* Jiang Wan, Zhuge Liang's first successor

In 234, in coordination with Zhuge Liang's final northern expedition against Wei, Sun Quan personally led a major attack against Wei's border city Hefei, while having Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin attack Xiangyang, with the strategy of trying to attract Wei relief forces and then attacking them.

Sun Quan and Liu Bei begin vying for control of Jing Province after their victory and Liu seizes the province from Cao Cao after following Zhuge Liang's strategy.

In accordance with Zhuge Liang's Longzhong Plan, Liu Bei leads his troops into Yi Province in the west and takes over the land from the incompetent noble Liu Zhang.

Lu Xun, the commander of Sun Quan's forces, refrains from pursuing the retreating Shu Han troops after encountering Zhuge Liang's Stone Sentinel Maze.

In Shu Han, Jiang Wei inherits Zhuge Liang's legacy and continues to lead another nine campaigns against Cao Wei for a bitter three decades, but he fails to achieve any significant success.

Other major influences include Liu Yiqing's Shishuo Xinyu or A New Account of Tales of the World, published in 430, and the Sanguozhi Pinghua, a chronological collection of eighty fictional sketches starting with the peach garden oath and ending with Zhuge Liang's death.

Statue of Guan Yu in Zhuge Liang's temple in Chengdu

Writing later in the 11th century, the Song Dynasty ( 960 – 1279 ) scholar Gao Cheng wrote that the small wheelbarrow of his day, with shafts pointing forward ( so that it was pulled ), was the direct descendent of Zhuge Liang's wooden ox.

* In the novel Lu Xun ventured into Zhuge Liang's Stone Sentinel Maze while pursuing the retreating Shu army.

Statue of Liu Bei in Zhuge Liang's temple in Chengdu

With Cao Zhen's men mostly tied up by Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang's army marched without much opposition at first.

" However, his defeat by a smaller force was largely a result of Zhuge Liang's allocation of resources.

Zhuge Liang had always considered Jiang Wei a resourceful and capable general, and Jiang received light-speed promotions during the regencie of Zhuge Liang and of Zhuge Liang's successors Jiang Wan and Fei Yi to eventually become Fei Yi's chief assistant.

Reviving Zhuge Liang's campaigns against Wei ( which Jiang Wan and Fei Yi had largely abandoned ), Jiang Wei made a number of incursions against Wei — one in coordination with Eastern Wu's regent Zhuge Ke -- but each had to be abandoned due to the inadequate food supplies or due to battlefield losses, and these campaigns greatly drained Shu's resources.

After Zhuge Liang's death in 234, Jiang Wan succeeded him as regent.

Jiang Wei had constantly desired to revive Zhuge Liang's strategy of actively waging wars against Wei, but Fei disagreed, because the resources put into large-scaled wars had already been too much.

After Fei Yi's assassination in 253, Jiang Wei took over Fei's position, making him the head of the army — but unlike his deceased supervisor, his influence on domestic matters was limited, as those matters appeared to be dominated by Liu Shan's trusted eunuch Huang Hao, and Zhuge Liang's son, Zhuge Zhan.

A statue of Jiang Wei in Zhuge Liang's temple in Chengdu.

Ignoring the oppositions, Jiang Wei immediately revived Zhuge Liang's northern strategy after he gained full control of the army, and in 253 he set up a coordinated effort with Wu's regent Zhuge Ke to attack Wei on two fronts — Shu on the west and Wu on the east.

For example, he correctly trusted the faithful Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin, so much so that he made a duplicate imperial seal and left it with Lu Xun ; whenever he would correspond with Shu's emperor Liu Shan or regent Zhuge Liang, he would deliver the letter to Lu Xun first ( as Lu's post was near the Shu border ), and then if, in Lu's opinion, changes were needed, he would revise the letter and then restamp it with Sun's imperial seal.

Contrary to popular belief, Zhuge Liang did not contribute much and Zhou Yu was the supreme commander of the united forces against Cao Cao.

