Su Yu, the God of War, why did he say that Zhuge Liang didn’t know how to fight?

Foreword:

Speaking of Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of the Shu Han Dynasty who "dedicated himself to death", people all recognized him as one of the most outstanding politicians. A "Longzhong Dui" laid the foundation for this. His unshakable status as a strategist.

However, is Zhuge Liang an outstanding military strategist?

Thousands of years later, the debate continues.

Su Yu, the god of war and the first general who founded the country, gave his own answer - he believed that Zhuge Liang was a man who couldn't fight and was not a strategist!

Su Yu

Why did Su Yu make such a comment, and was he objective?

The first episode of the new series of articles in the cafeteria "Comments by Famous Experts" will be about Su Yu's comment on Zhuge Liang not being a military strategist.

First of all, although Zhuge Liang in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are talking about the same person, their descriptions are very different.

"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a total of 120 chapters. Zhuge Liang's first official appearance was in the 38th chapter of Xianlong Zhongdu. By the time of the prime minister's death in chapter 104, the total number of chapters exceeded 66 (there are also previous chapters) Two times, Xu Shu recommended Zhuge and Liu Bei to visit the thatched cottage three times, and 116 times later, Zhuge Liang also showed his sage at Dingjun Mountain).

During this period, Zhuge Liang burned new fields, borrowed arrows from straw boats, burned Red Cliffs, outsmarted Yizhou, captured Menghuo seven times, and left Qishan six times...

It can be said that he has repeatedly struck the mark and become The incarnation of wisdom is the reappearance of the military god, so much so that Mr. Lu Xun sighed: "Zhuge is so wise that he is almost a demon."

Tang Guoqiang's version of Zhuge Liang

But this is not the case with Zhuge Liang in "Three Kingdoms".

Chen Shou, the author of "Three Kingdoms", commented on Zhuge Liang in "Three Kingdoms Shu Shu Zhuge Liang Biography":

Chen Shou first affirmed Zhuge Liang's talent in governing the country and compared him to Guan Zhong and Guan Zhong. Xiao He, but in terms of military affairs, he said two more rude words.

The meaning of both sentences is that Zhuge Liang can manage troops and govern a country, but he cannot fight.

There are two versions, one is a romantic novel and the other is a historical account. It is clear at a glance which one is more credible and which one is less credible.

Interestingly, Zhuge Liang’s old rival Sima Yi commented on Zhuge Liang:

Although Sima Yi’s words meant to elevate himself and belittle his opponent, he also objectively pointed out that Zhuge Liang used troops to fight. defect.

As a result, for thousands of years, people have debated whether Zhuge Liang was a military strategist or not.

As the saying goes, outsiders watch the excitement, while insiders watch the door. After liberation, someone asked Su Yu:

Su Yu is the first of the top ten generals of New China. He has experienced hundreds of battles and is invincible. He has made great achievements and successes one after another, and his military skills have emerged one after another.

In terms of merit, Su Yu can definitely be ranked among the marshals. Su Yu can be called an unparalleled military god.

For him to comment on Zhuge Liang's military level, he is indeed the right person to ask.

Unexpectedly, the answer Su Yu gave was unexpected.

Su Yu thought for a moment and replied:

Su Yu directly said that Zhuge Liang was not a military strategist. The two biggest victories, the burning of Red Cliff, were fought by Zhou Yu.

Well, the burning of Xinye was actually caused by Liu Bei (the borrowed arrows from the straw boat belonged to Sun Quan). Not to mention the six trips out of Qishan, none of them were successful.

Good guy, after all this calculation, Zhuge Liang seems to have really not achieved anything good.

Now the question arises, why did Su Yu make the comment that "Zhuge Liang doesn't know how to fight"?

Is what he said consistent with the facts?

In fact, the reason why Su Yu made such a comment was mainly because he and Zhuge Liang had different ways of leading troops in battle.

Su Yu led the troops in battle, and was always known for the weak defeating the strong and attacking more with less. Starting from the Agrarian Revolutionary War itself, the war history of our army has been a history of the weak defeating the strong. In most of the battles of our army, the minority defeated the large, and many famous generals emerged who defeated the strong with the weak.

Among these famous generals, Su Yu is particularly outstanding. Su Yu has commanded countless battles in which the few defeated the many and the weak defeated the strong. The canteen lists only three examples.

