Meanwhile, on the eve of the expedition Jiang Wei asked Liao Hua, "With this campaign I am committed to regain the northern heartland: what should our first objective be?" Liao Hua replied, "These incessant wars have worn out the people and the army. In Deng Ai, our adversary Wei has a general of uncommon intelligence and strategy. I cannot share your commitment, General, to so forbidding an undertaking." Jiang Wei burst out angrily, "The late prime minister conducted six campaigns from the Qishan hills, all for the sake of the kingdom. This will be my eighth. Do you think I do it in my personal interest? Taoyang is the place to capture first. Behead whoever opposes us!" So saying, Jiang Wei left Liao Hua defending Hanzhong and set out for Taoyang with his commanders and a force of three hundred thousand.
Border residents reported these moves to the Qishan camps. The news reached Deng Ai while he was holding military consultations with Sima Wang. Deng Ai sent scouts to investigate; they reported western troops moving on Taoyang. Sima Wang said, "Jiang Wei is full of schemes. He must be coming to take the Qishan hills while pretending to go for Taoyang." "No," Deng Ai replied. "His real objective is Taoyang." "How do you know?" Sima Wang asked. "Previously Jiang Wei has always come into areas where we have had grain. But Taoyang has no grain. Therefore, he must be assuming that we are defending the Qishan hills only, and not Taoyang. That explains his move. If he captures Taoyang, he will start storing grain and provender, form ties with the Qiang people, and plan a long-term strategy." "Then what can we do?" Sima Wang asked. Deng Ai responded, "Evacuate this position and send the troops in two units to rescue Taoyang. About twenty-five li short of the town you will find Marchriver, a small hamlet that is the key to Taoyang. Hide your force in Taoyang; lower all flags and still all drums; open wide its four gates. There will be certain other steps you must take as well. I will bring the second force to Marchriver and wait in ambush. Together we will defeat the enemy completely." Their plan set, the two departed, leaving the Qishan camps guarded by a subordinate commander, Shi Zuan.
Meanwhile Jiang Wei sent Xiahou Ba with the forward unit to capture Taoyang. Approaching the objective, Xiahou Ba saw the city wall bare—not a single flag was flying— and the four gates wide open. Warily declining to enter, Ba turned to his commanders and said, "This must be a trap!" "To all appearances the city is empty," they replied, "only a few commoners remain. The enemy must have abandoned it when they heard you were coming, General." Unconvinced, Xiahou Ba rode around to inspect the south entrance behind the city. There he found a large number of refugees, either very old or very young, all fleeing to the west. "So it is empty after all," Xiahou Ba exclaimed, and he led his men inside, arms at the ready. But as he came alongside the inner city wall, a bombard roared and from the top of the wall drums and horns blasted in unison. Flags popped up all around and the drawbridge was raised. In a panic, Xiahou Ba said, "They have caught me!" He tried desperately to withdraw, but arrows and stones pelted down on him. And the unfortunate Xiahou Ba perished at the base of the wall with his five hundred soldiers. A poet of later times has left this verse:
Jiang Wei was bold; in planning he excelled—
Who could have foreseen Deng Ai's counter plan?
Pity Xiahou Ba, who joined the cause of Han
And fell in a storm of bolts by Taoyang town.
Sima Wang emerged from the town, fought and defeated the western troops, and drove them from the field. Jiang Wei arrived with reinforcement, drove Sima Wang back into the city, and pitched camp close by. At the news of Xiahou Ba's death Jiang Wei wept inconsolably and gave voice to his grief.
That night during the second watch Deng Ai stealthily led a company out of the town of Marchriver and into the Riverlands camp. His attack threw the western troops into disorder; not even Jiang Wei could control them. Simultaneously the clamor of drums and horns from the top of the wall shattered the calm as Sima Wang led his men out of Taoyang. The Riverlands troops, caught between the two northern forces, were badly defeated. Jiang Wei himself, thrusting and charging left and right, finally managed to get away in heavy fighting; he withdrew twenty li from the field and camped.
These two defeats shook the Riverlanders. Jiang Wei said to his assembled commanders, "The hazard of the field offers no surprise to the true strategist. Despite our losses of men and officers, we must not lose heart. Our fortunes rest on this campaign. You must persevere. He who calls retreat, dies." Zhang Yi said, "If the Wei troops are now all here, the Qishan hills should be undefended. General, array for battle against Deng Ai. Attack Taoyang and Marchriver. I will take a company to capture their positions in the hills. Once their nine camps fall, we can drive through and take Chang'an. That is the best plan."