Upon Chen Shou's compilation on the unofficial works on Shu's history ( Shu had no official logs on its history ) in the Book of Shu, it only tells that Wei Yan wanted to spilt the force in two and meet at Tong Pass, not much detail was recorded due to fact that the position of Historian was banned by Zhuge Liang.

Under Zhuge Liang's advice, Liu Shan entered into an alliance with the state of Wu, helping both states to survive against the much larger state of Wei.

Not having much military aptitude, however, he soon abandoned Zhuge Liang's policy of waging war against Wei, and indeed in 241 withdrew most of the troops from the important border city of Hanzhong to Fu County ( 涪縣 ; in present-day Mianyang, Sichuan ).

In 253, Jiang Wei made a coordinated attack on Wei, along with Wu's regent Zhuge Ke, but was eventually forced to withdraw after his troops ran out of food supplies — allowing Sima Shi to concentrate against Zhuge Ke, dealing Wu forces a devastating defeat that eventually caused so much resentment that Zhuge Ke was assassinated.

From 227 onwards, he was very much involved with successfully repelling the frequent invasions led by Zhuge Liang.

However, when the prominent Cao Wei general Sima Yi arrived and prepared to attack Zhuge, rather than allowing Zhuge to face the much more experienced Sima in battle, Sun Quan ordered that Zhuge withdraw.

Following his defeat, Zhuge Liang had the vanguard leader, Ma Su, executed for the tactical blunder at Jieting, and a memorial published to Liu Shan, in which he chastised himself for the failure and requested demotion from Chancellor ( 宰相 ) to General of the Right ( 右将军 ), but Zhuge Liang would wield the same power even after demotion.

A multiple bolt firing crossbow and a semi-automatic crossbow ( which some sources call Chu ' ko ' nu, literally ' Zhuge Crossbow ') was created to be used as an anti-personnel weapon.

The campaigns of Alexander the Great, Chandragupta Maurya, Hannibal, Qin Shi Huang, Julius Cæsar, Zhuge Liang, Khalid ibn al-Walid and, in particular, Cyrus the Great demonstrate strategic planning and movement.

In 252, Sima Shi led a campaign against Eastern Wu, whose founding emperor Sun Quan had recently died, and the current ruler Sun Liang was under Zhuge Ke's regency.

Between 190 and 193, Xu and his friend Shi Tao ( 石韜 ) travelled south to Jing Province, where they met and befriended Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.

After Fei Yi's death, Jiang Wei assumed command of Shu's troops and began a number of campaigns against Wei -- but while they were troubling to Wei's de facto rulers Sima Shi and Sima Zhao ( who had rendered Wei's emperors figureheads after succeeding their father Sima Yi ), the attacks largely inflicted no real damage against Wei, as Jiang Wei's campaigns were plagued by one problem that had plagued Zhuge Liang's -- the lack of adequate food supply — and largely had to be terminated after a short duration.

His father was said to be Chen Shi, a military general of Shu Han, who once had his beard shaved off as a penalty by order of the chancellor Zhuge Liang, after a campaign that failed due to a shortsighted strategy by its commander, Ma Su.

Setting the immediate goal as the capture of the commanderies of Wudu and Yinping, Zhuge Liang sent Chen Shi to storm the enemy territory before he ventured out.

Zhuge Ke was able to deal Sima Shi's forces a major blow, but Sima Shi maintained himself well by making humble admissions of faults to the public and promoting the generals who tried to stop his campaign.

In 253, after Sima Shi defeated Zhuge Ke in a major battle, his reputation was established, while Zhuge Ke's own was undermined ( due to Zhuge Ke's failure to admit fault ), and Zhuge soon fell while Sima's power was affirmed.

When Zhuge knew about Meng's saying, he started to contact the latter, despite objection from Fei Shi.

Taking the opportunity the young Sun Liang just ascended the throne, the de facto leader of Wei, Sima Shi sent Zhuge Dan and the likes to invade Wu.

Encouraged by his success at Dongxing, Zhuge prepared for a major attack against Cao Wei — citing, as his reason, that Sima Shi ( then 45 ) was " young and inexperienced.