The Prelude to Conquest: Wei’s Campaign Against Shu
In 263 CE, the powerful Wei regent Sima Zhao launched a decisive campaign against the Shu Han kingdom, marking a turning point in the Three Kingdoms period. The invasion force, led by generals Deng Ai, Zhong Hui, and Zhuge Xu, employed a three-pronged strategy. While Shu’s brilliant strategist Jiang Wei and veteran Liao Hua held the impregnable Jianmen Pass against Zhong Hui’s main force, Deng Ai executed one of history’s most daring maneuvers—leading his troops through 700 li of treacherous mountain paths at Yinping to strike Shu’s heartland.
The surprise attack shattered Shu’s defenses at Mianzhu, sending shockwaves through the capital Chengdu. Under pressure from local officials, Shu’s emperor Liu Shan surrendered to Deng Ai. Yet this military triumph sowed the seeds for an even greater crisis, as three ambitious men—Deng Ai, Zhong Hui, and Jiang Wei—found their conflicting agendas hurtling toward violent confrontation.
The Fragile Peace: Deng Ai’s Controversial Governance
Following Liu Shan’s surrender, Deng Ai implemented two critical policies to stabilize Shu. First, he granted titles to former Shu nobility—appointing Liu Shan as Acting Chariot and Horse General and bestowing positions on other royals and officials. Second, he maintained strict military discipline, treating fallen soldiers from both sides equally. While these measures quickly restored order, Deng Ai’s autonomous actions raised eyebrows in Wei’s capital. His imitation of Eastern Han general Deng Yu’s precedent of “acting under imperial authority” (承制) particularly alarmed Sima Zhao, who saw this as dangerous overreach by a victorious general.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wei, unwilling to accept Shu’s demise, hatched an audacious plan. Surrendering to Zhong Hui—whom he recognized as harboring his own ambitions—Jiang aimed to manipulate the Wei commander into rebelling against Sima Zhao, creating an opportunity for Shu’s restoration. Zhong Hui, impressed by Jiang’s talents and now commanding over 100,000 troops including surrendered Shu forces, grew increasingly confident in his own power.
The Web of Intrigue: Sima Zhao’s Masterful Manipulation
Sima Zhao, while publicly celebrating the conquest, grew wary of both Deng Ai’s autonomy and Zhong Hui’s swelling forces. When Deng Ai proposed an ambitious plan to conquer Wu without consulting the court, Sima Zhao saw his chance. He authorized Zhong Hui to arrest Deng Ai on fabricated charges—a move that played perfectly into Zhong Hui’s own schemes.
As Zhong Hui marched into Chengdu to take command of Deng Ai’s forces, he and Jiang Wei began plotting rebellion. Their plan involved declaring a false edict from the late Empress Dowager Guo, calling for the removal of the Sima clan. However, their conspiracy unraveled spectacularly when imprisoned Wei officers spread rumors among their troops about impending massacres.
Blood in Chengdu: The Collapse of All Ambitions
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 264, chaos erupted. Eighteen-year-old Hu Yuan led a spontaneous uprising of Wei troops storming the palace. Jiang Wei, fighting desperately, killed five or six soldiers before falling at age 63—his body mutilated in revenge. Zhong Hui met a similar fate at age 40, his brilliant career ending in ignominy. The violence claimed numerous others:
– Shu’s crown prince Liu Xuan
– Generals Zhang Yi, Jiang Bin, and Jiang Xian
– Guan Yu’s entire family, slaughtered by Pang Hui to avenge his father Pang De
In the aftermath, Deng Ai was murdered by rivals fearing his return to power, completing the destruction of all three principal figures.
The Mastermind’s Triumph: Sima Zhao’s Calculated Victory
Historical evidence suggests Sima Zhao orchestrated this entire sequence. Before the campaign, advisor Shao Ti had warned about Zhong Hui’s untrustworthiness, to which Sima Zhao cryptically replied that he had plans to handle any rebellion. True to form, when news of the Chengdu uprising reached Sima Zhao in Chang’an—where he had positioned 100,000 troops—he calmly remarked, “This is exactly what I anticipated.”
The elimination of Deng Ai and Zhong Hui removed the last obstacles to Sima dominance. Within months, Sima Zhao forced his appointment as Prince of Jin, paving the way for his son Sima Yan to eventually establish the Jin Dynasty in 265. The conquest of Wu in 280—using Shu’s former territories as a springboard—completed the reunification that Deng Ai and Zhong Hui had begun.
Legacy of the Chengdu Cataclysm
This episode represents more than just Shu’s fall—it encapsulates the brutal political calculus of the Three Kingdoms’ endgame. Sima Zhao’s ruthless elimination of talented subordinates foreshadowed the Jin Dynasty’s problematic reliance on intrigue over meritocracy. The tragic ends of Jiang Wei’s patriotic resistance, Zhong Hui’s overreach, and Deng Ai’s service rewarded with betrayal became cautionary tales about power’s perils in a disintegrating age.
The Chengdu uprising’s bloody aftermath not only sealed Shu’s fate but demonstrated how Sima Zhao’s Machiavellian statecraft would shape China’s transition from fragmentation to the Jin Dynasty’s brief unification—a pivotal moment where three kingdoms fell so one empire might rise.