The twelfth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, 207 AD. A young man followed Liu Bei, the uncle of the Han Emperor, out of Wollongong and began his legendary life, he was Zhuge Liang. This year, he was 27 years old and Liu Bei was 54 years old.
"Mao Lu inherits three considerations, and promotes the theory of knees and verticals." As a classic exposition of Zhuge Liang's "uninitiated, known three points under the world", "Longzhong Pair" is also a strategic blueprint tailored for his father Liu Xuande, and has been praised by posterity.
However, Liu Bei and his military division eventually fell on the road to the Revival of the Han Dynasty, which made people sigh. So, is there something wrong with Longzhong, or is it not feasible?
The three countries are at each other's throats
Yizhou, as the strategic rear that Zhuge Liang had planned for Liu Bei, could be said to be very suitable. On the one hand, this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and since ancient times, there has been a saying that "Shu Dao is difficult". Whether it was Liu Bei, who had a strategic plan for Xichuan, or Zhong Hui and Deng Ai, who later "competed for merit among the two soldiers", they were all in a desperate situation in the face of the dangerous land of the lofty mountains and mountains of Shudi.
On the other hand, Yizhou is rich in products and is known as the "country of heavenly capital", which is enough to raise hundreds of thousands of soldiers. To the west is the deserted Qiang land, and to the south is the attack of sporadic ethnic minorities, so it can be said that the rear area is very safe.
However, the Shu land is too comfortable, coupled with the peculiar terrain, once the enemy army occupies the Mianzhu and other important places, it is equivalent to choking the throat of the whole territory of Xichuan, at this time, whether it is officials, soldiers or civilians, Sichuan and Shu will feel powerless to return to the sky, and then lose their fighting spirit, so that the enemy soldiers will come to Chengdu. This was true of Liu Zhang and later Liu Chan.
The other two countries in the three-legged stand are different. The State of Wei occupied the rich territory of the Central Plains and the western region, and its population, materials, and prosperity were not comparable to those of Ji Han and Sun Wu. Therefore, when Zhuge Liang's troops left the Qishan Northern Expedition in the later period, the powerful Cao Wei would often form hundreds of thousands of defensive troops to confront Sima Yi and Kong Ming.
The strong military strength and the ability to restore the people's livelihood, coupled with the shrewd and capable ministers, this is also one of the reasons why Zhuge Liang did not succeed in the qishan five years.
According to the natural danger of the Yangtze River, wu guo has gone through three generations, and the country has been rich and prosperous. In the middle of the Three Kingdoms period, although under the pressure of Cao Cao, he temporarily allied with Liu Bei, he always had a ghost fetus in his heart and secretly spied on the Jingxiang land of Shu Han. This in turn adds some risk to the implementation of "Longzhong Pair".
The belly of the world
Jingzhou is the most core region of the entire "Longzhong Pair". This place is easy to attack and difficult to defend, but it has barrier-free connections with almost all surrounding states and counties, so its strategic significance is very prominent, and it can be said that it is the belly of the world.
In Zhuge Liang's original words, "If there is a change in the world, then order a general to take the army of Jingzhou to Xiangwan and Luo, and the general to lead the people of Yizhou out of Qinchuan, and the people dare not eat pot pulp to welcome the general?" It can be seen that Zhuge Liang originally planned to go out of Xichuan with one army at the time of Cao Wei's turmoil, and the other way out of Jingzhou to the north, and the two roads were sandwiched, so that Cao Wei could not take care of each other.
However, Guan Yu 's careless loss of Jingzhou' momentary disruption of Zhuge Liang's overall plan. Thus, in the later period of the Three Kingdoms, in addition to sending a large number of troops to follow Li Yan to garrison the White Emperor City and guard against Eastern Wu in Jingzhou, he could only lead the Yizhou generals over the mountains and mountains, with Chang'an as the goal, and out of the Qi Mountains to duel with the main force in western Cao Wei.
In this way, not only was it difficult to sustain the heavy grain and grass between the lofty mountains and mountains, but there was no choice of marching routes and places to send troops and attack, but sima Yi, who was scheming and calculating, had already made preparations.
