How did Zhuge Liang borrow the east wind in Battle of Red Cliffs?

The story of Zhuge Liang's borrowing from the east wind in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms perfectly shaped Zhuge Liang's ingenuity, and this story is still widely circulated and well known. With the development of modern science and technology, many people are skeptical about Zhuge Liang's borrowing from the east wind. Can the wind really be borrowed? How did Zhuge Liang "borrow" the east wind? In the 13th year of Jian 'an (208), Cao Cao led the troops to conquer Sun Quan. In October, Cao Cao stationed troops on the north bank of the Yangtze River and accepted Pang Tong's serial plan. Cao Cao linked the warships together with chains. Sun and Liu Lianjun are on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Although they are in danger of the Yangtze River, their troops are still insufficient. The best way is to attack Cao Cao with fire. But at that time, in the dead of winter, there was only a northwest wind, and Sun and Liu Lianjun, who were in a headwind position, would only burn their warships if they attacked with fire.

The situation of "everything is ready, only the east wind" also makes Zhou Yu worried. At this time, Zhuge Liang proposed: "Although Liang is incompetent, he meets strangers and teaches the Eight Holy Books, which can call the wind and rain." Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu agreed to 1 1 borrow the east wind at Jiazi on October 20th. Sure enough, at the appointed time, the east wind started, and Kongming used a trick to make veteran Huang Gai pretend to surrender, set fire to Chibi and defeat Cao Jun. This is the description of Kongming borrowing the east wind in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so how to solve the mystery of "borrowing the wind"?

Studies have proved that the so-called borrowing from the east wind is actually Zhuge Liang's flexible use of astronomical meteorology. First of all, why did Zhuge Liang choose 1 1 month 20 to borrow the wind? The study of meteorology in ancient China was also quite in-depth, with records of "summer solstice-cloudy life" and "winter solstice-Yang Sheng". 1 1 October 20th is the day of winter solstice. According to this law, before the winter solstice, if the yin is strong, the northwest wind will appear along the Yangtze River, then after the winter solstice, the yang will increase, and the wind direction will change, and a southeast wind will appear. Kong Ming knows the climate change law of "winter solstice, sunny day" and accurately grasps the time when the east wind blows. Zhuge Liang knew the truth, and Cao Cao certainly understood it. "The winter solstice is a sun, and there is no southeast wind when I come back? What a surprise! " However, Cao Cao neglected a problem: "In the middle of winter, there is a westerly wind and a northerly wind", which is a judgment of the climate situation for a period of time, but forgot to consider the particularity of the winter solstice. Compared with the previous period, the climate from winter solstice will change greatly. Obviously, Zhuge Liang has considered this problem, which is also his genius.

In addition, Kong Ming lives not far from Chibi and knows the local situation like the back of his hand. Therefore, he can accurately predict the weather changes on this day. Southeast wind is the conclusion of his combination of theory and practice. So, what does Zhuge Liang intend to send troops to the altar? After Battle of Red Cliffs defeated Cao Jun, Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to compete with Sun Quan for Jingzhou. Zhuge Liang asked, "If I hadn't borrowed the southeast wind, could Zhou Lang have finished half the work?" This also explains Zhuge Liang's purpose of mystifying. Kongming wants to be greedy for the merits of heaven, using Dongfeng as an excuse to win Jingzhou in the future. Another purpose of Zhuge Liang is to get rid of Zhou Yu's control through the opportunity of casting spells in the altar, quickly return to his own army, and dispatch troops to compete with Zhou Yu for Cao Cao's lost territory.

