Since ancient times, people have had mixed evaluations of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition and military ability, some people say that he is a military wizard who can rule the world, and some people say that he does not understand the military Northern Expedition, which makes the people of Shudi tired of the veterans. As a legendary figure who is enshrined in both the temples of culture and martial arts, why is there a difference in praise and criticism, the following ah for everyone to analyze and interpret in detail.
Why the Northern Expedition
First of all, let's first analyze the situation before the Northern Expedition: In the first year of Zhang Wu's reign, Emperor Liu Bei of Zhaolie insisted on revenge for Guan Yu despite the opposition of his subjects, and was burned by the famous Eastern Wu general Lu Xun at Yiling for eight hundred miles, resulting in the loss of the elite of the army. After the shu Han lost Jingzhou and Yiling, only one place was Yizhou, and with the emergence of internal contradictions, the local forces in Yizhou were eager to move, and the people of Yizhou complained bitterly. The Shu Han regime was already in turmoil. It was the weakest of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu.
The State of Wei occupied 6 states, including Qingji, Yuyan, And Xujing, and its manpower, material and military strength were much stronger than those of the Shu Han. Therefore, in the "Table of Former Teachers", Zhuge Liang said: "Today's next three points, Yizhou is tired, and this is also the autumn of the critical survival." It can be seen that the crisis encountered by the Shu Han at that time, and Zhuge Liang was the mess that he took over under the circumstances of the peril of the Shu Han regime.
Cao Cao
Liu Bei
Sun quan
Moreover, at that time, the internal contradictions of the Shu Han were very serious, and the Jingzhou faction represented by Zhuge Liang advocated the active Northern Expedition to revive the Han Dynasty. The Yizhou faction, represented by Jiao Zhou, advocated the protection of the border and the people's recuperation. Therefore, Zhuge Liang said in the "Table of Later Masters": "Han thieves are not separated, and Wang Ye is not biased" to show that the position of the Northern Expedition and the reason and significance of the existence of the Shu Han regime are to revive the Han Dynasty.
Because in the long run, the powerful Cao Wei was bound to attack Shu. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the enemy country to attack, Shu Han took the initiative to attack, seeking opportunities to weaken his opponents and seek opportunities for survival and development. Therefore, Zhuge Liang said in the "Table of Later Masters": "With the wisdom of the former emperor, the talent of the subjects, the solid knowledge of the thieves is weak and the enemy is strong, but if the thieves are not cut, the king is also dead, but sit and wait for the death, and cut them down!" This is a strategy that should be affirmed, a feasible way for the Shu Han to survive and hopefully create a better situation. Although Zhuge Liang did not succeed in the end, he was always in the position of active attack in several Northern Expeditions, and he basically had the upper hand in the struggle with his opponents, and grasped the initiative in the war. Because he judged the hour and sized up the situation and adopted the correct strategy and tactics.
The direction and strategy of the Northern Expedition
In the direction of strategic attack, Zhuge Liang chose the Longyou region, where the opposing defense was relatively weak. Longyou is located in the northwest plateau, and once the Shu army controls Longyou, it can take advantage of the abundant manpower and material resources in the local area, and when it enters, it will look at the Guanzhong Plain, and if it retreats, it will cover hanzhong, the gateway of Shu Han. Moreover, the terrain of Longyou was high and dangerous, the transportation was inconvenient, and after the Shu army occupied, It was difficult for Cao Wei to counterattack. It was beneficial for Zhuge Liang to attack and defend, which was a strategic goal in line with reality, and the Shu Han general Wei Yan had several requests to advance directly north from Qinling and attack Chang'an, but was not approved by Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan resented this, and Zhuge Liang was therefore considered to be "a general who will respond to changes, not his strengths." However, the situation at that time, and regardless of the difficult road out of Qinling in the north, the large army was extremely vulnerable to being intercepted by the enemy in the valley of hundreds of miles, and even if chang'an was captured as desired, it might not be possible to have a favorable situation for Shu Han. Chang'an was a strategic location in the west of Cao Wei and a barrier to Luoyang, the capital of The Capital. Since Luoyang was the land of four wars, those who had always made Luoyang the capital had to control the Guanzhong region centered on Chang'an. If Cao Wei lost Chang'an, he must attack with the strength of the country, Chang'an is located in the plain, the traffic is developed, and the manpower and material resources in the east can be continuously transported from the Yellow River and Weishui to support. With the weak strength of Shu Han and the tortuous and difficult rear supply line, they were simply unable to resist the counter-offensive of the State of Wei. This is obviously not in line with Zhuge Liang's military strategy of attacking and defending (the most fundamental reason is that the national strength is insufficient, and the economic manpower in the southwest is far inferior to that of the Central Plains).
