Guo Huai, the general of the expedition to the west, and Chen Tai, the assassin of Yongzhou, led the army to resist.

Chen Tai believes that "although Qucheng (now Dongzhangnan, Minxian County, Gansu) is strong, it is far away from Western Shu, the roads are steep, and grain can only be transported over long distances; Qianghu's hostages are afraid of serving Jiang Wei, and they will definitely not cooperate for a long time. Now, as long as we besiege it, we can capture the city of koji (qǔ) without bloodshed. Although Xishu may send rescuers, the mountain road is dangerous and will not come soon. ”

Guo Huai followed his plan, so he adopted the strategy of besieging the city and sending reinforcements, and ordered Chen Tai to ask for Xu Qian, the Shu army, and Deng Ai entered the siege of Qucheng, cutting off traffic and water sources, and the Shu army in Qucheng was embarrassed.

Jiang Wei led the troops to the rescue and entered Niutou Mountain (southeast of Minxian County, Gansu, on the south bank of the Tao River), but was blocked by Chen Tai's army. Sima Zhao went out of Luogu to Hanzhong, and Guo Huai led his army to force Taoshui, trying to cut off Jiang Wei's retreat, and Jiang Wei quickly withdrew.

Ju'an, Li Xin and others were isolated and surrendered.

…… ……

Guo Huai then led the army to attack the Qiang troops in the west, and Deng Ai said: "The enemy troops are not far away, and they may soon counterattack, so they should divide their troops to avoid accidents." ”

Guo Huai left Deng Aitun Baishui (now Bailongjiang, Gansu) on the north bank to prevent the Shu army from counterattacking.

Three days later, the Shu army really returned, and Jiang Wei sent Liao Hua to camp on the south bank of Baishui, opposite Deng Ai, but did not attack Wei.

Deng Ai said to the generals: "Jiang Wei returned suddenly, we have few soldiers, according to common sense, they should cross the river instead of building a bridge." This is Jiang Wei wanting to make Liao Hua to contain our army and prevent us from moving troops. Jiang Wei will definitely attack Taocheng from the east. ”

Taocheng (now southwest of Lintan, Gansu) is in the north of Baishui, sixty miles away from Deng Ai's station, Deng Ai seized Taocheng that night, and soon, Jiang Wei really led a heavy army to attack Taocheng. Jiang Wei saw that the Wei army had seized Taocheng, so he withdrew his army and retreated, and the Wei army was undefeated.

…… ……

Deng Ai was given the title of Marquis of Guannei, and was added to General Kou, and later moved to Chengyang (located in the northeast of present-day Zhucheng) Taishou.

At that time, Liu Bao, the right virtuous king of Bingzhou, combined the Xiongnu into one.

Deng Ai said:

"Rong Di has the heart of a beast and does not preach morality. As soon as they become strong, they commit violence; Once weakened, they were attached to the imperial court. Because of this, when King Xuan of Zhou was king, there was a Rong Di invasion of the south and approaching the Zhou capital; At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, was surrounded by the 400,000 troops of the Xiongnu Maodun Shan Yu in Baideng, southeast of Ping.

"Whenever the Xiongnu were strong, all previous dynasties considered this to be the greatest worry. When Shan Yu lived far away, the imperial court could not directly control the Xiongnu Shan Yu and his subordinates. Induce Shan Yu to come and tell him to submit, so that Qiangyi can lose his commander and the dragons have no leader.

"Because just living in the interior has made the surrounding Hu tribes peaceful. Today, although Nandan Yu stayed in the capital, they became increasingly estranged from their subordinates. At the same time, Liu Bao, the king of Youxian, lived outside the border area, and the tribal forces were extremely powerful, posing a threat to the imperial court, which we could not fail to guard against.

"I heard that some of Liu Bao's subordinates have rebelled, and they should be divided into two countries in order to weaken Liu Bao's power.

