The Meridian Valley Conspiracy has always been one of the focal points of attention to the history of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Song said in his introduction to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang suggested, "This holiday Yan elite soldiers five thousand, negative grain five thousand, straight out of the praise, follow the Qin Mountains to the east, when the Meridian and north, but ten days can go to Chang'an ... In one fell swoop, the west of Xianyang can be determined. ”
As soon as this remark came out, most military obsessed enthusiasts were bound to clap their hands and applaud the speed, and sure enough, zhuge liang thought that this plan was too dangerous, "It is better to be safe from the tandao, you can take the long right, and the perfect will be overcome without worry." And did not adopt Wei Yan's strategy.
Zhuge Liang "ruled Rong for the long, the plot was short"
Chen Shou commented on Zhuge Liang in the "Zhuge Liang Collection": "The rule of Rong is long, the strange plot is short, and the work of the people is better than that of the generals." In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang's Biography", Zhuge Liang was evaluated: "It can be said that he is a good talent for knowledge and governance, and he can be said to be a good talent in Guan and Xiao. However, after years of moving the crowd and failing to succeed, Gai Strain will be slightly ignored, not its director Qin Wei."
Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang was more fair, on the one hand, he affirmed Zhuge Liang's political ability and ability to govern the army, on the other hand, he also believed that Zhuge Liang lacked strange strategy.
Of course, the lack of strategy is not to think that Zhuge Liang is not good at leading troops to fight, but simply lack of a strategy to win by surprise, which is also an important reason why people have not adopted Wei Yan's Meridian Valley strategy for Zhuge Liang.
Regarding Zhuge Liang's lack of ingenuity, even he himself admits that Zhuge Liang is good at macro strategic analysis, rather than good at the ever-changing tactics.
Zhuge Liang stepped onto the historical stage as a strategist, plotted the "Longzhong Pair" for Liu Bei from a macro strategic point of view, and formulated the first three divisions of the world, and then waited for the world to change, and went north to cut down Wei.
Especially in the Battle of Chibi, Zhuge Liang advocated that Sun Liu unite against the Cao army and finally win an important victory in the Battle of Chibi, and we must admire Zhuge Liang's military strategic thinking.
"Strange plots are short" because "Zhuge was cautious all his life"
Zhuge Liang said in the "Table of Renunciation", "The former emperor knew that the subjects were cautious, so he sent his subjects to the collapse of the emperor to do great things." This sentence prominently reflects Zhuge Liang's character characteristics.
When Liu Bei led his troops to fight, he would never be with Zhuge Liang, but let Zhuge Liang sit in the rear and coordinate the overall situation, this kind of military division sitting in the rear, the desperate combination of the commander on the front line, has been rare since ancient times.
So, who did Liu Bei take with him when he went out on the expedition? Shu County is too law-abiding! Zhuge Liang's evaluation of Fa zheng was that "he saw success or failure, had a strange plan, but did not call him a virtue."
Zhuge Liang even lamented after the defeat of Liu Beiyiling, "If the law and filial piety are straight, then it can control the lord, so that if you do not go east, you will return to the east, and you will not fall into danger."
Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng was: "Zhuge Liang and Zheng, although good and still different, take justice as each other. Bright Every Odd Wisdom Technique".
It can be seen that Fazheng is the person Liu Bei trusts more in the process of specific marching and fighting.
Not only did Liu Bei know Zhuge Liang's character, but even Sima Yi was very clear that "Zhuge Liang was careful and cautious in his life", in fact, Sima Yi was even more careful and cautious than Zhuge Liang, and in the war with the Shu state, he did not seek victory, only sought undefeated, and eventually dragged Zhuge Liang down.
Marching to fight, do you have to be a little cautious, and fight or fight? Therefore, there is nothing wrong with Zhuge Liang's decent marching style, which cannot be the reason why Zhuge Liang denied the Meridian Valley plot.
The Meridian Valley conspiracy seems simple, but in fact it takes a huge military risk, and Zhuge Liang will not easily take this risk.
