Zhuge Liang’s Southern Campaign

Also called: Southern Campaign of Zhuge Liang

After Liu Bei’s death, Zhuge Liang personally led an army south and put down the revolts in Nanzhong. The region’s goods and soldiers later supported the northern expeditions.

When Liu Bei died in 223, Yong Kai, Zhu Bao, Gao Ding and others rose in revolt in the commanderies of Yizhou, Zangke and Yuexi in Nanzhong (present-day Yunnan, Guizhou and southern Sichuan). Zhuge Liang first restored the alliance with Wu to secure his rear, then in the spring of 225 marched south in person and had put down every revolt by autumn. His biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms says only: "In the spring of the third year Liang led the host on a southern campaign, and by autumn all was pacified." He governed through the local chiefs, and from 228 drew on Nanzhong’s goods and men for his northern expeditions.