In the winter of 228 AD, less than a year after the failure of the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang launched another Northern Expedition. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of Cao Zhen, after Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, Cao Zhen predicted

In the winter of 228 AD, Zhuge Liang launched another Northern Expedition less than a year after the failure of the first Northern Expedition. This time Zhuge Liang left Sanguan and marched via Chencang Road. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of Cao Zhen, Cao Zhen predicted that the Shu army might take the Chencang Road after Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, so he ordered generals Hao Zhao and Wang Sheng to garrison here and reinforce the city defense. As a result, the Shu army indeed marched forward. Because the Wei army was well prepared, the Shu army was unable to attack the city and eventually retreated after running out of food.

(Cao) Zhen punished Qishan with a bright light, and he will leave from Chencang later, so he sent generals Hao Zhao and Wang Sheng to guard Chencang and rule the city. Next spring, bright fruits will surround the old warehouse. We are prepared but unable to defeat them. "Three Kingdoms: Biography of Cao Zhen"

However, what is interesting is that in "Three Kingdoms: Zhuge Liang's Biography", it is mentioned that when Zhuge Liang's troops left Sanguan to besiege Chencang, Cao Zhen personally led his troops to rescue and confronted the Shu army.

(Jianxing 6th year) In the winter, Liang returned to Sanguan and surrounded Chencang. Cao Zhen refused, and Liang returned after running out of food.

However, this matter is not mentioned elsewhere in " Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", including "The Biography of Cao Zhen". Only "The Biography of Zhang He" mentions that Zhang He was ordered to rescue Chen Cang. So at that time, did Cao Zhen go to meet the Shu army? Woolen cloth? Let’s analyze one or two below.

According to the "Biography of Zhang He", before Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition, Cao Rui ordered Sima Yi to rectify the navy in Jingzhou and prepare to enter the Yangtze River via Mian River to attack Wu. For this reason, Cao Rui also specially ordered Zhang He to go to Jingzhou, where he would be controlled by Sima Yi and jointly attack Wu. However, it was winter and the water was shallow, so large ships could not sail, so Zhang He temporarily led his troops to garrison Fangcheng . At this time, Zhuge Liang suddenly sent troops to Chencang and launched a fierce attack. Cao Rui hurriedly recalled Zhang He to the capital and allocated 30,000 Northern and Southern troops to him to rush to rescue Chen Cang.

King Xuan of Sima was in charge of the flood control in Jingzhou. He wanted to follow the Mian River to attack Wu, so he ordered Governor He to Guanzhong and all the armies to go and be restrained. When we arrived in Jingzhou, the water in Huidong was shallow and large ships could not move, so we returned to Tunfang City. Zhuge Liang came back and rushed to attack Chencang. The emperor's post horse summoned He to Kyoto.

Judging from this account, Zhang He was still in Jingzhou when Zhuge Liang came to Chencang to attack. Moreover, the article mentioned that Zhuge Liang was "rushing to attack Chencang", so the situation on the front line should be more critical. There are only more than a thousand defenders in Chencang City. Once the Shu army breaks through the Wei army's defense and breaks into Guanzhong, the situation will be more troublesome. What's more, " Tongdian" also mentioned that Zhuge Liang divided his troops to attack Yixian and other places. Obviously, Cao Rui was unlikely to do anything before waiting for Zhang He to come back from Jingzhou. He probably sent Cao Zhen to Guanzhong first, Rectify the Wei army to attack the Shu army.

In addition, it is mentioned in "The Biography of Zhang He" that before Zhang He led his troops to set off, Cao Rui once asked him whether Zhuge Liang would have captured Chencang by the time reinforcements arrived. Zhang He estimated that the Shu army was short of food and could not attack for a long time, so he replied that Zhuge Liang's army could last for ten days at most. Before he could arrive with his troops, the Shu army had already withdrawn. Sure enough, before Zhang He and his army could arrive, the Shu army had already retreated.

(Zhang) He knew that the Liang County army had no grain and could not attack for a long time. He said to him: "Liang has already left before Bichen arrives. It will take less than ten days to get enough food."

When the Shu army retreated, Wei General Wang Shuang led the cavalry to pursue him, but was defeated by Zhuge Liang and Wang Shuang was beheaded.

Wei general Wang Shuang led his cavalry to chase Liang, Liang fought with him, defeated him, and killed both of them.

Many people think that Wang Shuang here is actually Wang Sheng who guarded Chencang with Hao Zhao. It is indeed possible for a person to have an alias, or for his name to be wrong when writing history books. The possibility that Wang Sheng is Wang Shuang cannot be ruled out. However, even if Wang Shuang is Wang Sheng, there are only more than a thousand people in Chencang City, so the defenders can only muster two to three hundred cavalry at most. The Shu army numbered at least tens of thousands, and Hao Zhao was also a famous general. It was unlikely that Wang Sheng would pursue tens of thousands of Shu troops with only a few hundred cavalry.

In fact, according to the strength of the Shu army in the Northern Expedition, since the Wei army dared to pursue it, there should be thousands of cavalry. The Wei army could muster thousands of cavalry, and there should be tens of thousands of troops on the front line.Historically, it is not like in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" where everyone can easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops. Tens of thousands of people are already a large-scale war.

Since so many troops had already been assembled on the Chencang front line before Zhang He arrived, Cao Rui must have sent a very high-level commander to Guanzhong to coordinate troops and reinforce Chencang. Considering that Cao Zhen was in charge of the military affairs in Guanzhong before and after that, Cao Zhen should have been in Guanzhong at that time and commanded the army to Chencang.

So in summary, when Zhuge Liang besieged Chencang, Cao Rui transferred Zhang He back from Jingzhou, and at the same time ordered Cao Zhen to rush to Guanzhong and mobilize troops to attack the Shu army. So why doesn't "The Biography of Cao Zhen" mention this matter at all?

"Three Kingdoms" is a biographical history book, which records history with the biography of each historical figure. The benefit of this genre is a better description of each historical figure. However, since more than one person may be involved in a historical event, when writing a biography of a person, it is often necessary to exaggerate his victories and conceal his defeats, mainly describing his achievements. For those defeats, as long as they did not have a great impact on the person and history, they often only describe them. Mentioned in someone else's biography.

For example, Zhang Fei and Zhang He's battle at Danqu. "The Biography of Zhang He" only mentions that Zhang He captured Badong and Brazil counties, moved the residents of the two places to Hanzhong, and then was captured by Zhang Fei in Danqu. block. In "The Biography of Zhang Fei", it is described in detail how Zhang Fei killed Zhang He and wiped out the entire army.

Specifically speaking of Cao Zhen's performance during Zhuge Liang's second Northern Expedition, he accurately predicted that Zhuge Liang would send troops out of Chencang and made preparations in advance. However, after the actual contact between the two armies, he did not achieve many results, but suffered considerable losses while pursuing the Shu army. And then Zhuge Liang took advantage of his unpreparedness and suddenly attacked Yinping and Wudu counties. Cao Zhen actually failed in this battle with Zhuge Liang. It’s not surprising that Chen Shou kept silent about it.