When it comes to Jieting, everyone's first impression is that Zhuge Liang didn't know people. Ma Di was talking about military affairs on paper, greedy for merit, and made his own claim to go up the mountain to be condescending. As a result, the water source was cut off and Zhang Yun defeated him, which led to the failure of the first Northern Expedition. But after reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many people must have the following questions:
- Why not send Wei Yan and Zhao Yun to Jieting? Ma Dai is fine too.
- Where is Zhuge Liang's main force? Why didn't Zhang He gather the troops to take back Jieting?
- If Ma Di listened to Zhuge Liang's words and "set up camp in the right place", could he hold the street pavilion?
- During the Three Kingdoms period, there were many famous generals who were taught to be human beings. Why was Ma Su dismissed?
With these questions in mind, we analyze the root cause of Jieting’s defeat from the perspective of project management, and discuss what mistakes Zhuge Liang and Ma Di made.
When it comes to the purpose of the Northern Expedition, students who are familiar with the Three Kingdoms must open their mouths with these four words: to conquer the Central Plains. Since we want to restore the Central Plains, why not attack Chang'an directly, but make a big circle from Longyou? The reason is simple, the gap in absolute strength. If the battlefield is in Chang'an, Wei State's front line is shorter, and because of its stronger national strength, it can fight a war of attrition with Shu State without any pressure. However, Shu has limited resources and longer supply lines, so long-term confrontation will undoubtedly lose. Unless Liu Xiu, the son of the plane, possesses a body, and a meteorite falls from the sky... So for the Kingdom of Shu, the Northern Expedition must occupy a favorable advance base. From this point of view, Longyou is a good choice. Occupying Longyou will greatly shorten the supply line for attacking Chang'an. Through tactical victories, Wei's defense line can be continuously squeezed and gradually eroded; at the same time, Liangzhou and Wei can be cut off. He used the prestige of the Ma Chao family to win the support of Liangzhou, obtain a stable source of war horses, strengthen the army building, and weaken the war potential of the Wei State by the way. In addition to strategic considerations for the expedition to Longyou, another reason was that Wei's rule on the border was not stable. Many people still regarded the Shu Han as orthodox and were ready to lead the way at any time. And the fact proved that, Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding soon surrendered.
Well, after doing the above foreshadowing, we can analyze and answer the previous questions one by one.
As the project leader, Zhuge Liang was too optimistic about the progress of the project and did not pay enough attention to potential risks after the initial stage of the project progressed smoothly. First of all, where is Zhuge Liang's main force? In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang sang an empty city plan, and there are different records in historical books, but a relatively certain conclusion is that when Ma Di set off, Zhuge Liang's main force had not yet completed the assembly. Shang Gua and Qi Shan in the five counties of Longyou are still resisting, and Guo Huai is a formidable opponent. The three counties that had waited for the wind to surrender before still had organized resistance, and the Wei army in Longxi and Liangzhou also assembled to fight back. Since Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui rushed from Luoyang to Chang'an to take command immediately, the central army quickly assembled, and Zhang Yun commanded reinforcements to Longyou. Once the reinforcements entered the battlefield, relying on the huge advantages of follow-up manpower and materials, Wei Guo would have no suspense. The last victory. The fact that the internal enemies have not been cleared has brought another shadow. The Shu army's retreat and logistical supply nodes may be cut off at any time. Zhuge Liang also noticed this, and sent Gao Xiang to garrison Lieliu City to ensure safety, but after dividing the troops many times, it was an unchangeable fact that the troops in each direction were stretched. From the perspective of project management, it is obvious that the key time points have not reached the target, and the deadline of the project has not changed, the old requirements have begun to change, and new requirements have continued to increase. But Zhuge Liang, who was full of self-confidence at this time, still felt that he could rely on his superb micro-manipulation skills to accomplish two arduous strategic goals: 1) Block Zhang Xi's reinforcements and prevent the establishment of contact with Longyou; Army, and then a decisive battle with Zhang He's main force. The idea is good, but the resources of the project team are limited, and every node must complete the task on time, and no mistakes are allowed. Unfortunately, the team's resources were insufficient to support the ambition. Whether it is an empty city plan or real historical records, it all shows a problem. The main force of the Shu army did not complete the assembly to reinforce Ma Su, but wasted in multiple directions on the inside line, unable to solve the opponent, and at the same time unable to withdraw from the battle quickly. This situation often occurs during the project implementation process. A module that does not look difficult has some problems that have not been resolved for a long time, and bugs appear repeatedly, resulting in resources that cannot be released. These problems may be solved by investing a little more resources, but the whole line of the project is tight, and each module is a little bit short, so the result is not a little bit short.
