Chapter 285 Beheading Plan
If I were the Qing Emperor in his future year, I would grant peach blossoms a place to bloom. ----------"Inscription on Chrysanthemum" by Huang Chao of Tang Dynasty
It is said that Xuande and his two wise brothers discussed the matter of defecting to Yuan Shao. Unfortunately, although Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were excellent in martial arts, they could not point out a clear path for Xuande. Xuande sighed deeply, why did I get two powerful generals in the world, but couldn't get a wise man to accompany me? Shiye! Good luck! Life! !
Xuande was trapped in the whirlpool of fate, but Chen Long, who played the role of the great pearl merchant Longzhu, started to think about the two generals Guan and Zhang again. Chen Long, who was familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms, clearly knew that Guan and Zhang's eventual death had a close relationship with Liu Bei. If we don’t save him now, when will we wait?
Although Guan Yu was proud, he was loyal to Liu Bei and even ignored Cao Cao's deep loyalty and affection. Anyone who has read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" knows that after Liu Bei became King of Hanzhong, Guan Yu led his army to attack Cao Ren in Fancheng, regardless of the threat from Soochow. He also sent people deep into Cao Wei's occupied areas to instigate rebellion and disrupt the enemy's rear. Cao Cao sent General Jin to assist in the battle. Guan Yu used the Han River to flood Cao and Wei's seven armies and captured Jin alive. This shocked China. Cao Cao planned to move the capital to avoid Guan Yu's power.
At this time, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and others tried to dissuade him, thinking that Sun Quan must not want to see Guan Yu succeed, so he could use Sun Quan's promise to grant Jiangnan to Sun Quan as a condition for him to send troops to attack Guan Yu from behind. At the same time, Cao Cao mobilized generals such as Xu Huang and Zhang Liao, as well as Pei Qian, the governor of Gunzhou, and Lu Gong, the governor of Yuzhou, to lead troops to rescue Fancheng, and even prepared to personally conquer Guan Yu.
After the Seventh Army was flooded, Cao Cao asked Sun Quan to attack Guan Yu. At first, Sun Quan did not agree immediately. Instead, he sent an envoy to Guan Yu to make peace and marry Guan Yu's daughter. Guan Yu was furious and insulted his envoy. When Sun Quan heard this, he was even more furious and sent Lu Meng. A sneak attack on Jingzhou.
Sun Quan ordered Lü Meng to be the commander-in-chief of a surprise attack on Jingzhou, and personally led the army as backup. Mi Fang (Liu Bei's brother-in-law) and the public security guard Shi Ren surrendered without fighting because they had a quarrel with Guan Yu. Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes and captured each county in Jingzhou one after another without any effort.
Xu Huang, who rescued Fancheng, thought it would be difficult to compete with Guan Yu due to insufficient troops. However, Cao Cao later sent generals such as Xu Shang and Lu Jian, as well as 12 battalions of troops including Yin Shu and Zhu Gai to reinforce Xu Huang. In the end, Xu Huang went to battle and defeated him. Guan Yu's army besieged Fancheng. At this time, Guan Yu learned of the changes in the rear and retreated south, but the navy still controlled the Han River.
Most of the family members of Guan Yu's army were in Jiangling. When they learned that Jiangling had fallen to Sun Quan, the soldiers gradually dispersed and retreated to Maicheng. Guan Yu sent Liao Hua to Shangyong to ask for help, but Liu Feng (Liu Bei's adopted son) and Meng Da disagreed. In December, the city ran out of food, and Guan Yu led dozens of riders to flee, breaking through to Yizhou, which was only a dozen or twenty miles away. When he was near Ju, he was ambushed by Pan Zhang's general Ma Zhong and was captured. Guan Ping, his adopted son, went to rescue him but was also captured alive. Sun Quan saw that the two refused to surrender and killed them. Guan Yu was only fifty-eight when he died. age.
