time is in the spring of 228 AD.
why I chose this year, there are two reasons:
The first reason is that of Wei State Cao Pi died, and Cao Rui succeeded to the throne.
This is a political opportunity. Generally speaking, the old emperor dies and the new emperor succeeds to the throne. Many work has not been adjusted or is on track.
The second reason is that Zhuge Liang prepared himself, because in the previous year, that is, in 227 AD, he wrote " Memorial to the Master of the Shu Emperor " for Liu Chan , and made some important personnel arrangements, such as adjusting Zhao Yun to lead troops to garrison Hanzhong , let Wei Yan be the Sima of the Prime Minister's Mansion, etc.
So, in 228 AD, Zhuge Liang set out with the well-prepared Shu army.
At the beginning, it went smoothly - the relatively remote places in Wei State, such as Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding, all turned against each other.
Emperor Ming of Wei Cao Rui was very surprised when he heard this, but no matter how surprised he was, Wei State was not scared after all. Cao Rui was placed in the pile of ancient emperors and was still a wise king. He quickly made arrangements and personally arrived at Chang'an to take charge and sent two armies, one with Cao Zhen as the commander to resist Zhao Yun, and the other with Sima Yi and Zhang He to resist Zhuge Liang.
Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang faced each other.
Both of them are not ordinary people.
Sima Yi is extraordinary in strategy, and Zhuge Liang is also extraordinary ingenuity.
Therefore, both parties attach great importance to the same place.
That is Jieting . This place is west of Qinling , located in the southeast of Zhuanglang County, Gansu Province today.
This place is the throat of Hanzhong. All the throats of ancient and modern times are the places that must be fought for by military strategists.
For the Wei State, if the important place of Jieting's throat was controlled, Zhuge Liang would not be able to occupy Longxi at all and would be forced to withdraw his troops in Hanzhong. So the Northern Expedition died prematurely.
For Shu Kingdom, if Jieting is occupied, Longxi can be stationed firmly, so there will be a frontier position to further attack Wei Kingdom.
It is precisely because of this that Zhuge Liang attaches great importance to Jieting. He said "Although Jieting is small, its strategic position is more important than Mount Tai. If Jieting is lost, the Shu army will face a failed ending." .
Generally speaking, since ancient times, most of the places where military strategists have fought for are dangerous passes. But Jieting is not the case. Not only does this place have no strong city to defend, but there are also no obstacles to follow. So Zhuge Liang said, "It is extremely difficult to guard."
From various situations, we can see that the importance of Jieting lies in its strategic geographical significance, and the victory or defeat is determined by gains and losses.
Therefore, both sides have to fight, but how to fight is extremely testable to the commander of both sides.
Let’s talk about Zhuge Liang first. Zhuge Liang seems to be inadequate when making personnel choices on this issue.
Because when this problem arose, Zhuge Liang held a military meeting and discussed the importance of Jieting, he decided to lead his troops to seize the place. As a result, Ma Su recommended himself and said that he was willing to accept this important task.
Ma Su's position at that time was to join the army.
In addition to this position, Ma Su and Zhuge Liang's personal relationship was also extraordinary. He was regarded as a "confidant" by Zhuge Liang. He often chatted with each other, and even went all night long.
So who is Ma Su? What are your abilities?
Ma Su was born in 190 AD in Xiangyang , whose courtesy name is Youchang.
His family is very powerful, with only five brothers, and they are called " Ma Shi Wuchang ".
The eldest brother is called Ma Bochang, the second brother is called Ma Zhongchang, the third brother is called Ma Shuchang, and the fourth brother is called Ma Jichang.
The five constants of the Ma family are all very talented. But the most famous ones are the fourth and fifth ones.
The old four Ma Jichang is Ma Liang . When Liu Bei was working as the Jingzhou in 209, Ma Liang began to follow Liu Bei. After Liu Bei was appointed as the emperor in Hanzhong, he appointed Ma Liang as the Minister of State. When attacking the Eastern Wu, Liu Bei led the army in person, and one of the advisers who were brought by his side was Ma Liang.Yiling was defeated and Ma Liang was killed, so he must have died in the chaos.