In fact, judging from the history books, Zhuge Liang's experience in leading troops, whether it was the pacification of Jingzhou, the attack of Yizhou, or the subjugation of the Nanman, basically never fought against the wind. On the one hand, it is crushed by military superiority, and at the same time, it is supplemented by political consensus. It has never encountered a dark moment when making life and death choices on the battlefield. Therefore, doing a few large-scale projects with sufficient resources does not mean that we can successfully undertake such difficult projects with complex and changeable requirements and a very urgent schedule. Therefore, Zhuge Liang was much more cautious in the following Northern Expeditions. Although the fourth Northern Expedition was to force Sima Yi to fight head-on, he continued to move coquettishly, but it was also based on absolute battlefield control.
After Zhuge Liang's cronyism and optimistic estimation of the project's prospects in the selection of project candidates, the selection of candidates became a political issue. In addition to military gains, political gains must also be maximized. For the Kingdom of Shu, there are several major factions in politics, the Central Plains faction (the old brother who first followed Liu Bei to start a business), the Jingzhou faction (represented by Zhuge Liang), and the Yizhou faction (the original Sichuan local forces, represented by Li Yan). The Central Plains faction and the Jingzhou faction have been relatively well integrated because of their long-term cooperation. Therefore, Zhuge Liang must consider the candidates of the Jingzhou faction for the risk-free income this time. As the successor of the Jingzhou faction, Ma Liang was unanimously optimistic about Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, but unfortunately, Ma Liang was killed in the battle of Yiling. Apart from Ma Liang, he also lost a large number of important figures of the Jingzhou faction. Ma Liang's younger brother, who performed well in his daily work, and the young and middle-aged elite representative of Jingzhou School, the successor of the prime minister's career, Ma Di naturally became the best candidate. Although Liu Bei warned that "Ma Su's exaggerated words should not be used to great effect, you should observe it!", but in Zhuge Liang's view at the time, this was a task that followed a process, and it was the same for anyone who went there.
Also as the core backbone of the Jingzhou faction, Wei Yan, who was promoted by Liu Bei Rocket, is not a qualified candidate politically. From the perspective of performance, Wei Yan is a superstar employee, but his interpersonal relationship is extremely poor, and he has conflicts with all his colleagues. From Zhuge Liang's point of view, Wei Yan not only has extremely high management costs, but also has a zero view of the overall political situation, and only fights in his mind. If you don't win the battle at Jieting, you can restrain yourself. If you win, how will you manage it in the future? lose? At least almost all the netizens think Wei Yan won't lose. Historical data also support this point of view. In the battle of Lucheng in the fourth Northern Expedition, Wuhou and Xuanwang were the only time to face each other. Wei Yan was the commander-in-chief of the battlefield. Yi) Pressed the generals of Wei Guo on the ground and rubbed them repeatedly. Regarding Zhao Yun, he was not with Zhuge Liang at all at this time. At that time, his task was to lead an army with Deng Zhi to march from Xiegu Road to occupy Jigu, and made a posture to approach Chang'an to attract the main force of Wei State. As a result, he attracted the governor Cao Zhen, who was defeated and returned to Hanzhong. In addition, they are too old and do not meet the selection criteria for cadres. As for other candidates, one sentence can be denied: unable to maximize political gains.
