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If Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition succeeds, destroys Wei and surrenders Wu, unifies the world, and rebuilds the Great Han, will anyone still be prejudiced against Zhuge Liang's good intentions?
History naturally cannot be assumed, but Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition is not without the possibility of success...
Not beautifying Zhuge Liang to "be wise and close to a demon", but also not speculating without authorization to criticize him to be useless, this should be the fair attitude of our descendants towards this sage.
After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang went on the Northern Expedition five times, and finally died of Wuzhangyuan with all his strength, ending up dying before he could succeed. Some people say that Zhuge Liang's five Northern Expeditions basically cut down a lonely one.
Some people even criticized Zhuge Liang, the general trend of the world, the division of time will be united, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty wars and chaos, until the formation of the three kingdoms of the situation, the people fought hard for a long time, the reunification of the world is the historical trend at that time, and Zhuge Liang used the land of Yizhou to recruit troops, empower the people, repeatedly go north, in a vain attempt to delay the trend of reunification, knowing that it is impossible to do it, which can be described as moving against the tide of history.
There are even more conspiracy theorists, saying that Zhuge Liang's repeated northern expeditions were nothing more than to strengthen his authority, deter the Shu Han hundred officials, suppress Liu Chan, the lord of the Shu Han State, and replace him with Liu Chan at the right time.
These statements, at first glance, have some truth, but when they are examined carefully, they are just nonsense.
Why? Because Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was not a whim, but had its own historical origins and was his established strategy.
The reunification of the world, this historical trend, Zhuge Liang can not be unaware.
The question is, reunification, to whom?
Among the three kingdoms, Cao Wei was the most powerful and powerful in the Central Plains and the north; Sun Quan was in Jiangdong, a rich land, and there was a natural danger of the Yangtze River; while the Shu Han was biased to the southwest, and the nine prefectures under the heavens accounted for only one prefecture (Yizhou), with few people and few people, and the most abundant products.
Although weak, politically, shu Han was the most legitimate.
Cao Pi's claim to the throne made Cao Cao's political influence over the years of "feng tianzi to order the princes" disappear, and also announced the official collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with Cao Wei's strong power and strongest will to unify the world;
Sun Quan inherited the foundation laid by his brother Sun Ce in the chaotic world, and worked hard to govern, and initially thought of "thinking of huan wen's merits", that is, he wanted to achieve the hegemony of Qi Huan gong and Jin Wen gong, become a hegemon in the chaotic world at the end of the Han Dynasty, and establish a local separatist force, and he was very satisfied.
It was Lu Su who said something to Sun Quan when he met Sun Quan at Zhou Yu's recommendation that changed his mind.
Lu Su said to Sun Quan, "The Han Dynasty cannot be revived, and Cao Cao cannot be eliminated." For the sake of the general, only dingzu Jiangdong, to see the world's provocations. The scale is not to be blamed. Who? Northern sincerity is also multi-tasking. Because of its many tasks, he eliminated Huang Zu, entered Liu Biao, and even the Yangtze River was extreme, according to it, and then built an emperor to try to the world, and this high emperor's karma was also. ”
What does it mean? Lu Su said, you stupid boy, you see the current situation in the world, the Han Dynasty has exhausted its lifespan, it is impossible to revive, and Cao Cao's power is strong, for a while and a half can not eliminate him, you now have the land of Jiangdong, take advantage of Cao Cao to pacify the north, he has a lot of things, can not take care of us, take this opportunity, quickly occupy the Yangtze River line, and then call himself emperor, and then Xu Tu tianxia, this is what Liu Bang did back then.
Sun Quan suddenly realized, well, it doesn't mean anything to be an overlord, or you have to be an emperor.
You see, in fact, Sun Quan also has a strategic plan to dominate the world, but his plan is completely based on "I", opening up a new dynasty, and it has nothing to do with the rise and fall of the Han Dynasty.
What about the Shu Han side?
