In terms of leading troops to fight, Zhuge Liang is the most powerful, Sima Yi is second, and Zhou Yu is at the bottom.
1. Zhou Yu
Speaking of Zhou Yu, I have to mention the Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Nanjun, which are the highlight moments of Zhou Yu's life.
As soon as these two battles were over, Zhou Yu died, and if you want to comment on Zhou Yu's military talent, you must say these two battles.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Lord Wu": Yu and Pu are the left and right governors, each leading 10,000 people, advancing with preparations, encountering Chibi and breaking the Cao Gong army.
Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu were the governors of the left and right, each leading more than 10,000 people, united with Liu Bei, met the Cao army in Chibi, and defeated the Cao army.
Theoretically, Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu are equal, which is a deliberate arrangement by Sun Quan, but in fact, it is Zhou Yu who makes the decision.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhou Yu": Five years, planning, and power. General Yu went to the funeral, so he stayed in Wu, and took charge of all affairs with the Zhonghu Army and Changshi Zhang Zhao.
After Sun Ce's death, Zhou Yu led the army to the funeral, and took charge of state affairs with Changshi Zhang Zhao as the central protector, which was equivalent to the status of an auxiliary minister, which was naturally higher than Cheng Pu.
Zhou Yu
Zhou Yu's strategy to defeat Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi all came from Huang Gai.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Zhou Yu Biography": Yu General Huang Gai said: "Today, I am outnumbered, difficult and durable." However, the warships are connected from head to tail, and they can be burned and left. "It is to take dozens of Mengchong fighting ships, fill them with grass, anoint oil, wrap them in curtains, build a tooth flag, and report to Cao Gong first, and deceive them to surrender.
Zhou Yu's subordinate Huang Gai said:
Now the enemy is outnumbered, and it is difficult to fight it for a long time. But observe that the warships of the Cao army are all connected from end to end, and they can be attacked with fire.
So Zhou Yu transferred dozens of large warships, filled the ships with firewood and grass, poured oil ointment into them, wrapped a curtain on the outside, and planted a tooth flag on it, and first asked Huang Gai to write a letter to Cao Cao, pretending to go and surrender.
The fire attack plan was proposed by Huang Gai, and it was also Huang Gai who went to surrender in person, and Huang Gai was the first merit in the Battle of Chibi.
Zhou Yu in the Battle of Chibi is mainly the work of leadership and decision-making, after Huang Gai put forward the plan, Zhou Yu thought it was feasible, and arranged the specific implementation, and finally broke Cao Cao.
Let's look at the Battle of Nanjun.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Gan Ning": Ning Jianji first entered Yiling, and then he got the city because he entered it. At that time, there were hundreds of soldiers under his command, and the new ones were only a thousand. Cao Rennai ordered five or six thousand people to surround Ning. Rather be attacked, the enemy set up tall buildings, rain in the city, the soldiers are afraid, but rather talk and laugh freely. sent an envoy to report Yu, Yu used Lu Meng's strategy, and the generals were relieved of the siege.
During the battle of Nanjun, Gan Ning suggested that Yiling be captured first, Zhou Yu agreed, Gan Ning led hundreds of people to attack and occupy Yiling, and then recruited more than 1,000 troops, Cao Ren saw that Yiling was lost, and sent five or six thousand people to besiege Yiling.
Watching Zhou Yu fight, all the strategies were put forward by the generals
Gan Ning asked Zhou Yu for help, most of Zhou Yu's generals did not recommend rescue on the grounds of insufficient troops, only Lu Meng suggested that Ling Tong should guard the camp, but he could be guaranteed to be fine for ten days, Zhou Yu adopted Lu Meng's suggestion and led the generals to rescue Gan Ning, so he successfully relieved the siege of Gan Ning.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhou Yu": Ningwei was solved, but it was to cross the north bank of Tun, and the battle was over. Yu relatives straddle the horse and beat Chen, and the arrow will be hit in the right flank, and the sores will be very serious, so they will return. Hou Ren Wenyu did not get up, and the soldiers were Chen. Yu is self-exciting, the case marches to the barracks, exalts the officials, and Ren is retreated.
After the siege of Ganning was lifted, Zhou Yu's army crossed the river and garrisoned on the north bank, and agreed on a date to fight Cao Ren's army.
Zhou Yu personally rode into battle, but was shot in the right chest by a random arrow, and was seriously injured, so he had to retreat.
Later, Cao Ren learned that Zhou Yu was bedridden and did not get up, so he led his troops into battle. Zhou Yu then encouraged himself to get up, inspect the barracks with his wounds, and inspire the courage of the soldiers, so Cao Ren had to withdraw his troops.
Zhou Yu, as the chief general of the First Army, was actually shot in the right chest by Cao Jun, which can only be due to two reasons:
First, Zhou Yu led the army to rush in front and was hit by an arrow.
The second is that when Zhou Yu swept the formation with a gun, he was too close to Cao's army, resulting in an arrow.
As the main general, he put himself in danger, fortunately Zhou Yu survived and did not die, otherwise this battle could change history, once Zhou Yu was shot, Cao Ren would sit firmly in Jiangling City, and Nanjun would still be in Cao Cao's hands, which became a sharp sword inserted by Cao Wei into the Jianghan Plain, and could go south to attack the southern regime at any time.
