Regarding the ranking of strategists, although Cao Cao, Zhou Yu, Lu Meng, Lu Xun and several others in history are all strategic, they are basically not actual strategists, so they are not included in the ranking, and Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi have all held official positions similar to strategists, and they have been strategists for their lords, so the two are included in the ranking.

【Strategist Ranking】

No.12 Fa Zheng

Fa Zheng helped Liu Bei seize Yizhou and occupy Hanzhong in history, and was Liu Bei's third mastermind after Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, but unfortunately he died too early.

Fa Zheng was originally Liu Zhang's subordinate, because of Zhang Song's recommendation as an envoy to Jingzhou, he saw Liu Bei and persuaded Liu Bei to seize Jingzhou, and after Liu Zhang and Liu Bei turned against each other, it was determined that Liu Zhang would not adopt Zheng Du's policy of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness, and after capturing the CD, Fa Zheng persuaded Liu Bei to reuse Xu Jing's daughter to buy bones and horses, and persuaded Liu Bei to marry Wu Yi's sister in order to win over the Dongzhou faction, and Fa Zheng's contribution was also great in the later battle of Hanzhong.

No.11 Dong Zhao

Dong Zhao was one of the very few underrated strategists during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, and he played a very key role when Cao Cao moved the capital to Xuchang, and his importance was even no less than that of Xun Yu. In addition, Dong Zhao also reminded Cao Cao that Liu Bei might change, and proposed to dig a canal to solve the supply problem before the crusade against Wuheng, and during the Battle of Xiangfan, he strongly advised Sun Quan not to keep it secret, and leaked Sun Quan's attack on Nanjun, intending to Sun Liu to fight.

No.10 Zhang Hong

Zhang Hong was an important advisor to Sun Ce and Sun Quan, and he left three major contributions to the two lords, one was to improve the Jiangdu pair for Sun Ce, the second was to dissuade Cao Cao from going south when Sun Quan's foothold was not stable, and the third was to persuade Sun Quan to move the capital to Jianye.

No.9 Liu Ye

Liu Ye served Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Rui in history, and all had key exhortations, but none of them were adopted.

During the Cao Cao period, Liu Ye once strongly recommended to occupy Hanzhong and take the opportunity to crusade against Yizhou, but Cao Cao did not listen, and later regretted it too late; During the Cao Pi period, Liu Ye persuaded Cao Pi to go south to destroy Wu during the Battle of Yiling. During the Cao Rui period, Liu Ye advised not to recognize Gongsun Yuan's status, and to take the opportunity to crusade, Cao Rui did not listen, but later Gongsun Yuan rebelled, and Cao Rui sent troops three times to completely pacify Liaodong.

No.8 Cheng Yu

Cheng Yu was one of Cao Cao's main strategists in the early days, among the several main strategists who took refuge in him in the early days of Cao Cao's move to Xuchang, Xi Zhicai died early, Chen Gong was killed in Xiapi after the rebellion, Xun Yu died soon after the relationship between Cao Cao and Cao Cao broke down, only Cheng Yu lived to the Cao Pi period, which was also once dismissed.

Cheng Yu was very famous at the beginning of Yanzhou, Yanzhou assassin Liu Dai has always invited Cheng Yu to come out, and later Cheng Yu also gave Liu Dai help on the issue of uniting Yuan Shao or Gongsun Zhan, after Cao Cao became the pastor of Yanzhou, Cheng Yu immediately went out to assist Cao Cao, and when the battle of Cao Lu Yanzhou was deadlocked, he strongly persuaded Cao Cao not to go north to rely on Yuan Shao, and later advised Cao Cao to get rid of Liu Bei as soon as possible and prevent Liu Bei from going to Xuzhou to intercept Yuan Shu, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful. I won't elaborate on all of this.

No.7 Lu Su

Lu Su was not only one of the main generals under Sun Quan, but also Sun Quan's core strategist. After Cao Cao's southern expedition, he took the initiative to ask Ying to send an envoy to Jingzhou to unite Liu Biao and Liu Bei, and was the promoter of the Sun-Liu alliance.

