Liu Chan sent envoys to the Emperor's seal and asked him to surrender for the sake of Yi Ai. Ai went to Chengdu, and more than sixty of the princes and courtiers of the Zen Dynasty were bound to the military gate of the public opinion, and Ai Zhijie was untied and burned. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)
In 263 AD, Deng Ai smuggled himself into Yinping, trapped Jiangyou and Zhan Mianzhu, and arrived at the city of Chengdu to prepare to persuade Liu Chan to surrender. Later, lord Liu Chan, under the advice of the surrender faction Zhou, made a decision to send Zhang Shao, the second son of Zhang Fei, with a surrender slip table, to ask Deng Ai to surrender. Deng Ai gladly accepted, and the army marched into Chengdu, and Shu Han officially declared "bankruptcy".
From the death of Zhuge Liang, the shu han chancellor, in 234 AD to the "bankruptcy" of shu han in 263 AD, a total of 29 years, what are the reasons for this? Zhuge Liang's proud protégé Jiang Wei knew that there were mainly the following reasons.
From 234 to 253 AD, during the period of two sages: When Zhuge Liang died, he recommended Two Sages to the Empress Dowager Liu Chan
In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang launched the Fifth Northern Expedition, which was like a broken bamboo, suppressing Sima Yi to death on the north bank of Weishui, like a turtle with a shrunken head, and did not dare to go to war. However, because Zhuge Liang "must bow down to himself in everything", everything above twenty military sticks must pass through his hands. After accumulating fatigue and illness, Zhuge Liang fell ill, and soon heard that Sun Quan of Eastern Wu had retired from the army, and his illness worsened. When Liu Chan, who was far away in Chengdu, learned that zhuge liang, the "xiang father", was seriously ill, he sent Li Fu, a servant of Shangshu, to the army to offer condolences and inquire about Zhuge Liang's death.
Zhuge Liang said to Li Fu: "First of all, I thank the emperor for his care for me, and I feel very honored. As for after my death, I felt that Jiang Huan was suitable for the position of chancellor. Li Fu asked again, "After asking Jiang Huan again, who can still bear the heavy responsibility?" Zhuge Liang recommended another person, and he was Fei Yi. Li Fu was still not satisfied, and asked who could take over after Fei Yi? Zhuge Liang said that he didn't know anymore, who did he love?
After Zhuge Liang's death, the later lord Liu Chan did reuse both Jiang Huan and Fei Yi. Jiang Huan was given the title of Shang Shu Ling (尚書令), and soon after he added the title of Capital Protector and False Festival, led the History of Yi Prefecture Assassination, and then promoted to the rank of Grand General, Lu Shang Shu Shi, and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Anyang Pavilion. At this time, Jiang Huan was the second in command of Shu Han, equivalent to Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of that year.
In the sixth year of Yanxi (243), Jiang Huan felt that his health was not good, so he promoted Fei Yi to the rank of general, recorded Shang Shushi, and later led the Yizhou Assassin History. Jiang Huan and Fei Yi proceeded in an orderly manner according to the trajectory designed by Zhuge Liang. The two of them were in power, and in view of the fact that Zhuge Liang had been in the Northern Expedition for many years, laboring and hurting the people and money, and working hard to achieve no results, and the military ability of the two of them was too far behind zhuge Liang, so they adopted a strategy of recuperation.
Jiang Wei was the backbone of the Shu Han Dynasty at that time, and there were young cadres. Although Jiang Huan and Fei Yi did not support the Northern Expedition and contradicted the strategy of Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei also knew the reason, and he was on an errand under these two men, obedient and obedient, and did not have arrogance. Jiang Wei knew that the two successors chosen by Zhuge Liang were both sages, and after Zhuge Liang's death, they supported a piece of the shu Han dynasty. At this time, every time Jiang Wei went on a northern expedition, his army was no more than 10,000, but he was just harassing the border of Cao Wei.
