In the process of reading history, from time to time, I feel as if I have become an old acquaintance and an old friend with the characters in my writing. Their words and deeds, every move, as if they were right in front of them. Kong Ming is such an old friend. Of course, he may not recognize me.
In the last seven years of Kong Ming's life, the Fifth Northern Expedition, I dare not use words such as laboring the people and hurting the wealth, poor soldiers and martial arts, but it is a basic fact that the futile work and the loss of soldiers and generals are broken.
This time, we analyze a few small things, explore Kong Ming's personality, and make some ideological preparations for the next step of analyzing various decisions and actions in the process of his Northern Expedition.
A child's manifesto
It should be that shortly after Liu Bei's death, that is, in 223 AD, a group of big men of the State of Wei, Situ Huaxin, Sikong Wang Lang, Shangshu Ling Chen Qun, Taishi Ling Xu Zhi, gurudwara servant Zhuge Zhang, and others, all wrote letters to Zhuge Liang, advising him to see the Mandate of Heaven and the people, and the whole country called Wei a vassal.
Kong Ming took a look, since you old goods group is looking for scolding, I don't want to be afraid of one by one, just boil you a spoonful. So a political manifesto was issued, saying:
At that time, Xiang Yu's virtue was not enough, although he occupied Huaxia and seemed to become an emperor, he was eventually destroyed by Gao Zu. Now, you Wei Guo did not think that it was a lesson, but instead followed Xiang Yu's example, planning to go all the way to the black. I tell you that although Cao Cao was lucky and escaped the disaster of destruction, his descendants will certainly have to pay back this account! Dear old masters, you are already full of teeth and teeth, with old age spots, reading history every day, and you can't even see the lessons in the history books! Blindly obeying the will of the chaotic courtiers and thieves, just like Chen Chong' and Zhang Chen's praise for Wang Mang's usurpation of Han, did they do their best to do anything good, did they still want to have a good ending? When Emperor Guangwu started his business, he led thousands of weak soldiers to defeat Wang Mang's army of more than 400,000 people outside Kunyang City. It can be seen that justice triumphs over adultery, and victory or defeat is not in the widows. Cao Mengde, a sinister and deceitful man, cited hundreds of thousands of teachers, vainly attempted to rescue Zhang Guo in Yangping, played enough tricks, exhausted his heart, but escaped with his life, until the army was humiliated and lost Hanzhong, he realized that the artifact could not be vain, so he cried out for his life on the way back to the army. Cao Pi was arrogant and extravagant, and even usurped the throne. Even if a few of you have the sophistry talents of Su Qin and Zhang Yi, and you talk about it in a vacuum, and if you talk about the rivers and rivers, it is just a waste of pen and ink paper. What decent gentleman would do such a thing! The "Military Commandment" says that as long as all people have the will to die, they can sweep the world. In the past, the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan led tens of thousands of troops, dominated the four directions, and fixed the sea, not to mention that we had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, guarding the heavenly path and crusading against rebellion, who can stop it!
[Borrow this picture, huh]
Yi Zhilu said: Kong Ming's declaration is righteous and solemn, surging and surging with righteousness. It is revealed here that the Shu Han regime under Kong Mingzhi took the Yellow Emperor and the Guangwu Emperor as the direction and the ultimate goal of sweeping the world, which also laid the general tone of the Kong Ming government's continuous war.
Yang Yong entered the speech
Once, Zhuge Liang was proofreading documents in his office, and the master bookkeeper Yang Yong (read as used, Yang Ping) went straight up and said:
Governing the country has its own laws. The superior has the work of the superior, and the subordinate has the work of the subordinate; the subordinate cannot arbitrarily do the work of the superior, and the superior should not take care of the work of the subordinate. Let me use an analogy: there is such a person who lets the male servants plough the fields, the maids cook rice, the roosters report the news, the loyal dogs take care of the house, the oxen pulls the cart, and the horse walks. Therefore, the family has nothing to do, it is easy to live freely, it should eat, it should drink, and the family is well organized. However, one day, this person suddenly decided that he had to do everything himself, farming was also him, cooking was also him, nursing home was also him, the dawn was still him... In this way, not only is the family chaotic, but also exhausts himself, mentally weak, and in the end he can't do anything well. Is his talent inferior to that of a slave? Isn't it as good as a chicken dog? Isn't it better than cows and horses? Of course not. Rather, it was because he had forgotten the duty of the head of the family. The ancients said that the person who sat down and discussed the Tao was the prince, and the one who carried out the order and implemented it was the scholar. Therefore, Bingji did not ask about the killing on the road, but he was worried that the cattle were breathing heavily because of the heat; Chen Ping did not understand the state's money and grain income, but said that "these people who are specifically responsible for themselves know", and both Bingji and Chen Ping really understand the reasons for performing their respective duties. Nowadays, Ming Gong you govern the country, but personally proofread and revise the documents, and you are too busy to wipe your sweat all day, is this too tiring!
