Among the Three Kingdoms, the most top strategist must be Zhuge Liang. In the rendition, Zhuge Liang also has the title of "Zhi Jie", and when he was not yet out of the woods, he had already made a blueprint for dividing the world in his heart, which is the famous "Longzhong Pair", and from the result, Zhuge Liang realized it, but after the death of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei, the three core figures of shu Han, Zhuge Liang's political dream of "restoring the Han Room and returning to the old capital" was basically difficult to realize. So why did Zhuge Liang still insist on the Northern Expedition, and what was the real purpose of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition? It is definitely not kuang fu han room, Wei Yan's death has already explained the problem.
The First Northern Expedition. In 226, Cao Pi died, and the young Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, Zhuge Liang seized the opportunity of Cao Wei's turmoil to start the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi to set out from Xiegu Road as suspects, attracting Cao Zhen's army, and his own army set out from Qishan. In the early stage of the war, Zhuge Liang acquired the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding, and the northern expedition could be said to be smooth sailing. After Cao Zhen knew that he had been deceived, he sent Zhang Gao to the street pavilion to block the Shu Han army. As a result, everyone knows that Ma Mo, who can only talk on paper, can be the opponent of Zhang Hao, who has experienced hundreds of battles, and Ma Mo has lost the street kiosk bitterly. Zhao Yun was also defeated by Cao Zhen in Jigu because he was outnumbered, and Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition ended in failure, but he also acquired the land of the Three Counties.
Second Northern Expedition. In the winter of 228, Lu Xun defeated Cao Xiu at Shiting, Zhuge Liang heard that Cao Wei would attack Eastern Wu with a large army, Zhuge Liang believed that the troops in Guanzhong must be empty at this time, so he wrote a letter to Zhuge Jin who was far away in Jiangdong, hoping that the Eastern Wu side could contain the Wei army, and after zhuge Jin's permission, Zhuge Liang sent an army to Chen Cang. At this time, Cao Wei's soldiers in Chen Cang were only a few thousand, and Zhuge Liang sent Jin Xiang to persuade Hao Zhao, the defender of Chen Cang, in the hope that Hao Zhao could surrender. Hao Zhao refused to surrender, and Zhuge Liang could only send troops to attack Chen Cang, but he could not attack for a long time. Because after Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition retreated, Cao Zhen predicted that Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition would definitely attack from Chen Cang, and ordered people to already strengthen Chen Cang's city. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records:
Zhen Yiliang punished Qishan, and after the outburst, he would be from Chen Cang. It was the generals Hao Zhao and Wang Sheng who guarded Chen Cang and ruled the city.
Not long after, Cao Wei's reinforcements were coming, and Shu Han also had a situation of poor grain and grass, and Zhuge Liang had no choice but to retreat. Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition, it can be said that nothing was achieved, but he killed the Wei general Wang Shuang when he was retreating.
The Third Northern Expedition. In 229, Zhuge Liang began the Third Northern Expedition, and Cao Wei knew that Zhuge Liang was leading an army to attack and voluntarily abandoned wudu and Yinping counties. Zhuge Liang attacked Cao Wei again and again, and Cao Zhen wanted to send many large armies to conquer Shu Han, and Cao Rui agreed with Cao Zhen's idea. The Wei army attacked Shu Han in three ways, with Cao Zhen leading the main force from meridian road, Sima Yi from Hanshui, Zhang Gao from The Chu Chuan, and the three armies converging in Hanzhong. However, at that time, it rained heavily for thirty days in Shu, and Cao Zhen led the army to walk for a month, only halfway through, and had no choice but to retreat. From here, we can see that when Cao Wei sent the main force to come, Zhuge Liang did not fight and chose to refuse. Because Zhuge Liang knew that the strength of Shu Han was not as good as Cao Wei.