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However, conspiracy theorists saw clues in it and concluded that Guan Yu died unexpectedly because of conflicts with Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, or at least failed to save him. Guan Yu always only recognized Liu Bei as the boss and did not take Zhuge Liang seriously, so he was arrogant and domineering. He alone had the final say in Jingzhou. Even Liu Bei, as the boss, probably turned a blind eye to Guan Yu's own death in Jingzhou and allowed him to fend for himself. Mi Fang and Liu Feng are both close relatives of Liu Bei. Why one betrayed Guan Yu and the other refused to save him is really terrifying to think about. In the official history, Liu Bei cried over the death of Pang Tong and the death of Fazheng, but he did not cry over the death of Guan Yu, and he did not even give Guan Yu a posthumous title. Guan Yu's posthumous title of Zhuangmuhou was given by his later master Liu Chan. Guan Yu died because of the breakdown of his relationship with Liu Bei! The Shu Kingdom deliberately did not have historians at that time, perhaps because it could not record the shocking truth of Guan Yu's death!
Later generations of scholars believed that Huarong Dao's capture of Cao Cao alive was Liu Bei's only chance of success. However, due to Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu's other intentions, Cao Cao was released and a tripartite alliance was formed. Zhuge Liang hopes to join forces with his brother Zhuge Jin to fight Cao Cao and create Zhuge's world in the tripartite confrontation; Guan Yu hopes to get rid of his dissident brother and conquer the world independently with Guan Ping and Liao Hua in the tripartite confrontation; Liu Bei also hopes to restore the Han Dynasty in the tripartite confrontation. During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu, Guan Ping and Liu Feng, who threatened Adou's inheritance, were eliminated and established their own lineage to inherit the world. Therefore, Guan Yunchang was attacked by Sun Cao on the surface in Maicheng, but in fact there were three parties including Sima, Zhuge brothers and Liu Bei secretly participating. Without any one of the five parties, it would be difficult to overthrow the powerful Guan Gong.
Besides, the death of Zhang Fei also had the shadow of his eldest brother Liu Bei behind him. On the surface, Zhang Fei died at the hands of Fan Jiang and Zhang Da, and died of "violence without mercy, and defeat by shortcomings." In fact, Zhang Fei did not have a particularly clear political stance and "specialized in making friends with the world's heroes." Unlike Liu Bei, who lost his father in his early years and was impoverished, nor like Guan Yu, who fled after annihilating powerful men, his joining the army was purely out of his passion and pride that "a man should contribute to the country."
Some scholars have also pointed out that Zhang Fei has been Liu Bei's little brother for many years, but he always carries the burden of Liu Bei's life and death brother. Little does he know that as Liu Bei's status gets higher and higher, things have become more and more dangerous.
Zhang Fei's idea is very simple. He thinks that his descendants will always be subordinate to others and will always be loyal to Liu's surname. He thinks that his brother Liu Bei will always be benevolent and uphold his oaths and will always recognize him as a brother with a different surname. In fact, brothers with different surnames who "don't want to be born in the same year, the same month and the same day, but want to die in the same year, the same month and the same day" are only suitable for working together to conquer the world, not for being dictatorial in the world. However, will Liu Bei allow Guan Xing, Zhang Bao and Liu Chan to enjoy the same right to inherit the throne?
As the first elder brother and a vested interest, Liu Bei certainly did not allow anyone to challenge the core of imperial power. It will directly threaten Liu Chan's inheritance and rule, and destroy the single-surname bloodline of the entire royal sect. Don't talk about becoming the emperor in the future, even if he is limited to the King of Hanzhong and the Emperor of Xishu, Liu Bei does not want the three surnames to rule together, not to mention that Adou does not have any competitiveness among all his parents and adopted sons.
But Liu Bei was jealous of his reputation, so how could he kill his brother without being blamed? He could only kill his brother secretly, and then eliminate the suspicion of the world in the name of revenge. As long as it was for revenge, who would ask them to die on the same day of the same year and month? The sworn alliance was naturally dissolved, and at the same time it won the morale and popular support of both the government and the public, which was indispensable for conquering the world. Liu Bei is indeed a great statesman. He can not only elevate the brotherhood to the righteousness of serving the country on behalf of heaven, but also turn the hatred between brothers into the irreconcilable hatred of destroying the country. Those who died unjustly were just the "brothers" he used to escape from his miserable fate.