Now let’s talk about Ma Su’s problem. Before Jieting, Ma Su's resume was very impressive. 985 was born in a famous school of the wealthy N generation. He first started as a leadership secretary (entered Sichuan with Liu Bei as an employee in Jingzhou), and has local work experience (Mianzhu county magistrate, Chengdu county magistrate), especially working experience as a top leader in remote areas (Yueyi prefect, in Today's Xikang area in Sichuan). After joining the army, he participated in the war to subdue the Southern Man. As a staff officer, he not only helped formulate the military plan, but also determined the guiding ideology of focusing on political offensive. The key point and the leader are particularly good at talking, the three views are highly consistent, and they often chat all night long. Such cadres are both capable and good at boasting. It is unreasonable not to reuse them! Some people say that talking about military affairs on paper is actually not an easy task. There is nothing easy to do from formulating battle plans, marching plans, to daily eating, drinking, and logistics scheduling. As the core member of Zhuge Liang's general staff, Ma Di's performance is very good, and he can be called a wise soldier. But Ma Di and Zhao Kuo have the same problem, they have no independent experience in leading troops, and they encountered a devil-level boss when they left Xinshou Village for the first time, Zhao Kuo met Bai Qi, and Ma Su met Zhang He. The staff members are thoughtful, but the biggest problem is that they have no decision-making experience. Real battlefields are different from our RTS games, in that accurate information cannot be obtained, and orders cannot always be conveyed in place, nor can they be executed properly. As a staff officer, he provided decision-making basis for leaders instead of making decisions by himself. Ma Su lacked training in this respect, and natural famous generals such as Xiang Yu, Han Xin, and Li Shimin were born with this ability. At the same time, as a staff officer, Ma Di had no close relationship with the front-line generals. In their view, Ma Di was just a tall, rich and handsome man who could fool around the leader. The core of winning a battle was the prime minister's good command.
At that time, the prime minister could not organize everyone to read "The Sky of History". Every general regarded the most combat-effective troops as his own private property, and others could not directly order them. As a staff officer, Ma Di didn't have a reliable team trained by himself. As an airborne leader, he does not have absolute authority in front of the lieutenants below, nor does he have a tacit understanding of living and dying together, so under adversity, the command efficiency is doomed to be discounted and then discounted. Imagine that when an airborne leader takes over a project, all the team leaders below are skeptical, and the front-line engineers only listen to the direct command of the team leader. If the project is going well, it's fine for everyone to go their separate ways. But the project is not going well, the scene can be imagined. In fact, Zhuge Liang also thought of this, and assigned him a lieutenant Wang Ping with rich experience, a good view of the overall situation, and a solidarity and cooperation. However, Wang Ping's role is that of a lieutenant general, and there are three other lieutenant generals recorded in the history books, and because of his status (surrender to the Kingdom of Shu in the Battle of Hanzhong), Wang Ping does not have great ambitions and will not steal the leading role. So when he smelled the danger with his rich experience in the battlefield, he didn't stand up, and when the persuasion failed, he silently retreated behind the scenes, and finally cleaned up the mess to minimize losses.
Going back to Zhuge Liang, why did you choose Jieting as the battlefield to stop Zhang He? Look at the original text of "Three Kingdoms - Zhuge Liang's Biography": Liang sent Ma Di to supervise the troops in front, and fought Zhang He in Jieting. "Three Kingdoms - Zhang He's Biography" records: Rejecting Liang sent Ma Di to Jieting. From these words, it cannot be seen that Jieting was Zhuge Liang's active choice of battlefield, and the battle of Jieting was more like an encounter. Many netizens went to the local area for investigation, and referring to historical records, they judged that the preset battlefield should be in Longdi. Because of the narrow terrain there, Wei's superior force could not be deployed, and it was impossible to fight more with less in a frontal confrontation. However, due to Zhuge Liang's misjudgment of Wei Guo's reaction, Zhang He came early. Before the dishes were served, the guests came first. According to historical records, later generations always thought that it was Ma Su who underestimated the enemy and went up the mountain, which led to his defeat. In fact, going up the mountain was not a wrong choice. First of all, the terrain of Jieting is open, and the Shu army does not have an advantage in quantity and quality. Except for Wang Ping's Wudang Flying Army, more than 1,000 people are the main field force. Because of the shortage of troops, the troops of several other lieutenants have temporarily supplemented a large number of local recruits. The total strength is estimated to be between 5 and 8,000. On the other hand, the opponent Zhang Xi led the well-trained Wei State Central Army, which was superior in numbers. The strength of the vanguard troops was about 1.5 to twice that of the Shu Army. There is basically no possibility of winning the field battle. The prerequisite for Wei Yanlai to make a comeback is to bring his own basic troops. So what about "camping in power" as mentioned in the history books? It's also impossible, Wei Jun came too fast, there was no Lanxiang Technical School and no excavators in those days, at least three or five days earlier to start construction, otherwise it would be too late, and the vanguard must have traveled lightly and did not bring so many tools and equipment. If it's really three or five days earlier, wouldn't it be better to go to Longdi to block the hole and just dig the front? Battles like this abound.)? After going up the mountain, it occupies a strong terrain, which is convenient for monitoring the movements of the Wei army, and can be condescending at any time to sneak a chicken. It is still very likely to win when the main force of the Shu army arrives. Therefore, going up the mountain is a fairly correct choice made by Ma Su after evaluating his current strength. At this time, the airborne leader was correct in assessing the situation, and had a good understanding of the strength of the team and the arduousness of the task. However, the situation is changing rapidly, the discount of team execution and the setbacks of large project teams are unpredictable.
