Chapter 44 4. Powerless

In August 234 AD, Zhuge Liang died of illness. Before he died, he said to Yang Yi and others, this battle cannot be fought after my death, and we will withdraw.The bitterness and despair of the seven-year Northern Expedition are all in plain sight. Except for Wei Yan who was unwilling to retreat, had a falling out with Yang Yi, and was killed by Yang Yi, the others obeyed Zhuge Liang's last words and returned to Hanzhong. After returning to Hanzhong, Jiang Wan took Zhuge Liang's place. "Three Kingdoms" said that after Zhuge Liang's death, all the officials were panic-stricken. Only Jiang Wan was neither sad nor happy, and his expression and behavior were the same as usual.

When Zhuge Liang was alive, he continued to send troops to attack Wei. After Zhuge Liang died, Shu Han still had 29 years of fate.During the twenty-nine years, Jiang Wan was in charge for the first twelve years, Fei Yi for the middle seven years, and Jiang Wei for the last ten years.Neither Jiang Wan nor Fei Yi sent troops to attack Wei. Jiang Wei repeatedly advocated a large-scale attack on Wei, but Fei Yi restrained them. At most, he sometimes allocated more than 10,000 troops. He can't even pacify the Central Plains, let alone us! It's better to protect the country and rule the people, and guard the country." In 253 AD, Fei Yi passed away, and Jiang Wei took over, and then he went north to attack Wei.

In March of 253 AD, Wu Guoxing attacked Wei.Jiang Wei also took the opportunity to lead tens of thousands of people out of Shiying, passing through Dongting, and besieged Nan'an. After a long period of attack, the army was exhausted, so he withdrew from the encirclement and retreated. In 254 A.D., Li Feng and Guanglu doctor Zhang Ji were ordered by Wei Guozhong to conspire to replace Sima Shi with Taichang Xia Houxuan as the general. The incident was leaked, but he was killed by Sima Shi, and Wei Guo fell into chaos.In June, Jiang Wei took the opportunity to lead his army to attack Wei and captured Didao.In October, conquered Xiangwu (Wei Longxi County, now southwest of Longxi, Gansu), took advantage of the victory to attack, broke Heguan (now northwest of Linxia, ​​Gansu), Lintao (now Minxian, Gansu) and other counties, and moved Heguan, Lintao, Didao The people of the three counties entered Sichuan and led their troops to withdraw.

In 255 AD, Sima Shi, the great general of Wei State, died of illness.Jiang Wei led tens of thousands of people to attack Wei again, first defeating Wei general Wang Jing at Guguan, and then repelled by Wei generals Deng Ai and Chen Tai. In 256 AD, Jiang Wei sent troops to Qishan again, crossed the Weishui River, and encountered Wei general Deng Ai in Duangu.The Shu army was unfavorable in the battle, and there were many casualties. The places west of Longshan also took the opportunity to rebel.Jiang Wei failed and returned. The above table asked himself to be demoted to the rear general, and he acted as a general.

In May 257 AD, the State of Wei attacked the State of Wu.Jiang Wei took the opportunity to attack Qinchuan again, and confronted Sima Wang and Deng Ai, the guards of Wei, in Manshui.Until March and April of the following year, when Jiang Wei heard that the Wu army was defeated, he also led the army to retreat. In October 262 AD, Jiang Wei once again raised troops to attack Wei and invaded Taoyang.Wei general Deng Ai seized favorable terrain and set up an array in Houhe, east of Taoyang, to block the Shu army with ease.The two sides fought fiercely, and the Shu army was defeated and suffered heavy losses. Jiang Wei had to retreat to Tazhong.Since then, the strength of the Shu army has been greatly reduced, and it has turned into a passive defense posture.

Jiang Wei was originally an official of Wei State, who surrendered to Shu State during Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition.Seeing that he "has the Han family in his heart" and that he is courageous and resourceful, Zhuge Liang admired him very much. He wrote to Fei Yi many times to praise him for being "sensible in military affairs, courageous and righteous, and deeply understands the military's will", "Easy to learn and not to be afraid of military affairs". If you are tired, clean up and save money."Soon, he was promoted to General Zhengxi.Jiang Wei also inherited Zhuge Liang's line, and regarded the crusade against Wei as his mission throughout his life.

In the ten years when Jiang Wei was in charge of the military power of the State of Shu, he sent troops to attack Wei eight times. In addition to the military operations of Jiang Wei to quell the Wenshan Pingkang rebellion and appease King Hu of Liangzhou in Fei Yi's era, Jiang Wei sent troops ten times in total. There are many, which shows his dedication and sincerity of "keeping the Han Dynasty in his heart". Out of the ten times when troops were dispatched, five times they failed to return. Although no outstanding achievements were made, this kind of one-to-one score is already an impressive achievement for Shu, whose territory is equivalent to one-seventh of Wei. What's more, Jiang Wei still has constraints that cannot be surpassed.At that time, Liu Chan favored and trusted the eunuch Huang Hao, and Huang Hao was arrogant because of his favor, and he had full power.When Prime Minister Dong Yun was alive, Huang Hao was still afraid of him. After Dong Yun passed away, no one could restrain Huang Hao.Yan Yu, the right general, flattered Huang Hao, and Huang Hao planned to abolish Jiang Weili Yan Yu.After Jiang Wei knew about it, he wrote to Liu Chan, requesting to kill Huang Hao, but Liu Chan refused.Seeing that Huang Hao was powerful, Jiang Wei was afraid of retaliation, so he did not dare to return to Chengdu, so he told Liu Chan that he was going to Dazhong to plant wheat and replenish military supplies, so as to avoid Huang Hao.Jiang Wei can't even guarantee his own safety, so how much merit and karma can he make?

