The real situation of Zhuge Liang's Peaceful Five Roads
Among the four famous works in China, the most famous is undoubtedly the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and almost every Chinese can casually tell several classic passages, such as Guan Gong's thousand miles of single riding, Zhang Fei roaring angrily changshanpo, Zhao Yun's seven in and seven out of Changshanpo and so on. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a total of 1191 characters are described, but their status is no better than one person, that is, Zhuge Liang.
Luo Guanzhong, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, devotes a great deal of space to the introduction and description of Zhuge Liang's deeds, and one of Zhuge Liang's classic stories is that Liu Xian's widow Zhuge Liang settled in the Five Roads of Peace and Stability (see the Eighty-fifth Time of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
Due to the successive deaths of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and the loss of Jingzhou, Liu Bei was angry and lost the important region of Jingzhou, which was an important region for the world, so Liu Bei attacked Sun Quan and tried to retake Jingzhou despite dissuasion, but in the end Liu Bei was defeated and soon died at the Yong'an Palace in the White Emperor's City.
Before his death, Liu Bei entrusted Liu Chan and the will of rebuilding the Great Han to Zhuge Liang. then
Cao Pi, who claimed to be emperor, saw that the Shu Han state was mourning, so he took the opportunity to contact the Five Roads Army to cut down Shu, hoping to achieve the great cause of reunification. The five major armies and the direction of the march were: the Qiang soldiers of western Liaoning took Xipingguan from the dry road; the southern barbarian king Meng Yu raised troops to attack Yizhou, Yongchang and other counties; Sun Quan raised an army to attack the mouth of the Liangchuan Gorge and take Fucheng; Shangyong Taishou Meng Da raised shangyong troops to attack Hanzhong in the west; and the general Cao Zhen led the Wei army to attack Yangping Pass.
Liu Bei's death and the invasion of the Five Roads Army, Shu Han heard the news, up and down panicked, and some local forces rose up and down to rebel, at this time Shu Han can be said to be facing the danger of the collapse of the state. However, at this time, Zhuge Liang was sick and could not go to the court, and could not leave the door for several days. This upset all the monarchs, and the new emperor Liu Chan even personally went to visit the chancellor's mansion, and after the two of them talked for a while, Liu Chan came anxiously and left calmly. Not long after, Cao Pi's five-way strategic layout of cutting shu was dissolved by Zhuge Liang.
The reason why Zhuge Liang did not come out behind closed doors was because he was afraid of leaking secrets, so he concealed the hundred officials of the DPRK and China, and in fact he was already strategizing and secretly mobilizing soldiers and horses to deter soldiers and horses in different ways. A fierce attack of the five-way soldiers and horses was easily dissolved into invisibility by the military master Zhuge Liang without bloodshed. This move can be described as "in the midst of planning, decisive victory thousands of miles away" to describe Zhuge Liang.
Just as Zhuge Liang's borrowing of arrows from a grass boat is actually a borrowing of Sun Quan's urgent and wise move out of trouble, Zhuge Liang's borrowing of the East Wind is based on the Battle of Poyang Lake at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the wonderful plot of Zhuge Liang's Five Roads of Anjuping is also based on another real event that Luo Guanzhong adapted and integrated, and this real time is the five-state funeral event that occurred in the middle of the Warring States period.
In the twenty-fourth year of Zhao Suhou (326 BC), Zhao Yu, the Marquis of Zhao Su, died, and the five princely states of Wei, Chu, Qin, Yan, and Qi sent tens of thousands of sharp masters to attend the funeral. The five kingdoms were called to participate in the funeral, but in fact, they took advantage of the special period when the lord of the Zhao kingdom was suspicious and wanted to get benefits from it. Zhao Suhou was a hero before his death, and fought fiercely with the states of Wei, Chu, Qin, Yan, and Qi for many years without being inferior, and the Zhao state seemed to be the new hegemon of the north.
In the Warring States period, honoring the king and denouncing foreign states was no longer the demand of the princely states, and the monarchs of the princely states pursued the reform of the law and the strengthening of the country, the expansion of armaments, the annexation of various countries, and the unification of China. It was also in this context that a large number of sages and warriors such as Li Wu, Wu Qi, Shang Martin, and Le Yi appeared on the stage of history, and the intensity and duration of the wars in the Warring States period far exceeded that of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Among the seven major princely states of the Warring States, the State of Wei was the only one in the early stage, but with the improper actions of Marquis Wu of Wei and Marquis Wen of Wei, the State of Wei declined. Due to the decline of the century-old hegemony of the State of Wei and the rise of the States of Qi, Chu, and Qin due to changes in the law, the threat to the Three Jins increased day by day. It was also at this time that Zhao Suhou carried the banner of the Leadership of the Three Jins to deal with the expansion and annexation of external forces.
From the beginning of his reign until his death, during his twenty-four years of reign, the Zhao state had wars almost every year, and in the war-torn Warring States annexation war, Zhao Suhou was able to maintain a stable situation and keep the ancestral inheritance, so that the Zhao state did not suffer serious losses, and created a stable environment for the king of Zhao Wuling to change the law and reform.
The initiator of the five imperial burials was King Hui of Wei, and the reason for doing so was also to take revenge on Zhao Suhou. In the later period of King Hui of Wei, the state of Wei had gradually declined under the attack of the two great states of Qi and Qin, but until this time, the state of Wei still had a certain strength to find opportunities to rise again. However, this opportunity was interrupted by Zhao Suhou. At that time, Su Qin advised Zhao Suhou that he should launch a joint offensive to continue to weaken the State of Wei.
