Chapter 3 Three, Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain

Liu Biao has always attached great importance to the defense north of Xiangyang. In addition to Wenpin, Liu Biao also made special arrangements. This special arrangement is Liu Bei.At the beginning, he had Liu Bei stationed in Xinye (now Jinxian County, Henan Province), which belonged to Nanyang County of Jingzhou Governor's Department. It happened to be between Wan County under Cao Cao's occupation and Xiangyang, Liu Biao's base camp. It was an important line of defense in the north of Jingzhou. Liu Bei was very accomplished in Xinye. He personally commanded the battle of Bowang (northeast of Nanyang, Henan Province), and defeated Cao Jun's famous general Fubo, Henan Yin Xiahou and Huwei General Yujin by using fire attack.

With Liu Bei around, Liu Biao did save a lot of worry.Liu Biao accepted Liu Bei, who was desperate, and found himself a steel helmet to put on his head, in order to save him in an emergency one day. Now is a good time for Liu Bei to play his role. Where has he gone? Liu Bei was no longer in Xinye at this time.There are signs that before Liu Biao died of illness, Liu Bei had moved to Fancheng not far from Xiangyang, which is only separated from Xiangyang by the Han River.Now these two places have merged into one city, named Xiangfan.Whether it was Liu Bei's initiative or Liu Cong's idea, we don't know, but Liu Bei's move to Fancheng means that Jingzhou's defense line has shrunk.

Liu Bei is very charismatic wherever he goes, which is his advantage.Firstly, because he is also surnamed Liu, this "Liu" is Liu Bang's "Liu" and Liu Xiu's "Liu", who is a clan member of the Han family; secondly, he often practices benevolence and righteousness, not only in words, but also in actions , Inspired many people. During Liu Bei's stay in Xinye, he had close contacts with Jingzhou famous scholars Xu Shu, Sima Hui and others.Xu Shu's real name is Xu Fu, and his character is Yuanzhi. He is from Yingchuan County and was born as a knight in the rivers and lakes. But one day he suddenly got tired of fighting and killing, threw away his sword, took off his knight's clothes and changed into a student's school uniform and went to the school to pay homage to Mr. Studying (abandoning his knife and halberd, thinning out the towels and unlined clothes, and breaking down knowledge), he became a generalist capable of both literature and martial arts.Xu Shu admired Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness, and defected to him.

Sima Hui, whose style name is Decao, was also from Yingchuan County, and became a local celebrity when he fled to Jingzhou.Liu Biao once wanted to invite him out of the mountain, but was declined by Sima Hui.Liu Bei came to ask for advice, but Sima Hui had a good impression of Liu Bei. When Liu Bei was employing people, Xu Shu and Sima Hui recommended a person to him by coincidence. This person was Zhuge Liang who was living in seclusion near Xiangyang.Before that, Xu Shu also recommended several people to Liu Bei, including his fellow villager Shi Tao, Cui Zhouping from Boling County, and Meng Jian from Runan County.However, Xu Shu's evaluation of Zhuge Liang was obviously much higher than these others. Liu Bei became very curious about this young man and decided to meet him in person.

It was about the second year of Xingping (195) that Zhuge Liang left his hometown, Yangdu County (now Yinan, Shandong), with his uncle Zhuge Xuan, when Zhuge Liang was fifteen years old.In the third year, Zhuge Xuan died, and Zhuge Liang was seventeen years old. He and his younger brother Zhuge Jun moved to live in a small mountain village twenty miles west of Xiangyang City, called Longzhong. This place is close to Xiangyang City, but it does not belong to Xiangyang County in Nanjun County, but to Deng County in the northwest of Xiangyang, which belongs to Nanyang County.In this way, it is easy to understand Zhuge Liang's sentence in "Teacher's List": The minister is a commoner, and he cultivated in Nanyang.