Wars occur almost every year, which is naturally an unbearable burden for the small and sparsely populated Shu Kingdom. It is written in "Three Kingdoms", "The army is numerous, and the people are weary."The soldiers and horses have not been moved, and the food and grass go first. Fighting will consume a lot of money, and these expenses have to be borne by the common people.When the Kingdom of Shu was destroyed, there were 280,000 households, 940,000 people, and 102,000 troops.This means that in the Shu Kingdom, including children, nine people have to support one soldier, and the burden on the people is very heavy.

War weariness within the Kingdom of Shu reached its peak, and a man named Qiao Zhou specially wrote an article "On Enemies against the Country" to oppose the use of troops for years.He said that our imperial court must judge the situation and weigh whether we can unify the world.Now the world is not the situation of the end of Qin Dynasty, but the situation of the six countries, so we can't be Han Gaozu, but we can learn to be King Wen of Zhou.In other words, it is impossible for the Kingdom of Shu to launch a war to rule the world by virtue of its own force. If it insists on going its own way and resorts to military force, the result will definitely be collapse and despair.Qiao Zhou's article was tantamount to challenging the line Zhuge Liang left behind and carried out by Jiang Wei, but he was not punished in any way, and was later promoted instead.This shows that his views were quite popular in Shu at that time.

Under such circumstances, in 263 A.D., the State of Wei decided to send troops to destroy Shu.Jiang Wei discovered Cao Wei's movements, and immediately went to Liu Chan to ask for more troops to defend.When Liu Chan saw the watch, he asked Huang Hao first. Huang Hao was superstitious about the Rabbit God, so he ran to the wizard and asked if Wei Guohui would call. The wizard said don't worry, he won't call.Huang Hao said this to Liu Chan, and Liu Chan suppressed the matter. The entire court was kept in the dark, not knowing that a catastrophe was imminent. In August 263 AD, the Wei army divided into three groups and launched a large-scale attack on Shu.Deng Ai led 30,000 troops to attack Tazhong on the West Road, entangled Jiang Wei, the general of the Shu Han; Zhuge Xu led 30,000 people to attack the Yinping Bridge on the Middle Road, blocking Jiang Wei's reinforcements in Hanzhong; Zhong Hui led 120,000 people to attack Hanzhong.The Wei army has a total of 180,000 troops, while the Shu army has about 90,000 troops.