1. Battle of Huangqiao

In September 1940, Su Yu commanded 9 regiments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd columns of the New Fourth Army Jiangbei Headquarters, with more than 7,000 troops, to fight against More than 15,000 people from the 89th Army of the Kuomintang's Han Deqin Department came to provoke.

Faced with an enemy twice as powerful as himself, Su Yu was not timid. He used the tactics of luring the enemy deep and dividing and encircling him. At the cost of more than 700 casualties, Su Yu annihilated more than 11,000 enemy casualties. Even the 89th Army commander Li Shouwei also drowned while fleeing in panic.

This is the famous Battle of Huangqiao. After this battle, Su Yu's reputation for being good at fighting was known all over the world.

Even Mao Zedong praised the battle after hearing about it:

2. Battle of East Henan

June 17 to July 6, 1948 On that day, Su Yu commanded the East China Field Army, the Central Plains Field Army and the troops of the Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu military regions in the East Henan Campaign. He used 200,000 troops to attack the main force of the Shounian Corps (7th Corps) in the enemy area and the first section of the Huang Baitao Corps to attack 250,000 troops. people.

In this battle, more than 90,000 Kuomintang troops were wiped out. Commander Ou Shounian of the 7th Corps and Commander Shen Chengnian of the 51st Reorganized Division were captured. The First World War liberated a large area of ??the Central Plains and caused the Kuomintang army to lose The ability to carry out campaign offensives on the battlefield in the Central Plains.

This battle includes offensive battles, mobile battles, positional battles and security turning battles. The form of war is unprecedentedly complex.

More importantly, in addition to the Ou Shounian Corps on the front, Su Yu also had to face the advancing forces of six regiments, including Qiu Qingquan, Hu Lian, Huang Baitao, Sun Yuanliang, Wu Shaozhou and Yang Gancai. As a result, Su Yu still achieved a great victory. , this battle is really unbelievable to the extreme, it is really crisp, majestic, and hearty.

Su Yu commanded operations

3. Huaihai Campaign

In November 1948, Su Yu commanded 16 columns of the East China Field Army, 7 columns of the Central Plains Field Army and local armed forces* The 600,000-strong Japanese army launched a final decisive battle with the 800,000-strong Kuomintang army. This was the famous Battle of Huaihai.

The Battle of Huaihai broke out on November 6 and ended victoriously on January 10, 1949, lasting a total of 65 days.

Su Yu commanded the People's Liberation Army to eliminate 5 corps of the Kuomintang army and 1 troops in the appeasement zone, totaling 22 corps, 56 divisions, and more than 555,000 soldiers.

In addition, they also repulsed the Sixth and Eighth Corps, which were assisted by Nanjing.

At this point, East China and the Central Plains region north of the Yangtze River have been basically liberated. Nanjing, the center of Kuomintang rule, is under direct threat from the People's Liberation Army, and the Kuomintang ruling group has fallen into disintegration.

After the battle, Mao Zedong personally sent a long telegram to congratulate him, and later said:

After liberation, when Mao Zedong introduced the Huaihai Campaign to the visiting British Marshal Montgomery, he especially praised Su Yudao. :

Throughout these battles in which the weak defeated the strong, Su Yu knew that strength and weakness, more and less were dialectical.

Su Yu has always been opposed to the head-on stalemate to fight for strength. Although he strategically uses the weak to defeat the strong and the small to defeat the large, in the specific use of tactics, he also attaches great importance to using the large to defeat the small. Concentrate the absolute superior force to annihilate the enemy.

The situation Zhuge Liang faced was that the enemy was strong and we were weak, but he did not have Su Yu's means. Every time he launched an attack, although he was not defeated, he did not achieve decent results.

War is a direct game of strength between the opposing sides, and it is also a comprehensive contest of spirit, will, and morale.

The strength of one's strength has mostly been clear before the war, but the mystery of war is that it is not the strength that can win the war.

As the saying goes, "When we meet on a narrow road, the brave will win." In some situations, the weaker but more daring person will often win the final victory. The war cannot always go as one imagines, and there are many times when one has to fight tough battles, bad battles and dangerous battles.

And Su Yu has always been known for fighting hard battles and dangerous battles. As long as there is a 50% to 60% chance of winning, Su Yu dares to launch a decisive battle.

Take the Battle of Menglianggu as an example. In this battle, Su Yu commanded the East China Field Army to surround the Kuomintang's reorganized 74th Division (division commander Zhang Lingfu) in Menglianggu. The reorganized 74th Division has jurisdiction over the 51st, 57th, and 58th brigades, all equipped with fine weapons and equipment. It is known as one of the "Five Main Forces" and has very strong combat effectiveness.

