The thirty-sixth Bagua Formation in the Romance of Three Kingdoms
In the autumn of the eighth year of Jianxing, Cao Zhen requested the invasion of Shu. The governor of Wei appointed him as the Grand governor of the West, Sima Yi as the deputy governor, and led 400,000 troops from Chang 'an to attack Hanzhong, and asked Guo Huai to support them.
When Kong Ming saw the Wei army attacking, he asked Wang Ping and Zhang Yi to lead a thousand soldiers to the Chencang Ancient Road to defend, but the two men felt that one thousand soldiers were difficult to block four hundred thousand Wei troops and refused to go. Kong Ming said that he was watching the sky at night, there would be a long rain, and the Wei army would not dare to attack Shu, so the two men went.
Cao Zhen led the troops stationed in Chencang, as expected, it rained heavily, the flat water was three feet deep, the soldiers could not sleep, the horses had no grass, and the army had no war heart. The Lord of Wei ordered the troops to withdraw. Kong knew Sima Yi was lying in wait, but did not pursue him.
When Cao Zhen saw that the Shu soldiers were not pursuing him, he withdrew the ambush. Sima Yi said that the Shu army would send troops from the two valleys to capture Qishan, but Cao did not believe him. Two people bet, each guard a valley.
Kong Ming ordered Wei Yan and Chen Shi to lead twenty thousand men to Jigu. Kong Ming ordered them not to advance easily, in case Wei soldiers would ambush Jigu. Wei Yan and Chen Style did not listen. Chen led 5,000 men out of Jigu, but only a few hundred were killed by Sima Yi's ambushed troops, but Wei Yan rescued him.
Cao Zhen did not see the Shu army for seven days in a row, so he relaxed his guard. As a result, Cao Zhen was surrounded and Wei's general Qin Liang was killed. Sima Yi sent for Cao Zhen to be rescued.
Kong Ming won the victory, the army again out of Qishan, according to the military law to kill Chen style. Cao Zhen lost the bet, and was sick in a fit of anger. Kong Ming wrote another letter to Cao Zhen, saying that Cao Zhen was incompetent and did not know astronomy and geography, and even lost his troops and generals. When Cao Zhen saw this, he shouted angrily and died in the army.
The governor of Wei urged Sima Yi to fight the battle, and Sima Yi wanted to fight Kong Ming first.
Kong Ming set up a bagua formation, and the Wei troops were captured. Instead of killing them, Kong Ming painted black ink on their faces and released them naked. Sima Yi's anger flew to the sky, and the three armies rushed into battle together. Unexpectedly, Guan Xing and Jiang Wei were killed, and the Wei army was attacked on three sides. Sima Yi fought his way out and lost more than half of his troops.
Lieutenant Gou An to send food and grass missed ten days, Kong Ming to behead him according to military law, long history Yang Yi for him to intercede, Kong Ming will let the sergeant beat him eighty army sticks. Gou An, with a grudge, surrendered to the Wei army, and Sima Yi sent him to Chengdu to spread a rumor that Kong Ming would sooner or later take over as emperor.
Liu Chan listened to the rumors, ordered the recall of Kong Ming. In order to prepare for Sima Yi's pursuit, Kong Ming ordered his troops to dig a thousand stoves today, two thousand tomorrow, and three thousand the next day. He misled Sima Yi by reducing his troops and adding more stoves, so that he did not dare to pursue.
Kong Ming returned to Chengdu, before the queen Liu Chan, asked what the event, Liu Chan faltered, answer is not asked. Kong Ming summoned all the officials to inquire, just know is to spread rumors. Gou An was urgently sent to capture him, but Gou An had already defected to Wei. Kong Ming killed the eunuch who had spread the rumors.
In February of the 9th year of Jianxing, Kong Ming again sent troops against Wei. Sima Yi Ling Zhang? Lead the army in Qishan block Shu army, and Guo Huai led the army to protect Tianshui city.
When the harvest season came, Kong Ming asked his sergeants to harvest Longxi wheat to supplement the army grain. Seeing that Sima Yi was on guard, he ordered three sets of identical chariots and horses to be prepared, each with 24 barefoot men wearing carts, and had Jiang Wei, Wei Yan, and Ma Dai all dress up as themselves to confuse the enemy.
The next day, it was raining lightly, and the sky was cloudy and dark. When the Wei army saw Kong Ming coming in a car, they pursued him together. But Kong Ming appeared everywhere, the cart of people look terrible, Wei Bing thought it was ghosts and spirits, scared to flee. Thirty thousand Shu troops quickly cut all the wheat in Longxi.
When Sima Yi saw the Shu soldiers threshing wheat in the city of Lu, he led them to attack. Kong Ming knew that the Wei army was coming to attack the city, so he ambushed his horses outside the city and attacked both inside and outside. The Wei army suffered many casualties.
At this time, Li Yan, who was transporting grain and grass, sent a letter of emergency, saying that Wei and Wu jointly attacked Shu. Kong Ming, worried about the safety of Dongchuan, immediately withdrew.
Zhang wanted to lead his troops in pursuit, but Sima Yi, knowing his impatience, repeatedly warned him to beware of Kong Ming's ambush.
Zhang hurried all the way to the wooden door, suddenly the fire burst into the sky, the big stone rolling down, broke Zhang's retreat. Thousands of crossbows fired from the mountains on both sides, killing Zhang's men and horses.
Kong Ming returned to Hanzhong, only to know that Li Yan was afraid of Kong Ming for failing to do a good job of military provisions, write a false letter of emergency, deceive Kong Ming back. When Kong Ming tried to behead Li Yan, Fei interceded on his behalf, and Kong Ming had to release him, remove his official position, and demote him to a commoner.