Just after defeating the battle, Zhuge Liang once again went on a northern expedition with the strategic strategy behind it
In the spring of 228 AD, Zhuge Liang's first northern expedition. Due to Liu Bei's former boss, a large number of elite soldiers fell in the Battle of Yiling, coupled with Zhuge Liang's abuse of Ma Tan in the Battle of Jieting, Zhuge Liang had to gather the people of the three counties to return to Hanzhong, and the Northern Expedition ended early. However, Sichuan and Shu had just returned to Shun, and Zhuge Liang restarted the second Northern Expedition at the end of the same year. Look who is behind Zhuge Liang.
First of all, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition took the right path, but he used the wrong person!
In the spring of 228 AD, the Shu Han faction quelled the civil strife, and the Shu Han also recovered a lot of national and military strength, but at the same time, most importantly, Cao Wei did not take Shu Han seriously.
Why? It's very simple, five years ago, Liu Bei took away a lot of Shu Han elite generals in the Battle of Yiling, and also took away tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and the Battle of Yiling and Guan Yu's Northern Expedition to Xiangfan almost took away at least half of the Shu Han elite generals.
This is also the reason why Cao Wei did not attach much importance to Shu. Therefore, Cao Wei only carried out routine defense work on the Shu-Han border.
However, Zhuge Liang suddenly attacked at this time, Guanzhong shook, and the people of the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding were hugged, and the relationship between Cao Wei Tianzi and important military generals was also tense.
Zhuge Liang adopted the strategy of drilling east and attacking west, attacking the Qishan base camp alone, while Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi served as suspicious soldiers to counter Cao Zhen's overwhelming forces. At the same time, Ma Tan covered the street pavilion to prevent Cao Wei from gaining further support. This seems to be a great strategy, and it is also a once-in-a-century fighter, but it ended with Ma Yan's **.
In the street pavilion, Ma Tan violated Zhuge Liang's law and changed his strategy without authorization. As a result, Zhang He, a famous general of Cao Wei, cut off the water, and the more than 30,000 elite soldiers of Shu Han in Jieting were all wiped out. Zhuge Liang was forced to retreat to Hanzhong to prepare for the next Northern Expedition.
Secondly, why did Zhuge Liang, who had just lost the battle, dare to launch the Second Northern Expedition? Who are the supporters behind Zhuge Liang?
Ma Tan lost the street pavilion, and Zhuge Liang had to use the empty city plan to trick Sima Yi into returning Hanzhong to the people of the three districts. It can be said that Zhuge Liang tried his best at that time, but finally gave in. In the end, the entire Shu Han army retreated to Hanzhong, but at the end of the year, Zhuge Liang restarted the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei.
Theoretically, Zhuge Liang had just lost the battle, so he ordered the three armies to rest and recuperate, prepare supplies, and summarize the reasons for the defeat. However, the world did not expect that at the end of 228 AD, Zhuge Liang led an army to attack Cao Wei's Chencang City.
Why did Zhuge Liang dare to use troops against Cao Wei after winning the battle? Who's behind the scenes?
Why did Zhuge Liang dare to use troops against Cao Wei after the defeat? The reason is simple: Zhuge Liang has an assistant behind him. This person is Zhuge Liang's brother Zhuge Jin, who is actually the general of Eastern Wu and the envoy of Yuzhou.
Why is Zhuge Jin Zhuge Liang's deputy? The reason is simple: although Liu Bei was dead at that time, Shu and Wu agreed on a new alliance through Zhuge Liang's efforts. The small countries knew that if they did not unite, Cao Wei would annex them one by one.
In 228 AD, Lu Xun, the governor of Eastern Wu, led his army to fight the Battle of Shiting with Cao Xiu, the great Sima of Cao Wei, during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, which was known as the Battle of Shiting. In the Battle of Shiting, Cao Xiu was defeated, but Cao Wei was strong and immediately sent troops to support, and even transferred Zhang Hejun, who had just defeated Ma Tan, to the front line.
As a result, Eastern Wu faced tremendous military pressure from Cao Wei.
What to do? Zhuge Liang wrote a letter to his younger brother Zhuge Jin, saying that he was ready to take the initiative to send troops to attack Cao Wei's Guanzhong, because now most of Cao Wei's troops were transferred to the border of Eastern Wu, and Guanzhong was relatively empty. Secondly, as long as there is one more sneak attack on Cao Wei's army, it will inevitably arouse Zhuge Liang's interest, and he can play the best friendly and trust card for Eastern Wu.
There is such an account in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms:'There is a small valley in Suoyang, the stone is dangerous and the water is longitudinal, and now the old army is forced to cut Chen Cang, and the road is managed, even the thief climbs with his feet, and he cannot divide the troops to the east.
Look, this is the main content of Zhuge Liang's letter to Brother Dongwu. This is also one of the main reasons why Zhuge Liang still insisted on taking the initiative to attack Cao Wei after the defeat.
In the end, Zhuge Liang fought a secret war for Eastern Wu. How to quickly alleviate Cao Wei's huge military pressure on Wu? It's very simple, it depends on Zhuge Liang's advancing speed. The faster the speed and the faster Cao Wei divided his troops, the less military pressure Cao Wei had on Eastern Wu.
