There are two main motives for the merger war: one is fear and the other is interest. Many times, fear is more driving force than interest.
When the world is in chaos, all parties are eager to wage war, because in that chaotic era, if you don't take the initiative to annex others, you may be annexed by others. At that time, it was common for the strong and the weak to go against the trend in an instant: many troubled princes who occupied a state seemed to be eliminated in an instant; And a small army with only a few hundred people may also skyrocket in an instant.
Cao Cao, Sun Jian and his son, Liu Bei and other successful people all went shopping all the way.
Cao Cao crusaded against Dong Zhuo and almost died in Xingyang. When crusade against Lyu3 bu4, almost died in Puyang; Crushing Zhang Xiu, the eldest son died, the guard died, and I almost died; When fighting Yuan Shao in Guandu, he had a narrow escape. Sun Jian died in battle, and Sun Ce died at the hands of the enemy; Sun Quan almost died in xiaoyaojin. Liu Bei's wife and children were captured by the enemy four times, and he passed death more often.
At that time, without this spirit of struggle, even if you have the greatest capital, you will be despised and calculated at any time. Because at the time of the tiger and the wolf, the princes who only want to live a stable life are often sheep to be slaughtered in the eyes of everyone, such as Liu Biao and Liu Zhang.
After the world situation gradually stabilized, the dominant interest groups were no longer troubled by fear. To put it simply: As the consul of Wei, he would not deliberately worry about being invaded. Because Wei has an overwhelming advantage in resources, Wu and Shu can only unite to resist Wei, but they are unable to further expand their territory.
Fear is no longer a powerful driving force for a powerful country to launch a war of aggression, because a powerful country is full of self-confidence.
From the perspective of weak countries, although they will be stimulated by the fear of national subjugation, they also know that their constant wars are usually just futile efforts. Therefore, their motivation for waging war is nothing more than to strengthen centralization and let the imperial central government mobilize its manpower, material resources and financial resources to the maximum extent.
Although fear can stimulate weak countries to prepare for war, weak countries usually only attack and fail to defend.
Zhuge Liang and others know very well in their hearts that they must never go deep into the territory of Wei, otherwise any major mistakes may accelerate their demise. In this context, superficial fear will stimulate weak countries to wage war, but it will also inhibit weak countries from attacking powerful countries on a large scale. Because in the context of stable world structure, fighting is purely for resources and national strength. In fact, weak countries and powerful countries want to die by going to war with great fanfare.
The world is in chaos, and all sides are eager to wage war. There is another important reason: when the world is in chaos, all major interest groups are not stereotyped. So everyone believes that as long as the war is won, there is a chance to taste the fruits of victory. In this context, when major interest groups try to infringe others, they can easily reach an internal understanding.
With the stability of the situation, interest groups themselves have gradually formed. The fruits of war are usually picked by a few people, and the vast majority can only serve as cannon fodder. Therefore, interests can no longer be a powerful driving force for major interest groups to wage war, at least it is difficult for everyone to reach an understanding.
In the position of emperor or consul, everyone wants to launch a large-scale war. In this way, the emperor or consul can justifiably mobilize the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the whole country. This practice will expand the power of monarchies or consuls, and nobles will instinctively resist it because it violates the interests of nobles.
Shu is special because it is the weakest of the three countries. If the central government is not given more power, it will be difficult for them to cope with military pressure from powerful countries. When Shu died, there were 940,000 soldiers and 40,000 officials. Such a ratio of soldiers, civilians and officials is amazing in any small peasant society.
In the era, the power of Wei's external expansion has long been lost, and neither fear nor interests are enough to drive Wei to launch a large-scale war. To put it simply, the nobles opposed the war for very good reasons: Mao (Cao Cao) and the wise, leading the best heroes and wise men, could not even destroy Shu and Wu, let alone hope.
Whether this is reasonable or not is not important, what matters is the attitude of the nobles. In this context, Cao Zhen once led an army into the territory of Shu, but the war ended in an anticlimactic way. Because there were too many opposition parties, but there were no heavyweights to support Cao Zhen's war, Wei Mingdi had to let Cao Zhen lead the army back.
If you don't withdraw, the cremation will contain Cao Zhen in various ways. What will be the result of the war without internal and external cooperation? I don't know. If the war fails, everyone will put the blame on Cao Zhen. Is he qualified to continue as consul?
