Character analysis of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" - the death of Pang Tong

Pang Tong's first appearance in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was in the first conversation between Sima Hui (Mr. Shui Jing) and Liu Bei, and Sima Hui hinted to Liu Bei that Wolong Fengyan, two candidates who could serve as military masters.

Later, on the eve of the Battle of Chibi, Fengchi Pang Tong, in conjunction with the Eastern Wu governor Zhou Yu, played Jiang Gan in the palm of his hand, and then went to the cao camp on the other side to present Cao Cao with a chain of iron cables (most likely a fictitious love rope, which led to the later defeat of Cao Jun, and hundreds of thousands of people were burned and killed.

After Zhou Yu's death, Pang Tong was not welcomed by Sun Quan because of his appearance problems, and he received a letter of recommendation from Zhuge Liang and went to Liu Bei's account, becoming another military division besides Zhuge Liang, responsible for Liu Bei's army entering Sichuan and Liu Zhang's joint defense against Zhang Lu's army.

In the section of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Pang Shiyuan Discusses Taking Western Shu, Zhang Song, Fazheng, and Pang Tong all took turns to instigate Liu Bei to seize Xichuan, and before going to Xichuan, Liu Bei told Pang Tong: "Cao Cao is also the enemy of Wushui and Fire today. with urgency, I am lenient; with violence, I am merciful; with praise, I am loyal: everything that is contrary to can be accomplished. If you break the faith in the world with small profits, I will not bear it. So he rejected his offer.

After arriving in Xichuan, before Erliu had met, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong began to conspire to take advantage of Xichuan. After Liu Bei met and drank a banquet, Liu Bei returned to the village, and Pang Tong and Fa Zheng offered Liu Bei a plan: in the coming day, Liu Zhang was invited to the banquet, and liu Zhang was buried in the tent of the banquet to kill Liu Zhang and take Xichuan, but Liu Bei thought that Liu Zhang and himself were brothers of the same sect, and killing his brother to seize the foundation would lose the people's hearts and be scolded by the people of the world, and after repeated persuasion, he refused to comply, and once again rejected their proposal.

Then Pang Tong took matters into his own hands, still stationed sword and axemen at the banquet, and ordered Wei Yan to take the opportunity to kill Liu Zhang, who was drinking with Liu Bei in the name of dancing swords to help him, during the banquet, Liu Bei's generals and Liu Zhang's generals were sword-fighting, Wei Yan's sword stabbing at Liu Zhang was blocked by Zhang Ren, the scene was once uncontrollable, the soldiers on both sides nominally said that they were dancing in groups, but in fact they were all hidden killing machines, Liu Zhang was frightened by this murderous scene, Liu Bei saw that there was going to be a bloody incident, and immediately ordered to stop the soldiers on both sides. And solemnly told everyone that those who did not put down the sword would be beheaded, let everyone retreat and remove the sword, and then clearly told Liu Zhang and his men that if he harmed Liu Zhang's heart, heaven would not tolerate it, and his crime should be punished, so this embarrassing scene was temporarily ended.

During the banquet, Liu Bei promised to personally defend Zhang Lu's army at Yemeng Pass the next day, so that Liu Zhang could rest assured. Before the expedition, Pang Tong sighed alone: Heaven does not want to take, what is the restoration of man? Liu Bei then summoned Pang Tong and criticized him for being inappropriate at the banquet. Pang Tong defended that he had made this arrangement to assist Liu Bei in his early plan to take Sichuan, and Liu Bei believed that Pang Tong's urgent action would definitely trap him in injustice, and advised Pang Tong not to do so in the future.

Liu Bei was a well-known benevolent gentleman, when xiahou Huan was chased by Cao Cao's army, when he fled from Xinye, in order to reduce the massacre of the people in the city by Cao Cao's army, he offered to cross the river with the people, share the hardships with the people, let the army protect the people to transfer, on the way there were still counselors in the account who advised him to abandon the people to facilitate escape, he still refused this suggestion, and then there were several wonderful heroic stories of Changbanpo in Yangyang and the scene of Liu Bei angrily wrestling Adou.

