Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was in the spring of 228 AD, five years after the Han Zhaolie Emperor Baidi Chengtuogu.
In the past five years, Zhuge Liang built water conservancy, promoted newcomers, and subdued the Southern Barbarians, and had the foundation of the Northern Expedition.
In 226 AD, Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi died, Cao Rong succeeded to the throne, and Cao Wei was empty.
In 227, Zhuge Liang wrote the book "Out of the Teacher's Table" to express his determination to go on the Northern Expedition, and then led his army with Zhao Yun to enter Hanzhong, and used Hanzhong Taishou Wei Yan as the prime minister's Sima.
In the early stage of the Northern Expedition, it went very smoothly, allowing Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi to lead a group of suspicious troops out of the Zhuan Road, occupy the Kei Valley, and feint to attack Yixian in the Guanzhong region of the Wei State, attracting the attention of the main force of the Wei State.
Yixian is the barrier of Chang'an, and if the Shu army occupies Yixian, it can directly threaten Chang'an and disrupt the strategic deployment of Wei.
Zhuge Liang himself led the main force and marched to Qishan by the relatively flat Qishan Avenue.
This trick hit the west and successfully deceived Cao Wei's high-level officials.
The Northern Expedition army came to Longyou, and when the neat Shu Han army appeared in Tianshui County, the defenders immediately panicked.
After hearing that Zhuge Liang's army was coming, Tianshui County Taishou Ma Zun, Yongzhou Thorn Shi Guo Huai and others wanted to resist in Ji County, the seat of Tianshui County, but they felt that it was difficult to resist, so they withdrew to Shangtai to hold on and wait for reinforcements.
Ji County, the administrative seat of Tianshui County, which had lost its asylum, had no leader, and the officials and soldiers and civilians who stayed behind lacked the backbone, so the people of Ji County surrendered.
In Tianshui:
Successfully subdued Jiang Wei, a native of Jicheng in Tianshui County, Zhuge Liang was very happy to get Jiang Wei, thinking that Jiang Wei's talent was above Ma Liang.
Certain military deployments and food and grass replenishment were carried out.
When the sky fell, Zhuge Liang took Wei Yan as the front governor and marched to Nan'an County in the west and Anding County in the north.
Under the pressure of the Shu army and the surrender of Tianshui, the two counties of Nan'an and Anding gave up resistance, and the two counties surrendered to Shu Han one after another.
The five counties of Longyou surrendered, but they ran into trouble when they arrived at Longxi County.
Taishou You Chu is a pragmatic faction, with the delay of the three counties, you Chu was given enough time to organize the defense, and the attitude of the main general made the Longxi guard have a backbone and command center.
At the same time, You Chu also gave everyone hope, he said that for a month, if Cao Wei's reinforcements did not come for a month, he would take everyone to surrender.
With Longxi County taking the lead, the Guangwei behind also stabilized, Zhuge Liang did not eat the five counties of Longyou in one go, so he could only send troops to guard the street pavilion, hoping to block Cao Wei's reinforcements and buy time to take Longxi and Guangwei.
The battle has reached Longxi, and Cao Wei's high-level leaders have also begun to act.
First of all, Emperor Cao Rong of Wei Ming personally went to Chang'an to take command in order to stabilize the morale of the army and improve morale, showing that he attached great importance to the war on the Western Front and was determined to deal with it with all his might.
Carry out military dispatch from all over the country, and coordinate the deployment of troops and general resources to deal with the crisis on the Western Front:
Send the general Cao Zhen to lead the army to Yixian to resist Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi's suspicious soldiers in Keigu, and prevent the Shu army from threatening Guanzhong from the Baochuan Road.
The famous general Zhang He led the elite troops to the west and rushed to the Longyou battlefield, with the main goal of seizing the strategic places occupied by the Shu army, such as Jieting, and cutting off the connection and follow-up support of the Shu army.
The key factor in the failure of Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition was to send Ma Tan to guard the choke point of the street pavilion.
Ma Tan disobeyed Zhuge Liang's deployment, abandoned the water source to garrison the army, and was besieged by Zhang He after cutting off the water source, which led to a great chaos in the army's heart, and finally Zhang He attacked, Ma Tan was defeated, and the street pavilion was lost.
After the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's army lost its support and faced the direct threat of Cao Wei's reinforcements led by Zhang He, and Cao Wei's follow-up reinforcements could continue to march into Longyou, and the Shu army could no longer continue to attack safely, so they could only choose to withdraw their troops, resulting in the loss of the three counties of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding.
In order to prevent the enemy from being attacked on his back, Zhuge Liang could only move more than 1,000 people in Xixian County and retreat to Hanzhong.
In addition to Ma Yan, the most important thing is the overall national strength of Shu Han, which is not a little worse than Cao Wei.
Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition could only mobilize about 50,000 troops at most, and he had to divide his troops into many places, while Cao Wei was able to invest 200,000 troops in the Longyou battlefield while defending Eastern Wu.
In the Battle of Jieting, Zhang He led an army of 50,000 men, while Ma Tan's troops were small (estimated at 1-20,000), and the huge disparity in strength made Ma Tan try to seek victory through unconventional methods, but ultimately failed.
After the Jieting was lost, Zhuge Liang arranged for Guan Xing and Zhang Bao to take 3,000 men and horses each to Beishan to ambush them, and when they encountered Wei soldiers, they were only allowed to beat drums and shout, and they were not allowed to fight; When the Wei soldiers retreated, they returned to Yangping Pass to guard the pass.
After sending Jiang Wei and Ma Dai to break off, they ambushed in the valley, and waited for the army to retreat before collecting troops and returning to Yangping Pass.
Zhuge Liang himself took 5,000 men and horses to Xicheng to move grain and grass and transport it back to Hanzhong.
After returning to Hanzhong, Zhuge Liang imprisoned Ma Tan, who had escaped from the battle and abandoned the soldiers, and killed Ma Tan, Zhang Xiu and Li Sheng, and also seized the military power of Huang Xian and others.
There is also an important person, others are not famous, so his name is not left in the history books, but his son is famous, his son is called Chen Shou, and he wrote a book called "Three Kingdoms"
Chen Shou's father was Ma Tan's army member, and he was sentenced to death for not persuading Ma Tan.
It was to shave all his hair.
The ancients still attached great importance to hair, and punishment was an insulting punishment.
Since then, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, the list of 11 dead generals has been released.
Those who were killed by Zhuge Liang included Ma Tan, Zhang Xiu and Li Sheng;
Among those who died on the battlefield, there were 7 Yang Qun, Ma Yu, Yan Zhi, Ding Li, Bai Shou, Liu He, and Deng Tong.
There was one more who died in the end, that is, one of the five tiger generals, the main general of this Northern Expedition, Zhao Yun.
Zhao Yun did not die in battle, but was old, overworked, and died of illness on the way to withdraw the army.
In addition, more than 70 captains at all levels suffered losses in battle.