As a veteran on the battlefield, Zhang Yun must have seen through Ma Di's intentions at the first time, drag! As the descendants of the real paper, everyone generally has the illusion of God's perspective, thinking that they can definitely do better by themselves. Ma Di will not be ignorant of the importance of water sources. If there is water on the mountain, and the water flows downhill, Zhang Xi cannot cut off the water source at the foot of the mountain. If the water source is at the bottom of the mountain, even if Ma Di wants to go up the mountain, the lieutenants will definitely stop him, which is a direct death. I dare not face it head-on. Is it the courage given by Liang Jingru to be able to hold the water source at the foot of the mountain? Considering that it would take time for Ma Su to go up the mountain and for the troops to deploy, Zhang Yun must have launched the battle for the high ground immediately. Looking at the records of the Anti-Japanese War, the first reaction of the old devil when he encountered an ambush was to grab the commanding heights. An important reason why Guanjianao fought so hard was that the commanding heights that had been fought so hard were not quickly consolidated, and the Japanese army took it back after a round of counterattack. Luck was on the side of the strong, and Ma Su lost his water source on the mountain. It is recorded in "Three Kingdoms-Wang Ping Biography": Su She went up the mountain on the water, disturbed by his actions, Ping Lian ruled against Su, Su could not be used, and was defeated in Jieting. It shows that after the water source was lost, Ma Di began to panic and was at a loss. Moreover, this record shows that Wang Ping did not divide his troops to station at the foot of the mountain as recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Otherwise, would he call the leader at the foot of the mountain to give advice? Judging from the abilities and experience of the generals of the Shu Kingdom at that time, except for Wei Yan, most people would be scared when they saw Zhang Xi, and the decision to go up the mountain was probably supported by several lieutenants. When Ma Di proposed a plan to the leader, ABCD1234 could speak clearly and logically, but when he was asked to make up his mind, he began to hesitate. Although Zhang Xi's attempt to seize the water source can be seen, the response plan is to start a decisive battle around the water source directly, or pray for the main force to arrive as soon as possible. But his attitude was not firm, and he fought back several times without any results. The generals below were unwilling to join the troops to die, after all, the barrel of a gun is the lifeline. At this time, Ma Di was like the teacher in "San Mao Congjun Ji", he could only slap the table: discuss again!
While Ma Di was discussing again, Zhang Yun quickly consolidated his position, and began to wait for work with his superior force. Because the terrain here is open, Ma Di who went up the mountain has been suppressed, and the follow-up reinforcements are still on the way. Even if Zhuge Liang brings the main force to the decisive battle, sooner or later everyone will drown him with spit. Fighting to the death is not defending to the death. For example, although the tunnels in Shangganling have played a huge role, volunteers come out of the tunnels every night to fight back and control the ridgeline of the mountain. Otherwise, the tunnels will be graves after the enemy controls the ridgeline. Students far away, such as Zhao Kuo, continued to organize counterattacks after being besieged, forcing King Qin to mobilize in the Hedong area before barely winning. At this time, Ma Su lost the water source, and the street pavilion became Meng Lianggu. The position is constantly being compressed, but they can't make up their minds, and the morale and the mood of the troops are rapidly losing control. Because it was a temporary wild team, Ma Di's order could not be firmly carried out, and everyone didn't want to die by themselves. But the prime minister's main force has been silent. In the end, the army collapsed due to lack of water and low morale. At this time, even if Stud and Zhang Yun wanted to fight, they couldn't organize it. If the leader lacks the ability to actually solve problems by hand, and keeps repeating his ideas, he will stop trying when he encounters a little setback. The morale will continue to lose, and there will be no support from the outside, then failure is doomed.
