Siege of Chencang

The Siege of Chencang was the second Northern Expedition led by Shu-Han's chancellor, Zhuge Liang, to invade rival state Cao-Wei, in an attempt to relieve Wei's pressure on Wu's Jingzhou after the Battle of Shiting. The campaign became a siege on a fastness at Chencang from December 228 to early 229 during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. The expedition concluded with Shu-Han retreat.

Background

In 228, after Eastern Wu defeated Cao Wei at the Battle of Shiting, Wei reinforced the east by mobilizing its troops in the west. Shu Chancellor and regent, Zhuge Liang, decided to attack Wei to divert its attention back to the west and relieve pressure for Shu Han's ally. Before the Chancellor finalized an operation plan, Cao Zhen of Wei had distinctly anticipated Zhuge's route of advancement and recommended Hao Zhao to build fortifications for Chencang. The Supreme General, Cao Zhen, assured the young emperor Cao Rui of the defence against probable invasions from Shu. However, Hao Zhao was only assigned 1,000 men for his task. The prognosis was made after Zhuge Liang had lost the first expedition earlier that year.^[1]

The battle

Prelude

After his failure on Mount Qi and Jieting, Zhuge Liang indeed changed his target to Chencang as Cao Zhen reckoned. Intent for a quick expedition, the Shu Chancellor brought with him a selection of siege weapons. Zhuge Liang hoped the attack on Chancing would alert Wei enough to move its force back to Guanzhong from Jingzhou.

The Shu army reached the fortress-city of Chencang during December 228, wherein the defense was apparently not completed as Cao Zhen had not sent additional forces to move in. Having completed the encirclement, Zhuge Liang sent Jin Xiang, a personal friend of Hao Zhao, to convince the latter to defect. The first time the two friends spoke, Hao Zhao would hear none of it, saying "The law of Wei is what you practiced; the nature of me is what you know. I have received so much from my country and I can't let down on my family. You ought to say no more, I'll only die defending this city.^[2] The lobbyist told Zhuge Liang what Hao Zhao had said, and again Zhuge sent Jin Xiang to soften the steadfast defender. "Our armies are enormous while you only have a tiny force, what good is it to perish for a futile effort?" said Jin Xiang outside of the city-gate. This time, however, Hao Zhao fitted an arrow to his bow and replied, "What I said earlier remains solid. I know you, but my arrow doesn't",^[3] implicitly threatening to kill Jin Xiang. Upon hearing this, Zhuge commenced the offensive.

Siege

Therefore, the Shu Chancellor aimed to take the fortress directly; he carried out an escalade tactic through the use of siege ladders, but Hao Zhao countered with fire arrows, burning the platforms and parching the men upon them. While the ladders were still aflame, Zhuge's battering rams designed to breach the city-gate had arrived, and Hao Zhao hurriedly chained some great stones and rolled them down, smashing the rams. The quick response and leadership of Hao Zhao shocked Zhuge Liang, as the latter never forejudged such a determined resistance.

Zhuge Liang then drew back and rethought on his tactic. Since moats made access to the walls difficult for siege weapons, which needed to be brought up against a wall to be effective, the Chancellor decided to remove the trenches to create more possible attack points. Following Zhuge's order, the besiegers started to fill the chasms and prepared their siege towers. With the ditches removed, the siege engines moved upon the castle while foot-soldiers climbed the walls like ants. However, Hao Zhao outwitted Zhuge Liang by building interior walls within the outer walls.^[4] As long as the siege towers could not pass the outer walls, the soldiers on top of the towers who managed to overcome the outer walls could not climb the second inner walls. Trapped inside the two gates of walls, those soldiers who descended from the towers became easy targets for archers on the inner walls.

Suffering another defeat, Zhuge Liang adopted an architectural approach by asking his soldiers to dig tunnels that led to the substructure of the fortress. However, his method was actually different from the more common mining tactic, which is to excavate beneath the foundations of the walls, and then deliberately collapsing or exploding the tunnel—it is recorded that the Chancellor wanted to create some underground passages for his armies to enter the city directly in order to catch his opponent off guard.^[5]

Eventually news came of Wei reinforcements led by Zhang He, which means that Zhuge Liang has accomplished his goal, so the Shu army retreated. Seeking glory, a Wei general, Wang Shuang, led his cavalry in pursuit of the enemy to the Qinling Mountains, where he fell into an ambush planted by Zhuge Liang and was killed.^[1] On the other hand, Zhang He precisely predicted Zhuge Liang would retreat before he even arrived Chenchang, so Zhang He headed Nanzheng, but was not able to catch up with Zhuge Liang.

Aftermath

Scoring such a victory, Hao Zhao instantly became a celebrity, and an imperial decree was passed down to grant the victor a title of marquis. Cao Rui also summoned Hao Zhao to the capital of Luoyang, where the young emperor praised his general highly. However, Hao Zhao soon died of illness during his stay in the capital.

In the same year of 229, Zhuge Liang launched his third expedition. This time, he again changed his target, sending Chen Shi to besiege Wudu and Yinping commanderies.^[1] The Wei general, Guo Huai, ceded the two commanderies to Shu Han, in fear he would be sandwiched by Chen Shi and Zhuge Liang.

Modern references

The Siege of Chencang is featured as a playable stage in the fifth installment of Koei's video game series Dynasty Warriors 5.

References