From 253 to 263 AD, when Jiang Wei was in monopoly of power: after Fei Yi was assassinated, Jiang Wei "attacked instead of defending", extending the life of shu Han
In the sixteenth year of Yanxi (253), on the first day of the spring month, at the annual feast of the first year, the Shu Han general Fei Yi was assassinated by Guo Xiu, a descendant of Wei Wei. After that, Jiang Wei really grasped the power of Shu Han. After he came to power, he escalated the scale of the war from less than 10,000 people to tens of thousands, or even 100,000 troops. If Fei Yi had just died, Jiang Wei began his conquest. (Sixteen years of spring, died.) Xia, Wei led tens of thousands of people out of the stone camp, through Dong Ting, around Nan'an. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms))
To tell the truth, after nearly 20 years of recuperation and recuperation in the Shu Han Dynasty, the national strength has long been restored. At this time, the Shu Han soldiers were well fed, and they could go north and compete with the powerful Cao Wei. Jiang Wei was also an unborn famous general, one of the most famous generals in the late Three Kingdoms period. He knew why Zhuge Liang knew that he could not destroy Cao Wei, but he repeatedly cut Down Wei and went out of Qishan five times. The reason why Zhuge Liang attacked Wei five times was to "attack instead of defend", using active attacks to suppress Cao Wei and weaken Cao Wei's living forces. Facts have proved that Zhuge Liang's active defense was effective, so that the powerful Cao Wei could not take care of himself and could not afford to attack Shu Han.
Now, Jiang Wei also adopted Zhuge Liang's strategy of "attacking instead of defending" and repeatedly went north. According to some statistics, after Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wei cut Wei a total of eleven times, six times more than Zhuge Liang's five qishan. Jiang Wei's so many Northern Expeditions were not without results. He won more than he lost, and repeatedly defeated Cao Wei, weakening Cao Wei's national strength and consolidating the shu Han defenses. For example, in the Seventh Northern Expedition, in 254 AD, Jiang Wei left Longxi Di Dao and beheaded the Wei general Xu Qian; the eighth Northern Expedition, in 255 AD, Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba came out of Di Dao, and the Great Breaking King passed through Taoxi. These were all great victories of Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition.
Without Jiang Wei's repeated cutting of Wei, Shu Han might not have been able to persist for more than ten years. Because as long as Shu Han stopped cutting Wei, Cao Wei could calmly divide his troops and send generals, send hundreds of thousands of troops, and launch a war to destroy Shu. In fact, as Jiang Wei expected, his last Northern Expedition was in 262 AD, which was broken by his old rival Deng Ai, and suffered a crushing defeat, and did not dare to return to Chengdu and retreat to Tuntian. After another year, Cao Wei was relieved, and Sima Zhao sent a three-way army of Zhong Hui, Deng Ai, and Zhuge Xu to destroy the decaying situation and seize Hanzhong. After that, Jiang Wei fell into passivity, retreated to the Sword Pavilion, and confronted Zhong Hui. Deng Ai, on the other hand, took a different path, smuggled yinping, and destroyed Shu Han.
epilogue
After the death of Zhuge Liang, the "soul figure" of Shu Han, the reason why Shu Han was able to stick to it for 29 years before "going bankrupt" was mainly due to the above two real reasons. For these two real reasons, Jiang Wei knew in his heart, and he was also very much in favor of them. From 234 to 253 AD, when the two sages Jiang Huan and Fei Yi were in power, Jiang Wei had always been honest and honest, occasionally leading partial divisions to cut down Wei, launching local wars, harassing the Cao Wei border, and did not launch a major war. At this time, "peace" is the general tone, and shu Han is accumulating strength and recuperating.
From 234 to 253 AD, after the death of the sage Fei Yi, Jiang Wei gradually grew into a major general, grasping the military and political power of the Shu Han Dynasty and carrying out a large-scale Northern Expedition. The purpose of his doing so was similar to that of Zhuge Liang's five out of Qishan. They were all "attacking instead of defending", and did not seek to destroy Cao Wei at once, but only to disturb Cao Wei, waiting for an opportunity to seize Long Right and enhance the national strength of Shu Han.