The story of the Three Kingdoms War in this issue is found in the eighty-eighth episode of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which takes place during Zhuge Liang's "Three Captures of Meng", and the relevant characters are Zhuge Liang, Meng Yue and Meng You. The gist of the story goes something like this:
Zhuge Liang captured Meng Yu for the second time, and Meng Yue was still dissatisfied. Meng Yu believed that his defeat was only because of the betrayal of his subordinates, believing that as long as he could fight a dignified decisive battle, he would definitely be able to defeat Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang agreed to Meng's request and released him for the second time.
Before the release of Meng Yue, Zhuge Liang deliberately took Meng Yue to visit his military camp and showed Meng Yue his grain, grass and weapons. Zhuge Liang told Meng Yue that he not only had elite soldiers and strong generals, but also had enough food and grass, and Meng Yue's desire to defeat himself was really delusional.
After Meng Yu returned to his camp, he immediately executed Dong Di Na and Ah Hui Mu and sent troops to Jiashan Yu to confront Ma Dai. Who knew that at this time, Ma Dai had already left, and there was no one in the mountains. Meng Yu came up with a plan to have his younger brother Meng You go to Zhuge Liang's camp in the name of a gift, in an attempt to assassinate Zhuge Liang inside and outside.
Knowing that Meng You had come to offer gifts, Zhuge Liang immediately realized that this was Meng Yu's plan, but he did not move and arranged for Meng You and others to rest in the camp. At this time, Ma Mo also sensed that Meng Yu had bad intentions, so he came to Zhuge Liang's big tent. Zhuge Liang asked Ma Mo to write down his views on paper, and the results were completely consistent with Zhuge Liang's judgment. Zhuge Liang laughed at this and made a pre-war deployment in front of Ma Mo, waiting for Meng to win the plan. After that, Zhuge Liang summoned Meng You again and agreed to his request that Meng Yu personally come to present the gift.
After Meng You returned to the Meng Yu camp, he informed Zhuge Liang of the meeting with zhuge Liang one by one. Meng was overjoyed, thinking that Zhuge Liang was confused by himself, so he led 30,000 elite soldiers to sneak into Zhuge Liang's camp. Who knew that after Meng Yu entered the camp, he found that there was no one in the camp. At this time, the Shu Han army, which had long been ambushed on the side, suddenly came out and defeated the rebels. Meng Yu was captured by Ma Dai on his way to escape. At this point, Meng Yu was captured by Zhuge Liangsheng for the third time.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the story of the "Seven Captures" described in the novel seems to be absent in history. There is no mention of Meng's name in the historical materials that are not recorded in this regard, and the historical materials that have such records are only a brush stroke. Therefore, even if there is really a "seven captures" in history, posterity has little understanding of this story. Therefore, these storylines that appear in the novel can only be the fiction of the author of the novel.
So, in the limited records of historical records, where is meng's clan? Where is his place of origin? So far, both of these issues have been a muddle.00. Let's look at the first question: Meng's genus. Regarding the clan of Mengyu, there are two kinds of accounts in the historical data: Han and ethnic minorities. According to the Records of the State of Huayang, during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were eight major surnames in the Southern Central Region, including the Meng surname, whose clans were all Han and not ethnic minorities.
In the historical data, when distinguishing between Han and ethnic minority families, there are special vocabularies. The clan is called "Min" by Han and "Yi" by ethnic minorities. In the Zizhi Tongjian, Meng Yu once said to Zhuge Liang: "Ming Gong, Tianwei Ye. The border chief is not evil. Some scholars have concluded from this account that Meng's clan was Han rather than an ethnic minority.
However, there are not a few who hold the view of Meng as an ethnic minority. In the Yuan Dynasty Zhang Daozong's "Collection of Ancient Dian Sayings", it is mentioned: "Shi Meng was made a barbarian king, and he lured zhuyi, and both Mu Mu and Yue Yue should be responded to." Meng was conquered by his people, known as Yi and Han, occupying Kunming, Dongchuan, Wuding... Tens of thousands of them. In the Ming Dynasty Zhuge Yuansheng's "History of Dian", it is clearly recorded: "Yong Min, the surname of Yizhou, is the commander of the county, and enxin is quite famous." Among his subordinates were the Meng, Jianning Manye, known for his bravery and courage. To this day, the controversy over the mengyu clan still exists, and there is still no conclusion.
As for Meng Yue's place of origin, it is even more an inexplicable matter. The reason for this is that the problem lies in the Huayang Guozhi, so there are two very different records in the book. Huayang Guozhi? The Nanzhong Zhi said: "Yizhou Yifu did not follow the qi, and the envoy Jianning Meng was said to be Yi Shu. "If according to this record, Meng Yu should be a Jianning person."
However, in the "Huayang Guozhi? There is also a record in the Nanzhong Biography: "(Zhuge Liang) received his Junjie Jianning Cuan Xi, and Zhu Ti Meng Yan and (Meng) were made official subordinates. "According to this account, Meng Yu should be a Juti. Is Meng's place of origin Jianning or Jianning? As with their clans, this issue is still highly controversial to this day.
Reference Books: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms