Why did Zhuge Liang shed tears when he beheaded Ma Su?

In fact, it is not clear how Ma Su died, because there are three records about Ma Su's death in the Three Kingdoms. Biography of Zhuge Liang records that Ma Su was beheaded by Zhuge Liang together with generals Zhang Xiu and Ju Lushi, while Biography of Ma Su records that Ma Su died in prison, while Biography of Xiang Lang records that Ma Su escaped after the defeat of Jieting World War I, while Xiang Lang and Ma Su.

Personally, I prefer to think that Ma Su was killed by Zhuge Liang, who beheaded Ma Su with tears in his eyes. Then the question comes, why did Zhuge Liang chop Ma Su with tears? Just killing people. Why is Zhuge Liang crying?

Zhuge Liang

What kind of person is Masu?

First of all, Ma Su is from Xiangyang, Jingzhou, and the Ma Su brothers are all talented people. Ma Su's eldest brother Ma Liang has the highest talent, followed by Ma Su. Zhuge Liang himself lived with his uncle in Longzhong, Xiangyang when he was very young, so he knew Ma Su with great probability, especially Ma Liang, who had been assisted by Liu Bei. This is Liu Bei's confidant minister, which shows that Ma Liang has gained Liu Bei's common sense.

Ma Su was also highly valued in Liu Bei's time, and served as Mianzhu County Magistrate, Chengdu County Magistrate and Yuegang Prefect successively. Mianzhu and Chengdu are important towns of Shu Han, but Liu Bei told Zhuge Liang before he died that Ma Su's talent was exaggerated. Liu Bei reached this conclusion based on his own observation of Ma Su, but Ma Su was still highly valued by Zhuge Liang in his time.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang

The first is Zhuge Liang's conquest of the south. It was Ma Su who provided Zhuge Liang with the strategy of "attacking first, then attacking the city", and put forward the strategy of winning people's hearts supplemented by military conquest. Zhuge Liang used this strategy to pacify the vast central and southern regions. So Ma Su is still very capable in Zhuge Liang's mind.

After Zhuge Liang came to power, he promoted a large number of people from Jingzhou as successors of Shu Han, including Ma Su, Yang Yi, Jiang Wan, Fei Yi and Dong Yun. As the earliest person promoted by Zhuge Liang, Ma Su pushed his way through the crowd in Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, and promoted Ma Su, who had never led troops to fight, as a street pavilion guard. From Zhuge Liang's point of view, this is an opportunity to make contributions to Ma Su, but Ma Su. Or Ma Su misunderstood Zhuge Liang's intention, and Ma Su arranged for the Shu army to be stationed on the mountain. This is clearly that Liu Bei, who studied the Battle of Hanzhong, occupied the commanding heights in order to attack Wei Jun and achieve greater results.

Zhuge Liang and Ma Su

But Ma Su made a common-sense mistake, that is, there was no water source on the mountain, which meant that Ma Su made a fatal mistake as soon as Wei Jun general Zhang He arrived, so he surrounded Ma Su and did not attack. A few days later, Ma Su's troops stationed in the mountains had no water to drink, and people had no water to drink for three days at most, not to mention the soldiers who had to fight hard, so the Shu army led by Ma Su was defeated. If it weren't for Wang Ping's calm command, the casualties of the Shu army would be even greater.

Ma Su's failure in Jieting directly affected the overall strategy of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, because after the loss of Jieting, Wei Jun could enter Longyou to support the main force of the five counties in Longyou against Zhuge Liang, while Wei Jun continued to go south, which could control and cut off the retreat of the Shu army-Qishan Road. If Zhuge Liang doesn't withdraw, the rear road of the entire Northern Expeditionary Army may be cut off by Wei Jun, which will be a disaster. So, the news of Masu's failure came.

After Liu Bei died in the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang once again trained an elite army and produced enough food and materials. As a result, it is easy to lose everything because of Masu's mistakes. Therefore, Zhuge Liang had to bear the main responsibility for the failure of the first northern expedition, that is, the responsibility of improper employment. In order to maintain the legal system and reassure people, Zhuge Liang decided to behead Ma Su together with Zhang Xiu and Ju Lushi who disobeyed orders.

