Chapter 13 104 Wuzhangyuan

In April 229 AD, King Sun Quan of Wu officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor.Most of the Shu Han ministers believed that Sun Quan's proclaiming the emperor was an arrogance, and demanded to sever the alliance with Soochow.Zhuge Liang believed that the main opponent of Shu Han was Wei Guo.He insisted on maintaining an alliance with Soochow and continued to prepare for the Northern Expedition. In 231 AD, Zhuge Liang sent troops to Qishan for the fourth Northern Expedition.Wei Guo sent a general Sima Yi and Zhang He to lead the troops to Qishan.Zhuge Liang left part of the soldiers at Qishan, and led the main force to block Sima Yi.

Sima Yi knew Zhuge Liang's strategy.He believed that Zhuge Liang's army went deep alone and did not bring much rations, so he built camps in dangerous places and asked the soldiers to only defend and not fight. General Wei Jun thought that Sima Yi was afraid of Zhuge Liang, so he called for battle again and again, saying: "You are as afraid of the Shu army as you are afraid of tigers. Aren't you afraid that people in the world will laugh at you?" Sima Yi bit the bullet and led his troops to fight Zhuge Liang, but was defeated by the Shu army.However, due to the dereliction of duty of the grain transportation officials in the rear, the Shu army had no choice but to withdraw its troops voluntarily due to the lack of food and grass supply.General Zhang He led his troops in hot pursuit, and rushed to the valley near Mumen, where he was shot and killed by the ambush soldiers that Zhuge Liang had arranged in advance with random arrows.

Zhuge Liang sent troops several times, but often retreated because of insufficient food supply.He accepted this lesson and designed two means of transportation, called "Wooden Ox" and "Liu Ma" (two reformed carts), and used them to transport grain to Xiegukou (southwest of Meixian County, Shaanxi Province) for stockpiling. In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang made full preparations and launched an army of 100,000 for the last Northern Expedition.He sent envoys to Soochow, asked Sun Quan to launch an offensive at the same time, and responded from the north and the south, causing Wei to be attacked on both sides.

Zhuge Liang's army left Xiegukou and arrived at Wuzhangyuan on the south bank of the Wei River.In order to make a long-term plan, he sent some soldiers to build camps and prepare for battle; another part of the soldiers were sent to farm in Wuzhangyuan, where they mixed with the local people to cultivate.The Shu army has strict discipline, and the people and soldiers get along very well. Emperor Wei Ming sent Sima Yi to lead the Wei army across the Wei River, and also built a camp to defend, and confronted the Shu army. Sun Quan received Zhuge Liang's letter and immediately sent troops from three directions to attack the state of Wei.Emperor Wei Ming was also powerful. On the one hand, he personally led the army to the south to resist the attack of Soochow;

Zhuge Liang waited for news from Soochow, but the result disappointed him: Sun Quan's attack failed.He wanted to fight the Wei army, but Sima Yi always stood firm, Zhuge Liang challenged him several times to no avail.The two sides held a stalemate there for more than a hundred days. To make Wei Jun come out to fight, he had to try to provoke Sima Yi.Taking advantage of the custom of belittling women at that time, Zhuge Liang sent someone to deliver a set of women's clothing to Sima Yi.It means that Sima Yi is so timid and afraid of fighting, he should go back and be a "Miss Boudoir".

When the generals of the Wei army saw that the general was being mocked, they were so annoyed that they wanted to fight the Shu army.Sima Yi knew that this was Zhuge Liang's aggressive method, so he didn't get angry.He comforted the soldiers and said: "Okay, I will send a memorial to the emperor, asking for permission for us to fight a decisive battle with the Shu army." A few days later, Emperor Wei Ming sent a minister to the Wei camp to deliver an order not to fight. The generals of the Shu army were disappointed when they heard the news.Only Zhuge Liang understood Sima Yi's intentions, and said: "Sima Yi's memorial to ask for war is for the soldiers to see. Otherwise, there is no reason for the general to lead the army to go all the way to ask for war."

Zhuge Liang expected Sima Yi's psychology, and Sima Yi was also inquiring about Zhuge Liang's situation.Once, Zhuge Liang sent an envoy to Weiying to challenge, Sima Yi received the envoy politely, chatted with the envoy, and said: "Your prime minister must be very busy with business. How are you doing recently?How's your appetite? " The envoy felt that Sima Yi's questions were all polite words, so he replied honestly: "The prime minister is indeed very busy, and he has to take care of everything in the barracks himself. He wakes up early and goes to bed late. It's just that he has a bad appetite recently and eats poorly. rare."

After the envoy left, Sima Yi said to the left and right soldiers: "Look, Zhuge Kongming eats little and has so much work, can he last for a long time?" As Sima Yi expected, Zhuge Liang finally fell ill in the barracks due to overwork. When the master Liu Chan got the news that Zhuge Liang was ill, he quickly sent his minister Li Fu to Wuzhangyuan to express his condolences.Li Fu talked with Zhuge Liang about some important military affairs, and then left. After a few days, Li Fu returned.Seeing that Zhuge Liang's condition was getting worse, he cried.Zhuge Liang opened his eyes and said to Li Fu: "I understand what you want to ask when you come back. I think the person you want to ask is Jiang Wan."

Li Fu said: "What the prime minister said is true. The emperor just wanted me to ask the prime minister who will succeed you in case of poor health. Then, after Jiang Wan, who can succeed you?" Zhuge Liang said, "It can be replaced by Fei Yi (sound yi)." Li Fu wanted to ask more questions, but Zhuge Liang closed his eyes and did not answer.Within a few days, the prime minister, who was only fifty-four years old, finally passed away in the barracks. According to Zhuge Liang's instructions before his death, the generals of the Shu army did not disclose the news of his death.They wrapped the corpses and put them in the car, and arranged for all the troops to retreat in an orderly manner.

The spies of Weiying heard the news of Zhuge Liang's death and reported it to Sima Yi.Sima Yi immediately led the Wei army to catch up. Just after Wuzhangyuan, the flag of the Shu army suddenly turned around, and with the sound of war drums, the soldiers turned around to cover up and attack. Surprised, Sima Yi quickly turned his horse's head and ordered to retreat. The general of the Shu army waited until the Wei army was far away, and calmly withdrew all the troops from Wuzhangyuan safely. This incident spread to the ears of the common people, who made up a ballad to mock Sima Yi, saying: "The dead Zhuge scares away the living Zhongda (Zhongda is Sima Yi's word)!"

Sima Yi was not angry when he heard this, and said: "I can only expect Zhuge who is alive, how can I expect dead!" Later, he personally ran to the place where the Shu army had camped, observed Zhuge Liang's formation, and admired him. Yue: "Zhuge Kongming is truly a genius in the world!" Zhuge Liang's wish to unify the Central Plains was not realized, but his wisdom and character have been praised by future generations.In folklore, Zhuge Liang often becomes the embodiment of wisdom.In an article "Hou Tuo Biao", which is said to be written by him, there are two sentences called "Devote to do one's best (the original text is'do one's best', later written as' to do one's best', and the sound cui), people think that this is the It is an evaluation of his life.