During the Three Kingdoms period, strategists and famous ministers were like clouds, and Cao Cao gathered five major strategists, but these strategists were not as famous as Zhuge Liang. But this view is only the opinion or appearance of posterity. In fact, during the Three Kingdoms period, at least while Cao Cao was alive, Zhuge Liang did not attract much attention from Cao Cao. Cao Cao commented on Xun Yu as "my Zhang Liang" and called Guo Jia "I rely on him to achieve great things";Even after the defeat of Chibi, he jokingly told Sun Quan: "Actually, I was not defeated by Zhou Yu, it was a warship that I burned myself, and then left in style." Cao Cao had a sense of fear of Zhou Yu and tried to sow discord between Sun Quan and Zhou Yu, but unfortunately Sun Quan did not pay attention to it at all. However, after consulting a large number of historical materials, I have never seen Cao Cao make any lofty comments about Zhuge Liang.
On the contrary, he was full of praise for Liu Bei's Fa Zheng. In 217 AD, Cao Cao and Liu Bei fought the Hanzhong War, and it was under Fa Zheng's plan that Huang Zhong beheaded Xiahou Yuan and laid the foundation for Liu Bei. After hearing the news, Cao Cao said with emotion: "Gu Zhi Xuande does not distinguish this. He also said: "I have collected all the treacherous males, and I cannot be good or evil!"This means that he thinks that Liu Bei is not omnipotent, and sighs. Cao Cao almost accepted the world's talents, but failed to obtain Fazheng, which made Liu Bei's momentum even stronger. Judging from Cao Cao's evaluation, Zhuge Liang was directly ignored and Fa Zheng's name was mentioned. It can be seen that in Cao Cao's mind, Fa Zheng is the most outstanding figure in Shu Han.
However, the problem is that, judging from historical data, Fa Zheng is a "tainted" person.
He and Zhang Song will not mention the matter of Liu Bei entering Sichuan for the time being, because from a historical perspective, it is quite wise. What really made Fa Zheng lose color was his performance after he gained power. That is, after Liu Bei captured Xichuan, Fa Zheng became the first person beside Liu Bei, but he began to frantically repay or take revenge. It is recorded in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms": The virtue of a meal, the resentment of the eyes, all retaliate, and kill and destroy several people without permission. This means that once Fa Zheng gains power, he will begin to reciprocate those who have been kind to him at all costs, even if it is just those who have invited him to dinner, he will be redoubled. On the contrary, those who once despised the law with their eyes were also redoubled in retaliation, and even killed many people.
This naturally caused a lot of dissatisfaction, and they didn't dare to express it to Liu Bei, so they all found Zhuge Liang one after another. However, surprisingly, Zhuge Liang said, "What do you know?
If it weren't for the Fa Zheng, how could the lord Liu Bei achieve today's achievements?Let's figure it out. This also made Zhuge Liang criticized and questioned, and people thought that he was too tactful. In fact, to put it bluntly, both Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei are secretly proud at the moment, because what Fa Zheng did was exactly what they expected. This is the result of the tacit understanding between masters such as Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and Fa Zheng, who understand each other's needs and fears, and "cooperate" for a common goal or benefit. It's very simple to get Fa Zheng to stop, the local tyrants in Yizhou have all changed their ways obediently, and Fa Zheng will naturally stop immediately and turn his allegiance to Liu Bei.
Sure enough, Fa Zheng did this, and what was even more outrageous was that he forced Liu Bei to remarry!
It is known that Liu Bei's wife before taking Xichuan was Mrs. Sun. This Mrs. Sun is quite strong, in "Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang once described it quite appropriately in one sentence: "The lord is in the public security, the north is afraid of Cao Gong's strength, the east is afraid of Sun Quan's compulsion, and the near is afraid that Mrs. Sun will change under the elbow, and when the time comes, the wolf will ...... retreat."It can be seen that Mrs. Sun's status can be on a par with Cao Cao and Sun Quan. However, after Fa Zheng learned of this situation, he actually persuaded Liu Bei: "(Fa) is persuading the ancestor to return it." This has a pun meaning, on the one hand, it is to let Liu Bei leave Mrs. Sun, and on the other hand, it is to let Liu Bei return Sun Quan and divorce her.
Either way, Fa Zheng was better than Zhuge Liang, because he dared to intervene in Liu Bei's family affairs, and he was Liu Zhang's envoy at that time. In 214 AD, many people began to persuade Liu Bei not to go on like this, after Liu Zhang's brother Liu Mao died, his wife Wu also became a widow, and the two of you simply got married. This is equivalent to letting Liu Bei marry his sister-in-law. Of course, Liu Bei disagreed. So, Fa Zheng stood up and used the example of Jin Wengong marrying a nephew as a basis, which means that everyone can marry a nephew and daughter-in-law, why are you Liu Bei so unenlightened?There was also a smell of coercion in the words. Looking at Liu Bei again, he actually "followed" and married the Wu family, and suddenly divorced Mrs. Sun in disguise, which is equivalent to changing his wife.
So why is Fa Zheng so bold?The reason is simple: this is also a means of revenge against the Fazheng. In the name of revenge, Fa Zheng rectified the Yizhou tyrant forces who did not obey Liu Bei, and now the effect has appeared!Naturally, Liu Bei had the need to express his position, so he changed from the son-in-law of Dongwu to the son-in-law of Yizhou, isn't this a matter of course?Therefore, the reason why Fa Zheng is better than Zhuge Liang in Cao Cao's eyes is precisely because Cao Cao gave Fa Zheng a "traitor" position. This made Liu Bei even more admired, so much so that after Fa Zheng's death, Liu Bei was almost "tired of crying for days", and almost didn't cry to death ......