In the spring of 228, Zhuge Liang sent his first army to the Northern Expedition, and in order to attract Cao Wei's main army, he set up a suspicious army at Xiegu Valley, while he personally led a large army to attack Qishan. At that time, the three counties of Tianshui, Nan'an, and Anding heard that Zhuge Liang led a large army to attack, and immediately heard the wind and fell, rebelling against Wei and surrendering to Shu, and for a time Guanzhong was shaken, and the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui personally sat in Chang'an in order to quell the turmoil. Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang mistakenly used Ma Mo town to guard the street pavilion, resulting in Zhang Gao's great destruction of Ma Mo at that time, and Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was therefore full of losses, and he had no choice but to retreat and return to Hanzhong with more than a thousand families in Baxi County. After this battle, Zhuge Liang demoted himself to the third rank, and at the same time demoted Zhao Yun to the rank of general of the Zhen Army, and also beheaded Ma Chen, Zhang Xiu, and Li Sheng. In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang spared no expense in the fifth Northern Expedition, although in this Northern Expedition, the Wei army could only fight with the Shu army because it knew that it could not defeat the Shu army, but Zhuge Liang did not succeed in the end, and in the autumn, Zhuge Liang's body could not support it and died of illness. If Zhuge Liang chose not to go north and only concentrate on the development of Shu Han, what would Shu Han become?
In 221 AD, the Battle of Yiling had been divided into victories and defeats, when the Shu army was defeated, Liu Bei fled back to the White Emperor's City, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers of the Shu army were buried in the land of Eastern Wu. After spending seven years to rectify internal affairs, externally tie up Eastern Wu, and internally dingnanzhong, Zhuge Liang finally had the confidence to send troops, so he wrote "Table of Teachers" to Liu Chan, hoping to send troops to the Northern Expedition.
I have to say that this nearly fifty-year-old man, by burning his seven-year life, gradually put Shu Han back on track, which is a great boldness and courage. That is to say, if Zhuge Liang spends another seven years, that is, the last seven years of his life, continue to dedicate to the internal affairs of Shu Han, then the national strength of Shu Han will be much stronger than that of Shu Han in the historical data, but this will certainly be a major regret in Chinese history.
After all, for Zhuge Liang, after he took over the Shu Han, he never forgot the desire to revive the Han Dynasty, he wanted to lead the Shu Han to glory rather than decline, because of this, even though he knew that the possibility of the Success of the Northern Expedition was unlikely, he still did his best and dedication to complete this dream and feeling, and this is also where the Shu Han was so special in the Three Kingdoms that it was deeply remembered by future generations.
The author believes that for Zhuge Liang, it is okay not to go north, but it is sitting still, not his lifelong pursuit, and even if the possibility of success of the Northern Expedition is small, it is also the desire of everyone,so he will definitely have a northern expedition.