In August 263, Sima Zhao, who held the power of the State of Wei, decided to launch a war against Shu Han and sent Zhong Hui, Deng Ai, and Zhuge Xu to attack Shu. The Shu generals Jiang Wei and Liao Hua led an army to use the dangerous road of Jiange (present-day Jiange, Sichuan) as a barrier to block the main force of the Wei army. In this battle, after Jiang Wei engaged Deng Ai in Puzhong, he flew to Zhuge Xu and went straight to the east to resist the main force of the Wei army. However, when Zhong Hui's army occupied most of the strongholds in Hanzhong and advanced to the outside of the Jianmen Pass, it was blocked by the Shu army that returned to reinforcements, and the stalemate could not be stopped, that is, the two famous generals Jiang Wei and Zhong Hui were difficult to distinguish for a time.
In this regard, Deng Ai adopted a pedantic strategy, and when the main forces of the Wei and Shu armies were facing each other at Jiange, he led his elite troops to detour through Yinping (northwest of present-day Wen County, Gansu), crossed more than 700 miles of desolate and uninhabited areas, chiseled mountains and opened roads, and raided Jiangyou (present-day jiangyoubei, Sichuan). In the hinterland of the Shu Han Dynasty, Mianzhu broke zhuge Zhan, captured Fucheng (涪城, in present-day Mianyang, Sichuan), and approached Chengdu. Later, liu chan surrendered to the Wei army because of Deng Aibing's troops. For the later lord Liu Chan, Chengdu, where he was at that time, no longer had the troops to resist Deng Ai, which became an important reason for him to give up resistance. So, the question is, when the Shu Han fell, where did Meng Yu, who had been subdued by Zhuge Liang, go, why not come to the rescue of the Shu kingdom?
One
First of all, for Meng Yu in Nanzhong, he was once subdued by Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, which is not only said in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but also reflected in historical materials such as "Spring and Autumn of the Han Dynasty", "Xiangyang Chronicle", and "Huayang Guozhi". According to historical records such as the Spring and Autumn of the Han Dynasty, in 223 AD, before and after the death of Liu Bei, the ancestor of the Shu Han Dynasty, Meng Yu followed Yong Min of Yizhou County to rebel, thus making enemies of Shu Han. In this regard, because Liu Bei had just died at that time, and Shu Han had suffered a heavy blow in the Battle of Yiling, Zhuge Liang did not immediately lead an army to attack Meng Yu and other rebels. In 225 AD, Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, went to Nanzhong to personally march and win hundreds of battles. It was learned that there was a man named Meng Yue, who had always been admired by the tribes in nanzhong, so he sent an army to attack Meng Yue and captured him in Pandong. Zhuge Liang took the advice of joining the army and pardoned Meng in exchange for the hearts and minds of the people in southern Shu Han. Later, when Nanzhong was pacified, Meng Yu returned to Chengdu with Zhuge Liang and served as the Imperial Historian Zhongcheng.
Yushi Zhongcheng (御史中丞), an ancient official name, began during the Qin Dynasty as the Three Dukes and Nine Qings. During the Han Dynasty, he was the subordinate official of the Imperial Household Master, or the Law Enforcement officer of the Imperial History, ranked Sengoku. The Han Dynasty Emperor abolished the Imperial History Grand Master, and made Yushi Zhongcheng the governor of the Imperial History Platform, and the later dynasties followed, but the official name changed from time to time. For Yushi Zhongcheng, it was a relatively high-status official position, which reflected the attention and importance that Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, attached to Meng Yue. In the context of Meng Yu's arrival as an official in the Shu Han court, the rebellion in the southern central region was relatively calmed, which allowed Zhuge Liang to devote his main energy to the campaign of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. However, for the following reasons, when the Shu Han fell, Meng Yu and other southern central forces did not come to the rescue of the Shu state.
Two
On the one hand, at the time of the fall of the Shu Han, Meng Yu was probably already dead. For Meng Yue, he was subdued by Zhuge Liang in 225 AD. At that time, as the leader of the South Central tribe, Meng Yue's age was probably not lower than 30 years old. By 263 AD, when the Battle of Wei and Shu broke out, it was already nearly 40 years old, which meant that Meng Yu's age was likely to exceed the 70-year-old mark. It is true that during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, some generals were indeed over 70 years old. However, from the overall point of view, the 70-year-old martial arts general can be described as rare in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty. From this point of view, Meng Yu should have died before the fall of Shu Han, and naturally could not help Shu Han.
