Zhuge Liang’s Northern Expeditions

Before setting out, in 227, Zhuge Liang presented to the young emperor Liu Shan a memorial on the campaign, the Chu Shi Biao, later regarded as a masterpiece of Chinese prose. In the spring of 228 he marched on Mount Qi while a decoy force under Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi drew the Wei general Cao Zhen towards the Ji valley. Three Wei commanderies — Tianshui, Nan’an and Anding — went over to Shu, but the vanguard commander Ma Su disobeyed his orders and was routed by Zhang He at Jieting; Zhuge Liang withdrew and had Ma Su executed. In the winter of 228–229 he besieged Chencang for some twenty days but could not take it from Hao Zhao and his garrison of about a thousand men. In 229 Chen Shi took the commanderies of Wudu and Yinping — the only lasting gain of the campaigns.

In 231 Zhuge Liang returned to Mount Qi, carrying supplies over the mountains in “wooden oxen”, often identified with a kind of wheelbarrow, and won over the Xianbei chief Kebineng, whose men came to Beidi in his support. Facing Sima Yi, he again withdrew when his grain ran out, and the pursuing Wei general Zhang He was killed in an ambush at Mumen. In the spring of 234 he led his whole army — more than 100,000 men according to the Book of Jin, 100,000 in the Zizhi Tongjian — through the Xie valley to the Wuzhang Plains south of the Wei river and set his soldiers to farm there to feed the army. Sima Yi refused battle; after a standoff of more than a hundred days Zhuge Liang fell ill and died in the eighth lunar month, and the Shu army withdrew. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms turned the campaigns into the legend of the “six expeditions from Mount Qi”.