The story of the Three Kingdoms War in this issue is found in the 111th time of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which occurred during Zhuge Tian's rebellion, and the related characters were Sima Zhao, Wang Ji, Zhou Tai, and Zhuge Shi. The synopsis is as follows:
After Zhuge Liang rebelled, he sent his son Zhuge Liang and his general Wu Gang to Eastern Wu to ask for Sun Qiang, and proposed to take Zhuge Liang as a hostage and unite with Eastern Wu to jointly deal with Sima Zhao. Sun Qiang was overjoyed, and ordered Quan Yi and Quan Duan to be the main generals, leading 70,000 troops such as Zhu Yi, Tang Zhi, and Wen Qin to aid Zhuge Birthday. Upon learning of Zhuge Zhao's rise to the army, Sima Zhao decided to personally take command and send troops to Huainan. Jia Chong proposed that the Wei Emperor Cao Xian and the empress dowager set out with the army, and this suggestion was adopted by Sima Zhao. Emperor Cao of Wei had no choice but to agree to set off with Sima Zhao. Subsequently, Sima Zhao led Wang Ji, Chen Qian, Shi Bao, Zhou Tai and other generals and 260,000 troops to Huainan.
Soon after, Wang Ji, the vanguard of the Wei army, and Zhu Yi, the vanguard of the Wu army, met. After some battles, Wang Ji defeated Zhu Yi and Tang Zhi successively, defeating the Wu army, and the Wu army was forced to retreat fifty miles down the village. After hearing the news, Zhuge Qin, Wen Duan, Wen Hu and others joined forces, led tens of thousands of troops, and went out of the city to meet the battle. Before the battle, Sima Zhao summoned Shi Peixiu, the commander of the Scattered Horse, and Zhong Hui, the Yellow Gate Attendant, to discuss strategies to break the enemy. Zhong Hui proposed a strategy of luring him, which was adopted by Sima Zhao. Sima Zhao ordered Shi Bao and Zhou Tai to ambush shi bao and Zhou Tai in the area of Shicheng, and also ordered Wang Ji and Chen Qian to lead the troops to respond in the rear, and the partial general Cheng Li led the troops to lure the enemy.
After the battle began, Cheng Li was defeated and abandoned the cattle, horses, donkeys and mules on the battlefield. Zhuge Shi's soldiers saw the situation and gave up pursuing Cheng Li and robbing the livestock. At this time, the Wei army suddenly attacked, and Zhuge Shi was caught off guard and was killed by the Wei army. In desperation, Zhuge Shi had to retreat to Shouchun City to defend it, and Sima Zhao ordered the city to be surrounded and attacked day and night.
The incident of Zhuge Liang's alliance with Eastern Wu with his son Zhuge Liang as a hostage mentioned in the novel has indeed appeared in history. However, the author of the novel also made a small mistake in this description. According to the description of the novel, Wu Gang went to Eastern Wu as an emissary, and only Zhuge Liang took the hostages with him. In real history, this is not the case. According to the relevant biography of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the emissaries sent by Zhuge Zhi to Eastern Wu were not Wu Gang, but a general named Zhu Cheng, and Wu Gang, along with Zhuge Liang, remained in Eastern Wu as hostages. In addition to these two people, there were also the sons of some generals in Zhuge Birthday's army.
The incident in the novel in which Sun Qiao sent an army to support Zhuge Birthday is a historical truth. However, the number of troops is not the seventy thousand mentioned in the novel, but thirty thousand. The main generals of this army were the left general Tang Zhi, the Pingdong general Quan Yi, the general Quan Duan, the general Wang Zuo, and others who led a force of 30,000 and the former Wei general and Zhenbei general Wen Qin.
So, how big was the scale of the historical Huainan War? According to historical records, the total strength of Sima Zhao's army reached 260,000 people, and Zhuge Shi's army had 160,000 troops. Eastern Wu invested 30,000 troops at the beginning of the war, and later increased its troops, reaching more than 80,000 at its peak. In this way, the total strength of the two sides in the Huainan battlefield was 500,000 people. This battle was also the largest battle in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, whether it was the Battle of Guandu, the Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Yiling and the Battle of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, it did not reach such a scale.
Among the generals on both sides, in addition to the more well-known generals such as Wang Ji and Wen Qin, there was also a very special figure. Since this person is only fleeting in the novel, most readers do not know much about the life of this matter. This man's name is Zhou Tai. This article makes a brief introduction to this character based on relevant records.
Zhou Tai (州泰), a member of the Nanyang County clan of Jingzhou, whose early deeds are unknown, only that he once served under Shi Peiqian, the Assassin of Jingzhou. At that time, Sima Yi was in charge of the military affairs of Jing and Yu Prefectures, and had many contacts with Zhou Tai, and he greatly appreciated Zhou Tai's talents. When Sima Yi rebelled against Meng Da, he deliberately let Zhou Tai serve as the vanguard of the army.
Shortly after the end of this war, Zhou Tai's family suffered one misfortune after another, and his grandfather, father and mother died one after another, and Zhou Tai kept filial piety for nine years. It was not until the end of the filial piety period that Zhou Tai reappeared in Cao Wei politics. After that, Zhou Tai successively served as the Taishou of Xincheng and the Assassin of Yanzhou. When Sima Zhao launched the Battle of Huainan, Zhou Tai served as the assassin of Yuzhou, and also participated in the battle with the army, and played an important role in the Battle of Huainan. Unfortunately, in the novel, this person has only become a dragon set character.
In the largest battle of the Three Kingdoms period, Zhou Tai performed well, successively leading his army to fierce battles with the famous Eastern Wu generals Zhu Yi and Zhuge Zhi' troops, and defeated their opponents. After the war, Zhou Tai was promoted to the rank of General of Zhengyu (征虏將軍), false festival, and governor of the Jiangnan military forces, and died of illness in the second year of Jingyuan (261 AD).
Reference Books: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms