Revealing the secret of Zhuge Liang’s empty city strategy? Is it really an empty city strategy? The ambushers had a plan

In the TV series Tiger Roars and Dragon Roar, which ended some time ago, Zhuge Liang played by Wang Luoyong and Sima Yi played by Wu Xiubo presented wonderful visual feasts one after another. Among them, Zhuge Liang's "empty city strategy" after Ma Di lost the street pavilion is more interesting. Regarding Zhuge Liang's "empty city strategy" to clear the gap, later generations believed that he fully understood Sima Yi's cautious and suspicious character, and that was why he dared to adopt such a risky strategy. So here's the problem. Zhuge Liang was so cautious that even Wei Yan didn't dare to take the risk of leading an army of five thousand out of Ziwu Valley. How could he risk being captured by the command post?

If you simply regard it as a game between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, you will underestimate the rationality of the "empty city strategy". In fact, the empty city strategy is not empty, nor is defeating the enemy completely empty. At that time, after Zhuge Liang learned that Jieting and Lieliucheng had all been lost, he began to arrange a retreat for the Northern Expedition. First, Guan Xing and Zhang Bao were arranged to each lead 3,000 elite troops to Wugong Mountain, then Zhang Yixian went to Jiange to prepare for the return journey, and then Ma Dai and Jiang Wei were ordered to prepare an ambush behind the house. In the end, all officials and citizens of Tianshui, Nan'an and Anding counties immigrated to Hanzhong. And he himself led five thousand horses to transport grain. Then let’s look at the armies of Sima Yi and Cao Wei.

From the time he burned Xinyewangshui, Zhuge Liang was an expert at luring Cao Wei's troops in the hearts of Cao Wei's army, which had been frightened by repeated battles. Moreover, the Cao Wei army has always been good at using military lures. In the early years, they lured Lu Bu in the battle of Puyang, lured Wen Chou in the battle of Guandu, and so on. They learned early on that being lured by greedy fish bait was a recipe for death. After the fall of Zhuge Liang's Jieting, whether it was to immigrate the people of the three counties or rescue the Shu soldiers and generals, it would not be a small activity. Even if Sima Yi didn't know the actual situation of Shu soldiers, he certainly knew that Shu soldiers had been mobilized on a large scale. But he didn't see any large-scale heavy troops in Xicheng. How could these Shu soldiers disappear? Was this an ambush for an attack? No matter how bold Sima Yi was, he still had to plot against Zhuge Liang's generals, such as Guan Xing, Zhang Bao, Ma Dai, Wang Ping, and Wei Yan.

Sima Yi did not believe the sentry's information at first. After personally visiting the enemy for verification, he took cautious measures. Go back first, and then drag Xu Tu. If there is an ambush, take advantage of it. If there is no ambush, then fight again. Not long after Sima Yi returned to Xicheng, he asked the local people about the actual situation of the Shu army and found out that Sima Yi did make a comeback in military operations, rather than Bing Wei scaring him all the way back to Chang'an as some people said. Take a step back, keep a safe distance, and then think of a solution instead of scaring and running away. Later, on the path of Wugong Mountain, the killing sounds of Guan Xing and Zhang Bao filled the entire canyon, making Wei Jun feel suspicious and did not dare to stop for a long time. Cao Zhen wanted to take credit, but was ambushed halfway. They were intercepted by Jiang Wei and Ma Dai arranged by Zhuge Liang in advance and had to retreat. At this time, if Sima Yi had not left early, he would have almost ended up like Cao Zhen. There were distribution arrangements beforehand and an ambush afterwards, so Zhuge Liang's "empty city strategy" trapped Sima Yi.

In the novel, there are 150,000 Wei troops. Zhuge Liang himself has 2,500 troops, and another 2,500 Shu troops are temporarily sent out. Zhang Bao has 3,000 each, so there are already 11,000 here. In addition, Zhang Yi, Jiang Wei, and Ma Dai's troops are not included. If we include the remnants of Wang Ping, Wei Yan, Gao Xiang, Shen Dan, and Shen Yi on the Jieting battlefield, as well as Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi's Yiguyi army, there probably won't be too many troops. In the AD year, Zhuge Liang once said: "The troops in Qishan and Jigu have many thieves, but they cannot be defeated. If they are defeated by thieves, the disease will not be serenaded, but in one person's ears." That is to say, the number of Shu troops is quite large. If Sima Yi's army can bully more people than others, why does he only care about 10,000 Shu soldiers? In fact, Zhuge Liang did not dare to expedition to the north with only 10,000 people. Even the Southern Expedition did not use only 10,000 people. How could the Northern Expedition only use ten thousand people?

In addition, no matter how many people there are, they are still afraid of traps. During the Changping Battle of the Warring States Period, although Zhao Kuo had more than 400,000 troops, he was still trapped by the Qin army and suffered from hunger. Finally he was forced to surrender and was killed. The mountainous terrain in the Hanzhong area is not conducive to the attack of the Wei cavalry. There is a danger that "one person can defend it, but ten thousand people cannot" at the valley pass. Although the Wei army had many ranks, wouldn't it be too careless to ignore the terrain restrictions? Zhuge Liang has an army and he has geographical advantages. Although Sima Yi had 200,000 men, he still might not have the upper hand. Unless Sima Yi is blind and cannot see Wei Yan, Zhao Yun and Wang Pingping, he should consider whether these Shu soldiers are ambushing them.

Zhuge Liang later made good use of luring troops to kill Zhang He and Xinmeile Co., Ltd., which proved Wei Jun's reckless fate. He suffered the consequences of underestimating himself. He was afraid that he would die and perish.