Back to Romance 57, Pang Tong came to see Liu Bei, who was unhappy because Pang Tong was ugly. Like Sun Quan, Liu Bei is also a leader who values appearance. So Liu Bei sent Pang Tong to Leiyang County as a county magistrate. However, Pang Tong stayed in Leiyang County for one hundred days, drinking all day and ignoring official business. Liu Bei was furious and ordered Zhang Fei to investigate. He said that if there are dishonest people, you can ask them. I'm afraid something is not clear. I can go with Sun Gan.
After studying here, I have a question in my heart. At this time, Liu Bei has many people suitable for inspection. For example, Sun Gan, Jian Yong and Guan Yu all have brains. When things happen, they think calmly and then make reasonable judgments. However, why did Liu Bei send Zhang Fei, who is impulsive and often wants to kill people, to be an imperial envoy to investigate such a detailed work?
I think there are several reasons.
The first reason is that Liu Bei is angry. Liu Bei knew that if Sun Gan and others were sent, the result would be bonhomie. Sun Gan, Jian Yong and other civil servants have all heard of Pang Tong's reputation. Even if Pang Tong really neglects his duty, he will help cover it up. Guan Yu is Liu Bei's most trusted person, but Jingzhou has been pacified, and the front-line war economy needs an independent general to protect him and win a piece of land by the Yangtze River. After Liu Bei captured the four counties in Jingnan, the most distressing thing was that Guan Yu took over the Jingzhou water army in the hands of Liu Qi. Because Xiakou Jiangxia fell, I had to retreat and had no chance to fight at night. If you can't build a pier on the edge of the Yangtze River, you can't enter the Yangtze River and grab territory with Cao Cao and Zhou Yu. Therefore, Guan Yu must not let go.
At this time, Zhuge Liang was in Wu Dong, and Zhao Yun took care of him. Except for Zhang Fei, Liu Bei has almost no one to send.
So Liu Bei sent Zhang Fei out. Although Zhang Fei is a little rough, who told you that Pang Tong is called Feng Chu, which can't even take care of a small county? Such a useless madman should be beaten by a tough guy like Zhang Fei.
The second reason was helped by Sun Gan.
Liu Bei ordered Zhang Fei to investigate and immediately regretted it. I'm afraid Zhang Fei will touch it. After all, Pang Tong is a world celebrity on par with Zhuge Liang. On that day, Mr. Xu Shu said that Wolong and Feng Chu could defend the world, and it would be bad if they missed it. So Liu Bei sent Sun Gan to ask for help and told Zhang Fei that if anything happened, he should consult with Sun Gan and listen to Sun Gan's advice.
The third reason is that Liu Bei knows Zhang Fei's character.
Zhang Fei is a rude person, but he is usually a chess piece played by his opponent, or a madman without a real person. Treat those literati respectfully and diffusely. As long as Pang Tong is talented, Zhang Fei should not be dangerous to Pang Tong. At that time, Zhang Fei also expressed dissatisfaction with Liu Bei's initial excessive accommodation of Zhuge Liang. However, after Bowangpo fought against Kongming for the first time, Zhang Fei surrendered.
Therefore, when Zhang Fei went to Leiyang County, he did follow Sun Gan's advice and was not in a hurry to arrest Pang Tong, but went to see how Pang Tong explained it. Pang Tong said that although he drank, he didn't delay his official duties, but performed in public, and spent half a day clearing up the backlog of 100 days. Pang Tong proudly said: What is waste? ! Cao Cao and Sun Quan, if I look at them in my hand, how can I care about my small county? Pretend to regard heroes in the world as nothing.
Zhang Fei was so frightened that he immediately withdrew from the court, apologized to Pang Tong, and said gracefully, Mr. Dacai, this boy is so rude. I should recommend it to my brother.
Pang Tong took out Lu Su's recommendation and said that he didn't want to rely on others' recommendation to get a high position. Zhang Fei was even more moved. Zhang Fei turned to Sun Gan and said, "Sir, if you don't remind us, we will lose a great saint. After Zhang Fei returned to Jingzhou, he praised Pang Tong in front of Liu Bei and successfully completed the task.
I once wrote an article about why Liu Bei suppressed Pang Tong. There is a view that Liu Bei did not assign Pang Tong to Leiyang County because Pang Tong was ugly. This is because Pang Tong visited Cao Cao and Sun Quan successively, but after all failed, he chose to look for opportunities in Liu Bei. Liu Bei was very dissatisfied, so he deliberately suppressed Pang Tong. In fact, Liu Bei didn't know Pang Tong's talent. In addition, Liu Bei is in the rising period of his life. After winning the four counties of Jingzhou, he continued to use a large number of talents to handle various complicated affairs. How could he easily let Pang Tong in Feng Chu go?
Therefore, this is the original intention of Liu Bei in treating Pang Tong. Liu Bei also plans to send Zhang Fei to investigate.
First of all, Liu Bei sent two confidants, Zhang Fei, Wu and Wen, to inquire. I hope I can put some pressure on Pang Tong with Zhang Fei. If you are new here and don't behave well, even if you are Pang Tong, you can't occupy the toilet. With Sun Gan, I hope Zhang Fei won't knock too hard, and Pang Tong will always be reused.
So Pang Tongchu came to Liu Bei's side and was severely beaten by Liu Bei and touched gently. Since then, Pang Tong has been unfaithful to Liu Bei.
There is another advantage of sending Zhang Fei to travel. You know, Liu Bei was very dissatisfied with Zhang Fei and Guan Yu at that time, because they believed in Zhuge Liang and regarded him as a brother. At this time, Pang Tong came to vote. If he immediately reuses Zhang Fei, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction between Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. But what if Zhang Fei discovered the value of Pang Tong himself and recommended it to himself? So the most important military commanders will naturally not argue with the new civil servant Pang Tong.