Pang Tong, the "Phoenix Chick" who is equally famous as Zhuge Liang, once pointed out to the point that Longzhong was deficient in geography and strategy, that is, Jingzhou is very important, and the wise and scheming people in the world are not only Kong Ming, since you can see, others can also see, and this place is connected to all states and counties, easy to attack and difficult to defend, it is inevitable that it will not attract the covetousness of major warlords, once it is lost, is it not a failure?
In the new version of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang, after several times out of Qishan without achieving any results, once said to the soldiers around him with great emotion: "I really miss Jingzhou, Jingzhou, if it is in our hands, the Northern Expedition will be half the effort!" "Although it is straightforward, it also confirms the importance of this place from the side.
Guan Yu, who is difficult to clap in his hands
If the appointment of Ma Mo was one of the few mistakes in Zhuge Liang's life, then the appointment of Guan Yu was his biggest mistake. The former's loss of the street pavilion was nothing more than the gain and loss of one city and one pool, and to the greatest extent it was only a defeat in the Battle of Qishan; but the loss of Jingzhou in the latter affected Ji Han's entire plan to advance the world.
But taking a step back, Zhuge Liang's choice of Guan Yu was really a helpless move, and at the time of Liu Bei's expedition to Sichuan and Shu, the remaining generals, Kong Ming, really had no one to choose from, and indeed only Guan Yu could choose.
Guan Yu followed Liu Bei for many years, conquering the south and the north, and was full of prestige in the army. He was "proud of himself but not inferior", sympathetic to his soldiers, and experienced in combat.
Unlike Cao Wei, who was full of talents, the "five sons of good generals" Zhang Guo, Zhang Liao, and so on over there were almost all able to lead the large army alone, which was a veritable one. The Shu Han "Five Tiger Generals" who shine in the novel are far less brilliant in the historical data than in the story.
Ma Chao had not yet surrendered at this time, and even if he returned to Shun Jihan in the future, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang could not hand over such a strategic place as Jingzhou to a surrender general, plus Ma Chao and his Western Liang cavalry corps were good at fighting in the northern wasteland, and Jingxiang would be dissatisfied with the water and soil in the south.
Although Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun were bold and loyal and strong in martial arts, they were still able to fight with the army, far from the ability to defend the side. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, on the other hand, were very polite to the "upper echelons" such as scholars, but they were very rude to the subordinates and soldiers, and their irritable personality coupled with their love of drinking and often committed violent acts of whipping soldiers after drinking.
In the actual situation, Guan Yu was not "proud", and he rejected Sun Quan's act of asking for his son to marry his daughter, completely without political acumen. This act, along with Eastern Wu Junchen's original desire for Jingzhou, directly pushed Sun Wu into cao Wei's arms, and Sun Quan became the "King of Wu of Great Wei".
In the whole great battle to annihilate Guan Yu's Jingzhou Army, Guan Yu could say that he could do everything that a famous general could do, but the elite generals of the Wei and Wu states did their best to form a siege of Jingzhou. With the development of the campaign, Zhang Liao, Gan Ning, Cao Ren and other Wei and Wu generals poured out of the nest. Guan Yu, who was lonely and difficult to sing, could only usher in the destruction.
Once Jingzhou was lost, the strategic blueprint of the "Longzhong Pair" was completely disrupted. Even though Zhuge Liang, after the death of his former lord Liu Bei, took the "road without picking up the road and not closing the house at night" and led a large army out of the Qi Mountains several times to march into the Central Plains, he could only concentrate in the desolate and barren land of Yongliang without any results.
epilogue
"Half a life to meet a confidant, sting people feel deeply fortunate." Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain at the age of 27 and died of illness at the age of 54. Just used half of his life to explain what loyalty is unmatched.
Now it seems that whether Ji Han can continue the Eastern Han Dynasty is irrelevant. However, when Zhuge Liang violated the heavens, he went against the favorable land, and with the talent of the heavens and the earth, he "knew that he could not do it", and single-handedly supported the weak Ji Han, and indeed he could bear the evaluation of his old rival Sima Yi: "Kong Ming, the wizards of the world are also!" ”