Liu Bei has always shown himself as the widow of the Han royal family, and when he came out to start a business, he also came out in the name of "Uncle Liu Huang", "wearing clothes and leading the edict" to support the Han room, and the banner was clear, so he was able to gather a large number of talents and the people returned to their hearts.
The same was true of the "Longzhong Pair" that Zhuge Liang originally presented to Liu Bei - "Hegemony can be achieved, and the Han Room can be prosperous."
That is to say, Zhuge Liang was different from Lu Su, and he believed that as long as he followed his own strategy, Liu Bei could achieve hegemony and eliminate the traitors (Cao Cao) around Emperor Xian of Han, so that the Han dynasty could be revitalized.
You see, from the very beginning, the direction of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's efforts was to "support the Han Room", which was the established political and strategic goal.
However, with Cao Pi's claim to the throne, the Eastern Han Dynasty had in fact collapsed, and Sun Quan hid his strength and accepted Cao Wei's canonization as the King of Wu. The "Han Room" is gone, what is the "Kuang"?
In this situation, Zhuge Liang gave the countermeasure is that Liu Bei called himself emperor and established his own political power, the national name is "Han", note that now we call Liu Bei's regime "Shu Han", but it is only the title of our descendants, to be different from the Han Dynasty, when Liu Bei established the regime was "Han", that is, in their view, although the Han Xiandi was located in Cao Wei, it did not mean that the Han Dynasty was gone, and now the Han Dynasty has passed to me Liu Bei, a descendant of the Han Dynasty, and we are the right root of the unification of the world.
That is to say, Liu Bei Zhuge Liang's political strategy at this time was changed from the "Kuangfu Han Room" to the "Xingfu Han Room", and Liu Bei occupied the political and moral commanding heights as the authentic successor of the Han Room.
Some people say that Liu Bei was anxious to claim the title of emperor after Cao Pi became emperor, which was a big mistake, which attracted Cao Wei's attention and exposed his ambition to compete for the world, and Cao Wei must want to get rid of it quickly.
In fact, there is no reason at all, you call not the emperor, Cao Wei will also beat you; and calling the emperor "Han" at least can also strive for some political resources and interests.
More importantly, Liu Bei acted or thought that he was a relic of the Han Dynasty, how could this Great Han Dynasty change hands with others so easily? Therefore, he will definitely be called emperor, and then continue his great cause of "reviving the Han Room", but this "Han Room" has become his own "Han Room", not the "Han Room" of the previous "Kuang Fu Han Room", and he thinks that he is the authentic successor of the "Han Room".
Judging from the above analysis, Cao Wei was strong and the most violent, and directly abolished the "Han Room"; Sun Quan was a realist, temporarily crowned king of Wu, accumulating strength, and then participating in the struggle for the world; and Shu Han was most like an idealist, fighting for his ideals, desperately.
Although "Zhuge Was cautious all his life", in essence, Zhuge Liang was the most idealistic idealist of that era.
So for the sake of this ideal, do you toss it without regard to reality?
Zhuge Liang certainly did not do this.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, in addition to striving to fulfill his promise to Liu Bei, was actually based on the judgment of the situation at that time and had its own purpose.
The biggest purpose, of course, is to "rejuvenate the Han Dynasty", the so-called "Han thieves are not two sides, Wang Ye is not biased", but Zhuge Liang also knows that this is the ultimate strategic goal, whether it can be achieved is difficult to say, but certainly will not be achieved once or twice the Northern Expedition, but this slogan must be shouted out, this is where the political legitimacy lies.
Then the second purpose is to expand their territory as much as possible, contact the Qiang people, and take the opportunity to collect talents and grow and develop themselves.
As mentioned earlier, the land where Shu Han was based was only Yi Prefecture, and the land was narrow and small, which was simply not enough to support the industrial empire, so the second purpose of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was to compete for control of Yong and Liang Prefectures as much as possible, so that he could jump out of the basin and exert pressure on Cao Wei in the northwest direction, moreover, this was both the place where warhorses were produced and the place where Zhu Rong lived, and controlling here was of great significance to the military strength of Shu Han.
