The story of the Three Kingdoms War in this issue is found in the 113th time of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which occurred during Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition, and the relevant characters were Jiang Wei, Xiahou Ba, Deng Ai and Deng Zhong. The synopsis is as follows:
After Sun Xiu killed the powerful minister Sun Qi, he sent someone to Shu Han and told the empress dowager Liu Chan the news that Sima Shi would usurp Wei's independence. After Jiang Wei learned of this, Liu Chan, the lord of the upper table, asked for an army to start the Northern Expedition. Liu Chan immediately agreed. Therefore, after Jiang Wei took Liao Hua and Zhang Yi as the vanguard, Wang Han and Jiang Bin as the left army, Jiang Shu and Fu You as the right army, and Hu Ji as the combined, he and Xiahou Ba led the Chinese army, a total of 200,000 Shu soldiers, and came to Hanzhong.
Before the battle began, Jiang Wei asked Xiahou Ba where he should attack. Xiahou Ba believed that the reason why Zhuge Liang was six out of Qishan was because this was the place of use, and suggested that Jiang Wei still attack from Qishan. Jiang Wei adopted this suggestion, and the Northern Expedition army immediately marched towards Qishan. Not long after, the army came to Qishan. Jiang Wei ordered the establishment of three camps at the mouth of the Qi Valley.
When Deng Ai, who was guarding Qishan, heard the news of Jiang Wei's army coming, he immediately ordered Deng Zhong, Shi Usurpation, and Zheng Lun to launch a sneak attack through the tunnels into the Shu army camp. The Shu generals Wang Han and Jiang Bin were unprepared and were soon defeated by the Wei army. In this battle, Jiang Wei's camp was also attacked by the Wei army. Fortunately, Jiang Wei coped properly and eventually repelled the Wei army's attack. By the next day, the two armies had set up a battlefield at the foot of Mount Qi. Jiang Weibu laid down the gossip array and asked Deng Ai if he dared to break the array. Deng Ai personally led his troops to break the line, and as a result, they fell into a heavy siege. At the time of danger, Sima Wang led an army to kill and rescue Deng Ai.
After the battle, Deng Ai asked Sima Wang why he was able to break the line. Sima Wang replied that he had studied in Jingzhou as a child, and was friends with Cui Zhouping and Shi Guangyuan, who had talked about this array before, so they knew the method of breaking the formation.
In contrast to the real history, the Northern Expedition that appears in the novel is only a fictional story by the author. In real history, Jiang Wei sent troops to the Great Wall in the 20th year of Yanxi (257 AD), confronted Sima Wang and Deng Ai on the Mangshui line, and finally withdrew to Hanzhong the following year. It was not until the fifth year of Jing Yao (262 AD) that Jiang Wei launched the Northern Expedition again. And the war mentioned above occurred five years before Jing Yao. Therefore, this can only be a story made up by the author.
Since this war had never appeared in history, naturally there was no such thing as Jiang Wei and Deng Ai fighting the formation. Like the original strategy of Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang, most of the tactics used by Deng Ai were mainly based on defending against danger and dragging down Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei's army was blocked in its attack and subject to the supply of military food, and in the end it could only return in vain.
As for the fact that Sima Wang, mentioned in the novel, learned about the Bagua Array from Cui Zhouping and Shi Guangyuan at an early age, it is even more impossible. According to the relevant biography of the Book of Jin, Sima Wang was born in the tenth year of Emperor Jian'an (205 AD), and was only three years old at the beginning of the Battle of Chibi. At this time, how could he go to Jingzhou to study? The author of the novel wanted to find a reasonable explanation for Sima Wang to understand the Bagua Array, but made a common sense mistake.
In the description of this war in the novel, two more special characters appear- Jiang Bin and Jiang Shu. Although these two people have the same surname, they are both famous generals in the late Shu Han Dynasty, and they are not a family. Jiang Bin was the son of Jiang Huan, a famous minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, who inherited his father's title after Jiang Huan's death, and was later appointed as the general of Suiwu and the protector of Seoul, but there is no record of the Northern Expedition with Jiang Wei. Similar to Jiang Bin, there is no record of Jiang Shu's participation in Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition in historical materials. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Biography of Jiang Wei quotes the Book of Shu as saying: "Jiang Shu was the governor of Wuxing, and he was not known in the matter. Shu ordered the people to take his place, because He left Shu to help Han Zhongshou. ”
When it comes to the outcome of these two generals, it can be said that there is a world of difference. After Sima Zhao launched the Battle of Shu, Jiang Shu surrendered to the Wei general Hu Lie at Yang'an Pass and became a traitor to Shu Han. Jiang Bin, on the other hand, died in the chaos of Chengdu after the fall of the Shu Han Dynasty.
Reference books: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Jin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms