During the Three Kingdoms period, there were three major battles, namely the Battle of Guandu, the Battle of Chibi, and the Battle of Yiling, all of which were turning battles. After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao unified the north; after the Battle of Chibi, the Three Kingdoms were established; after the Battle of Yiling, Shu and Wu united against Wei.
Among them, the Shu state experienced a fierce defeat in the Battle of Yiling, the former elite troops lost everything, and even Liu Bei died because of this, completely reduced to the weakest of the three kingdoms, and in the Battle of Yiling, Shu and Wu fought each other, weakening each other's strength, so that the two countries could see the situation clearly, and in the years that followed, they had to really join forces to resist Wei. Since Liu Bei's losses to Wu were so great, as a top strategist of the Three Kingdoms, did Zhuge Liang persuade Liu Bei not to attack Eastern Wu in advance? The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is very different from the description in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The Eighty-first Edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes that Zhuge Liang tried to advise several times, but Liu Bei did not listen, and later Zhuge Liang and the Hundred Officials advised together: The current enemy is the Han thief Cao Wei, "If you only want to cut down Wu, order a general to lead the army to cut down Keye, why should you personally labor the holy car?" Liu Bei saw Zhuge Liang's repeated bitter advice and was ready to change his mind. However, an unexpected incident occurred at this time, Zhang Fei was killed by his subordinates, and the traitor fled to Eastern Wu, so Liu Bei immediately decided to attack the state of Wu. Zhuge Liang sent Liu Bei out of the army, and when he returned to Chengdu, he was displeased and said to his courtiers: "If the law is filial piety, it will be able to control the lord to go east." ”
According to Luo Guanzhong, Zhuge Liang's bitter advice on Liu Bei's war against Wu several times, his unhappy expression, and his lamenting how the Fa was waiting showed that Zhuge Liang was not optimistic and seemed to have anticipated a fiasco that was about to happen. However, Zhuge Liang's attitude in the canonical history is very different from that in the interpretation.
There is only one sentence recorded in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", after the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei lived in the White Emperor's City, and Zhuge Liang sighed: "If the law and filial piety are straight, it can control the lord and make it not go east; (even if it goes east), it will not be in danger (the loss will not be so large)." ”
In short, before Liu Bei attacked Wu, Zhuge Liang's attitude was not clear. However, considering the importance of the Battle of Yiling and Chen Shou's admiration for Zhuge Liang, if Zhuge Liang really had any advice in advance, Chen Shou should record it, and since there was no record, it is estimated that Zhuge Liang did not advise, that is, Zhuge Liang did not have any disapproval of Liu Beifa Wu.
More importantly, judging from the situation in the four aspects at that time, Zhuge Liang really had no reason to be bitter.
Eastern Wu was not a small sheep, but a wolf that was difficult to fill, so that Liu Bei had to attack the State of Wu and teach Sun Quan a lesson!
In 215, when Liu Bei was preparing for the Battle of Hanzhong, Sun Quan sent Lü Meng to attack Jingzhou, after which Liu Bei retreated and recognized Sun Quan's occupation of Changsha and Guiyang Counties; in 219, during the Battle of Xiangfan, Sun Quan sent Lü Meng to raid Jingzhou and kill Guan Yu, which can be described as a land grab to kill his brother. More importantly, after Sun Quan killed Guan Yu, he immediately prepared to attack Yizhou, and the history books said that he "wanted to enter Tushu", and also appointed Pan Zhang as the "Pastor of Yizhou", stationed in Zigui, and the heart of destroying Shu was clearly revealed.
Therefore, don't be confused by Liu Bei's Eastern Wu peace before Wu, Eastern Wu already had the heart of the Dead Shu, and also had the action of the Dead Shu, otherwise he would not have killed Guan Yu without leaving a way back.
Betraying allies, repeatedly sneaking up on the Shu kingdom, seizing land and killing brothers and destroying Shu is intolerable! If Liu Bei did not cut down Wu and showed the determination of the Shu state, Eastern Wu would be difficult to fill.
Judging from the situation in the State of Wei, Cao Cao of the State of Wei had just died, and Cao Pi had just usurped the Han Dynasty after succeeding to the throne, so Cao Pi's main energy was to stabilize the interior, and it was difficult to allocate his energy to interfere with Liu Bei's invasion of Wu. Therefore, this is a period of international strategic opportunity for Liu Beifa Wu.
From the internal point of view of the Shu state, Zhuge Liang, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, etc. were all Jingzhou people, and the Jingzhou faction had a large number of people inside the Shu state, and they did not want to take back their hometowns? Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Pair" cut wei two routes, one of which was to attack the Central Plains from Jingzhou, and the loss of Jingzhou represented the strategic shrinkage of "Longzhong Pair", Zhuge Liang did not want to practice the strategy in "Longzhong Pair"?
From the perspective of the war itself, Liu Bei has experienced hundreds of battles and has rich combat experience, and the preparations that should be made have been made, who dares to say that the war commanded by Liu Bei will be defeated one hundred percent? In fact, in the early stage of Liu Bei's battle against Wu, many victories were achieved, but Liu Bei, Feng Xi, and others had major flaws in the process of tactical implementation, and they encountered Lu Xun, who was hanging on, so they suffered a rare fiasco.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang really had no legitimate reason to dissuade him, and the Fa Zheng only recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms could "make it not to go east; (even if it goes east), it will not fall into danger", the correct understanding is that Fa Zheng is not to deny Wu, but to persuade Liu Bei not to personally march, even if he is pro-conquest, it will not cause such a loss.
Because of the shaping of the novel, people think that Liu Beifa Wu was wrong from the beginning to the end, that is, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, with the wrong enemy, and fought a wrong war. As the most intelligent strategist in the yanyi, Zhuge Liang naturally would not find mistakes in this kind of war "from the beginning to the end", so the yanyi novel arranged Zhuge Liang to give him bitter advice several times, almost making Liu Bei change his mind, but due to the sudden incident of Zhang Fei's killing, Zhuge Liang was unable to return to heaven.
Although this arrangement shows Zhuge Liang's clever and strange side, although it is wonderful and eye-catching, it has misled countless readers.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc