As the saying goes, "There is no general in Western Shu, and Liao Hua is a pioneer." As we all know, the withering of talents became an important reason for the demise of Western Shu. In fact, as early as the time of killing Zhang Ren, the bane of the Departure of the Xichuan people from the Shu Han Liu clan was laid.
Because of its unique geographical location, Sichuan was once far away from the war at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, where wars were raging and swords and soldiers were everywhere. Although Liu Zhang was cowardly, he was also able to manage Yizhou in an orderly manner by relying on two groups of people, Wen's reliance on a group of strategists and sages led by Fazheng and Xu Jing, and a group of military generals led by Zhang Ren, Li Yan, and Yan Yan.
For Liu Bei's entry into Sichuan, Yizhou Wenwu is two diametrically opposed attitudes. The civilian officials were warmly welcomed by Zhang Songxian's map, and Emperor Liu's fame and power, his great talent, and for the literati with political and strategic vision, it was a "good wood" and worth choosing. Represented by Zhang Ren, from the perspective of a soldier, he only knew how to defend his family and defend the country, and he set up a "Hongmen Feast" to strongly resist Liu Bei's invasion.
"Attacking the city is secondary, attacking the heart is the first", Liu Beijin occupied Xichuan originally had an improper name, and his words were not smooth, and he applied the Huairou policy to appease the heart of Yizhou Wenwu. Probably because of the stimulation of Pang Tong's death, or because his "benevolence" did not achieve the kind of response he expected in Xichuan, Liu Bei was full of revenge, and when Ling Bao was captured again, Liu Bei rushed out without hesitation to push him out and behead him. pity! Ling Bao's surrender and rebellion was indeed a loss, he had a look of shame on his face when he was tied into the Chinese military tent again, Ling Bao's martial arts were not weak, he could match Liu Feng and Guan Ping, if Liu Bei could give him a chance, he would definitely repay him with death. At the same time, it can also show the benevolence of Uncle Liu Huang, and it is disappointing that Liu Bei did not have such a measure.
On the contrary, when Zhang Fei, who was brutal and easy to kill, did not think about Yan Yan's tough attitude and the old account of making himself suffer enough, but considered from the big brother's Xichuan grand plan, he was kind enough to persuade him, and finally made a piece of steel plate, yan Yan who regarded death as a return, retained the heart of the Yizhou military general who was losing, and Zhang Fei's speed of entering the Sichuan army therefore exceeded that of Zhuge Kongming, who was scheming and calculating, and Zhang Fei was praised for having the "style of a national soldier" because of this. Unfortunately, Yan Yan is already old, and his appeal and use value are far less than Zhang Ren.
The "Yibu Qi Old Miscellaneous Records" records: "Zhang Ren, a native of Shu County, came from a poor family, had little courage, and had the ambition to be a festival, and Shizhou was engaged in it. Zhang Ren was the leader of the Nishikawa warlords, known for his loyalty and bravery, and one of the most outstanding military generals in Yizhou. He is both literate and martial, white horse and silver gun, bow sword stone, horse step arrow all-powerful, his martial arts and Cheng Pu, Yu Ban and so on are between Bo Zhong; and he is familiar with all kinds of military and battle strategies. Is a rare handsome man. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it was his command troops who set up an ambush on the outskirts of Luocheng, and skillfully used the terrain to shoot the large army division Fengchi Pang Tong to death at Luofengpo (there is a discrepancy in historical facts). Liu Bei's army was in a dilemma and had to urgently ask Jingzhou for help. The battles of Fucheng and Luocheng showed Zhang Ren's excellence, even surpassing Liu Bei's command talent and superb martial arts, who had experienced hundreds of battles and had been on the battlefield for a long time.
After the increase in troops (in fact, according to the "Huayang Guozhi" and other information, Kong Ming's army only met with Liu Bei's army in Chengdu after the siege of Luocheng in the summer of Jian'an in the nineteenth year, and did not participate in the siege of Luocheng. Later, Liu Beijun captured Zhang Ren at the Battle of Yanqiao, and Zhang Ren said sharply, "The old minister will never return to the second lord." Liu Bei still wanted to persuade (like Huang Zhong and Yan Yan), but Zhuge Liang stopped Liu Bei and ordered him to be pushed out and beheaded, calling him "a festival of his name." Afterwards, Liu Bei regretted it. Yes, this so-called "fame festival" does not have much benefit to Liu Bei's hegemony. In fact, on the issue of Zhang Ren, Liu Bei had another better choice, temporarily imprisoning Zhang Ren, and waiting until Liu Zhang surrendered, he was still afraid that Zhang Ren would not surrender? That's how Old Huang Zhong was summoned. In the case that the country was far from unified, this could not only buy the hearts and minds of yizhou, but also retain a major general for western Shu.
Why didn't Liu Bei insist on persuasion? Does Zhang Ren need such a name? Zhang Ren was not from a scholar family, which is probably another important reason for his beheading, which also reflects the influence of the feudal gate hierarchy concept on the use of talents by the monarch during the Three Kingdoms period.
We can see the consequences of this, the beheading of Zhang Ren did not make the Yizhou people very afraid, did not play the kind of deterrent effect that Zhuge Liang expected, the stubborn resistance is still continuing, some people are not satisfied even after being forced to surrender, and later Peng Yang, who did not meet Huai Cai, actually came up with such an obvious hateful incident as instigating Ma Chao to plot against (attempt), and Peng Yang was still executed despite repeated repentance. We can no longer see the praise of Liu Bei's "benevolence" in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It was only because of the surrender of the reinforcements and the surrender of another Yizhou heavyweight, Li Yan, that a large number of Yizhou military generals defected without hesitation, which contributed to the pacification of Xichuan.
