The country that may have the most fans in the Three Kingdoms is Shu Han, because Liu Bei has an image of benevolence and virtue, and the Shu kingdom has produced many legendary warriors, which has greatly increased people's good feelings for the Shu kingdom. In fact, the most powerful was the State of Wei. By 213, Cao Cao proclaimed himself King of Wei. Since then, the state of Wei has been established, and after that, Cao Pi, in order to inherit the unification, fought with his brothers, which was not favored, but fortunately, Sima Yi and others helped, and eventually became a son. After Cao Cao's death, he took over Cao Cao's position. After taking office, Cao Pi adopted Chen Ping's strategy and quelled many rebellions. When the time came, Cao Pi stood on his own behalf of Han. Under the leadership of Cao Cao, the State of Wei was indeed different from the other two regimes. Whether it is territorial area or comprehensive national strength, it far exceeds the Eastern Wu regime and the Shu state. But why didn't such a powerful Cao Wei return the world to unity?
From the perspective of territory, during Cao Cao's reign, the territory had already been greatly expanded. After Cao Pi became king, the territorial area remained basically fixed, and almost the entire north China region was Cao Wei's territory. To the north, it extends to Shanxi and Hebei; to the west, it extends to Gansu, where it is adjacent to the Xianbei and other ethnic groups; and to the east, it reaches the Yellow Sea region. The territory is so vast, and the terrain is open and flat. At its peak, the population reached as many as 7 million. In contrast, the other two countries are not so comfortable. Dongwu is mountainous and lakey, facing the sea, and has nowhere to develop! However, the Shu kingdom also had the difficulty of southern barbarism, and it was difficult to further develop. In short, both countries are difficult to develop. Moreover, its population combined was less than half of Cao Wei's. Only Cao Cao, who occupied the northern region, could quickly prosper, and he still had so many capable strategists under his hands that he could not take the world without worrying.
However, in fact, the Cao Wei camp did not take the life of the world. The country is very strong, and it also has the strength to sweep the world, but it has not been able to achieve this goal. At this point, many friends may have wondered, so why did the most prosperous Cao Wei fail to unify the world? In fact, this is mainly due to the influence of two people. People who can have such an influence must not be generalists, and as soon as their names are mentioned, everyone will immediately know their deeds. One of them was Zhuge Liang, and the other was Lu Xun. One belonged to the Shu Han and the other belonged to Eastern Wu. Both are at odds with Cao Ying and are also difficult enemies for Cao Ying to solve. It is precisely because of the efforts of these two people that the situation under the world has been divided into three parts and stood up together.
Cao Wei's power has always been very strong, but the situation in Eastern Wu and shu has also developed well. According to relevant historical records, when Shu came to an end, there were still 400,000 pieces of rice left, and there were many gold and silver cloth. The same was true of Eastern Wu, which had a lot of grain left at the time of the destruction of the country, and there were more than 5,000 warships. Therefore, these two regimes are not short of money and food. So what are they lacking? Of course, there is a shortage of people, not a general shortage.
You know, at that time, the economic and political center of gravity was in the northern region, and the southern region had not yet been well developed, and the population was naturally very scarce. But anyone who has some influence will want to move their family north, and staying in the south is not a famous place. Therefore, it was precisely because of the lack of population that Eastern Wu and Shu Han made a series of measures in the hope of effectively increasing the population. Therefore, Sun Quan would spend time to expedition to Liaodong, in addition to colonizing Yizhou. These measures are all aimed at expanding the population, and only when the population is larger can we better develop agriculture and the military resources are more sufficient. If there is a shortage of troops, then what other battles will be fought? You must know that in ancient times, the war was fought by population.
Although it is not impossible to win more with less, it is too difficult to complete, not so easy to complete, very talented leadership, in order to complete this task. Therefore, Eastern Wu must develop its population well in order to withstand Cao Wei's offensive. Zhuge Liang also knew the importance of population, if the population is insufficient, it is impossible to develop. Therefore, Zhuge Liang also had a series of measures to expand the population, such as the relocation of people at the time of the Northern Expedition, and these efforts were all aimed at developing the population. They also played a certain role in doing so, and also played a very good role in delaying Cao Wei's annihilation of the two countries.
In addition, the most important thing is the military merits of those two men. Zhuge Liang's deeds, needless to say, should be clear to everyone. Lu Xun was also a very talented military expert, in the Battle of Shiting, Lu Xun severely damaged Cao Wei's army, and the direct result of this battle was that for more than twenty years, Cao Wei did not organize an army on a large scale to come to the crusade. Therefore, his contribution was also very large, which greatly prevented Cao Wei's trend of unifying the world. There was also the Northern Expedition organized by Zhuge Junshi, which also made it difficult for Cao Wei to deal with. It is precisely because of these two people's deeds that the situation of the three families standing up has been promoted. Of course, there are more people's efforts, Xiaobian will not give examples here!
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!