Jiang Wei approved and ordered Zhang Yi to lead the rear army on to the Qishan hills. Jiang Wei took his own forces to Marchriver to challenge Deng Ai. At Wei's challenge Deng Ai came forth. The armies drew themselves into opposing formations as the two leaders clashed. Neither prevailed after several dozen passes-at-arms, and both sides were recalled to their camps. The next day Jiang Wei gave the challenge again, but Deng Ai did not respond. Jiang Wei had his men revile the northerners.
Deng Ai mused to himself, "The Riverlanders have already tasted severe defeat. Yet far from giving any sign of retreating, they return each day to issue the challenge. They must have sent a surprise force over to the Qishan camps. Our defender, Shi Zuan, has too few soldiers and too little sense to save himself. I shall have to go myself." Deng Ai summoned his son Deng Zhong and instructed him: "Hold this place well and ignore their challenges. Tonight I will leave to rescue the Qishan camps."
During the second watch, as Jiang Wei sat plotting his moves, harsh shouts outside the camp shook the ground and the call of horns and drums split the air. Jiang Wei was informed that Deng Ai had come with three thousand elite troops for a night battle. The Riverlands commanders wanted to go forth, but Jiang Wei stopped them saying, "No rash moves!" Actually, Deng Ai had merely passed by the front of the Riverlands camp to reconnoitre. Then he marched off to the Qishan hills while Deng Zhong returned to the town.
Jiang Wei summoned his commanders and said, "Deng Ai was pretending to commence a night battle. He must have gone to the Qishan hills." He instructed Fu Qian: "Defend this camp. Do not engage the enemy." With that, Jiang Wei left with three thousand men to assist Zhang Yi.
Zhang Yi had just begun the attack. The defender, Shi Zuan, having too few troops to resist, was swiftly defeated. Suddenly Deng Ai and his force arrived, and heavy fighting began. Zhang Yi's Riverlands soldiers were defeated and sealed up behind a hill, their return route cut off. At this desperate moment amid the clamor of voices and the noise of drums and horns, before the westerners' eyes the northern troops began reeling back in every direction. Zhang Yi's attendants reported: "Supreme Commander Jiang Wei has come!" Zhang Yi seized the moment to rejoin the battle, and the two Riverlands armies caught Deng Ai between them and drove him back with heavy losses into his hill camps. Jiang Wei ordered the Wei positions surrounded and attacked.
In Chengdu the Second Emperor, having fallen under the influence of the eunuch official Huang Hao, indulged in vice and luxury and neglected the business of the court. Lady Hu, wife of the high court official Liu Yan, was an exceptional beauty. On one occasion she entered the court to pay her respects to the Empress, who kept her in the palace for a full month. Afterward, Liu Yan, suspecting that his wife had become intimate with the Second Emperor, arrayed five hundred of his guard before him. At Liu Yan's order, the soldiers tied up Lady Hu and struck her in the face several dozen times with a shoe. The woman fainted and nearly died, but then revived. The Second Emperor was furious when he learned of this incident and ordered an executive officer to condemn Liu Yan. The accusation read: "A common soldier is not the one to strike a wife; the face is not the place to receive punishment; Liu Yan deserves to be executed publicly." Consequently, Liu Yan was beheaded.
Thereafter ladies with titles conferred by the sovereign were banned from
court. But court officials continued to view the Emperor as given to lust, and many resented and mistrusted him. As a result, worthy and able men began gradually to withdraw, while opportunists advanced steadily.
At the time General of the Right Yan Yu, a man without a shred of merit, had reached a rank of importance by fawning on Huang Hao. On learning that Jiang Wei had command of troops in the Qishan hills, he persuaded Huang Hao to petition the Emperor: "Jiang Wei has fought many battles and accomplished little. Let Yan Yu replace him." The Second Emperor approved and dispatched an envoy with the edict recalling Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei was in the heat of the struggle against the Wei fortifications in the Qishan hills. Suddenly three edicts arrived in a single day instructing Jiang Wei to bring his armies back to the capital. Jiang Wei had to comply.1 First he had the troops at Taoyang withdraw, then he slowly retreated with Zhang Yi. In camp Deng Ai heard drums and horns all night long, but he had no idea what it meant. At dawn his scouts informed him that the Riverlanders had retreated and left their sites empty. Assuming a trick, Deng Ai did not dare pursue.