Eventually, Cao Ren gave up, and Zhou Yu occupied Gangneung City, and then took control of Nanjun.
Zhou Yu, as the main general, was also shot
Carefully observing Zhou Yu's two battles, it was found that he was not suitable for leading troops to fight, first of all, Zhou Yu did not have his own opinions, and almost all the strategies in the two battles were proposed by his subordinates.
The fire attack of the Battle of Chibi was Huang Gaiti's, the Battle of Nanjun was Gan Ningti's sneak attack on Yiling, let Ling Tong stay behind, and the rest of the people rescued Gan Ning was Lu Mengti's.
Huang Gai, Gan Ning, Lu Meng and others were not strategists, but also generals who led troops to fight.
Of course, as the main general, you don't need to have your own opinions, as long as the generals have the right strategy, they just need to adopt it, but Zhou Yu's level is far worse than Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi's military ability.
Second, Sima Yi
Sima Yi's military ability is mainly reflected in his skills and ability, and his characteristics of leading troops to fight are: fast, ruthless, and flickering (strategy).
Seeing Sima Yi quell Meng Da's rebellion, Sima Yi marched 1,200 miles in 8 days, and after arriving, Sima Yi's soldiers attacked the city in 8 ways, and broke the city in only 16 days, which is fast.
When Sima Yi was marching, he wrote a letter to Meng Da to appease him, and on the other hand, he hurriedly marched and attacked, which was a fool.
Sima Yi lured Meng Da's nephew Deng Xian and general Li Fu to surrender, and the two of them surrendered in Kaicheng, Sima Yi beheaded Meng Da and moved more than 7,000 of his troops to Youzhou, which was ruthless.
Sima Yi
Sima Yiping Liaodong was the same, and Gongsun Yuan was pacified in nine months before and after, and the time was very fast.
Sima Yi attacked Liaodong to adopt the strategy of attacking the east and attacking the west, with a feint attack, attracting the main force of the enemy, secretly crossing the Liaoshui with the main force, attacking the enemy's base camp, Gongsun Yuan sent a messenger to ask for surrender, Sima Yi beheaded the messenger, Gongsun Yuan asked to send hostages, Sima Yi refused.
Sima Yi kept fooling Gongsun Yuan, forcing Gongsun Yuan to break through and fight, and finally Gongsun Yuan died on the battlefield, which was Sima Yi's strategy and his fool.
Sima Yi killed more than 7,000 men over the age of 15 in the city, killed more than 2,000 civil and military officials placed by Gongsun Yuan, and built a Jingguan to show off his strength, killing nearly 10,000 people in the massacre alone, and also relocated tens of thousands of people, causing Liaodong to become an empty city, which was Sima Yi's ruthlessness.
Sima Yi's quelling of Wang Ling's rebellion was exactly the same as Meng Da's, and it was also fast, ruthless, and flickering (stratagem).
Sima Yi has made great achievements in his life, but he suffered losses at the hands of Zhuge Liang, so Zhuge Liang is stronger than Sima Yi.
Zhuge Liang
3. Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang's military ability is mainly embodied in military management and training, military thinking, and military actual combat.
Zhuge Liang's pacification of Nanzhong was the first large-scale independent operation in his life, and he successfully completed the task.
From Liu Bei's death to Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, there was only a short period of 5 years, Liu Bei's battle of Yiling led to the annihilation of the 50,000 main forces of the Shu army, coupled with the rebellion in Shu Han, for a while, the Shu Han regime was in turmoil, internal and external difficulties.
In just five years, Zhuge Liang quelled the internal rebellion, and then trained soldiers, and the most important thing was to get rid of the low morale of Shu Han since the defeat of Yiling, and create conditions for the Shu army to take the initiative to attack.
Attacking the strong with the weak and taking the initiative to attack is rare in military history.
In the wars of all dynasties, 99% of the active offensive was the strong side, without strength, the war in the era of cold weapons had no offensive ability at all, and Zhuge Liang completely relied on his own ability to make up for the weakness of his strength.
Shu Han's army is only a quarter of Cao Wei's, the population is only one-fifth of Cao Wei's, and the city is only one-ninth of Cao Wei's.
Sima Yi only lost to Zhuge Liang in his life
Zhuge Liang's first attack failed because of improper use of personnel, and the second attack on Chencang was in response to the Battle of Shiting in Eastern Wu, but he returned in vain and killed the Wei general Wang Shuang on the way back.
The third expedition captured Wudu and Yinping two counties, the fourth expedition defeated Sima Yi in the battle of Lucheng, beheaded 3,000 armor, and the fifth expedition confronted Sima Yi in Wuzhangyuan, Sima Yi no longer dared to confront Zhuge Liang head-on, so he could only stick to it without fighting to consume Zhuge Liang's grain.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition could not succeed, not because he was not capable, but because the strength of Shu Han was too poor, and Cao Wei was internally unified and peaceful, with a lot of talents, Ming Jun and virtuous ministers, and it was impossible to be defeated, unless Cao Wei had civil strife.
Sima Yi is such a powerful military strategist, and he does not dare to confront Zhuge Liang head-on, which undoubtedly shows that Sima Yi is not as good as Zhuge Liang, as for Zhou Yu, he can only be ranked behind Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi.