Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions

Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions
Part of the wars of the Three Kingdoms period
Date 240–262 CE Location Northwestern China (primarily within modern Gansu and Shaanxi provinces) Result Inconclusive; Shu Han retreat
Belligerents
Shu Han Di and Qiang tribes	Cao Wei
Commanders and leaders
Jiang Wei Zhang Yi Wang Ping Liao Hua Ma Zhong Zhang Ni † Xiahou Ba (after 249) Hu Ji	Guo Huai Xiahou Ba (before 249) Chen Tai Xu Zhi † Li Jian  Deng Ai Wang Jing

Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions
Traditional Chinese	姜維北伐
Simplified Chinese	姜维北伐
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiāng Wéi Běifá
Nine campaigns on the Central Plains
Traditional Chinese	九伐中原
Simplified Chinese	九伐中原
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jǐufá Zhōngyuán

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Jiāng Wéi Běifá

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Jǐufá Zhōngyuán

Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions refer to a series of eleven military campaigns launched by the state of Shu Han against its rival state, Cao Wei, between 240 and 262 CE during the Three Kingdoms period in China. The campaigns were led by Jiang Wei, a prominent Shu general. Each campaign was ultimately aborted due to inadequate food supplies, heavy losses on the battlefield, or other reasons. The campaigns drained Shu's already limited resources and preceded the eventual fall of Shu in 263.

In popular culture and the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the campaigns were erroneously referred to as the "nine campaigns on the Central Plains" (九伐中原). This description is inaccurate because there were actually eleven campaigns instead of nine, and the battles were fought in locations far from the Central Plains.

In 227, China was divided into three competing regimes – Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu – each with the purpose of reunifying the territories of the fallen Han dynasty under its own control. Between 228 and 234, Zhuge Liang, the chancellor-regent of Shu, had led a series of five campaigns to attack Wei, but each campaign ultimately proved unsuccessful and the overall result was a stalemate. Zhuge Liang died of illness during the fifth campaign in 234. After Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wan and Fei Yi, who consecutively succeeded him as the regents of Shu, discontinued his aggressive foreign policy towards Wei and focused more on domestic policies and internal development. There was a six-year-long period of relative peace between Shu and Wei until 240, when the Shu general Jiang Wei decided to follow-up on Zhuge Liang's legacy and continue launching attacks on Wei.

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Wikipedia