Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition can be regarded as a miracle in history, because the Shu Han at that time was greatly inferior to Cao Wei in terms of national strength, or even less than one-tenth of it, so Zhuge Liang would say in the "Table of Teachers" that "today's next three points, Yizhou is tired, and this autumn of imminent survival is also in danger."
In this case, Shu Han and Cao Wei had no chance of winning much, but Zhuge Liang not only fought Cao Wei, but also won many victories, which came from Zhuge Liang's wisdom on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was also related to his successful southern expedition.
The Shu Han itself was small in its own territory, and its comprehensive national strength was not even comparable to that of Eastern Wu, but when Liu Bei went to fight Eastern Wu in 221, it was so imposing that Sun Quan was so frightened that he even asked for peace, but he was not accepted. Liu Bei's great confidence came from the fact that he had an army of 10,000 people from the southern alien race (Wuxi Man), whose combat effectiveness was extremely strong, and ordinary soldiers were not his opponents.
Of course, Liu Bei's attack on Eastern Wu ultimately failed, Liu Bei himself died of illness soon after, and the Southern Manchus, who had already submitted to Shu Han, rebelled again, and Zhuge Liang did not immediately go to quell the rebellion because the lord of the country was newly killed at that time, but rested for two more years, waiting until 225 to lead the army to quell the rebellion, which can also be seen how weak the Shu Han state at that time was.
During Zhuge Liang's southern expedition, he adopted Ma Chen's suggestion of "attacking the heart first", so he gave the leader of Nanzhong Meng "seven captures and seven columns", and finally made the nanzhong barbarians completely submit. After winning the victory in the Southern Expedition, Zhuge Liang not only obtained a large amount of materials from the Southern Middle Land, but also obtained sufficient Zhuang Ding, among which he selected the best soldiers to form an army and formed a "Wudang Flying Army" with the nature of a special army, which also became a well-known existence in that era.
However, Zhuge Liang had already formed the "Wudang Flying Army", so why did he no longer build a legendary invincible "vine armor soldier"? When Meng Yue was captured for the sixth time, he was still dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang in his heart, but there were not too many troops in his hands to dare to fight again, so Meng Yu ran to the next door to the Ugo Country for help, bringing 30,000 tengjia soldiers to fight with the Shu Han army.
These thirty thousand rattan armor soldiers are wearing rattan armor, not afraid of death, especially that body of rattan armor is even more peculiar, using a special local kind of long vine made, first put the long vine in tung oil soaked for half a year, and then take it out of the sun, and then continue to soak, so repeated more than ten times, and then can these long vines into vine armor, a pair of vine armor is often made of about ten years, after making the knife and gun, the arrow is difficult to hurt.
When the Shu Han army first encountered the Tengjia soldiers, it also suffered a heavy loss, and later Zhuge Liang adopted the strategy of enticing the enemy to ambush, gradually lured him into an ambush circle and set a big fire, burning it to ashes, making Zhuge Liang sigh: "Although I have contributed to the society, I will lose my life!" ”
After the Tengjia soldiers were destroyed, Zhuge Liang completely subdued Nanzhong, and the local people in Nanzhong regarded him as a god-like figure, but there were orders that could not be followed, which can be seen from the success of the formation of the "Wudang Flying Army", but why Zhuge Liang did not form another "Tengjia soldier" to use to northernize the Central Plains, the reason is also very simple, mainly because the rattan armor is not easy to make, and that fire basically burned out the inventory of the Wuge country.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms