Hao Zhao

Hao Zhao’s defense of Chencang turns a seemingly small fortified city into a major obstacle to Kong Ming’s northern campaign. He withstands successive siege tactics and, although illness weakens him, holds out until the city’s defenders lose heart after his death.

Identity and Role

Hao Zhao commands the Wei garrison at Chencang, a strategically important city on the route of Kong Ming’s advance. His role is defined by the defense: when the Shu army arrives, he refuses to surrender and counters each method used against the walls. The contest makes his resolve and practical ingenuity central to the campaign’s course.

The Siege of Chencang

Kong Ming first tries to take Chencang by direct assault, without success. Jin Xiang, a commander who is Hao Zhao’s friend, offers to negotiate surrender. Hao Zhao rejects the appeal; on Jin Xiang’s next attempt, he does not even let him enter the city, forcing him to flee from the wall’s defenders.

Reports from Kong Ming’s spies suggest that the garrison numbers only about three thousand. Expecting to overcome it quickly, Kong Ming orders a hundred siege towers built. Hao Zhao answers with flaming arrows, destroying the towers and killing many of the men inside them. When Kong Ming shifts to battering rams, Hao Zhao uses enormous rocks suspended on ropes to smash them aside. A tunnel under the walls fares no better: Hao Zhao orders a counter-tunnel, where his men kill the miners.

The failed assaults show how the city’s defenses blunt numerical advantage. Siege towers, rams, and tunneling each demand a different response, and Hao Zhao meets them in turn. His resistance delays Kong Ming’s army and preserves the city through a succession of direct attempts to break in.

Illness, Death, and the Fall of the City

Later, Kong Ming hears that Hao Zhao is seriously ill. He sends Wei Yan and Jiang Wei toward Chencang, telling them to wait for flames within the city before attacking and giving them three days to prepare. The order conceals his own move: Kong Ming has already set out with Zhang Bao and Guan Xing.

By the time Wei Yan and Jiang Wei arrive, Kong Ming has taken Chencang. Hao Zhao’s illness has demoralized the defenders, while men inside the city who favor Shu set fire to the gates. In the fighting that follows, Hao Zhao dies in his sickbed, knowing that the city has fallen and further resistance is futile. His death and the defenders’ loss of confidence coincide with the reversal of the siege: the commander who had defeated every assault is gone, and Chencang passes to Shu.

Narrative Significance

Hao Zhao’s defense distinguishes tactical endurance from lasting control. He frustrates Kong Ming’s siege plans through alert countermeasures, but illness and the weakening of his garrison leave the city vulnerable when the attack returns. His death is not presented as the result of a final battlefield defeat; instead, it marks the moment when the resistance he sustained can no longer hold together. Chencang’s fall then enables Kong Ming’s army to move on and seize the San Pass, extending the consequences beyond the city itself.