Before Zhuge Liang was dying, Sima Yi inquired about the emissaries he had sent, and learned that Zhuge Liang only ate three or four liters of rice a day, and that he had to do everything himself, and even small matters such as the punishment of twenty sticks in the army had to be personally investigated, so he expected that Zhuge Liang's life would soon be over. Leaving aside Sima Yi's speculations, some people think that Zhuge Liang's behavior of being personally committed to things, some people think that he is conscientious and conscientious, and some people think that he is too powerful to give up power. In fact, Zhuge Liang is not a person who covets power, which can be seen from his willingness to recommend Pang Tong, promote Jiang Wei, and appoint Ma Mo out of the box. The reason why he had to do everything was only because there was no one to use.
Speaking of this, some people may wonder that during Liu Bei's period, even if Shu Han was not better than Cao Wei or Jiangdong, he was also full of talents, why was there a shortage of talents to this point during Zhuge Liang's period? For this matter, part of the reason is that Liu Bei launched the Battle of Yiling and almost defeated Laodi, coupled with the loss of Jingzhou, the source of Shu Han talents was lost. Another part of the reason is that Zhuge Liang was too cautious, and in order to remove the factors of instability, he calculated and persecuted too many talents. Next, we will give a few well-known examples to prove that Zhuge Liang did have such behavior.
1. Persecution of Peng Xi
As we all know, because of the times, the most popular at that time was the madman, for example, before Zhuge Liang came out of the mountains, he said that he had the talents of Guan Zhong and Le Yi, and Xu Shu and others could at most be a Taishou; Pang Tong was appointed by Liu Bei as a small county order, so he used drinking and mischief to fight; Liu Ba looked down on Zhang Fei and carried out cold violence against Zhang Fei, and so on. The Shu famous scholar Peng Xi was no exception, he wanted to defect to Liu Bei, but he put up a shelf in front of Pang Tong, and after he was reused, he was even more "arrogant and arrogant, and he was very self-conscious." However, his ability was also remarkable enough, not only by the joint recommendation of Pang Tong and Fa zheng, but also by Liu Bei's approval - "The ancestors also thought it strange, and several orders were made to publicize the military, instructed the generals, and were praised by the envoys, and met Rijia."
However, Zhuge Liang was not accustomed to Peng Xi's frenzy, coupled with the idea of suppressing the Yizhou faction, so he reported to Liu Bei every day that Peng Xi had different ambitions and was a factor of instability, which made Liu Bei gradually alienate this person and intended to demote him out of Yizhou. As a result, Peng Xi became resentful, and when he went to find Ma Chao to drink, he said a few words suspected of rebellion, and was finally executed. In fact, as Peng Xi's identity, he was unable to rebel at all, and he also wrote to Zhuge Liang to defend himself, but in the end he could not escape for a lifetime.
2. Liu Feng
Liu Feng was Liu Bei's righteous son, because when Liu Bei was in Jingzhou, he was already nearly confused, but he did not have a son, so he adopted him and cultivated him as his heir. Later, Liu Chan was born, and Liu Feng's training direction was also changed, and he became a general -- only twenty years old, when zhuge liang and others were divided into Shu, he "fought in the battle", and then together with Meng Da, he attacked Shangyong. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms commented on him: "There are martial arts and excellent strength." And his loyalty is also unquestionable, for example, after Meng Da surrendered to Wei, he analyzed the interests and harms to him, but he refused to surrender; after the loss of Shangyong, he knew that he would definitely be punished, or returned to Chengdu.
However, Zhuge Liang believed that Liu Feng was too brave and had the identity of Liu Bei's righteous son, and after a hundred years of Liu Bei, if he fought with Liu Chan for power, it would be difficult to control, so he suggested that Liu Bei execute him. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records: "Zhuge Liang was worried about the fierceness of the seal, and it was difficult to control the emperor after the Yi Dynasty, so he persuaded the first lord to get rid of it." So he sealed himself and cut himself off. ”
3. Wei Yan
Wei Yan was not born tall, but his ability was very outstanding, and when he entered Sichuan with Liu Bei, he was promoted by Liu Bei because of his combat xiao yong, on a par with Huang Zhong, and "several battle achievements". Later, when Liu Bei took Hanzhong, his identity changed dramatically again- from a small toothkeeper, he was promoted to Hanzhong Taishou, and this position, at first, everyone, including Zhang Fei, thought it should be Zhang Fei. In order to serve the people, he not only made a vow that "if Cao Cao comes from all over the world, please refuse for the king; if you will be a hundred thousand people, please swallow it for the king", but also insisted on Hanzhong for more than ten years without loss, and his ability can be seen.
After that, he went west into Qiangzhong, defeated Guo Huai and Fei Yao, and also accompanied Zhuge Liang on the Northern Expedition, gradually becoming the first person in the Shu Han army. However, Zhuge Liang was only afraid that after his death, Wei Yan would obstinately go his own way and wantonly attack Wei, resulting in the demise of Shu Han, so when arranging for the retreat, he avoided Wei Yan and chose to abandon it, and finally caused Wei Yan to die at the hands of Yang Yi and bear the insult of rebellion. If Wei Yan did not die, perhaps the history of the Three Kingdoms was about to change dramatically!
4. Yang Yi
Although Yang Yi's character and personality are lacking, but his ability is very outstanding, he was originally from the Jingzhou clan, after receiving Guan Yu's recommendation, he went to Yizhou to discuss military and state strategies with Liu Bei, political gains and losses, and his talent made Liu Bei very satisfied. Later, he took up the post of Chancellor Changshi and accompanied Zhuge Liang on the Northern Expedition, "Yi regularly painted branches, raised grain and grain, did not think about it, and Si Su was gone." It can be seen from this that he is not a man of paper, but has real talent and practical learning. However, Zhuge Liang first took advantage of his contradictions with Wei Yan and his narrow personality to make him get rid of Wei Yan, but because he hated his character defects, he only arranged an idle post for him, which made Yang Yi fall into resentment and kill himself.
Although Zhuge Liang's merits to Shu Han cannot be doubted, and his loyalty to Shu Han cannot be denied, jin is not complete, no one is perfect, he also has his own flaws, and he has also persecuted many great talents, not limited to the above four people. However, he did not fight for power, but his personality was too cautious and wanted to remove all the unstable factors for Shu Han. However, what he did not expect was that although this kind of behavior seemed to be able to ensure the stability of Shu Han, it also reduced the minions of Shu Han and accelerated the decline of Shu Han's talents. His merits in selecting talents are really difficult to comment on.