Zhuge Liang was famous for his strategy #part 1

Zhuge Liang was known as "Crouching Dragon" with the talent of "doing things like a god" and being clever and scheming.

1. Zhuge Liang's biography

He is a prominent character in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by writer La Guanzhong
Zhuge Liang (181 - 234), alias Khong Minh, nickname Ngoa Long, was an outstanding military strategist, politician, and diplomat in Chinese history. He is considered the founder of the country and Prime Minister of the Shu Han dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period.

Although he is a real character in Chinese history, the image of Confucius Zhuge Liang is known mainly through the famous novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by writer La Guanzhong.

Zhuge Liang was born in 181 in Yangdu, Tuzhou (now Yinan district, Shandong province, China). He is the second child in a family of 3 brothers. At the age of 12, he lost his parents and had to live at his uncle's house.

At the age of 25, Zhuge Liang married Hoang Nguyet Anh - an ugly woman listed among the "Chinese Five Uglies" (ie the 5 ugliest women in Chinese history). The two have one child together, Gia Cat Chiem

At the age of 27, Zhuge Liang was recruited by Liu Bei as a military advisor, to help restore the Han dynasty. During his time assisting Liu Bei, he made many great contributions, helping to build the fortune of the Shu Han dynasty. Among them, his greatest success was building the Shu - Wu alliance to fight against Cao Wei, forming a cauldron during the Three Kingdoms period.

After Liu Bei died in 223, Zhuge Liang continued to assist Liu Shan - Liu Bei's son with the mission of reviving the Han dynasty. During this time, he carried out five Northern campaigns to destroy Cao Wei but were all unsuccessful.

In 234, while preparing for the 6th Northern Expedition campaign, Zhuge Liang fell ill and died at the age of 53.

Khong Minh died at Go Ngu Truong due to illness. However, the actual illness that led to his death is not clearly documented

Many scholars speculate that Zhuge Liang died from a gastrointestinal disease. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" also repeatedly depicts Zhuge Liang vomiting blood, most likely a symptom of gastrointestinal ulcer disease. It is the consequence of the habit of overworking, eating, sleeping, and sleeping irregularly.

In addition, many people also believe that Khong Minh became ill due to too much pressure after the failed Northern invasions. Not only that, he also had to witness the death of his trusted generals, especially veteran general Trieu Van. It was too strong a blow to his already fragile life.
At the end of August 234, Zhuge Liang passed away in his hospital bed. His grave is buried at Dinh Quan mountain

2. How good was Zhuge Liang? Talent is overly sanctified

Through the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by writer La Guanzhong, Zhuge Liang is portrayed as a wise and multi-scheming person, like a god. To evaluate Zhuge Liang's talent, the best way is to consider the battles he participated in as well as the battles of wits with Zhou Yu and Sima Yi - his two biggest opponents.

The Great War of Xich Bich is always considered the most famous battle of the Three Kingdoms period not only because of its scale but also because of its significance. It was this battle that shaped the cauldron of three countries: Wei - Shu - Wu. And according to the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by writer La Guanzhong, the person who contributed the most in this battle was Zhuge Liang with the story of borrowing the East wind.

The Great War of Xich Bich took place in the context of Cao Cao leading 220,000 troops to Jiangnan to pacify the South and unify the world. To confront the Cao army, the Liu - Sun alliance was established with only 50,000 troops. The correlation of forces between the two sides clearly shows the difference.
Even so, the Cao army did not fully grasp the advantage because they were not good at naval warfare. The weather at that time was winter, the North wind was blowing very strongly. To avoid capsizing, Cao Cao ordered his troops to use large chains to connect the warships together

Dealing with the large numbers of Cao's army, Chu Du and Zhuge Liang came up with a "fire attack" plan to destroy the enemy. However, the problem is, the wind at that time in Jiangnan was the Northwest wind, if the Luu - Sun alliance used fire, it would be no different from self-immolation. What they are missing here is the East wind. This problem gave Chu Du a headache and worried him to the point of getting sick. However, at the most important moment, Zhuge Liang set up a bridge to the East Wind and solved the key issue of the battle.

When the great battle took place, the troops of the Liu - Sun alliance approached the Cao army's warships and set fire to them. The strong East wind makes the fire burn faster. Cao Cao did not expect that connecting the warships together would be digging his own grave. In just a blink of an eye, hundreds of Cao's warships were burned. Cao Cao was defeated and had to flee with a few thousand remaining soldiers.

The Great War of Xich Bich ended with victory for the Luu - Ton alliance. Cao Cao's plan to unify the world was ruined, and the Three Kingdoms period was formed

Thus, it can be seen that the East wind is the key factor in deciding the victory or defeat of this great battle. So, does Zhuge Liang have the talent to "call the wind and rain"? According to the explanation of writer La Quan Trung, Zhuge Liang is a person "above astronomy, below the geographical wall". He knew that at the time of the Winter Solstice, the climate would gradually warm up, and the Southeast wind would blow, so he chose this time to "borrow the East wind."

Chu Du was a famous general and national founder of the Dong Ngo dynasty. He was famous for his victory in the Great Red Cliff War. Although in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang is recognized as the person with the greatest contribution when he "borrowed the East wind" to destroy the Cao army. However, many scholars believe that this is just a fictional detail of writer La Quan Trung.
In fact, Chu Du was the one who contributed the most when he was the one who advised Sun Quyen to be determined to fight Cao. And he was also the person who directly commanded this battle

In terms of talent, Chu Du is no worse than Zhuge Liang. He was even considered a predecessor of Confucius because when the great Red Cliff war broke out, Chu Du had 15 years of military experience while Zhuge Liang had only participated in politics for 1 year. In addition, in the novel, Zhou Yu is also portrayed as a narrow-minded person who is jealous of Zhuge Liang's talent. He was said to have been angered to death by Zhuge Liang, and had to complain: "Why did Heaven give birth to Du?

However, in the book Tam Quoc Chi, historian Tran Tho portrayed Chu Du as a person: "Open-minded, generous... a genius". That is also shown by the fact that before his death, the first thing he did was nominate Lu Tuc to replace him even though before that they often disagreed. If he were a jealous, narrow-minded person, would he do the same? Perhaps the saying "Heaven gave birth to Du, why did they give birth to Luong" continues to be a fictional episode of writer La Quan Trung

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi - Who is better?

Besides Chu Du, Sima Yi is also considered Zhuge Liang's arch-rival and arch-rival. If Zhuge Liang was nicknamed Crouching Dragon, then Sima Yi was also nicknamed The Tiger. That's enough to show the incomparable talent between the two
The most famous battle of wits between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi is probably the "Unsuccessful" battle at Tay Thanh. At that time, Sima Yi had 150,000 powerful troops in his hands, while Zhuge Liang only had about 2,500 soldiers stationed in the city.

Faced with a dangerous situation, Zhuge Liang did not flinch and ordered his soldiers to open the city gates, while he leisurely played the piano on the city wall. After a while of listening to the music and pondering, Sima Yi decided to withdraw his army because he was worried about an ambush inside the citadel.

Thanks to this strategy, Zhuge Liang won without fighting. However, one cannot look at a loss and quickly evaluate the strength of both sides. In fact, let's not forget that Zhuge Liang was punished five times and fought against Sima Yi for more than ten years but still failed. That's enough to show how talented Sima Yi is

And if you still feel unconvinced, listen to Sun Quan's comments about Sima Yi. After hearing the news of Zhuge Liang's death at Go Ngu Truong, Ton Quyen had to exclaim: "Si Ma Cong is good at using troops, transforms like a god, has no money", intending to praise Tu's talent in using troops. Ma Yi is like a god, far superior to Zhuge Liang

Thus, it can be seen that Zhuge Liang is truly an outstanding talent. However, his talent was also exaggerated and deified too much under the pen of writer La Quan Trung.