Jiang Wei,courtesy name Boyue,was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Born in Ji County,Jiang Wei started his career as a military officer in his native Tianshui Commandery,which was a territory of Wei. In 228,when Wei's rival state Shu launched an invasion led by Zhuge Liang,Jiang Wei was distrusted by Ma Zun,then administrator of Tianshui Commandery. As such,Jiang Wei had to defect to Shu. Zhuge Liang,the Imperial Chancellor and regent of Shu,highly regarded Jiang Wei and appointed him as a general in Shu. After Zhuge Liang's death in 234,Jiang Wei continued serving as a military commander during the regencies Jiang Wan and Fei Yi,eventually rising to the highest military rank of General-In-Chief (大將軍) after Fei Yi's death in 253. Between 240 and 262,he continued Zhuge Liang's legacy of waging war against Wei by leading another 11 military campaigns. However,Jiang Wei's campaigns were relatively constrained in terms of both scale and duration due to Shu's limited resources and inadequate food supplies,as well as internal political faultlines. In 263,when Wei launched a massive invasion of Shu,Jiang Wei led Shu forces to resist the invaders at Tazhong,Yinping and Jiange,himself defending Jiange which was under Zhong Hui's attack. While Jiang Wei managed to temporarily stall Wei's main force led by Zhong Hui,Deng Ai,another military commander of Wei,took a shortcut via Yinping and showed up at Chengdu unexpectedly. Liu Shan surrendered to Deng Ai without putting up resistance and ordered Jiang Wei to surrender to the Wei general Zhong Hui;this event marked the end of Shu's existence. In the following year,Jiang Wei instigated Zhong Hui to launch a rebellion in Chengdu against the Wei regent Sima Zhao and hoped to use the opportunity to gain military power and restore Shu. However,some of Zhong Hui's officers were unwilling to participate in the rebellion and started a mutiny,killing Jiang Wei and Zhong Hui.
Sima Yi,courtesy name Zhongda,was a Chinese military general,politician,and regent of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China.
Zhuge Jin,courtesy name Ziyu,was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Born in the late Eastern Han dynasty,Zhuge Jin started his career in the 200s as an official under the warlord Sun Quan,who later became the founding emperor of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period. In 215,he served as Sun Quan's representative in a territorial dispute over southern Jing Province between Sun Quan and his ally,Liu Bei. In 219,he joined Sun Quan's general LüMeng in an invasion of Liu Bei's territories in Jing Province after Sun Quan broke the Sun–Liu alliance. He was subsequently appointed as a general and commandery administrator. Before the Battle of Xiaoting of 221–222,Zhuge Jin attempted to dissuade Liu Bei from going to war with Sun Quan but was unsuccessful. The battle ultimately concluded with victory for Sun Quan's side;both sides made peace later and reestablished an alliance between the Eastern Wu and Shu Han states against their rival state,Cao Wei. From 222 until his death in 241,despite being rather incompetent in military affairs,Zhuge Jin served as one of Eastern Wu's top generals and participated in some battles against Cao Wei forces.
The Battle of Jieting was fought between the states of Cao Wei and Shu Han in 228 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. The battle was part of the first Northern Expedition led by Shu's chancellor-regent,Zhuge Liang,to attack Wei. The battle concluded with a decisive victory for Wei.
Deng Ai,courtesy name Shizai,was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He is best known for his pivotal role in the Wei conquest of its rival state,Shu,in 263. He was described as a very loyal subject who made great contributions to Wei,but was also noted for his arrogance and audacity,which led to his downfall and death.
Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions were a series of five military campaigns launched by the state of Shu Han against the rival state of Cao Wei from 228 to 234 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. All five expeditions were led by Zhuge Liang,the Imperial Chancellor and regent of Shu. Although they proved unsuccessful and ended up as a stalemate,the expeditions have become some of the best known conflicts of the Three Kingdoms period and one of the few battles during it where each side fought against each other with hundreds of thousands of troops,as opposed to other battles where one side had a huge numerical advantage.
Zhong Hui,courtesy name Shiji,was a Chinese calligrapher,essayist,military general,and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the younger son of Zhang Changpu with Zhong Yao,who served as the Grand Tutor in the Wei imperial court. He was already known for being insightful,intelligent and knowledgeable since he was young. Zhong Hui rose to prominence in the 250s when he became a close aide to Sima Zhao,the regent and de facto ruler of Wei. He advised Sima Zhao on how to deal with the Third Rebellion in Shouchun from 257–258 and was highly regarded by the latter. With Sima Zhao's help,Zhong Hui steadily moved up the ranks and became one of the key figures in the Wei government.
Zhuge Dan,courtesy name Gongxiu,was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. When he held key military appointments throughout his middle to late career,he was involved in all of the three rebellions which broke out in Shouchun between 251 and 258. During the second rebellion,he actively assisted the Wei regent Sima Shi in suppressing the revolt. After the rebellion,the Wei government put him in charge of Shouchun. As the Sima clan became more powerful and established themselves as the de facto rulers of Wei,Zhuge Dan feared that he would end up slain like Wang Ling and Guanqiu Jian –the leaders of the first two rebellions –so he started the third rebellion against Sima Zhao,who succeeded Sima Shi as regent of Wei in 255. Although he received some support from Wei's rival state Eastern Wu,his rebellion was eventually suppressed by Wei imperial forces and he met his end at the hands of Hu Fen,a military officer under Sima Zhao.
Luo Xian,courtesy name Lingze,was a military general of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period of China. After the fall of Shu in 263,he continued serving under the Cao Wei state,then the succeeding Jin dynasty in 266. He is best known for defending his position at Yong'an for about six months against attacks from Shu's former ally state Wu after the fall of Shu.
Wang Ji,courtesy name Boyu,was a military general of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He started his career as a low-ranking official under Wang Ling,the governor of Qing Province. During this time,he was noted for exemplary performance and was later transferred to the central government in Luoyang. He was subsequently promoted to the position of a commandery administrator,but was briefly removed from office when the Wei regent Sima Yi ousted his co-regent Cao Shuang in a coup d'état in 249. However,he was quickly recalled to government service,promoted to the position of governor of Jing Province and appointed as a military general. From 251 until his death in 261,Wang Ji maintained close but professional working relationships with the Wei regents Sima Shi and Sima Zhao. During this time,he supervised military operations in Jing,Yu and Yang provinces,and defended Wei's eastern and southern borders against attacks by Wei's rival state,Eastern Wu. He also assisted Sima Shi and Sima Zhao in suppressing two of the three Shouchun rebellions in 255 and 257–258 respectively. In 261,in the months just before his death,he correctly pointed out that two Eastern Wu military officers were pretending to defect to Wei,and managed to stop the Wei forces from falling into a trap.
The Battle of Wuzhang Plains was fought between the contending states of Cao Wei and Shu Han in 234 AD during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The battle was the fifth and last of a series of Northern Expeditions led by Shu's chancellor,Zhuge Liang,to attack Wei. Zhuge Liang fell ill and died during the stalemate and subsequently the Shu forces retreated.
Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions refer to a series of eleven military campaigns launched by the state of Shu Han against its rival state,Cao Wei,between 240 and 262 CE during the Three Kingdoms period in China. The campaigns were led by Jiang Wei,a prominent Shu general. Unlike the previous Northern campaigns led by Zhuge Liang,which added Wudu and Yinping commanderies to Shu Han state territories,Jiang Wei's campaigns ended up being unpopular in both the military and civil circles in Shu. Also unlike Zhuge Liang's campaigns which often featured 60,000 to sometimes even 100,000 Shu Troops,Jiang Wei's were often much smaller rarely exceeding 30,000 even after the death of Fei Yi,where Jiang Wei assumed control of the military. The Zhuge Liang campaigns did suffer from logistical and supply issues for their large army. Zhuge's successor Jiang Wan,believed that it was the Hanzhong's mountainous terrain itself that were to blame for the campaigns failures and attempted to switch the route thru the Han river. Fei Yi,who succeeded Jiang Wan,agreed,and never allowed any large campaigns to be launched by Hanzhong. Jiang Wei however overlooked these concerns and used Hanzhong as his home base as Zhuge Liang did.
The Conquest of Shu by Wei was a military campaign launched by the dynastic state of Cao Wei against its rival Shu Han in late 263 during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The campaign culminated in the fall of Shu Han and the tripartite equilibrium maintained in China for over 40 years since the end of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220. The conquest laid the foundation for an eventual reunified China under the Western Jin dynasty in 280.
The Battle of Dongxing,also known as the Battle of Dongguan,was fought from January to February 253 between the states of Cao Wei and Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The battle concluded with a tactical victory for Wu.
The Battle of Mount Qi was a military conflict which took place around Mount Qi between the states of Cao Wei and Shu Han in 231 during the Three Kingdoms period of China. It was also the most vigorous of the five Shu invasions of Wei,resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides. Although Zhuge Liang was able to make significant achievement in the beginning of the battle,the battle finally concluded with a strategic Wei victory due to the insufficient food supply for the Shu Han army. The insufficient food supply was caused by heavy rain and mistakes made by Li Yan. The Shu regent,Zhuge Liang,spent three years recuperating before launching another invasion on Wei in 234.
The Battle of Quebei was a military offensive launched in 241 by the state of Eastern Wu against its rival state,Cao Wei,during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The campaign was initiated by Wu's founding emperor,Sun Quan,two years after the death of the second Wei emperor,Cao Rui. The campaign ended with an overall failure. Despite its name,Quebei being the location where most of the fighting took place,the campaign was actually a two-front attack and covered a wide area in Anhui and Hubei.
Zhuge Rong,courtesy name Shuchang,was a military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the third son of Zhuge Jin,a military general who served under Wu's founding emperor Sun Quan,and a younger brother of Zhuge Ke,a military general who briefly served as regent for Sun Quan's successor,Sun Liang.
Shi Ji,also known as Zhu Ji,courtesy name Gongxu,was a Chinese military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the son of Zhu Ran,a general who served under Wu's founding emperor Sun Quan.
Zhuge Jing,courtesy name Zhongsi,was a Chinese military general and politician of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Though originally from Cao Wei,he was sent to Wu as a hostage during the rebellion of his father,Zhuge Dan,in 257. After his father's death in 258,Zhuge Jing continued to stay in Wu where he served as a general until the state's demise in 280 which ended the Three Kingdoms.
Wang Hun,courtesy name Xuanchong,was a Chinese military general and politician of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period and Western Jin dynasty period. He spent most of his early career serving at the eastern borders of Jin and Eastern Wu,where he occasionally battled with the southern state. He was most known for his role in the Conquest of Wu between 279 and 280,during which he destroyed Wu's main forces under Zhang Ti,as well as his subsequent dispute with Wang Jun,who he accused of going against orders by capturing Jianye on his own and stealing Wang Hun's chance at glory. Despite the controversy surrounding him following the conquest,he remained an accomplished and well-respected figure within the state.