What can be corroborated is that Zhuge Liang had proposed the strategy of "Xihe Zhurong" as early as the "Longzhong Confrontation", which shows the depth of Zhuge Liang's strategic vision, after he captured Wudu and Yinping Counties, Liu Chan also praised him for "lowering the two counties of Jiji, Qiang, and Xingfu", so zhuge Liang had established a multi-ethnic anti-Cao Wei "joint front" through the Northern Expedition, and Zhuge Liang also moved some of the people of Yong and Liang to Yizhou, especially In Hanzhong, when Liu Bei took Hanzhong "to gain land but not the people", only the land, no people. The significance of a regime is greatly reduced, in the final analysis, the establishment of a dynasty is based on a large number of people, and there are people who have everything.
The third purpose is that conspiracy theorists often attack Zhuge Liang's point, saying that he is not interested in winning or losing the Northern Expedition, but instead increasing his prestige in an attempt to stand on his own.
Saying that Zhuge Liang has the idea of self-reliance on behalf of Liu Chan, this cannot be confirmed or falsified at all, there is no historical evidence at all, it is just a deduction out of thin air, at most Liu Blood said when he was lonely that Liu Chan This boy if he really can't do it, you will take his place, can this prove that Zhuge Liang has ambitions? In the eyes of conspiracy theories, it may be proof that Liu Bei has long seen that Zhuge Liang has ambitions, but he has to use him, so he has to say the words first and knock Zhuge Liang.
If Zhuge Liang really had such ambitions, the careerists would not care about this sentence, especially in terms of Zhuge Liang's seniority and prestige, can one sentence dispel the ambitions of an ambitionist? impossible.
Occam is more willing to believe in good humanity and bright humanity, this sentence, but Liu Bei knows that Zhuge Liang is like himself, and he has the ambition of "reviving the Han Room", and can rest assured that all the aftermath will be entrusted to him.
Therefore, Orkham prefers to understand this sentence in this way - this is An exhortation from Zhuge Liang, a good comrade of Liu Bei's "revolution and friendship"— I believe that you can realize our long-cherished wish and let go and boldly do it.
Then, if Zhuge Liang did not have the purpose of establishing a will to establish himself, what was the third purpose of the frequent Northern Expedition?
Although Zhuge Liang would not stand on his own, Zhuge Liang, as the ruler of Shu Han, ensured internal stability of Shu Han, united and eliminated the threat of Cao Wei.
In fact, among the Three Kingdoms, what is the best strategy for the Shu Han to survive and for the weak to survive? Instead of shrinking up, it is not to hand over time to the enemy, but to show the weak to the strong, to attack and defend, and to "use the crowd to show that they have more than enough."
In addition, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, to a certain extent, also told Sun Quan, we even dare to fight Cao Cao, you boy be careful, don't do anything wrong, cut off Sun Quan's idea of plotting Shu after Liu Bei's death, you know, Sun Quan, is not a fuel-saving lamp. Without Zhuge Liang, Sun Quan dared to do anything.
So why did Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition play a role in stabilizing internal unity?
This is because any group or group has factions within itself, and the factions of shu Han are mainly those who followed Liu Bei in the early days, including Youzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou and other places; there is also the Jingxiang force group after Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou; and then there are the local forces after Liu Bei took Yizhou.
The earliest followers of Liu Bei, after Liu Bei's death, in fact, there are not many left, mainly the second and third parts of the forces are against each other, and Zhuge Liang belongs to the Jingxiang force group, Zhuge Liang Bingzheng, naturally hopes that everyone will unite and look forward, so he put everyone's differences on hold aside, but use troops outside, to a certain extent, play a role in condensing internal consensus and alleviating internal contradictions.
