After Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong, he skillfully used the strength of local ethnic minorities to build the elite army of Shu Han, the Wudang Flying Army. This army formed a three-legged momentum with the ace army under Liu Bei's Bai Er Soldiers, as well as the Xiliang Ma Clan's army, and for a while, no one was invincible. In nature, this force is like the French Foreign Legion, a professional mercenary force.
The Shu Han regime had earlier used the Wuling barbarian mercenaries of the descendants of the three Miao to shine in the battle of Wu, and even the fierce general Gan Ning was killed at the hands of these barbarians. In the war of the seven captures of Meng, Zhuge Liang had a deeper understanding of the courage and good fighting of the ethnic minorities in Nanzhong. This is no accident, as historically farming peoples have tended to lack courage, while nomadic hunters, fishermen and hunters have often been fierce and aggressive.
After the end of the South China War, peace was restored, but these brave men faced unemployment, which became a potential factor of social instability. Just like the 228 incident in Taiwan after the Anti-Japanese War, most of the people who took the lead in making trouble were members of the Taiwanese Takasago Army in the former Japanese army.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang adopted an effective strategy of killing two birds with one stone, that is, recruiting these ethnic minority fighters to join the Shu government army, and the funds were borne by the local heroes. According to the Huayang National Chronicles, Zhuge Liang ordered them to recruit these warriors for their family because of the strength and courage of the ethnic minority warriors and their disobedience to the local surnames, and those who contributed more could hold hereditary official positions.
As a result, these Yi people coveted property and returned to Shu Han one after another, becoming the Yi Han tribe, and establishing a local army with the characteristics of Yi and Yi in the local area. As a result, the local Haoqiang gained social status, were satisfied with the rule of Shu Han, and funded the army, so that the ethnic minorities could benefit and the ethnic contradictions could be alleviated. At the same time, these previously unemployed soldiers have been transformed into government troops, as if they held shares in enterprises, and became the core force of ethnic minorities. The army they formed was less likely to cause problems because of their familiarity with folklore. Later, when Zhang Wei, Ma Zhong and others quelled the rebellion, the Yi and Han tribes were the main force.
Naturally, such benefits cannot be confined to one place. In order to completely eliminate the hidden danger of the resurgence of the southern separatist forces, under the auspices of Zhuge Liang, Shu moved the elite soldiers and more than 10,000 Qingqiang families in the south to Shu at any cost, divided into five divisions, and was unstoppable everywhere it went, and was known as the Flying Army. This is the origin of the Wudang Flying Army.
After these soldiers arrived in Shu County, they became military households of Shu State, served Shu State for generations, and became professional soldiers. At that time, Chengdu was far from the prosperity of Nanzhong, and the Nanzhong Yi people admired warriors, so whenever there was a vacancy, Nanzhong people rushed to sign up and actively participate, which was proud. This is reminiscent of the British army's recruitment of mercenaries from the Gurkha battalion in Nepal. However, at that time, the population in the south was sparse, and the transfer of more than 10,000 families who could fight well at one time was undoubtedly a draw from the bottom of the kettle for the local separatist forces.
They are clad in iron armor, capable of climbing mountains and mountains, skilled in the use of bows and crossbows and poisoned arrows, and especially skilled in defensive combat. Because they are the whole family migration, so the customs are unique, often with the barbarian aunt as the dance, the group card is draped, and the horn is roaring.
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", although this unborn elite soldier was assigned to Yang Feng, the local handsome Yinye Cave Master, although it is fictional, its general image is consistent with historical facts. The entry of such an army in strange costumes and unique customs into Shudu will inevitably bring about a lot of cultural conflicts, at least the vast number of scholars must be both curious and worried. In order to effectively manage these brave men, Shu Han appointed Wang Ping, a Brazilian (or Xuzhou Peiren) who was a strict general of Wei and a native of Xuzhou, as the first commander of the legion. Wang Ping has a good character, although he is not very literate, but he shares weal and woe with the soldiers, is strict by nature, harsh in training, and rarely speaks. Such a general, who can convince the public and be stern and a little gloomy, is really a very suitable candidate for the commander of the mercenaries.
The flying army is worthy of the prestige of the warriors of Nanzhong, and has performed well in all the wars of Shu Han. Originally, Ma Jian was familiar with the situation in Nanzhong, hoping to give full play to the characteristics of this army, but the whole army was defeated due to Ma Tan's mistake. At the critical moment, it was the flying army led by Wang Ping who fought to the death while beating drums to confuse the enemy, successfully covering the withdrawal of other troops from the battlefield, and retreated with his whole body, showing his edge.
In the ninth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang's fourth northern expedition ordered Wang Ping to besiege Sima Yi in Qishan with his deputy division and design to besiege Sima Yi in Qishan. Sima Yi couldn't resist it, so he used the strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao, and sent Zhang Jaw to lead the main army to attack Wang Ping's lone army. At that time, Wang Ping's Wudang Fei army was only 3,000 people, only one-twentieth of the Wei army, but these warriors all swore to the death, desperately resisted, arrows were like flying locusts, and the jaws could not be attacked, and Sima Yi's camp had been broken by Zhuge Liang's army.
When the Wei army was defeated and retreated, the Wudang Fei Army gave full play to the characteristics of its mountain corps and rushed out of the camp to counterattack the Wei army's rearguard. Shu achieved a significant advantage in the first battle with Sima Yi, and the Fei army was defeated by Cao Wei's fierce general Zhangjaw Army, which was indispensable.
Because of their expertise in mountain warfare, the Wudang Flying Army was often used to quell rebellious ethnic minorities. In the third year of Yanxi (240 AD), the barbarians of Hanjia (now Ya'anbei, Sichuan) rebelled, and Shu Han sent Xiang Pet's Su guards to conquer, but they were well-equipped but still defeated, and the famous general Xiang Pet died at the hands of the rebellion. At the critical moment, the Wudang Flying Army was transferred back from the front line to control the situation. At this time, the flying army should be the second or third generation.
The final battle of the Wudang Fei Army was particularly tragic, which was in the eighth battle of Jiang Wei's ninth expedition to the Central Plains. In order to cover the retreat of the commander-in-chief, the 5,000 Fei Army fought the last battle with the last commander Zhang Wei, and the whole army died heroically, and the historical records record that they killed the enemy several times more than themselves. Since then, although it still has the name of the Flying Army, and has performed in battles such as defending Yangping Pass, the Wudang Flying Army as a whole no longer exists.
Finally, it needs to be mentioned that in terms of bloodline, the members of the Flying Army actually cover two parts, namely the Nanzhongyi and Qingqiang. The former included many ethnic groups such as Suo, Di, Jiong, and Baipu, which later evolved into ethnic minorities such as Yi and Brown in Yunnan, who excelled in archery and extraordinary skills. The latter includes Diqiang and Ran Chi, these ethnic groups have a tradition of building watchtowers since ancient times. In the history book "Huayang Guozhi", it is recorded in detail how these ethnic groups living in the stone towers entered the Shu land as domestic servants in the summer and autumn, they dug wells, built river weirs, sold agricultural and sideline products such as peppercorns and apples, and returned to their hometowns in winter and spring to escape the severe cold. These stone watchtowers not only witness the history of Qingqiang, but also demonstrate their characteristics of being good at defense.