The ninety-fifth time in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan, lost the street pavilion, and had to retreat to Shuzhong, but when Sima Yi led a large army to catch up in Xicheng, Zhuge Liang only had more than two thousand veterans around him, and Zhuge Liang had no choice but to put an empty city plan for Sima Yi, which made Sima Yi retreat, and the empty city plan also became a model of weak retreat and weak retreat and virtual military technique in the "Thirty-Six Plans" of the Art of War.
The provenance of the empty city meter
First of all, there is no relevant record of the empty city plan in the main history, according to the historical records, when Zhuge Liang left Qishan, Sima Yi was quelling mengda's rebellion, and then Sima Yi returned to Wancheng to garrison, thousands of miles away from Zhuge Liang, when Zhuge Liang confronted the Cao Wei general Zhang Guo, and Zhuge Liang immediately retreated back to Hanzhong after losing the street pavilion.
The Empty City Plan was fabricated by Luo Guanzhong in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Luo Guanzhong was rewritten according to the folk dialect guo Chong's "Five Things of Zhuge Liang", so it is said that the Empty City Plan does not exist for the correct history, and all discussion is based on the interpretation.
Loopholes in the empty city meter
Kong Ming ascended the city to look at it, and sure enough, the dust soared into the sky, and Wei Bing looked at Xicheng County in two ways to kill. Kong Ming issued an order: "Conceal all the flags, and all armaments will be guarded in the city, and if there are those who enter or leave in vain, and those who speak loudly, behead them!" Four doors were wide opened, and each door was made of twenty sergeants, disguised as civilians, and swept the streets. If Wei Bing arrives, he must not move, I have my own plans. "Kong Ming was draped in a crane, wore a scarf, and led the second child to carry a violin, and sat on the railing in front of the city to go upstairs, burning incense and playing the violin. - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In the speech, hearing that Sima Yi had led the troops to arrive, Zhuge Liang did not hesitate to set up an empty city plan, he first put away all the flags, opened four city gates, each gate arranged for twenty soldiers to pretend to sweep the floor, and then he took two piano boys to the city to play the piano and compose music.
Zhuge Liang's arrangement looks like there is nothing wrong with it, but in fact, there is one biggest flaw, that is, to open the four doors, and some people may say that this is where Zhuge Liang is clever, and opening the four doors will make Sima Yi suspicious, and then dare not easily venture in.
But in the era of this kind of cold weapon in ancient China, the most important thing in the siege war and even the result of the siege battle is the city gate, and once the city gate is lost, the city pool can not be saved, and Zhuge Liang opened four city gates, at this time Sima Yi has 150,000 troops behind him, if you let these 150,000 large troops penetrate, Zhuge Liang even if how to ambush I am afraid it will be difficult to defeat the Wei army, and Zhuge Liang himself is on the city wall, Sima Yi can send a troop to inquire into the situation, pretend to attack, face 150,000 troops, No matter how difficult it is, the four gates of the city have been opened, and I am afraid that it is also someone else's bag.
Why did Sima Yi retire
The second son, Sima Zhao, said: "Could it be that Zhuge Liang has no army and pretends to behave like this?" Why did my father retire from the army? Yi Yue: "Liang Ping was cautious in his life and never took risks." Now when the city gates are opened, there will be an ambush. If our army advances, it will also be able to plan. Do you know? It is advisable to retreat quickly. So both sides retreated. —— Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Because the empty city plan is a story fabricated by the novel, so some military plots have not been tested by actual combat, the empty city plan is also the original author's own imagination, if this really happens in actual combat, Sima Yi absolutely cannot retreat so easily, and will never cause zhuge Liang to use troops cautiously and suspect that there is an ambush to make all 150,000 troops retreat.
At that time, although Sima Yi was very capable, but had already been suppressed by Cao Rui, if there was no Zhuge Liang Northern Expedition, Cao Rui would not have enabled Sima Yi, it can be said that without zhuge Liang's presence Sima Yi could not be in power, let alone military power, but without power Sima Family was like a lamb to be slaughtered on Cao Wei's side, there was a risk of being destroyed at any time, so for Sima Yi, the Sima family must be in power, and only the Sima family in power can survive.
And Zhuge Liang also knew Sima Yi's situation, some people said that at that time Zhuge Liang was playing the piano on the city tower was Yu Boya's "Mountain Flowing Water" in the Spring and Autumn Period, and although Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang were rivals, they also knew each other, and Sima Yi also read Zhuge Liang's voice, even if he knew that xicheng was an empty city, Sima Yi also had to retreat, because this was not only a retreat for Zhuge Liang, but also a retreat for the Sima family.