Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, was known as the "Chinese Wisdom Star", and legend has it that he had outstanding intelligence, he was not only a great inventor, astronomer, military strategist, politician, but also an outstanding writer.
His new inventions such as the Zhuge crossbow, Kong Ming lantern and wooden ox flowing horse were called "Wolong and Phoenix Chicks" together with Pang Tong.
Zhuge Liang, a man of wisdom, courage and talent. He can not only observe the sky at night and grasp the weather changes, but also left a legend of borrowing the east wind and the grass boat to borrow arrows in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
His literary talent is also on display in works such as "The Teacher's Table" and "The Book of Commandments". In terms of military strategy, he showed extraordinary wisdom, such as classic battles such as "Six Out of Qishan" and "Seven Captures of Meng Huo".
However, no one is perfect, and Zhuge Liang also has times of failure. His life is like a glass of wine, sweet and bitter, joyful and sad, but full of richness and colorfulness of life.
Zhuge Liang came from a prominent family since he was a child, and he was very intelligent, and he dabbled in various books extensively as an adult. However, the loss of his mother at the age of 3 and his father at the age of 8 changed his life dramatically.
Led by his uncle, he came to Jingzhou and defected to Liu Biao. In addition, Zhuge Liang also has an elder brother Zhuge Jin and two sisters. Due to the decline of the family, his elder brother Zhuge Jin began to run for a livelihood early and served as a strategist under Sun Quan in Jiangdong.
Zhuge Liang and his younger brother Zhuge both live in their uncle's fiefdom, although he is in the countryside, he has great ambitions, and compares himself to Guan Zhong and Le Yi. Believing that he shouldn't just be an ordinary politician, he decided to stay in Wollongong and farm with his brother.
Although many strategists at that time had a contemptuous attitude towards Zhuge Liang and thought that he was just a mountain villager, Xu Shu and Cui Zhouping in Jingzhou admired him very much. They often come to Zhuge Liang's residence and work together to ** the general trend of the world.
Zhuge Liang said to the two of them: "Your ability is completely capable of serving as a high-level ** like the Assassin and the County Guard." The two men smiled modestly and asked, "What about you?"
How big do you think you can be? Zhuge Liang smiled mysteriously and did not answer.
After Liu Bei was defeated in Xuzhou, he took Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and other generals to defect to Liu Biao in Jingzhou. Liu Biao took Liu Bei in and stationed him in Xinye. Xinye is located on the frontier of Jingzhou, and if Cao Cao's army is overwhelmed, Xinye will be the first to be attacked.
Liu Biao hoped that Liu Bei's forces would consume Cao Cao. Liu Biao is old and is considering the issue of heirs, mainly making decisions between his eldest son Liu Qi and his second son Liu Cong.
According to the order of the eldest and the youngest, the eldest son Liu Qi should be the best choice. However, the mother of the second son, Liu Cong, and the general Cai Mao in the army openly supported Liu Cong. The Cai family is a prominent family in Jingzhou and has a high reputation.
Liu Qi had no help and turned to Liu Bei for help. He hoped that Liu Bei could persuade Liu Biao not to abolish the elder and the younger. However, Liu Bei politely refused his request on the grounds of his guest status. Liu Qi said: "Uncle Huang and my father are both members of the royal family, so this is not a family matter. ”
He also revealed that Cai Mao intended to surrender to Cao Cao and offered Liu Bei to Cao Cao as a letter of surrender. Despite this, Liu Bei still promised to help. At the table where Liu Biao invited Liu Bei, Liu Bei really spoke for Liu Qi, which made Cai Mao very displeased.
Cai Mao decided to secretly get rid of Liu Bei, but was discovered in advance. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei stopped them, and Liu Bei took the opportunity to escape.
Liu Bei was pursued, there was a big river in front of Tanxi, and there were chasing soldiers behind, and he was helpless. In a moment of crisis, Luma leaped over and helped him flee to the other side of the river. Xin Qiji once wrote in "Breaking the Array": "The horse-made Lu is fast, and the bow is like a thunderbolt", which describes this scene.
Liu Bei found a thatched house on the other side of the river, and when he walked in, he met a talkative man who called himself Mr. Shuijing, and introduced a young man, who would later be Xu Shu.
Mr. Shui Jing asked Liu Bei how he came here, and he told him the truth. Mr. Shui Jing said: "Your Tanxi Prancing Horse today has shown signs of soaring into the sky, and you will be able to achieve great things in the future." ”
Liu Bei replied with a smile: "I only want to survive now, how dare I want to achieve great things?" ”
Liu Bei retreated from defeat after defeat on the battlefield, and in desperation, he sought countermeasures from Mr. Shuijing. Mr. Shui Jing told Liu Bei that although his army had many fierce generals, it lacked a good strategist.
Liu Bei urgently asked Mr. Shui Jing if he had a suitable candidate. Mr. Shui Jing said that he had two outstanding strategists, Wolong and Fengxiao, and if he could get one of them, he would be able to stabilize the country.
However, when Liu Bei asked about their whereabouts, Mr. Shui Jing smiled mysteriously and said that this was a heavenly opportunity and should not be revealed.
Liu Bei was overshadowed, turned his head and saw the young man next to him, and secretly speculated in his heart: "This person must be a resourceful figure next to the old gentleman." So I decided to ask him for help.
