Among the generals of the Three Kingdoms, the twenty-third is Deng Ai.

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Deng Ai (197 - 264), a native of Yiyang Jianyang (now Xinye, Henan). During the Three Kingdoms period, he was an outstanding military strategist and general of the Wei State. He is an all-round talent in humanities and martial arts, proficient in the art of war, and has also made great achievements in internal affairs.

Deng Ai has been on the western front of Cao Wei for many years to guard against Shu Han Jiang Wei.

In 263 AD, he and Zhong Hui led their armies to attack Shu Han, and finally he was the first to enter Chengdu, causing Shu Han to perish.

Later, because he was slandered and framed by Zhong Hui, he was taken into custody by Sima Zhao's suspicion, and finally killed by Tian Xu, a military general sent by Wei Qian along with his son Deng Zhong.

The Deng family used to be a big family in the area of Nanyang Xinye, but Deng Ai's family background can no longer be studied in detail.

Deng Ai lost his father when he was a child, lived in an era of frequent wars and social turmoil, and lived in the Central Plains, where land was highly concentrated and powerful mergers were fierce, and the difficulties of life can be imagined. However, Deng Ai received a good education from an early age, which had a significant impact on his life.

In addition, his mother and sister cared deeply for him, so that he received a strict and systematic education from an early age and laid a solid foundation.

It can be said that without the help of his mother and sister, there would be no future development for him.

Therefore, during his childhood and adolescence, the women who were closely related to him were his mother and his sister.

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In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), after Cao Cao conquered Jingzhou, he forcibly moved the local people north, and Deng Ai, his mother, and his clansmen were forcibly relocated to Runan (now Shangcai, Henan) as Tuntian people.

Because of his young age, Deng Ai initially worked as a cattle herder.

But he had big ambitions since he was a child and was determined to change his destiny through struggle.

At the age of twelve, life was difficult and unsustainable, so his mother had to remarry someone else, Deng Ai followed his mother to Yingchuan, and read the two sentences in the inscription of the late Taiqiu Chang Chen Yu, "The text is the world's fan, and the behavior is the rule of the scholar", and he was glad to admire, so he named himself Deng Fan, and the word Shize.

Later, there was a person in the clan who had the same name as him, so he changed it to his current name.

In the Tuntian people, there are very few talented people, Deng Ai was recommended as a pawn farmer lieutenant (equivalent to a county bachelor) with his talent, so that he can serve as a subordinate official such as the lieutenant of the pawn farmer, cadre, etc., if there is a performance in the future, it may be gradually promoted, which is a way for people from humble backgrounds to change their careers.

However, because of his stuttering, Captain Diannong decided that he was not fit for an important position, so he assigned him to be a straw guard. An elder in the same county saw that his family was poor and often supported him, but Deng Ai couldn't take out anything to thank the elder, just with his mouth, and stuttered, the word "thank you" was said several times, but he didn't say it, so he had to not say it, and kept it in his heart, thinking, I will make a fortune one day, and thank you again.

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Deng Ai likes the military.

Whenever I saw mountains and rivers, I had to survey the terrain there, point out the barracks, and I didn't mind being ridiculed by others.

At that time, it was not easy for the people of Tuntian, who were born in poverty, to get ahead, and Deng Ai lived plainly for nearly 20 years.

Later, he finally became a pawn farmer and helped manage the tuntian. Once, Deng Ai went to Luoyang to report and had the opportunity to meet Sima Yi, the chief lieutenant of Luoyang.

Sima Yi appreciated his talent very much, and recruited him as a subordinate of the Taiwei Mansion, and was later promoted to Shang Shulang.

Meeting Sima Yi can be said to be a major turning point in Deng Ai's life. At the beginning of Zhengshi (240-249), Wei prepared to carry out tuntian in the southeast and accumulate military rations to deal with Wu, so he sent Deng Ai to inspect. At this time, he is already a person who can be entrusted with big things.

