Note: This article is a discussion of the plot of the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and the materials cited are derived from the original text of the novel and have nothing to do with the historical records.
The Battle of Chibi is the climax of the plot of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In this big drama, there is an almost recognized "laughingstock" character. Mr. Luo Guanzhong portrayed him as a clown — as Cao Cao's subordinate, he played a very important role in promoting Cao Cao's defeat in key links.
This person "is a native of Jiujiang, surnamed Jiang, given the name Gan, and the character Ziyi, and is now a (Cao Cao) curtain guest."
The more accepted view is that this Jiang Gan was simply a terrible crime for Cao Jun, but a different kind of contribution to Eastern Wu - because he stole books, which led to the accidental killing of Cai Mao Zhang Yun, which seriously affected the training of Cao Jun's sailors.
However, if you think about it, I am afraid that this is not the case.
Here is a digression, due to the author's preset position of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao", the novel always has some prejudiced perspectives and ugly attitudes when shaping the characters of Cao Ying - this is reflected in many plots.
Book Of Return. For Jiang Gan's portrayal, there is also such prejudice and ugliness. But even so, from the words and lines of the original text, we can still feel that the author's evaluation of Jiang Gan's characterization and his actual deeds is inconsistent.
Here, we will first try to analyze the "Jiang Gan's book theft":
The origin of Jiang Gan's first crossing of the river was after Zhou Yu peeked at Cao Jun's water village, and Cao Cao proposed that "now he has deeply peeked into wu zhai." What shall I do to break it"? At this time, Jiang Gan volunteered to "be willing to use three inches of uncorrupted tongue to say to Jiangdong that this person is coming."
It is not an easy task to persuade people to surrender, not to mention that Zhou Yu and Sun Quan are "entrusted with the righteousness of the king and the subject, the grace of the flesh and bones inside, words must be done, calculations must be obeyed, and misfortunes and blessings are shared" with Sun Quan. The capital that Jiang Gan volunteered to volunteer was nothing more than "making a deal with Zhou Lang in the same window since childhood."
As the saying goes, "if you don't go to the door for three years, you will not kiss it", and to be honest, the basis for such lobbying is quite fragile. Jiang Gan swore an oath that "the prime minister is assured." If you do it to the left of jiangsu, you must succeed", and indeed there is a suspicion that it is not caught and is reluctant to be difficult.
But we should see that when Cao Cao asked for advice, Jiang Gan stepped forward, showing his attitude of loyalty to Cao Cao. It was precisely because of his loyalty to Cao Cao that he did not take into account other unfavorable factors, especially the profits and dangers of this trip to his own life.
You know, in this situation of confrontation between the two armies, to the other side to persuade the coach, it is indeed a bit of a head pinned to the waistband of the pants. Moreover, at that time, the degree of contradiction and confrontation between the two sides could be said to be the tip of the needle against Mai Mang, and Zhou Yu even broke the unwritten law of "the two armies do not fight each other not to make it" not long ago.
Is it strange that a normal messenger has lost his head, and one who has come to persuade him to surrender, beheaded on the spot, and hung his head outside the door? Doing this kind of work, not to mention classmates, relatives are also difficult to ensure safety.
There is a saying that Jiang Gan is a heart of fame and fortune, and is eager to improve his position in Caoying - this seems reasonable, but it is not. It is a fact that Jiang Gan's position in Cao Ying is not high (we will discuss Cao Cao's responsibility to make such a loyal subordinates subordinates in the future), but we must know that the villains with fame and fortune are all scheming, and even if they want to use speculative means to climb up, they will never use this way - to take their heads as a bet to speculate?
Therefore, Jiang Gan's first crossing of the river was entirely out of loyalty to Cao Cao and did not avoid the danger of swords and axes.
At this time, Zhou Yu, because he found that Cao Jun's water village was "deep in the magic of the water army", was considering that "the design must be to first eliminate these two people (Cai Mao Zhang Yun), and then can break Cao", Jiang Gan came to Jiangdong at this time, mistakenly hit and bumped into Zhou Yu's counter-strategy tool - and this is completely unpredictable by Jiang Gan in the case of information asymmetry.
At this time, Jiang Gan was preoccupied with how to persuade Cao Cao to surrender Zhou Yu. And its actual performance, of course, can not be said to be a tiger, but also not inferior.
As soon as Zhou Yu met, he pointed out that "he traveled far away from the rivers and lakes and acted as a lobbyist for The Cao family", and Jiang Gan did not flinch on this, but coped with it decently and answered like a stream - of course, he could not know Zhou Yu's arrangement, but thought about how to lobby Zhou Yu.
Then again, if Jiang Gan really quit this, how would Zhou Yu react? It's hard for us to imagine. It can only be said that Zhou Yu was also well aware of Jiang Gan's loyalty to Cao Cao, so he had that arrangement.
At the beginning of the mission, Jiang Gan did not live up to Cao Cao's trust and trust, and tried his best to carry out lobbying activities. Even in the thrilling environment of Tai Shi Ci's "sword supervision", Jiang Gan still used Zhou Yu to show "the soldiers of the bears and tigers" and "the soldiers were well fed", talking about the opportunity of "when I was classmates with Ziyi, I never expected to have today", and tested the possibility of lobbying with the words of "my brother is highly talented, it is really not too much".
When Zhou Yu said, "If Su Qin, Zhang Yi, Lu Jia, and Li Sheng make a comeback, their mouths are like hanging rivers, their tongues are like sharp blades, and An can move my heart," Jiang Gan knew that the lobbying was hopeless. But at this time, Jiang Gan is at best an inner loss, and it will not be as ugly as the author's "face is like the color of the earth" - loss and fear are two concepts, and only fear will make people "face like the color of the earth".
