In the third year of Zhangwu, on the night Liu Bei entrusted his son to Zhuge Liang at Baidi City, a modern university student, who had died of anger over the claim that “the humanities are useless,” is reborn as Zhuge Liang's eight-year-old eldest son, Zhuge Zhan.
He brings neither gunpowder nor guns, but a complete set of institutional designs and ideas for building a civilization that are far ahead of their time. During the crisis of the five-pronged invasion of Shu, he helps his father Zhuge Liang turn the tide with his hazy memories of history and strategic analysis. In a secret chamber, the eight-year-old boy proposes a world-shaking new strategy: “To take the Central Plains, secure the southern frontier first.”
From then on, history quietly changes course.
Zhuge Liang suppresses calls at court for “the Northern Expeditions above all else,” and father and son launch a silent revolution together. They use the development of Nanzhong as a testing ground, recruit officials from humble backgrounds as their backbone, and drive progress through institutional innovation. Zhuge Zhan captures Meng Huo seven times, and each time he releases him, he brings irrigation, medicine, farming tools, and official markets. On the red earth, he establishes a protectorate, turning a wilderness into a granary and treasury.
While the aristocratic clans in Chengdu squabble over power, a new force made up of Cong hunters, young people from the Yi tribes, and lowborn clerks is already flourishing on the southern frontier. While Cao Wei and Eastern Wu remain preoccupied with political scheming, Shu Han has quietly transformed from a warlord regime into a civilized state.
This is a bold gamble to change the world through the humanities.
When the black-armored cavalry charges out of the Qinling Mountains, when promises of equal land allotment, civil service examinations, and health insurance spread across the Central Plains, and when Han and Yi children study together in modern schools, the modern soul once mocked by others finally understands: the ultimate power of the humanities does not lie in memorizing classics, but in designing institutions that help billions of people live better lives.
The book is good, a bit retro, and I don't know how to plan it in the future. In this period of Ji Han, if he wanted to seize the world, three points have been broken, which is impossible. Cao Wei is powerful and Jiangdong is backstabbing. He only relies on Yizhou (the land of the three provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan). Liu Yan's population is about 9 million when he enters Shu. It will only be more, because there are still barbarians. The development is good around Chengdu, and there are a lot of plank roads in other areas, including to There are a lot of plank roads in Jiaozhou, and the products in Jiaozhou are also rich. Otherwise, Shi Xie would not be independent. It is not easy to defeat him. There are only a few large cities, such as Longbian, Nanhai, etc. The core area is today's northern Vietnam and Guilin.) Difficult, if you don't go to the Northern Expedition, you will die faster. If you don't have the actual land, population and key roads in the Northern Expedition, you will have to wait to die. The only way to defeat Yongliang and enter Guanzhong is to make a surprise attack on Jiangdong and divide the world into two parts. Otherwise, three parts of the world will be blocked.