Deng Ai (c. 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. His real name was Deng Fan, and he later changed his name because he had the same name as his fellow villagers. 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. He is revered as one of the sixty-four generals of ancient and modern times.

Before Deng Ai sent troops to Shu Han, he dreamed that he was sitting on the mountain, looking at the flowing water, so he found the captive general Shao and asked for the hint of the dream. Zhan Shao told him that "even if he can win Shu Han, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the general to return to China", and it turned out as expected.

There is a story about Deng Ai's astuteness in "The World Speaks New Language", which records that Deng Ai has a stutter, and every time he talks about himself, he always calls "Ai, Ai", Sima Zhao deliberately teases him, so he asks: "You are always 'Ai, Ai', how many 'Ai' are there?" Deng Ai replied: "The so-called 'phoenix and phoenix' is still only one phoenix." ”

After Deng Ai destroyed Shu Han, in the face of a huge victory, he arbitrarily followed the previous practice of the Eastern Han general Deng Yu and appointed a large number of officials in the name of the Son of Heaven. He worshiped Liu Chanxing Hussar General, the Prince of Shu as the commander of the chariot, and the kings as the commander of the horses; For the ministers of the Shu State, according to their status, they were either appointed as court officials, or let them receive their subordinate positions.

Deng Ai appointed Shi to compile and lead the history of Yizhou Thorns, and appointed Longxi Taishou and others to lead the counties and counties in Shuzhong. Send people to bury the soldiers who died in the battle with the dead of the Shu soldiers in Mianzhu, and build a high platform as a Jingguan to promote their martial arts.

Deng Ai is deeply proud of this great achievement, and often shows boasting and is proud. He once said to the scholars and doctors of the Shu Kingdom: "You are fortunate to have met me, so I am today." If you had met someone like Wu Han, you would have been killed. He also said: "Jiang Wei is naturally a hero for a while, but he met me, so he was at the end of the road." When people of insight saw him so boastful, they often laughed at him behind his back.

These became the excuse for the careerist Zhong Hui to put him to death.

After Jiang Wei and others descended to Zhong Hui, Zhong Hui was overjoyed and couldn't wait to go up to the table to show his merits to Sima Zhao.

In December, Sima Zhao asked Emperor Wei to issue an edict praising Deng Ai's merits, and the book said: "Deng Ai flaunted his force, invigorated the national prestige, penetrated into the enemy's hinterland, beheaded the generals, pulled out the flag, and eliminated the enemy's leaders, so that the person who pretended to be the emperor committed suicide by the neck, and the sinners who had been wanted for many years were pacified in one day." The battle did not exceed the scheduled time, and the battle ended quickly, swept the west, and pacified Bashu. Even if Bai Qi attacked the powerful Chu State, Han Xin fought hard to defeat the powerful Zhao State, Wu Han captured Gongsun Shu, and Zhou Yafu pacified the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, in terms of merit, they were not as good as Deng Ai. Therefore, Deng Ai was appointed as a lieutenant and increased the number of feudal households by 20,000. His two sons were named pavilion marquis, and each had to be sealed for thousands of households. ”

The commander Zhong Hui also took the position of Situ, sealed the county marquis, increased the number of households, and his sons were also named pavilion marquis.

When Deng Ai destroyed Shu, he put forward his views on the situation and the measures he was prepared to take to Sima Zhao: "The soldiers pay attention to establishing their prestige first, and then they really attack with strength. Today, with the prestige of pacifying Xishu, it is a favorable opportunity to sweep the world by taking advantage of the situation to attack Wu. However, after the large-scale use of troops, the soldiers have felt very tired, can not easily move the troops, for the time being, slowly say, first leave 20,000 soldiers in Longyou, 20,000 soldiers in Bashu, boil salt and make iron, prepare for military and agriculture, and at the same time build ships, and prepare in advance for the future crusade against Eastern Wu along the river. After doing this, they announced to the world, so that Eastern Wu knew the situation they were facing, understood the stakes, and the state of Wu would definitely be surrendered. In this way, there is no need to conquest and the Eastern Wu can be pacified. Now we should treat Liu Chan favorably, so as to induce Emperor Wu Jing and Sun Xiu to return to obedience; To appease the soldiers and civilians used to attract people from afar. If Liu Chan was sent to the capital, the people of Eastern Wu thought that it was house arrest and exile, which was really not conducive to persuading them to return. Liu Chan should be left for the time being, waiting for the autumn and winter of next year, and then Dongwu can be completely pacified. You can crown Liu Chan as the king of Fufeng, give him wealth, send people to serve, and let him enjoy. There is Dong Zhuowu as his palace in the county. He made his son a prince and divided one of the counties into a food district to show the favor he received from the imperial court. Set up Guangling and Chengyang as kingdoms, waiting for Sun Xiu, the lord of Wu, to surrender. In that case, Soochow will be afraid of Weide and will return to the wind. ”

Deng Ai was bent on planning a strategy to destroy Wu, and his suggestions were really far-sighted. However, he took the initiative to accept the officials, and Zhong Hui revised the correspondence between him and Sima Zhao, changing Deng Ai's appearance to be arrogant and rude.

So Sima Zhao asked the prison guard to warn Deng Ai: "This matter should be reported, and it should not be implemented immediately." ”

Deng Ai spoke again, saying: "I was ordered to conquest, and I have the emperor's strategy. Now that the leaders of the enemy have surrendered, it is timely that they should be given official positions in accordance with the old system in order to appease them. Now that the Shu Kingdom has all been surrendered, our territory has reached the southernmost point. It borders Wuhui to the east and should be pacified as soon as possible. If you wait for the order of the imperial court, it takes a lot of time to travel back and forth by road. "Spring and Autumn" has such a saying, if the doctor is in a foreign country, if there is something to defend the country and benefit the country, it is okay to be arbitrary. Now that Eastern Wu is not peaceful, the terrain is connected with Bashu, and it should not be confined to the common law and lose the opportunity. The Art of War says: 'Advance is not for the sake of honor, and retreat is not afraid of guilt.' Although I don't have the demeanor of an ancient sage, I still want not to dislike myself to damage the reputation of the country. ”

Zhong met Deng Ai Jugong and took advantage of the gap to falsely accuse Sima Zhao of rebellion, saying that what he had done was rebellious and had shown signs of rebellion. So, the imperial court issued an edict to send the prison guard to arrest Deng Ai and his son, and sent them to Kyoto in a car. ”

On the fifteenth day of the first month of 264 AD (the fifth year of Jing Yuan), Zhong Hui arrived in Chengdu and escorted Deng Ai to Luoyang. At this time, Zhong Hui had more than 200,000 Wei and Shu troops under his command. Zhong Hui eliminated Deng Ai, who had a great contribution to the destruction of Shu, and mastered a huge expeditionary force, so he plotted a rebellion. Sima Zhao had long been wary of Zhong Hui's ambitions, and sent the Chinese protector Jia Chong to ride 10,000 steps into Shu to occupy Lecheng, and then personally led an army of 100,000 into Chang'an, which caught Zhong Hui off guard. Zhong Hui then seized all the generals of the Wei army, and presented the so-called empress dowager edict deposing Sima Zhao, and the Shu general Jiang Wei instigated Zhong Hui to kill the detained generals, and planned to take the opportunity to kill Zhong Hui and restore Shu Han. Due to the hesitation of the bell meeting and the news leaked, at noon on the 18th, Hu Yuan, the son of Hu Lie, the protector army, led the martyrs to beat drums and shout, and the officers and soldiers of each battalion responded together to rescue the generals of the headquarters, and rushed into the Shu Palace, and the generals in the palace rushed out to join their subordinates. The two sides fought fiercely inside and outside the palace, beheading Jiang Wei, Zhong Hui and hundreds of his subordinates, and killing Liu Xuan, the prince of Shu, and Jiang Wei's wife. The Wei army plundered on a large scale, and then the prison guard Wei Qian cleaned up and stabilized the situation, because of his participation in the slander of Deng Ai, so he sent the protector Tian Xu to pursue and kill Deng Ai's father and son in the west of Mianzhu (now Deyang, Sichuan). Deng Ai's remaining sons in Luoyang were also killed, and Deng Ai's wife and grandson were sent to the Western Regions.

In 265 AD (the first year of Taishi), the Jin Dynasty replaced Wei. Sima Yan issued an edict saying: "In the past, Taiwei Wang Ling conspired to depose the king of Qi, and the king of Qi could not maintain the throne in the end. Deng Ai, the general of the expedition to the west, was proud of his merits, lost his integrity, and should be sentenced to death. But on the day the edict was issued, Deng Ai dismissed the people and tied his hands to sin, which was indeed different from those who were greedy for life and did evil. Today, the amnesty can be returned to the city. If there are no descendants, they can make an heir for them, so that the sacrificial rites will not end. ”

In 267 A.D. (the third year of the beginning of Tai), Duan Zhuo wrote a book for Deng Ai.

In 273 A.D. (the ninth year of Taishi), Sima Yan issued an edict saying: "Deng Ai created meritorious deeds, tied his hands and did not escape punishment, and his children and grandchildren were also reduced to slavery, I often sympathize with them, and I can appoint his own grandson Deng Lang as Langzhong." "It can be regarded as rehabilitating Deng Ai.

When Deng Ai was in the west, he built a boundary wall and built a castle. In the first year of Tai, the Qiang people launched a great rebellion, killed the assassin many times, and the road in Liangzhou was cut off. The reason why the officials and the people were able to survive was because of the castle built by Deng Ai back then.

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