In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang chose the Northern Expedition of Chen Cangdao during the Second Northern Expedition. The Wei army had already built a city at Chen Cangkou, which was guarded by the general Hao Zhao.
Zhuge Liang sent Hao Zhao's Jin Xiang to persuade him to surrender, so he attacked Chen Cang by means of ladders, rushing cars, and digging tunnels, but they were all cracked by Hao Zhao's rockets, stones, trenches, and other methods. The Shu army did not stop day and night, repeatedly attacking the city for more than twenty days, until the Wei army reinforcements arrived, but still could not break the city.
According to the Wei Luo, which is quoted in Pei Songzhi's Notes on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, during Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition, Hao Zhao led more than a thousand Wei troops to guard Chen Cang. Zhuge Liang attacked the city with tactics such as ladders, rushing cars, wells, and ground attacks, which Hao Zhao skillfully defused, and as a result, all the attacks of the Shu army ended in failure. After the two armies held each other for more than twenty days, the Wei army reinforcements arrived, and Zhuge Liang withdrew.
Day and night attacked and resisted for more than twenty days, and the light was helpless, rescued, and retreated.
Hao Zhao was able to repel the attack of tens of thousands of Shu troops with more than a thousand soldiers and successfully defended Chen Cang, and it should be said that his ability to defend the city was good. However, we must also see that during the Three Kingdoms period, due to the limitations of technology, the defending side had great advantages. People like Zhang Liao, Wang Ping, Huo Jun, Luo Xian, Zhu Ran, and others all repelled the enemy army with absolute superiority in troops in the defensive battle. And Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Zhou Yu, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, Lu Xun, Zhang Gao, Lu Kang, Yang Hu and other famous generals have also suffered in siege battles, and Hao Zhao is not alone.
It should also be noted that Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition was less than a year after the first Northern Expedition. Soon after the failure of the First Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang launched the Second Northern Expedition, and only fought for twenty days before he ran out of food and retreated, which was obviously very hasty preparations for this military operation, which did not conform to Zhuge Liang's cautious and cautious style.
Considering that at this time, Cao Rui was preparing to launch a fierce attack on Eastern Wu and take revenge because of the defeat of Shiting, and ordered Sima Yi to build warships in Jingzhou and prepare for the Eastern Crusade. To this end, Cao Rui also dispatched Zhang Gao to lead part of Guanzhong's army to Jingzhou to assist Sima Yi.
Sima Xuanwang ruled the water army in Jingzhou, and wanted to follow the river to cut down Wu, and zhaoguo oversaw the guanzhong armies to be tempered.
Moreover, just before the Second Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang also wrote to Zhuge Jin, saying that the soldiers Chen Cang was enough to contain the Wei army, forcing them to draw soldiers and horses from the army of Eastern Wu to reinforce Guanzhong. After Zhuge Liang's troops arrived at Chen Cang, Cao Rui also really sent Zhang Gao to lead a 30,000-strong army to reinforce Guanzhong.
Now the former army cut this road, in order to Chen Cang, enough to pull the thief's momentum, so that the eastward marchers could not divide the troops.
Obviously, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was not really to capture Guanzhong, but a feint to attract the attention of the Wei army and alleviate the pressure on Eastern Wu, so it would be the Northern Expedition under the condition of insufficient preparation. Since it was only a feint attack, Zhuge Liang's attack on Chen Cang would not be too fierce, at most it would only be a slight attempt, and he would stop attacking after he felt that he could not conquer it.
In fact, in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, it is only mentioned that during Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition, he only surrounded Chen Cang, after which Cao Zhen personally led the army to come. After the two armies held each other for a while, Zhuge Liang took the initiative to retreat and did not mention how to attack Chen Cang.
Moreover, when Zhuge Liang withdrew, Cao Zhen sent Wang Shuang to lead a cavalry pursuit, but zhuge Liang killed a falling flower, and even the main general Wang Shuang was killed. The two armies of Wei and Shu had been facing each other for such a long time, and Cao Zhen should have a number of troops in mind, since he had sent troops to pursue, the number would not be small. If the Shu army really attacked under Chen Cangcheng repeatedly, it would certainly suffer a lot of losses, and its morale would already be very low, and it was unlikely that it would kill the Wei army so badly.
In the winter, Liang returned to disperse the pass, surrounded Chen Cang, Cao Zhen refused, and Liang ran out of grain. The Wei general Wang Shuang led the horse to chase liang, liang and battle, break it, and chop double.
Therefore, it is not excluded that the description in "Wei Luo" that Hao Zhao blocked the Shu army's attack in Chen Cang for more than twenty days was the possibility that Cao Zhen was deliberately rendered in order to save face because of the final defeat, which was actually not so intense.
In addition, Hao Zhao's recorded combat experience in addition to chen cang's battle was only to quell the rebellion of XiPing Qiying, so it is not easy to say how strong his ability is, at most, the ability to defend the city is good, and it can be regarded as a medium and upper level in the Three Kingdoms period.