Jieting

Jieting is the pivotal position lost during Kong Ming’s first northern campaign. Ma Su’s decision to hold a hill rather than defend the road leaves his force isolated and short of water; the defeat opens the way for Sima Yi’s advance and forces Kong Ming into a precarious retreat. The episode connects a local failure of command to the campaign’s wider reversals, Kong Ming’s celebrated stratagem at Xicheng, and his painful punishment of Ma Su.

Strategic Setting

After learning that Meng Da has been killed, Kong Ming recognizes that the balance has changed and assigns Ma Su to defend Jieting against Sima Yi. Ma Su volunteers despite having learned war chiefly from books. Kong Ming places Wang Ping alongside him to oversee the operation, while other forces are sent to guard key passes and provide support should the position fail. Kong Ming then moves the main army forward, with Jiang Wei leading the vanguard.

The position matters because the Shu army’s advance depends on holding its routes against the Wei response. Jieting’s loss is not an isolated setback: it is followed by the fall of Lieliu and helps Sima Yi shape the next stage of the campaign through further attacks and ambushes.

Ma Su’s Disputed Deployment

At Jieting, Ma Su chooses a hill from which he believes he can command a view of the main road. Wang Ping argues that the army should defend the road itself. Ma Su dismisses this counsel, citing the Art of War and belittling Wang Ping’s experience; the disagreement turns a practical dispute over terrain into a test of whether book learning can substitute for judgment under pressure.

As the enemy closes in, Ma Su permits Wang Ping to take a small force to guard the road but remains on the hill with the main body. Wang Ping sends Kong Ming an express report detailing their separate positions. The arrangement leaves the principal force exposed: Sima Yi advances, and, encouraged by the news that the inexperienced Ma Su commands, presses the attack.

The Defeat and Its Immediate Consequences

Sima Yi’s troops surround the hill and cut Ma Su’s men off. With no water available, the soldiers become desperate and begin to desert. Ma Su eventually leads them down in an attempt to fight through the encirclement, but Zhang He pursues them. A rescue force led by Wei Yan intervenes; Wei Yan is himself drawn into an ambush and is rescued at the last moment by Wang Ping, at the cost of severe losses.

Sima Yi captures the city. Wang Ping, Wei Yan, and Ma Su later retreat toward the Yangping Pass after a failed attempt to retake Jieting, and Kong Ming receives Wang Ping’s map as well as news that Jieting and Lieliu have fallen. With the campaign’s position deteriorating, he hurries to Xicheng, where the army’s supplies are stored. Facing Sima Yi’s force of 150,000 with only 5,000 men, Kong Ming removes signs of occupation, hides the population, and sits on the city wall in Daoist robes with two attendants, playing a lute. Sima Yi interprets the open gates and composed display as a possible ambush and withdraws. The empty-city stratagem thus follows directly from the crisis created by the loss of Jieting.

Judgment, Punishment, and Later Memory

Kong Ming takes stock of the losses and is relieved that his commanders have survived, but he holds Ma Su responsible for the consequences of his decision. Weeping, he orders Ma Su’s execution because the failure has cost the Shu army and state dearly. During the mourning and burial rites, Kong Ming recalls that Xuande had warned him not to trust Ma Su; he nevertheless honors Ma Su in death, regarding him as almost a son.

Kong Ming also submits a formal memorial accepting demotion for his own failures. Although the ruler initially objects, custom and honor require the reduction in military titles; Kong Ming remains acting prime minister. Jieting therefore marks both a military reversal and a consequential act of accountability: Ma Su’s disobedience is punished, while Kong Ming accepts an official consequence for the campaign’s failure.

The place remains a reference point in later military decisions. When Chen Shi grows impatient with a cautious plan at Qishan, he challenges Kong Ming’s authority by invoking the earlier defeat at Jieting. He breaks off with 5,000 men to attack and is ambushed; only about 400 or 500 survive, all wounded. The allusion shows how Jieting’s failure continues to shape the army’s disputes over caution, command, and the cost of acting without authorization.