After suffering continuous blows, the State of Wei completely lost the opportunity to rise, and the State of Zhao also took the opportunity to expand its power to the Central Plains. After the death of Marquis Su of Zhao, King Hui of Wei naturally retaliated, and he immediately united with the four kingdoms of Chu, Qin, Yan, and Qi in the name of being buried, and each sent more than 10,000 elite soldiers to take advantage of the young age of the new king of the Zhao state.
At that time, Zhao Yong, the king of Zhao Wuling, was only fifteen years old and was a teenager, and he had to face such a dangerous dilemma, for Zhao Yong, his father's funeral was too dangerous, and if it was not handled well, Zhao Guo was likely to be destroyed by the Five-Nation Alliance. Fortunately, however, at that time, Zhao Yong had Fei Yi by his side (Fei Yi was a famous courtier left to Zhao Yong by Marquis Zhao Su, and he was also a trusted and orphaned minister with Zhuge Liang). Under the reminder and advice of Fei Yi, Zhao Yong decided to take tit-for-tat and tough countermeasures to meet the Five Kingdoms' ulterior motives of the "armed burial mission", and at this time, Zhongshan Guo also wanted to take the opportunity to annex Zhao Tu.
Faced with such an urgent and dangerous situation, King Wuling of Zhao was not intimidated, but calmly declared that the entire territory of the Zhao kingdom was under martial law, and let the Zhao troops of Dai County, Taiyuan County, Shangdang County, and Handan gather and enter a state of imminent battle, ready to fight at any time. Secondly, King Wuling of Zhao united Korea and the Song Kingdom, two states located between Qin, Wei, Chu, and Qi, so that the three kingdoms of Zhao, Han, and Song formed a character-type alliance structure, putting the four countries of Qin, Wei, Chu, and Qi in a passive situation of being attacked on two sides or on three sides.
After reaching the Three Kingdoms Alliance, the State of Zhao secretly sent emissaries to bribe king Wuqi of Yue with heavy money to attack Chu, first shifting the attention of the State of Chu, which was not in line with the State of Zhao, to its old rival, the State of Yue. Then he bought the Lou Fu King and let the Lou Fu army send troops to attack Yan and Zhongshan. The State of Yan was the weaker of the Five Kingdoms, and under the strong attack of Lou Fu, King Yi of Yan was frightened, and he was worried that Zhao Guo and Lou Fu would attack the State of Yan together, and hurriedly dispatched troops to defend themselves.
As for the State of Zhongshan, although its national strength was not as good as that of the State of Zhao, after all, its territory was wedged into the territory of the State of Zhao, and the army of the State of Zhongshan was known for its bravery, and even the powerful Wei army during the Wei Wenhou period took three years to capture Zhongshan. Moreover, the State of Zhongshan was often instructed by the State of Qi to attack the hinterland of the State of Zhao and the capital city of Handan from behind when the Army of the State of Zhao went out to fight, which undoubtedly posed a greater threat to the State of Zhao than the external strong enemies. Under the attack of Lou Fu, Zhongshan also had no time to take care of the robbery of Zhao Guo. After removing the two strong enemies of Yan and Chu, the Wei, Qi, and Qin cliques had no advantage over the Zhao, Han, and Song cliques.
After initially stabilizing the situation, King Wuling of Zhao ordered the five-nation army that came to the funeral not to enter the border of the Zhao state, and only allowed the envoys of the five countries to enter the country with condolences from the kings of various countries, and the ministers in charge of the reception of the Zhao state sent them directly to Handan.
The armies of the Yan and Chu states returned to China, while the remaining three kingdoms of Wei, Qin, and Qi "armed missions" saw that the Zhao state was heavily armed and well-guarded, and the Zhao army was also in a state of war. Moreover, the alliance of Zhao, Han, and Song had already been formed, and the three kingdoms of Wei, Qin, and Qi had to dispel the idea of waiting for the opportunity to swallow Zhao, and had to leave the army on the border to watch the time change.
After the Five Kingdoms Mission entered the Zhao Territory, they saw that the elite of the Zhao Army were gathered on the border and in Handan, and the Five Kingdoms Mission, seeing that the war was about to break out, did not dare to provoke the Zhao State, so they had to hurriedly return to China to resume their lives after burying Zhao Suhou with King Wuling of Zhao. The conspiracy of the Five Kingdoms of Zhao initiated by King Hui of Wei was foiled by King Wuling of Zhao and Fei Yi, and King Wuling of Zhao withstood severe tests when he first entered the throne.
After King Hui of Wei plotted against Zhao unsuccessfully, he began to work hard to make up for the rift in the relationship between Wei and Zhao, and led the crown prince to the State of Zhao to congratulate King Wuling of Zhao on his official accession to the throne. King Wuling of Zhao and Fei Yi treated each other with courtesy. Important allies of the State of Zhao, King Xuanhui of Han and Crown Prince Cang, also came to congratulate King Wuling of Zhao on his ascension to the throne.
After King Wuling of Zhao ascended the throne, he carried out the reform of Hufu riding and shooting, continuously strengthened the combat effectiveness of the Zhao army, and completely annexed the Zhongshan State, and incorporated the lin hu and Lou Fu armies into the battle sequence of the Zhao army, becoming the only military power that could compete with the Qin state in the middle and late period of the Warring States.