When Liu Bei entered Sichuan, why didn't he bring Zhuge Liang with him, but with Pang Tong? In this article, I will talk to you about this topic.
When Liu Bei entered Sichuan, he did not bring Zhuge Liang, but Pang Tong, mainly for two reasons: one was to cover up his true purpose of entering Sichuan; the other was to maintain a tacit understanding with Sun Quan and avoid him stabbing him in the back.
First of all, let's talk about the first reason, I don't know if everyone pays attention to it, when Liu Bei entered Sichuan, not only did he not take Zhuge Liang, but even Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun stayed in Jingzhou. What does this mean? This means that Liu Bei's concubines did not follow Liu Bei into Sichuan.
So, why did Liu Bei do this? Many people say that it is to ensure the safety of Jingzhou. It is true that there are considerations in this regard, but more importantly, it is to reassure Liu Zhang and the many land snakes in Yizhou. Because, when Liu Zhang invited Liu Bei to enter Sichuan, many people were worried that Liu Bei would seize the opportunity to seize Yizhou, and even Liu Zhang himself would be suspicious.
If Liu Bei brought all his concubines into Yizhou at this time, it would be easy to arouse everyone's vigilance, because no matter how you look at it, you will feel that some people are not good. In this context, Liu Zhang, as well as many land snakes in Yizhou, would be wary of Liu Bei, so that Liu Bei's difficulty in infiltrating Yizhou would naturally increase a lot.
On the contrary, Liu Bei let all his concubine troops remain in Jingzhou, and he only brought a small part of the army, as well as some generals and strategists who had just been annexed, which would obviously make it easier for Liu Zhang and the Yizhou land snakes to believe that Liu Bei was only here to help attack Zhang Lu, not to take advantage of the opportunity to seize Yizhou, otherwise why did people leave Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Zhuge Liang in Jingzhou?
At the same time, Liu Bei did not bring Zhuge Liang and others into Sichuan, which was also in the interests of Fazheng and Zhang Song's gang, because Liu Bei's concubines did not enter Yizhou, so Liu Bei wanted to control Yizhou, so he could only rely on their local forces in Yizhou. In this way, once Liu Zhang's rule was overthrown, these people would be the greatest heroes, and they would naturally be able to sit in the front row. It was precisely for similar reasons that Liu Bei did not bring Zhuge Liang and others into Sichuan.
So, why did Liu Bei have to bring Pang Tong into Sichuan? This involves the second reason, Liu Bei hopes to maintain a tacit understanding with Sun Quan and avoid him stabbing him in the back.
As we all know, when Liu Bei attacked Yizhou, the most feared thing was that Sun Quan took the opportunity to attack Jingzhou, and once this happened, Liu Bei would be in a dilemma.
Therefore, in the process of attacking Yizhou, Liu Bei must maintain a tacit understanding with Sun Quan, otherwise Liu Bei will have no sense of security at all, let alone attack Yizhou wholeheartedly. At this time, the value of Pang Tong was reflected, because Pang Tong was the contact between the two major groups of Liu Bei and Sun Quan.
Influenced by acting and film and television dramas, many people always think that Pang Tong is Liu Bei's person, because Sun Quan was unwilling to reuse Pang Tong at the beginning, so Pang Tong ran to Liu Bei in anger. But in fact, this statement does not stand up to scrutiny. Because, according to the contents recorded in the history books, Pang Tong's popularity in Sun Quan's camp is probably second only to Zhang Zhao and Lu Su.
There is a record in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "After Zhou Yu's death, Pang Tong helped Zhou Yu's coffin to Eastern Wu, and many people in Eastern Wu heard of Pang Tong's fame. When Pang Tong bid farewell to Wu and returned to Jingzhou, these people gathered at Changmen to send each other off, and Lu Ji, Gu Shao, and Quan Chun all arrived. ”
As we all know, Lu Ji, Gu Shao, and Quan Chun were all well-known clans in Jiangdong, and later when Sun Quan was proclaimed emperor, these people all sat in the front row. According to this record, when Pang Tong left Jiangdong at that time, all the people with heads and faces in Jiangdong came out to send him off, which in itself proved that if Pang Tong was willing to stay in Jiangdong, he would definitely be able to mix with the wind and water.