: The five constants of the Ma family are famous, except Ma Liang, Ma Su.
Like Ma Liang, Ma Su also followed Liu Bei when he was in Jingzhou.
Later, Liu Bei entered Shu, and Ma Su successively held three official positions, one was the county magistrate of Mianzhu, one was the county magistrate of Chengdu, and the other was the prefect of Yueli .
From the position held by Ma Su, we can see that Ma Su should be good at administrative management.
However, Ma Su himself is particularly keen on military affairs in addition to administrative affairs.
In particular, Ma Su and Zhuge Liang had a special conversation, and sometimes they could even have a night chat.
Zhuge Liang is knowledgeable, knowledgeable, and outstanding in talent. If the person who is talking to him is a wine bag and has no ink in his chest, he will naturally not be able to chat for a long time.
From this we can infer that Ma Su is not an ordinary person. His talent and skills are beyond ordinary people in history.
It is precisely because Ma Su has a good military theory level and excellent eloquence. So, he eventually became Zhuge Liang's confidant and friend.
For example, after Liu Bei's death, Nanman caused trouble, Zhuge Liang wanted to lead the army to quell the rebellion.
How to suppress the rebellion? Zhuge Liang was also unsure at that time. Ma Su saw Zhuge Liang for dozens of miles away. Finally, Zhuge Liang asked Ma Su to give a suggestion on this matter. Ma Su said:
""""" Nanzhong , a place that was remote due to its geographical distance, has been unsatisfied for a long time. Even if the army was pacified today, the army would rebel again tomorrow, and it would not be terminated again. In the future, the Shu army would concentrate its forces to fight north, and the Southern Barbarians would inevitably rebel even more crazily. However, if the army in the past killed all the rebels of the Southern Barbarians in the past, it would not be realistic. On the one hand, it would not be possible in the short term, and on the other hand, it would seem too cruel and easy to lose people's hearts. For example, for the rebels of the Southern Barbarians, the best way is to attack the heart first and attack the city first, and adopt psychological warfare to make them truly follow. In this way, the rear will be stable, which will help the future Northern Expedition." 。
Mu's set is really good, and Zhuge Liang also thought it was not bad. Later, he adopted Ma Su's suggestion and went to Nanzhong to attack the heart first, kill Yongkai , and pardoned Menghuo . As a result, the rebellion in Nanzhong was not only calmed down, but also people's hearts were obsessed. At least when Zhuge Liang was alive, this place remained stable.
Judging from this matter, Ma Su was not as useless as he criticized later.
viewers are often like this. Once a person has a stain, he will completely deny the whole person.
But, in reality, how can anyone be covered with light without any stains?
Therefore, when looking at affairs and people, we should be objective and rational. Especially those who are more controversial.
This is how Ma Su is.
He has his bright spots and his talent.
However, because of one thing, his person was completely denied by history.
He is also nailed to the pillar of shame of the loser.
In 228 AD, when Zhuge Liang was in the Northern Expedition of , he brought Ma Su with him, who was the chief officer of the Prime Minister's Office.
The position of joining the army is not very important, but it is extremely important. For example, Sun Jian has been the military officer of Zhang Wen , and Xun Yu has also been the military officer of Cao Cao .
At that time, Zhuge Liang opposed the opposition and agreed to Ma Su to lead his troops to occupy the important land Jieting.
Ma Su went there.
Of course, in order to let Zhuge Liang have an explanation in front of everyone, Ma Su made a military order.
, so everyone has nothing to say.
Of course, Zhuge Liang was still a little worried. Although Ma Su said it well when talking about military affairs on weekdays, he had no practical experience after all, so he sent a general with practical experience to serve as his deputy. This person is Wang Ping .