Reaching Hanzhong, Jiang Wei rested his forces; then he entered Chengdu with the envoy to present himself to the Second Emperor. But for a full ten days the Emperor did not appear in court. Perplexed, Jiang Wei went to the Donghua Gate, where he chanced to meet Xi Zheng of the Documents Department and asked him, "Do you know why the Son of Heaven summoned the army and myself back to Chengdu?" "How could the supreme commander not know the reason?" Xi Zheng answered grinning. "Huang Hao wanted Yan Yu to earn merit, and so he petitioned the court to have you recalled. The latest news is that Deng Ai has shown such skill on the field that Huang Hao has quietly dropped the whole matter of sending Yan Yu to the front."
Enraged, Jiang Wei said, "I will kill that eunuch." Xi Zheng checked him saying, "General, you are the successor of the Martial Lord Kongming. Can you act so impetuously while in so responsible a position? If the Son of Heaven should take offense, things will not turn out pleasantly." Apologetically, Jiang Wei said, "Master, you advise me well."
The next day the Second Emperor and Huang Hao were feasting in a rear garden when Jiang Wei charged into the palace with a small body of men. Someone rushed to inform Huang Hao, who quickly took refuge in a hiding place near a lakeside hill. Jiang Wei reached the pavilion and prostrated himself before the Second Emperor. Tearfully, he petitioned him: "I had Deng Ai surrounded in the Qishan hills. Your Majesty then issued three edicts recalling me to the capital; but I have yet to understand what your sacred purpose might have been." The Emperor made no reply. Again Jiang Wei petitioned him: "Huang Hao monopolizes power through treacherous cunning, just as the Ten Eunuchs did in the time of Emperor Ling. Let your Majesty reflect upon the example of Zhang Rang in recent times and the example of Zhao Gao in a more remote era.2 Have his man killed. Then peace will return to your court and the northern heartland will be recovered."
With a smile the Second Emperor said, "Huang Hao is a mere attendant at my beck and call. Even if he had the power of a Zhang Rang or a Zhao Gao, he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. Dong Yun bore malice toward Huang Hao, and we were quite puzzled over it. I hope you are not forming an unfavorable opinion of him." Knocking his head to the ground, Jiang Wei petitioned: "Your Majesty, have Huang Hao killed today or the consequences will be swift and painful." ' "We desire those we love to live, those we hate to die. ' Can you not learn to live with a single eunuch official?" the Second Emperor demanded, and then he summoned Huang Hao from his hiding place by the lake.
Huang Hao came to the pavilion on the Emperor's order and prostrated himself before Jiang Wei to acknowledge his offense. Pleading tearfully, Huang Hao said, "I was only hoping to be of service to the sovereign at all times—that is all—and had no intention whatsoever of involving myself with government affairs. General, please do not seek my life for what others may say about me. I am in your hands, and I plead for your kind mercy." Finished speaking, Huang Hao continued touching his forehead to the ground as he wept.
Indignantly Jiang Wei left and went to see Xi Zheng to whom he recounted in full his visit to the sovereign. Xi Zheng said, "It is you, General, who are in trouble now. And if you are in danger, the dynasty itself will perish." Jiang Wei replied, "I will stand in your debt, master, for any advice on saving the dynasty—and myself." Xi Zheng responded, "There is good farmland in Tazhong in Longxi. That's the place to go, General, to continue the Martial Lord Kongming's soldier-tiller policy and set up military colonies—but make sure to inform the Son of Heaven. First, the ripening harvest will supply your troops; second, you can plan to occupy all districts in Longyou; third, you will forestall Wei's hostile ambitions in Hanzhong; and fourth, if you are in the field and holding military authority, you will be able to frustrate any internal schemes against you. Thus, you can save the dynasty and yourself if you waste no time." A delighted Jiang Wei said humbly, "Master, I shall treasure your words."
The next day Jiang Wei petitioned the Second Emperor in writing to request the establishment of soldier-tiller colonies in Tazhong after the manner of those created by the Martial Lord. The Second Emperor approved. Jiang Wei returned to Hanzhong and gathered his commanders. "None of our campaigns has succeeded," he said to them. "The reason is insufficient food supply. Now I am going to lead eighty thousand troops into Tazhong to plant wheat in soldier-tilled fields to prepare gradually for our next offensive. All of you are war-wearied, so we shall put away our weapons, reap grain, and strengthen our defenses in Hanzhong. The enemy has to move grain great distances, trudging over the mountains, and will be forced withdraw from fatigue in due course. At that moment we can attack with every assurance of victory." So saying, he ordered Hu Ji to guard Hanshoucheng, Wang Han to guard Yuecheng, and Jiang Bin to guard Hancheng. Jiang Shu and Fu Qian were assigned to protect the passes. His preparations complete, Jiang Wei led the eighty thousand men into Tazhong to plant wheat, the first step in his longterm strategy.