In fact, it is hundreds of miles away from Suowan County (now Nanyang, Henan Province) in Nanyang County. Zhuge Liang had two older sisters. Before his uncle Zhuge Xuan died, he married Zhuge Liang's eldest sister to Kuai Qi, and his second sister to Pang Shanmin.The Kuai family and the Pang family are both big families in Jingzhou. Kuai Qi is the original family of Kuai Yue. Pang Shanmin's father, Pang Degong, is as famous as Sima Hui. Liu Biao also wanted to invite him to do something, but was also rejected.There is also a capable man in the Pang family named Pang Tong. Zhuge Liang's wife also came from a famous family. Her father was Huang Chengyan, a celebrity in Xiangyang.Huang Chengyan's wife's surname is Cai, and the sister of Liu Biao's second wife, Cai's family. Huang Chengyan is Liu Biao's brother-in-law, so Zhuge Liang called Liu Biao his uncle.

These marriages made Zhuge Liang establish contact with Jingzhou's high society. Although Longzhong is quiet and suitable for studying and self-cultivation, it is not far from Xiangyang City, so it is convenient for learning information and consulting celebrities.Zhuge Liang lived here for ten years, completing the accumulation of knowledge and thinking about the current situation. Zhuge Liang once asked Sima Hui for advice and became Sima Hui's student.According to an unreliable book called "Xianjian", in order to cultivate Zhuge Liang, Sima Hui also introduced him to learn "The Art of War" from Gongjiu, a hermit in Runan County, so that Zhuge Liang could show his military talents in the future.

Zhuge Liang lost his mother in his early years, then lost his father, and lived in a foreign country, which made him develop a mature personality.He is diligent and studious, with lofty ambitions, but he is by no means a bookworm. During his seclusion in Longzhong, he cared about current affairs, made friends with celebrities, and waited for the opportunity to do something big. In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Jingzhou, which has always been peaceful, will face major changes, and the opportunity Zhuge Liang has been waiting for has come. The process of Zhuge Liang joining Liu Bei's camp is recorded differently in history books.

According to "Three Kingdoms Zhuge Liang Biography" and other historical records, when Liu Bei was in Xinye, Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang's good friend, defected to Liu Bei. Xu Shu said to Liu Bei: "Zhuge Liang is like a crouching dragon. Wouldn't the general want to see him?" Liu Bei said: "Then Sir, please invite him here." Xu Shu said: "You can only invite this person yourself, you can't force him to come, the general had better go in vain." So Liu Bei went to Longzhong to invite Zhuge Liang in person, and then and there After going there three times, Zhuge Liang was invited out.

This is the origin of the allusion of "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage", which is recorded in the official history, not fabricated. This year Liu Bei was forty-eight years old, and his years of fighting made him famous all over the world; Zhuge Liang was twenty-eight years old, except for a group of relatives and friends in Jingzhou who knew his talent, he was still unknown at this time (it was not known at the time) . When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Liang, he retreated from the crowd and had a long talk with him on the current situation alone.This conversation is very important, which is the famous "Longzhong pair".