No.6 Sima Yi

Sima Yi not only has extremely outstanding military exploits in history, but he is not bad at strategy. Earlier, Sima Yi had been Cao Cao's staff officer, and he had advised to pay attention to Hu Xiu, the assassin of Jingzhou, and Fu Fang, the Taishou of Nanxiang, thinking that the two were not suitable, but Cao Cao did not listen, and later the two defected against Guan Yu; During the Battle of Xiangfan, Sima Yi and Jiang Ji worked together to dispel Cao Cao's intention of moving the capital; During the Cao Pi period, Sima Yi also expected early that Sun Quan would not turn his face with Cao Wei and attack Xiangyang and other places that had been broken; In the future, Sima Yi played them even more when he confronted Cao Shuang and others.

No.5 Xun You

Xun You is one of Cao Cao's core strategists, and when Xun Yu is in the middle, he overwhelms Cheng Yu, Jia Xu, Guo Jia and others to become Cao Cao's new masterminds, which shows his level of strategy.

Xun You had wonderful performances in many things such as Cao Cao's crusade against Nanyang, the conquest of Lü Bu, the battle of Guandu and the discussion between the north and the south (crusade against Yuan in the north or Jingzhou in the south), especially in the battle of Guandu, Xun You's play was irreplaceable.

No.4 Frustration

He can be said to be the most underestimated strategist in the late Han Dynasty, he can be said to be Yuan Shao's mastermind earlier, the second person of Yuan Shao's group, high power, outstanding strategy, he proposed Jizhou for Yuan Shao at that time, which was the first comprehensive strategic plan at that time, and Fu Zhu was also the first to put forward the idea of coercing the Son of Heaven and ordering the princes.

After Fu Zhu took refuge in Yuan Shao, he put forward a number of suggestions for him, which were proved to be completely correct in the future, but unfortunately Yuan Shao later became dizzy, and even specifically and Fu Zhu was angry that he did not listen to Fu Zhu's words, and finally Fu Zhu was captured in Guandu, and he was killed after escaping.

No.3 Xun Yu

Although Xun Yu's later years ended regrettably, but his contribution to Cao Wei is undeniable, in fact, Xun Yu is also one of the founders of Cao Wei, as the earliest group of strategists who took refuge in Cao Cao, without his help, it is difficult for Cao Cao's future development to have such a large scale, and there is Xun Yu's shadow in many of Cao Cao's major decisions, Xun Yu is equivalent to Liu Bang's Zhang Liang and Xiao He for Cao Cao.

Xun Yu made extremely accurate judgments in many key events that affected Cao Cao's life, such as the Battle of Cao Lu Yanzhou, the establishment of the Son of Heaven, the confrontation against Yuan Shao, and the North-South Debate, and later Cao Cao also listened to Xun Yu's advice before going south to defeat Liu Biao, and was very successful.

No.2 Jia Xu

Jia Xu is known as the "poisoner" in history, and is generally considered to be a sophist strategist more often, but this is actually mainly because of the environment at the time, Li Dao and Zhang Xiu were flawed when they were under their command, so Jia Xu adopted more tricks and tactics, and when Cao Cao was under his command, Jia Xu's performance was more orthodox, for example, in the Battle of Chibi, Jia Xu's advised Cao Cao to stick to Jingzhou and not to go south easily.

Before Jia Xu surrendered to Cao, he had persuaded Li Dao and others to rebel, so that the Xiliang Army forces re-seized Guanzhong and controlled the Son of Heaven, and later strongly recommended Zhu Jun to solve the anti-Li alliance in one fell swoop, and Jia Xu's performance was also very good when he was under Zhang Xiu's command. As a top strategist who combines trickery and royal energy, I personally ranked Jia Xu second.

No.1 Zhuge Liang

Zhuge Liang is Liu Bei's first real mastermind since Jingzhou, he put forward many valuable suggestions for Liu Bei in the first few years of his refuge in Liu Bei, among which Longzhong is the most important, it can be said that Zhuge Liang relied on the "Longzhong pair" to establish his position as the first strategist at that time.

If it weren't for Liu Bei's failure to handle the relationship with Sun Quan because of some things such as Mrs. Sun, Liu Bei's future development in accordance with Longzhong's plan and complete revival of the Han family is not hopeless.