Cen Wei 岑威

In Chapter 102 of the Romance, on hearing that the Shu army was hauling grain and fodder with wooden oxen and gliding horses, Sima Yi gave Zhang Hu and Yue Chen 500 troops each and had them go round by the byways of Xiegu to seize just a few of them. Disguised as Shu troops, the two lay in ambush in a valley, seized several of the wooden oxen and gliding horses that Gao Xiang was driving, and returned to their main camp. Romance, Ch. 102 §51–52

Sima Yi had more than a hundred skilled craftsmen take them apart before his eyes and build them according to their measurements of length and thickness, and in less than half a month more than 2,000 were made. He then had Cen Wei, General Who Guards Distant Regions, lead 1,000 troops driving the wooden oxen and gliding horses to Longxi to haul grain and fodder; the convoys came and went without a break, and there was no officer or soldier in the Wei camps who was not delighted. Romance, Ch. 102 §53

Kongming had said in advance that once Sima Yi saw the wooden oxen and gliding horses he would surely copy them, and when word came that the Wei army was hauling grain from Longxi with wooden oxen and gliding horses, he gave Wang Ping 1,000 troops and had them disguise themselves as men of Wei. Wang Ping was ordered to pass the Northern Plain claiming only to be troops patrolling the grain, go to where the grain was being hauled, kill and scatter the escort, and then drive the wooden oxen and gliding horses back. Romance, Ch. 102 §54–55

While transporting the grain, Cen Wei received a report that there were troops patrolling the grain ahead, and he sent men to scout them; finding that they were indeed Wei soldiers, he advanced without concern, and the two forces merged into one. Then the Shu troops rose up from within the ranks crying, 'The great general of Shu, Wang Ping, is here!' and the Wei troops, caught off guard, lost more than half their number. Cen Wei resisted with his remaining troops but was beheaded by Wang Ping with a single stroke of his blade, and the rest all broke and scattered. Romance, Ch. 102 §59–60

As Wang Ping drove all the wooden oxen and gliding horses away, the defeated soldiers reported to the camp on the Northern Plain, and Guo Huai hurried to the rescue. Wang Ping twisted the tongues of the wooden oxen and gliding horses, abandoned them on the road and fled; while Guo Huai's troops could not make them move however they drove them, Wei Yan and Jiang Wei attacked, Guo Huai was badly defeated, and a band of divine soldiers emerging from behind a hill drove the wooden oxen and gliding horses away. The Romance places this campaign in the spring, in the second month of the 2nd year of Qinglong (234) of Wei, when the Shu army divided into five routes and once again came out at Mount Qi. Romance, Ch. 102 §60–61 · 6