Look at the confrontation between Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang again. Everyone said that Sima Yi was beaten by Zhuge Liang, so Sima Yi was not as good as Zhuge Liang. The problem is that Sima Yi's task is to protect the environment and people, not to cut Shu on a large scale. If Sima Yi enters a battlefield that is not conducive to himself and attacks Zhuge Liang on his own initiative, it will be a run in itself. Even if Sima Yi took some risks and won some victories, he could not expand the results. Because neither the emperor nor the nobility will continue to increase war resources for him. In this way, it is tantamount to Sima Yi using a local army to counter the power of Shu Han.
If Cao Wei and the whole country supported cutting Shu, Zhuge Liang would certainly not be so arrogant. Because with Wei's military resources, Zhuge Liang can be beaten out of the water even if he sends his troops in many ways. In a sense, even if Zhuge Liang lived long enough to attack Shu, he would be at a loss. We always thought that as long as Shu left some troops in a certain place, we could do whatever we wanted. However, in the context of limited overall resources, no matter how it is arranged, it will lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another.
Sima Shi has the opportunity to replace Cao Shi, because almost all large-scale wars have been led by Sima Yi since Wei Mingdi's time. Of course, Wei Mingdi hoped that the Cao Shi family (indirect members of the Cao Shi and Xia Hou Shi families) would lead the relevant wars, but the Cao Shi family could not really present a strong representative. If the related war is led by the Cao Shi clan, it is inevitable that the gentry will come forward to create various obstacles. For example: sing a lamentation before the war begins; Do not work hard in the war; After the war, all kinds of people fell down when they were down and out.
Look at Cao Xiu's crushing defeat, and then look at Cao Zhen's anticlimactic, and you will know what kind of situation Cao Shi's family is facing.
If the royal family in Cao Shi is willing to let a non-imperial clan member lead the relevant war, the resistance of aristocratic men will be relatively small. Because this means that the emperor Cao Zhi did not attempt to centralize power, Sima Yi's military and political status is getting higher and higher. But Sima Yi understood that both the emperor and the rich gentry had limited support for him. If it goes beyond the limit, Sima Yi will have no good fruit, no matter whether the result is good or bad.
Suppose: What would Sima Yi look like if he destroyed Shu? At that time, don't say whether the emperor will restrict Sima Yi, even other gentry will collectively restrict Sima Yi, because the dominance of one family will only make the court full of uncertainty. Therefore, Sima Yi has always been very conservative, seeking no merit but no fault.
Otherwise, on the scale of Shu, anyone would dare to clamor for a military counterattack against the mainland all day, but Wei was a coward. Are all Shu soldiers superheroes? Zhuge Liang certainly wants to liberate all mankind and save the people of Wei and Wu who live in dire straits. Cao Cao and Sima Yi also want to liberate all mankind and save those people who live under the tyranny of Shu and Wu!
In a civil rights society, any ruler who wants to wage war must give the people a sufficient reason. Otherwise all kinds of anti-war voices will resound through the sky. In aristocratic politics, similar things happen when the situation is stable.
For political games, ideals and slogans are big and empty. The question that really touches the soul is: who will pay for the war? Who will pick the fruit after harvest? If the price of world unification is the loss of the interests of the rich gentry, then the rich gentry must hope that the world will be divided forever.
This is true, but no one will say so. People who are watchmen like to erect memorial archways best, because there will always be many fools who like to gnaw words to verify the authenticity of this memorial archway among later readers. Anyone who doubts the authenticity of this memorial archway will be labeled as a "folk science" and called on the people to step on the ground and completely trample on it.
What a painful understanding!
Generally speaking, because the imperial power and the rich gentry have their own plans. So Sima Yi was pushed to the front row and became a consul acceptable to both the imperial power and the rich gentry.
At first, aristocratic men hoped to introduce a representative of aristocratic men, whose role was to restrict imperial power; The emperor hoped to reuse a representative of the rich gentry, whose role was to get the maximum cooperation and support from the rich gentry.
Later, as a representative of aristocratic men, Sima Yi gradually gained the power to threaten the imperial power and the opportunity to surpass other aristocratic men. So everyone chose Cao Shuang to encourage Cao Shuang to crush Sima Yi. In the face of the alliance between imperial power and nobility, Sima Yi can only retreat constantly. In the end, there was no retreat, so at the age of 69, he ventured to launch the change of Gao Pingling.