In Chapter 45 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Kong Ming sent troops with Zhou Yugang, he said to Liu Bei, "But look at the southeast wind, and the light will come back." That is to say, Liu Bei sent Zhao Yun to sail at the appointed place on 1 1 20th, so when Zhou Yu sent troops to catch Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang had already returned to Liuying. There is also a view that Zhuge Liang is the east wind of Taoism. Daoism is an ancient way of arranging troops, which has strong theoretical directivity and aggression. Daoism is a brilliant prediction technology, which combines Zhouyi, astronomy, geography, calendar, military, meteorology, politics, economy and many other knowledge. Zhuge Liang mastered this advanced forecasting technique, and predicted the weather conditions that the southeast wind was bound to blow from 1 1 month 2 1 day. Therefore, the main reason for Zhuge Liang to borrow the east wind is his in-depth study of astronomy and meteorology.

On the one hand, Cao Cao wanted to be benevolent, but on the other hand, even Liu Fu, a junior minister, couldn't stand it. When he was writing poetry, he leaned on wine and stabbed him to death. (Just because the blunt poem is unlucky: "The moon stars are rare, and the black magpies fly south; Three turns around the tree, no branches to follow. " ) By analogy, will Cao still listen to Yu and Erxun's stern advice? Fortunately, the three counselors had foresight and alienated Cao Cao in advance, otherwise they would have been in the end. By analogy, what will happen to Cao Cao once he becomes emperor? Therefore, his surrender strategy is just "when Wang Mang was humble and did not usurp the throne".

Think Guo Jia was "ten wins and ten losses" in the battle of Guandu, Xun Caiqiao? After five exhortations, Cao Cao persisted in the end. Things are unpredictable, and in a blink of an eye, the Lord and the minister changed from mutual assistance and mutual trust to mutual separation and abandonment. This is an irresistible law of unity of opposites. Cheng Yu wants to rise after Cao Cao's failure. Unfortunately, since the three-act officials are determined to rally against Cao Cao, why did Cheng Yu remind Cao to prevent fire attack after a series of tricks were offered in Pang Tong? This is very meaningful and can be called a classic of defection.

First, Cheng Yu used Cao Cao's rebellious mentality to stabilize him and make him more determined in his wrong decision. Because Cheng Yu is not the first adviser, and Cao Cao is now above, Cheng Yu thinks he will rebel (just like Yang Xiu mentioned above). For example, after hearing the warning of fire attack, Cao Cao said, "Anyone who attacks with fire must rely on the wind. It's the middle of winter, but there are west winds and north winds. Is there an east wind and a south wind? " "If he uses fire, he will burn his own soldiers. Why should I be afraid? " After doing this kind of subjective thinking, Cao Cao certainly didn't doubt Pang Tong, and even thought that only he could understand the strategy of the great hermit Pang Tong. Pang Tong really praised him: "The Prime Minister's use of troops is so well deserved!" Cao Caoxin said that Pang Tong was a much stronger Feng Chu in Buron. With his help, you need not worry too much. The advisers immediately bowed down and said, "The Prime Minister has a high opinion, but no one is as good as you." It means that there is no joke in the army and you can't go back on your word!

It is precisely because Cheng Yu firmly established Cao Cao's mentality of doing the opposite, so when the southeast wind really blew, he proudly said, "When the solstice of winter comes, there will be no southeast wind." Why is it strange? "Heart said this small probability wind unpredictable, no practical application value, limelight will turn at any time. However, he didn't want to think, why didn't the counselor mention this "not surprising" weather common sense? All the praise is "the prime minister's opinion"? It can be seen that this prime minister Cao is no longer, and he no longer refuses any form of ingratiation. By the way, Cao Cao played a new trick of human resources while snubbing counselors, that is, temporarily using foreign counselors. He thinks that anyone can buy it as long as he gives enough face or money.

Moreover, this mercenary will not compete with himself and can be fired at any time. He really tried and tested before, for example, Guan Yu solved the siege of the white horse for him out of gratitude, beheaded Yan Liang and punished Wen Chou; Xu You gave him a plan to attack Wu Chao. But Cao Cao didn't expect that there are people in the world who can't be bought with lust, lust and hypocrisy, even for a moment, such as Xu Shu and Pang Tong. Politics brought Cao Cao a temporary success and an irreparable failure. After Chibi, Cao Cao could not trust the people around him, nor could he trust the foreign monks. After being eliminated, Sima Yi came into being.

Second, Cheng Yu is a combination of a counselor and a politician. Among the four main students (or friends) in Si Mahui, the ranking of Zhimou from high to low is Pang Tong, Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu and Cheng Yu. The difference between the two is "ten times" in theory, but it is actually the level of Xichuan, Jingzhou, Fancheng and Dong 'e County. Among them, Pang Tong and Xu Shu are pure Confucian counselors, who are both filial and loyal, while Zhuge Liang and Cheng Yu (including Si Mahui) are counselors who are a mixture of Confucianism and law and have the ambition of Wang Ba. That is to say, Guo Jia and Erxun opposed Cao in order to support Liu Bei, while Cheng Yu and Zhuge Liang supported their families (specifically, Zhuge Liang wanted to help Zhuge Jun proclaimed himself). Zhuge Liang said, "When people ask what is Kongming's ambition, Kongming just laughs and doesn't answer." . In the society at that time, only those who wanted to be emperors could not be exposed, and others could be compared with those of Guan Zhong, Le Yi, Lv Wang and Sean.

Although there is no description of Cheng Yu in the novel, it can be judged from his behavior. For example, he used Xu Shu's filial piety to frame his mother and son, which is a very bad tactic. People who can do such a thing must be unfaithful to their masters (this is the logic of ancient humans, such as loyalty, filial piety and cleverness). Accordingly, Kong Ming used Pang Tong's loyalty to Liu Bei to kill him. Because the people's hearts and the war situation in the Three Kingdoms period were more complicated than ever, most loyal officials did not have a long career. They are either eliminated by their masters, or calculated by the same kind of resourceful and highly skilled politicians. Similar to the current high scores and low energy. It should be noted that, in Luo Guanzhong's view, it is reasonable for the Han Dynasty to usurp the inverse. For example, Cui once told Liu Beizhi that it was a fate to rectify the Han Dynasty, and the king should be renewed. Unveiling the hidden show of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, disloyal counselors are more heroic than loyal counselors, and the more thorough the better. Of course, there is a definition principle here. They must be subjective to the world and objective to themselves, such as Cheng Yu, Cui, Zhuge Liang and Si Mahui.

Opportunists who only care about personal or local interests are bears, such as Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao. The motivation can be inferred from the ending when distinguishing, which is also the convenience of literature. Actually, the problem is not that simple. There is no one in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms who is not a hero, and no one is an out-and-out hero. Explain in another article. Cheng Yu wants to continue to remonstrate and not let Cao Cao succeed. Another purpose is to hope that Cao Cao can reuse himself and become his favorite after his failure. Then make a new plan. His practice is exactly the same as that of Sima Yi later. Sima Yi downplayed several strategies whether Cao Cao adopted them or not, and Cao Cao gradually accepted him after comparison. However, because Cheng Yu's plan was implemented too early, it did not achieve the expected success. Cao Cao was still very frivolous after Huarong Road and did not fall into Cheng Yu's trap. It can be seen that Cheng Yu is more "untimely" than Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.

However, it's good to climb to the position of General Wei Zhen with a county magistrate and die happily. His official friend Xun ④ Kun? Time is running out? A little embarrassed? What is the best way to save a ship? Qiang Ren Yong? Why don't you shave and twist? Collapse the foundation bank? What about field generation? Direct burning leek berth? Caught red-handed Similarly, Cheng Yu realized that Cao Cao could only be defeated and could not die, so he finally uncovered the falsehood of the Huanggai grain ship in time and let Cao Cao escape. Moreover, this time Cheng Yu explained this common sense to him in great detail: "The ship will be stable when the grain is on board; Watching the boat today is light. " It seems that Cao Cao didn't understand this truth because Cheng Yuguang said this argument before, without emphasizing or demonstrating it. Cheng Yu knows very well that in many cases, expressions are more important than expressions. Especially for the immortal.