Is Zhuge Liang the most important talent of Liu Bei?
Recently, many comments have been made on Zhuge Liang's military talents. Some think that Zhuge Liang's military power is not high, and his romance is far from the review of his history. Others think that Zhuge Liang is worthy of being a great military strategist. This article analyzes Zhuge Liang's military talents from another perspective and hopes to help everyone's debate.
We know that a person's military talents are measured mainly by the following factors:
First, they are good at using troops, that is, they usually say they will fight, including the ability to determine, respond to, and the use of strategy;
Second, be good at governing the military, that is, the capabilities of the command-in-chief, training troops, and ministers;
Third, there have been many battles under command, and there have been more victories and fewer victories, that is, achievements;
Fourth, there is a high level of military literacy, or military theory.
Among them, the first and second items are necessary for an excellent military general, and the third item is a good star. If the fourth item is available, it is very promising to become a military strategist.
However, if the first and second items are not available, it is difficult to have the third item.
Liu Bei, as a generation of AI, has unique abilities of recognizing people and employing people, which is widely known to all:
The use of pontong, the re-use of the law, the bold promotion and appointment of WEI Yan, and the foresight of Ma's ability, all prove the accuracy of Liu Bei and the characteristics of the employer.
In the eyes of Liu Bei, how can Zhuge Liang's military power be? As some comments have said, has Zhuge Liang been reused by Liu Bei?
I. Use of ZHUGE Liang and Pang Tong by Liu Bei
Zhuge Liang was under Liu Bei in 207, a year before the battle of Chibi. Although Liu Bei was satisfied with his "LongZhong", he did not use it very much. At that time, Liu Bei was under Liu's staff and was unable to seal the officials of ZHUGE Liang. However, after Chibi's war, Liu Bei made a job in Jingzhou, And Zhuge Liang was still a small military engineer, zhonglang, and stayed with Liu Bei to help take care of his private affairs. This is equivalent to Liu Bei's self-confidence in Gao Shen.
Let's look at pang Tong. Originally Zhou Yu's gong Cao, and Zhou Yu relied on Liu Bei after his death (in early 211). He was three years later than Zhuge Liang. For example, he participated in the War of Resistance against Japanese aggression, one is the participation of the liberation war. However, although there had been some misunderstandings after pontong, Liu Bei quickly learned about this person's capabilities and immediately promoted him to the same level of Military Division as Zhuge Liang, he also served as the managing director of Jingzhou (equivalent to the managing Deputy Governor, responsible for handling daily affairs ).
Of course, Zhuge Liang was also responsible for supervising the work of sangun before pontong was in the middle of governance.
At the end of 211, Liu Bei was ready to take the lead in Sichuan. This was the most crucial move of the Liu Bei group. Now, we can seize a safe and rich base. If we fail, all the results may be destroyed over the years.
Who are Liu Bei going to take with him to complete this arduous and critical task? It's pontong.
Why doesn't Liu Bei choose Zhuge Liang? According to common sense, pontong is in Jingzhou, and it is very handy to take charge of Jingzhou's governance. In addition, Guan Yu, who is in charge of military affairs, can defend Jingzhou well. Zhuge Liang, in name, is only a veteran of the Military Division, and is also a high-tech expert of Liu Bei. It is common sense that Liu Bei should bring Zhuge Liang into Sichuan.
According to my analysis, after four years of observation, Liu Bei found that Zhuge Liang was not a very talented man. His level was mainly reflected in the political aspect.
For example, in 208, Cao's army went south and Liu Yu surrendered. At this time, Liu Bei had only about 15 thousand troops, and was in the middle of Cao's army and Liu's army. Liu Bei hurriedly moved the masses south to find a safer position as soon as possible. When troops pass by Xiangyang, Zhuge Liang suggested taking the opportunity to attack the city and seize Xiangyang as a base against Cao. Liu Bei refused on the pretext that he could not bear.
Is Liu Bei really unable to win Xiangyang? Can Liu Bei win Xiangyang? Even if you win Xiangyang, can you keep it?
First, from Liu Bei's capture of Sichuan, Liu Bei is not really hard to bear. Liu Yu is not good for Liu Bei. Many generals and ministers around him are hostile to Liu Bei. Liu Yi is really good for Liu Bei, and Liu Bei still takes Sichuan.
Then, Liu Bei was unable to win Xiangyang because of the last two problems.
At that time, Liu Bei joined Guan Yu's Water Army with about 15 thousand people, while Xiangyang's Liu Xiaojun had about 30 thousand people. Although it is recorded that many of Jingzhou's people rely on Liu Bei, after careful analysis, the officers who really grasp the right did not rely on Liu Bei, but on Cao: for example, Yu Yue, Wen Yu, Han Yu, Liu Xian, and Cai Yu. Therefore, it is very unlikely to rely on these people for a battlefield uprising. Therefore, it is unwise advice to attack Xiangyang, where 15 thousand people are attacked and defended by 30 thousand people. Besides, Cao's army is also 15 days away. Once the city cannot be attacked, it may be too late to move south.
Even if Liu Bei really won Xiangyang, Liu Yu and others abandoned the city and fled under the protection of Yu Yue and others, and Liu Bei's troops fought against Cao's 90 thousand elite army in the plain area of Xiangyang. The result is conceivable. By that time, the entire army will be wiped out.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang's suggestion made Liu Bei understand his military level. Therefore, Liu Bei took Pang Tong, who is in charge of Jingzhou's governance work, to participate in the key operations in Sichuan, leaving Zhuge Liang, who has a general military capability and a high political level.
