Zhuge Liang's six Northern Expeditions, although they failed to change the overall situation, are still admirable, after all, Zhuge Liang took the initiative to attack, attacked the strong with weakness, and became stronger and stronger the more he fought, suppressing Sima Yi, which is basically the limit. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

【The specific scale of the Northern Expedition】

There are not many records in history about the specific strength of the two sides of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, and it can even be said that the specific strength of the two sides of the confrontation is basically not found in the current first-hand materials, and the Book of Jin mentions that Zhuge Liang led more than 100,000 troops to the north in the last Northern Expedition, and there is no record of Cao Wei.

During the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang divided his troops into several routes, and estimated that the overall strength should be more than 100,000, and Cao Weinei, Cao Zhen, Zhang He, Guo Huai and others all led the way, and Liangzhou also participated, and its total strength would not be less than Zhuge Liang. This time the scale of the confrontation should be relatively large.

The second Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang was blocked in Chencang, according to the "Wei Luo" records that the defenders of Chencang were only more than 1,000 people, and the Shu Han army had tens of thousands of people, and Cao Zhen sent Fei Yao and Cao Rui to let Zhang He lead more than 30,000 people to the rescue. The strength of Shu Han should be similar to that recorded in the information, but about Chen Cangcheng has already been prepared for a long time, and it is a little unreasonable that there are only more than 1,000 defenders, Hao Zhao's strength is far inferior to Zhuge Liang, but it should at least ensure that the city is firmly defended, otherwise Cao Zhen's early preparations will not become a joke.

There is no information on the strength of the troops on both sides in the Third Northern Expedition, and the overall scale is not very large, Guo Huai automatically withdrew after being blocked by Zhuge Liang.

In the fourth confrontation, Cao Zhen had several large armies in the northern expedition in advance, and the overall strength was likely to be more than 200,000, which can be described as a grand scale, Zhuge Liang was not enough for the local troops in Hanzhong, and Li Yan needed to lead 20,000 soldiers from the south to help, but unfortunately, in the end, it did not start. The specific strength of Wei Yan, Wu Yi and others is also unknown, and it is estimated that it is at least more than 10,000 people.

In the Fifth Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang first surrounded Qishan and was fighting against Sima Yi, and Cao Wei also sent reinforcements to Sima Yi, so Zhuge Liang's troops may be close to 100,000, and Sima Yi's total strength should be more.

The last Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang was recuperating for three years, and it is entirely possible that the total strength was more than 100,000, and Sima Yi's troops were affected by Cao Wei's two-front battles, so they may not be as much as Zhuge Liang in the early stage, but the total strength in the later period will not be lower than Zhuge Liang.

[A little talk about the Northern Expedition]

In history, Zhuge Liang launched six Northern Expeditions to conquer Cao Wei, who occupied most of the territory in the north, and the comparison of strength between the two sides was obviously unfavorable to Shu Han, Cao Wei also had the advantage of this home field, and his generals Cao Zhen, Sima Yi, Zhang He, Guo Huai and Hao Zhao and others basically did not have any mediocrity, and Cao Rui, who came to power as a newcomer, was not a role that could be bullied.

Cao Zhen can be said to be Zhuge Liang's direct opponent in the early stage, although the two did not directly confront, but Cao Zhen's military level is quite good, Zhuge Liang's first two Northern Expedition failures have a lot to do with him, if it is not for the curse of Da Sima, the final result of the two is not easy to say; And Sima Yi was a rare famous general throughout the Three Kingdoms period, but in history he only suffered losses under Zhuge Liang, in Zhuge Liang's last Northern Expedition, Sima Yi directly refused to fight, and was still afraid of Zhuge Liang after his death; Zhang He was the last of the five good generals of Cao Wei, and he caused Zhuge Liang a lot of trouble, and the Battle of Jieting was that he defeated Ma Tan and forced Zhuge Liang to retreat; Guo Huai, as the assassin of Yongzhou, participated in the whole battle with Zhuge Liang in the past seven years, and his performance was also quite good. Hao Zhao defended Chencang with a small number of troops during Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition and forced him to retreat, but unfortunately died early.

It can be seen from many battles that there is basically no waste in the military commanders of the two sides, except for Wang Shuang and Ma Jian and other defeated generals and newcomers, all of them are shrewd to death, and there is almost no possibility of tricks between the two sides, like Cao Zhen can predict that Zhuge Liang is ready to fight Chen Cang, Zhuge Liang can calculate Cao Wei's possible counterattack, and Guo Huai can also calculate the location of Zhuge Liang's attack.

And Zhuge Liang's actual opponents are not Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, but Emperor Cao Rui of the Ming Dynasty. Cao Zhen and Sima Yi are strictly speaking, just Cao Rui's pawns against Zhuge Liang, Cao Rui is the actual power and real boss of Cao Wei Group, and Cao Rui was definitely the last master at that time, Zhuge Liang and Sun Quan basically couldn't do anything about him.

In the process of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, Cao Rui's influence was great, not only Cao Zhen, Sima Yi and others were sent by him, but also in the Battle of Shangqi and subsequent battles, he sent reinforcements in time, and Sima Yi's final stubborn strategy Behind the scenes, Cao Rui's shadow is also very large.

So although Zhuge Liang launched six Northern Expeditions, but failed to change the situation, after his death, Cao Wei was still the dominant family, but this was not because of Zhuge Liang's incompetence, and in the end, how could Zhuge Liang, who was able to beat Cao Wei, who occupied a strong position, dare not fight, be an incompetent person. The fundamental reason for the failure of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was that Cao Wei was basically invulnerable under the leadership of Cao Rui, although Zhuge Liang was talented, he had no way to face an opponent whose strength was far stronger than his own, but there were no flaws.

Shu Han and Cao Wei also gave birth to many new things several times, such as rocket shooting and wooden oxen and flowing horses, and other things appeared in this period.

【Joint Operations】

Zhuge Liang's several Northern Expeditions in history should not be viewed separately, these military actions were actually one aspect of Shu Han and Sun Wu uniting against Cao Wei.

After the death of Cao Pi, Shu Han and Eastern Wu set off a great wave of counterattack, at this time Cao Rui, who had just succeeded to the throne, took Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Sima Yi and Man Chong and others as commanders to resist the enemy, in the Western Front battlefield, the direct opponents of Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu Han, were Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, and the two stopped Zhuge Liang outside Chang'an, making Shu Han fight hard for several years without results.

From the point of view of strength comparison, this can not only be counted as the confrontation between Shu Han and Cao Wei, at that time, in addition to Shu Han Zhuge Liang's several northern expeditions, Sun Wu, Liaodong and Xianbei and other ethnic minorities in the north have carried out a great containment of Cao Wei, although Cao Wei is strong and powerful, but he also faces many opponents, Zhuge Liang did cause them a lot of trouble, but not only he is threatening Cao Wei alone, other forces are not a small threat to Cao Wei.

For example, Sun Quan and others launched a large-scale offensive as early as 226, within three months after Cao Pi's death, much earlier than Zhuge Liang, and achieved a great victory in the later Battle of Shiting, eliminating more than 10,000 elite soldiers of Cao Wei.

Relatively speaking, Sun Quan was actually more threatening in the first three years of Cao Rui's reign, and a few years later, Cao Wei figured out Sun Quan's methods, and Sun Quan had no good way to deal with Cao Wei, and Zhuge Liang's threat increased instead of decreasing, and the more he fought, the stronger he became.