More importantly, the East China Field Army surrounded the 74th Division, but the Kuomintang Army Commander-in-Chief Gu Zhutong set up a unified command headquarters in Xuzhou and concentrated 24 reorganized divisions into three mobile corps with more than 400,000 troops. Surrounding the East China Field Army.

This is a battle of encirclement and counter-encirclement, a battle of life and death. Once the East China Field Army cannot annihilate the 74th Division, the entire East China Field Army is in danger of being annihilated.

Meng Lianggu Battle Situation Map

In this battle, Su Yu only had a 50%, or at most a 60% chance of winning, but he still ordered the 1st, 4th, 6th, and 8th , the 9th column and the special forces column served as the main attack;

The 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 10th columns served as blocking support.

Adopt the "tiger digs out the heart" strategy to dig out the enemy's number one ace main force from the heavily armed group.

In the end, in the Battle of Menglianggu, the East China Field Army annihilated more than 32,000 soldiers of the reorganized 74th Division and one regiment of the reorganized 83rd Division. Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 74th Division, was killed.

After the battle, Chen Yi wrote a poem:

And Chiang Kai-shek lamented:

A year later, Mao Zedong and Su Yu recalled the Battle of Menglianggu Said:

On the other hand, Zhuge Liang said, "Zhuge is only cautious in his life." This is not nonsense. Without certainty, Zhuge Liang would not dare to fight at all.

Looking at the battles Zhuge Liang fought throughout his life, he was "only cautious in his life" and injected this caution into his use of troops in every battle.

This resulted in few successful cases in his life in which he fought hard battles, bad battles and dangerous battles.

Zhuge Liang's only dangerous battle may be the "empty city strategy" in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Stills of the Empty City Plan

Unfortunately, the Empty City Plan is fake and did not happen in history.

And even in the novel, there is a big flaw in the empty city strategy. If Sima Yi did not turn around and escape, but sent a small force to attack the city, what would be the result?

In a real battlefield, this is the basic quality of a qualified general.

The empty city strategy is not about taking risks, but about committing suicide.

The situation on the battlefield is ever-changing and ever-changing. An outstanding military strategist pays the most attention to the combination of oddity and rightness, and winning by surprise. No famous general in ancient and modern times, Chinese and foreign, is like this.

Su Yu has always been famous for his maneuverability and flexibility, and there are countless examples of his maneuverability and surprise victory.

Two more examples from the canteen

1. Seven battles and seven victories

From July 13 to August 27, 1946, the Kuomintang’s first "appeasement" District Commander Tang Enbo (later succeeded by Li Mo'an) commanded 5 reorganized divisions and 15 brigades with about 120,000 people, gathered on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Nantong, Jingjiang, Taixing, and Taizhou, attempting to occupy Rugao and Hai'an first, and then along the (south) ) attacked northward along the Tong (Gan)-Yu Highway and Canal, and coordinated with the Kuomintang troops attacking Huainan and Huaibei to attack Huaiyin, the capital of the Jiangsu-Anhui border liberated area.

Su Yu, then commander of the Central China Field Army, concentrated more than 30,000 troops from the 19th regiments of the 1st and 6th divisions and the 7th and 10th columns. With the cooperation of the Central Soviet Military Region troops and militia, Under this situation, we should use the tactics of concentrating superior forces and annihilating the enemy one by one, and make full use of the favorable conditions of fighting in the liberated areas to fight against enemies four times our own.

This is the famous Jiangsu-China Seven Battles and Seven Victories.

This battle itself was a battle involving a small number of enemies and a weak force against a strong one. It would be difficult for Su Yu to win if he really had to fight hard, but he repeatedly used surprise troops and fought seven battles non-stop.

The first battle, Zhan Xuantai:

The Central China Field Army wiped out more than 3,000 people of the 83rd Division;

Mao Zedong couldn’t believe it when he heard about it, so he directly telegraphed The Central China Field Army asked if it was true.

The second battle, the battle was like the south:

The Central China Field Army concentrated its forces, surrounded the enemy and reorganized the 49th Division (division commander Wang Tiehan), and defeated it in one battle.

The third battle, the battle in Hai'an:

More than 3,000 people from the Central China Field Army fought against more than 50,000 Kuomintang troops. After 4 days of fierce fighting, more than 3,000 enemies were wiped out and more than 2,000 casualties were suffered.