After years of fruitless campaigns, Jiang Wei studied the situation in Central Shu and formulated a strategy of "gathering troops and gathering valleys", that is, when the enemy attacked, he would concentrate his troops to retreat to Han, Le, and Yangping Pass. Keep these passes, and the entire Shu Kingdom will be safe.At the beginning of September, facing the three armies of the Wei State, the Shu army followed this strategy to abandon all the dangerous points in Hanzhong and retreat to defend the two cities and one pass.The Wei army also adopted quite clever countermeasures. Zhong Hui, the commander of the East Road, sent 10,000 troops each to surround the two cities of Han and Le. There were 5,000 Shu soldiers in each of the two cities. Don't attack, just restrain them from making trouble.Then, Zhong Hui sent the remaining 100,000 troops across the two cities and went straight to Yangping Pass, the throat of Hanzhong. The Wei army under Yangping Pass was ten times the Shu army.Jiang Wei's carefully deployed strategy was easily resolved by the crowd tactics. The Shu army at Yangping Pass was led by Fu Qian and Jiang Shu.Jiang Shu was originally a guard elsewhere. Because of his incompetence, he was transferred to Yangping Pass to serve as Fu Qian's deputy. He was already dissatisfied, so he pretended to go out of the city to fight and surrendered to the Wei army.Under the leadership of this guide, Wei Jun raided Yangping Pass, Fu Qian died in battle, and Yangping Pass fell. The fall of Yangping Pass marked the fall of Hanzhong.When Jiang Wei heard about it, he hurriedly withdrew his troops from Dazhong to rescue Hanzhong. Deng Ai, who was in charge of entanglement with Jiang Wei, followed him like a shadow.To reach Hanzhong, you have to pass through Yinping, which has been controlled by Zhuge Xu in the middle of the Wei army. Jiang Wei could not pass, so he pretended to move north and attacked the rear of the Wei army.Zhuge Xu was deceived and hurried back to the army to take precautions. Jiang Wei took the opportunity to make a surprise attack and entered Yinping.When Zhuge Xu understood the truth and returned to Yinping Bridge, Jiang Wei had already left for a whole day. Jiang Wei originally planned to reinforce Yangping Pass, but on the way he learned that Yangping Pass had fallen. As a last resort, he turned to Baishui Pass and encountered Chengdu troops led by Zhang Yi.After discussing with each other, they decided to join forces and retreat to the Jiange. Jiange is known as "one man guards the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it". Although the Han, Le and Yangping Passes were lost, the Shu army still had the last chance to resist the Wei army.The strength of the Shu army is close to 50,000, and the Wei army's west, middle, and east routes are combined in one place. In addition to the tens of thousands of troops left behind by Han and Le, there are also 150,000 troops. Jiange. Although Zhong Hui had a large number of people, he had no choice but to use the Tianxian Jiange. However, 150,000 mouths started to eat, and the food consumed was astonishing.Seeing that there was not enough food and grass, Zhong Hui planned to retreat.The nearly 70-year-old veteran Deng Ai suggested not to retreat, and he led a part of the troops to sneak across the Yinping trail and surprise Fucheng.In this way, if the Jiange Shu army returns to attack, Zhong Hui can take the opportunity to attack Jiange; if the Jiange Shu army does not return to the division, there will be insufficient troops in Fucheng, and Deng Ai can go straight to Chengdu. Deng Ai was born in poverty, he was both pragmatic and strategic, and was appreciated by Sima Yi as a small farmer official, and he was promoted step by step.Right now, he volunteered to go to the Jedi bravely at a seventy-year-old age. He is indeed a brave general with both wisdom and courage. In mid-October 263 A.D., Deng Ai led 10,000 elite soldiers and turned south from Yinping along the Jinggu Road. He went south to Jiange for more than 200 miles. He dug mountains to open roads and built trestle bridges. danger zone.When the troops walked to Mage Mountain, they encountered a cliff. Whether they could succeed or not depended on one action, but the road ahead was blocked, and the soldiers burst into tears.Deng Ai wrapped himself in felt and rolled down the hill first.Seeing this, the soldiers were inspired, or wrapped in blankets, or climbed vines, and went down to the bottom of the mountain. At the end of October, Deng Ai led his army to surrender to Jiangyou by surprise. The guard Ma Miao was taken aback, panicked, and surrendered without a fight.The news of Jiangyou's fall spread to Chengdu, shaking the Shu Han.Liu Chan sent Zhuge Zhan (Zhuge Liang's son) and Huang Chong to lead all 5,000 troops in Chengdu to resist Deng Ai, who was also defeated by Deng Ai.At this time, Deng Ai was only 150 miles away from Chengdu, and the news of the Jiange guards was blocked. He didn't know that the rear had been taken over. The Shu Han government and people were terrified, and the common people abandoned their homes and fled to the deep mountains and old forests.In the DPRK and China, some people proposed to flee to Soochow to organize a government-in-exile, and some people proposed to seek refuge with the ethnic minorities in Nanzhong, but Qiao Zhou, the Guanglu doctor who wrote "On the Country of Enmity", strongly advocated surrender.Qiao Zhou said: "Since ancient times, no one has sent another country to be the emperor." Since ancient times, an emperor who has gone to another country can only be called a minister. Sooner or later, it will be annexed by the state of Wei, so why bother to follow the state of Wu to surrender for the second time?As for why we couldn't go to Nanzhong, Qiao Zhou said that Nanzhong was suppressed by the prime minister's troops. They refused to accept us, and going there would increase their burden. Are they willing?unwilling. After Qiao Yiyi finished speaking on Monday, everyone said yes again and again. Although Liu Chan was unwilling to surrender, but seeing that everyone was discouraged, he had no choice but to obey the majority. Zhang Shao, the servant, took the jade seal to Deng Ai, and ordered Jiang Wei stopped resisting.Jiang Wei was on his way back, and was forced to raise the white flag by Liu Chan's order. In 263 A.D., in November of the fourth year of Jingyuan, the State of Wei completely conquered the Shu Han, and the State of Shu, which had been established for forty-two years, was declared destroyed. Later generations often attribute the demise of Shu to Jiang Wei's military arrogance, but this is not always the case.At that time, the two states of Shu and Wei were very different in national strength. When Shu was destroyed, the total number of Shu soldiers was only 90,000, while Wei's army had 180,000. The difference in strength was doubled;Since there is no room for retreat, the only option is to attack, or at least use offense as defense. However, the famous officials of the Shu Han Dynasty once commented on Jiang Wei. He was a clean and honest official, lived a simple life in a high position, kept away from the temptation of sensuality, and was studious and tireless. He was a model for a while.He sent troops to attack Wei many times. Although he incurred the ridicule of "playing with the crowd and brigade", he also imitated Zhuge's loyalty when he came out of Qishan.After the country fell, Jiang Wei was still not reconciled. He used the last trick in his life, pretending to drop the bell meeting, and instigated the bell meeting to rebel against Wei, but was defeated and died later.Like Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei gave his life to fulfill his ideal, but he couldn't resist the divine will.