The Fourth Northern Expedition. During the Fourth Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang met his old rival Sima Yi. Because Cao Zhen was already seriously ill at this time, Cao Rui sent Sima Yi to defend against Zhuge Liang. In the spring of 231 AD, Zhuge Liang took advantage of the fact that there had been no rain in the Yongliang area of Cao Wei for half a year, and the joint Kebi was able to attack Cao Wei in Hanzhong, zhuge Liang surrounded Qishan Fort with wooden cattle to transport grain, leaving Wang Ping to continue to attack Qishan Fort, and he led the main army north to Shangyi and destroyed the wheat fields in Shangyi. On the side of Cao Wei, Sima Yi's army went to Shangyi to engage Shu Han, but Sima Yi did not take advantage of it, and Sima Yi has been adopting a strategy of refusing to defend since then. After a period of confrontation, Zhuge Liang withdrew his army besieging Qishan and gathered at Halo City.
Sima Yi sent Zhang Hao to attack Wang Ping(王平) south of The City, and Sima Yi attacked Zhuge Liang from the north. The two armies formed a situation of double-sided attack. Zhuge Liang sent Wei Yan, Gao Xiang, and Wu Ban to defeat the Wei army in three ways, and in this battle beheaded more than 3,000 Wei troops, and the form of the war was very favorable to shu Han. However, there were problems with the grain and grass of the Shu Han Dynasty again, and there was a situation of poor grain and grass within the Shu Han, and Zhuge Liang had to retreat again.
The Fifth Northern Expedition. The Fifth Northern Expedition was also Zhuge Liang's last Northern Expedition. In 234, after two years of recuperation, the national strength of Shu Han had been restored to a certain extent, and Zhuge Liang wrote a letter to Sun Quan, hoping that Sun Quan would send troops to attack Cao Wei, and he set out from the Xie Valley to continue the Northern Expedition, and Sun Quan agreed to Zhuge Liang's request. In the eastern battlefield, Emperor Wen of Wei personally led troops to defeat Sun Quan, while Zhuge Liang in the western battlefield still faced his old rival Sima Yi.
During Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition, there was basically no major war between Shu Han and Cao Wei, because Sima Yi had always adopted the strategy of insisting on not sending troops, and Zhuge Liang had always provoked Sima Yi, and even sent people to send women to Sima Yi, but Sima Yi still endured. Because of this battle, Sima Yi felt the difference between Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang used his troops steadily and would not rush to a decisive battle, Zhuge Liang's purpose Sima Yi may not know, but Sima Yi did not suffer losses under Zhuge Liang's hands, so Sima Yi has not been out of battle.
The autumn wind Wuzhangyuan generation of famous Zhuge Liang passed away, before Zhuge Liang's death summoned Fei Yi and Yang Yi, du du did not summon wei Yan, the second person in the army, leaving a very confusing will. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records:
After the order was delayed, Jiang Wei was second; if it was delayed or not obeyed, the army spontaneously.
The "army spontaneously" disposed of itself or went back on its own. Considering that Yang Yi accepted the last order at that time, Yang Yi and Wei Yan were sworn enemies, so Zhuge Liang had the heart to get rid of Wei Yan. So why did Zhuge Liang get rid of Wei Yan?
Zhuge Liang wanted to get rid of Wei Yan as a last resort. Judging from Zhuge Liang's five Northern Expeditions, Zhuge Liang only achieved some success in the first time, and the rest were basically in vain. Zhuge Liang's timing of each Northern Expedition was basically excellent, and he also united other forces, but they did not succeed.
Wei Yan's personality was very arrogant, and after Zhuge Liang's death, I am afraid that no one could suppress him, and Wei Yan was a militant, and he was bound to go north, so what would be the result? In fact, Wei Yan's death and Liu Feng's death are very similar, and no one can restrain it.
With Zhuge Liang's military ability, after one or two Northern Expeditions, we should be able to see the gap between Shu Han and Cao Wei, why did Zhuge Liang still insist on the Northern Expedition? It has long been explained in Zhuge Liang's "Table of Later Masters". First of all, in order to repay the grace of the lord, he can bow down and die. Second, the success or failure of a war is not something that can be decided by oneself. "After the Master Table":
As for the success or failure of the blunt, non-minister's wisdom can reverse it.
To sum up, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition has long seen that it is impossible to restore the Han Room, the main reason is to repay the favor of the ancestors, and do not care about success or failure. After his own death, Shu Han should change from war to defense, and Wei Yan's time bomb had to be removed. But what he didn't think about was that Zhuge Liang, who had struggled all his life for Shu Han, met a descendant like Liu Chan and finally chose to surrender.
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