Therefore, we can see that Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was a gradual and gradual defense of the regime in the case of weak national strength, and the best means to win the hearts and minds of the Han people. Moreover, after many years of "governing and teaching martial arts," Zhuge Liang has trained an army with considerable combat effectiveness. He led his troops to "rectify Chen Chen," reward and punish and order Ming. "The marching camp is decent, and it is all legal. As an old rival, Sima Yi had "cased his stronghold place" after Zhuge Liang's illness and death, and had to sigh and say: "The wizards of the world are also." "
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, including two direct northward advances from the Qin Mountains, attacked the Guanzhong Plain. This seems to be contrary to his consistent strategy, but in fact, it just shows Zhuge Liang's flexible strategy and tactics. The first attack on Chen Cang was when Sun Wu attacked Wei and broke the Wei army, and the second attack on Wei was under the circumstance that Sun Wu promised to attack Cao Wei with Shu Dongxi. This shows that Zhuge Liang is still good at using odds when the objective situation can change the balance of forces between the enemy and us and the situation of strength and weakness. Zhuge Liang was repeatedly in the initiative during several Northern Expeditions, all of which were free to retreat, in the position of "controlling people rather than controlling people", and even designed to kill Zhang Guo, one of the five sons of Liang, during the retreat.
From this point of view, Zhuge Liang's evaluation of being a well-versed general and good at hand soldiers, and the so-called "response will be strategic, not his strengths" is not in line with reality. Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition ultimately failed to succeed, and in addition to the huge difference in strength between the two sides of Shu and Wei, there were other objective reasons. From the perspective of Cao Wei, in light of the situation in which Wu Shu was allied with himself at that time, the State of Wei strictly followed the established rules formulated by Cao Cao Cao Pi of "placing Hefei in the east, Xiangyang in the south, and Guqi Mountain in the west", and adopted the policy of sticking to the key passes and not fighting with its main forces against Shu Han. Zhuge Liang's opponent Sima Yi in the later stages of the Northern Expedition was deeply calculated, and implemented the strategy of rejecting Shu by "but refusing to defend the wall to frustrate his front, he could not advance his ambitions, he retreated without fighting, and if he stopped for a long time, he ran out of grain, and if he did not gain anything, he would go, and he would pursue it, and the way of total victory would also be" until he dragged Zhuge Liang to death and forced Shu Han to retreat.
Undoubtedly, the correct countermeasures of Cao Wei Junchen reduced the already small probability of success of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition to the lowest point. From the perspective of Zhuge Liang's allies, although Wu Shu was an ally, they had their own plans, were wary of each other, and could not really cooperate with the attack on Wei. Therefore, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition did not actually receive much cooperation and help from Sun Wu. This was also one of the reasons why his Northern Expedition was difficult to succeed.
Among the famous people of the generation, Zhuge Liang died in this regret of inability to return to heaven. As a tragic hero, ambition is hard to reward!! In order to repay Liu Beisan's kindness to Gu Zhiyu, he bowed down and died, and was able to become a generation of national soldiers.
His style of bowing with a breeze in his sleeves and dying has been learned and admired by generations.
The breeze and the moon enter the arms, and the ape crane listens to me and strokes the piano again!
The three Gu frequently annoyed the world's plans, and the two dynasties opened the hearts of the old ministers.
He died before he could get out of the division, and the hero was in tears.