Zhuge Xu

Sent with fifteen thousand men to hold the Yinping Bridge and cut the Shu retreat - the one Wei position that would have finished Jiang Wei - and talked off it by a feint. When the Shu army marches up the Konghan Valley toward Yongzhou he panics: 'Yongzhou is my own city, and headquarters of the expedition. If it would be lost, I would be punished!' He leaves a small force on the bridge and goes south; Jiang Wei turns round after ten miles, scatters the guard, burns their camp and crosses. Zhuge Xu sees the flames from the road and arrives too late.

Beaten by Jiang Wei outside Saber Pass, he goes to Zhong Hui's camp to confess and is sentenced to death for having lost the Yinping Bridge and then attacked without orders; his defence — that Jiang Wei feinted at Yongzhou and 'meanly got away' — does not help him. Other leaders intercede, and instead of execution 'he sent him a caged prisoner to the capital to be judged. The surviving soldiers were added to Zhong Hui's army.'