After Zhuge Liang's death in the twelfth year of Jianxing (234), both Jiang Huan and Fei Yi changed their strategy of active Northern Expedition and implemented a conservative defensive strategy. It was not until after Fei Yi's death that Jiang Wei took over the power and Shu Han revived the aggressive Northern Expedition strategy.
The author outlines the following:
Jiang Huan's adjustment of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition strategy
After Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan, the two giants of the Shu and Han armies, fought against Yang Yi and eventually died. This was undoubtedly a major blow to the lack of talent in the Shu Han, and the Northern Expedition had to be suspended.
In the thirteenth year of Jianxing (235), Jiang Huan became a general, Record Shang Shushi, and Fei Yi served as Shang Shu Ling, jointly holding power. Jiang Huan analyzed Zhuge Liang's several defeats in the Northern Expedition and believed that the reason for the defeat was that the offensive route was not well chosen, the road was difficult and difficult to navigate, and the transportation could not keep up. He believed that an attack should be launched from the waterway, going down the Han river and MianShui to the east, and attacking Wei Xing and Shangyong.
Jiang Huan
However, this strategy was unanimously opposed by the senior generals of the Shu Han Dynasty. From a strategic point of view, the importance of the two cities of Weixing and Shangyong cannot be compared with Liangzhou and Guanzhong at all, and although going down the river is conducive to the offensive, once it is blocked, it is not convenient to retreat. This strategic direction is completely futile. Due to the large number of opponents, this plan was eventually abandoned.
Not only that, Jiang Huan also made a serious mistake. He made major adjustments to Zhuge Liang's military deployment during his lifetime. In Zhuge Liang's time, the heavy concentration of the Shu army in Hanzhong was a positive and enterprising deployment. However, Jiang Huan concentrated his forces on Fu County, which was closer to Chengdu, and only 30,000 troops were left in the strategically important hanzhong.
Jiang Huan's adjustment almost broke a big deal.
In the seventh year of Yanxi (244), Cao Shuang and Xiahou Xuan attacked Hanzhong with a crowd of 100,000. If it were not for Wang Ping's outstanding performance, Hanzhong would probably no longer be the land of the Shu Han Dynasty. After this battle, Jiang Huan chose to retire and handed over military and political power to Fei Yi.
During the Fei Yi era, the Shu Han Dynasty began a small-scale cutting of Wei
After Fei Yi succeeded him as a general, Jiang Wei was appointed as a wei general and became one of the power centers of the Shu Han Empire. Jiang Wei's position was different from that of Jiang Huan and Fei Yi, who advocated an active Northern Expedition.
Fei Yi
In the tenth year of Yanxi (247), due to the rebellion of Yong and Liang's Qiang hu against Wei, Jiang Wei led his troops out of Long to the right to respond, and fought with the Wei generals in Taoxi. This was the first time that Shu Han sent troops to attack the State of Wei thirteen years after Zhuge Liang's death. Two years later, the Gaopingling coup d'état broke out in the State of Wei, and Jiang Wei took the opportunity to send troops to attack Yongzhou, but was repulsed by the Wei generals Guo Huai, Chen Tai, and Deng Ai. This was a large-scale Northern Expedition launched by the Shu Han in the post-Zhuge Liang era. Jiang Wei failed to break the deadlock, and the Northern Expedition still failed to make substantial progress.
During Fei Yi's reign, his strategy was slightly more active than that of Jiang Huan, but he was still very cautious on the whole. On the matter of Cutting Wei, Jiang Wei and Fei Yi had great differences. Jiang Wei was originally a Tianshui man, familiar with the customs and customs of the Longxi region, and Zhuge Liang was very important to him at that time, and what he valued was his talent and martial strategy. Jiang Wei believed that he could lure Qiang Hu and lead him into wings, so that he could seize the land of Longxi with a single blow.
