Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions
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| Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions | |||||||
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| Part of the wars of the Three Kingdoms | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Cao Wei | Shu Han | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Guo Huai Cao Shuang Deng Ai |
Jiang Wei | ||||||
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Jiang Wei's northern expeditions were a series of invasions, nine to be exact, launched by Jiang Wei against Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period in China. Each had to be abandoned due to the inadequate food supplies or due to battlefield losses. Jiang's expeditions drained Shu's already limited resources, and led to the eventual destruction of Shu Han in 263.
[edit] First Invasion: Battle of Taoxi
In 247, Jiang Wei led some troops to quell a minor uprising at Han Shan county Ping Kang Xuan. After which, he invaded Longxi, Nan'an and Jingcheng where he fought Guo Zhun, Xiahou Ba west of Tao River.
Guo Huai dispatched Deng Ai to guard the northern coast of Bai Shui. Three days later, Jiang Wei dispatched Liao Hua to camp at the southern coast of Baishui as a ruse while he intended to launch a sneak attack at Taocheng. However, Deng Ai saw through his plans and proceeded to occupy Taocheng before Jiang Wei, thus forcing Liao Hua to retreat.
Jiang Wei, angry and mad attacked, Taocheng with almost everything he had. He used his rams and towers to destroy Taocheng so he could destroy Deng Ai. Suddenly Sima Zhao sent his ambush team to rescue an eliminated Deng Ai. Gao Cheng taken Jiang Wei's main camp at Baishui, thus forcing the outraged Jiang Wei to retreat.
[edit] Second Invasion: Battle of Qucheng
In 249, Jiang Wei constructed two forts at the Qu mountains and dispatched troops to defend them. In addition, Jiang took the native people (from the Di and Qiang tribes) as hostages and forced them to obey his orders. Seeing this, Chen Tai advised his superior, Guo Huai that it would be a good opportunity for them to launch an attack on the forts given that the distance between the forts and Shu’s track was far, and the natives were resentful of the forced labor under Shu. Guo Huai agreed with Chen Tai and dispatched him to attack Shu’s defending army under Xu Zhi. At the same time, the governor of Nan'an, Deng Ai, was dispatched to lay siege to the forts.
Chen Tai managed to cut the food and water supply chains to the forts but was surrounded by Shu soldiers who came out for a counter-offensive. Subsequently, Jiang Wei led his main forces to break the siege and met up with Chen Tai at the rear of Bull Head Mountain. Instead of engaging Jiang Wei's troops, Chen Tai advised Guo Huai to cut off Jiang Wei's possible retreat route. Guo Huai agreed and dispatched Chen Tai to proceed as planned. Jiang found out the maneuvers of the Wei’s armies and realized that there was a competent commander among her ranks. Despite the unfavorable situation, Jiang refused to retreat and on seeing that, the soldiers at the two forts fake surrendered to Wei.
Meanwhile Chen Tai, in madness saw through the surrender of the troops and battled them. Jiang Wei met Chen Tai again and this time they dueled. Chen Tai attacked Jiang but he dodged, making Chen Tai hurt himself. Then Jiang ran into the door that was locked, only Chen Tai's blade able to destroy it. He smashed of a piece of the wooden bamboo and blood came of his hands. Jiang was almost attacked again but dodged making the door smash. Chen Tai let Jiang retreat although Jiang would only be able to do one more invasion.
[edit] Third Invasion: Battle of Xiping and Fourth Invasion
In 249, Jiang Wei launches his third invasion and is defeated.
In 253, Jiang Wei set up a coordinated attack with Zhuge Ke to attack Wei on two fronts: Shu on the west in Nan'an and Wu on the east in Xinching in Hefei. Jiang attacked the key border city of Didao as Zhuge Ke launched a massive attack on Hefei. Wei's regent Sima Shi knew the Wu force to be the more serious threat and led the main Wei force to the eastern front, while sending a smaller unit to relieve Didao. The first sign of what would eventually recur, Jiang, while sieging Didao, ran out of food supplies and had to withdraw. Eventually, Shi's forces dealt a crippling defeat to Zhuge Ke.
[edit] Fifth Invasion: Battle of Lintao
Jiang Wei passed Shiying, and Dongting and led tens of thousands troops to attack Nan'an. Chen Tai reinforced Nan'an and Jiang had to retreat back to Shu due to food shortage problem. Guo Huai drove back Jiang's invasion.