Judging from the records, Zhuge Liang was basically speaking alone in this conversation.In this conversation, Zhuge Liang summed up the law of success or failure through the analysis of the current situation, that is, to achieve great things not only depends on the weather, but also depends on someone's plan.There are at least two meanings in this. One is that if you want to succeed, you must pay attention to talents; the other is that as long as you make unremitting efforts, you can also change the objective disadvantages. This is to cheer Liu Bei who has been in adversity for a long time. Based on the analysis of the current situation and the changes of various powerhouses, Zhuge Liang planned a strategic blueprint for Liu Bei-to avoid the mighty Cao Cao as much as possible, find a way to form an alliance with the rapidly growing Jiangdong Sun family, occupy Jingzhou, Then Xutu Yizhou, seeking a tripartite confrontation. This made Liu Bei suddenly enlightened, and the long-standing depression in his heart was swept away.But this is not the most exciting, Zhuge Liang continues to plan - after occupying Jingzhou and Yizhou, waiting for the world to change, when the time comes, the army will be divided into two groups, one route goes north from Jingzhou to Wanxian and Luoyang, and the other routes Yizhou to attack Qinchuan. At that time, the world can be settled, and the Han Dynasty can be prosperous. Liu Bei was very happy and admired Zhuge Liang very much. He even said to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei: "I have Kong Ming, just like a fish has water!" However, there are other different opinions about the process of Zhuge Liang's coming out of the mountain. According to the records in "Wei Lue" and "Jiuzhou Spring and Autumn" and other books, Zhuge Liang was not invited by Liu Bei Sangu Thatched Cottage to come out of the mountain, but he came here by himself. According to these records, after Cao Cao pacified Hebei, Zhuge Liang, who had always been keen-eyed, had a premonition that Cao Cao's next target would be Jingzhou, but Liu Biao was slow-tempered and didn't understand military affairs, so Zhuge Liang went to Fancheng to meet Liu Bei.Liu Bei had never heard of this young man, and treated him as an ordinary Confucian scholar. At that time, there were many Confucian scholars who were received by Liu Bei. Everyone sat together and chatted for a while. Later, everyone left, and only Zhuge Liang stayed behind.Liu Bei may not have any plans to communicate with Zhuge Liang alone. He has a little hobby, which stems from his early experience of weaving mats. Many people know that General Liu has this hobby, and when they find something suitable for weaving, they give it to him. It so happens that someone gave Liu Bei a yak tail.After the Confucian scholars left, Liu Bei felt bored, so he made it up alone, regardless of Zhuge Liang was still in front of him.Just when Liu Bei was intoxicated with the joy of making handicrafts, Zhuge Liang stepped forward and said: "General, you should set up lofty ambitions and make a cow's tail all day long to figure out what's going on (Ming generals should have lofty ambitions, but it's just evil to end up with yaks) ?” Only then did Liu Bei look at the young man. Seeing that he was tall and tall, he spoke calmly, and had an extraordinary bearing, he quickly threw away the things in his hand and said, "How can I say this? I just use this to relieve the worries in my heart." This is Zhuge Liang. The first conversation with Liu Bei, but what they were talking about was not about Longzhong, but how to fight against Cao Cao at the moment. Zhuge Liang asked, "How do you think General Liu Biao compares to Cao Cao?" Liu Bei replied: "Liu Biao is not as good as Cao Cao." Zhuge Liang asked again: "General, how do you think you are better than Cao Cao?" Liu Bei replied: "Not as good as Cao Cao." Zhuge Liang said: "You are all inferior to Cao Cao, and you only have a few thousand troops, general. How can you resist Cao Cao with this strength?" Liu Bei said: "I am also worried about this, so what do you think should I do?" Zhuge Liang replied: "Jingzhou has a large population, but there are very few registered people. You can suggest to General Liu Biao to manage the floating population, re-register the household registration, and deploy troops accordingly." Liu Bei adopted Zhuge Liang's suggestion, and as a result, his strength increased greatly. After that, he treated Zhuge Liang with the courtesy of a superior guest. Although this statement is not as famous as Sangu Maolu, it is still reasonable.At the same time, even so, it will not affect the image of Liu Bei or Zhuge Liang at all. Liu Bei has no shortage of generals like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, and he also has scholars like Sun Qian and Mi Zhu, but he lacks the "talents of Wang Zuo" like Xun, Guo Jia, and Jia Xu. The arrival of Zhuge Liang makes up for this. insufficient. Zhuge Liang's entry into Liu Bei's group can be regarded as giving full play to his talents. He quickly stood out among Liu Bei's clerks with his resourcefulness and decisiveness, and soon encountered the opportunity to show his talents. Liu Bei trusted Zhuge Liang very much, but the history books did not record what position Zhuge Liang held under Liu Bei at this stage.Zhuge Liang's first recorded position was military adviser Zhonglang, equivalent to the rank of brigadier general, after the Battle of Chibi.In other words, Zhuge Liang's official position when he first joined the Liu Bei Group should be relatively low, and there is still a big gap compared with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others.