Ancient Chinese military tactics

 

Look at Rommel. He was able to beat the Allies numerous times, when Allies attacked or stayed defensive. He only pulled back when he ran out of manpower, and when his superior decided not to follow Rommel's advice.

 

Well said, Siegetower! His biggest accomplishment, after all, is to convince Shu to join the battle against Wu.

 

He won battles, but lost wars. To me, he's like McClellan of the American Civil War. He was too cautious to engage in a decisive conflict with Wei that might decide the fate of the two kingdoms. As it turned out, this was good for Shu, as Jiang Wei's more bold yet reckless way of campaigning would result in defeat after defeat for Shu-Han.

 

Overrated? Perhaps. But he deserves his fame. Wei had many competent officers, as did Wu, but Zhuge Liang was definitely the most talented man that Shu-Han produced. He was both a good leader and a good "politician." Before his Northern Campaigns, he worked himself to exhaustion with the details of governance. During his Northern Campaigns, he worked himself to death with the details of campaign strategy. His style of waging war was gradually progressive, but slow. Had he been able to live much longer, I think he would have found much more success in his war against Wei.

 

Even though he was Prime Minister, he told Liu Shan that he could leave matters of governance in the hands of Fei Wei, Guo Youzhi and Dong Yun. After Liu Bei's death, he did a lot to repair Shu's military, economy, etc. and restore the faith of Shu's populace. But afterwards he became, essentially, the commander-in-chief of Shu-Han. Except for the first and second northern campaign, he was victorious in battle in nearly all of his other campaigns. He was too cautious to follow up victories with a drive into Wei, however. Some say this was a bad thing, but I consider it to be one of his better points. Better to be cautious than reckless if you are at a disadvantage against a stronger enemy country.

 

I agree with you.

 

Just that I think Kongming's hands were tied due to being outnumbered and outresouced.  Hence, his flexibility was limited.  I think if Sima Yi and KongMing had the same amount of each, Kong Ming would win.  Hands down.

 

But you have to hand it to Sima Yi.  He knew he was inferior (or at least not as smart as Kong Ming) hence he played the waiting game to his advantage.  It takes a man of great ability to know one's limitations & utilize it to the fullest.

 

Jiangwei

 

well said.

 

 

Zhuge Liang might be a brilliant tactician but he never had any major breakthrough in the war against Wei 

 

Zhuge Liang achieved very little against the kingdom of Wu either. He merely restored the peace that the two kingdom had before Wu took Jingzhou from Liu Bei.

 

Wu did not dominate most of China. Wei had nearly equal to or more land than Wu (although as far as land goes, the two kingdoms may have been pretty close). Wei had a significant population advantage against Wu, however, and the combined amount of territory that Wei and Shu had outmatched that of the territory that Wu held.

 

The concluding statement you made might be true. Shu needed all the good leadership it could have, and Zhuge Liang was definitely the greatest mind in the kingdom. His policies, both civil and military, made Shu-Han a much larger threat to Cao-Wei.

 

What Siege Tower says is mostly true though. Zhuge Liang's policies were progressive, and he was slowly gaining ground as he won more victories, but he never did have a major breakthrough against Wei.