Deng Ai inspected from Chen County (now Huaiyang, Henan) and Xiang County (now Shenqiu, Henan) to Shouchun.

After the investigation, Deng Ai put forward two important suggestions:

First, digging canals and building water conservancy projects to irrigate farmland, increase yield per unit area, and dredge water transportation;

Second, large-scale military cantonment should be carried out in Huaibei and Huainan.

"The land is fertile, but unfortunately there is little water to make the most of it," he said. Canals should be excavated, water should be diverted for irrigation, military rations should be accumulated, and waterways should be opened for transportation. ”

So, he wrote an article on "The Theory of Jihe" to clarify his views.

Deng Ai also believes that:

"In the past, the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quelled, and troops were stationed to open up fields for this purpose. A lot of food was accumulated in Xudu, with the aim of controlling the world. Now the three sides have been pacified, but there is still a war south of the Huai River, whenever the army marches south, only for transportation troops account for half, the cost is very large, and the labor is heavy.

"Between Chen and Cai, the land is fertile, which can reduce the rice fields around Xuchang and divert water to the east. Now there are 20,000 soldiers north of the Huai River and 30,000 soldiers south of the Huai River, and they are on rotation according to the proportion of two-tenths, and there are often 40,000 people, who are guarding while farming.

"When the weather is good, the harvest is often more than three times as high as in the west. After deducting the expenses of soldiers and civilians, 5 million Hu is used as military funds every year. In six or seven years, 30 million grains can be accumulated in the upper reaches of the Huai River. This is enough food for 100,000 soldiers and civilians for five years. With these savings to attack Soochow, you can't be invincible! ”

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Sima Yi read the article he wrote, was very satisfied, and adopted and implemented Deng Ai's suggestion.

From the second year of Zhengshi (241), Wei opened up rivers in Huainan and Huaibei, and large-scale tuntian.

The north is bounded by Huaishui, from the south of Zhongli, west of Hengshi, to the source of the water between more than 400 miles of land, five miles to set up a military camp.

Each battalion consisted of sixty people, one side of the tuntian, and the other side of the garrison.

At the same time, the two canals of Huaiyang and Baiqi were also widened, and water was diverted from the Yellow River to flow into Huaishui and Yingshui, and many fields were built in Yingnan and Yingbei.

More than 300 miles of canals have been dug in the Huaishui Basin to irrigate 20,000 hectares of farmland, thus connecting Huainan and Huaibei into one. A few years later, from Kyoto to Shouchun, the soldiers looked at each other along the way, and the voices of chickens and dogs were heard, and there was a scene of prosperity and prosperity.

Since then, the construction of water conservancy and military tun in the Huaishui Valley has developed rapidly, and the defense force of Wei in the southeast has also been greatly strengthened. Whenever there is a war in the southeast, the army can go down by boat and go straight to Jianghuai.

There are reserves of military grain and there is no water damage. These are all the credit of Deng Ai.

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It can be said that the Cao Wei regime was able to maintain the strongest strength in the Three Kingdoms, especially in the later period, and many of Deng Ai's political ideas played a great role.

In the fourth year of Zhengshi (243), Deng Ai was appointed to participate in the western military and transferred to Nan'an (now southeast of Longxi, Gansu).

In the autumn of the first year of Jiaping (249), Jiang Wei, the general of Shu Hanwei, supervised the army to attack Yongzhou (now Guanzhong, Shaanxi and eastern Gansu), and built two cities on the side of Qushan (now Dongbaili, Minxian County, Gansu). Jiang Wei was familiar with the customs and folklore of Longxi, and wanted to lure Qiang Hu to return to Shu in order to control the region. Sent Yamen generals Ju'an, Li Xin and others to garrison, and united with the Qianghu people to attack the nearby counties.

Sima Zhao took General Anxi and Zhijie as the festival for each army, and Deng Ai also participated in this war.