Zhuge Liang's greatest achievement in his life was to help Liu Bei establish the Shu regime and realize hegemony. His friendship with Liu Bei is also praised by the world. Surprisingly, after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang continued the Northern Expedition and recovered the Han Dynasty, but Qishan suffered repeated failures six times. The reason is that Zhuge Liang used the wrong people and failed many times.

There is no denying that Zhuge Liang, as a politician and strategist, is resourceful and very clever. Otherwise, Liu Bei would not ask him to come out of the mountain, and Zhuge Liang would not help Liu Bei realize his ambition and realize the people's living and working in peace and contentment. However, to err is human, and Zhuge Liang, however deified, is only a mortal with shortcomings. This shortcoming is that he is not smart enough in selecting talents.

The most typical example is Masu. Ma Su was really talented, so he was highly valued and cultivated by Zhuge Liang from the very beginning, and was even considered as Zhuge Liang's successor. But Liu Bei thought that Ma Su was just an armchair strategist and headstrong. Before he died, he warned Zhuge Liang not to trust Ma Su. However, the people identified by Zhuge Liang will not change. In the battle of Jieting, he insisted on reusing Ma Su regardless of public opposition, and the result was a crushing defeat.

Zhuge Liang's ignorance of people is also manifested in his inability to identify talents well. For example, Wei Yan was always valued when Liu Bei was still alive, and he did have some strange wisdom and tricks to help Zhuge Liang open the dilemma of the Northern Expedition. But after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang was afraid of Wei Yan, ignored his repeated exhortations and suggestions, and stuck to his own opinions, which also led to the continuous failure of the Northern Expedition.