Preface
In Chinese history, Liu Bei was a highly respected leader, and although he had both dragons and phoenixes, he failed to achieve the great cause of unifying the world. Many people are pondering this question: why did a leader with a number of top strategists and brave generals such as Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, etc., fail to achieve the great cause of the world in the end?
Why did such a result occur? Could it be that "Wolong and Phoenix Chicks, you have to settle the world" is just an empty phrase? And Pang Tong, as one of Liu Bei's advisers, has already seen through all this. Let's explore this question together and uncover the truth of history.
An underrated strategist
During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang was one of the most famous strategists. He is known as the "Sleeping Dragon", which is enough to see his outstanding talent in military strategy. However, the contribution of another strategist, Pang Tong, is often overlooked.
Pang Tong, the character Shiyuan, was once called "Phoenix Chick". He lived in seclusion in his early years and refused to go out of the mountain, until Liu Bei visited the thatched house three times, and he was persuaded by Zhuge Liang to join the Shu Han camp. Pang Tong gave Liu Bei advice and formulated a brilliant plan to attack Yizhou, which directly led to Liu Zhang's downfall. It can be said that without Pang Tong's assistance, Liu Bei would probably not be able to gain a foothold in Yizhou.
But regrettably, Pang Tong's life came to an end. During the battle against Yizhou, he was unfortunately killed. Before dying, he left a thought-provoking sentence: "It is the will of heaven that I die today." This sentence implies a deep meaning, and people can't help but think about what caused Pang Tong's feelings.
In fact, the reason why Pang Tong would say such a thing was mainly because he saw through Liu Bei's true face. As a strategist, Pang Tong naturally had insight into Liu Bei's personality. He found that although Liu Bei claimed to be a "benevolent and righteous man", he was actually not.
After seizing Yizhou, Liu Bei actually said to his subordinates: "Today's meeting, can you be happy?" This sentence completely angered Pang Tong. In his view, war was never something to celebrate, because it was built on the suffering of innocent people. It can be seen from this incident that Liu Bei is not a real benevolent and righteous person, he is just pretending.
Pang Tong had insight into Liu Bei's hypocrisy, so before he died, he would say such last words, implying that Liu Bei could not unify the world at all. This also shows that Pang Tong is not only an excellent strategist, but also a person with noble character.
He was concerned not only about national affairs, but also about the well-being of the people. It can be said that Pang Tong was an underrated strategist, and his contributions and insights far exceeded the perception of people at the time.
A hypocrite who is seen through
There is another important reason why Pang Tong said "I died today because of the will of heaven", that is, he saw through Liu Bei's true face.
Liu Bei claimed to be a "benevolent and righteous man", but after seizing Yizhou, he said to his subordinates: "Today's meeting, can you be happy?" This sentence completely angered Pang Tong. In his view, war was never something to celebrate, because it was built on the suffering of innocent people.
It can be seen from this incident that Liu Bei is not a real benevolent and righteous person, he is just pretending. Pang Tong had insight into Liu Bei's hypocrisy, so before he died, he would say such last words, implying that Liu Bei could not unify the world at all.
We can find that Liu Bei's "benevolence and righteousness" is just an appearance, and he is actually an ambitious monarch deep down. He longed for the unification of the world, but he did not really care about the well-being of the people. Instead, he simply used the concept of "benevolence" to gain more support and advocacy.
Naturally, this kind of hypocritical behavior could not deceive a strategist like Pang Tong. As a man of noble character, Pang Tong was deeply disgusted with the suffering caused by the war, and he could not accept Liu Bei's disregard and celebration of it. Therefore, he said those words on his deathbed, implying that Liu Bei's dream of reunification was destined to be difficult to realize.
It can be said that Pang Tong's last words not only revealed Liu Bei's hypocrisy, but also reflected his deep insight into this era. He saw through Liu Bei's hypocrisy, and also saw all kinds of shortcomings within Shu Han. This insight and noble character made Pang Tong an underrated strategist, whose contributions and influence far exceeded what people at the time realized.
A dream doomed to fail
In addition to Liu Bei's hypocrisy, there were other reasons that led to the doom of his dream of unifying the world. First of all, Shu Han's national strength is too thin. After Liu Bei became the ruler of Yizhou, he rewarded the soldiers lavishly, and the war continued for many years, which led to the collapse of the economy of Shu.
To make matters worse, Guan Yu lost Jingzhou, shrinking Shu Han's territory by half. This undoubtedly greatly weakened the strength of Shu Han, making it difficult to compete with Cao Wei and Eastern Wu.
Secondly, Liu Bei's time to get the "Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick" was too late. At that time, Cao Cao had already unified the north and had an army of 300,000 in his hands. In comparison, Liu Bei's military power was insignificant. This disparity in strength doomed Liu Bei to be difficult to win the world in one fell swoop.
Finally, there were serious contradictions within Shu Han. Liu Zhang's old subordinates, Liu Bei's cronies, and the local residents were so divided that it was difficult for Shu Han to truly unite. This kind of internal contradiction is undoubtedly also an important factor hindering Liu Bei's unification of the world.
It can be said that even if Liu Bei was assisted by the "Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick", he was ultimately unable to realize his dream of unifying the world. This is mainly because of the various shortcomings of Shu Han itself, including the weakness of economic strength, the lack of military strength, and the existence of internal contradictions.
These problems, even with the best strategists, are difficult to solve at once. More importantly, Liu Bei's hypocritical behavior has also become a major obstacle to his dream of reunification.
Pang Tong understood this, so he said those words on his deathbed, implying that Liu Bei's dream of reunification was destined to be difficult to realize. It can be said that Liu Bei's dream of reunification was doomed to failure from the beginning.
This is not only because of the limitations of objective conditions, but also because of Liu Bei's own shortcomings. Although he had the assistance of "Wolong and Phoenix Chicks", he was unable to overcome the shortcomings of Shu Han and realize his great cause in the end. This is a sad ending.
epilogue
Through the above analysis, we can see that although Liu Bei was assisted by the "Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick", his dream of reunification was destined to be difficult to realize. The reason why Pang Tong said those last words was precisely because he saw through Liu Bei's hypocrisy and saw through the various shortcomings of Shu Han.
History has taught us a painful lesson: the rise and fall of a country does not depend on how many generals and strategists it has, but on whether its leaders are truly masters of the people. Although Liu Bei claimed to be a benevolent and righteous man, what he did was contrary to this. Therefore, his dream of reunification was doomed to come to naught.
We should learn from this history and realize that a truly great leader requires not only excellent strategic skills, but also noble character and sincere care for the people. Only in this way can we truly realize the reunification of the country and the well-being of the people.