Zhang Fei's death was even worse, and he couldn't even die on the battlefield. But the most pitiful thing is that in the process of killing Zhang Fei, Liu Bei was not only a bystander and condoner, but also an active collaborator and operator. His participation was much deeper than when he killed Guan Yu. All because Zhang Fei mistakenly recognized his eldest brother and became the wrong brother. When the imperial power is in control, who can recognize you as a brother, and your surname is not Liu?
Later scholars concluded that in order to allow Liu Chan to successfully succeed to the throne and maintain the pure blood of the Liu family, Liu Bei crossed the river and demolished the bridges to eliminate the brothers with different surnames Guan Yu and Zhang Fei; at the same time, the Zhuge brothers had already borrowed Liu Guan and Zhang to establish their own Zhuge Dynasty. This is the truth behind Guan Zhang’s death.
Chen Long looked at Guang's brain for a long time and sighed slightly in his heart. The cunning rabbit dies, the lackey is cooked, and the master's great achievements will not lead to a happy death. If he wants to save Guan and Zhang, he really needs to think long term and devise a clever strategy so that Guan and Zhang can legitimately break away from Liu Bei's control and escape from the shackles of his brothers. Regardless of whether he falls into his arms or not, it is better than dying under the sword of his elder brother in his prime.
And Zhuge Liang, a smart man, has been controlled by Huang Yueying in Xiangyang, and I believe he will never meet Liu Bei, an ambitious man, again. But the world is like a chess game. Without Zhuge Liang, who knows that Liu Bei will not rely on others to gain momentum?
Thinking of this, Chen Long slowly said to Zhou Buyi: "Yuan Zhi, I have admired Guan Yunchang and Zhang Yide around Liu Bei for a long time, but they are both particularly loyal to their elder brother Liu Bei. Please tell me how to attract them. Serve under my command?"
After hearing what Chen Long said, Zhou Busu couldn't help but smile and said, "If Liu Bei dies, will they really die with him?"
Chen Long was stunned and couldn't help but laugh: "It's not impossible. The greater possibility is to pursue and kill the enemy for the rest of his life, right?"
"Then what if the master helps them avenge themselves?"
Chen Long secretly shook his head. Although this was a solution, he still felt that he was too cruel to Liu Bei, and it was difficult to predict how Guan and Zhang would react. If they knew that Chen Long was the mastermind behind the scenes, wouldn't they be shooting themselves in the foot?
Seeing his master's serious look, Zhou Buji's expression became serious, knowing that his idea had not yet been fully recognized. After some thinking, Zhou Buyi said: "My subordinates have heard a little bit about Guan and Zhang, but they lack understanding. As for the means, it is nothing more than to do what they want and attack their hearts first, so that they feel that you are their real master. . If you have ideals in your heart, you can impress them with the righteousness of the world. If you like to be in a high position, you can seduce them with high officials and noble titles. If you like money and beauty, you can buy them with golden beauties. Which one do these two people, Guan and Zhang, like? "
Chen Long shook his head and said: "Guan Yu and Zhang Fei do have the ideal of helping the Han Dynasty in their hearts, but they always thought that Liu Bei and he had the same ideal and were like-minded brothers. Any other material temptations or promises of official positions would probably not be enough for Guan and Zhang. They will all ignore it." I thought of the heroic deeds of Guan Yunchang in the official history, sealing gold, passing five passes and killing six generals, and riding alone thousands of miles. This was the ruthless departure of Guan Yu in exchange for a high official and a generous salary. How could he repeat the same mistakes? .
Zhou Buyi couldn't help but scratched his head, and said angrily: "It seems that Liu Bei has concealed his ambition very well at present. If forced to tear it apart, it will be difficult to separate Liu, Guan, and Zhang. For the current plan, We can only find a way to reveal Liu Bei's ambition and create a rift between Guan and Zhang. Then we can formulate a beheading plan and cover up the entire action afterwards. Only then can Guan and Zhang know about Liu Bei's ambition and stop pursuing Liu Bei. Die."
Chen Long nodded slightly and frowned: "Then how can we reveal Liu Bei's ambition without leaving any trace? We have to convince Guan and Zhang, which is difficult!"
Zhou Buji said slowly: "Today, the person most likely to usurp the Han Dynasty and establish himself is Luoyang Yuan Shu. If Liu Bei and Yuan Shu are connected, I'm afraid Guan Zhang will believe it, right?"
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the explanation next time.