Wang Ping was originally a subordinate of Du Fu, the marquis of Du Fu, and he was considered relatively excellent. Later, Du Bian surrendered to Cao Cao, and Wang Ping also surrendered to Cao Cao. There were so many talents in Cao Cao. It was difficult to reveal anything like Wang Ping, so he only became an acting captain at the beginning.Later, Wang Ping was the deployment general of Xiahou Yuan in the Battle of Dingjunshan . The Wei army failed and Wang Ping surrendered to Liu Bei.
Liu Bei is different from Cao Cao, and his talents are relatively rare, so Wang Ping's official position became bigger and he served as high-level military positions such as Yamen and General Bi.
But in the future, Wang Ping's career is successful, and he still has to thank Ma Su (after the defeat of Jieting, Ma Su was beheaded and Wang Ping was promoted to the army).
Because, according to Zhuge Liang's arrangement, Wang Ping set out as Ma Su's deputy.
Ma Su knew that soldiers were more powerful than speed, so he ran very fast, at least faster than Sima Yi and Zhang He.
Because when Ma Su arrived at Jieting, there was no Wei soldier here. Since
came early, then deploy it as required.
As mentioned earlier, Jieting is a ghost place. Although it occupies an important military strategic location, there is no danger of relying on it. It is just a flat land. Therefore, if you want to guard such a ghost place, you can only create it yourself. How to create
? Zhuge Liang explained that he set up camp on the main road of Jieting to block the road.
But after arriving at Jieting, Ma Su became underestimated by the enemy and believed that the Wei soldiers did not dare to come. It was more troublesome to set up camp on the road. It would be better to set up camp on the mountain next to the intersection.
Why choose a mountain to camp? From Ma Su's perspective, there are three reasons:
The first reason is that the mountain is the only mountain nearby, which is safer than occupying high mountains.
The second reason is that the mountains are lush and trees are easy to camp and camp with local materials.
The third reason is to defend the mountains. If the enemy comes to invade, he will be condescending and gain the advantage of attack.
But Wang Ping didn't think so. Wang Ping believed that although Ma Su's plan was good, there was a fatal problem, that is, although it was good to occupy the mountains, there was no source of water on the mountains, and the soldiers and horses had to take water from the bottom of the mountain. If the Wei army comes, just need to control the water source and surround the mountains, it is equivalent to snatching the vital points of the Shu army.
Wang Ping's words are practical experience at first. After all, marching and fighting is not as simple as talking about war on paper.
But Ma Su did not listen to Wang Ping's advice, and in the end they took a compromise. Ma Su led the main force to defend the mountain. Wang Ping led 5,000 troops to camp on the west side of the mountain. In this way, the two sides could support each other. If the Wei army came, they would be able to support each other and not be killed.
Let’s talk about the Wei army again, and soon, Sima Yi and Zhang He of the Wei army came.
Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang have different attitudes towards Jieting, a key place.
In order to understand the reality of Jieting, Sima Yi first asked his second son Sima Zhao to explore the way and touch the reality of the enemy. Then he was worried and asked Zhang He to lead his army to Jieting to explore the truth and reality.
and told Zhang He that if the enemy has controlled the main roads of Jieting and has heavy troops to guard, then we should not move.
Since Sima Zhao reported to Sima Yi about the situation he found. He heard that the Shu army had arrived at Jieting, but when he was stationed on the mountain, he felt happy. However, he did not underestimate the enemy because of this. Instead, he changed into plain clothes and took his entourage to go there in person. After inspection, he felt confident.
However, it was not enough. Sima Yi sent someone to inquire about the leading generals of the Shu army guarding the mountain, but it turned out that it was Ma Su. I felt more at ease.
But this is not enough. Zhang He was summoned and asked about Zhang He's investigation. Zhang He reported that there was an army west of Jieting, who was commanded by Wang Ping.
This is true, and the situation is thoroughly understood. That night, Sima Yi began to arrange specific military operations.
ordered Zhang He to lead his troops to block Wang Ping's way, and ordered Shen Dan and Shen Yi to lead troops to surround the mountains and cut off the water.
