Frontier general who rose out of poverty. Held the western border against Jiang Wei for a decade, then took some thirty thousand men over seven hundred li of trackless mountains, broke Zhuge Zhan at Mianzhu, and received Chengdu's surrender. He was dead within months, killed in the aftermath of his own victory.
Attack where there is no preparation, emerge where there is no expectation.Deng Ai's memorial on the Yinping road, 263; Sanguozhi, Wei shu 28, Biography of Deng Ai
Appears in
Relations
- Zhong Hui co-conquerors — Zhong Hui's hundred thousand stood stopped at Jiange while Deng Ai's remnant came down out of Yinping and took the kingdom; months later the victor had the victor arrested.
- Jiang Wei opponents — A decade on the western border, from Didao to Tazhong; in 263 Deng Ai's columns were sent to pin him fast, and could not.
- Zhuge Zhan opponents — Offered him the kingship of Langye; Zhuge Zhan killed the messenger, and Mianzhu answered it.
Myth vs record
A reckless gambler whose plunge down Yinping was an act of luck and the novel's favourite set-piece.
The biography records a frontier administrator who spent years writing memorials on agriculture and defence before the war. The Yinping march nearly destroyed him — grain spent, the army on the edge of ruin — and he received Chengdu's surrender with a remnant, not a great army. His reward was arrest by his own colleagues and death on the road to Luoyang.