Kongming's Archives: Three Kingdoms Novel and History  

Jiang Wei (SGZ Biography)

translated by Battleroyale

JiangWei zhi BoYue was born in Tian Shui Yi Xuan. He lost his father when he was young and left only with his mother. His father was a county official who died in an attempt to protect the governor during an uprising by the northern tribes. As a result, JiangWei took over his father’s post and was tasked to advice the military affairs of the county.

In Jian Xin 6th year, ZhugeLiang launched the first northern expedition aiming at Qi Shan region. Several neighbouring counties of Tian Shui had surrendered to the Shu army. At that moment, JiangWei was patrolling the outskirts with his governor. Afraid that JiangWei might be colluding with the Shu army, the governor fled secretly at night. When JiangWei discovered about that, it was already too late and on returning to Yi Xuan, his own city refused to open the city gates. As such, JiangWei proceeded to meet ZhugeLiang. Coincidentally, the Shu army had suffered a setback at Jie Ting, when MaSu was defeated by ZhangHe. ZhugeLiang gave the order for a retreat back to Shu territory bringing JiangWei along with him. JiangWei was conferred the Duke of Yang Ting and he was only 27 years old then. Back at Shu, ZhugeLiang had high opinions of JiangWei after observing and testing him. As such, JiangWei was further promoted to Zhen Xi Jiang Jun after seeking audience with Liu Chan.

In Jian Xin 12th year, ZhugeLiang passed away. JiangWei returned to Cheng Du and he was promoted to Duke of Ping Xiang. In Yan Xi 6th year, JiangWei was promoted again to Zhen Xi Da Jiang Jun (different Zhen chinese character) and also in Yan Xi 10th year to Wei Jiang Jun, sharing administrative power with Fei Wei. This year, JiangWei led some troops to quell a minor uprisng at Han Shan county Ping Kang Xuan. Following which, he ordered his troops to invade Long Xi, Nan An and Jing Cheng. He engaged the Wei generals GuoZhun, XiaHouBa at the region west of Tao river.

In Yan Xi 12th year, JiangWei embarked on the second northern expedition after receiving orders but was not successful. JiangWei always had high opinions of his knowledge of the cultural and lifestyle of the northern tribes as well as his own military abilities. As such, he often intended to use the northern tribes to aid him in the subjugation of the region west of Long Shan. However, FeiWei frequently restricted JiangWei’s actions, rejected his proposals and did not allow him to mobilise more than 10000 troops.

In the spring of Yan Xi 16th year, FeiWei passed away. In that summer, JiangWei led several tens of thousands troops to attack Nan An. Wei sent ChenTai to reinforce Nan An and JiangWei had to retreat back to Shu territory due to food shortage problem. In the following year, JiangWei attacked Long Xi and the defender of Di Dao, LiJian, surrendered. JiangWei proceeded to attack Xiang Wu Xuan and defeated Wei general XuZhi’s army, beheading him. Nevertheless, JiangWei had to retreat back to Shu territory together with some of the civilians of Di Dao, He Guan and Lin Tao. In Yan Xi 18th year, JiangWei, together with XiaHouBa (who had joined Shu), attack Di Dao. They defeated the Inspector of Yong province, WangJing, at the west of Tao Xi, causing Wei to lose tens of thousands soldiers. WangJing retreated back to the city of Di Dao and JiangWei laid seige to it. However, JiangWei was forced to retreat when the reinforcement led by ChenTai arrived.

In the spring of Yan Xi 19th year, JiangWei was appointed as Da Jiang Jun. Once again, JiangWei embarked on the northern expedition and he had arranged for HuJi to assist his expedition. However, HuJi broke his promise and did not arrive. As such, JiangWei was badly defeated at Duan Gu by the Wei general DengAi. Casualty rate was very high, the region west of Long Shan was distablised and JiangWei suffered heavy criticisms from the populace. JiangWei offered apologies and a self demotion to Hou Jiang Jun. Nevertheless, he resumed his original responsibilities.

In Yan Xi 20th year, ZhugeDan, Wei’s Zhen Dong Da Jiang Jun based in Huai Nan, rebelled. Seeing this as an opportunity to attack Wei, JiangWei led several tens of thousands troops to attack Chen Ling. Wei sent SimaWang and DengAi as reinforcements. A stalemate resulted at Wei Shui, despite JiangWei repeated challenges. In Jin Yao 0th year, the rebellion led by ZhugeDan ended in failure. On receiving the news, JiangWei gave orders to retreat. Back at Cheng Du, JiangWei was reinstated back to his original rank of Da Jiang Jun.

JiangWei proposed to change the defensive strategy and troop deployment for the region of Han Zhong. Previously, LiuBei and subsequently WangPing had adopted an individual defensive strategy for each strategic position. Sufficient troops were thus deployed at each position to repel enemies’ invasion. However, according to JiangWei, this strategy, although sufficient for defensive purpose, would not offer any room for a counter-offensive. As such, he proposed a strategy whereby in the event of invasion, the troops at each strategic position would retreat to Han Cheng and Yue Cheng together with all their supplies and equipments. This was to prevent enemies from advancing to the Ping Yuan region. Numerous passes would be set up and troops to be sent to look out for weakness in enemies position. When the enemies failed to capture those passes, the morale of its army would drop and food shortages would ensue. During such circumstances, JiangWei proposed that a counter-offensive from Han Cheng and Yue Cheng would be launched. This plan was subsequently accepted and troops from various strategic positions were redeployed.

In Jin Yao 5th year, JiangWei embarked on another northern expedition but was defeated once more by DengAi. JiangWei, originally a Wei general, had by now little successes in his military career in Shu. When he got news that there was a possible plot against him by the eunuch HuangHao and Shu's You Jiang Jun, YanYu, JiangWei felt uneasy and did not return to Cheng Du again.

In Jin Yao 6th year, JiangWei warned Liu Chan of ZhongHui militaristic intentions at Guan Zhong. In accordance to that, JiangWei proposed to LiuChan to dispatch troops to Yang Ping Guan in case of emergency. However, the eunuch HuangHao invited a shaman who predicted that Wei would never invade Shu. As such, the warning was suppressed and the other court ministers did not have a chance to hear of it. It was not until the actual invasion of ZhongHui at Luo Gu and DengAi at Da Zhong that troops led by LiaoHua and ZhangYi were dispatched to Yang Ping Guan. Nevertheless, JiangWei was defeated at Yang Ping by DengAi and retreated to Yin Ping. ZhongHui laid seige to Han Cheng and Yue Cheng. Han Cheng was captured when its defenders surrendered but Yue Cheng put up a strong defence stand and continued to resist. Faced with strong resistance and after learning that the other pass had fallen, ZhongHui sent his troops deep into the Shu territory. JiangWei and LiaoHua gave up Yin Ping and together with ZhangYi and DongJue faced ZhongHui at Jian Ge. During then, JiangWei rejected ZhongHui's proposal to surrender to Wei and continue to resist ZhongHui's attack.

However, DengAi had by then infiltrated through Yin Ping Gu Dao and proceeded to attack ZhugeZhan at Mian Zhou. Subsequently, DengAi captured Cheng Du and Liu Chan accepted DengAi's proposal to surrender. On receiving orders from Liu Chan to surrender, JiangWei proceeded to Fu Xuan with his troops to surrender to ZhongHui who treated him amicably. Soon, DengAi was implicated by ZhongHui and the latter took over as the governor of Yi Zhou. ZhongHui plotted to rebel but did not get the support of the Wei soldiers. As a result, JiangWei and ZhongHui were both killed by the soldiers. JiangWei's wife and daughters were also not spared.

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