After Liu Biao learned that Cai Mao was chasing and killing Liu Bei, he reprimanded him and ordered him to stop his actions immediately. At the same time, Cao Cao sent his general Cao Ren to lead tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the border of Jingzhou.
Cao Ren ignored Cao Cao's warning before his departure and resolutely launched an attack on Jingzhou. Under the guidance of Xu Shu, Liu Bei fought a series of battles, defeated Cao Ren, and returned defeated.
Cao Ren suffered heavy losses and could only write to Cao Cao to ask for guilt. Cao Cao's intelligence agents informed him that Liu Bei had found a highly talented military advisor named Xu Shu. Cao Cao sent his subordinates to investigate and learned that Xu Shu's family was on his own territory, and Xu Shu was a dutiful son.
On the one hand, Cao Cao arranged for someone to take Xu Shu's mother into the mansion and take care of him, and on the other hand, he let out a rumor, saying that he had put Xu Shu's mother on the fire, and if Xu Shu did not surrender, he would burn his mother to death.
Xu Shu decided to return immediately in order to save his mother, and before saying goodbye, he told Liu Bei that Zhuge Liang was in Wollongong, Nanyang. He promised that even if he went to Cao Cao's place, he would not give Cao Cao advice.
This is the story of the familiar after-break phrase "Xu Shu entered Cao Ying without saying a word". In the end, Liu Bei looked at the thatched house three times and successfully invited Zhuge Liang out of the mountain.
Zhuge Liang planned a three-step strategy for Liu Bei, first based on Jingzhou, then based on Yizhou, and finally attacking Hanzhong to achieve world domination. This strategic plan, named "Longzhong Pair", seems to be a step-by-step plan on the surface, but in fact it is a stopgap measure.
There is the mighty Cao Cao in the north, Sun Quan in the south, and Yizhou in the west. Cao Cao's strength was unrivaled, and Liu Bei was difficult to compete with. Zhuge Liang's elder brother was under Sun Quan, and if he attacked Sun Quan, the brothers would turn against him, so they could only choose to attack Yizhou.
Zhuge Liang crossed the river, united with Sun Quan, and won the Battle of Chibi. He secretly clashed with Zhou Yu many times and finally occupied Jingzhou. Sun Quan was naturally dissatisfied with this, and sent people to ask for it many times, but in desperation, Liu Bei made an IOU, saying that he had no place to live, so he could only temporarily borrow Jingzhou as a base camp, and return it if he had a place in the future.
The biggest threat at that time was Cao Cao, so Sun Quan could only reluctantly agree.
Liu Bei bravely captured Yizhou, accepted Ma Chao, pacified Zhang Lu, defeated Cao Cao, and rewarded the five tiger generals. Guan Yu guarded Jingzhou alone, thinking that he had no contribution, and took the initiative to send troops to Fancheng, but was attacked by Lü Meng, lost Jingzhou, and was beheaded.
Liu Bei lost his second brother and angrily sent troops to Sun Quan, but the result was not ideal. In the end, he entrusted Zhuge Liang in the White Emperor City, leaving deep regrets.
After Liu Chan ascended the throne, Zhuge Liang was in full charge of the country's military and political power. He explained to Liu Chan: "If we stay in this remote place all the time, it will be difficult to achieve long-term development.
When the Wei army becomes stronger, the gap will get bigger and bigger, and we will inevitably be defeated. ”
In 228 AD, after Cao Rong succeeded to the throne, Zhuge Liang decided that the time had come and prepared to launch an attack on Wei. He sent Zhao Yun to Baochu Road and feigned an attack on Guanzhong in order to attract the main force of the Wei army.
At the same time, he secretly led his army to raid Qishan. In this series of actions, Zhuge Liang marched all the way and successfully occupied the three counties of Longyou. In order to resist Zhao Yun's offensive, Cao Rong sent Cao Zhen, and in order to stop Zhuge Liang, he sent Zhang He.
Zhuge Liang knew that Zhang He would first capture the street pavilion at the choke point, so he decided to send Ma Jian to garrison it. Ma Tan took the initiative to ask Ying to be in charge of this task.
Once there, Ma Jian thought Zhuge Liang's methods were too conservative, and he decided to take a risk. He decided to station the camp on the top of the mountain, planning to catch Zhang He by surprise and expand his military exploits.
However, his plan was discovered by the enemy in advance, and Zhang He cut off his water source, so Ma Tan could only flee in panic. The enemy army continued to advance and reached the hinterland of Shu, and Zhuge Liang was forced to retreat to defend.
At this time, the Wei army found that Zhao Yun was only a feint, and there would definitely not be too many men. Cao Zhen nearby sent troops to attack fiercely, and Zhao Yun and other generals resisted desperately to protect the safe withdrawal of the army.
This Northern Expedition was Zhuge Liang's first and worst Northern Expedition. Not only did he kill Zhao Yun, the last Five Tiger General of Shu, but he also lost nearly ten generals, which was almost all the elite of Shu.
Zhuge Liang's failure in Qishan was not entirely due to his unknown knowledge, but more because it was difficult for intelligence to defeat absolute strength. Even if Ma Tan does not lose the street pavilion, the possibility of the success of the Northern Expedition is very small.
In ancient wars, the side that built the city and defended had a huge advantage, and the Wei strategy was long, and the strategy adopted by Zhuge Liang later could not reverse the defeat, and could only be consumed.