Zhuge Liang killed Ma Su with tears when he beheaded Ma Su for several reasons:

Masu and Wang Ping

First, because of personal feelings.

Zhuge Liang has good personal feelings with Ma Su and Ma Liang. They have known each other for a long time. Zhuge Liang has lived in Longzhong, Xiangyang for more than ten years. Ma Su is from Yicheng, Xiangyang, not far from Zhuge Liang's home. They cultivate personal feelings in Jingzhou. After arriving in Yizhou, because Jingzhou was taken away by Sun Quan of Soochow, Jingzhou people in Yizhou easily had local feelings, including Zhuge Liang, who was half Xiangyang, his wife was Xiangyang, and he was in Xiangyang.

Zhuge Liang has always been impartial in law enforcement, and will not kill Ma Su just because he has a good relationship with Ma Su. On the contrary, Zhuge Liang should kill Ma Su in order to maintain the dignity of the law, but he can kill Ma Su. Zhuge Liang still couldn't help but move his personal feelings and shed tears. This is Zhuge Liang's sincere feelings, so Zhuge Liang cried.

Second, because the country lacks talents.

Shu-Han regime is a foreign regime. After establishing political power in Yizhou, he adopted the mode of outsiders managing the local people and the mode of minority managing the majority. This is the national policy of the Shu-Han regime, which was determined in the era of Liu Bei and cannot be changed. However, there is a problem with this model, that is, talents are very scarce, because the ruling class has to choose from Jingzhou and other foreigners, and the scope of this choice is already quite narrow.

Zhuge Liang blamed Ma Su.

Ma Su is a talented person in Jingzhou. Although some are on paper, Ma Su was already a big official in Liu Bei's time. Can he do it without ability? Besides, Zhuge Liang personally tested Ma Su's talent in the battle of the Southern Expedition, which was also verified. No matter how wrong Ma Su is, he is still a talent. Now he has to kill Ma Su, which means that Shu Han has lost another talent. He was hiring people, and now he's going to kill them. Zhuge Liang felt very sad and shed tears.

Third, because everyone is equal before the law.

In the reflection, Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang is:

Those who are loyal to the times will be rewarded by the enemy, those who violate the law and neglect their duties will be punished by their relatives, those who confess their feelings will be released, and those who are eloquent will be slaughtered.

This is simply a selfless Bao Qingtian. Even those who are close to Zhuge Liang will be punished as long as they commit crimes, and even those who are enemies of Zhuge Liang will be rewarded as long as they make achievements. Zhuge Liang did not avoid enemies or relatives, because the concept he adopted in Han Shuhan was: rule the country according to law and everyone is equal before the law. Therefore, if Masu commits a crime, he will be punished. During the first Northern Expedition, even Zhuge Liang himself was demoted by three levels, and the punishment for Ma Su was beheading.

Zhuge Liang shed tears and beheaded Ma Su

Although the law is ruthless, Zhuge Liang is first and foremost a man with feelings. In order to uphold the law, he always did something he didn't want to do or made himself sad, such as beheading Ma Su, so Zhuge Liang cried.

Fourth, because of the need to pacify the anger of the military and civilians.

In fact, after the failure of the first Northern Expedition, some people who were dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang and the Shuhan regime watched Zhuge Liang's jokes behind his back, or tried to catch Zhuge Liang's handle on this matter. At the same time, many soldiers were angry at Ma Su's mistake. Zhuge Liang is not the only way to kill Ma Su, but at least he can make meritorious deeds, be demoted to Shu Ren or be imprisoned.

But Zhuge Liang chose the heaviest punishment-murder, which was against his will. Zhuge Liang wanted to prove that he was impartial, and at the same time he wanted to calm the anger of the soldiers who died and failed because of Ma Su's behavior. Since it is against his will, will he be sad, so Zhuge Liang cried? If you can choose, Zhuge Liang doesn't really want to kill Ma Su.