This is the deployment arrangement before and after Wei Bing.
The result is obvious, we all know that Ma Su was defeated.
But if this failure is all blamed on Ma Su, it is actually one-sided.Why do you say so?
When Mao Zedong read " Zizhi Tongjian " Volume 72 "Wei Ji San and IV", he commented twice before and after the history of "Lost Jieting", he wrote a seven-character comment for the first time:
"The first battle between Liang should be on the battlefield."
The second time when he read the historical battle, he wrote a comment like this again:
"Since Jieting defeat, Liang will be in the army every time he went out."
In fact, we carefully speculated and understood Mao Zedong's comment for the reason.
Jieting Battle is extremely important and can be said to be the first strategic battle of the first Northern Expedition. In such an important battle, as the commander of the three armies, we naturally have to go to the front line to command, control the three armies, and dispatch troops to make reliable arrangements.
But Zhuge Liang did not do so.
This highlights three problems:
The first problem is that as the head coach, Zhuge Liang personally underestimated the enemy. Because he underestimated the enemy, he did not come to the front line in person.
The second problem is that as the head coach, Zhuge Liang's personnel arrangements are not rational and objective enough, and have a personal relationship.
As a military officer, Ma Su has his strengths, such as military theory, making suggestions, etc., which are his merits. However, he has never led a soldier and has no practical experience.
marching and fighting is a matter of accidental loss, so you cannot use Ma Su incorrectly based on your personal feelings.
Especially when he was preparing to use Ma Su to lead troops to guard Jieting, some people disagreed, but Zhuge Liang insisted on his own opinion. Although Wang Ping was used as the deputy to balance Ma Su's actual combat shortcomings, the deputy did not have the right to decide in most cases. Especially when you are on the front line and cannot control it, the situation is even more unpredictable. As a result, what happened later came true. Wang Ping disagreed with Ma Su's deployment, but Wang Ping had no right to decide.
The third problem is that as the head coach, the overall military deployment is too superficial. On the surface, Zhuge Liang's deployment is closely linked and seems to be very strict, but in fact there are constant problems.
For example, after sending Ma Su and Wang Ping, he was worried that Ma Su and Wang Ping would lose (this means he was no longer at ease), so he sent Gao Xiang to lead his troops to guard Lieliu City northeast of Jieting. As long as there is a situation in Jieting, he will send troops to rescue him.
However, after sending Gao Xiang, Zhuge Liang was worried that Gao Xiang was not Zhang He's opponent, so he sent Wei Yan to lead troops behind Jieting.
deploys once and remediates twice.
Zhuge Liang knew that Ma Su and Wang Ping were not good, so why didn’t he go to the front line and personally deploy and arrange the arrangements? What should I do to fundamentally solve the problem? If the Jieting problem was solved from the beginning, there would be no remedial measures to be taken later.
The fighter jets on the battlefield are changing rapidly and cannot tolerate remedies, nor will you give you a chance to remedy. The war later was basically like this.
The Wei army was able to win, which basically avoided Zhuge Liang's deployment errors.
In terms of personnel arrangements, Sima Yi took the famous general Zhang He as the vanguard.
Zhang He is naturally not in the same heavyweight class against Ma Su.
Despite this, Sima Yi was still cautious. Although the news kept coming, he finally went to the front line to check it out before making a decision.
After the defeat of Jieting, Zhuge Liang also learned from his mistakes and realized the problem. Therefore, every time he went to fight in the future, Zhuge Liang would no longer be careless - Zhuge Liang would personally take charge of important military operations. Although each has his own victory or defeat, a low IQ defeat like Jieting did not happen again.
So, as far as the defeat of Jieting is concerned, it has little to do with Ma Su after all, and the main responsibility is Zhuge Liang, the commander of the three armies.
Reference materials:
1: "The Three Kingdoms";
2: Mao Zedong's comments on "Zizhi Tongjian·Wei Ji"
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