The risk of the Meridian Valley plot was not something that the Shu kingdom could bear
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang's attitude toward the Meridian Valley Plot is: "Whenever Yan is revealed, he wants to invite tens of thousands of soldiers, and he will meet with Liang at Tongguan, such as the story of Han Xin, and the bright system is not allowed." Yan often said that the light was timid, and the hatred of oneself was inexhaustible. ”
Many people will say that to realize the Meridian Valley Conspiracy, Wei Yan only wanted five thousand soldiers and horses, and Zhuge Liang did not even dare to take this risk?
This is a narrow understanding of the Meridian Valley Conspiracy, the real Meridian Valley Miracle Is not as simple as five thousand horses, Wei Yan's Meridian Valley route is to require five thousand elite soldiers, five thousand grain, which is more than ten thousand, in the Three Kingdoms period, especially at the end of the Three Kingdoms period, more than ten thousand people are really not a minority.
Fundamentally, the Meridian Valley Conspiracy is not only this ten thousand people, in fact, the Meridian Valley Conspiracy is not surprising, at that time the route from the Shu Kingdom to Guanzhong totaled four, meridian road, LuoGu Road, Chu Xie Road, Chen Cang Road, which road Zhuge Liang can not deduce in advance, the Meridian Valley must also be deduced many times, and finally denied.
Wei Yan's strategy was that Zhuge Liang led the main force out of the Chu Chu Dao, while he himself led the elite out of the Meridian Valley.
In fact, on the four roads, only the Chu Chu Dao was relatively easy to walk, and it could allow the army to pass through, wei Yan's strategy had too many assumptions, let Zhuge Liang's army pave the way for it, put the magic weapon of victory on his partial division, and no one could easily act.
Once the main force was lost, even if Wei Yan succeeded, how could he hold an isolated city with his five thousand men and horses. That is to say, Wei Yan's strategy took too much risk, and even if Zhuge Liang was not cautious in his life, it was difficult to adopt such a strategy.
Wei Yan's Meridian Valley plot still needs to be re-evaluated.
Comparison of Wei Yan's offensive line and Zhuge Liang's offensive line
As far as the effect of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was concerned, it was definitely even more strange than Wei Yan's Meridian Valley Plot.
Wei Yan's Meridian Valley Plot actually took the main force out of the Chu Slope Road, and the Strange Soldiers came out of the Meridian Valley.
In fact, why is the main force out of the slope dangerous? Because the State of Wei also judged that if the Shu army went north, it would inevitably come out of the Chu Chu Road, why? Because the churn is the only one of the four roads that is relatively wide, the fool knows it! At that time, the Commander of the Wei Army, Cao Zhen, led his army to wait for Zhuge Liang at the mouth of the Xiegu Valley.
Zhuge Liang's offensive strategy was that the main force was out of Qishan, while the partial division led by Zhao Yun came out of the Xiegu Road to attract the attention of Cao Zhen, the commander of the Wei army.
At that time, when the Shu army came out of the Chu Chuan Road, Cao Wei's army had already set up a position, and when it heard that Zhuge Liang's army had come out of Qishan, it was very shocked: "The pawns smelled bright, the government and the opposition were afraid, especially Longyou and Qishan, so the three counties should be bright at the same time."
In fact, the State of Shu had long planned to attack Long Right, which was a time bomb under the Cao Wei regime, and had been in the process of rebellion and suppression, and there must also be provocation from the State of Shu, otherwise why Liu Bei was so important to Ma Chao was entirely for the purpose of marching on Long Right in the future.
This is why Zhuge Liang's Qishan sent troops, "It is better to be safe from Tan Dao, you can take long right, and you will be able to conquer it without worry." ”
It can be said that Zhuge Liang's route of sending troops was not only surprising than Wei Yan's, but also fought steadily and steadily, and in taking Long's right as a base area, advancing from the northwest to the east also caused a great deterrent effect on Cao Wei.