Great people can't go against the tide
At the end of the Three Kingdoms, the older generation of heroes had withered, and the new heroes were rare. Jiang Wei of Shu and Zhong Hui of Wei can be called the best of them. However, in 264 AD, they attempted to join forces to rebel against Wei, only to be unexpectedly surrounded and killed by a group of soldiers.
Although there are many theories about the reasons for this ending in later generations, none of them seem to hit the nail on the head.
In 263 AD, Sima Zhao of Wei Xiangguo sent Zhong Hui and Deng Ai to destroy Shu, Zhong Hui resisted Jiang Wei, the lord of Shu, and Deng Ai secretly crossed Yinping, raided Chengdu, and forced Shu to surrender.
After the surrender of Shu, Zhong Hui and Deng Ai had a disagreement, Zhong Hui framed Deng Ai for rebellion, and sent his subordinates to arrest Deng Ai and escort him to the capital Luoyang. After that, Deng Ai was killed by Tian Xu, and about 50,000 of his elite soldiers returned to Zhonghui.
After the surrender of Shu, Jiang Wei also brought 50,000 soldiers to Zhonghui. In addition, Zhonghui has about 120,000 troops, and this Zhonghui has more than 200,000 troops, which is located in Chengdu and is like the king of the west.
In addition, Zhong Hui was afraid that he would be harmed by Sima Zhao after returning to Wei, so he had the idea of opposing Wei. Jiang Wei guessed Zhong Hui's rebellion, and conspired with him to join forces against Wei, and the two became close friends, discussing to occupy Chang'an first, then Luoyang, and then plot the world.
If they failed, they planned to retreat to Chengdu and be Liu Bei's second.
Act now, the first step, unify the will. According to the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhong Hui", Zhong Hui forged a posthumous edict from the Empress Dowager Guo of Wei, in which he accused Sima Zhao of usurping the power of Cao Wei and was extremely evil, and demanded that troops be raised to kill Sima Zhao and return the power to Cao Wei.
Then, he summoned all the officers of the garrison outside the city to a meeting in the city, read the edict, and let everyone discuss whether to agree or not. In order to prevent people who disagree from leaking the news, he put everyone under house arrest.
When everyone agrees, the second step will be carried out: attack Sima Zhao. However, before the first step was over, things changed. The Wei army outside the city of Chengdu, while their officers were still under house arrest, suddenly launched an attack on the city, and the offensive was extremely fierce.
Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei fought hard to resist, but they were outnumbered and eventually surrounded by waves of soldiers like a tide. The elaborate "anti-Wei plan" was declared a failure.
Later generations have many opinions on the reasons for Zhong Hui's failure this time, some think that he has no prestige and leadership ability, some think that he is soft-hearted and unwilling to kill middle-level cadres, some think that he is impatient and eager to achieve results, and some think that his partner Jiang Wei has impure motives ......But these views are only superficial, what is the root cause?
The problem of Zhonghui's anti-Wei program and its lack of attention to the grassroots soldiers of the Wei army. Zhonghui's idea was that it would be enough to keep the soldiers out and keep them from knowing the truth.
He focused on the middle-level cadres of the Wei army, placing officers above the rank of "Yamen Cavalry Governor" under house arrest in the houses of various government offices in Chengdu, and closing the city gates to outsiders.
In this way, the officers inside the city were cut off from the soldiers outside the city. In general, as long as this "cut-off" is real and tight, there will be no problems, because the soldiers outside the city will only follow the orders of their superiors, and in their absence, they will not be able to act.
However, Zhong Hui's so-called "cut-off" was not rigorous, and he ignored the two key figures of Wei Qian and Hu Lie.
Wei Qian was a prisoner sent by Sima Zhao who played a key role in the coup. Hu Lie was the Taishou of Nan'an, and he was placed under house arrest, but with the help of Zhong Hui's personal soldiers, he learned of the anti-Wei plan in the city and passed it on to his son Hu Yuan.
Hu Yuan, who served in his father's barracks, skillfully spread the news and succeeded in agitating the soldiers against Zhonghui. The ideological propaganda and agitation of Hu Lie and Hu Yuan's father and son played a key role.
Wei Zong's escape and collusion with Hu Lie and Hu Yuan's father and son seem to reflect Zhong Hui's negligence in decision-making, but in fact, it reflects his serious underestimation of the soldiers' ability to resist.
As the head of an army, he has just completed the battle to destroy Shu, and enjoys a high prestige in the army, whether it is the prison guard or the ordinary soldier Hu Yuan, it is very difficult for him to lose the support of the army.
If only a small number of soldiers oppose him, then the impact will not be too great, because he has pro-soldiers, and Jiang Wei and Jiang Wei's pro-soldiers can protect him. According to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhong Hui", someone once suggested that Zhong Hui "kill all the Yamen Riders and above" to prevent any resistance, but Zhong Hui refused.
Some believe that this is because of his soft-heartedness, but in reality, he believes that most of the soldiers will not oppose him and there is no need to do so. However, only Wei Qian and Hu Yuan succeeded in causing a large-scale rebellion of the Wei army, which Zhong Hui regretted.
At the end of the Three Kingdoms, the general trend of the world was decided, and people longed for an end to the war and for reunification. However, even the most courageous heroes are insignificant in the face of this trend.
This explains why Wei Qian and Hu Yuan were able to instigate the Shu soldiers to kill Zhonghui, and they succeeded so easily. Because at that time, the Shu State had been destroyed, and only two countries remained, Wei and Wu.
And the state of Wu, which was greatly damaged by civil strife, was no longer able to compete with the state of Wei. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before Wei annihilates Wu and the Three Kingdoms are unified. People know about this situation and are happy to see it happen.
And the Wei soldiers under Zhong Hui, although they were just ordinary soldiers, they understood that the trend of Wei dominating the world could not be changed. Therefore, once they heard that Zhong Hui was anti-Wei, they did not approve of it in their hearts, and felt that it was too risky, so they jumped into the fire pit.
With such a psychological foundation, it would be much easier for Hu Yuan to persuade them to kill Zhong Hui. Because if they don't kill Zhong Hui, then Zhong Hui's reckless helmsman will lead them into the storm zone of the vast sea, and the days after that will be a long and boundless civil war, and there is a high probability of failure.
Who wants to pay for their lives in exchange for such a "future"? Even if Zhong Hui's plan succeeds this time, when he leads his troops to the battlefield to confront Sima Zhao, the soldiers will turn back, and his defeat will be postponed, but it will not change.
Only by following the trend of the times can we succeed. Although Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei are both heroes, they eventually failed because they moved against the tide. On the contrary, although Wei Qian and Hu Yuan did not have a high status, they followed the trend, and success was just around the corner.
Therefore, the fundamental reason for the failure of Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei is to move against the tide.