"At the beginning of Jian'an, King Youxian went to guard Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and refused to accept Li Què (榷què) and Guo Pan (汜fa

The car returned to Luoyang, and then returned to China. His exploits were quite remarkable in previous generations. However, his descendants have not been able to inherit his legacy, and he should be given a title and let them live in Yanmen, away from the land, so as to weaken the enemy's strength, make them envious and hope to have the merits of their ancestors and serve the country. This is a long-term plan to defend the frontier. ”

Deng Ai also said: "Whoever lives with the Han people should gradually separate them, so that they can be respected and discriminated in addition to the people, and the path of the lawbreakers should be blocked." ”

…… ……

The general Sima Shi was newly appointed as an assistant to the political affairs, and many of Deng Ai's suggestions were adopted and implemented. Soon, Deng Ai was reappointed as the Taishou of Runan, and after his arrival, he begged the elders of the same county who had treated him well in the past, but unfortunately the elders had died, so he sent officials to worship and reward his family generously.

The elder had a daughter, and within half a year of marriage, the man died, and the daughter had to remarry.

However, after changing the two families, the men of these two families died one after another, when Deng Ai visited, the daughter was at home, and when the elder who died was sad, the daughter cried very sadly, Deng Ai asked the family why the woman was so sad, and the family learned to Deng Ai the experience of the woman being taken home by her husband's family for a long time, saying that the woman was the life of Kefu.

Deng Ai said, "How can this be? It's just that natural disasters and man-made disasters have been going on for many years, poverty and illness, and the road to life is not eternal, what is Kefu's life? In that case, let her go with me, be one of my concubines, and see if she can kill me? ”

At that moment, he brought the benefactor's daughter back to his home and served as one of his concubines, and later, the woman gave birth to a son and a daughter for him, and he was safe.

…… ……

Whenever Deng Ai went to a place, he advocated reclamation and the development of production, and the history books said: "Where Ai is, the wilderness is opened up, and the army and the people are abundant." It can be seen that he has done a very effective job in this regard.

In February of the fifth year of Jiaping (253), after Wu Taifu Zhuge Ke won the victory in the Battle of Dongxing, he relied on his merits to underestimate the enemy, regardless of the dissuasion of his ministers, and once again raised his army to attack Wei. Siege Hefei New City (now northwest of Hefei, Anhui), unable to attack for a long time, forced to retreat.

Deng Ai said to Sima Shi:

"Sun Quan is dead, and the old minister will not return to the new dynasty. The famous clans of Eastern Wu all have their own local armed forces, and by virtue of force and power, they can completely dominate one side.

He did not consider how to appease the upper and lower levels in order to stabilize the regime, but frequently used force externally, abused his own people, and attacked the fortified city of Hefei with the military strength of the whole country, and the dead were no less than tens of thousands, and he returned defeated, which was the end of Zhuge Ke's own destruction.

"In the past, Wu Zixu, Wu Qi, Shang Ying, and Le Yi were all reused by the monarchs of their respective countries. When the monarch dies, they themselves will be doomed. What's more, Zhuge Ke's talent is far from being comparable to the above four capable people. But he did not take into account the great danger lurking, and his self-defeat was not far off. ”

…… ……

Soon, Deng Ai was promoted to Yanzhou Assassin and added General Zhenwei.

He saw that some local palaces did not attach importance to agricultural production, and specialized in making travel requests, and the style was flashy and unrealistic, so he wrote a book and suggested:

"There are two most urgent priorities for a country, one is agriculture, and the other is war readiness. Only when a country is rich can its armaments become strong and invincible, and agriculture is the foundation for victory.

"Confucius once said, 'When there is abundant food, there can be abundant troops.'" Food is more important than troops. If the imperial court does not set rewards and incentives, then the people below will not work hard to accumulate wealth. Incentives should be set up to encourage people to hoard food, so that lobbying and flashy fashions can be put an end to. ”

The court took his advice.