Zhuge Dan's Rebellion 諸葛誕之亂

Zhuge Dan was very close to Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang and others, and when Wang Ling and Guanqiu Jian were exterminated with their clans one after another, he grew fearful and could not feel at ease. He emptied his storehouses to give away wealth and bind men's hearts to him, and raised several thousand of his close followers and the bold knights-errant of Yang Province as men sworn to die. In the winter of the 1st year of Ganlu (256), when Wu was about to head for Xu'e, although the troops under his command were ample to resist, he asked for another 100,000 men to defend Shouchun and asked to build a fortress by the Huai River; inwardly he meant to seize and hold Huainan. Records, Wei 28 §34

To sound out his intentions, the court summoned him in the 5th month of the 2nd year of Ganlu (257) and made him Minister of Works. Zhong Hui, judging that Zhuge Dan would not obey the order, told Sima Zhao, but Sima Zhao did not change it, since it had already been issued. On receiving the edict Zhuge Dan grew even more fearful and finally rebelled, personally attacking and killing the Inspector of Yang Province, Yue Chen. He gathered more than 100,000 officers and soldiers from the agricultural colonies of Huainan and Huaibei and 40,000 to 50,000 newly attached fighting men of Yang Province, collected enough grain for a year, and shut the city gates to defend himself. He had his Chief Clerk Wu Gang take his young son Zhuge Jing to Wu to ask for help. Records, Wei 4 §80 · 82Records, Wei 28 §35–36 · 98

Wu was overjoyed, and in the 6th month it gave 30,000 men to Quan Yi, Quan Duan, Tang Zi, Wang Zuo and others and sent them secretly along with Wen Qin, and made Zhuge Dan Left Protector-General, Grand Minister over the Masses, General of Agile Cavalry and Governor of Qing Province, enfeoffing him as Marquis of Shouchun. At this time the General Who Guards the South Wang Ji had just arrived and surrounded Shouchun, but the encirclement was not yet closed, and Tang Zi, Wen Qin and others broke into the city from the northeast, using the rugged terrain of the hills. The Wei emperor set out east in the 6th month and stayed at Xiang County, and Sima Zhao, leading 260,000 troops of the capital and the provinces, encamped at Qiutou. Wang Ji, the General Who Pacifies the East Chen Qian and others surrounded the city on all sides in a double ring inside and out, building steep trenches and ramparts, and the Army Supervisor Shi Bao, the Inspector of Yan Province Zhou Tai (州泰) and others formed a mobile force of picked troops to guard against the enemy outside. Records, Wu 3 §16Records, Wei 28 §36–37Records, Wei 4 §84

Wu's Zhu Yi was stationed at Anfeng with 30,000 men but was checked by Zhou Tai at Yangyuan and lost 2,000 men. In the 7th month Sun Chen came out to Huoli and had Zhu Yi attack with 50,000 men including Ding Feng and Li Fei, but Zhu Yi, encamped at Lijiang, was defeated by Shi Bao and Zhou Tai, and the Administrator of Taishan Hu Lie burned the supplies he had left at Dulu. In the 9th month Sun Chen beheaded Zhu Yi, who had not obeyed his order to fight to the death, at Huoli and returned to Jianye. The Biography of Sun Chen records that he failed to rescue Zhuge Dan, lost his troops and killed a famous commander, and so earned resentment. Records, Wu 19 §84–86Records, Wu 3 §16–17Records, Wei 28 §38Records, Wu 10 §103

As the food in the city dwindled and outside help was cut off, Zhuge Dan's trusted men Jiang Ban and Jiao Yi went over the wall and gave themselves up to Sima Zhao. Zhong Hui secretly composed a letter on behalf of Quan Hui and Quan Yi (全儀), nephews of Quan Yi (全懌) who had quarrelled with their family in Jianye and come over, informing those in the city that Wu meant to kill the families of all the commanders who had failed to take Shouchun. Quan Yi and the others, frightened, opened the eastern gate in the 12th month and came out to surrender with the several thousand men under them, and the city was struck with fear. Records, Wei 28 §38 · 99–100Records, Wei 4 §86–87Records, Wu 3 §17

In the 1st month of the 3rd year of Ganlu (258), Zhuge Dan, Wen Qin and Tang Zi built siege engines on a large scale and attacked the southern encirclement day and night for five or six days, but the Wei army burned them with catapults and fire arrows. With the food exhausted, tens of thousands came out to surrender. Wen Qin proposed sending out all the northerners to save food, but Zhuge Dan would not listen, and the two, who had long been at odds, grew suspicious of each other until Zhuge Dan killed Wen Qin. Wen Qin's sons Wen Yang and Wen Hu went over the wall and gave themselves up; Sima Zhao, saying that killing them would only harden the resolve of those in the city, pardoned them, made them Marquises Within the Passes and had them ride around the city calling on it to surrender. Records, Wei 28 §39–41Records, Wu 3 §18

In the 2nd month Sima Zhao came to the siege lines in person, and as drums sounded on all sides and his troops scaled the walls, no one in the city dared move. Zhuge Dan, riding alone, broke out through a small gate with his retinue but was beheaded by the troops of Hu Fen, Major of the General-in-Chief, and his three sets of kin were exterminated. Several hundred of his retinue refused to surrender and were beheaded, saying, "To die for Lord Zhuge is no regret." Tang Zi, Wang Zuo and others surrendered with their hands bound, and 10,000 Wu soldiers and weapons piled up like mountains were taken. Sima Zhao rejected the proposal to bury the Wu soldiers alive, and without killing a single one, settled them in the commanderies near the Three He. Records, Wei 28 §41–42 · 44Records, Wei 4 §88

When the siege began, Sima Zhao rejected proposals for a quick assault, saying that since the three rebels had gathered in a lone city, he would bind them with a sure strategy and subdue them without moving. Wang Ji held the siege lines despite an edict to pull back his troops and hold the ramparts and an order to move to the Northern Hills, and Sima Zhao later praised him for defying the imperial command and rejecting the views of the many to capture the enemy in the end. In his assessment Chen Shou said that Zhuge Dan was stern, resolute and imposing, but that his ambitions were great and his aims misguided, so that his clan was crushed into the earth. Records, Wei 28 §43 · 140Records, Wei 27 §66–68