During the Post-Three Kingdoms period, the most prominent general of the Shu Han Dynasty was Jiang Wei. As a student of Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei served as a general of the Shu Han Dynasty in the late Three Kingdoms period. After he took control of the military power, he inherited Zhuge Liang's legacy and began the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei.
Jiang Wei was a general of Zhuge Liang's instruments, he was only 27 years old when he joined the Shu army, and Zhuge Liang personally trained him. He promoted Jiang Wei to cangcao tuan, added the general Fengyi, and made him the Marquis of Yangting. Zhuge Liang asked him to lead the Zhonghu infantry of 5,000 or 6,000 men and personally taught him military command. Zhuge Liang commented on Jiang Wei and said:
Jiang Bo is loyal to current affairs, thinks precisely, and considers all of them, and Yongnan and Ji Chang are not as good as they are. Its man, Sergeant Liangzhou also.
Zhuge Liang's appreciation and cultivation of Jiang Wei, although it reflects Jiang Wei's talent, also shows the lack of talents in the Shu Han Dynasty from the side. In the war at that time, Zhuge Liang could only rely on veteran generals such as Wei Yan, Wu Yi, and Wang Ping, but these generals could not understand Zhuge Liang's strategic intentions. In the war, Zhuge Liang also tried to use new young generals, but his appointment of Ma Mo suffered a defeat.
In this situation, Jiang Wei's arrival gave Zhuge Liang hope. Jiang Wei is "very sensitive to the military, has both courage and righteousness, and deeply understands the military intentions." This person's heart is in the Han room, and his talent is also a person", which is very much in line with Zhuge Liang's standards. Therefore, Zhuge Liang greatly cultivated Jiang Wei to make plans for the future.
However, we can see that although Jiang Wei was valued by Zhuge Liang, he did not emerge in the war commanded by Zhuge Liang. In the more important battles, Zhuge Liang still relied on veteran generals such as Wei Yan and Wang Ping. This is related to Jiang Wei's young age and shallow seniority. Although he had a part of the troops, in Zhuge Liang's view, he could not be alone.
When Zhuge Liang died, Zhuge Liang did not arrange Jiang Wei as his heir. He arranged for Jiang Huan to be his heir. He was well aware of the actual situation of shu han and knew that after his death, the success of the Northern Expedition of Shu Han was slim. Therefore, he asked Jiang Huan to take over, stop the Northern Expedition, and give Shu Han the opportunity to recuperate and recuperate for the future.
After the deaths of Jiang Huan and Fei Yi, Jiang Wei took over as a general and took over the military power. At this time, the Shu Han Dynasty had not carried out a large-scale Northern Expedition for twenty years. Jiang Wei inherited Zhuge Liang's legacy and began the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei.
Jiang Wei himself is a Liangzhou person, and he believes that he understands the customs and customs of Liangzhou. If he led the Shu army to attack and then co-opted the surrounding ethnic minority armed forces, he could control the Longxi region and achieve the first step of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. Then, according to Zhuge Liang's strategy, he advanced into Guanzhong.
In Jiang Wei's several Northern Expeditions, there were wins and losses. In general, it is still a bit bigger. However, Jiang Wei ultimately failed to achieve his strategic goal of controlling Longxi. This is because he has met a strong opponent, Deng Ai.
In the confrontation between Jiang Wei and Deng Ai, there was basically no victory. In the spring of the nineteenth year of Yanxi, when Jiang Wei had just been promoted to a general, Jiang Wei and Hu Ji agreed on a date to meet the Northern Expedition in Shangyi. However, because Hu Ji missed the appointment, Jiang Wei was defeated by Deng Ai at DuanGu. This battle was the worst defeat for Jiang Wei, and it is recorded in history that "the stars are scattered and the dead are many." ”
Twenty years later, Jiang Wei once again went north, out of Luo Valley, to Shenling. Cao Wei's Sima Wang and Deng Ai were defended together, and Jiang Wei's challenge was not answered and was forced to withdraw.
In the fifth year of Jing Yao, Jiang Wei once again led the crowd out of Han and Hou He, which was broken by Deng Ai and still lived in Puzhong. This was Jiang Wei's last Northern Expedition, or he was defeated by Deng Ai, without success.
In the several confrontations between Deng Ai and Jiang Wei, Deng Ai's record was better than that of Jiang Wei. However, there are natural reasons for this. Jiang Wei is an away game, and Deng Ai can use the home advantage to fight it. If you can catch Jiang Wei's loopholes, you will attack them, and when you don't have an advantage, you will avoid sticking to them. This made Jiang Wei helpless, and finally he could only return home.
If we exclude the factor that the troop strength and national strength are inferior to those of the other side, from the perspective of the battle record, Jiang Wei's general should be on the same level as Deng Ai's. However, Deng Ai only needed to deal with his own defense zone in front of him, and Jiang Wei was also responsible for all the military operations of Shu Han. In this regard, Deng Ai's task is much lighter than Jiang Wei's. In this way, Deng Ai had more time and energy to deal with the war, which made Deng Ai take advantage.
In terms of war, except for the first Battle of Duangu, Jiang Wei was basically the same as Deng Ai's war. Although it failed, it was soon possible to regroup and carry out the Northern Expedition again. Here we can see Jiang Wei's talents. Moreover, in the end, when Cao Wei was cutting down Shu, in order to contain the main force of Shu Han led by Jiang Wei and cover the attack of Zhong Hui in Hanzhong, he specially sent Deng Ai and Zhuge Xu to trip Jiang Wei in Puzhong.
However, under the siege of Deng Ai and Zhuge Xu's superior forces, Jiang Wei still led the Shu army to break through the siege and returned to the Sword Pavilion to continue to resist. If it were not for Deng Ai's smuggling of Yin Ping, Zhong Hui would only be able to withdraw his troops in the end, admitting defeat.
After Deng Ai destroyed Shu, he boasted to himself, "Jiang Wei is also a male child since the time, and he is worthy of a certain person, so he is poor. The history books say that "those who have knowledge laugh at it." It can be seen that Deng Ai thinks that he is smarter than Jiang Wei, but he has not been recognized by everyone.
Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition was not successful, and Deng Ai's opponent was a reason, but the bigger reason was the difference in national strength between the two sides. If you look at it from a general point of view, Jiang Wei and Deng Ai are on par. Jiang Wei could not eliminate Deng Ai during the Northern Expedition, and Deng Ai could not eliminate Jiang Wei during the Battle of Puzhong.
However, Shu Han's strength was not as good as his opponents, Jiang Wei and Deng Ai's generals were slightly on par, and the area of battle was in Deng Ai's control area. These factors were superimposed, and it was logical that Jiang Wei could not defeat Deng Ai.