To answer this question clearly, it is necessary to explain the military geographical location of Shu Han and Cao Wei. The border between Shu and Wei is mainly in the middle of the Qinling Mountains. To the north of the border was the Guanzhong region on which the Cao Wei regime depended; to the south was the Hanzhong region of the Shu Han regime. The distance between the middle section of the Qinling Mountains is several hundred kilometers from east to west; from Hanzhong to the north, there are four roads, in order: meridian road, Luogu road, Chu Xie (reading ye) road, and Chen Cang Old Road. What are the specific conditions of these roads leading to Guanzhong? Please continue reading one by one
The first battle was by no means the final battle Zhuge Cheng Xiang's miscalculation
To everyone's surprise, Zhuge Liang did not take the four roads through the Qin Mountains at all, but went all the way to the west, and the place where the first decisive battle was launched was from Qishan Township in the northeast of Li County, Gansu Province.
History may repeat itself, of course, but the results are diverse.
At that time, Liu Bang broke out of Hanzhong to compete with Xiang Yu for the world, relying on Zhang Liang's strategy of "secretly crossing Chen Cang's path of Ming Xiu", and launched a very conservative attack from Chen Cang's hometown. Here is far from Xi'an, and the terrain is flat, all the way to the east is a downhill road, downwind, Liu Bang succeeded.
Zhuge Liang's first battle was more conservative, launching an attack on Qishan Mountain to the west of Chen Cang's hometown, although it failed for various reasons, and later generations attributed it to the negligence of tactical details, resulting in defeat. I think Zhuge Liang is too conservative, and if a commander-in-chief takes a risk to win when his own strength is not dominant, it is the only choice. From this point of view, Wei Yan's plan to divide the troops was correct! Unfortunately, several Northern Expeditions did not dare to take the meridian road, and Sima Yi calculated that Zhuge Liang's strategic decision was killed, so the Northern Dynasty became a "white felling", and the following is the basis for my conclusion:
Zhuge Liang's "last struggle" puzzled Sima Yi
"In the prime of life listening to the rain in the passenger boat, the river is wide and the clouds are low, and the broken geese are called the west wind. And now listen to the rain monk Lu, the mane has been stars also! ”
Years of ruthless loss in several Northern Expeditions, seeing that it has been more than half a hundred years old, the sense of crisis of time finally forced Zhuge Liang to be bold once, he also prepared for this for two whole years one by one in Hanzhong to reorganize the army, for the trail along the way, design and manufacture high-end military transport vehicles flow horses...
The cautious Zhuge Liang even spent a year repairing the Chu Chui Road and building warehouses along the way to store military food.
In the early spring and February of the twelfth year of Jianxing (234), Zhuge Liang led a large army from the Chu Chuan Road to the edge of the Guanzhong Plain, and established his own Chinese army camp on a flat plateau at the north entrance of the Chu Chuan Road, which was west of Wugong County, north of Wuzhangyuan of Weishui, and located south of Qishan Mountain. Sima Yi looked nervous and quickly rearranged...
Sima Yi's tit-for-tat confrontation
Zhuge Liang's Wuzhangyuan base camp was on the south bank of the Wei River, and Wei Yan, the vanguard general of the Shu army, was stationed not far from the shore.
Sima Yi was shocked to see the situation, please look at the map above, saying that there is a narrow and flat river valley between the river and the Qinling Mountains, if the Shu army to the east in the Wugong area can easily get rid of Sima Yi, and at the same time can cut off the relationship between Sima Yi and Chang'an, Chang'an must have fallen into extreme panic at that time, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition success is in sight, because Eastern Wu Sun Quan also cooperated with this big strategy, will firmly contain the Cao Wei regime army in Henan to aid the west.
Sima Yi suddenly felt that he understood something, and was very cautious to cross the weishui river and line up along the coast to confront the Shu army, at this time, Zhuge Liang's plan to march east into martial arts was not easy to achieve.
Conclusion
I agree with the subject's view that I risked going directly east from the Meridian Road to Chang'an, and should not have been stationed in Wuzhangyuan, because Emperor Wei Ming strictly forbade Sima Yi to send troops to attack Zhuge Liang, and sent his close associate Xin Bijian to supervise the army, so it is a pity that Zhuge Liang was indeed too cautious. If you want to take risks, there is no chance.