Zhuge Liang's life, with his spirit of selfless dedication and loyalty, can be condensed into "do your best, and then die". Since he left the hermitage and stepped into the **, his life has entered a continuous state of busyness, until he died of illness due to overwork.
During the period of assisting Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang faced the various consultations and needs of the lord, and went all out to solve them. During the period of assisting Liu Chan, because Liu Chan's talent was not as good as his father Liu Bei, he did almost nothing about government affairs, relying on Zhuge Liang like a lifeline, and all decisions followed Zhuge Liang's guidance.
Zhuge Liang took on the internal and external affairs of Shu alone, and his health gradually weakened due to excessive hard work, and finally died of overwork. After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang took full charge of the government and personally led the troops to the battle, but the results of the war were often unsatisfactory and suffered many setbacks.
Zhuge Liang once swung the Central Plains six times, but each time he failed to achieve the expected goal, and the results ended in failure. Why did Zhuge Liang, who was invincible and invincible in the past, lose again and again? The answer to this question was accidentally revealed before Jiang Wei died. In the process of taking over Zhuge Liang's legacy and continuing the Northern Expedition, Jiang Wei personally experienced the difficulties that Zhuge Liang had faced, and deeply understood why Zhuge Liang suffered frequent defeats.
Jiang Wei summarized the main reasons for Zhuge Liang's and his own defeat, which can be roughly summarized into three aspects:
First of all, Liu Chan's incompetence. As the saying goes, "the train runs fast because of the headband", and the key to the strength of a country lies in the ability of the monarch. Liu Chan of Shu Han was mediocre and incompetent, lacked understanding and decisiveness for national affairs, and relied on Zhuge Liang for all of them. Liu Bei was able to give Zhuge Liang support when he was alive, but Liu Chan's existence became a burden. To use modern popular game terminology, Liu Chan is like a "pig teammate" in the team, unable to drive the overall situation and effectively participate in the battle.
Second, there were serious divisions within Shu. One of the important reasons why Zhuge Liang monopolized the government was that there were many factions and contradictions within the Shu Han Dynasty. The Jingzhou faction, headed by Zhuge Liang, was the core force of Liu Bei's old department, while the Yizhou faction was divorced from it, satisfied with the status quo, and unwilling to participate in foreign conquests. For the Yizhou faction, no matter who ascended the throne as emperor, they were just courtiers, so when Deng Ai's army pressed the border, the Yizhou faction quickly chose to surrender, only seeking to protect their own interests and ignore the overall interests of Shu Han. Such internal friction undoubtedly weakened the strength of Shu Han against Wei.
Finally, the problem of logistical supply is prominent. Grain and grass ** is the basis for determining the outcome of the war, as the old proverb goes: "Before the soldiers and horses move, the grain and grass go first." "During the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang was forced to withdraw many times because the grain and grass could not be delivered in time, and finally returned in vain. Although Shu is known as the land of abundance, it is still insufficient in terms of grain and grass reserves compared with Wei, which sits on the entire north and is rich in resources. Even if Zhuge Liang was strategic, he could not make the hungry soldiers win, after all, "it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice".