Zhuge Liang (Kongming) was regarded as one of the most famous strategists in Chinese history, people named him the sleeping dragon. He lived with his younger brother in a small cottage in Nanyang.
Zhuge Liang was a great strategist because he could predict the right movements of his enemies and plan ambushes and attack at the right time. Even before his death he knew that a Shu general, Wei Yan would rebel against Shu. So before his death he gave instructions to his most trusted officers on how to defeat Wei Yan.
Liu Bei,emperor of Shu, went to visit him, but the first two times Zhuge Liang was away. Finally at the third visit Zhuge Liang was home, but he was sleeping at the time. Liu Bei waited patiently, sitting on a chair waiting for Zhuge Liang to wake up. Zhuge Liang finally woke up and was talked to Liu Bei. Liu Bei was so persistent and respectful of Zhuge Liang that he was touched and decided to join Liu Bei. He suggested that Liu Bei would have takeover the western part of China to be able to defend against Cao Cao and Sun Quan, because of the rocky terrain, it would be easy to defend and hard to attack.
When he first joined Liu Bei, Zhang Fei did not really believe that a young man like Zhuge Liang would know anything about war strategies. When Cao Cao heard that Liu Bei recruited a new advisor, he also thought that Liu Bei was crazy in recruiting a advisor who was only 27 and making him the supreme advisor. Cao Cao ordered XiaHou Dun to command an army to attack Liu Bei. Liu Bei decided to give Zhuge Liang full command of the army to repel the attack. Under his command, they were able to win the battle by using fire attacks, without losing a soldier to repel the invaders. From then onwards Zhang Fei respected Zhuge Liang fully after that battle.
Before the battle of Chibi, Zhuge Liang went by himself to the Kingdom of Wu to persuade Sun Quan to make a alliance to defeat Cao Cao. He was successful and he remained in Sun Quan's territories to plot strategies with Sun Quan's main advisor Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu was so jealous of his wisdom and wits that he tried to get rid of him but to no avail as Zhuge Liang anticipated his move and was able to get back to Shu.
After Liu Bei' death, Liu Chan became the new ruler. Zhuge Liang commanded his troops to suppress the rebellions, led by Meng Huo. He also went north to attack Wei. At the time Cao Cao had passed away and his son, Cao Pi became the next ruler but died soon after and his son, Cao Rui became the ruler. Zhuge Liang attacked Wei a total of 6 times. During each attack, he was always successful in gaining new territories, repelling the Wei, but because of certain reasons, was forced to retreat at certain times. One time Zhuge Liang was about to lauch a major attack on Chang An, which was a important land, but was called back by Liu Chan because Sima Yi, Wei's main advisor spread rumors that Zhuge Liang was going to rebel against Shu.
Zhuge Liang died at an old age on the 7th expedition to attack Wei, before he died he gave Jiang Wei a strategy book of 24 volumes that he compiled. His son, Zhuge Teng grew up to serve the Shu dynasty till his death, at the fall of Shu.