Why didn't Liu Bei use Pang Tong's best policy to take Chengdu?

Pang Tong gave Liu Bei three strategies: the best strategy is to look up and down and go straight to Chengdu when Liu Zhang was caught off guard; China's strategy is to pretend to go back to Jingzhou, trick Baishui Guan Shoujiang Yang Huai and Gao Pei into killing them, seize Baishui Guan, and then invade Chengdu; The next policy is to return to Baidicheng, combine with Jingzhou, and then find a way to go to Sichuan. Finally, Liu Bei adopted the intermediate strategy proposed by Pang Tong.

The best policy is too risky. If you fail, you will be wiped out.

Pang Tong's best policy is: "Select the elite soldiers and horses in secret, and travel all the way to Chengdu day and night. Liu Zhang has no strategic talent and has always lacked defensive measures. Our army suddenly arrived and could pacify Chengdu in one fell swoop. " The key point of implementing this strategy is to realize the suddenness of the campaign, Enemy at the Gates without being noticed by the enemy, and solve the problem in World War I ... But it is risky to implement this plan. If something happens in the middle, the situation will get out of hand.

The first is military power. Liu Bei doesn't have many military forces, but if you have to choose some, how many military forces can attack the city? Even if Liu Zhang is incompetent, it usually lacks defensive measures. This army is different, and there is no chance of winning array operations, let alone siege! Besides, Liu Zhang is also a vassal. Isn't there even a brave general? Secondly, the marching route goes straight to Chengdu, bypassing Baishui, Fucheng, Mianzhu and Luocheng to reach Chengdu.

If you want to take a shortcut on this avenue, you will be attacked if you expose your whereabouts. At least, the suddenness of the battle will be lost. World War I is about solving problems. Los Angeles is only 50 miles from Chengdu. If the battle is delayed a little, it will be attacked from front to back. As far as Liu Bei's military forces are concerned, once this happens, it will be completely annihilated and there is no way out. If Liu Bei comes with his own troops, there is nothing he can do if something goes wrong. If Liu Bei stayed in Meng Jia, the elite soldiers had already left, wouldn't the remaining weak soldiers be overwhelmed and beaten out of the water? Therefore, Liu Bei should consider risks, and it is reasonable for Liu Bei not to take such risky actions.

Although it is said that you have to take risks to fight, didn't there be a tie and a decisive battle between the two sides in the past? However, these two wars were fought with no retreat, which was not exactly the same as Liu Bei's. Xiang Yu cross the rubicon, governors avoid war, is waiting for Zhang Han to divide and rule, and once Zhang Han gets Zhao Di, Xiang Yu and other allied forces can only be passively beaten, and the consequence of failure is genocide. The last stop, Han Xin, is passing Jingxingkou, and there is no way out. It's better to "kill yourself first, the afterlife" because Liu Zhang wants to send him away. Once the fight broke out, the two men fought face to face, and there was no way out if they failed.

What's more, two people have different perspectives. Pang Tong only considers the problem from the battle level, that is, to realize Chengdu in the fastest way; Liu Bei considered the problem from a strategic perspective, not only to capture Chengdu, but also to capture the whole territory of Yizhou, connecting Jingzhou and Yizhou. So, in Pang Tong's view, this is the best policy, but it is not necessarily the best policy here.

Finally, it is actually the safest and most beneficial to implement the middle policy.

Pang Tong's strategic plan is to let Liu Bei come to Baishuiguan with a great army, claiming to return to Jingzhou, and then inform Baishuiguan Shoujiang to say goodbye. Guan Shoujiang is Yang Huai and Gao Pei, both of whom appreciate Liu Bei's reputation. They suggested sending Liu Bei away. They will be very happy when they hear that Liu Bei is leaving. In this way, the two men went into battle lightly, detained as long as they came, took the opportunity to retreat, and then sent them to Chengdu. Liu Bei agreed to this strategic plan.

Liu Bei was secretly supported by Liu Zhang's men Zhang Song and Fazheng, and Zhang Song was killed by Liu Zhang after being exposed. Liu Zhang ordered the generals to stop sending documents to Liu Bei. Liu Bei's Baishui Guan Shoujiang Yang Huai and Shoujiang Gao Pei were killed for this. When Liu Bei entered the customs, he took the wives and children of the soldiers who were guarding the customs hostage, took the opportunity to incorporate this unit, and let Huang Zhong and Zhuo Ying lead them to attack Chengdu. In Mianzhu, Li Yan, the army supervisor, led the people to surrender to Liu Bei, who became more and more powerful and soon came to Los Angeles near Chengdu. In Los Angeles, Liu Bei attacked the city without attacking. A year later, when Los Angeles broke, Liu Bei came to Chengdu. Ten days later, Liu Zhang went out of the city to surrender.

In fact, this route is most beneficial to Liu Bei. After capturing Baishuiguan, Liu Bei got both land and soldiers. Taking Mianzhu, Liu Bei also got the city and the soldiers. The siege of Los Angeles lasted for a year. Although it was a long time, it was not that Liu Bei was unable to capture it earlier. In fact, one of Liu Bei's strategies is to make Liu Zhang unable to divide his troops and make time for Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei and others to attack the city. By the time Chengdu was shot down, most of Yizhou City was already in Liu Bei's hands. This shows that this route is safe and profitable.

In fact, there are other bad decisions besides bad decisions.

Pang Tong's best strategy is to let Liu Bei lead his troops back to Baidicheng, connect Jingzhou to accumulate strength, and slowly return to Chengdu. In fact, this bad idea is not without its merits. Baidicheng also belongs to Shu. After coming here, you can immediately transfer troops from Jingzhou to occupy the city, and you can also get Sichuan. Because Liu Zhang is fatuous and incompetent, there is another Zhang Lu to guard against in the north, so it is difficult for him to make a strategic plan to guard against Liu Bei. Even if we do send troops to fight, the ministers and generals in Yizhou will have different intentions. It is hard to say that Li and Li will not turn against each other like Mianzhu. Although the implementation of this tactic is slow, it is also safe. Therefore, this strategy has some advantages.

In addition to the above three strategies, Pang Tong also proposed another situation, that is, waiting for inaction, which can also be called suboptimal strategy. Pang Tong's words are like this: "If you hesitate to stay for a long time, it will be a disaster from your mouth and it will be difficult to stay for a long time." Although Pang Tong meant to let Liu Bei make a quick decision, he also told the truth. Of course, Liu Bei, as a strategist and a man who has fought many battles, would never make such a mistake.

Influenced by literary works, Liu Bei doesn't seem to have much skill, but he just got the title of uncle. Wu relied on Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to help him, and Wen relied on Zhuge Liang's plan to make him achieve something. If you really want to go back to historical facts, Liu Beizhen deserves to be a lean man in the world. He didn't come for nothing. Chengdu adopts Pang Tong's middle strategy, but it is a big framework and a strategy to be implemented. No wonder he can own Yizhou in a short time after he captured Chengdu. This is the difference between a master and a counselor.

Whether it is the best policy or the worst policy, Liu Bei used Pang Tong's strategy, but he made different choices because of different positions and different angles of consideration. Unlike some leaders, they change their subordinates' opinions in another way, or change their opinions into their own and then implement them, which is smarter than others. In fact, people's leaders are the smartest leaders and the most talented people.