Kongming marches out to Mount Qi again and beats the Wei generals one after another. Hao Zhao, who held Chencang, dies of illness, and the grand commander Cao Zhen, on receiving a letter from Kongming, dies that very night unable to bear his rage. Sima Yi holds fast and does not come out, and Zhang He, chasing Kongming, dies under arrows at Mumen Road.
Kongming has always been short of grain and unable to carry out his aims. So he makes wooden oxen and wooden horses to carry grain along the mountain roads. And beside the Wei River he has his Shu soldiers farm mixed in among the people of Wei, one share soldiers to two shares people. The Shu troops do not touch what belongs to the people.
Sima Yi’s eldest son Sima Shi speaks. The Shu army is mixing with our people and preparing to stay a long time, which is a great danger to the state. Why do you not fix a day and fight one great battle? Sima Yi answers. I hold fast on the emperor’s orders, so I cannot move lightly.