The beginning of the Three Kingdoms Cheng Yuanzhi

Chapter 268 All parties calculate, the winner is king

On the battlefield, the objective conditions are constantly changing, and there are no rules to follow. The generals should adapt to the situation and seize every opportunity.

The way of using soldiers can be summed up in one sentence: "No form, no form, like water."

Therefore, Cheng Yuanzhi was very happy when he saw that Ma Chao had fallen into the trick of "dividing" without knowing it.

He likes to fight opponents like Ma Chao!
Eighty miles east of Jicheng, the Wei army camp.

Although spring is here, the wind is still cold, and the world is still bleak.

Cheng Yuanzhi sat next to the stove with his knees tucked in his arms, while warming himself by the fire, his thoughts diverged.

For the world's top strategists, the "differentiation" plan is actually very simple, they can be seen through at a glance, and they can follow the trend to counter their opponents by digging holes.

But this strategy is more than enough to deal with Ma Chao.

Thinking of this, Cheng Yuanzhi felt deeply, and felt more and more that the effectiveness of the strategy varies from person to person and from time to time.

In fact, there is no 100% perfect strategy in the world, and many of the ingenious strategies that have become famous in history because of their effectiveness are full of loopholes, launched hastily without sufficient preparation, but succeeded by accident.

However, those perfect strategies that have been carefully considered, repeated scrutiny, and flawless, may not be successful when they are deployed, and will be disturbed by some unpredictable factors.

In this regard, the most famous ones are "Shangfang Valley Fire Attack" and "Golden Sword Strategy".
Zhuge Liang's plan to besiege Sima Yi in Shangfang Valley, from the beginning of robbing grain and burying the pit, to finally luring Sima Yi into the valley, all aspects have been considered. Even the weather factor, Zhuge Liang has actually watched the astrology and has insight into the lack of rain in the near future.

But in the end, it fell short, and the fire attack on the upper valley was still defeated by God's will-at the critical moment of setting fire to the valley, it began to rain without warning.

If it is a bit far-fetched to say that the "Shangfang Valley Fire Attack" is a perfect strategy, then the "Golden Sword Strategy" is an out-and-out perfect strategy.

Murong Chui is the son of Murong Hao, the founding emperor of the former Yan Dynasty. He fought with his father when he was young, and won the three armies bravely.

After Murong Jun succeeded to the throne, he suppressed Murong Chui many times. Even Murong Chui's wife Duan was killed by Murong Jun's queen.

After Murong Jun died of illness, Murong Chui's difficult situation improved a lot. He defeated Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the battle of Fangtou and saved the former Yan from danger.

Murong Chui wanted to resign and return to the ancient capital Longcheng, but failed. In desperation, he had no choice but to go west and vote for the former Qin Dynasty.

Fu Jian, the emperor of the former Qin Dynasty, admired Murongchui very much and knew his ability very well. When he heard that he had come to join him, he was overjoyed and went out to meet him in the suburbs of Chang'an in person, and promised him a high position and rich salary.

Although Murong Chui was appreciated by Fu Jian, the former Qin Dynasty was not a safe place.Wang Meng, the prime minister of the former Qin Dynasty, was a more formidable talent than Murong Chui, and he saw right away that Murong Chui's purpose in coming to join him was not pure, and he wanted to put him to death.

Wang Meng knew that Murong Chui needed ability, prestige and prestige, and if he came to vote at the end of the road, he would never bow down to others, and as the royal family of the enemy country, he would never be able to win him over to become "one of his own". It is difficult to control the situation.

Therefore, Wang Meng kept persuading Fu Jian: kill Murong Chui as soon as possible to avoid future troubles.

Of course, Wang Meng is not a jealous person, he does this just because of his position.

But Fu Jian had other great uses for Murong Chui, and wanted to use him to take down Qian Yan, so he didn't agree to kill the latter, so he said, "You should love your talent and cherish your talent, and don't block the hope of the world by killing one person." , to send Wang Meng away.

After persuading Fu Jian to no avail, Wang Meng stopped talking nonsense and decided to do it himself, so he used the famous "Golden Sword Strategy" in history.