Prior to this, Liu Biao himself and Zhuge Liang repeatedly persuaded Liu Bei to take over Jingzhou, but Liu Bei refused because he could not bear to take the inheritance of his brothers, and after Liu Biao's death, Yi Zhi offered Liu Bei to kill Liu Bei's widow Liu Chun to occupy Jingzhou, and Liu Bei again refused. Many events in the speech show that benevolence is Liu Bei's goodwill capital, and Zhuge Liang also said at the Confucian meeting of the Confucians that Liu Bei is a person who practices benevolence and righteousness, and his benevolence is in stark contrast to Cao Cao's brutality and treachery, which is also the key to Liu Bei's deep popularity, which is his advantage, and he has always maintained this moral advantage.

In the barrage area of the old version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", many people said that Liu Bei was very hypocritical, false benevolence, and if Liu Bei was really hypocritical, then he had maintained the true color of "hypocrisy" all his life, and after becoming an emperor, he could also insert a knife in the two ribs of his brothers, pour out the army of the country and Eastern Wu, and avenge his two brothers who were married in Taoyuan, which really fulfilled the vow not to be born on the same day in the same month of the same year, but to die on the same day in the same month of the same year.

As Pang Tong, who is a military master, his schemes are almost all dangerous tricks, and they are completely inconsistent with Liu Bei's personality and moral norms, which will naturally make Liu Bei resentful, especially in the private plot to assassinate Liu Zhang, which almost made Liu Bei's benevolent capital that he had accumulated for decades collapse, so how did Liu Bei later influence the fate of Pang Tong? He put The fate of Pantone on a horse, that is, to let the Lu horse of his mount influence Pang Tong.

After Pang Tong entered Xichuan, in order to make a contribution to Xichuan, he repeatedly designed to capture Liu Zhang in Chengdu. After Zhang Song's secret letter to Liu Bei to Take Chengdu was intercepted by Liu Zhang, he beheaded Zhang Song's entire family, and Liu Bei and Pang Tong's plot to take Chengdu was exposed, at this time Pang Tong could not judge the situation, still ignoring Zhuge Liang's persuasion, stubbornly continued to attack the territory of Xichuan, at this time Liu Zhang's generals Zhang Ren and other generals strengthened the defenses around Luocheng, waiting for Liu Bei and Pang Tong and others to enter the ambush circle.

At the expedition ceremony to capture Luocheng, Pang Tong fell to the ground because of the shock of his mount, and Liu Bei immediately seized the opportunity, nominally showing him a good horse by showing sympathy to the military division, but in fact he had the idea of getting rid of this military division that was not very useful and had too much difference in character from himself.

After all, Liu Bei had heard Xu Shu and others say that this Lu horse hindered the lord, but this white horse was never unfavorable to Liu Bei, and the horse also saved his life when he jumped over Tanxi, so Liu Bei thought that either the lu obstruction lord's statement was not credible, or it would not hinder him, but to hinder others, so Liu Bei gave this horse to Pang Tong, and simply handed over Pang Tong's fate to this horse, so later Pang Tong rode a white horse and Zhang Ren's soldiers thought that it was Liu Bei, because Liu Bei rode a white horse, so Pang Tong became Liu Bei's ghost in Luofengpo. Liu Hao also finally got rid of Pang Tong, a teammate who did not align with his own values.

Pang Tong's death, to sum up a few points, is that he was blinded by his own selfish desire to make meritorious achievements, did not handle the relationship with Liu Zhang's subordinates, and did not handle the relationship with Liu Bei, resulting in himself in a heavy crisis, in the movie "The Godfather", the godfather warned his son: "Do not let the enemy know his thoughts", Pang Tong still rushed to attack Luocheng after his strategy was exposed, which was self-destruction.

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