Inbound operations must end with combat operations, while Jingzhou is actually relatively calm and will not carry out large-scale operations. It should be okay to hold on to Guan Yu's capabilities.
According to the relevant records, Liu Bei told pontong that "Dai Yayu Liang ". It is also normal to think about this: PANG Tong is busy with state affairs every day. Naturally, there are fewer opportunities to communicate with Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang's main job is to trust Gao Shen and naturally stay with Liu Bei every day, it seems more intimate.
From this we can see that Liu Bei is reusing Pang Tong and is more dependent on Pang Tong's planning in the military.
Ii. Use of ZHUGE Liang and FA Zheng by Liu Bei
Liu Bei's use (or reuse) of FA Zheng is a replica of Pang Tong. Zhuge Liang was not reused by Liu Bei before fazheng's death.
Law was sent to Liu Bei in 211 to invite Liu Bei to Sichuan. He entered the Liu Bei camp only half a year later than Pang Tong. At the last moment of the liberation of Sichuan Province, Pang Tong was unfortunately sacrificed. Fa Zhenghe Zhuge Liang will be the main competitor of Liu Bei's future master.
After Liu Bei captured Sichuan province, he served as Yi Zhou mu, promoted Zhuge Liang as a military general, and handed over the army's zhonglang to Dong and deploy the left generals. While fa Zheng is serving as generals of Yangwu and Shu-gun taishou-"general of the foreign system, serving as the Lord" (The Three Kingdoms are under discussion), and its reuse is obviously above Zhuge Liang.
Note: Yizhou's first gun is Shu-gun, and FA Zheng serves as the mayor of Beijing (or Jing Zhao Yin), while Zhuge Liang is also the relative high-tech expert of Liu Bei, but the level is improved (zhonglang will be promoted to general, however, there are no other important administrative positions.
In the winter of 217, Liu Bei was preparing to launch a battle to compete for the safety of Sichuan in Hanzhong. This time, Liu Bei dispatched all the main troops in Sichuan (see my article: "battle for Hanzhong"). the opponent is Cao Jun's excellent troops and famous generals-xia houyuan, Zhang Yu, Xu Huang, Cao Hong, Cao Zhen, and Cao himself. Liu Bei must bring a person with high military talent to the Military Adviser.
Who did Liu Bei take to Hanzhong to fight for fate? It's fa Zheng, not Zhuge Liang.
According to common sense, Liu Bei should take Zhuge Liang-he is a military general, a top-ranking high-tech expert, and Liu Bei's zuojun government, while France has an administrative position-taishou, Shu-gun, many internal affairs have to be completed. However, Liu Bei arranged the other way around, and sent Zhuge Liang to take charge of the back, while he took FA to the front line.
Fa Zheng did not let Liu Bei's trust in him. He finally helped Liu Bei win the battle, which was the only battle in his life to defeat Cao.
At this time, FA Zheng was promoted to the general of Shangshu and the Army Guard. It can be said that the military and political power had been taken together, and even WEI Yan was promoted to the general of zhenbei and Hanzhong. Zhuge Liang is the military general.
In the battle of Hanzhong, Liu Bei experienced many difficulties, but finally succeeded. Fa Zheng's military capabilities have been fully demonstrated. Even Cao lamented that "I do not know that Xuan de does not do this, so it must be taught by others ."
At last, we can see from Liu Bei's official title that the credit for participating in the Hanzhong campaign is huge, and the left-behind rear is basically not improved. Because the governance of the rear is completely incomparable with the operations on the front, although the grain and grass at the rear are also very important.
Iii. my views
From the perspective of Liu's reuse and use of ZHUGE Liang, Pang Tong, and FA Zheng, it is obvious that the military capabilities of Pang Tong and FA Zheng are greatly larger than those of ZHUGE Liang.
Liu Bei, with Pang Tong as the Lord, completed an important battle to seize the Sichuan base area. He tried to gain the lord, and completed the incredible battle to defeat Cao and seize Hanzhong. The acquisition of Sichuan is a mixture of political and military power, and the opponent LIU Yu is weak. The occupation of Hanzhong is really a one-size-fits-all fight. From this perspective, Liu Bei's knowledge and employment are indeed very wise, correct, and bold.
This also shows that, in Liu Bei's view, Zhuge Liang's military capabilities are not high, at least it is difficult to help, that is, zhuge Liang's military talent mainly refers to the use of troops and actual combat talents, without Liu Bei Gao.
In Liu Bei's lifetime, only one operation was carried out by Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and Zhao yunbing to reinforce Liu Bei's attack on Sichuan. In this operation, most of Liu's main forces fought with Liu Bei in the north of Chengdu, so there was no real battle. The three attacked jiangzhou together, as if they were completed by Zhang Fei's troops. Then, the three-way sub-troops, Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang, basically did not experience any resistance, only Zhang Fei beat Liu Yi's troops from Chengdu in diyang.
Note: The "huayang guozhi" records that Zhang's troops were defeated by Zhuge Liang in Brazil, which is different from those recorded by the Three Kingdoms. Through analysis, I think that the record of "huayang guozhi" is not reasonable: Zhuge Liang uses inner water, in the east; Zhang Fei uses water, and Zhao Yun uses external water between Chengdu and inner water, south Chengdu. Zhang Yijun started from Chengdu and could not cross the middle Zhang feijun to fight against Zhuge liangjun in the East. Isn't it necessary to be attacked by Zhang Fei and Zhuge Liang? It cannot be said in military terms.
Through the above use of ZHUGE Liang's military capabilities, Liu Bei can reflect from one side that Zhuge Liang's military talents are not as high as those praised by many people, at least Liu Bei is inferior in actual combat command and response capabilities.