Zhang family was a famous family in The Shu County, an important region of Yizhou, and even the entire Bashu region, and once they were implicated in Zhang Song's rebellion, then the death of Zhang Song was not a Zhang Song, or Zhang Song's own small family, but most of the Zhang family, including Zhang Su himself.
Who knew that Liu Zhang's fire would curse the people of the Zhang family. Zhang Su chose to denounce his brother, perhaps he couldn't bear it, but considering the whole big family, he had to endure it if he couldn't bear it. Although Liu Bei was much better than Liu Zhang, if he jumped ship with his younger brother, he might have mixed better, but Zhang Su seemed to be more inclined to Cao Cao than Zhang Song favored Liu Bei.
Sent an envoy to Cao Cao and accepted Cao Wei's favor
From Liu Yan to Liu Zhang, Yizhou never participated in the wars of the princes, only seeking a corner of peace, but sometimes fought a border friction war with Zhang Lu, who was occupying the Hanzhong area in the north. However, as the Central Plains gradually moved toward unification and the general situation under the heavens gradually became clear, Liu Zhang also had to make overtures to Cao Cao, the ruler of the last dynasty of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and sent Zhang Su as an envoy to represent the Bashu region and his own envoys to marry Cao Cao.
Yizhou was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and for Cao Cao, who had the intention of unifying the four seas, it was a hard bone to gnaw. Fortunately, Liu Zhang knew each other and did not have great ambitions, so he took the initiative to send envoys to marry well, and Cao Cao naturally gave zhang Su a good treatment. After he received Zhang Su, he was in a very good mood and had a good feeling for Zhang Su, who was majestic and of great stature, so he accepted Liu Zhang's intention to marry and gave Zhang Su the posts of Rafter of the Imperial Household and Guanghan Taishou.
Becoming the rafters of the Xiang Dynasty also meant that Cao Cao made Zhang Suna his subordinate, and Guanghan Taishou was an important position in Bashu, ruling guanghan county, an important county in northern Yizhou.
In this regard, Zhang Su gladly accepted, which shows that his heart is towards Cao Cao, so he accepts Cao Cao's favor. When he faced his brother Liu Bei's heart and Yizhou was about to be betrayed, Zhang Su naturally wanted to strangle it in the cradle. However, this does not mean that Zhang Su is a person who has turned his back on the monarch, and for Liu Zhang, he is still dedicated to serving.
He is righteous in his thinking and does not want to sell his lord for glory
Zhang Su was a well-known scholar from Yizhou, who received a good Confucian cultural education since childhood, not only read poetry and books, but also a person with good ideological character. Liu Zhang's weakness and lack of ambition, everyone knew at that time, and the bureaucrats up and down Yizhou had a personal experience.
However, in Zhang Su's view, no matter how weak Liu Zhang was and had no great ambitions, since I was his subordinate, then I could not betray him. In fact, with Zhang Su's background and reputation, can't you find a better lord? However, he did not leave, and even after being appointed by Cao Cao as the rafter of the Chu Dynasty and the Taishou of Guanghan, he chose to return to Yizhou and continue to serve Liu Zhang. Even if Liu Zhang is not the Lord of Ming, he cannot sell the Lord for glory like his younger brother Zhang Song, and this is Zhang Su's choice.
Zhang Song is very talented, full of learning, and has extraordinary abilities that he never forgets, so he thinks that he should not stay under someone like Liu Zhang, otherwise he is wasting his talent and life. Therefore, after taking many years of Feng Lu from Liu Zhang, he chose to plot with Liu Bei to plot the land of Bashu under the premise that he knew that it was not right to betray the lord.
In fact, no matter how Zhang Song felt that Liu Zhang was not a lord who could match his talents, he should not betray him, he could have left, anyway, the owner could fight the west family if he did not fight, there was no need to betray the owner. But Zhang Song did not do this, because his thinking was not correct, his character was problematic, and for the sake of glory and wealth, the old owner could sell.
On the contrary, Zhang Su is not such a person, so although he is lonely and nameless in the history of the Three Kingdoms of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he is a person worthy of respect.
brief summary:
To sum up, after Zhang Su knew that his brother Zhang Song had betrayed his lord and betrayed Bashu, even if his brothers whose blood was thicker than water, they were still willing to report it because they considered the family fate, personal moral requirements, and future belonging to the land of Bashu. Although the plot of his younger brother Zhang Song was exposed, the peaceful land of Bashu was set off by Zhang Song's death, setting off a new scourge of war.
Liu Bei had to turn his face to Liu Zhang because of Zhang Su's denunciation, and after several years of war, he finally seized the sovereignty of Yizhou by force. Zhang Su surrendered to Liu Bei along with Liu Zhang and became a vassal of Liu Bei, but was later abandoned by Liu Bei.
Why was Zhang Su abandoned by Liu Bei? The history books do not record it, and the historical record of Zhang Su is also suspended here. Although we don't know what Zhang Su's fate will be in the second half of his life, at least we know that he is worthy of himself, worthy of his former lord, and worthy of his own family name, Zhang Su can say: There is no regret in this life!
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Huayang Guozhi, Vol. XI, Houxian Zhi, Yibu Qi Old Miscellaneous Records
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