Nor show himself among the fields.
Deep inside the well he's coiled:
Before him loach and eel make free,
Safe from tooth or claw or scales—
Alas, I am the same as he! "
Deeply angered by the verse, Sima Zhao said to Jia Chong, "So he wants to go the way of Cao Fang! We have to get rid of him now or he will destroy us." "I'm ready, Your Lordship, any time," Jia Chong replied.
It was summer, the fourth month of the fifth year of Gan Lu by the calendar of Wei (a. D. 260). Sima Zhao, wearing his sword, ascended the royal hall; Cao Mao rose to welcome him. The courtiers all said, "For his towering merit and magnificent virtue the supreme commander deserves to be made lord patriarch of Jin and receive the Nine Dignities." Cao Mao bowed his head and made no reply. Sima Zhao said sternly, "We three, my father, my brother, and myself, have rendered the Wei most distinguished service. Would the Nine Dignities not be appropriate?" Cao Mao responded, "Dare I not comply?" Sima Zhao said, "In your 'Ode on the Submerged Dragon' you called us loaches and eels, showing no respect." Cao Mao did not answer. Sima Zhao smiled icily and descended from the royal hall. A chilling fear swept the assembly.
Cao Mao went to his personal quarters in the rear palace and summoned Privy Counselor Wang Shen, Chief of the Secretariat Wang Jing, and Royal Mounted Guard Wang Ye. To the three Cao Mao said tearfully, "Sima Zhao means to usurp the house—anyone can see that—but I cannot bear the disgrace of deposition. If only you three would help me suppress the revolt." Wang Jing said, "That would not be possible. In ancient times Patriarch Zhao of the kingdom of Lu could not tolerate the house of Ji. In the end he fled to another kingdom, having lost his own. The Sima have been holding real power for some time. The elder lords within the court and without, indifferent to the meaning of legitimate authority, adhere cravenly to the party of traitors. Far more than one man is involved. Moreover, Your Majesty's private guards are too few and too weak to carry out your command. If Your Majesty cannot accept the Sima's demand, worse will follow. This is no time for rashness but for careful planning." "'If I can bear this, what can I not bear? ' I am resolved and fear not even death itself," Cao Mao said and withdrew to inform the queen mother.
Wang Shen and Wang Ye said to Wang Jing, "The moment has come. Before clanwide execution destroys our houses, let us go to the Sima residence, tell all, and beg for mercy." But Wang Jing retorted indignantly, "The liege's grief is the vassal's shame. The liege's shame is the vassal's death. Do you hold disloyal thoughts?" Unable to persuade Wang Jing to go along, Wang Shen and Wang Ye went without him to inform Sima Zhao of the state of Cao Mao's mind.
Not long afterward the ruler of Wei, Cao Mao, emerged from the royal chambers and ordered Jiao Bo, his chief of guards, to assemble the guards, manservants, and attendants, a total of some three hundred. Raising a hubbub, the crowd escorted their sovereign from the palace. Cao Mao, armed with a sword, climbed into the imperial carriage and shouted to his attendants to move the carriage out. Wang Jing, bent to the ground before the carriage, tearfully remonstrated, "Your Majesty, to lead these paltry hundreds into a fight with Sima Zhao is to drive sheep into a tiger's jaws. They will die for nothing. I hold not my life dear, but I see the futility of this action." "My troops have gone forth; you are not to stand in my way," Cao Mao responded and headed for the Cloud and Dragon Gate.
Armed and mounted, Jia Chong came into view, flanked by Cheng Zu and Cheng Ji and followed by several thousand iron-armored imperial troops. Shouting for battle, they approached Cao Mao, who, hand to sword, cried loudly, "It is the Son of Heaven before you. Do you mean to charge in here and commit regicide?" At the sight of Cao Mao the imperial troops froze. But Jia Chong called to Cheng Ji, "What has Lord Sima kept you for, if not for today?" Cheng Ji hefted his halberd and, turning to Jia Chong, said, "Dead, or bound and delivered?" Jia Chong answered, "By Lord Sima's order, dead!" Cheng Ji gripped his halberd and charged toward the imperial carriage. "How dare you!" Cao Mao shouted. His voice hung in the air as Cheng Ji stabbed him through the chest. Cao Mao stumbled from the carriage. Another stroke and the blade pierced his back; Cao Mao fell dead alongside the carriage. Jiao Bo raised his lance to challenge the killer, only to be slain with a single thrust. His followers fled. Wang Jing dashed forward and cursed Jia Chong: "Turncoat traitor! Will you not stop at regicide?" Jia Chong angrily ordered Wang Jing bound tightly; then he reported the day's events to Sima Zhao.
