As we all know, in the countless wars of all sizes in the Three Kingdoms era, there were only three battles that determined the final direction of the Three Kingdoms. The first was the Battle of Guandu, where Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao. Since then, the Cao Wei clique has dominated the Central Plains, and then dominated the north, becoming the first hegemon in the next few decades. The second was the Battle of Chibi, in which Sun Quan's alliance with Sun Quan as the main force defeated Cao Cao. After this battle, the Shu han clique seized the opportunity to develop and grow, and the momentum of the Three Kingdoms was initially formed. The third was the Battle of Yiling, where Lu Xun defeated Liu Bei. As a result, the situation in the three kingdoms of Wei Shu and Wu was completely established and maintained relative stability for decades.
In fact, the Battle of Yiling must have been a bit insufficient in terms of the scale of the previous two battles. But it is undeniable that it was this battle, which only involved more than 100,000 people, that directly affected the situation between the three kingdoms of Wei Shu and Wu. The most significant result was that the State of Wei continued to wait and see, monopolizing the seven or eight out of ten of the world; the State of Wu successfully defended Jingzhou and henceforth a corner of peace; while the State of Shu suffered heavy losses one after another, and the talents of the later period withered, and they were no longer able to map the Central Plains.
Of course, as a wait-and-seeer, Cao Wei's own strength did not receive much impact. Before and after the war, Eastern Wu still did not change much, but only consolidated the stability of the Jiangdong clique. Here, I will not dwell on it. Analyzing the situation, before the Battle of Yiling began, the Shu state was beneficial to the prefecture and the land of Hanzhong, and it was located in the southwest and had a superior geographical position. At this time, the State of Shu could undoubtedly compete with the State of Wei, and the situation was also "two strong and one weak". After the end of the Battle of Yiling, the Shu state suffered heavy losses, and had to re-ally with Eastern Wu to jointly resist the State of Wei, and the situation became "one strong and two weak". Therefore, the author will focus on the Shu Kingdom to explain the various far-reaching effects that this war had on the Shu State.
First of all, there was a serious fault line in the talent of the Shu Han Group. There are two main reasons for this phenomenon. The first is the loss of the generals of the Jingzhou faction and the Zhongyuan faction. Since Liu Bei lost the three counties of Jingzhou, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Liang, Fu Tong and others died one after another. However, it is worth noting that many of the generals of the Jingzhou Group have been damaged during this period, and for a time, there is a fault in Shuzhong. The second is Zhuge Liang's personal efforts. Since Cuba Shu was full of talents, it was a pity that Zhuge Liang was afraid of the rise of local forces in Yizhou and always carried out a policy of suppression against them.
Not only that, even some talents within the Jingzhou Group did not get the opportunity to exercise. After Zhuge Liang's death, the Shu state first had Chen Qi's chaotic government, and later there was the eunuch Huang Hao's dictatorship. Liao Hua was over seventy years old and was also appointed by Liu Chan to be a pioneer. Although the former was a general who was both literate and martial, it also reflected the dilemma of the young generals of the Shu Han Dynasty who could not stand alone. After Liu Bei's death, the Yizhou Shi clan colluded with the southwest barbarians and rebelled on the border.
Zhuge Liang could have sent a general to suppress the rebellion, but none of the generals in the camp could have done this heavy task. In desperation, Zhuge Liang had to wait for two years until the domestic situation stabilized slightly, and then he personally led his army to quell the rebellion. During Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, and seeing that the people and horses he brought were none other than Wei Yan, Zhao Yun, Ma Mo, and Wang Pingren, this actually fully demonstrated his distrust of the local forces in Yizhou. And Zhuge Liang sent Ma Mo to the Zhenshou Street Pavilion, which was actually out of a kind of helplessness.
Second, the Jingzhou clique could no longer suppress the local forces in Yizhou. During Zhuge Liang's lifetime, he had been worried about the rise of local forces in Yizhou, but with little success. Under these circumstances, Zhuge Liang had no choice but to cultivate Wang Ping, Jiang Wei, and others to continue to suppress the ill-intentioned indigenous forces instead of himself. However, because Jiang Wei was born as a general and had great suspicions in Fei Yi's death, he was not trusted by the empress dowager Liu Chan. After Jiang Wei was expelled from the center, the local forces in Yizhou began to recover. After Deng Ai led 2,000 soldiers and horses to the city of Chengdu, the local forces in Yizhou, led by Yu Zhou, began to advocate Liu Chan's surrender, which directly led to the final collapse of the Shu Han clique.
In the end, after the Battle of Yiling, the Shu Han clique was no longer able to forge ahead, and eventually sat and waited for its demise. Shuzhong is undoubtedly a good place, here is a lot of land, the population is sufficient, is a veritable country of heaven. Like the Yangtze River to Eastern Wu, although Shuzhong is dangerous, it is not a long-term solution after all. If you want to survive, you must forge ahead. This is also the reason why Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei have been going north for many years. Although the Northern Expedition made the Shu kingdom fall into a situation of exhaustive military force, it could see a glimmer of hope. If the Northern Expedition is not carried out, then the demise of the Shu state is a doomed thing.
However, the key point of the northern expedition's lack of success was that the elite of Shuzhong was not enough to support the Shu state to forge ahead. The loss of the three counties of Jingzhou and Shangyong Shangjun put the Shu state in an extremely embarrassing situation. If Shuzhong marched east, yong'an would be stopped by the Eastern Wu army. In the absence of a water army, this road simply does not work. So where did the Shu water army go? On the one hand, the most elite Jingzhou water army was buried with Guan Yu in the hands of Sun Quan; on the one hand, after Liu Bei's defeat and retreat to Yong'an, the Jiangbei army led by Huang Quan and Pang Lin (i.e., the Yizhou water army) was isolated and had to surrender to the State of Wei. And in a short period of time, the Shu state no longer has the strength to retrain a water army. Because of this, the Shu state's march to the east was completely unworkable.
For this reason, Zhuge Liang had no choice but to go north to cut down Wei. Judging from the strategy of Zhuge Liang's several Northern Expeditions, he always set his sights on the Longyou region. The Five Counties of Longyou can be said to be Zhuge Liang's dream territory, because it not only borders Hanzhong, but also threatens Luoyang, the northern foundation of the Cao Wei clique. Once Zhuge Liang successfully captured the Longyou region, it could be used as a natural barrier for the Shu state to resist the Wei army. During Zhuge Liang's First Northern Expedition, he was surprised and took the opportunity to attack the three counties of Tianshui on the right side of Longyou. Unfortunately, Ma Mo lost the street kiosk at this time, resulting in the interruption of the main grain transportation route in Shuzhong. In desperation, Zhuge Liang had no choice but to move the people of the three counties and temporarily withdrew from Longyou, and the First Northern Expedition finally failed. In the subsequent Northern Expeditions, because the State of Wei had already taken precautions, Zhuge Liang's plan to capture Longyou was not realized after all. As a result, his plan to renew the life of the Shu state was a complete failure.
A mistake into a thousand ancient hatreds, and then look back on a hundred years of body. I am afraid that when Liu Bei was full of self-confidence and only brought less than 50,000 elite soldiers to fight Wu, he did not expect that his carelessness would actually ruin the future of the entire Shu Han Group.
Reference book: Romance of the Three Kingdoms