In the first year of Jianxing (252 AD), Zhuge Ke won the Battle of Dongxing with less than half of Cao Wei's troops, defeating Sima Zhao, one of the leading figures of the Sima family of Cao Wei, and even his cousin Zhuge Shi became a defeated general. These outstanding achievements not only brought Zhuge Ke's fame in Eastern Wu to the peak, but also made him extremely careless, self-absorbed, and obstinate.
Just a few months after the end of the Battle of Dongxing, Zhuge Ke could not wait to reorganize his army and organize a Northern Expedition that was unique in the history of Eastern Wu. The Eastern Wu army reached a full 200,000 people, which was the largest number of people in a single campaign since Sun Shi opened up the great cause of Jiangdong.
According to the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms • Biography of Zhuge Ke", the victory in the Battle of Dongxing gave Zhuge Ke the idea of being proud of the enemy, and just after the end of the war in December, he was ready to go out again in the spring of the following year, when the ministers of Eastern Wu, without exception, sided with the refusal to fight, "with the same words and advice". But Zhuge Ke was determined, and whoever said it would not listen.
Jiang Yan, the Grand Master of Zhongsan, argued with Zhuge Ke on the basis of reason, and a fierce dispute occurred with Zhuge Ke above the court, and Zhuge Ke actually ordered the left and right guards to blast him out of the palace. Subsequently, Zhuge Ke quoted the scriptures to give a lecture to the hundred officials of the civil and military forces, saying that it was a theme: in the long run, for the sake of the overall situation, this expedition must be carried out. All the ministers were also afraid of Zhuge Ke's means, so they all shut up one after another and "don't dare to make a comeback."
At that time, Danyang Taishou Nie Yousu was Zhuge Ke's best friend, and when he learned the news that Zhuge Ke was going to lead his troops on the expedition, he also wrote him a letter as a close friend, advising him to wait for the best time to re-launch the Northern Expedition from the actual situation, and as a result, he was also reprimanded by Zhuge Ke for "not seeing a big number".
From this record, it can be seen that after Zhuge Ke experienced the complete victory in the Battle of Dongxing, the problem of self-indulgence and obstinate behavior has swelled to the extreme point of "everyone is drunk and I am awake alone". Therefore, Zhuge Ke violated the wishes of the people of Eastern Wu and gathered 200,000 troops from all states and counties to march out, causing a commotion among the people, and Zhuge Ke began to gradually lose the hearts of the people from this time.
Zhuge Ke consulted with the generals to start with the Huainan region and then expand the gains north along the way until they reached the center of Cao Wei. However, the generals had a different view, believing that long-distance raids were too physically exhausting for soldiers and that there was no way to achieve good results. It is better to besiege the new city of Hefei and wait for the Wei army to come to the rescue to break through, so that not only can the enemy army be destroyed but also fruitful results can be achieved. Zhuge Ke adopted this suggestion and led a large army to encircle the new city.
The biggest highlight of the Eastern Wu Northern Expedition was highlighted in the new city: the most domineering Northern Expedition in the history of Eastern Wu met the top defending general in the history of the Three Kingdoms. According to the Wei Luo, Zhuge Ke personally led an army of 200,000 to besiege Xincheng, and at that time the defender of Xincheng was Zhang Te, an unknown general of Cao Wei. In the beginning, Zhang Te was only a tooth gatekeeper guarding the city gate, and was later promoted to do things under Zhuge Zhi. Zhuge Tian didn't look like Zhang Te was a talent of creation, and he wanted to return him several times. Fortunately, due to job changes, Wu Qiujian replaced Zhuge Zhi's position. Wu Qiu Jian took a fancy to Zhang Te and ordered him to lead his troops to garrison Hefei New City, but he did not expect that this unintentional move had achieved a legend.
When the Eastern Wu army besieged the new city, the total strength of the city was only more than 3,000 people, and Zhang Te led a weak force to hold the city. Zhuge Ke ordered soldiers outside the city to pile up tushan to attack the city, hundreds of thousands of troops took turns to attack, and did not take the new city for more than ninety days, which made Zhuge Ke extremely angry, his temper began to become irritable, and there were frequent command mistakes.
Zhang Te's life in the city was not good, originally there were few troops, and there was a shortage of food and medicine, after more than ninety days of fighting, the number of deaths and deaths from war and illness had been reduced by more than one and a half, and many of the defenses on the city wall had also been seriously damaged, and it was seen that the new city would not be able to be saved. At this time, Zhang Te thought of a way, he asked the soldiers to secretly strengthen the defenses in the city, and he went out of the city to negotiate with the Wu army to delay the time.
He told the general of the Wu Army: "After such a long period of fighting, I have no intention of fighting again. It's just that the State of Wei has decrees that if the city cannot be rescued for more than a hundred days, there is no sin in surrendering, and the family does not have to sit together. It has been more than ninety days since you attacked the city, and there were more than 4,000 people in the city, and although half of them have died in battle, more than 2,000 people dare not surrender. I will go back to doing ideological work with them, and tomorrow morning I will take them to surrender, and I will give you the general's seal letter, and tomorrow you will take the seal letter to the city to hand it over. ”
The Eastern Wu generals were overjoyed when they heard this, and the letter was not wanted, so they directly let Zhang Te go back, so Zhang Te won a day's truce. After Zhang Te returned to the city, he and his men seized the time to strengthen the defense and build obstacles. The next day, when General Wu came to the handover of the city with great joy, Zhang Te said viciously on the city tower: "I have a fighting ear!" "It means I'm going to fight you to the death." This made the Eastern Wu general angry, so he began to order a siege of the city, and finally withdrew his troops without fighting.
Zhang Te only appeared once in the history of the Three Kingdoms, but his city defense battle became an eternal classic, more than 3,000 soldiers resisted 200,000 troops for more than 100 days, and also won the final victory, which is definitely worthy of the name of the top defending general of the Three Kingdoms period. Zhuge Ke's Northern Expedition, due to the hot weather at that time, the plague broke out in the army, coupled with his repeated command mistakes for self-use, and finally ended in a fiasco in Xincheng. This defeat not only deeply affected himself, but also changed the fate of Eastern Wu.
Reference book: Romance of the Three Kingdoms