During the Three Kingdoms period, Lü Meng was born in the grassroots, but with his extraordinary talent and the spirit of hard work, he soon became a famous general of Eastern Wu, and was recognized by Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, etc. The allusions of "Three Days of Shibei", "Treating Each Other with Astonishment", "Wuxia Amon", "Crossing the River in White Clothes" and so on are about Lü Meng.
Throughout Lü Meng's life, he was very loyal to Sun Quan, studied diligently for three days, planned the wisdom and courage to attack Jingzhou, it can be said that loyalty, diligence, wisdom, and courage are all available, which is undoubtedly a rare famous general in ancient and modern times, but Lü Meng has not been very popular, why is this? As we all know, Guan Yu is one of the most popular historical figures, and Lü Meng's sneak attack on Jingzhou led to Guan Yu's killing, is it the main reason why Lü Meng is not popular?
Liu Bei borrowed jingzhou origin
The so-called Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou, which is actually the borrowed Jingzhou South County. At that time, There were seven counties in Jingzhou, namely Nanyang County, Nan County, Jiangxia County, Lingling County, Guiyang County, Wuling County, and Changsha County, and the seven counties of Jingzhou were divided by three families after the Battle of Chibi.
After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao retreated north, withdrew from parts of Jingzhou, and occupied the three counties of Nanyang County, Xiangyang County, and Nanxiang County in the north of Jingzhou, plus a part of Jiangxia north of the Yangtze River, and Sun Quan occupied the southern part of Jiangxia. Subsequently, Sun Quan launched the Battle of Nan Commandery and captured Nan Commandery in one fell swoop, and Liu Bei occupied the four counties of Wuling, Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha.
After the Battle of Nan County, Liu Bei was given the southern shore of Nan County, and later Sun Quan, in order to avoid the long battle line, also hoped that Liu Bei would resist Cao Cao, so at Liu Bei's request, he gave up Jiangling, the seat of nan county, which was the origin of "borrowing Jingzhou".
After Liu Bei captured Yizhou in 215, Sun Quan demanded Jingzhou, and Liu Bei said that he would wait until he captured Liangzhou to return it. However, Sun Quan could not wait, and directly sent Lü Meng to lead an army of 20,000 to capture the three counties of Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang, at this time Cao Cao sent troops to Hanzhong, and the Battle of Shu Wei and Hanzhong was about to erupt, so in order to avoid a two-front battle, Liu Bei negotiated peace with Sun Quan, and finally reached an agreement on the division of Jingzhou in the middle, that is, the two sides took Xiangshui as the boundary, Jiangxia County, Guiyang County, and Changsha County belonged to Sun Quan, and Nan County, Lingling County, and Wuling County belonged to Liu Bei, and other places still belonged to Cao Cao.
It is reasonable to say that the territory that Liu Bei owed to Sun Quan was only The Southern County's ruling seat, Jiangling, and Sun Quan seized Changsha and Guiyang Counties, and also received a lot of interest, so as long as the two sides reached a settlement on the Issue of Nan County, then the contradiction between the ownership of Jingzhou was resolved. But Lü Meng didn't see it that way, and his thoughts destroyed the Wu-Shu Alliance.
The death of Guan Yu and Lü Meng
During the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei formed an alliance with Sun Quan, and the two sides jointly resisted Qiang Wei. According to Wu Shu's plan, Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan to break Cao Cao's Yangtze River defense line, thus advancing into the Central Plains, and Sun Quan attacked Xuzhou from the north, attacking Cao Cao in two ways, so that he could not take care of each other. But at this time, a key person died, and that was Lu Su, an old and good man who insisted on the Wushu alliance.
Originally, Lu Su's jurisdiction was adjacent to Guan Yu's Jiangling, and the two were at peace, and Lu Su believed that Cao Cao was dominating the north, and Wu Shu should help each other and not affect the overall situation because of some interest competition. However, at that time, Lü Meng was very disagreeable, and had offered Sun Quan a secret plan, to the effect that there were three layers: First, Liu Bei Guan Yu was extremely cunning, and he would inevitably attack Eastern Wu in the future, and now he should take the opportunity to attack; second, as long as he defended the Yangtze River and I occupied Xiangyang forward, then we would not need Guan Yu's help to resist Cao Cao; third, it was better to attack Xuzhou and have no success, it was better to attack Guan Yu and occupy all of the Yangtze River Valley, and the situation would be even stronger. Sun Quan was deeply impressed, and soon after Lu Su's death, Sun Quan replaced Lu Su with Lü Meng as the governor.
After the outbreak of the Battle of Xiangfan, Lü Meng once again wrote to Sun Quan, believing that "now that he is unexpected, he can make poultry (Guan Yu)". Therefore, during the Battle of Xiangfan, Lü Meng sent troops behind his back, and everything was very hidden and secretive, and suddenly attacked the Shu-controlled area of Jingzhou, capturing the three counties of Jingzhou Nan County, Wuling County, and Lingling County, and causing Guan Yu to defeat Maicheng and be killed.
