He is truly a genius in the world! Think more and decide less. Liang has great ambitions but does not see opportunities, has many plans but few decisions, is a good soldier but has no power. Although he has a hundred thousand soldiers, he has fallen into my painting and must be d

is truly a genius in the world! Think more and decide less. Liang has great ambitions but does not see opportunities, has many plans but few decisions, is a good soldier but has no power. Although he has a hundred thousand soldiers, he has fallen into my painting and must be destroyed. —— Sima Yi evaluation Zhuge Liang

As we all know, after Liu Bei passed away, Zhuge Liang, in gratitude for his kindness, took "restoring the Han Dynasty and returning the old capital" as his own mission, and launched several Northern Expeditions, and the most famous One possible success was the first Northern Expedition.

However, because Ma Su accidentally lost the street pavilion, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition failed. Fortunately, he used his own resourcefulness to set up an "empty city strategy", and then deceived Sima Yi's army and successfully escaped back to Hanzhong.

Perhaps it is because of this that many people believe that although Zhuge Liang failed in his first Northern Expedition, he did not lose much. In fact, it was not the case. Zhuge Liang's losses in his first Northern Expedition were "massive." If you see the list of Shu generals who died before and after this war, you will know why Zhuge Liang shed tears and wanted to kill Ma Su.

From then on, although Zhuge Liang continued his Northern Expedition, there was no chance of a comeback. So, what's the story behind this? Today, let’s talk about it.

Liu Bei's two favors

When Liu Bei took refuge in Liu Biao and temporarily lived in Xinye , he accidentally got the talented man Xu Shu. However, Cao Cao threatened Xu Shu's mother, and Xu Shu had to leave Liu Bei. However, before leaving, he recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei at Wollongong in Longzhong.

Regarding Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu had a very high evaluation: "If you can get him, you can get the world." The next day, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei went with gifts. As a result, Zhuge Liang happened to be traveling and didn't know when he would come back, so Liu Bei had to go back.

A few days later, the three brothers came to Wollongong to visit Zhuge Liang again, but he was still not there. The disappointed Liu Bei had no choice but to leave a letter expressing his admiration for Zhuge Liang and hoping to invite him to come out.

Just after the Spring Festival of that year, Liu Bei went to Wollongong again. This time he finally waited for Zhuge Liang. In the thatched cottage, Zhuge Liang planned a grand blueprint for Liu Bei. After hearing this, Liu Bei happily said "good", and then cried and asked Zhuge Liang to help him.

The hospitality was hard to resist, so Zhuge Liang followed the three of them down the mountain and became Liu Bei's military advisor. Regarding this story, many people think that Zhuge Liang went down to help Liu Bei, which was a favor to Liu Bei. In fact, from a certain perspective, Liu Bei's three visits to the thatched cottage can be regarded as giving him a platform to display his talents.

Therefore, in "出ushibiao", Zhuge Liang would say: "The late emperor did not regard his ministers as despicable, and he was in vain, and he cared about his ministers in a thatched cottage..." From a certain point of view, Three visits to the thatched cottage was Liu Bei's first kindness to Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang was 27 years old at the time.

Time came 14 years later, that is, after the defeat of Yiling, Liu Bei was about to die because he could not bear the blow of defeat, coupled with physical trauma and age. Before his death, he called Zhuge Liang in Baidi City to provide him with his final care.

At that time, Liu Bei said this: "If you are ten times more talented than Cao Pi, you will definitely be able to secure the country and make great decisions. If your heir can assist you, you can assist him; if he is not talented, you can take it yourself..." This The meaning of the sentence is that your talent is very high and you will definitely achieve great things in the future.

Look at my son. If he can help, you will help him. If there is no value to help, just replace him. Don't delay your own career... No matter whether Liu Bei's words are sincere or not , but being able to say such words made Zhuge Liang, an employee, burst into tears of gratitude to his boss.

Therefore, after hearing these words, he directly knelt down and said: "I dare to do my best, be loyal to the chastity, and then die..." This is what he later said, "I will do my best." The origin of "I will die before I die" is Liu Bei's second kindness to Zhuge Liang.

Before his death, Liu Bei asked Liu Chan to recognize Zhuge Liang as "the prime minister's father" (you work with the prime minister, just like your father). After explaining everything, he died.Immediately, Liu Chan ascended the throne and became the emperor of Shu Han.

Zhuge Liang set out for the Northern Expedition and suffered a major defeat at Street Pavilion

html For more than 20 years, Zhuge Liang has been thinking about the Northern Expedition in order to repay Liu Bei for his kindness. In 223 AD, Zhuge Liang sent Chen Zhen, Deng Zhi and others as envoys to Soochow, and Wu and Han re-allied.

2 years later, Zhuge Liang conquered Menghuo in the south, quelled the war in the south and conquered the hearts of the southern barbarians. In the next year, Zhuge Liang trained his troops and horses while waiting for the opportunity. Finally in 226 AD, Cao Pi died of illness and Cao Rui ascended the throne.

When the old and new change, the political power will inevitably be unstable. Zhuge Liang believes that the time for the Northern Expedition has come. So, he wrote a "Departure Order" to express his repayment to Liu Bei: "The south has been determined, and the troops are sufficient. It is time to lead the three armies to the north to determine the Central Plains..."

Regarding Zhuge Liang's decision, Liu Chan was also very supportive and asked him to lead the army in the Northern Expedition without saying a word. In the early stage of the war, due to insufficient preparations by Cao Wei , the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding were all lost. Zhuge Liang also obtained Jiang Wei in Tianshui, and the Cao Wei court was "fearful".