Third, Chen Cangcheng only has more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, why did Zhuge Liang besiege it for a month and not conquer it?
As mentioned earlier, after Cao Wei's defeat, Zhuge Liang decided to quickly organize troops against Cao Wei in order to fight against Eastern Wu and reduce Cao Wei's military pressure. At that time, Zhuge Liang thought that Guanzhong was empty of troops, and if he sent troops, he would definitely be able to deter Cao Wei, and at the same time, it could also reduce the pressure on his brother Zhuge Jin.
Zhuge Jin was the general of the light cavalry of Eastern Wu at that time, and his military strength was recognized as a master in Eastern Wu.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was more or less related to his brother Zhuge Jin. However, the main purpose of the Northern Expedition was still people-oriented, that is, to unite Eastern Wu and capture Cao Wei, so as long as Zhuge Jin, Sun Quan, and Zhuge Liang were nearby, the alliance between Sun and Liang would continue.
At that time, Zhuge Liang wanted to hit Cao Wei by surprise, so he quickly led his army through Sanguan and directly surrounded Cao Wei's Chen Cang. At that time, Zhuge Liang had tens of thousands of elite soldiers, while Cao Wei's general Hao Zhao only had more than 1,000.
However, the history books record that"Surrounded Chen Cang and retreated for more than a month"。This raises a very puzzling question, that is, why Zhuge Liang, with an army of more than 10,000 people, could not besiege the small city of Chencang for a month?
Although Hao Zhao defended the city well, Chen Cang couldn't resist the tens of thousands of elite soldiers of Shu Han, and he couldn't even defend the brick wall. However, Zhuge Liang fought for nearly a month and failed to recapture Chen Cang. What is the reason for this?
There is only one real reason, that is, Zhuge Liang had no intention of attacking Chen Cang at that time.
The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms - Shu Chronicles - The Biography of the Lord records accordingly: Winter continued to enter the customs from most of the provinces, surrounded Chen Cang, and withdrew from the grain.
Note that there are two words mentioned in history, one is"Circumference", one is"grain", besiege but not attack, and return when the food is exhausted. In fact, this reflects that Zhuge Liang wants to complete the task, not the Northern Expedition.
Why? First, to surround Chen Cang without giving the order to launch a deadly attack; Second, retreat when food runs out. Isn't that a waste of all your efforts? At the same time, if Zhuge Liang really went north, the ten elite troops of the Shu army would definitely not be deployed in Sichuan and Shu so much, but most of them would be transferred to the front line.
Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition only brought tens of thousands of elite soldiers.
In short, the purpose of Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition was to reduce Cao Wei's military pressure on Eastern Wu.
But when Zhuge Liang withdrew his troops at that time, Cao Wei's generals Wang Shuang and Zhuge Liang were not clever, did not follow Zhuge Liang, and killed Zhuge Liang's fierce general Wei Yan. Wang Shuang and Zhuge Liang are said to have won by luck.
Otherwise, with Zhuge Liang's ability to command troops, how could he be helpless in front of Chen Cangcheng, which had more than a thousand defenders?
Fourth, Zhuge Liang's goal is to launch a strategic war against Eastern Wu and seize the capital of Wu and Yinping!
The above analysis tells us that the main purpose of Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition was to launch a secret war against Eastern Wu, force Cao Wei to divide his troops, and reduce the military pressure on Eastern Wu. Of course, Zhuge Liang is also a businessman, and there is nothing to lose. In fact, Zhuge Liang had two purposes besides providing protection for the state of Wu.
One of them is the reconquest of Wudu and Yinping.
According to historical records, in the spring of 229 AD, Zhuge Liang sent the general Chen Shi to attack Wudu and Yinping two counties. However, Zhuge Liang was still on his way back to the army at that time, so he had just withdrawn from Chencang. At that time, Zhuge Liang's subordinates were still building power, but Zhuge Liang successfully prevented Cao Wei's general Guo Huai from giving up attacking Chen Shi. What is this algorithm? I'm afraid this is Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition, which has been calculated, otherwise the time cannot be so precise.
Under Zhuge Liang's resistance, the general Cao Wei and Guo Huai finally gave up the battle with Zhuge Liang and collected his troops and left. However, Zhuge Liang's side was bloodless, and his two generals, Wudu and Yinping, easily captured two regions in one fell swoop.
The schedule is as follows.
In late 228 CE, Zhuge Liang's forces were surrounded at Chencang, but were not met with a deadly attack. In their last retreat, they beheaded Wang Shuang.
In the spring of 229 AD, Zhuge Liang began to retreat, and in the process of retreating, he ordered Chen Shi to quickly attack the Wudu and Yinping regions from Hanzhong. A few days later, Zhuge Liang led most of the men and horses of Shu Han to return to Jianwei from the battlefield of Chencang, leaving only Chen-style cover, and it is estimated that Guo Huai saw Zhuge Liang personally leading the army, and he did not even have the courage to simply fight.
What is Zhuge Liang's ultimate goal?
In short, its purpose was to bring all the people and population of the Wudu and Yinping regions into the Shu Han's sphere of influence. This will increase the population of Shu and, of course, its military power.
Overall, Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition was indeed well-intentioned, although he said that his goal was not to win the war.