Zhuge Liang thought that Yang Yong was right. Later, Yang Yong died, and Zhuge Liang wept for three days.
[Everything must be done personally, you must have this ability]
Yi Zhilu said: First explain the matter of Bingji, who was the prime minister of the Han Xuan Emperor Liu's illness. There is an idiom (allusion) called "BingJi asks the cow", which probably means that the prime minister Bingji went out one day, encountered a group fight on the road, and caused a human life, Bingji did not look at it, and went straight over. After a while, I came across an old farmer who was holding a morning glory, and the cow opened its mouth and gasped for breath. Bing Ji hurriedly got out of the car and asked the old farmer how far he had gone, why the cow was gasping for breath, and so on. The cadres under him felt strange, so they asked Bingji, Xiang Ye, you don't care if you killed someone on the road just now, but now you are very nervous when a cow is gasping for breath, do you think that human life is not as good as the life of an animal? Bingji said, Brother, I am the prime minister, the street gangsters fight and fight, there are local officials to take care of it, after dealing with it, you can report to me; now it is the spring ploughing season, if the cattle do not go far and start to breathe heavily, it is possible that there will be infectious diseases, there will be no spring ploughing, there will be no harvest in the autumn, and the people will not be able to survive, so I must ask clearly about the situation, this is what the prime minister should manage. After the subordinate cadres listened, they all obeyed.
Yang Yong's words are very reasonable. Whether it is a family or a political regime, each performing its own duties and fulfilling its responsibilities is the way to govern.
But Kong Ming is not, if it is possible, Kong Ming is afraid that he wants to do everything. Although he knew that what Yang Hao said was right, he couldn't change his personality, and throughout his life, he did everything in detail and did it himself. Before he died of illness, the punishment of more than twenty military sticks in the army must be reported to him for approval. Kong Ming's conscientious and responsible attitude and conscientious old cattle spirit are worthy of recognition; but as the de facto head of state of a country, he also acts in this way, and his negative effects cannot be ignored.
First, it is not conducive to the growth of general talents. To be honest, when a leader comes to proofread the speech every day, the person who writes the manuscript for him must not be able to eliminate typos, which is a very simple truth. Since you have to do everything yourself, then you will do a good job. As a result, while everyone was happy and relaxed, they also lost their self-motivation.
The second is to seal the upward passage of top talents. After Zhuge stepped into the foreground, he opened the government to govern affairs and led the Yizhou pastor, and the history said that "political affairs are not big and small, and salty decisions are determined by the light." That is to say, Kong Ming does not trust the cadres under him (referring to the distrust in ability), no one is at ease, he must decide on his own, all the cadres have no autonomy, and those who are not obedient and have different opinions are all pinned down. This created a dilemma, the cadres did not have the space and opportunity to play and show themselves, and those who could mix under Kong Ming would only be worse than him and would not be stronger than him, thus determining that the talent team of Shu Han was bound to be inferior to a generation. As a result, we found that under Kong Mingzhi, there was no disobedience, including the "self-esteemed" Wei Yan, although he had expressed different ideas to Kong Ming many times, as long as Kong Ming set the tone, Wei Yan never violated it. Of the cadres Kong Ming valued, only one had ever violated his orders. Guess who this grandpa is?
I personally feel that Yang Yong's words clearly outline Kong Ming's personality, and even foreshadow Kong Ming's final end.
On the Guangwu Emperor
Cao Zhi once wrote an article called "On the Advantages and Disadvantages of han Erzu", which compared Liu Bang and Liu Xiu, the emperor of Guangwu, and finally commented:
Gao Zu and Emperor Guangwu were both born in Buyi. Gao Zu was a rough man, and Guangwu was familiar with etiquette. Gao Zu acted without the style of a gentleman, and even peed on The Confucian hat. Poetry and lile were Emperor Yao's magic weapon for governing the world, but Gao Zu completely ignored it. King Wen was at peace because of the large number of soldiers under him, but Gao zu did not look at the soldiers. Gao Zu indulged in Qi Ji's charm, which led to Lü Hou's tyranny. However, Emperor Guangwu's generals were inferior to Han Xin and Zhou Bo, and their ministers were inferior to Zhang Liang and Chen Ping.