Wang Meng thought: Murong Chui was newly attached, his reputation was not established, people's hearts were not attached, and he had not established basic trust in the former Qin Dynasty and Fu Jian: so he started from here to maximize the fear and anxiety of Murong and his son.

At that time, not long after Murong Chui defected, the former Qin Dynasty fought against Murong Chui's mother country, Qianyan. Wang Meng led the army as the commander-in-chief. Before leaving, he asked Fu Jian to let Murong Chui's eldest son Murong Ling serve as his army. Act as a leading party.

Fu Jian naturally agreed.Murong Chui also couldn't refuse, after all, going to the former Qin Dynasty required effort.

Before departure, Wang Meng went to Murong Chui to drink and practice. Of course Murong Chui had to treat him warmly, and the two had a good time talking and drinking, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

Murong Chui thanked Wang Meng for supporting his son, and Wang Meng also thanked Murong Chui for his understanding of the general situation, his loyalty to the former Qin Dynasty, and his willingness to let his son lead the way to destroy the motherland.

The two of them had a great time at the banquet.Before leaving, Wang Meng said to Murong Chui: "Listening to your words is better than ten years of reading, and you will become a close friend without realizing it. I am going to lead the army on an expedition, but there is nothing to see and think about. It is a pity."

Wang Meng's opening, coupled with the atmosphere here, Murong Chui had no choice but to say something, and for a while there was nothing else around him, so he casually untied a golden knife from his waist and presented it to Wang Meng.

After the army set off, Wang Meng found Murong Chui's confidant Jin Xi, who had already spent a lot of money to buy him, and asked him to take a golden knife to give a message to Murong Chui's son Murong Ling.

Jin Xi found Murong Ling with a golden knife, and according to the pretext arranged by Wang Meng, he said to Murong Ling: "Young master, run back to your home country, Wang Meng is afraid of the father and son, and will do it soon. Although Fu Jian treats him The kindness is using us to attack the motherland, if you hesitate, we will die without a place to bury you, your father has already run away first, son, hurry up and follow!"

Faced with his father's cronies, and with the golden sword and message as a token, Murong Ling waited for several days and found an opportunity to lead his army to surrender to Qian Yan.

When the news was sent back to Chang'an, Murong Chui was so frightened that his wits disappeared, although at this time he knew that he had been tricked by Wang Meng, it was of no avail.

The fact that his son had run away was something he couldn't explain anyway.

In desperation, Murong Chui could only make the same choice as Murong Ling, and fled immediately.

However, all of this is under Wang Meng's control, how could Murong Chui be allowed to escape easily, the latter was arrested as soon as he ran to Lantian.

Murong Ling was able to escape successfully because Wang Meng had to let him escape in order to secure the evidence and force Murong Chui to commit the crime.The precise reason to stop Murong Chui is because Wang Meng's purpose is to kill him.

At this point, the golden knife meter has completed the entire closed loop, and the evidence is conclusive.

Murong Ling surrendered to the enemy in front of the battle, a real hammer!Murong Chui defected and was arrested, the real hammer!Based on these two points, it was enough to cause Murong to die.

However, Murong Chui did not die.

Fu Jian even forgave Murong Chui generously, and still reused him.

Wang Meng could only give up, looked up to the sky and sighed, in vain.

Such a perfect plan failed.

After Fu Jian forgave Murong Chui, he destroyed Qianyan, surrendered Qianliang, wiped out Dai State, and unified the north.Just one year before the Dai Kingdom was destroyed, Wang Meng, the prime minister who followed Fu Jian all his life and conquered most of the former Qin Dynasty, died of illness.

Before his death, Wang Meng was still advising Fu Jian that Murong and his forces should be eradicated immediately, and then slowly plot the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

However, Fu Jian, who was in high spirits because of his unification of the north, did not heed Wang Meng's last advice, but continued to reuse the Murong family, and Murong Chui was appointed as Jing Zhaoyin, and he was promoted to Marquis of Quanzhou.