In addition, the reason why Zhuge Liang was anxious to repeat the Northern Expedition was that he also had a worry, that is, the Shu Han dynasty was not enough talented, and once he passed away, he could predict that it would be even more impossible to cut Wei, so he was eager to complete the northern expedition with his own wisdom.
This is not Zhuge Liang's overconception, but the actual situation.
Even Zhuge Liang's designated successors, Jiang Wan and Fei Yi, could not promote the great cause of the Northern Expedition at all, and after Zhuge Liang's death, Fei Yi once said to Jiang Wei: "We are not as good as Xiang Xiang and are far away; Xiang Xiang cannot determine the middle of The Summer, and I am waiting!" It is better to protect the country and govern the people, to respect the community, and to do so, and to be able to do so, and to be able to hope that they will succeed or fail in one fell swoop. If you are not as willing as you want, you will not be able to regret it."
Those of us who are far worse than Mr. Zhuge are far behind, his old man can't settle the Central Plains, let's not think about it, stay down to earth, can maintain a day counts as a day, if we send troops, it will accelerate the destruction.
Look, this is the reality of the Shu Han talent after Zhuge Liang's death, and the designated successors have all thrown aside the political policy of "rejuvenating the Han Dynasty" and have no will for the Northern Expedition at all.
That's why Zhuge Liang was so anxious to complete this big thing in his own hands, which was a sense of responsibility that the time was not waiting.
Indeed, for the Shu Han, time did not stand on their side, time was their greatest enemy, and if they could not grasp time, they would accelerate their demise, let alone any ideal goal.
This is the reason why Zhuge Liang insisted on the Northern Expedition and the three goals he wanted to achieve.
These three goals are actually hierarchical, the highest goal is to revitalize the Han Dynasty and unify the world, which is actually in line with the trend of history; the second goal is to expand the control area to accumulate strength; the third goal is to gather internal consensus and ease internal contradictions.
So how are these three goals achieved?
Of course, the highest goal was not achieved, otherwise it would not have "made the hero cry for a long time".
The second goal was partially achieved, zhuge Liang sent troops in the Northern Expedition in the seventh year of Jianxing (229) to capture Wudu and Yinping Counties, and he himself led an army to force back Yongzhou to assassinate Guo Huai, making important progress in "encroaching on Yong and Liang". More importantly, this time during the Northern Expedition, he obtained an important talent, Jiang Wei, a Liangzhou "sergeant" who "had a Han room in his heart and was talented at the same time as a man".
Some people accused Zhuge Liang of dragging down the Shu Han "hard service" for years of the Northern Expedition, there was no way, fighting a war was people and money, which was a price that had to be paid, and the Northern Expedition also made Cao Wei tired and made Cao Wei's strength hit Cao Wei to a certain extent.
The third goal of taking attack as defense, showing strength with weakness, and enhancing internal unity was basically achieved; Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition also achieved many great victories, forcing Sima Yi to avoid battles many times; in terms of consolidating internal strength, during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the political situation in Shu Han was stable, and there was no voice opposing the Northern Expedition, which shows that the strategy of holding outside and using Annei to work worked.
In fact, in the final analysis, the reason for the failure of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition lies in its lack of profit.
Subject to the supply of food and grass supplies.
Therefore, when Wei Yan came out of the "Meridian Conspiracy" and the surprise soldiers attacked Chang'an from the Meridian Road, Zhuge Liang knew that this plan was very good, but he still categorically refused, because he knew that even if he took Chang'an, with his own troops, and there was no supply of grain and grass, how could he resist Cao Wei's reinforcements? Taking and giving up will further demoralize, but it is better not to take it, or to fight steadily and well.
This is the actual situation that Zhuge Liang is facing, and he has to do so.
In the Northern Expedition in the twelfth year of Jianxing (234), in order to completely solve the problem of grain and grass supply, Zhuge Liang "divided the troops into tuntian and was the foundation for a long stay" in Weinan, but unfortunately, time did not stand on Zhuge Liang's side, and in this year, Zhuge Liang, who was only 54 years old, died.
End
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