Sima Zhao went to the scene and found Cao Mao dead. Feigning surprise, he knocked his head against the carriage and wept. He subsequently ordered all the important officials informed. Imperial Guardian Sima Fu came into the carriage and saw the ruler's corpse. Pillowing the head on his thigh,1 Sima Fu wept as he said, "I am to blame for Your Majesty's murder." Fu had Cao Mao's corpse cased in a double coffin and placed at the west end of a side hall.
Sima Zhao assembled the officials in the royal hall for a conference. Chen Tai, a superviser in the Secretariat, refused to attend. Sima Zhao sent Chen Tai's uncle, Chief of the Secretariat Xun Yi, to summon him. But Chen Tai said tearfully, "People always measure me against you; now I see that after all you do not measure up to me." Donning hemp weeds and white garb, Chen Tai entered the palace and mourned prostrate before the bier of the late ruler. Feigning grief, Sima Zhao asked him, "How should we punish them?" "If Jia Chong alone is put to death, it will serve as an apology, however slight, to the empire." Having pondered this advice a long while, Sima Zhao asked again, "Can you think of something less harsh?" Chen Tai replied, "No. I have only punishments even harsher in mind." Sima Zhao said, "Cheng Ji is the real traitor and renegade. Let him be carved slowly to death, then exterminate his clan." Cheng Ji protested loudly, "I am not to blame for the killing. Jia Chong transmitted your command." Sima Zhao ordered Cheng Ji's tongue cut out, but to the end Cheng Ji protested his innocence. His younger brother Cheng Zu was executed in the market, and his entire clan was killed. These verses from a later time lament his fate:
That year Jia Chong at Sima Zhao's command
Killed the king and stained the royal robes red.
A crime that Cheng Ji paid for, and his clan—
The scheme did not deceive the common man.
Sima Zhao next had Wang Jing's family jailed. Wang Jing himself was in the court of justice when he saw his mother arrive in bonds. He touched his head to the ground and cried aloud, "My mother has been seized on account of an unfilial son." But his mother laughed loudly and said, "All who live must die. What counts is dying well. To give my life for this is not to be regretted." The next day Wang Jing's family was marched to the eastern marketplace, and mother and son went to their deaths smiling bravely. There was not a courtier nor a commoner in the city but wept for her. A man of later times has left this verse:
Suicides were acclaimed when Han began;
At Han's end consider then Wang Jing:
A martyr true, of undivided heart,
Of steadfast will, untainted, clear, and pure.
We weigh their lives as mountains, Tai and Hua;
They weighed their lives as light as goose's down.
The mother like the son is known today,
And shall so be while sky reigns over land.
Imperial Guardian Sima Fu requested that Cao Mao be buried with the ceremonies of a king, and Sima Zhao consented. Jia Chong and his party urged Sima Zhao to receive the abdication of the Wei dynasty and assume the throne, but Sima Zhao said, "In ancient times King Wen held two-thirds of the empire, yet he served the Yin dynasty obediently. That is why Confucius called him the man of the 'greatest virtue. ' Cao Cao, the August Emperor Wu, declined the abdication of Han. We now likewise decline that of Wei." From these words Jia Chong and his party understood that Sima Zhao wanted his son Sima Yan to receive the abdication, so Chong did not raise the matter again.
In the sixth month of the year, Sima Zhao established Cao Huang, the lord of Changdao village, as emperor and changed the reign to Jing Yuan, "Spectacular Origin," y
ear 1 (a. d. 260). Cao Huang's name was changed to Cao Huan (Jingming). He was the grandson of the Martial Emperor, and the son of Cao Yu, prince of Yan. Cao Huan honored Sima Zhao as prime minister and lord patriarch of Jin, with a grant of one hundred thousand coins and ten thousand bolts of silk. The entire body of officials, civil and military, was rewarded according to degree.
Spies soon reported these changes back to the Riverlands. Jiang Wei, well pleased by the news that Sima Zhao had murdered Cao Mao and instated Cao Huan, said, "All the more justification for waging war on the kingdom of Wei." Jiang Wei sent a letter calling on the Southland to raise an army to make Sima Zhao answerable for the regicide. At the same time he sought the permission of the Second Emperor to mobilize one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers and several thousand war chariots, all with wooden compartments built onto their chassis. Jiang Wei also ordered Liao Hua and Zhang Yi to the vanguard with orders to capture Zi-Wu Gorge and Luogu Gorge, respectively. Jiang Wei himself intended to capture Ye Gorge. The three generals led their forces toward the Qishan hills, planning to emerge on the eastern side in coordinated actions.