At the end of the "Gathering of Heroes", Jiang Gan, who was lost in the lobbying, did not lose his loyalty to Cao Cao, and did not lose his temper. In the case that the established task was no longer possible, he actively sought new opportunities to make contributions to Cao Cao. When you find that the opportunity to "stay with the child wing for a long time, sleep tonight" comes, immediately take action.
Of course, everyone knows that Jiang Ganzhong has made a plan.
However, things should be thought of from multiple angles. "See that on the table inside the tent, there is a stack of documents, but get up and peek at it" - think about it, in the central part of the enemy headquarters, under the eyes of the enemy commander, steal the enemy's core secrets, and then retreat!
You must know that this is all Jiang Gan taking the initiative without knowing all of Zhou Yu's arrangements, and in the case that he thinks it is extremely dangerous. How bold is that? How loyal to his lord?
Everyone can say that Jiang Gan's secret agent work (originally did not do this) has low ability, slow brain, and poor thinking, but we cannot laugh at Jiang Gan. Why? The reason is very simple, even Cao Cao did not react at the first time, and what reason is there to be harsh on Jiang Gan (and Jiang Gan has been working around Cao Cao for a long time, which is inevitably affected by his suspicious nature)?
What we have to see is the great risk that Jiang Gan took in order to do things for Cao Cao, and the loyalty reflected in it--if this person is placed in the right place, he is really a talent available.
Here, we will focus on cao Cao's measures after the accidental killing of Cai Mao Zhang Yun.
Cao Cao chose to refuse to admit his mistake - "although he knows the plan, he refuses to admit his mistake", out of consideration for his own status and influence, this direction can also be regarded as "beyond reproach".
However, the specific methods taken by Cao Cao invisibly admitted his own plan. When the public generals "asked about their reasons", Cao Cao found a reason for "the two people to neglect military law" in an attempt to confuse the matter.
The next reaction was "everyone is screaming". The most basic reason for this reaction is that everyone feels that this crime is far from death.
To go further- at that time, many people saw that soon after Jiang Gan entered the account, Cao Cao killed Cai Mao Zhang Yun. Although I don't know what Jiang Gan reported, everyone must have thought that there must be a connection.
And jiang gan's long-distance return from Jiangdong, the topic that can cause Cai Mao to die, will never be as simple as "neglecting the military law" -- this crime probably does not need to run to the other side to understand, but there must be something bigger.
Cao Cao's biggest mistake here was not to admit that Cai Mao Zhang Yun had murdered him and not to reward Jiang Gan. Since he had already killed Cai Mao Zhang Yun by mistake, and proceeded from Cao Cao's interests, "although he knew the plan in his heart, he refused to admit his mistake", he should make the mistake wrong, declare that the two conspired to kill him, and then introduce Jiang Gan's deeds of risking and stealing books, and reward Jiang Gan again. In this way, it is in line with everyone's observation and impression, and everything is complete. Even if there were doubts about Cao Cao's plan, it would be difficult to say anything.
Moreover, Cao Cao can also borrow the topic to play and praise mr. Jiang, a weak scholar, how calm and brave, which will also have a good effect on the mobilization, motivation and promotion of human resources in the entire team.
It can only be said that Cao Cao in this period, knowingly and deceived, briefly lost the judgment of "adulterous male", and there was a psychological imbalance that ordinary people would have in this situation, and he was extremely frustrated and unwilling to involve the topic of the two "plotting" himself.
However, in this way, only by "snubbing the military law" and not rewarding Jiang Gan, the logical relationship of the whole incident could not be justified, and he invisibly admitted that he was deceived.
"Everyone is screaming", did any of them see through the organs and secretly laugh at Cao Cao? This probability is undeniable. Of course, everyone didn't dare to laugh out loud, so "whimpering" became a desirable option.
Another mistake made by Cao Cao was to simply leave Jiang Gan aside after the incident. Perhaps out of his resentment of being deceived (this is still the psychological state of ordinary people, and it is definitely not what a commander who has established a foundation should have), he did not carefully analyze the before and after of the matter from a higher perspective, and he did not find the shortcomings and strengths shown by Jiang Gan.
In this way, it is not possible to arrange suitable work according to Jiang Gan's strengths, so that such a loyal subordinate can continue to bend down to subordinates, nor is it possible to prevent Jiang Gan's shortcomings from being deceived again--Cai Mao Zhang Yun's head is really worthless, and even the negative lesson role cannot be effectively played.
Synthesizing the whole process of "Jiang Gan stealing books", in addition to lamenting the deviation of Mr. Jiang's agent's ability, we basically do not see any plots worthy of ridicule and ridicule, on the contrary, what we see is the loyalty of a scholar to the protagonist, courage and persistence in extremely dangerous situations.
On the contrary, Cao Cao, whose overall level was much higher than Jiang Gan's, lost his standards in a series of links, wasted a loyalist who could play an effective role in a suitable post, and lost a rare opportunity to motivate his subordinates.
At the end of this reflection, looking back and looking at the ugly description of Jiang Gan in the original text, we would like to say to the author and the readers who ridicule Jiang Gan: Don't laugh at people, you can do it!
(The texts quoted in this article are from the 45th time of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms)
Author: Wind and Rain Autumn Window, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber. Welcome to my headline number: Read less about the Red Chamber and tell you a different story of famous books.