Next, the former Qin Dynasty began to attack Jin in the south.In the first southern expedition, the former Qin army captured Xiangyang in the first battle, and looked down on the south of the Yangtze River.

This gave Fu Jian great confidence. At this time, Fu Jian believed that the millions of troops of the former Qin Dynasty could throw a whip to cut off the flow, and the surviving Eastern Jin Dynasty was by no means an opponent, and unification of the world was just around the corner.

However, to his surprise, the civil and military ministers of the former Qin Dynasty did not support Fu Jian. Even Fu Jian's younger brother Fu Rong also held this view and once again used Wang Meng's last words to persuade him.

Amidst the opposition from the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, Fu Jian heard a voice supporting him - Murong Chui.

Murongchui not only firmly supported Fu Jian's sending troops to conquer Jin, but also praised Fu Jian's heroic name and martial arts, and his name will eventually go down in history.

Hearing this, Fu Jian was greatly moved, and felt more and more that he was right in not listening to Wang Meng's decision to kill Murong Chui, so he ordered Murong Chui to also lead the army to start the second full-scale attack on Jin.

This battle was called "Battle of Feishui".

The final result is - the former Qin Dynasty was defeated, and Fu Jian was finally backlashed by the pack of wolves, and he was defeated and died.

Murong Chui successfully returned to the former Yan's hometown, restored the country and proclaimed himself king, and everyone else followed suit, and the former Qin was torn apart in an instant.

Returning to his thoughts, Cheng Yuanzhi let out a sigh.

Previously, from Sun Liu's joint move to seize Jingnan, he concluded a rule: when two forces that suspect each other approach, if we exert external pressure on these two forces at the same time, then they will inevitably unite to fight against us On the contrary, if we weaken our own sense of existence and make the other two forces think that the external threat is relatively weak, then they are likely to have internal contradictions and eventually confrontation, and there will be a good opportunity for me to use.

And from the predicament Ma Chao is facing today, he summed up another rule-the strongest fortress often disintegrates from the inside.

In short, it is "difficult to win with one person, but easy to win with two".How to divide one person into two and how to prevent two from becoming one is a very deep knowledge.

Used on the battlefield.

Of course, there is no need to think about this issue. Cao Cao has countless examples and experiences to learn from.

In the original time and space, before the Battle of Guandu, in order to solve the Xuzhou problem, Cao Cao's counselor Xun Yu successively proposed "two tigers competing for food" and "driving tigers to swallow" in response to the suspicion and contradictions among the three forces of Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Yuan Shu. Wolf" strategy.

At that time, Liu Bei and Lu Bu were stationed in Xuzhou together. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were fierce generals. With the addition of Wen Hou Lu Bu, it was very difficult for Cao Cao to gnaw down this hard bone. Xuzhou City, where the fierce generals gathered, seemed difficult to be captured head-on.

But if we use tactics to divide Lu Bu and Liu Bei first, then it will be relatively easy to win Xuzhou, after all, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao, who had tasted the sweetness of "winning two people, easy", continued to use the strategy of "differentiation" with great proficiency. After Yuan Shao died, Cao Cao provoked Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to attack each other, and reaped the benefits.

Numerous histories have proved that "differentiation" is indeed an excellent strategy to deal with multi-party coalition forces.

This is not mentioned.

Longshang, Jicheng.

After repeated battles and victories, the more he fought, the more he retreated, and the more he fought, the more powerless he felt. This made Ma Chao baffled. Although he couldn't figure out the reason, he didn't feel sluggish because of retreating to Jicheng. He quickly adjusted his state. The three armies were ordered to rest temporarily and wait for an opportunity to fight again.

Previously, the Xiliang army had more victories than losses, but Ma Chao's soldiers and horses were running out, so he had to rest.

If he didn't rest, replenish troops, and treat the wounded, he would have no soldiers under his command.

In contrast, the soldiers and horses under the command of several other generals in Xiliang are very neat and do not need to rest.

The abnormal situation of the battle between the two armies also made Xiliang's generals puzzled. Even Han Sui, who was old and mature, couldn't figure out why his army could not be attacked?
If there is something hidden in it, then there really isn't one.

