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Deng Ai (SGZ Biography)

translated by Battleroyale

DengAi zhi ShiZhai, was from Yi Yang county Ji Yang Xian. He lost his father when he was young and moved to Ru Nan county after CaoCao capture Jing Zhou. At twelve years old, DengAi accompanied his mother to Ying Chuan county. When young, DengAi had a habit of stuttering and thus was given only a lowly post in charge of guarding the farmland. Whenever DengAi saw mountainous, swampy or other different types of terrain in the wild, he would imagine himself positioning army camps at strategic positions in the terrain just like an army commander (much to the amusement of his friends). Subsequently, DengAi was promoted to be a minor administrative officer. During a trip to the court (to present accounting records), DengAi got acquintance with SimaYi, the Tai Wei of the Wei Kingdom. SimaYi saw that DengAi was a man of talent and transfer him to his department. DengAi was soon promoted to the post of Shang Shu Lang.

At that time, the Wei administration intended to embark on agricultural projects in order to boost the army food supplies. DengAi was thus dispatched to inspect Chen Xuan, Xiang Xuan and the region to the east till Shou Chun for possibility of implementation of the projects. From his inspection tour, DengAi concluded that systematic and large scale irrigation projects would need to be executed in order to maximise land use in those regions and he wrote a report entitled “Ji He Lun” to justify his opinions. In addition, DengAi believed that the issue of adequate food supply and the methods of obtaining it were crucial to winning battles. Due to the under-developed farmlands in the newly accquired perfectures (region south of Huai Shui), food supplies for large scale military manuevres had to be supplemented by transportation of supplies from other regions. According to DengAi’s observation, the number of soldiers used in transportation of supplies often measure more than half of the total number of soldiers mobilized. As such, DengAi proposed an alternative solution which was to cultivate the region around Huai Shui by diverting more irrigation channels to it and reducing those intended for the regions Chen Xuan, and Shang Cai Xuan, which according to DengAi, already had fertile topsoil. Through this plan, DengAi postulated that after 6-7 years, the food supplies obtained from the Huai river region would be sufficient for the consumption by 100,000 soldiers in a period of 5 years. SimaYi accepted his proposal and in Zhen Shi 2nd year, large scale implementation were carried out by the army. As a result of DengAi’s proposal, food supplies were sufficient in the region of the Huai river and there was no flood for many years.

DengAi was subsequently transferred out of the capital and placed under Wei’s Zhen Xi Jiang Jun, GuoHuai and was promoted to become the governor of Nan An. In Jia Ping 1st year, DengAi and GuoHuai repelled a northern incursion by JiangWei. GuoHuai wanted to take this opportunity to invade the Qiang tribe but DengAi adviced against it, citing reason that it was likely JiangWei would return for a surprise attack. GuoHuai agreed and dispatched DengAi to guard the northern coast of Bai Shui. 3 days later, JiangWei dispatched LiaoHua to camp at the southern coast of Bai Shui as a ruse while he himself intended to launch a sneak attack at Tao Cheng. However, DengAi saw through his plans and proceeded to occupy Tao Cheng before JiangWei, thus forcing him to retreat. DengAi was duely promoted to be Duke of Guan Nei, Tao Kou Jiang Jun, and governor of Cheng Yang for his meritorious services.

During this time, in Bing Zhou, the Right Virtuous King or Zuo Xian Wang of the Huns, LiuBao, managed to unite several Huns tribes. DengAi proposed to the Wei court that efforts must be made to disintegrate the Huns to prevent them from being united and growing too strong. According to DengAi, effective defence of the northern borders could only be achieved when the enemies were disunited. As such, DengAi proposed several strategies aiming to cause disunity in the Hun tribes. In addition, DengAi proposed that in different phases, the Qiang and Hu people who had assimilated with the Central Plains people should be segregated and re-educated to reduce crimes and atrocities (which they were blamed for).

Soon after, DengAi was transferred to be the governor of Ru Nan. On his appointment, he proceeded to locate the father of an official whom had aided him greatly in his younger days. On realizing that the person had already passed away, DengAi showed his gratitudes by sending gifts to the widow and securing a job for the son of the official. In the places that DengAi toured, barren land was cultivated and the standard of living for the populace and army were high.

When ZhugeKe retreated to Wu after failing to capture Xin Ching in He Fei, DengAi commented to SimaShi that ZhugeKe would not survive for long. His reasons were ZhugeKe was arrogant, did not have the support of the populace and had brought disasters for the people of Wu through his repeated failures in military campaigns. True enough, ZhugeKe was killed after he returned to Wu. Soon, DengAi was promoted to be the governor of Yan Zhou and Zhen Wei Jiang Jun and he proposed to the court for a change in the system of reward.

When CaoMao ascended the Wei throne, DengAi was promoted to the Duke of Fang Cheng. During then, WuQiuJian rebelled and DengAi executed his messenger. Following that, DengAi hasten his troops day and night to reach the city of Yue Jia. His army repaired the bridge and subsequently, the army led by SimaShi arrived and captured the city of Yue Jia. WenQing was defeated by the Wei’s armies and retreated to Wu Kingdom. At this moment, Wu Kingdom’s Da Jiang Jun, SunJun, together with other generals led an army (falsely claimed to number 100,000) intending to cross the river and advance northward. ZhugeDan dispatched DengAi to defend FeiYang but the latter felt that FeiYang was far from the enemies’ forces and positioning his troops there would not be strategically useful. As such DengAi repositioned his troops at Fu Ting and managed to repel the northward incursion by Wu. DengAi was promoted again to Duke of Fang Cheng Xiang and deputy An Xi Jiang Jun for rendering exemplary services.

