What is the goal of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition? Guanzhong or Longyou?
Northern Expedition Zhuge Liang made six northern expeditions to Cao Wei, spanning from the sixth year of Jianxing to the twelfth year of Jianxing, and the two sides fought bloodily in the land of Qinlong. But fate is impermanent, Shu Han was finally defeated by the will of heaven, a generation of famous ministers Zhuge Liang died regretfully in Wuzhangyuan, and the great cause of the Northern Expedition was a failure.
Many people regard this effort of Shu Han as an imitation of Han Xin's secret Chen Cang and the Three Qins of World War I more than 400 years ago. Because Prime Minister Zhuge clearly wrote on the banner "Restore the Central Plains and return to the old capital".
However, there are not so many successful cases in the world that can be easily replicated, and with Zhuge Liang's great talent, how can he not know this truth. In fact, since the beginning of the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang's goal has never changed, that is, Longyou, not Guanzhong.
Zhuge Liang formulated a strategic plan for Liu Bei during the Longzhong period, that is, to occupy Jingzhou and Yizhou, and then attack simultaneously through the east and west, forming a pincer offensive against the north.
Among them, the eastern front will attack Wan and Luo, which are today's Nanyang and Luoyang regions, and the western front will attack Qinchuan, that is, the Guanzhong region. According to Zhuge Liang's assumption, the two armies attacked at the same time, and Cao Wei would inevitably be unable to take care of them, and even if it was such a natural danger as Qinling, the pressure on the western front to attack Guanzhong would be greatly reduced.
However, before this plan could be implemented, Wu had already seized Jingzhou ahead of schedule, which made the Longzhong idea practically invalid. Now, the problem that Zhuge Liang needs to face is how to use Yizhou as a base to restore the Central Plains.
If the original plan was followed, Wei could concentrate most of its forces in Guanzhong to resist the attack of the Shu army. Coupled with the dangers of the Qinling Ancient Road, the pressure faced by Shu Han is unimaginable.
However, what is even more fatal is that the topography of Hanzhong today is very different from that of Liu Bang four hundred years ago. The ancient road from Hanzhong to Guanzhong has always been only Meridian Road, Fu Luo Road, Bao Shue Road, Chencang Road and Qishan Road.
In the pre-Qin period, the upper reaches of the Western Han Dynasty basically coincided with the Qishan Road and the Chencang Road, which was a period of great logistical pressure for Han Xin, but most of the pressure could be resolved by water transportation.
However, twentieth year after Han Shin's world-famous exploit, the window of national fortune was closed forever.
In 186 B.C., the Wudu Da** interrupted the waterway from Hanzhong to Chencang Road and Qishan Road, so that the Shu army had to use the method of shouldering people to solve the logistics problem during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition.
The relatively small economic scale of Hanzhong, coupled with the barrier of the Qinling Mountains, even if Zhuge Liang had incomparable wisdom and strength, he did not dare to engage in a war of attrition with Cao Wei under such terrain conditions.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang turned his attention to the Longyou region, which is the area west of Liupan Mountain in present-day Gansu Province. Compared with the Qinling Mountains, although Liupan Mountain is slightly smaller in scale, it is steep on the east side and gentler on the west side, which is a favorable geographical condition for the Shu army.
In other words, Prime Minister Zhuge considered that the difficulty of the Shu army crossing the Qinling Mountains head-on, and the difficulty of the Wei army recapturing Longyou from Guanzhong, were greater than the difficulty of attacking Longyou from Hanzhong.
In addition, Wudu Da** cut off the waterway from the Western Han River to Qishan Road, but compared with the remaining four ancient roads, Qishan Road is wider and easier for the army to maneuver, so he designed a new combat plan: send a partial division along the Bao Slope Road to feint to attack the key points to attract the attention of the Wei army, while the main force of the Shu army will take Longyou along the Qishan Road.
Wei is strong and Shu is weak is a fact that cannot be ignored, so Zhuge Liang's strategy is not to solve all problems in one battle, but to advance gradually. In the specific execution process, he first sent Zhao Yun to Xiegu to tentatively attack Guanzhong, and sent people to report Meng Da's rebellion to Cao Wei to ensure that nothing went wrong.
Then he personally led the army to raid Longyou. According to this plan, the court of Wei would first receive news of Zhao Yun's attack and would need to stop him with all its might; Then a report of the Mengda rebellion was received, and the Wei army, which had been preparing to support Guanzhong, had to go to quell the rebellion; Finally, they will learn that Longyou has been occupied by the Shu army.
When the main force of the Shu army swept through Longyou, and the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding bowed down, Sima Yi had successfully pacified Meng Da, and Zhao Yun's suspicious soldiers were also defeated by Cao Zhen.
However, Prime Minister Zhuge Cheng's strategic goal has been basically achieved, as long as he holds the street pavilion and cuts off the passage for the Wei army to support Longyou, it is only a matter of time before he digests the occupied area. However, at this critical moment, Zhuge Liang made the only and fatal human mistake in his life.
Ma Tan lost the street pavilion, the Shu army collapsed completely, Zhuge Liang looked up to the sky and sighed, why did the sky do this to me?