We can see that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the Princes Rose together, intellectuals – or scholar bureaucrats, or Confucians, or literati – had more opportunities to give play to their talents and political aspirations than in the days of the unification of rivers and mountains in the past, because they had more lords to go to, like the scholars in the spring and autumn and Warring States periods. If there was a disagreement here, they would go elsewhere. Therefore, the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty was in fact a period of great flow of talents. A large number of outstanding talents ran among the princes in order to achieve lifelong wealth and posthumous fame.
But what is surprising is that Zhugeliang has been living in seclusion in Longzhong and has never offered himself to any of the princes; On the contrary, his good friend Pang Tong, who was also a hero at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, went to Liu Bei by himself. Zhugeliang sat quietly on the thatched cottage in Longzhong, sitting in front of his desk, as if he had calculated that Liu Bei would come to a courteous corporal.
In fact, if we think of Pang Tong who went to find Liu Bei himself, but was snubbed by Liu Bei because of his poor appearance, we can understand why Zhugeliang did not live in seclusion and did not take the initiative to find his master – what he wanted was a kind of opportunity and status. Only after Liu Bei paid close attention to the cottage and listened to his teachings, could Zhugeliang quickly become the number two figure in the Liu group as a young man nearly 20 years younger than Liu Bei. It is hard to imagine how much Liu Bei would have trusted Zhugeliang if he had gone to Xinye county to follow him.
The extinction of the Eastern Han Dynasty is a matter of time. Just as the Qin Dynasty lost its deer and the whole world chased it, after the Eastern Han Dynasty perished, the separatist regime was bound to fight for thousands of miles of rivers and mountains. Liu Bei invited Zhugeliang to join his stormy clique with his piety, which was suspected of showing off. Zhugeliang immediately moved Liu Bei with his long-term thinking about the reconstruction of the world and became his greatest weight. Zhugeliang’s assumption was that when Cao Cao occupied the sky, there would be two out of three in the world, and this sincerity could not compete; However, the sun family in Jiangdong, a country with risks and people attached to it, occupies a favorable land, and can only be cited as foreign aid instead of seeking it. Therefore, Liu Bei’s best way is to end his years of exile and occupy a base area. The best choice for this base area is Yizhou, which is known as the land of abundance. Just as emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty started his career in Sichuan, only by occupying Yizhou, a rich base area, can he have the capital to compete for the Central Plains in the future.
This is a creative idea, but also a very operational idea. In fact, it was this idea that made Liu Bei get rid of the miserable situation of being dependent on others. Although there was only one state, it was enough to divide the world.
Tied to the chariot of Liu’s group
When Zhugeliang left Longzhong to follow Liu Bei, he repeatedly warned his brother to look after his home and that he would come back in the future. Many years later, when he was a supreme minister and the second most important person in Shu Han, he said in his memorial to the empress: “there are 800 mulberry trees and 15 hectares of thin fields in Chengdu. His children have enough food and clothing. As for the minister, he has no other choice. He has no choice but to carry food and clothing with him. He will respect the official and will not cure other people. If the minister dies, he will not have surplus silk inside and win money outside, so as to bear his majesty.” At this time, Zhugeliang could no longer return to his youth, but he hoped that his descendants would be able to support themselves and be confined to farming. Does this explain Zhugeliang’s indifference to his character (he once said that he was indifferent to his ambition, quiet and far-reaching), or does it mean that he knew from the beginning that he was fighting a war that was impossible to win, and engaged in a career that knew what he could not do?
In his book “looking at organization from history”, Xu zhuoyun made an image positioning analysis of Zhugeliang and his career with the metaphor of modern enterprises, He said: “Zhugeliang was in the middle of a long battle. He expected that the world would still have a bright future. He didn’t expect that the available capital would be reduced by more than half. He didn’t expect to open up a soft market, and he didn’t want to borrow money. But because the chairman of the board did something wrong, Liu Bei put the capital of Jingzhou on the gambling table and lost it all. When the Duke of Guan was defeated, Liu Bei didn’t listen to Zhugeliang’s advice, and gathered the strength of the whole country to attack the eastern Wu for 700 miles. This spirit was used The big gamble on business reduced the capital by half. In other words, Zhugeliang cleaned up the mess and had to do double and a half of the business with half the capital – of course not. Chairman Liu Bei made this wrong decision, but Zhugeliang had to clean up the mess. Zhugeliang lost his life, but he still couldn’t clean up. Therefore, Shuhan was defeated not by ah Dou but by Liu Bei, which made general manager Zhugeliang irretrievable. Zhugeliang also knew that it would be difficult to accomplish anything. The reason why he still went out of the Qi mountains six times and attacked the Central Plains nine times was to repay Liu Bei emotionally for doing one more point. Knowing the consequences, Zhugeliang devoted himself to death and died at the age of 54. In fact, even if he lives 20 more years, the result may not change. “