In the first year of the first year of Emperor Suzong of Tang (760), Du Fu, who had not been in Chengdu for a long time, went to visit the remains of the idol Zhuge Liang, and left behind the ancient famous article "Shu Xiang", written at the end of the "Death before the Master Dies, Long Makes the Hero Cry" into thousands of famous sentences, so that people can see the sadness and loneliness of Zhuge Liang's years and the failure of several Northern Expeditions in a trance.
Zhuge Liang had five Northern Expeditions in his lifetime, the most lamented is the first and fifth times, the fifth time because Zhuge Liang's Yang Life has been exhausted, in the Shu Han has taken the advantage, so that the Cao Wei army can only hold out, the last resort to withdraw, this is not manpower can be recovered, and the first time is because Ma Mo lost the street pavilion, resulting in the end of the originally huge Northern Expedition.
Later, when people discussed the failure of the first Northern Expedition, they often attributed the factor of defeat to Ma Mo, believing that if Ma Mo had not violated Zhuge Liang's combat instructions and did not listen to the advice of his subordinates, then the street pavilion would not have been lost, so that when Zhuge Liang's army arrived, it would not have to retreat in desperation because of the loss of its stronghold, and judging from the situation at that time, the probability of Zhuge Northern Expedition's victory was still very large.
After all, at this time, the lord of Cao Wei was young, did not have much experience in ruling, and the generals did not have enough prestige in the army, especially after Cao Wei and Han, the people still had some attachment to the Han Dynasty, and they were actually not so convinced of the Cao Wei regime, so zhuge Liang announced the Northern Expedition, and many parts of Cao Wei surrendered directly, and the overall situation can be said to be a good one.
However, this excellent situation, just because Ma Mo lost the street pavilion and was buried, so people often attributed the biggest factor in the failure of the Northern Expedition to Ma Mo, but in fact, Ma Mo was an executor after all, as the top person in charge of the Northern Expedition Zhuge Liang obviously bears the greatest responsibility, as the leader of the employment is unknown, the unsuitable person is put into an inappropriate post, and the resulting failure obviously has to be borne by the leader.
However, although Zhuge Liang made the mistake of "knowing people unknown and employing people improperly" in this matter, who can replace Ma Mo to go to the town to guard the street pavilion is indeed a problem. The reason why Zhuge Liang appointed Ma Mo to guard the street pavilion was on the one hand because Ma Mo had played a correct opinion in the process of the Southern Expedition and had practical experience in the military field, on the other hand, because he wanted to train young people, and also because Zhuge Liang did not have many generals to use, especially young generals.
The group of generals who followed Liu Bei to fight the world had basically died by this time, even if they had not died, they had become old, and Zhuge Liang's desire to promote and train young people was naturally extremely strong, so this person who guarded the city seamlessly never entered his field of vision from beginning to end, and this person was naturally Wei Yan.
Wei Yan began to serve as the Taishou of Hanzhong from 219, so that this strategic place that Cao Cao also coveted was kept watertight, and at the beginning of his term of office, he said to Liu Bei, "If Cao Cao pours out the strength of the country, then I will resist him, if the general leads a hundred thousand troops, then I will destroy him", and this statement has also been appreciated by Liu Bei and the Shu Han Manchu Dynasty Wenwu, which shows that its credibility is still very high, and it can also be seen that Wei Yan's ability to defend the city is indeed very strong.
However, in order to train the young people, Zhuge Liang entrusted the heavy responsibility of guarding the street pavilion in the town to Ma Mo, and Ma Mo was the person who Liu Bei frequently advised that "words are exaggerated, and it is not important to be heavy", but he regarded Wei Yan, who the soldiers and civilians unanimously agreed that he should serve as the vanguard of the town guard street pavilion, as a suspicious army to deal with Ma Chen, which can be described as a real big and small use, and as a result, Ma Mo lost the street pavilion, and the Northern Expedition, which was originally in a good situation, was declared a failure, and although it was repeatedly carried out, it was already weak.
Reference: Romance of the Three Kingdoms