However, this strategy was colded down by Fei Yi. Fei Yi's point of view was: "We are not as good as the Prime Minister, and it is far away; the Holy Phase is still unable to determine the Middle Summer, and we are waiting!" Therefore, the correct approach is to "protect the country and govern the people, and abide by the society." Therefore, during Fei Yi's reign, although Jiang Wei repeatedly asked to attack Longxi, Fei Yi never allocated more than 10,000 troops.
After Fei Yi was assassinated, Jiang Wei took power and restarted the Northern Expedition
In the sixteenth year of Yanxi (253), twenty years after Zhuge Liang's death, the Shu Han general Fei Yi was assassinated, and Jiang Wei became the number one military and political figure of Shu Han in advance, and from then on, Shu Han began frequent Northern Expeditions. The Shu Han foreign strategy tended to be radical, and in addition to the imprint of Jiang Wei's personality, it also had a lot to do with the rapidly changing international environment at that time.
Jiang Wei
In the year that Jiang Wei took power, Eastern Wu attacked Hefei of Wei with 200,000 people. Jiang Wei attacked Di Dao when the western front of the Wei state was empty, but did not receive the expected results, due to insufficient preparation for the battle, there was a shortage of food, and he could only return in vain. From the beginning of this year, the Shu state used troops almost every year and repeatedly fought wars.
A year later, The Wei state of Didao County ordered Li Jian to secretly write to Jiang Wei, requesting that shu han be surrendered. Jiang Wei once again sent troops to Longxi, occupied Di Dao, surrounded Xiangwu City, broke and killed the enemy general Xu Qian, and then returned with a large raid. However, there is another theory in the historical data, that the Wei army thwarted Jiang Wei's attack, Xu Qian beheaded the Shu general Zhang Ling, and the Shu army was defeated.
In the eighteenth year of Yanxi (255), the Wenqin Rebellion broke out in the State of Wei, and Jiang Wei used troops again. However, Jiang Wei's northern expedition was strongly opposed by the general Zhang Yi of the Western Expedition, who engaged in a war of words with Jiang Wei at the imperial court, saying: "The country is small and the people are laborious, and it is not appropriate to use force." Jiang Wei did not listen, and attacked Di Dao with tens of thousands of horses. Although the Shu army won the great victory in Taoxi, it was still unable to capture Di Dao in the end, and withdrew back to China.
Zhang Yi
Six years after Jiang Wei came to power, he launched the Northern Expedition against the State of Wei for many years, but the effect was not satisfactory. Especially in the Northern Expedition in the nineteenth year of Yanxi (256), the Shu army suffered heavy casualties. The Zizhi Tongjian records: "Soldiers and soldiers are scattered, and the dead are many." Not only was morale seriously frustrated, but domestic dissatisfaction with Jiang Wei was also increasing day by day, and "the Shu people were resentful of Wei."
How to evaluate Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition?
Many people think that Jiang Wei is a poor soldier, and this view is one-sided. Because in these six years, the State of Wei was repeatedly in crisis, giving Shu Han too many opportunities to fight. It should be said that most of the Northern Expedition wars launched by Jiang Wei were fully justified. For example, if the Eastern Wu Dynasty has 200,000 Wei Dynasties, can the Shu Han stand idly by? Wei Guo did not have Qiu Jian, Wen Qin rebelled, and Sima Shi died violently, could Shu Han not take advantage of this opportunity? The change of Zhuge Birthday, the Battle of Shouchun attracted 260,000 Wei troops, can Jiang Wei turn a blind eye?
The problem was that the Shu army failed to seize these opportunities. Except for the great victory in the Battle of Taoxi, the rest of the battles were lackluster, and even when the main force of the Wei army was fully engaged in the Battle of Shouchun and the emptiness of Kansai, Jiang Wei did not return. There were many factors restricting the combat effectiveness of the Shu army, such as the long combat distance, the difficulty of transporting grain and grass, the difficulty of transporting large-scale attack weapons, the low ability to attack and attack, and so on, at the same time, Guo Huai, Chen Tai, Deng Ai, and others on the Wei side were all good generals for a while, and coupled with the escape of attack, Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition repeatedly returned without success.