In 254, after Li Jian, the county magistrate of Didao secretly declared that he would defect, Jiang again attacked Longxi and the defender of Didao, and took the city of Didao. Then proceeded to attack Xiang Wu Xuan, and defeated Wei general Xu Zhi’s army, and beheaded him, still Jiang was forced to withdraw back to Shu together with some of the civilians of Didao, Heguan and Lintao.
[edit] Sixth Invasion: Battle of Didao
In summer 255, despite opposition from Zhang Yi, Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba (who had joined Shu) attacked Didao again in three different directions aiming for the Qi mountains, Jincheng and Shiying. Jiang was successful in his initial battles against the Wei Yong Province governor Wang Jing west of Taoxi, nearly annihilating Wang's troops, leaving around ten thousand troops to defend Didao. Wang Jing requested Chen Tai to dispatch troops to defend in all three directions. However, Chen Tai didn't think that Shu would split their forces into three directions and he ordered Wang Jing to defend Didao and only launched an attack when Shu armies arrived and the opportunity arise. In addition, Chen Tai himself led some troops to defend Chencang. However, Wang Jing didn't obey Chen Tai’s order and proceed to attack Shu’s armies on his own. On hearing that, Chen Tai knew that something disastrous might happen and proceed to lead his armies to reinforce Wang Jing.
Chen Tai reorganized the defeated troops in preparation for a counteroffensive. Chen Tai mentioned although Shu was victorious, they didn't seize the opportunity to attack eastward in order to capture the Wei’s food supplies at Liyang. Zhang again tried to persuade Jiang to stop his campaign at this point; unfortunately, Jiang refused. Rather, he sieged Didao again and Shu morale was affected. Jiang and Chen's forces stayed in a stalemate throughout the winter. With the ongoing food supply problem of the Shu army, Chen Tai capitalized on these weaknesses and launched a swift attack against the enemies. Chen Tai led his troops to a mountain south of Didao, and instructed his troops to raise torches. The Wei troops defending at Didao saw that and their morale boost tremendously. Shu’s troops besieging Didao were badly affected by the display put up by Chen Tai and a portion of the Shu’s armies was dispatched to attack Chen Tai’s army and they were badly defeated by Chen Tai due to his capitalization of strategic points for defense. As a result, the Shu’s armies were forced was forced eventually to lift the siege and retreat thus Didao was saved.
In summer 256, as Jiang shifted his strategy to advance on Shanggui instead, his move was anticipated by general Deng Ai, who intercepted him and dealt him a major loss that would cause the people of Shu to start to resent Jiang.
[edit] Seventh Invasion: Battle of Duan Valley
Jiang Wei was confident in his abilities to use the northern tribes to his advantage, but Fei Wei rejected his proposals and limited the amount of troops that Jiang was allowed to use. Jiang scored the initial victory at Tao river, but was driven back by Deng Ai.
In 256, a year later, Jiang had arranged for Hu Ji to assist his expedition aiming for Qishan. However, Hu Ji broke his promise and didn't arrive. When Jiang heard that Deng Ai was fully prepared, he decided to attack Nan'an instead. Deng Ai was defending Wucheng mountain. As a result, Jiang Wei was badly defeated at Duangu by Deng Ai.
[edit] Eighth Invasion: Battle of Mang River and Ninth Invasion: Battle of Taoyang
In 257, when Zhuge Dan rebelled against Wei, Jiang Wei attacked attack Chen ling, advancing all the way to Mangshui, and a stalemate resulted at Weishui, but Jiang couldn't induce Wei's forces, commanded by Deng Ai and Sima Wang. In 258, Jiang withdrew after Zhuge was defeated.
In 262, despite Liao Hua's opposition, Jiang Wei, attacked Wei again, targeting Taoyang, but was defeated by Deng Ai, and withdrew to Tazhong.
[edit] Aftermath
After Jiang Wei's continued failures in his invasions, the people of Shu resented Jiang. Shu resources were almost drained and this gave Wei an opportunity to attack and eliminate Shu. Zhong Hui and Deng Ai invaded Shu at two points. Jiang resisted Zhong Hui’s attack, but Liao Hua was defeated by Deng Ai, and after the defeat of Zhuge Zhan at Mianzhu Pass, Shu was lost. In 263, Liu Shan surrendered to Wei, and Jiang Wei was ordered to surrender his troops to Zhong Hui.
