At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the defeat of Yiling by Liu Bei of the Shu Han Dynasty, he died of illness in the following year in the White Emperor's City, and Zhuge Liang, the chancellor, succeeded Liu Bei's legacy and assisted Liu Chan, the lord of the Later Dynasty, and successively went north to the Wei state several times, but all of them were defeated. In the middle of the fifth northward expedition to Wei, Zhuge Liang fell ill and died in Wuzhangyuan. After Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wei continued his legacy and continued the Northern Expedition to the State of Wei, intending to achieve the great cause of reunification.
Jiang Weiben was a general of the State of Wei. As a general, he could gain the trust of Zhuge Liang and was even trained as a successor, which showed that Jiang Wei had a very prominent military talent. However, Jiang Wei made several northern expeditions, but did not achieve great results. Because at the same time, there was a new student in the north who rose to the stars, and he was Deng Ai.
Saying that Deng Ai is a newborn general does not mean that he is young, in fact, Deng Ai is five years older than Jiang Wei. When Jiang Wei followed Zhuge Liang on the battlefield, Deng Ai was still directing the peasants to work in the fields, and he did not have the opportunity to fight on the battlefield until he was more than fifty years old. However, the late success of the great instrument is not that Deng Ai was not talented when he was young, but that his origin was not good.
Deng Ai, a native of Jiyang County, Nanyang County, whose father died early and whose family lineage is no longer available, but it can be known that he received a good education in his childhood. This is rare in times of frequent wars and social unrest. In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao marched south to Jingzhou, captured Nanyang, and migrated a group of Nanyang people to Runantuntian, including the twelve-year-old Deng Ai. He and his mother became a tuntian tribesman and herded cattle for the official family. Among the people of Tuntian, there were very few literate and literate people like stars, so Deng Ai was later recommended as a lieutenant of Xiangcheng Diannong. Logically, with Deng Ai's ability, he was still able to gradually promote, but he was born stuttering, and the lieutenant felt that he could not assume an important position, so he only let him be a rice field guard. Deng Ai worked in this post for twenty years, and finally became a Xiangcheng diannong Gong Cao, and later Deng Ai went to Luoyang to meet Sima Yi, who was taken in by Sima Yi, was promoted to be an official of the Taiwei Mansion, and later promoted to Shang Shulang.
After Deng Ai was transferred to the imperial court, he successively proposed to build a canal on the border between the Wei and Wu states, which was praised by Sima Yi. It was not until the first year of Jiaping (249) that the fifty-two-year-old Deng Ai had the opportunity to show his military talent. This year Jiang Wei harassed Longxi. Deng Ai was ordered to cooperate with the general Guo Huai of the Western Expedition to send troops to defend the enemy. Jiang Wei pretended to retreat, and was suspected of deception by Deng Ai. Sure enough, three days later, Jiang Wei appeared on the south bank of Baishui, across the river from Wei Jun. Deng Ai had already made preparations for the response, and he found that Jiang Wei was unusually stationary, so he guessed that Jiang Wei's main force had secretly shifted to attack Taocheng. Deng Ai resolutely returned to his division and marched sixty miles in one night to reach Taocheng. When Jiang Wei rushed to Taocheng City, he found that Deng Ai was ready, and Jiang Wei had to retreat. After this battle, Deng Ai became famous in the first battle and was given the title of Marquis of Guannei.
Deng Ai's suppression of Jiang Wei in the first battle was only the beginning. In the fourth year of Jiaping (252), because Sima Shi had deposed and slaughtered political enemies, Wang Ling raised an army to attack Sima Yi, and was defeated and killed. In the second year of zhengyuan (255), Wuqiu Jian and Wen Qin raised an army against Sima Yi. Deng Ai suppressed the rebellion with outstanding military skill. In this year, Deng Ai was recruited into Beijing by the imperial court and served as a lieutenant of Changshui. Just after the end of the turmoil in the southeast, Jiang Wei once again attacked the right side of the Wei state. King Yongzhou was repeatedly defeated in battle. The imperial court was busy ordering Deng Ai to temporarily assume the post of general of Anxi. Deng Ai quickly marched into Longyou, and joined forces with Chen Tai to defeat Jiang Wei, and the situation on Longyou tended to ease again.
In July of the first year of Ganlu (256), Jiang Weijin forced Qishan, but Deng Ai defended tightly. Jiang Wei then ordered Dong Ting to return to his division to attack Nan'an. However, this strategic intention of his was recognized by Deng Ai, who led an army to intercept Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei encountered Deng Ai on the way to Shangyi and rushed to fight, Deng Ai waited for work, won more with less, defeated the Shu army, and defeated Jiang Wei for the third time. After that, in the second year of Ganlu (257) and the third year of Jingyuan (262), Deng Ai twice repelled Jiang Wei's attacks.
In the fourth year of Jing Yuan (263), the sixty-six-year-old Deng Ai was ordered to attack the Shu state with Zhong Hui and others. This was the last confrontation between Deng Ai and Jiang Wei. The result was still that Deng Ai restrained Jiang Wei. At the beginning of the war, although Jiang Wei missed many fighters due to the fainting of the later lord Liu Chan, Jiang Wei joined forces with the reinforcements Liao Hua and Zhang Yi and other troops, and stubbornly defended the Sword Pavilion, resulting in the Wei army being unable to advance. Just as Zhong Hui was preparing to withdraw, Deng Ai once again made a strange plan, selected elite soldiers, secretly inserted himself directly behind the Shu army, and crossed hundreds of miles of mountains and forest cliffs to approach the city of Chengdu. After the lord Liu Chan surrendered. Jiang Wei saw that the general trend had gone, and had to surrender to Zhong Hui. Throughout Deng Ai's life, although he was a great instrument, he almost won many battles, and even defeated Zhuge Liang's heir Jiang Wei several times, which was simply Jiang Wei's nemesis, and even more meritorious contributions to the elimination of the Shu Han regime and the realization of reunification.