Han Sui felt that he was not familiar with the king of Wei (Cheng Yuanzhi). The two sides had only fought once more than ten years ago.

For more than ten years, the two sides had very little contact, and there was no friendship at all.

Then what is the reason?

Could it be because he is old, Wei Jun respects the old and loves the young, and can't bear to attack him?

Han Sui couldn't understand it.

the other side.

After Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Li Hui, who was originally a counselor under Liu Zhang's mansion, soon realized that Liu Bei was the monarch who would eventually achieve great success, and immediately decided to change course and join Liu Bei's command.

Suffering from no chance for a while.

Meng Da, Fazheng and others also made the same decision as Li Hui.

At this time, Liu Bei was stationed at the Jiange. According to the strategy offered by Pang Tong, he successfully bought the hearts of the local people. In the counties in the north of Shu, the people all turned to Liu Bei.

Such a situation put Liu Zhang in a dilemma. At this moment, Liu Zhang had realized the danger of keeping Liu Bei in Shu, and decided to send an envoy to urge Liu Bei to leave.

Li Hui volunteered to accept the order, took a list of people who intended to defect to Liu Bei, and went to Jiange to meet Liu Bei.

Before Li Hui arrived at Jiange Pass, he reported his home to the sentry.

When Liu Bei heard the news, he was overjoyed and came out of the customs in person to greet him with the courtesy of a national scholar.

It has to be said that all literati fell into this trap, and Liu Bei's move moved Li Hui very much.

As soon as they met, Liu Bei said cordially: "I have admired De'ang's name for a long time. Seeing you today, my life's wish is enough!"

After Li Huiqian gave way, he did not beat around the bush, and directly stated the purpose of his trip.

"Liu Zhang suspects that you have other ideas and wants to drive the envoy out of Sichuan. Now Chengdu is heavily defended and a hundred thousand troops have been gathered around it, so you should think about your retreat early to avoid being blocked at the entrance to Sichuan and being attacked from both sides."

Hearing this, Liu Bei was shocked. He took a deep breath and said, "Look, Ideon, what should I do?"

Li Hui immediately said: "The envoy honors the virtuous and the corporal, and spreads his kindness in Sichuan. Now we should take the land of Shu to gain a foothold, and then go north to fight for the world. I, Fazheng, Meng Da and others all have this idea. I hope that the envoy will make a decision early."

These words can be regarded as an expression of his heart, and he has accepted the vote.

Liu Bei immediately drew out his long sword to express his position. After sending Li Hui away, he discussed with Pang Tong.

Pang Tong thought about it for a while, and offered three strategies.

The best strategy is to immediately select elite soldiers and make a surprise attack on Chengdu in the starry night; the middle strategy is to pretend to go back to Jingzhou and lure Yang Huai and Gao Pei, the guards of Fushui Gate, to send them off. Qingqi came here, taking this opportunity to take them down in one fell swoop, and then march into Chengdu; the worst strategy is to retreat to Baidi City, relying on Wuling County, and slowly plot Yizhou.

Considering that the above plan is too risk-seeking and novelty, although it is extremely gorgeous in theory, it is too difficult to implement. Once it fails, it will be completely passive.

But the next plan was step-by-step, and the progress was too slow, Liu Bei couldn't afford to wait at all, so he chose the middle strategy without hesitation.

Afterwards, Liu Bei immediately summoned his few troops, and after reorganization, he and Pang Tong set out together, under the banner of withdrawing troops from Yizhou, they came to Fushui Pass in a mighty manner. It seemed that they passed through this pass, Go in the direction of Baidi City.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei, the guards of Fushui Pass, used to be the guards of Chengdu. The main purpose of being transferred to Fushui Pass by Liu Zhang was not to defend the Wei army in Hanzhong, but to guard against Liu Bei's army in Jiange.

Therefore, Yang Huai and Gao Pei heard that Liu Bei wanted to withdraw and returned to Jingzhou, so they made a plan to assassinate Liu Bei, and selected 200 swordsmen to see Liu Bei off.

(End of this chapter)