Battle of Didao 狄道之戰

In the 17th year of Yanxi (254) Jiang Wei went out to Longxi, received the surrender of Li Jian, Chief of Didao County, and brought back the people of the three counties of Heguan, Didao and Lintao. The following spring Zhang Yi, who had returned to Chengdu with Jiang Wei, alone argued at court, when Jiang Wei discussed sending out troops again, that the state was small and the people weary, so force should not be used recklessly. Jiang Wei did not listen and set out taking Zhang Yi and others with him, promoting Zhang Yi to Senior General Who Guards the South. Records, Shu 14 §36Records, Shu 3 §34Records, Shu 15 §15

In Wei, when the General of Chariots and Cavalry Guo Huai died in the 1st month of the 2nd year of Zhengyuan (255), Chen Tai succeeded him as General Who Conquers the West, commanding the troops of Yong and Liang provinces. The Inspector of Yong Province Wang Jing proposed sending out troops in divisions, saying that Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba intended to head for Mount Qi, Shiying and Jincheng by three routes, but Chen Tai, judging that the enemy could not come by three routes, replied that he should advance only after the forces of east and west had joined. When Jiang Wei and the others, leading tens of thousands of men, reached Fuhan and headed for Didao, Chen Tai ordered Wang Jing to advance and station himself at Didao to wait for the main army, and he himself advanced to Chencang. Records, Wei 4 §54Records, Wei 22 §42–43

On the xinhai day of the 8th month Jiang Wei invaded Didao. When the armies under Wang Jing fought the enemy at Guguan and fared badly, Wang Jing crossed the Tao River on his own initiative, fought Jiang Wei at Taoxi and was heavily defeated; he returned with some ten thousand men to defend the city of Didao, while all the rest fled and scattered. The Biography of Jiang Wei puts the dead among Wang Jing's forces at tens of thousands, and the Biography of Zhang Yi records that those who died in the Tao River were counted by the ten thousand. Zhang Yi said that this was the time to stop and that going further might ruin this great achievement, but Jiang Wei was furious and in the end besieged Wang Jing at Didao. Records, Wei 4 §57Records, Wei 22 §43–44Records, Shu 14 §37Records, Shu 15 §15–16

On the xinwei day the Wei court had Deng Ai, Colonel of the Changshui Cavalry, act as General Who Pacifies the West and join forces with Chen Tai to resist Jiang Wei, and had the Grand Commandant Sima Fu follow behind. Chen Tai stationed himself at Shanggui, divided his troops to guard the strategic points and pressed forward day and night, and when Deng Ai, Hu Fen and others arrived, he divided them into three armies and advanced to Longxi. Deng Ai and the others proposed avoiding the edge of Jiang Wei, who was riding on his victory, holding the rugged places and waiting for the enemy to tire. Chen Tai said that Jiang Wei was being worn down beneath a high wall and his supplies were not keeping up, so that now was the time to advance quickly and defeat him, and that since the Tao River encircled them on the outside, if they seized the heights and looked down on them, the enemy would flee without a battle. Records, Wei 4 §57Records, Wei 22 §44–48

Chen Tai crossed the Gaocheng Ridge and advanced in secret, reaching the high mountains southeast of Didao by night, where he raised many beacon fires and sounded drums and horns. The officers and men in the city were roused at the sight of the relief army, and Jiang Wei's side, which had thought the relief troops would come only after all their forces had gathered, trembled from top to bottom. When Chen Tai pretended to take the southern road, Jiang Wei laid an ambush for three days, but Chen Tai's army came out secretly to the south of it. When Jiang Wei charged along the mountain, Chen Tai met him in battle and Jiang Wei withdrew. When the troops of Liang Province came south from Jincheng to Wogan Slope and Chen Tai secretly agreed with Wang Jing to head together for Jiang Wei's line of retreat, Jiang Wei and the others, hearing of it, fled, and the officers and men in the city were able to come out. Wang Jing lamented that they had had less than ten days of food left. Records, Wei 22 §49–50

On the jiachen day of the 9th month Jiang Wei withdrew and stopped at Zhongti. When the siege of Didao was lifted and Jiang Wei withdrew, Deng Ai became General Who Pacifies the West, was granted the tally of authority and concurrently served as Colonel Protector of the Eastern Qiang, while Chen Tai consoled his officers and men and sent them home, repaired the walls and fortifications, and returned to garrison Shanggui. Earlier the court had argued for waiting until great armies had gathered from all sides, but the General-in-Chief Sima Zhao said that the city would not fall suddenly and the shortage of supplies was the urgent matter, so it was the best plan for the General Who Conquers the West to hurry to the rescue. He called Chen Tai, who had not asked for more troops, calm, brave and decisive. Records, Wei 4 §58Records, Shu 3 §35Records, Shu 14 §37Records, Wei 28 §63Records, Wei 22 §51–53

In the 10th month the Wei court, saying that the officers and men who died in the battle of Taoxi numbered in the thousands, had their families consoled and exempted from corvée for a year, and in the 11th month it pardoned the relatives of those in the four commanderies of Longyou and in Jincheng who had fled or surrendered to the enemy, and had the bodies sought out and buried at the battlefield and along the Tao River. Deng Ai, saying that the defeat at Taoxi was no small setback, cited five reasons why the Shu army would surely come again, and the following year, when Jiang Wei came out again, he crushed him at the Battle of Duangu. Records, Wei 4 §58–59Records, Wei 28 §63–65