Zhang He

Zhang He is a senior Wei commander and a recurring adversary of Kong Ming. The account gives him a prominent role in Sima Yi’s campaigns against Shu: first as a commander in the response to the loss of Jieting, and later as the vanguard sent after Kong Ming’s withdrawing army. His career in these episodes turns on the tension between his forceful military role and the traps Kong Ming lays for an opponent who pursues too readily.

Position in Wei’s campaigns

After Sima Yi has put down Meng Da’s rebellion, he presents himself to the Wei ruler, Cao Rui, who apologizes for having earlier demoted him and congratulates him on the victory. Attention then returns to the looming struggle with Kong Ming. Sima Yi specifically asks that Zhang He be appointed his vanguard commander. The ruler approves, and the two commanders set out together to confront Kong Ming.

Their forces take up positions to counter the expected Shu advance toward Chang’an. When Kong Ming captures Wudu and Yinping, Sima Yi assumes that the Shu strategist will be occupied in the towns, reassuring their people, and sends Zhang He to attack Kong Ming’s camp. The assumption proves mistaken: Kong Ming has anticipated the move, Zhang He is badly defeated, and Sima Yi orders a retreat. The episode establishes Zhang He as a key instrument in Wei’s offensive plans, while also showing how Kong Ming’s foresight can turn a direct assault into a costly setback.

The Jieting campaign

Zhang He’s role in the struggle over Jieting grows out of a strategic crisis for Shu. After Meng Da’s death changes the balance of forces, Kong Ming dispatches Ma Su to defend the position, assigning Wang Ping to oversee him and sending additional troops to guard passes and provide support. Ma Su disregards Wang Ping’s advice to hold the road and instead camps on a hill. Wang Ping sends Kong Ming an express report describing their divided positions.

Sima Yi is encouraged to advance when he learns that the inexperienced Ma Su is in command. Zhang He pursues the Shu force as the position collapses: Ma Su’s men, short of water on the hill and increasingly deserting, attempt to fight their way out, but Zhang He presses them hard. Wei Yan’s relief force intervenes, and Wang Ping saves Wei Yan from an ambush, though Shu suffers heavy losses. In the immediate outcome, Sima Yi captures Jieting, a major defeat for Kong Ming’s campaign. Zhang He’s pursuit is effective in exploiting Ma Su’s error, but it belongs to a larger contest in which the loss of the position brings further reversals and retreats for Shu.

Kong Ming’s counterstroke

During the later campaign, Kong Ming again takes the initiative around Qishan. Sima Yi sends Zhang He against Kong Ming’s camp while expecting the strategist to be occupied elsewhere. Kong Ming has anticipated the attack and defeats Zhang He’s force. Watching the attempt to break through, Kong Ming identifies Zhang He as the most serious danger to the Shu undertaking and concludes that he must be eliminated. Sima Yi, meanwhile, withdraws his army to its base.

Kong Ming then uses a feigned retreat to draw Wei into pursuit. Sima Yi suspects a trap and hesitates, but his officers press for action. When he finally agrees to an advance, Zhang He rides ahead with five thousand men. A sequence of feints, false trails, and signs of apparent panic draws the vanguard onward. The pursuit ends in a fatal ambush: Zhang He and the hundred officers accompanying him are killed in the Shu assault late that night. The narrative links the death not simply to the earlier defeat, but to the command decision to pursue despite Sima Yi’s misgivings.

Character and narrative significance

Zhang He’s appearances trace a repeated pattern in the campaigns against Kong Ming. At Jieting he helps turn Ma Su’s poor deployment into a serious Shu defeat; in the later expedition, his attack on Kong Ming’s camp is anticipated and repelled, and his pursuit of the retreating army ends in disaster. The difference is not that he ceases to be a capable or consequential commander, but that Kong Ming controls the conditions under which his military force can be used.

His death also alters the balance within the Wei command. The account says that Zhang He’s loss, together with Sima Yi’s failure to prevent the reckless expedition, so depresses Sima Yi that he withdraws to Luoyang. Thus the pursuit removes a major field commander while deepening the setback for Wei. Zhang He’s arc gives the campaigns a sharp reversal: the same officer whose advance helps secure Jieting later falls when the enemy’s apparent retreat proves to be a carefully prepared lure.