Let's first look at what Sima Yi said about Zhuge Liang. According to Zhuge Liang Biography, when Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi retired from the war, Sima Yi came to the place where Zhuge Liang was stationed in the camp and walked back and forth and said, "Zhuge Liang is really a genius in the world." In other words, Sima Yi, as an opponent, spoke highly of Zhuge Liang. He not only thinks that Zhuge Liang is a genius, but even thinks that he is not as good as Zhuge Liang. Sima Yi spoke highly of Zhuge Liang, but how did Zhuge Liang evaluate Sima Yi?
Similarly, it was Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi who fought against each other. Zhuge Liang challenged Sima Yi many times outside the city gate, but Sima Yi couldn't hold on, and asked the Emperor of Wei to have a good fight. Zhuge Liang said that Sima Yi had no intention of going to war. If he can really beat me, why did he come all the way for instructions? In other words, in Zhuge Liang's mind, Sima Yi can't beat himself, and it can be seen that Zhuge Liang is sure of his victory. I don't think Sima Yi is as good as myself. If this can't prove Zhuge Liang's attitude, then during Zhuge Liang's challenge to Sima Yi, Sima Yi refused to play, and Zhuge Liang sent people to send women's clothes to Sima Yi, satirizing Sima Yi as timid as a woman.
This shows that Sima Yi is timid in Zhuge Liang's eyes and despises Sima Yi. Sima Yi was very angry after receiving the women's clothes from Zhuge Liang. He also asked the emperor of Wei to play Zhuge Liang. However, the emperor refused to allow it. These are recorded in the history books: the emperor was angry and decided to fight on the table. The son of heaven did not allow it, but sent ministers and guards to take care of it. It can be seen that Zhuge Liang commented on Sima Yi like this: "He can't beat me." Although Zhuge Liang could do nothing about Sima Yi, he was never afraid of him. Moreover, Sima Yi is even a little afraid of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang paid more attention to Sima Yi's strategy and despised his attitude. Otherwise, we wouldn't bother to attack Sima Yi in the valley above. What did you say?/Sorry?
Zhuge Liang's evaluation II
The first question: Why did Zhuge Liang explore the North every year?
I think there is an interesting paradox here: does Zhuge Liang know that the Northern Expedition is impossible to succeed? If he doesn't know, is it contrary to his unpredictable and wise image? If he realized in advance that the Northern Expedition would probably not succeed, why did he insist on launching this "aggressive" war with no chance of winning? The strange thing about history is that many results of the failure of the Northern Expedition obviously cannot be explained by luck. It is really hard for Comrade Luo Guanzhong to make up excuses for Zhuge Liang's repeated wars and defeats in the Northern Expedition. People who know statistics should understand that the larger the sample, the smaller the probability.
If we only look at the Northern Expedition from a military perspective, it is hard to think that it is a wise choice. Sun Tzu's art of war has a saying: go up and down, then cut the enemy, and then cut the soldiers. The method of attacking the city and pulling out the village is a last resort. You know, the Northern Expedition was an siege war after a long-distance attack, and the cost was probably unimaginable under the technical conditions at that time. Sima Yi couldn't persist, not because he was weak and incompetent, but because he had no water in his mind. This is because the cost of the attacker is far greater than that of the defender! (For details, please refer to the ancient "Is it a car carrying food for war?"? When did you start using it? " . Why do you need hundreds of thousands of troops to support tens of thousands of troops? "-Zhihu) On the other hand, the battle of Wei destroying Shu can be described as" a debacle ". When I was not sure, I didn't attack Shu in a way that caused untold suffering. When Wei's military strength is strong enough to make Shu feel that there is no suspense in failure, Shu will perish with the least casualties on both sides. By the way, the humanistic thought in Sun Tzu's Art of War is obviously commendable.
Interestingly, after the Yiling War, the three countries entered a period of relative peace. Except for the hysterical provocation of Shu, other countries are recuperating. Of course, you can also say that you are busy preparing for class infighting to seize power. The question is, isn't it a blessing for the people of Wei to have a traitor like Sima Yi? Please note that Wei Guodu did not attack Shu after losing the battle of Yiling. It is conceivable that there was no obvious external pressure on Shu under Zhuge Liang's rule. At this time, the problem came. Since no one provoked Shu, why did Zhuge Liang provoke again and again by "renewing coal" (instead of concentrating his troops)?
Zhuge Liang's evaluation 3
As a strategist, Zhuge Liang, why can't I understand all the problems I can think of? As a matter of fact, the Northern Expedition year after year completely violated Zhuge Liang's strategic plan in Longzhong period. At least at that time, Zhuge Liang hoped to use the wealth of the land of abundance to accumulate strength and wait for the historical opportunity of "world change" to destroy Wei in World War I. Obviously Yizhou was far from the Central Plains and had the strategic advantage of natural barrier. On the contrary, in the Northern Expedition, the strategic advantage became a strategic disadvantage. So what caused Zhuge Liang to go against his original intention? Next, I will talk about three non-contradictory explanations.
The theory of gaining ruling legitimacy. Liu Beijin Yizhou will obviously rob the cake of the local people, which is actually no essential difference from Chiang Kai-shek's entry into Taiwan Province Province. Do you think Chiang Kai-shek clamored for a counterattack against the mainland, and even sent reconnaissance planes to the mainland to throw leaflets on the mainland with balloons? Is it really that Chiang Kai-shek is not sure about his own strength, but that his mind is hot and he is ready to counterattack the mainland? Obviously not, because only by raising the banner of "national justice" can it be explained that it grabs cakes with local people. However, the internal pressure of Shu was greater, which forced Zhuge Liang to launch the Northern Expedition year after year to transfer domestic contradictions and gain the legitimacy of being in power. It's like North Korea repeatedly testing missiles. It does not mean that North Korea is strong, but it is a sign of guilty conscience. Because he needs an imaginary enemy to stabilize the domestic situation.
Zhuge Liang's evaluation 4
Relatively weak expansion theory. For the Central Plains where Guo Wei is located, from "the yellow turban insurrectionary thief" to "competing with the group", it has long been tossed into "ten rooms and nine empty rooms". If we give Wei time to recuperate, it will definitely make its strength recover quickly. Shu, which is far away from the Central Plains, has escaped years of war. In fact, during the Three Kingdoms period, there were many events that reflected the brilliance of human nature, but these were interpreted as negative things by later generations. In fact, when Liu Bei entered Yizhou, Liu Zhang didn't disregard the scorched-earth resistance of the world for his own interests. Later, I will talk about how the people of Shu lived under Zhuge Liang's rule. Here I simply put forward a conclusion: Zhuge Liang's ability to govern the country is completely reflected in his ability to crush the people, which is almost doomed by the legalist regimes of past dynasties. In short, Zhuge Liang's rule has a super "blood-drawing ability", but this is based on the loss of "hematopoietic ability". In other words, under Zhuge Liang's rule, there may be a population loss in Shu, so that its national strength may not necessarily increase with the passage of time, but may decline.
Zhuge Liang's evaluation 5