100 Historical Stories That Unlock Teenage Wisdom

Chapter 75 2 Zhuge Liang's Seven Captures and Seven Strategies of the Southern Barbarian King

Chapter 82 Zhuge Liang's Seven Captures and Seven Strategies of the Southern Barbarian King
——He who wins the hearts of the people in the world Some people were defeated, but he still refused to accept, so he planted the seeds of fighting again.Therefore, the essence of struggle is not necessarily to use force, but to convince others. This is the way to control a hundred with one.

During the Three Kingdoms period, after Liu Bei's death, his son Liu Chan came to the throne, and Zhuge Liang decided all matters in the court, no matter how big or small.Zhuge Liang worked hard to govern the country and wanted to make the Shu Han prosperous.Unexpectedly, several counties in the Nanzhong area (south of the Dadu River and the area around today's Yunnan and Guizhou) broke out first.

Yongkai, a powerful man in Yizhou County, heard that Liu Bei was dead, so he killed the prefect of Yizhou and launched a rebellion.On the one hand, he took refuge in Soochow, and on the other hand, he recruited Meng Huo, the leader of the ethnic minorities in the south-central region, and asked him to contact some tribes in the southwest to rise up against the Shu Han.

After Yongkai's instigation, Zhu Bao, governor of Zhangke, and Gao Ding, chief of the Yue tribe, also responded to Yongkai.In this way, the Shu Han lost almost half of the land, so how could Zhuge Liang not be anxious?

However, at that time, the Shu Han had just suffered a major defeat against Wu and the death of the First Lord, so there was no time to send troops.On the one hand, Zhuge Liang sent people to renegotiate peace with Soochow to stabilize this end; on the other hand, he rewarded production, built water conservancy, saved food, and trained soldiers and horses.After two years, the situation stabilized, and Zhuge Liang decided to send troops to the south.

In March of 225 AD, Zhuge Liang led an army to set off.Ma Di, the younger brother of Zhuge Liang's good friend Ma Liang, who joined the army, sent Zhuge Liang out of the city for dozens of miles.

When parting, Zhuge Liang held Ma Di's hand and said sincerely, "We have been together for several years. We are parting today. Do you have any good ideas to tell me?"

Ma Su said: "The people in Nanzhong rely on the difficult terrain and are far away from the capital, so they have long refused to obey. Even if we conquer them with a large army, they will still make trouble in the future. I heard that the method of using troops is mainly to attack the heart and attack The city is secondary. The prime minister's southern expedition must convince the people of the south, so that it can be done once and for all."

Ma Di's words are exactly what Zhuge Liang wanted.

Zhuge Liang led the Shu army to march south, winning every victory.The army was still on the way, and the Yue chief Gao Ding and Yongkai had already clashed.Gao Ding's subordinates killed Yong Kai.The Shu army attacked Yue and killed Gao Ding.

Zhuge Liang sent two generals, Li Hui and Ma Zhong, to attack in two directions. In less than half a month, Ma Zhong broke through Ke again and wiped out the rebels there.The rebellion in the four counties was quickly quelled.

But things are not over yet.Meng Huo, the chief of Nanzhong, collected the scattered soldiers of Yongkai and continued to resist the Shu army.After Zhuge Liang inquired, he knew that Meng Huo was not only brave in battle, but also very prestigious among the various ethnic groups in Nanzhong.

Zhuge Liang remembered Ma Di's parting words, and decided to win Meng Huo over.He issued an order that he was only allowed to capture Meng Huo alive and not to harm him.

Zhuge Liang was good at strategizing. When the Shu army and Meng Huo's army clashed, the Shu army deliberately retreated.Meng Huo chased after him vigorously, and was soon ambushed by Shu soldiers.The southern soldiers were beaten and scattered, and Meng Huo himself was captured alive.

Meng Huo was taken to the camp, and he thought to himself that there must be no way out this time.Unexpectedly, after entering the camp, Zhuge Liang immediately asked someone to untie him, and persuaded him to surrender with kind words.But Meng Huo was not convinced, and said: "I was not careful, and I fell into your tricks. How can I be convinced?" Zhuge Liang didn't force him, and rode with him around the camp outside, watching Look at the camp and lineup of the Shu army.Then he asked Meng Huo, "What do you think of our troops?"

Meng Huo said arrogantly: "Before I didn't know your reality, so I was defeated. Today I am grateful to you for showing me your formation. I think it is nothing more than that. It is not difficult to defeat you."

Zhuge Liang laughed heartily and said: "In this case, you should go back and prepare well before fighting!"

After Meng Huo was released, he regrouped and attacked the Shu army again.But he was a brave and foolhardy person, no matter how Zhuge Liang's opponent was, he was obediently captured alive the second time.

Zhuge Liang persuaded him, but seeing that Meng Huo still refused to accept, he let him go again.

Like this, they released and caught Meng Huo again and again, until Meng Huo was caught seven times.

When Meng Huo was arrested for the seventh time, Zhuge Liang wanted to release him again.Meng Huo was unwilling to leave.With tears in his eyes, he said: "The prime minister has captured seven times, and treated me with the utmost benevolence and righteousness. I respect him from the bottom of my heart. From now on, I dare not rebel against him again."

After Meng Huo returned, he persuaded all the tribes to surrender, and the Nanzhong area was returned to the control of the Shu Han.

After Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong, he ordered Meng Huo and the leaders of the various tribes to continue to manage their original areas.Someone said to Zhuge Liang: "We finally conquered Nanzhong, why didn't we send officials here, but let these leaders manage?"

Zhuge Liang said: "It's not good for us to send officials here, it's only inconvenient. Because we send officials, we have to keep soldiers. There are a large number of soldiers left behind, and the food is not enough. What can we ask them to eat? Besides, they have just fought, and it is inevitable that they will be killed or injured." Some people, if we leave the officials to rule, disasters will definitely happen. Now we don’t send officials, we don’t need to keep troops, and we don’t need to transport food. Wouldn’t it be better to let the tribes manage themselves and everyone will live in peace?”

After hearing Zhuge Liang's words, everyone admired his thoughtfulness.

Zhuge Liang led the army back to Chengdu.Liu Chan and the court ministers greeted him outside the city. Everyone was happy to calm down Nanzhong.Before long, Zhuge Liang embarked on six Northern Expeditions in his later years.

Wisdom Interpretation:

"Attacking the heart is the top, and attacking the city is the bottom." Convincing people is the real victory. Winning the hearts of the people wins everything.The idea of ​​tolerance in ancient Chinese wisdom is extremely developed, and this is the fundamental reason why Chinese civilization has never been wiped out through hardships and dangers, but has continued to flourish.As future generations, we should learn from this kind of wisdom and regard winning people's hearts as the primary way of struggle.

(End of this chapter)