At Di Dao, the Inspector of Yong province, WangJing, broke the encirclement of the Shu army and forced JiangWei to retreat to Zhong Ti. Military officials at the Wei court were of the opinion that JiangWei’s army was depleted. However, DengAi countered their arguments (based on geographical advantages of the enemies, resources, state of the armies and other factors) and predicted that JiangWei would embark on more northern incursions. True to DengAi’s prediction, JiangWei led a northern expedition aiming for Qi Shan soon after. However, when JiangWei got news that DengAi was fully prepared, he decided to attack Nan An instead. DengAi was defending Wu Cheng mountain and both armies were competing for strategic positions. The armies met at Duan Gu and JiangWei was badly defeated. Deng Ai was promoted to Duke of Deng, Zhen Xi Jiang Jun (zhen as in the chinese character suppress) while his son, DengZhong, was promoted to Duke of Ting.

In Gan Lu 2nd year, DengAi defeated JiangWei at the Great Wall and was promoted to Zhen Xi Jiang Jun (zhen as in the chinese character conquest). In Jin Yuan 3rd year, DengAi defeated JiangWei again at Hou He forcing him to retreat to Da Zhong. In the autumn of Jin Yuan 4th year, the Wei Emperor decreed SimaZhao to lead an southern expedition with the aim of annihilating Shu Kingdom. DengAi was dispatched to counter JiangWei and prevent him from retreating. JiangWei was subsequently defeated by the generals dispatched by DengAi and managed to retreat back to Jian Ge. At Jian Ge, ZhongHui could not defeat JiangWei. On seeing this, DengAi proposed to lead a score of elite soldiers to attack Fu Xuan via Ying Ping path which was 100 plus li (1 li = 0.5 km) west of Jian Ge. As the distance between Fu Xuan and Cheng Du (capital of Shu Kingdom) was only 300 plus li, the Shu army was likely to retreat from Jian Ge to defend Fu Xuan. This move would enable ZhongHui to capture Jian Ge with ease. On the contrary, if the Shu army did not retreat, it would be possible to capture Fu Xuan and possibly Cheng Du, the heart of the Shu Kingdom.

In month of October Jin Yuan 4th year, DengAi led his troops and managed to reach Jiang You after traversing 700 li of perilous terrain. The defender at Jiang You, ZhangMiao, surrendered to DengAi and ZhugeZhan had to retreat from Fu Xuan to Mian Zhu. DengZhong and ShiZuan led an army to attack ZhugeZhan at Mian Zhu but was defeated. Both were badly reprimanded by DengAi. Subsequently, DengZhong and ShiZuan led a second attack and managed to serve a crushing defeat to the Shu army. ZhugeZhan and ZhugeShang were executed. On hearing that, LiuShan decided to surrender and he dispatched officials to DengAi’s camp bearing his Seal and documents.

On entering Cheng Du, DengAi accepted LiuShan’s surrender and disciplined his troops. As such, there were no instances of plundering and the people of Shu praised DengAi for his actions. Many of the Shu officials were reinstated back to their posts, now serving Wei and LiuShan was duly bestowed a rank of deputy Piao Qi Jiang Jun in accordance to precedents of Eastern Han period. Wei’s soldiers who were killed in action were buried along side with the Shu soldiers who died. DengAi commented with an air of arrogance to the ex-officials of Shu that it was fortunate for them to have surrendered to him. If they had surrendered to Wu, it would be likely that they were executed. Also DengAi commented that JiangWei although a hero, was rendered helpless because of him.

DengAi was subsequently promoted to Tai Wei and both his sons were promoted to Duke of Ting for their services. DengAi submitted an elaborate plan to SimaZhao with the objective of pacifying the Wu Kingdom (several important points include giving good treatments to LiuShan and the population of Shu with intention of setting an example to the people of Wu, letting people of Wu to enter Guang Ling and Cheng Yang, while at the same time making military preparations). Nevertheless, DengAi’s plan was rejected by SimaZhao and DengAi was told to seek permission from higher authorities before any action. DengAi was indignant that his plan was rejected. ZhongHui, HuLie and ShiZuan reported DengAi’s actions to the court saying that DengAi had intentions rebelling against the court. As such, a court decree was passed down and DengAi was arrested, put in a prisoner cart and deported to the capital.

Soon after, ZhongHui entered Cheng Du and was killed when he launched a rebellion. DengAi’s old troops managed to release him en route to the capital. Nevertheless, back at Cheng Du, DengAi was killed by WeiGuan and TianXu together with his son DengZhong. The rest of his sons at Luo Yang were also executed. His wife and grandsons were deported to Xi Yu (western region of China, now the province of Gan Su). In years to come, petitions were submitted to the court regarding the wrongs done to DengAi and his family. Subsequently, in Tai Shi 9th year, his descendent was given an official post in the court. Finally, It was also noted that while DengAi was stationed at Long Xi, he repaired the fortifications and built new ones. As a result, the civilians and officials in that region were protected from large-scale rebellions by the Qiang tribe during the Tai Shi period.

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