The fourth battle, the battle against Fort Lee:

Separate routes and besieged the newly formed 7th Brigade, wiping out more than 9,000 enemy troops.

The fifth battle, the battle at Dingyan:

After a night of fierce fighting, 5 brigades of the 7th and 11th Traffic Police Corps and the 1st Division of the 26th Brigade were wiped out, killing more than 5,000 people. .

The sixth battle, Battle of Huangqiao:

Staged the "encirclement of Wei and rescue of Zhao", the entire 99th brigade of the Kuomintang was destroyed, and most of the 187th and 79th brigades were also annihilated.

The seventh battle, against Shao Bo:

Hold the position, annihilate more than 5,000 enemies and capture more than 12,000 people.

In seven battles and seven victories in Central Suzhou, Su Yu annihilated 53,000 Kuomintang troops from 6 brigades and 5 traffic police brigades, accounting for 44% of the total strength of the Kuomintang army invading Soviet Union.

Seven battles and seven victories can be regarded as the proudest stroke of Su Yu's military career. As soon as this battle came out, countless military masters studied it carefully and lamented that it was not as good as it was.

For example, after the Battle of Central Jiangsu, Lin Biao quickly collected detailed information about the battle, then locked himself in a house and pondered for two days, conducting a detailed tactical review.

Finally, he lamented to Liu Yalou:

Even Mao Zedong spoke highly of this battle, and specifically instructed Su Yu to summarize his experience and report it to the central government for reference and study by other liberated areas across the country.

He called the entire army:

Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, later recalled: "Su Yu destroyed more enemies in the Battle of Central Jiangsu than his own troops." < /p>

Mao Zedong and Su Yu

2. Battle of Subei

In September 1946, due to the failure of the Huaihe War, the entire East China Field Army was in a very passive situation. At Chen Yi's suggestion, Su Yu took only a few guards and went north to Shandong to command the Shandong Field Army and carry out external operations.

Su Yu faced many difficulties when he first arrived in Shandong.

First, he is not familiar with the troops he will command;

Second, he is not familiar with the terrain of Shandong and Lianghuai areas;

Third, for He also knew very little about the enemy situation on the other side.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger." But at this time, Su Yu didn't know either himself or the enemy and he didn't meet any of the conditions. How could he fight?

However, this battle is of great importance and affects the overall situation. It can only win, not lose. The pressure on Su Yu is as heavy as a ton.

However, under Su Yu's genius command, the Battle of Subei achieved an unprecedented victory. At the cost of more than 8,000 casualties, the Japanese army annihilated 21,530 enemy troops. , Dai Zhiqi, commander of the 69th Reorganized Division of the Kuomintang, committed suicide, and deputy commander Rao Shaowei was captured.

This battle set a precedent for our army to wipe out the most enemies in one battle and to wipe out an entire enemy division in one battle since the War of Liberation!

After the war, Su Yu concluded:

Chen Yi and Su Yu

On the other hand, Zhuge Liang has a strong desire for control. Whenever he fights, he is most afraid of accidents. He marches and fights. Step by step, step by step, but war is ever-changing, and no matter how smart a person is, it is impossible for him to be so forward-looking, so far-sighted, or to grasp every change.

Take Zhuge Liang’s six expeditions out of Qishan as an example. Zhuge Liang’s direction, route, and strategies were mostly the same each time. As a result, the Wei State was well prepared and well prepared, so that the six deployments failed to achieve the expected strategy. Purpose.

Although Zhuge Liang was not defeated every time, he was unable to achieve a major victory. From a tactical victory, he made up for the gap in strength between Wei and Shu.

With Zhuge Liang's method of fighting, any accident on the battlefield would inevitably result in all previous efforts being wasted. Therefore, Zhuge Liang could not defeat the powerful Wei State even if he left Qishan hundreds of times, let alone six expeditions from Qishan.

To sum up, the battle commanded by Su Yu was impossible with Zhuge Liang's temperament. The victory achieved by Su Yu with the weak defeating the strong was also beyond the reach of Zhuge Liang.

This is an important reason why Su Yu looks down on Zhuge Liang's military level.

In a sense, Su Yu's comment that Zhuge Liang was not a military strategist, did not dare to use surprise troops, and did not know how to fight was also very realistic and objective.

Now here comes the question, if the two armies of Su Yu and Zhuge Liang confront each other, who do you think can win the final victory?

Main references: "The Biography of Su Yu", "Excerpts of Research on Su Yu", "Three Kingdoms", "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"