After Ma Di lost Jieting, Zhuge Liang also received even worse news. Gao Xiang of Lieliu City was defeated by Guo Huai. At this time, the entire Shu army was in danger of being surrounded and eaten. In history, Sima Yi did not get involved in the first Northern Expedition, and the empty city plan did not exist. But at this time Zhuge Liang really didn't have any mobile troops to deploy, so he quickly gathered his troops and ran away. Although the project fails, the stop loss must be firm. Going forward is like a project with serious cost overruns, low morale, loss of personnel, and continuous changes in Party A's needs. At this time, if you don't admit your losses and run away, if you continue to do so, you will drag the entire company into trouble.
Finally, I will talk about why Ma Di must die. Whether it's acting or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there are many scenes where a famous general is taught to be a man by another famous general, but there are really few cases where he was executed because of defeat. For example, the damage caused by the defeat of Gaoxiang in Lieliu City was at the level of annihilation of the entire army, an order of magnitude greater than that of Jieting; Zhao Yun was also defeated and set fire to the plank road, which led to the opponent's pre-judged route for the second Northern Expedition. Gao Xiang's punishment was not recorded, and it was reused later, and Zhao Yun's punishment was basically meaningless. The key to Ma Su is that he left the army and ran away alone. He first hid with his good friend Xiang Lang (as a result, Xiang Lang was punished and sat on the bench for 20 years), and he turned himself in after the limelight passed. "Three Kingdoms - Zhuge Liang's Biography" records: Su violated the integrity of Liang, and his actions were inappropriate, which was greatly broken by Zhang Tai. There was no radio at that time, and Zhuge Liang certainly couldn't command like the chairman: the archer position moved forward twenty steps. "Su's violation of Liang Jiedu" should refer to Ma Di's violation of Zhuge Liang's basic requirements for commanding the army. Not only was the army beaten into an unorganized form, but he also ran away secretly, which is particularly bad in nature! In contrast to Wang Ping, although he was defeated, the troops retreated in an orderly manner, and kept gathering the remnants of the defeated generals to minimize losses. Therefore, not killing was not enough to anger the common people. Li Sheng and Zhang Xiu were also executed at the same time, and another lieutenant Huang Xi was removed from his post for investigation. Wang Ping was established as a positive model, and in the future he would become a high-ranking member of the Shu army, responsible for the defense of the entire Hanzhong area. If the project fails, those who should be punished must be punished, but it is still necessary to find out the bright spots, boost morale, and make everyone feel hopeful in the future.
So to sum up the whole case, Zhuge Liang, the project leader, was blindly optimistic after a smooth start. When the project progress was hindered, requirements changed and new requirements began to pour in, he still stretched the front line in an attempt to complete his achievements in one battle. Comrade Ma Su, the secretary, took the lead for the first time. He stood from behind the scenes to the front desk. Although he was rich in knowledge, he was pushed aside by the team and his determination was not firm. The boss learned from the pain, decisively stopped the loss, rewarded and punished heavily, summed up the experience, and started from scratch. As a manager, especially an airborne manager, don't hesitate to make decisions repeatedly. If it's not a bully until you can't do it, I will dismiss the class and go to get out of class by myself, then there are only two ways to choose: either go all the way to the black and rely on the authorization of the superior to crush the subordinates to gamble in one direction, or see who is capable of fully delegating power and entrusting them to work together , I am responsible for knocking on the chapter and cheering me up. In short, no matter which way you choose, you must be firm in your determination. Once you persuade your subordinates, you will no longer trust and obey them.