Battle of Mount Qi

Part of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions

Date	Spring 231–Summer 231
Location	Longnan and Gansu, China
Result	Cao Wei victory

Belligerents

Cao Wei

Shu Han
Xianbei

Commanders and leaders

Sima Yi

Zhuge Liang
Kebineng

Strength

unknown

Casualties and losses

3,000+

~10,000

The Battle of Mount Qi was a military conflict which took place around Mount Qi (祁山; the mountainous regions around present-day Li County, Longnan, Gansu) between the states of Cao Wei and Shu Han in 231 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. It was also the most vigorous campaign of the five expeditions Shu launched against Wei, resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides. After this campaign ended with Wei as the victor, the Shu chancellor-regent Zhuge Liang spent three years recuperating before launching another assault on Wei in 234.

In 217, Liu Bei's strategist, Fa Zheng, proposed that Hanzhong could be used as an operational base to either attack the heartland of Wei or ingest the far-left-hook of Wei's Liang and Yong provinces. Since then, Fa Zheng's plan became a blueprint for Zhuge Liang's expedition against Wei. Zhuge Liang had attempted to invade the northwestern lands via Mount Qi in his first expedition but to no avail; he then changed targets to Chenchang, a bridgehead fortress guarding the city of Chang'an. However, the defenses of the fortress proved to be formidable, swinging Zhuge Liang back to the western attack route. In early 231, Zhuge Liang assembled a force to conquer Longyou, setting Mount Qi as his immediate target. Before Zhuge Liang marched towards Mount Qi, he had envoys sent to rouse the Xianbei and Qiang peoples, urging them to create a disturbance in the Wei rear, and invented and produced the "wooden ox", which was said to have had greatly improved logistics.

The goal of seizing Longyou was not easily achievable, because Wei had prepared for a probable Shu invasion in the region — Mount Qi was garrisoned by Jia Ji and Wei Ping, forming an initial defence for Tianshui Commandery, while Dai Ling (戴陵) and Fei Yao stationed their crack troops in the heartland of Tianshui. However the Xianbei leader, Kebineng, had arrived in Fuping County to support the Shu forces. The offensive began with a minor clash at Mount Qi, giving the Wei commander-in-chief, Cao Zhen, the impression that the attack was a diversion to mask a major offensive through the Qin Mountains against Chang'an. Therefore, the stricken Cao Zhen gathered the majority of the defence forces inside Chang'an before he was absolved and replaced by Sima Yi. The new commander then ordered Dai Ling and Fei Yao to protect Shanggui with 4,000 elite troops and set out with the rest of his men westward to relieve the mountainous battlefield.Zhang He, a veteran general whose military experience towered above that of Sima Yi's, challenged Sima Yi by claiming the army should be split to also protect the districts of Yong and Mei, but Sima Yi disagreed, saying the vanguard alone could not resist the enemy.

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