In this case, Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui led the army to rescue, and Cao Zhen took command to fight against Zhao Yun, Zhang He went to resist Zhuge Liang. At that time, Jieting was the only way for Zhang He's army and a fortress for the advance and retreat of the Shu army. Its strategic position was very important.

Zhuge Liang didn't know who to send to guard it for a while. After all, Zhang He was a famous general. At this time, Ma Su joined the army and asked for orders to guard the choke points of the street pavilion. He also issued a military order at the expense of his family's lives, and Zhuge Liang agreed to him.

However, before leaving, Zhuge Liang repeatedly told Ma Di to set up camp on Jieting Road. The funny thing is that Ma Su understood the sentence "will not accept military orders abroad" very well, and he turned the blocking war into a defensive war.

gave up camping on the road and chose to set up camp in the surrounding mountains. He also said that "one who is condescending is as powerful as a broken bamboo". In fact, Zhang He could have ignored him and went directly through the street pavilion to attack Zhuge Liang, but he did not do so. Instead, he gave Ma Su three points of thin noodles and had a game with him.

According to the local terrain, Zhang He sent troops to surround the hillside where Ma Di was located and cut off the Han army's water source. It is conceivable what problems will happen if the army lacks water sources, and a defeat is not far away.

Sure enough, the Han army fell into civil strife due to lack of water. Ma Di abandoned the army and fled. The Han army was defeated and the street pavilion was lost. If Wang Ping hadn't led thousands of people to pretend to be suspicious, so that Zhang He didn't dare to pursue, it is estimated that Ma Di would not have been able to escape.

Ma Di lost the street pavilion, which also made Zhao Yun passive. He was a suspicious soldier and had a small army. Even when Cao Zhen attacked, he had to retreat. All in all, the fall of Jieting affected the whole body. Zhuge Liang was forced to lead his troops back to Hanzhong, and the first Northern Expedition failed.

The 11 Generals Lost

Seeing this, many people think that the failure of the first Northern Expedition should be a failure. After all, the losses on the Shu Han side were not great. However, the reality was not like this. The Shu Han Dynasty lost 11 generals, large and small.

Let’s first talk about 8 of them. They are Ma Yu, Ding Li, Yan Zhi, Yang Qun, Bai Shou, Liu He, Deng Tong and Zhao Yun. There is no specific information available for some of them, so let’s briefly introduce a few of them.

Yan Zhi was a figure who existed during Liu Bei's period. He once sent 5,000 people to supplement the palace, which alleviated the "sequelae" of Liu Bei's defeat at Yiling. He had a unique military vision. Yang Qun is known as the Swordsman and the King of Swordsmen in Sichuan. He was originally a subordinate of Liu Zhang. When Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Zhuge Liang met him.

According to records at the time, Zhuge Liang asked Zhao Yun to fight with him, and the sheep group actually fought on par with Zhao Yun, which shows his high martial arts skills. Originally, Yang Qun would rather die than surrender to Zhuge Liang, but Zhuge Liang captured and released him three times before he truly surrendered to him.

General Deng Tong was also an outstanding military general and was known as the invincible general in Sichuan. He used a long copper hammer to perform tricks like tigers and tigers.Not to mention Zhao Yun, in the later period of the Shu Han Dynasty, he was a strong and powerful person with high military prestige and vision.

Unfortunately, because Ma Su lost the street pavilion, he was at a disadvantage in the battle with Cao Zhen and his body was also injured. After returning to Hanzhong, although his body recovered to a certain extent, he died in the end.

Regarding the sacrifices of the above eight people, Zhuge Liang said in "The Later Disciple's Model": "However, Zhao Yun, Yang Qun, Ma Yu, Yan Zhi, Ding Li, Bai Shou, Liu He, Deng Tong, etc., as well as Qu Chang and Tun Jiang Qi, will be lost." There are more than ten people, including Tujiang, Wuqian, Jisou, Qingqiang, Sanqi and Wuqi, and more than a thousand people. These are all the elites from all over the world who have been gathered together within decades..."

From Zhuge Liang's words It is not difficult to find that the Shu Han Dynasty suffered a disastrous defeat in the First Northern Expedition and lost most of its elite troops accumulated over decades. You must know that the population of the late Shu Han Dynasty was only 940,000, and it was the result of Liu Chan's decades of recuperation.

It is conceivable that during Zhuge Liang's reign, the population of Shu Han was better, and the elites lost so much at once that they could not be replenished in the short term. It can be seen that the subsequent Northern Expeditions were doomed to failure.

In addition to the above 8 people, Ma Di, who was considered half of Zhuge Liang's disciples, was also directly killed by him. After all, because he carelessly lost the street pavilion and lost so many people at once, someone had to take responsibility, and Zhuge Liang also had to give an attitude.

At the same time, Zhang Xiu and Li Sheng were also killed. Like Ma Di, they were also ordered to be beheaded for violating military law. A total of 11 generals were lost. It is no wonder that in the later period of the Shu Han Dynasty, there was a situation where "there were no generals in Shu, and Liao Hua was the vanguard".

In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang conducted a total of five Northern Expeditions, including 1 large-scale all-out war, 2 medium-sized regional wars, and 2 small local wars. Perhaps, this was only the first time that Zhuge Liang had the idea of ​​"restoring the Han Dynasty and returning the old capital".

As for the last four times, they just wanted to slow down the development of Cao Wei, in order to continue the state of Shu Han, and to repay Liu Bei's kindness. After all, he had no one available at that time, and he was exhausted from working on Wuzhangyuan , which was pitiful.

What do you think about this?