The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
Because of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang's good name is almost known to the world, but it should be known that Zhuge Liang's real achievements in history are actually mainly the internal affairs work after he entered Sichuan, as well as Zhuge Liang's five Northern Expeditions. Some people who know some history may think that zhuge xiang in history is actually not good at military command, but in fact, Zhuge Liang's military command level is decent, but in fact, the Biggest problem of the Shu army led by Zhuge Liang is inferior to the Wei army led by Sima Yi is actually above two words: national strength.
Speaking of national strength, here is a good analysis for everyone from three aspects:
First, the territory and population
Among them, the territory and population determine the number of conscripts and the amount of tax revenue, which is the key point of the gap in national strength, hard power. According to the discussion of the population of the Three Kingdoms period by most scholars, the gap in the foundation of the State of Shu in the State of Wei can be seen, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition took place in 228, and here in the first year of the Han Zhaolie Emperor Zhang Wu (221), the State of Shu had about 200,000 households and 900,000 people (the data here also includes the population of Jingzhou that was lost after the defeat of Liu Beiyiling in 222). According to the data of 660,000 households and 4.43 million people in the first year of the Reign of Emperor Jing of Wei (260), the estimated population of the State of Wei in 228 should be about 3 or 4 million. Such a volume is already the result of Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei and others painstakingly managing Sichuan. The difference in volume is a full 5 to 6 times.
Among them, because in 222, Emperor Liu was defeated by Lu Xun and lost the key Jingzhou and other places, so the Shu state here was only Zhuge Liang who expanded Yizhou in parts of Yunnan and Hanzhong, the key to the Northern Expedition. It can be said that the territory is the smallest of the three kingdoms, and the country is only a land of 22 counties.
And the State of Wei has the north to Shanxi, Hebei and Liaodong, Xianbei and Goguryeo and other steppe peoples border, south to the Yangtze River, east of the Yellow Sea, the west and a Western Regions Capital Protectorate is not drawn here, a total of 12 states and 87 counties, you can see the vastness of its territory, although it seems that the land of a state in the north is much smaller than the south, but for example, although Xinjiang is larger, it is really worse than the population and economy of the current Jiangsu and Zhejiang land. This state and county system was drawn out from the Han Dynasty, when after the division to ensure that the gap between roughly each state will not be too large, which is why the more desolate southern region during the Three Kingdoms period, will be divided so large, in fact, at that time, in the south, in addition to yizhou due to the past Qin state and the two Han dynasties as the place where Liu Bang made his fortune, it was still quite prosperous, the south left Xuzhou Jingzhou is basically a mountain more barbarian settlement, a large number of dense forests miasma, the degree of development is really low enough.
Although the Central Plains occupied by the State of Wei was divided by the Yellow Turban and the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but its background as the owner of the Central Plains at that time was simply not comparable to that of the State of Wu of Shu, if the State of Wei sent troops to attack, the two countries were in a defensive state, mutual assistance, Cao Wei was still difficult to defeat the combined forces of the two countries, but if on the contrary, the State of Wei was on the defensive, and the State of Shu was killed by exhaustion.
Second, political system
Among them, two years before Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, Cao Pi had just died, but the able officials of Cao Xiahou in the middle of the dynasty would basically control the government, and Sima Yi, as a confidant of Cao Pi in the past, could be regarded as a successful member of the core leadership of Cao Wei, although he did not completely control the government, but in the face of the menacing attack of Shu Han, the new emperor asked him to take the initiative to take command to meet Zhuge Liang. Nature will not drag him back.
Although Zhuge Liang seems to have achieved a position similar to that of Cao Cao in the Shu Han Dynasty, as a chancellor kicked away Li Yan, another minister entrusted by Liu Bei that year, and monopolized military and political affairs, it can be said that the operation of one pass is not worse than That of Cao Cao, but in fact, due to the serious antagonism between the factions in the Shu Han clique, the Shizi cliques of Jingzhou and Yizhou are opposed to each other, and everything can be suppressed when Liu Bei is there, and after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang naturally has no problem sitting in the imperial court. However, zhuge liang left the court, he lacked a person in the imperial court who could stabilize his posture in the rear, and as soon as he left the court, he surged undercurrents, wanting to deal with the "Cao Cao" of the Shu Han in their eyes, which led to several subsequent northern expeditions, which obviously achieved a lot of results, but because of the fact that his own people dragged their feet behind and led to failure.
Third, talent
The accumulation of talents in Shu and the background of the family clan are far less than the Central Plains region where Cao Wei is located, to say that talents, many talents in the Shu Han dynasty are still from the Jingzhou family, the most obvious analogy is that Zhuge Liang is Liu Bei invited out of the mountains in Jingzhou, and do not look at Zhuge Liang out of the master's table inside the subject cloth, that is modest, Zhuge family in the late Han Dynasty is a typical family family, brother Zhuge Jin is a great general of Eastern Wu, cousin Zhuge Sheng is Cao Wei's great general of the Eastern Expedition, the family ancestor Zhuge Feng began to be an official from the Western Han Dynasty during the Han Yuan Emperor period, It is a typical family family, and in the three kingdoms era, the vast majority of basic talents were from this kind of family family.
Sima Yi is more obvious, the family is also a famous and prestigious family, the eight brothers in the family from childhood to create a momentum for them, because each of the eight brothers has a Da character in the word, so it is called "Sima Bada". Even Cao Cao, who seems to be quite simple, is sorry that the ancestor of the family is Cao San, and his father is the third duke of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Lu Xun's Lu clan from Wu County was not a particularly famous world clan at this time, but it was also a scholar clan, and this Lu family became the leading famous family in the south during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
And Cao Wei's Nine Pins Zhongzheng system that began in the Cao Pi period, the result of this system is what kind of family you are from, what kind of official you are, although you are scolded by the dog blood sprinklers in later generations, but sorry, the world clan at that time ate this set, so that the talents of the world's great clans were basically not caught up in his Hands of Cao Wei?
Then we look back at Zhuge Liang's achievements in the Northern Expedition, opposite Cao Wei, we want talent, high-level support, national strength, Shu Han can carry out the Northern Expedition 5 times, and each time in the war, it shows the superiority of the Shu army, and the Shu army that sends troops to fight in a number of inferior numbers fights the Wei army to shrink into the city, making the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui at that time lament that the Wei army is afraid of Shu like a tiger.
The most powerful Zhuge Liang Northern Expedition did not continue to decline but the country continued to prosper and develop, but Cao Wei resisted Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition but there was a large financial deficit in the country, so it seems that Chen Shou gave Zhuge Liang a separate biography in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and praised his ability to govern the localities that only Guan Zhongxiao He could match, which is understandable.
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time