During the ancient war years, it was not uncommon for soldiers or generals to surrender to the enemy. Especially during the Three Kingdoms period, the title of Lu Bu "Three surnames slaves" is even more well-known.
In addition, Jiang Wei , Wei Yan , Wang Ping and others also surrendered from other forces to the Shu camp. But what is puzzled is why Zhuge Liang believes that only Wei Yan will rebel?
Shu Kingdom three surrenders
As the first general to surrender to Shu Kingdom, Wei YanAs early as when Liu Bei scored part of Jingzhou , he chose Liu Bei's camp.
After that, Liu Bei entered Sichuan, and Wei Yan made many military achievements, and was promoted from Yamen to General Zhenyuan, prefect of Hanzhong, etc., becoming the general of Shu Kingdom to be the independent general.
is just different from Liu Bei, and Zhuge Liang has always been not optimistic about Wei Yan. The original text mentioned that Liu Bei was puzzled why Zhuge Liang always wanted to kill Wei Yan. Zhuge Liang replied:
Eat his salary and kill his master is unfaithful; living in his land and offering his land is unrighteous.
After giving a literary explanation, I added a little superstitious statement:
"I see that Wei Yan has rebellious behind his brain, and he will rebel after a long time."
For today's people, the previous explanation is more convincing. But ancient people like Liu Bei were actually more lethal under the constraints of the social background of the times.
Fortunately, Liu Bei did not choose to agree in the end and kept asking Wei Yan to follow the Shu army to fight in all directions.
As for the Wang Ping and Jiang Wei who surrendered later, the former surrendered during the Cao Cao and Liu Bei's battle for Hanzhong, and he surrendered because of the defeat in the battle. At that time, Wang Ping , who was still a young general, could not attract Cao Cao's attention at all.
The latter was the first time Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, and he was noticed and noticed Zhuge Liang's plan. Although Zhuge Liang returned from defeat in this Northern Expedition, fortunately, he successfully brought Jiang Wei back to Shu, which was a loss.
But compared with Wei Yan, these two people have no outstanding achievements, and the other is from the stale rival camp of Cao Wei . Why did Zhuge Liang doubt Wei Yan but ignore Wang Ping and Jiang Wei?
The reason why Wei Yan was suspected
There may be the following reasons: First, as mentioned in the previous article, Wei Yan eats his fortune and kills his master, lives in his land and offers his land. In the eyes of Zhuge Liang, who believes in loyalty and righteousness, such behavior will inevitably happen to Shu Kingdom in the future.
If Wei State invades and Wei Yan, as the prefect of Hanzhong, handing over Hanzhong, wouldn't the barrier to Shu be in danger? At that time, the already weak Shu Kingdom had no capital to compete with the Wei Kingdom.
Even if Zhuge Liang suspected, he was worried that he would hand over such an important place that must be fought for by military strategists to "outsiders".
Even based on his understanding of Liu Bei, his remarks may not be about actually killing Wei Yan, but just planting a seed in Liu Bei's heart to facilitate the replacement of the defensive general in the future.
From this perspective, Zhuge Liang's suspicion is mainly for Shu Kingdom. Therefore, no matter what choice Liu Bei made, Zhuge Liang's goal has been achieved.
The second is that Wang Ping and Jiang Wei both surrendered to Liu Bei at the desperate situation. On the other hand, Wei Yan did not have much pressure to survive at that time.
If the choices of the first two people are still understandable, then Wei Yan is a little confused.
Before the "execution" began, the "criminal" leaked all the information, which made people suspicious no matter how you think about it. Faced with such a situation, Zhuge Liang will naturally be careful.
But judging from the specific performance, it is indeed a bit of a big deal. After all, Wei Yan's personal choice and Wei Yan's subsequent performance in the Shu camp are enough to make everyone trust.
People are unwilling to believe that Wei Yan, who made contributions to Shu, ended up being ruined.
In fact, this is also the third reason why Zhuge Liang later suspected and left a secret to get rid of Wei Yan: Wei Yan is powerful and no one in Shu can suppress him.
Wei Yan's performance in Sichuan was so good. In addition to the battles that led the way when entering Sichuan and capturing Hanzhong, it was also the main combat power of the Shu army when the Northern Expedition of Wei State.
The elderly generals died in battle and old age one after another, and the young generals have never been able to grow up again.
Although Jiang Wei may have the opportunity to become a constraint from Wei Yan in the future, he is still too young now. Especially compared with Wei Yan, Jiang Wei's military achievements are not worth mentioning at all.
In order to prevent Wei Yan's family from becoming the dominant, Zhuge Liang specially arranged Ma Dai as a backup plan.
You should know Zhuge Liang in history and the identity of politicians. However, later generations focused on Zhuge Liang's military talents through the description of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which mostly ignored.
While politicians ensure victory in the war, they are more important to determine the stability of the country. When such unstable factors as Wei Yan exist, he will naturally try his best to erase them.
Zhuge Liang knew that when he was alive, he could easily suppress Wei Yan. But after his death, no one can turn the Shu Kingdom court into his own one-man show.
As for whether his behavior is right or wrong, Zhuge Liang, who is devoted to Shu, actually doesn't care.