Zhuge Liang read Cao Zhi's article and wrote a "Treatise on Guangwu":
Cao Zhi commented on the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, believing that his generals were difficult to compare with Han Xin and Zhou Bo, and that the strategists could not be compared with Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. Everyone thinks that Cao Zhi is very reasonable. I thought that although Cao Zhi's original intention was to praise the virtues of emperor Guangwu, in fact, he seriously degraded the civilian generals under emperor Guangwu. Why? We see that the Twenty-Eight Generals of the Guangwu Emperor's Yuntai, and later the Fubo general Ma Yuan, were all loyal and loyal, wise and courageous. Speaking from the heart, these people are not inferior to the talents under Gao Zu. The reason why Zhang Liang and Chen Ping have great reputations and many meritorious deeds is because Gao Zu was a rough person, big and refined, had no careful thinking, and did not have a strict plan, so Zhang Liang and Chen Ping were able to exert their talents, and Peng Yue and Zhou Bo were able to make contributions on the battlefield. The old saying "Qu Tu migrates to the other person, and the anxious person is the guest", which can be used as a metaphor for the situation of Gao Zu and Guangwu. The Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, who was wise and wise, was granted by heaven, so the major policies were all thought out by him, and the ingenuity and ingenuity also came from his mind, as for the civilian and military generals, they only needed to implement his various decisions and easily complete the great cause of the emperor. Emperor Guangwu praised Deng Yu and said that confucius had a face, and the disciples became more intimate. He sighed again at Wu Handao, General, you are really too much in line with me, although someone may be able to catch up with you by force, but in terms of loyalty, who can compare with you! Emperor Guangwu discussed things with everyone and often asked Ma Yuan to speak last, because Ma Yuan's strategy always satisfied him. These examples all show that emperor Guangwu was perfect in his heart and in his form. In my opinion, the generals of the Guangwu Emperor were not inferior to Han Xin and Zhou Bo, and the strategists were not weaker than Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. However, why are their reputations and achievements inferior to those of Han Xin, Zhou Bo, Zhang Liang, and Chen Ping? Because Emperor Guangwu was really too good, he had far-reaching thoughts and had the clarity of Qu Tu's salary; and Han Gaozu's ability and quality were not good, which made Chen Ping, Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Zhou Bo and others feel overwhelmed.
Yi Zhilu said: It is necessary to explain the "Qutu Migration Salary" first, which is from the "Book of Han Huo Guang Biography". The gist is that there is a family chimney straight up, and there is a lot of firewood under the stove, and someone advises the owner to repair a bend in the chimney, carry the firewood away from the stove, and let the fire star fall from the chimney, light the firewood, and cause a fire. The host did not adopt. After a while, the house did catch fire, and the neighbors helped to put out the fire, without causing major damage. The host thanked everyone, invited everyone to dinner, and invited those who were burned by the fire to the table, but did not invite the one who gave advice. Someone reminded the owner that you had brought in the people who helped fight the fire, but why not ask the person who suggested you change the chimney and move the firewood? If you had listened to people's advice, there would have been no fire at all. Now, how can we invite those who offer advice and only those who are anxious to sit at the table?
What Zhuge meant was that Gao Zu was the master of the fire in the house, so the gang of people under him had the opportunity to put out the fire, and only then did they have the opportunity to do the work. The brilliance of Guangwu lies in the fact that he has long thought out various plans and countermeasures, and all the situations have been considered thoroughly, and everything is under control, so although the generals under him also have the ability to make "scorched heads and bad merits", they do not have the opportunity to make "scorched heads and bad merits", so they are inferior to Han Xin and Zhou Bo.
Obviously, Zhuge's evaluation of Emperor Guangwu was much higher than that of Gaozu Liu Bang (I can't agree with this view).
We can reasonably speculate that Zhuge and Cao Cao were also iron fans of the Guangwu Emperor. Since Zhuge had the opportunity to govern the country and the world, he pursued the temple victory of "Qu Tu Migration Salary", not the merit of "scorching the head".
Therefore, Zhuge took emperor Guangwu as an example and strove to achieve a state in which everything was under control, he did not need victories like Han Xin and Zhou Bo, and his cadres could not produce figures like Han Xin and Zhou Bo, he only needed the generals to act according to his plan to win the victory of "Qu Tu's salary".
However, I personally feel that although Zhuge Liang attaches great importance to advance planning, he cannot solve the unpredictability of changes in the situation. After we have finished his five Northern Expeditions, we will find that with the plan of one person, it is really impossible to cope with the ever-changing reality and the inexplicable luck. I have a judgment that before Kong Ming died, he may have some doubts about the theory he firmly believed in, and his attitude toward Wei Yan explained this problem to some extent, and we will discuss it later.
【Picture from the network】