There is a question here: was it Lü Meng who killed Guan Yu, or did Sun Quan instruct him to kill Guan Yu? Undoubtedly, it must have been Sun Quan's order, the so-called "Feather To Behead", and Lü Meng was not qualified enough to privately order Guan Yu to be killed.
It can be said that in the Battle of Xiangfan, Sun Quan secretly attacked Jingzhou and destroyed the Wu-Shu alliance, and the culprit was Lü Meng. As for Guan Yu's death, Lü Meng was the cause, but the real murderer was Sun Quan, because it was completely possible to "capture without killing".
Lu meng's three major crimes
In the Eastern cultural tradition, it is not a sin to fight without declaration, but it is difficult for the world to accept the nameless undeclared war, to attack the orthodox undeclared war, to attack allies and destroy the alliance.
First of all, Confucius Yun was "not righteous in name and unsmooth in his words", and in ancient times, formal troops were all famous for their divisions, but Sun Quan's sneak attack on Jingzhou belonged to the division and was unknown. Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou, borrowing only Jingzhou Nan County, before Sun Quan had already obtained Changsha and Guiyang, it was also considered to have received some interest. Even if he knew that Liu Bei would not easily return Nan Commandery, Sun Quan should also be patient for the time being when he secretly attacked Jingzhou at the critical moment of the Wushu alliance and the joint attack on Cao. Lü Meng's suggestion to sneak into Jingzhou was entirely profitable, and there was no convincing reason for leaving the school. During the Three Kingdoms period, every time the Shu state sent troops, it was often in the name of "restoring the Han Room" and "begging thieves", Cao Wei was in the name of Emperor Xian of Han to fight against the unintended subjects, sun quan attacked Cao Cao was also in the name of "begging thieves", but the sneak attack on Jingzhou was unknown.
Second, Liu Bei prides himself on the orthodoxy of the Han family, which has also been recognized by successive rulers, because no ruler wants future generations to be like Emperor Xian of Han, or hopes that someone will overthrow the rule of future generations. Therefore, the "name" of Liu Bei's regime was very correct, and Lü Meng's sneak attack on Jingzhou was naturally criticized. In fact, if Sun Quan eventually unified China, then there was still a chance to write history, and he could use various brushwork to modify the act of attacking orthodoxy, but Eastern Wu was in a corner, conservative and did not want to forge ahead, and later because of the sneak attack on Jingzhou, it triggered a war that led to the decline of Wu and Shu, so how could Lü Meng, as the culprit, still like it?
Third, at that time, the situation in the world was clear, and Cao Cao's family was dominant, and the joint efforts of Wu and Shu would have certain advantages. According to normal thinking, the second and third elders could not join hands with the boss alone, let alone consume each other, otherwise they might benefit the boss, so it was extremely important to maintain the stability of the Wushu alliance at that time.
However, Lü Meng sneaked into Jingzhou at the critical moment of the Battle of Xiangfan, directly destroying the Wu-Shu alliance, which led to Liu Bei's anger and sending troops to attack Wu later, although Liu Bei's army defeated the Battle of Yiling, in fact, the Wu state also suffered great losses, which was a turning point in the decline of Wu and Shu, Cao Cao, the boss, sat on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, and sat to watch the weakening of the strength of the old two and the third. At the same time, Lü Meng obviously did not have Lu Su's vision, only saw Xiao Li in front of him, and thought that sneaking into Jingzhou could realize Sun Quan's wish of "taking full control of the Yangtze River" and build an "unbreakable" Yangtze River defense line, but the facts proved that he was short-sighted, and after the Battle of Yiling, the Shu state suffered heavy losses, and without the restraint of the Shu state, Eastern Wu once faced the Wei state alone very hard; after the fall of the Shu state, there was no Shu state to contain it, and Eastern Wu was soon destroyed.
After Liu Bei's death, if zhuge Liang had not taken the initiative to ally with the State of Wu for a long time, then the two kingdoms of Wu and Shu would be in a state of war, so what about the Wu Congress under the attack of Wei and Shu? The answer is obvious, the State of Wei attacked the Yangtze River defense line, and the State of Shu attacked Wu from the rear of the flank, and it is estimated that the Wu State died at the time of Sun Quan.
It can be said that the chain results of the sneak attack on Jingzhou, Lü Meng did not think clearly, at least not as clearly as Lu Su. If Liu Bei's revenge was not so reckless, if the Shu state insisted on no longer allying with the state of Wu... The Wu state will be in danger. It can also be seen from this that Lü Meng has little wisdom, but no great wisdom.
Compared with Guan Yu, Gan Ning, Tai Shi Ci, etc., although Lü Meng has inspirational allusions such as "Three Days of Shibei", "Treating Each Other with Astonishment", and "Wuxia Amon", his behavior is not in line with traditional values, and sneaking into Jingzhou is a clever tactic but a stupid strategy, and it is naturally difficult to get the welcome of the world.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc