As we all know, the biggest mistake of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was to appoint Ma Tan as the guard of the Jieting, which led to the loss of the Jieting and made the situation fall short.
Before the Battle of Jieting, Zhuge Liang repeatedly told Ma Jian that he must go down to the village in charge, and arranged for Wang Ping, who was old and respectful, to serve as his deputy general. However, after arriving at the street pavilion, Ma Jian thought that it was not advisable to go down to the village, and chose to station the team on the mountain. As a result, after the Wei army arrived, the water source was cut off, causing confusion in the army's mind, and Ma Tan lost the street pavilion.
So if Ma Tan had obeyed Zhuge Liang's orders and went down to the village, would he have been able to guard the street pavilion?
As an opponent, Zhang He has the most right to speak. When he led the army to the Jieting, he heard that the sentry said that the Shu army had been stationed in the Jieting, and he thought it was very tricky, even if it was to break through, it would probably take a lot of time. But when he saw the main force of the Shu army stationed on the mountain, he couldn't help laughing, thinking that the other party's general was just a mediocre talent.
Without saying a word, he ordered the whole army to surround the hillside where the Ma Tan army was stationed and cut off its water source.
After being surrounded by Zhang He, according to Ma Tan's idea, he could take advantage of the high ground and kill down the mountain to break the enemy. Even if there is a water crisis later, the soldiers will definitely be able to put their lives on the spot and come back to life, and repel each other in one go.
But the real war is not the knowledge in these books, after all, Ma Jian did not personally lead the soldiers, so he could not understand the real thoughts of the soldiers, so he could only be besieged in the mountains and finally lost.
In fact, in my opinion, even if Ma Tan is in charge of the village, it is impossible to guard the street pavilion.
First of all, there was a huge disparity between Ma Tan's army and Zhang He's reinforcements. We don't know how many men and horses Zhuge Liang gave to Ma Tan, but judging from the scale of each Northern Expedition of Shu Han, Zhuge Liang can give Ma Tan a maximum of just 10,000 soldiers and horses, facing Zhang He's army of 50,000. Even if you hold on, you will fail sooner or later.
In addition, the reason why Ma Tan chose to camp up the mountain when he came to Jieting was that he thought that Jieting did not have a particularly good area for defense, and even if he went down to the village, he could not hold it. And how could Ma Yan, who led the troops for the first time, allow himself to fail the first time he led the troops? Naturally, look for opportunities to win.
However, I don't think Zhuge Liang meant to hope that Ma Jian could achieve any kind of victory, and he didn't expect Ma Jian to hold on all the time. As long as Ma Tan can hold on for more than ten days and give himself enough time. After all, the number of Ma Tan's defenders was not comparable to Zhang He's reinforcements, and Zhang He was a veteran who had been famous for a long time, so it would be good to buy more time for himself.
It's just that Ma Jian didn't understand this intention, of course, this kind of battle that must be lost, Zhuge Liang can't say it face to face before arranging it, otherwise it will hit Ma Tan's psychology more.
It was under such a mistake that Ma Tan lost the street pavilion in less than a few days, and he failed to give Zhuge Liang enough time to deploy troops, so that the first Northern Expedition fell short.
Therefore, even if Ma Tan is in charge of the village, he can't stop Zhang He, but he can buy enough time for Zhuge Liang to completely complete the deployment and completely control the Longyou region.