In 220, the Wei general Xu Huang, with the help of Meng Da, led an army to attack the Eastern Three Counties, but the Shu general Liu Feng was defeated, lost his division, and was forced to flee back to Chengdu. However, Liu Feng did not get Liu Bei's forgiveness, but was instead given death by the "righteous father". In the matter of Liu Feng's death, Zhuge Liang played a great role, and it was precisely because Liu Bei listened to his advice that he gave his righteous son to death with tears in his eyes. Then why did Zhuge Liang, who was generous to people, want to kill Liu Feng?
I. What kind of person is Liu Feng?
According to historical records, Liu Feng was "the son of the Luohou Kou clan and the nephew of the Liu clan of Changsha", according to the research of contemporary scholars, Liu Feng was a descendant of the famous Eastern Han dynasty minister Dou Rong, his mother's surname was Liu, and he was a relative of the Han Dynasty, and belonged to the Liu clan of Changsha with the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can be said that Liu Feng is famous and has a prominent family lineage, and it is precisely this point that Is favored by Liu Bei. At that time, Liu Bei was in exile and had no heirs, and he needed to find a suitable child to be his heir!
Therefore, after Liu Bei came to Jingzhou, he adopted Liu Feng as his heir and one day inherited his position. When Liu Feng became Liu Bei's heir, but when he was about ten years old, under Liu Bei's training, he gradually became an outstanding martial artist, "with martial arts and outstanding strength.". In 211, Liu Bei entered Sichuan and "attacked Liu Zhang" from Ye Meng. At that time, Liu Feng was already in his twenties, and he followed Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei to lead the army into Sichuan to fight, "where the battle was".
Second, Liu Feng's loneliness and embarrassment
Liu Feng's ability was outstanding, and he had outstanding performances in the Battle of Jinchuan and the Battle of Hanzhong, and made great achievements, but he fell into an embarrassing situation! In 219, Liu Bei proclaimed himself the King of Hanzhong, and when choosing the candidate for Shizi, he created his own son Liu Chan instead of his adopted son Liu Feng! It is precisely because of liu Chan's existence that Liu Feng lost the identity of his original heir. In order to avoid problems, Liu Bei asked Liu Feng to send troops to the Shangyong region, and actually gave him the eastern three counties.
Liu Bei did this for multiple reasons, one was to keep Liu Feng away from the political center of the Shu Han Dynasty and avoid contradictions with Liu Chan; second, he could use the old to unify the new, to rule with relatives, and to use Liu Feng to control Meng Da's people. However, liu feng was young after all, failed to understand Liu Bei's painstaking intentions, was grumpy about losing his heir's identity, bullied Meng Da, and did not save Guan Yu, in this way, he vented his dissatisfaction.
III. The Deaths of Zhuge Liang and Liu Feng
Later, Meng Da rebelled, Guan Yu was killed, and Liu Feng lost the Eastern Three Counties. After returning to Chengdu, Liu Bei severely reprimanded Liu Feng, "First the lord blamed Feng for invading Lingda, but did not save Yu." However, Liu Bei did not want to kill Liu Feng, after all, he had adopted him for more than ten years, and his feelings were still there. At this time, Zhuge Liang stood up and advised Liu Bei that he must get rid of Liu Feng, on the grounds that "the fear of sealing is fierce, and it will be difficult to control the emperor after yi shi, and he advises the first lord to get rid of it."
Zhuge Liang meant that Liu Feng was a military general with a fierce personality, while Liu Chan was still young and had a weak personality, and in the future, after Liu Bei's death, I am afraid that it will be another bloody power struggle. Liu Bei has seen too much about the matter of heirs fighting for positions, and several sons of Yuan Shao and two sons of Liu Biao are all lessons of history. Thinking of this, Liu Bei shed tears and ordered Liu Feng to be killed. Zhuge Liang had no personal grudge with Liu Feng, he was thinking about the future of Shu Han.
References: 1. Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms; 2. Zizhi Tongjian