Moreover, in the author's opinion, even at this time, Meng Yu has not died. However, if Meng Yu was in Chengdu, the capital of the Shu Han Dynasty, it would be difficult to play any role. When Deng Ai's army approached Chengdu, Meng Yu wanted to move from Nanzhong to rescue the troops, because of the limitation of distance, it would take at least a few months. And Liu Chan, the post-lord at that time, obviously could not support such a long time. Before Deng Aibing came to Chengdu, the Shu Han Imperial Forest Army led by Zhuge Zhan was already the last bottom card of the later lord Liu Chan. In the Battle of Mianzhu, the large army led by Zhuge Zhan was basically wiped out by Deng Ai, which led to the fact that the then empress dowager Liu Chan had no one to use.
Three
On the other hand, even if Meng Yu, or the tribes in the south wanted to rescue Shu Han, it was likely that they had also been rejected by the later lord Liu Chan. In the late Shu Han Dynasty, Liu Chan led Yongchang Taishou with Huo Yi, led an army to fight, beheaded his heroic commander, and after the county boundary was quiet, moved to supervise the general of the Yi Army, led Jianning Taishou, and commanded the southern central counties. That is, before the fall of the Shu Han Dynasty, the counties in the Southern Central Region were guarded by Huo Yi, a military general. In the sixth year of Jing Yao (263), Huo Yijin was the general of Annan. In the same year, the Battle of Wei and Shu officially broke out, Deng Ai secretly attacked Yinping, and Huo Yi wanted to lead an army to rescue Chengdu, but Liu Chan was already prepared for Chengdu and did not allow Huo Yi to lead his army to the rescue. In this regard, in the author's opinion, if Huo Yi really led the army to Chengdu to rescue Liu Chan, it is likely that he would have to recruit soldiers from the tribes in nanzhong.
However, because of the refusal of the later lord Liu Chan, neither Huo Yi, a military general, nor Meng Yu's subordinates in the southern central region, could help the Shu state at a critical moment. In addition, in the author's opinion, for Meng Yu's subordinates in Nanzhong, it is not impossible to accept the results of the demise of the Shu state. As early as 223 AD, the reason why Meng Yu rebelled in the southern central area was naturally to break free from the shackles from the Shu Han. In 225 AD, Zhuge Liang led Li Hui and others to pacify Nanzhong. As far as Li Hui was concerned, he personally commanded his troops to suppress the rebellion, eradicated all the perpetrators of evil, and moved their leaders to Chengdu, and collected cultivated cattle, war horses, gold and silver, and rhino skins from the Shu and Pu tribes in the southern central area as taxes to enrich the military materials of the imperial court, so that the financial expenses of the Shu Han at that time would not be lacking.
Four
Finally, among the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, Shu Han was the weakest party. However, both Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei attacked the powerful Cao Wei many times. On this basis, every attack of the Shu Han Dynasty needed the support of grain, grass, grain and other materials, and as far as these materials were concerned, a large part came from the southern central region. Although Meng Yu was eventually subjugated by Zhuge Liang, the Shu Han chancellor, after Meng Yu, other tribes in the southern central region were not willing to hand over their supplies to Shu Han for a long time. Therefore, by the time the Battle of Wei and Shu broke out in 263 AD, the Nanzhong tribe probably chose to sit on the shore and watch the fire.
What is more crucial is that after Cao Wei destroyed the Shu Han, it should not be good for the tribes in the southern central region, that is, the outcome will not be bad, and even these tribes need to be encircled. After all, these areas deviated from the Central Plains at that time, and for the Central Plains Dynasty, the main thing was to reuse the tribal leaders in the southern central area to avoid rebellion. In general, when the Battle of Wei destroyed Shu broke out, meng yu or the tribes in the southern central region, whether they wanted to rescue Shu Han or not, it was difficult to change the outcome of the fall of the Shu state, that is, in the face of the powerful Cao Wei, even if Meng Yu or his descendants really led an army to rescue Chengdu, it would at most delay the demise of Shu Han, and could not fundamentally reverse Cao Wei's suppression of Shu Han. After the fall of the Shu Han Dynasty, the tribes in the Southern Central Region submitted to Cao Wei and the Western Jin Dynasty successively, and maintained a relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty. What do you think about that?