Our arguments will be a never ending loop. You cannot convince me, I also cannot convince you.
Why I said 诸葛亮北伐 not good for 蜀：
1. Directly weaken 蜀economy. Too many soldiers, too little workforce. Army to common people ratio = 1 : 7 which is insanely high.
From some of the leeserach books (not novel hor, but those serious boring kind that only talk numbers) that moi read, Shu army in that era ish the smallest but yet the most professionally trained and best equipped. Read it ish something like Zhuge Liang don't follow other two countries just draft farmers into army one. He basically divide the army into two part, one ish professional regulars (interesting to note that most are FTs from the minority tribes near Shu, they are not peasant farmers type) and another ish the standard expandable drafted AT peasant farmers. So when he start his campaign, most of the soldiers activated are actually the regulars and does not affected economy one. The drafted farmers kind are use for local defense and\or support nia like task to transport supplies to frontline. When no war, these professional regulars also not idling jiak liao bee but are made to farm their own makan so not to strain the country resources to feed them.
This ish quite different and in fact the opposite of the composition of others arm forces that time, which the elite army ish usually the smaller force, main force are the expandable drafted farmer peasants. This ish especially true for Wei, but Wei ish big, they can afford to draft more peasants without affecting the country compare to the other two.
Wu on the other hand also use drafted farmer mainly but their system ish actually a bit similar to feudalism. It work something like the elite and generals have and maintain their own armies, each elite\general army ish compose of a small elite forces (or call Son Brother army, mainly make up by the relatives of the elite\general) but the main force are of cause still drafted from peasants and slaves. So when needed, the elite and generals will draft the peasants in their lands, activate their son brother troops too and send their combined armies to serve and follow the Wu King to war. When war finish the peasants\slaves return back to the land of those elite and generals to continue working for GDP, so only the small elite force of Son brother army need to be maintain by the elite\general to jiak liao bee when no war . So like Shu it don't really drain the country resources as much. But the problem with this ish those elite\general have greater power so the Wu King need to be strong too to be able to control and content them, since most of them got their own personal army, and this personal army ish actually pass from one generation of the elite\general to the next, so they tend to be more royal to their elite\general master than to Wu King.
So even the 3 kingdoms are in the same era and all draft farming peasants into army, but the scale and nature of their army ish actually got differences one and impact the country manpower in different way too. So ish not say Shu so small anyhow activate 100K troops will drain resources so simple lah.
2. Huge tax incurred to sustain large army which directly hurts the country economy.
Sure or not, most of the leesearch kind of books that moi read all stated Shu has the least tax on peasant kia among the 3, Wu ish the one that has the heaviest tax. In fact ZGL spent a lot of effort increase the productivity and wealth of the peasants instead than to simply raise tax to make peasants pay more. So when the peasant income improved and get wealthier, even without raising tax the tax revenue also increase naturally one since peasant earn more mean can pay more in proportion but without being over stress by heavy tax. Many researchers and scholars nowadays already overturning the old theory of how ZGL war campaign ish the cause of Shu decline by draining the country resource. If ZGL only know how to keep rising GST to help army, then please lah, there won't be so many historians and reseachers praise him as one of the best prime ministar in the ancient history of AT and why till this modern dazes still many true blue shi chuang people loving ZGL dip dip.
3. Indirectly lead to the rise of 司马family which is a huge threat to 蜀
Ish just half true lah, another half true ish Cao Cao own gene pool ish beh kan. Cao Pi ish the one who give a lot of power to Sima Yi, at this time ZGL still haven't a threat yet as he busy rebuilding Shu after Liu Bei defeat and focus on restoring peace to the south first. And the few at least a bit eh kan the earlier Cao ruler all up lorry at young age and pass power to their still si very young sons, then the actual control ish under some beh kan Cao relatives. This ish main reason why they eventually tio leeplaced by the more scheming Sima family.
And Sima clan ish also not some nobody, their background ish very elite, wealthy and influential one, this ish also part of the reason why Cao Cao want to recruit the Sima clan in even he don't trust sima yi as their power on the ground ish cannot be ignore. So sima yi ish not someone that any ruler not happy can simply order to pull outside to roll head shua, if that happen without good reason sure cause a lot of local riots and rebellions later. That why even without ZGL, it ish just matter of time such elite family will rise to leeplace Cao clan if there ish no strong ruler like Cao Cao to control them.
4. Focus too much on 北伐. Din put in enough effort to seek second generation leader.
Again why you story so different from those research books that moi read? ZGL actually leave behind quite a number of strong and capable 2nd generation leaders and they did run Shu quite well, But human count cannot win heaven count. Those 2nd generation leaders though young but didn't live too long (recall most die early and some assassinated) that why after they up lorry one by one around a decade later there ish not enough time to groom the next generation leadership and power fall into beh kan type then Shu began to decline, and noted that this decline ish not immediately after ZGL up lorry, but more than a decade later. Once decline ish such a way the decline ish very fast and furious one.
Actually even with the decline, the legacy and resources left behind by ZGL still allow Jiang Wei to start his numerous war campaign.
5. Not enough to effort to put aside some power to nurture 刘禅. If he always stay in 成都，gave some power to 刘禅 and taught him properly, he won't be weak. Basically he has too much control over national affairs.
Also not true, base on many scholar finding, it ish not ZGL don't want or prevent LC to take control, it was LC who entrust ZGL completely with absolute power. Beside if the leader ish weak, no matter how much power you give will still be weak, actually make matter worst if weak leader start abuse power. LC best trait as emperor ish that he ish willing in entrust power to people. So when those are good, like ZGL and the other successors, the result ish good. But this ish also his biggest weakness, once he entrust power to wrong people, we see how $hit happen.
6. Din take good care of his health even though he knows he is so important to 蜀。this is one of the important reasons why 蜀fail.
This ish ancient AT time in 200+BC. Life expectancy ish not higher in the first place. Beside he ish only a scholar not warrior with strong body, up lorry at 54 actually not too young also mah. And in case you don't know, Shu only fall almost 30 years later after ZGL up lorry. So how long you want him to stay alive?