At this time Deng Ai was fortified in the Qishan hills, his forces battle-ready. Told of the approach of the Riverlands armies, he met with his commanders. The military adviser Wang Guan said, "I have a plan that I would rather not discuss openly. Allow me respectfully to submit the details in writing for your perusal." Deng Ai accepted and unrolled the letter. After reading it, he said with a smile, "Most ingenious! But will it fool Jiang Wei?" Wang Guan said, "I would risk my life to carry the plan out." "Such determination assures success," Deng Ai replied and assigned five thousand men to Wang Guan.
Wang Guan marched directly to Ye Gorge to meet the Riverlands forces and made contact with the first scouting parties. Wang Guan called to them, "I am a Wei general surrendering with troops. Inform your commander."
The scouts informed Jiang Wei, and he ordered all the arriving troops detained, receiving only the commander. Touching his head and hands to the ground, Wang Guan said, "I am the nephew of Wang Jing. After Sima Zhao murdered the sovereign, he put my uncle's entire clan to the sword. Hatred for Zhao burns in every fiber of my being. Now by good fortune you, General, have raised an army to make Zhao answer for his crime. That is why I have led my personal guard of five thousand to surrender to you. I hereby place myself at your disposal for the purpose of cleaning out that nest of traitors and avenging my uncle."
Well pleased, Jiang Wei said to Wang Guan, "If you come to us in all sincerity, I will receive you in like spirit. The problem is, our forces here lack grain; but on the Riverlands border we have several thousand loaded grain carts. I'd like you to move them to the Qishan hills; I will go and seize the northern camp there." Jiang Wei has taken the bait, Wang Guan thought with pleasure. He eagerly accepted the assignment. Jiang Wei added, "When you go, you won't need all of your five thousand. Take three thousand and leave the other two here to lead our attack on Qishan." Unwilling to awaken suspicion, Wang Guan agreed and went off with three thousand troops. Jiang Wei directed Fu Qian to use the remaining Wei troops on his campaign.
At that moment Xiahou Ba unexpectedly arrived. "Field Marshal, how could you trust Wang Guan?" he said. "I can't be absolutely certain, but I don't remember hearing that Wang Guan was a nephew of Wang Jing's when I was serving Wei. There's something a bit too tricky in all this; it merits a careful look, General." With a loud laugh Jiang Wei answered, "I have it all figured out. That's why I split up his force—to fight fire with fire." "Your Lordship, explain it to me," Xiahou Ba requested. Jiang Wei continued, "Sima Zhao is no less bold and treacherous than Cao Cao. After killing Wang Jing and exterminating his clan, why would he spare a paternal nephew and give him an outside command? I knew it was a ruse; and you drew the same conclusion on your own." And so Jiang Wei did not go forth from Ye Gorge, but placed men in hiding along the road to interdict Wang Guan's agents.
Within ten days the hidden men had seized Wang Guan's courier to Deng Ai. By close questioning Jiang Wei uncovered a secret written promise to deliver the grain to the Wei camp by side paths on the twentieth day of the eighth month; the document told Deng Ai to dispatch troops to Yunshan Gorge to receive the shipment. Jiang Wei had the courier killed and he altered the date on the document to the fifteenth of the month. Then he sent the letter to Deng Ai's camp by a courier disguised as a Wei soldier. That done, Jiang Wei had several hundred grain carts unloaded and repacked with kindling, straw, and fuses and covered over with black cloth, and he directed Fu Qian to take the two thousand surrendered Wei troops out under the ensign of the transport corps. Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba each led a company into the gorge to lay their ambush. Jiang Wei ordered Jiang Shu to march out from Ye Gorge, and Liao Hua and Zhang Yi to advance and take the Qishan hills.
Delighted with Wang Guan's letter, Deng Ai replied at once. When the fifteenth arrived, Deng Ai led fifty thousand elite troops into Yunshan Gorge, sending scouts far ahead to high ground to scour the horizon. What they saw was an endless chain of grain carts moving along the valley. Deng Ai halted and observed. As expected, the soldiers were his own. His attendants said, "It's nearly dark. Let's move the carts out of the gorge quickly." "The hill terrain ahead is quite irregular. We would have a hard time retreating in case of ambush. Better wait for them here," Ai answered. That moment two riders charged up and reported: "Enemy forces pursued General Wang into the gorge; he needs reinforcement urgently."