More importantly, Lu Su, sun quan's most trusted, also had great respect for Pang Tong. According to the historical records, Lu Su once wrote to Liu Bei: "Pang Shiyuan is not a talent who governs a small county of a hundred miles, and it is only by letting him hold positions such as zhizhong and other drivers can he display his high talents." Later, it was precisely because of Lu Su's recommendation that Liu Bei began to reuse Pang Tong.
In this sense, the whole of Jiangdong from top to bottom, very much recognizes and respects Pang Tong. Faced with such a situation, Pang Tong did not develop well in Sun Quan's territory, but ran to Liu Bei's camp to develop. Some people say that this is because Sun Quan is not important to Pang Tong, the problem is that Liu Bei did not reuse Pang Tong at the beginning, but only let him be a Lingyang County Order!
Since this is the case, Pang Tong's hot face is attached to Liu Bei's cold ass, what is the matter? In other words, if Pang Tong believed that he could use his talent to change Liu Bei's attitude toward him, then why did Pang Tong not believe that he could also use his talent to change Sun Quan's attitude? After all, Eastern Wu had already recognized Pang Tong very much, and it should not be difficult for him to let Sun Quan use him at this time.
Not only that, the possibility that Pang Tong would follow Liu Bei and want to surpass Zhuge Liang's status would be the same as the possibility that he would follow Sun Quan and surpass Lu Su's status, it would not be very great. In other words, at this time, Pang Tong entered the camp of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the opportunity to get ahead and the status that could be obtained should not make much difference.
Some people also say that Liu Bei is the orthodox Han Dynasty, and everyone is naturally more willing to chase him. The problem is that Zhuge Liang was loyal to Liu Bei, Zhuge Jin was loyal to Sun Quan, and Huang Quan initially followed Liu Bei and was later forced to surrender to Cao Pi, and no one criticized them for this. Of course, Zhuge Liang's allegiance to Liu Bei is naturally a generation of famous courtiers, and Lu Su and Zhuge Jin's allegiance to Sun Quan are also a generation of famous courtiers. If this is the case, why did Pang Tong necessarily go to Liu Bei to develop?
More importantly, Lu Su thought that Pang Tong was talented, and he did not strongly recommend it to Sun Quan, but to his opponent Liu Bei, which made no sense!
Because according to normal logic, Lu Su should first persuade Sun Quan to use Pang Tong, and if Sun Quan refuses to reuse it, Lu Su should hope that Pang Tong will never have the opportunity to be reused. Because, if Pang Tong is reused by others, it will definitely become a big problem for Jiangdong.
However, Lu Su unusually strongly recommended Pang Tong to Liu Bei, what is this so-called matter? Even if Lu Su was loyal and honest, the problem was that as the chief minister under Sun Quan's account, he did not want to do everything he could to win over the Sun Quan, but instead recommended talents to his opponent Liu Bei, especially this talent was still recognized by everyone. If Sun Quan knew about this, how would he view Lu Su's behavior?
Therefore, the more real situation is that Pang Tong is an intermediate figure that can be accepted by both Sun Quan and Liu Bei. Although Zhuge Liang had a relationship with Zhuge Jin, because Zhuge Liang had already completely integrated into Liu Bei's camp, Sun Quan could not accept Zhuge Liang as the liaison for cooperation between the two sides. Of course, for Liu Bei, he certainly could not accept people like Lu Su or Zhuge Jin as intermediaries between the two sides.
In this context, when Sun Quan decided to form an alliance with Liu Bei, sun Quan's clique let Pang Tong, who had not yet fully integrated himself, into Liu Bei's camp, as an intermediary for the cooperation between the two sides, matching the two sides. Of course, it is precisely for similar reasons that although Pang Tong has a decisive influence in Jiangdong, he runs away to Liu Bei.
Similarly, this is also the reason why Lu Su recommended Pang Tong to Liu Bei, because only when Pang Tong entered Liu Bei's power core, the Sun Quan group dared to cooperate with Liu Bei with confidence. Of course, it is precisely for similar reasons that Liu Bei did not dare to easily reuse Pang Tong before Lu Su recommended it. After Lu Su recommended Pang Tong, Liu Bei immediately let Pang Tong enter the core of his power.
In this sense, Pang Tong's defection to Liu Bei was the product of the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and because of Pang Tong's existence, Liu Bei and Sun Quan could also reach a good tacit understanding. It was also for similar reasons that Liu Bei deliberately took Pang Tong with him when he attacked Yizhou, in order to reassure Sun Quan. In fact, before Pang Tong's death, the cooperation between Liu Bei and Sun Quan had always been very tacit.