Jiang Wei's Northern Expeditions - Second Expedition: Battle of Qucheng

Second Expedition: Battle of Qucheng

In 249, Jiang Wei constructed two forts at the Qu mountains and dispatched troops to defend them. In addition, Jiang Wei took the native people (from the Di and Qiang tribes) as hostages and forced them to obey his orders. Seeing this, Chen Tai advised his superior, Guo Huai, that it would be a good opportunity for them to launch an attack on the forts given that the distance between the forts and Shu's track was far, and the natives were resentful of forced labor under Shu. Guo Huai agreed with Chen Tai and sent him to attack the Shu defending army under Xu Zhi. At the same time, the governor of Nan'an, Deng Ai, was dispatched to lay siege to the forts. As they were speaking, Jiang Wei stole enemy supplies for aid.

Chen Tai managed to cut the food and water supply chains to the forts but was surrounded by Shu soldiers who came out for a counteroffensive. Subsequently, Jiang Wei led his main forces to break the siege and met up with Chen Tai at the rear of Bull Head Mountain. Instead of engaging Jiang Wei's troops, Chen Tai stalled Jiang Wei for time to let Guo Huai cut off Jiang Wei's supply and retreat route at Yao River. Guo Huai agreed and proceed as planned. Jiang Wei found out the maneuvers of the Wei armies and realized that there was a competent commander in the Wei's ranks. Despite the unfavorable situation, Jiang Wei refused to retreat and on seeing that, the soldiers at the two forts pretended to surrender to Wei.

Meanwhile, Chen Tai saw through the fake surrender and battled the enemy troops. Jiang Wei met Chen Tai again and this time they dueled. Chen Tai forced Jiang Wei to retreat back to Hanzhong.