Greatly surprised, Deng Ai urged his men forward. The first of the watches had begun, but a bright moon made the night like day. Hearing a clamor from behind a hill, Deng Ai assumed that Wang Guan was engaged in battle and moved around the hill. Suddenly, from a stand of trees a band of soldiers led by the Riverlands general Fu Qian rushed forward. Galloping hard, he cried, "Deng Ai, low-down rat, you have fallen into our commander's trap. Dismount and prepare to die." Panicked, Deng Ai turned his mount and fled. All the carts went up in flames—a signal for the Riverlands troops, who struck from two sides and cut the Wei force to pieces. Then a voice sounded from a hilltop: "A thousand in gold for the man who takes Deng Ai—and a fief of ten thousand households!"
At this shout, Deng Ai flung off his shield and helmet, slipped down from his horse, and tried to lose himself among his foot soldiers as they escaped over the hilltops. Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba were aiming to capture the lead rider, never imagining Deng Ai would get away on foot. Jiang Wei led his triumphant troops to wait for Wang Guan and the grain carts.
In accordance with his secret agreement with Deng Ai, Wang Guan had had the grain carts loaded and ready to move before the appointed date. He was waiting to start when a close adviser reported to him, "The secret is out. General Deng was badly defeated and may not have survived." Astonished, Wang Guan sent out scouts; they reported the advance of three hostile armies. Behind him great clouds of dust were rising as well, blocking the last avenue of retreat. Wang Guan angrily ordered his attendants to have the grain carts set afire. In moments savage flames shot skyward. The wagons were consumed. Wang Guan shouted to his men, "We are done for. Fight for your lives!" Sword in hand, he headed west, Jiang Wei and the three armies close behind.
Jiang Wei was confident that Wang Guan would risk all to get back to the kingdom of Wei, and never expected that he would fight his way toward Hanzhong. Guan himself had so few troops, he thought of nothing but his own fate if overtaken. And so he burned down the wooden plank road as well as various strongpoints. Uneasy now about the security of Hanzhong, Jiang Wei gave up the pursuit of Deng Ai and tried to overtake Wang Guan by forced marches on side trails. Attacked on all sides, Wang Guan jumped into the Black Dragon River and drowned. His troops were buried alive by Jiang Wei.
Jiang Wei's victory over Deng Ai had cost him numerous grain carts in addition to the loss of the wooden plank road. He led his troops back to Hanzhong. Deng Ai led his defeated soldiers back to his camps in the Qishan hills and sent a memorial to the Wei court acknowledging his failure an
d offering to reduce his rank. In view of Deng Ai's many contributions, Sima Zhao could not bring himself to demote the commander; instead, he rewarded him handsomely. Deng Ai distributed all valuables received among the families of those officers and men who had fallen. Because Sima Zhao feared another attack by the Riverlands army, he gave Deng Ai fifty thousand troops to augment his defenses. Jiang Wei devoted his time to repairing the wooden plank road and at court again raised the question of invading Wei.2 Indeed:
He restored the wood-plank road so that troops could reinvade;
Jiang Wei would die before he'd live in peace with Wei.
What was the outcome?
Read on.
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Succumbing to Slander, the Second Emperor Recalls His Army;
Using Military Farms, Jiang Wei Escapes Disaster
By the calendar of Shu-Han it was the fifth year of Jing Yao (a. d. 263). In winter, the tenth month, Supreme Commander Jiang Wei had the wooden cliff roads repaired, replenished his grain supplies, and had all weapons and equipment readied for war. At the same time he dispatched ships to the rivers of Hanzhong. After these preparations Jiang Wei petitioned the Second Emperor: "Though no great victory has crowned my many campaigns, the enemy's morale has been shaken. The troops we have worked so hard to train will lose their mettle without the challenge of battle. They dream of sacrificing themselves in our cause, and the commanders dream of carrying out your mandate. But if I do not prevail over the enemy, I will accept a well-deserved death."
The Second Emperor reviewed the petition but reached no decision. Qiao Zhou stepped forward from the ranks and addressed the sovereign: "Last night in the constellation guarding our kingdom of Shu, the general's star burned low. For the supreme commander to take the field again would prove a most unprofitable course. Your Majesty should issue an edict preventing him from doing so." The Second Emperor answered, "Let the outcome decide it. If he fails, I shall end the campaigns." Because Qiao Zhou's insistent appeals to the Emperor were ignored, he returned home in despair and thereafter claimed to be too ill to appear publicly.
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