Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions (228-234) Against Wei

Zhuge Liang’s Northern Expeditions were a series of military campaigns launched between 228 and 234 by the state of Shu Han against its much larger rival Wei. Led by Shu’s chancellor Zhuge Liang, they aimed to break out of the Sichuan basin, seize the north-west and eventually restore the Han dynasty. Despite some successes, they ended with Zhuge Liang’s death at Wuzhang Plains in 234.

Background

After Liu Bei’s defeat at the Battle of Yiling and his death in 223, his son Liu Shan became emperor of Shu, with Zhuge Liang as regent. Zhuge Liang restored the alliance with Wu, reorganised the government and in 225 led a campaign to pacify the southern regions of Shu.

In 227 he moved the army to Hanzhong, on the northern edge of Shu, and submitted to the emperor his famous memorial on setting out on campaign, the Chu Shi Biao. In it he urged Liu Shan to govern well and declared his duty to recover the north for the Han. Shu was the smallest of the Three Kingdoms, and he believed it could not survive by standing still.

First expedition and Jieting (228)

In spring 228 Zhuge Liang sent Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi as a decoy through the Ji Valley, pretending to threaten the city of Mei, while he led the main army west to the Qishan Hills. Three Wei commanderies, Tianshui, Nan’an and Anding, went over to him, and the young Wei officer Jiang Wei joined Shu.

Wei sent the veteran general Zhang He to counter-attack. Zhuge Liang placed Ma Su, a favoured adviser, to hold the road junction at Jieting. Ma Su disobeyed orders, abandoned the road and camped on a hill. Zhang He cut him off from water and routed his army. With his position exposed, Zhuge Liang withdrew to Hanzhong. He had Ma Su executed and asked to be demoted three grades as punishment for his own error.

Later campaigns (228-231)

In the winter of 228-229 Zhuge Liang besieged Chencang, which the Wei officer Hao Zhao defended with only about a thousand men. After some twenty days of failed assaults with ladders, rams and tunnels, he withdrew as his food ran out. In 229 he sent Chen Shi to take the commanderies of Wudu and Yinping, a lasting gain for Shu.

In 231 he advanced to Qishan again, using new transport devices called “wooden oxen” to move grain. Wei’s commander was now Sima Yi, who avoided battle. Shu forces won a clash, but supplies again failed and Zhuge Liang retreated. Zhang He, ordered to pursue, was killed by an arrow in an ambush at Mumen.

Last campaign and death at Wuzhang Plains (234)

In spring 234, in coordination with a Wu offensive in the east, Zhuge Liang led a large army through the Xie Valley and camped at Wuzhang Plains, south of the Wei River. To solve his supply problem he had his soldiers farm the land alongside local people. Sima Yi again dug in and refused to fight. According to later accounts, Zhuge Liang even sent him women’s clothing to shame him into battle, without success.

After more than 100 days of stand-off, Zhuge Liang fell ill and died in his camp in the eighth month of 234. The Shu army withdrew in good order. A popular saying, recorded in early sources, held that “a dead Zhuge frightened away a living Zhongda”, Zhongda being Sima Yi’s courtesy name.

Legacy

Historians have long debated the expeditions. Chen Shou, author of the official history, praised Zhuge Liang as an administrator but judged that military improvisation was not his strength. Others argue that attacking was Shu’s only realistic strategy. The general Wei Yan had proposed a bolder plan, a lightning march through the Ziwu Valley to seize Chang’an, but Zhuge Liang rejected it as too risky; whether it could have worked remains a favourite question of Chinese military history. His successor Jiang Wei continued campaigns against Wei, but Shu fell to Wei in 263.

In later culture Zhuge Liang became the model of the wise, loyal minister. The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms added many legends, including the “empty fort strategy”, in which he bluffs Sima Yi by sitting calmly on an open city wall; the story goes back to an anecdote that the commentator Pei Songzhi quoted only to reject it as unreliable.

Timeline

• 227: Zhuge Liang moves to Hanzhong and presents the Chu Shi Biao.
• 228, spring: First expedition; defeat of Ma Su at Jieting.
• 228-229, winter: Siege of Chencang fails.
• 229: Shu takes Wudu and Yinping.
• 231: Fourth expedition to Qishan; Zhang He is killed at Mumen.
• 234, spring: Zhuge Liang camps at Wuzhang Plains.
• 234, eighth month: Zhuge Liang dies; the Shu army withdraws.

Why it matters

The Northern Expeditions showed both the limits of Shu’s power and the determination of its leadership. Their failure confirmed that Wei, and later the Jin dynasty that replaced it, would hold the balance of power in China.