Deng Ai meanwhile had heard of Jiang Wei's activities in Tazhong, and of his string of forty forts along the road as inseparably linked as the segments of a snake.3 Deng Ai ordered a spy to inspect the terrain and prepare maps, which he submitted to the court. The lord of Jin, Sima Zhao, looked at the sketches and said angrily, "Jiang Wei's persistent raids into our northern territory pose a most grave threat to our regime, a threat we have so far failed to eliminate." Jia Chong replied, "Jiang Wei has grasped well the tactics Kongming taught him; his men will be difficult to dislodge. We need a brave and ingenious commander to assassinate him and spare us the hardship of a field campaign."
A staff officer and imperial corpsman, Xun Xu, said, "There is another way. The ruler of Shu, Liu Shan, steeped in drunken lechery, has placed his fullest confidence in the eunuch Huang Hao; and the principal ministers are occupied with saving themselves from the doom they see approaching. Jiang Wei is building military colonies in Tazhong to avoid disaster to himself. If you send your chief generals on a punitive campaign against him, you are certain to win. There is no point in sending an assassin." Sima Zhao laughed and said, "You are quite right. I will move against the Riverlands. Who will lead my forces?" Xun Xu said, "Deng Ai is one of the superb talents of the age. If Zhong Hui would be his deputy, our cause will triumph." "Exactly my thought," said Sima Zhao, well pleased.
Sima Zhao summoned Zhong Hui and asked, "I want to put you in command of a punitive expedition against the Southland. Are you willing?" Zhong Hui answered, "My lord, your real purpose is to attack Shu, not Wu." Sima Zhao laughed and said, "Well you know my mind. But what tactics would you use against Shu?" "I assumed," Zhong Hui replied, "that you meant to attack Shu and so have the maps here in hand." Sima Zhao unrolled the maps and studied the fine drawings: a line of bases, forts, grain and fodder depots, points for advance and retreat, all logically marked out. Sima Zhao examined the maps with pleasure. "What an excellent commander!" he exclaimed. "Are you willing to join forces with Deng Ai for an attack on the Riverlands?"4
> Zhong Hui replied, "That is too broad a territory to be entered by a single route. It would be better to have Deng Ai enter separately with his forces." Sima Zhao appointed Zhong Hui general, Queller of the West, and gave him the credentials of military authority and command of all forces in the Guanzhong region. He also moved units from the eastern provinces of Qing, Xu, Yan, Yu, Jing, and Yang to the western front. At the same time he sent an envoy with official documents assigning General Deng Ai the title Conqueror of the West, giving him field command of all forces in Longshan beyond the limits of Guanzhong, and setting the time for him to begin the expedition against the Riverlands.
The next day at court Sima Zhao evaluated the plan of action. Deng Dun, general of the Van, said, "Jiang Wei's ceaseless attacks on our borders have cost the lives of many soldiers. If even our defense is uncertain, an offensive deep into the difficult enemy terrain will only invite disaster." Sima Zhao responded angrily, "Against a renegade ruler I am fielding a host dedicated to the principles of just and humane government. How dare you oppose my purposes?" So saying, Sima Zhao ordered the guard to remove Deng Dun and execute him. Moments later the general's head was presented at the stair below Zhao's seat. The audience turned pale.
Sima Zhao said, "Since we set out to conquer the Southland six years ago, our soldiers have not campaigned. Now they are ready and our weapons in good order. It is time to fulfill our long-standing desire to bring the kingdoms of Wu and Shu to justice. First we will conquer Shu in the west, then we will advance downriver—by both land and water— and devour Wu in the east, as the lord of Jin did in ancient times when he captured the kingdom of Yu after destroying the kingdom of Guo. I reckon the Riverlands force at eighty or ninety thousand guarding Chengdu, leaving at most forty or fifty thousand guarding the border. And Jiang Wei's military colonists amount to no more than another sixty or seventy thousand. I have already ordered Deng Ai to lead one hundred thousand Longyou troops to pin down Jiang Wei in Tazhong so that he will not dream of moving east. I have also sent Zhong Hui with two to three hundred thousand crack troops from Guanzhong to march directly to Luogu Gorge to surprise Hanzhong with three field armies.5 The Riverlands ruler, Liu Shan, is no light to his people. Once the border defenses are breached, the populace in the capital will panic and the kingdom will fall." The assembly received Sima Zhao's explanation with deep respect.
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