With the death of Fazheng, Yan Yan, and other favored former ministers of Yizhou, the nepotism of the Shu Han regime, strict hierarchy, factional struggle, and the phenomenon of hilltopism intensified. A dynasty of heaven and a courtier, open the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms? In addition to the Liu family, there were 59 people who established the lineage, of which nearly 40 were from Liu Bei's Jingzhou clan and only 19 from the original Yizhou native lineage. Among these 19 people, the official positions conferred were only ordinary county guards, generals, and counselors, and few of them entered the highest decision-making level of Western Shu, so no one spoke on behalf of the interests of the local department of Yizhou. Occupying its land without using its people, how can the mountains and mountains of Western Shu be stable? After the Jingzhou faction came to power, the centrifugal deviation of the former Nishikawa Wenwu and Liu clan regimes became more prominent.
Therefore, let's look at the performance and encounters of the generals of the local department of Yizhou when the war situation or the situation is unfavorable:
Zhou Qun, a famous scholar in Langzhong, Brazil, was killed by Liu Bei for his verbal offense.
Meng Da, who was responsible for the poor rescue of Guan Yu because of his killing, feared revenge from Liu Bei and the general Shen Kunzhong presented Shangyong to Cao Wei;
During the Battle of Yiling, Liu Ning and Du Lu surrendered to Eastern Wu, and the heavily prized Huang Quan also chose to surrender to Cao Wei despite having a wife in Xichuan;
Liu Bei's bones were not cold, and the old generals Yong Kai and Gao Ding of Xichuan in the south colluded with Meng To rebel; Western Shu, while facing the powerful Cao Wei attack in the north, had to draw troops to stabilize its rear, and several important generals died in the counterinsurgency;
The later lord Liu Chan had an affair with Hu Shi, the wife of Liu Yan, the marquis of Shuzhong,and Liu Yan was beheaded by Liu Chan for overreacting his excesses, so the sages gradually retreated and the villains advanced day by day.
In Hanzhong, Jiang Shu of Yang'anGuan betrayed his robes and surrendered to Zhong Hui when he could hold it. The Lecheng defender Wang Han and the Seoul defender Jiang Bin surrendered, and Liu Bei's hard-earned Hanzhong was easily recaptured by Zhong Hui.
The dialogue between Jiangyou Shou general Ma Mi and his wife is a true portrayal of the inner world of the Nishikawa clan. Deng Ai only had 2,000 people to get Jiangyou, and Ma Miao bowed down under the court and wept: "A certain person has the heart to surrender for a long time... ”
The Cao Wei general Deng Ai led his army to Chengdu, and Xichuan's native Zhou Li advocated surrender, but the later lord obeyed, and Shu Han perished.
Nepotism and jealousy were even more a fatal wound to the talent strategy of the late Western Shu Dynasty. In order to enable Liu Chan to succeed to the throne smoothly, Liu Bei did not hesitate to take advantage of the Guan Yu incident to behead Liu Feng, a son of a cadre who had made great achievements in battle; the foreign "monk" who had no door and no faction, called "Lü Bu Second", who had been traversing Western Liang, although he was given the false title of "Five Tiger Generals" of Liangzhou Mu, he never had military power, and finally ended up in Western Shu, a general with no practical experience, but he took up a position of outline, and finally harmed people and harmed people Zhuge Liang's important general Wei Yan, who was not pleasing to the eye, was even beheaded on the charge of rebellion. Even a pillar of the country like Jiang Wei could not avoid the disaster in Tuntian, because Huang Hao's close confidant Yan Yu was very envious of the kind of prestige that Jiang Wei had when he commanded the army.
Li Yan was one of the Five Tiger Generals of the late Western Shu Dynasty, and his martial arts were slightly inferior to Wei Yan's, because he was at odds with Zhuge Liang, he had never really been seriously entrusted, and the reason why Li Yan was degraded was that as long as people who knew a little about the Three Kingdoms knew, because Zhuge Liang's soldiers went out of Qishan and asked Li Yan to supervise the grain and grass within the time limit, and it was raining in the sky and rain, and the grain transportation could not be continued. There are two problems here, one is that the orders issued by Zhuge Liang are unattainable tasks for Li Yan due to weather factors. Second, Li Yan was a first-class tiger general, and it was not his specialty to let him supervise the collection and transportation of grain and grass. Therefore, Li Yan had to lie, "Eastern Wu came to commit crimes", of course, lying is not good, lies make Zhuge Liang's trip to Qishan again, hit the water. But first of all, Zhuge Liang's arrangement of Li Yan's work was inappropriate, and it was the main reason for everything. Such a good general is ruined by improper use.
After Zhuge Liang, Fei Wei, Yang Yi, and the eunuch Huang Hao's dictatorship brought Western Shu to a terrible abyss
Although the above incidents have their own reasons, we can still sum up the common points from them, taking the cutting of Zhang Ren as a typical example, the Liu regime did not respect talents, or could not correctly use and give play to the talents of talents, and engaged in "Shantouism" factional struggles that eventually made Western Shu pay a heavy price. It is not surprising to look at the dilemma of talent withering and no one available in the late Western Shu Period.
Zhuge Liang's Six QiShan, who had good wishes, and Jiang Wei's Nine Cuts in the Central Plains (or even the Thirteen Cuts in the Central Plains), objectively speaking, could only be exhausted by the military and exhausted the national strength, which further accelerated the defeat of Western Shu.