Jieting

The Battle of Jie Ting (街亭の戦い, rōmaji: Gaitei no Tatakai) was a battle that took place during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions, and was the first of his said campaigns. It is famous for Ma Su's crushing defeat after he mistakenly camped at the top of a hill which deprived him of his water sources. Zhang He showed prowess in the battle, forcing a full retreat from Zhuge Liang's army. Zhang He was then was entrusted to defend the lands of Wei against Zhuge Liang's invading army.

Role in Games

Dynasty Warriors

In the Dynasty Warriors series the battle usually starts when Ma Su camps on top the mountaintop and Zhang He is sent to battle.

The battle first appears in Dynasty Warriors 3, where the main aim is to take the supply depot and defeat Ma Su or defend both the supply depot and the disciple for the Wei and Shu sides respectively. Zhang He will charge down hill to defeat Ma Su, whilst Zhen Ji fends off Ma Chao and Jiang Wei. It appears in Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme legends as a unique stage for Yuan Shao in his story mode.

In the fourth installment using the Wei forces, Sima Yi will be the Wei commander and Ma Su as the enemy commander. According to his strategy, since Ma Su is protected in the fortress atop of Jie Ting mountain guarded by Ma Su's three sub-officers. The player must defeat each of the three quickly in order to enter the fortress and eliminate Ma Su inside without moving close to the gates themselves beforehand. However, around that moment, Zhuge Liang's main force will appear south of the mountain to rescue Ma Su. Now the objective will be to defeat Zhuge Liang. After he's defeated, the battle is won. In the next battle, if you successfully defeated Ma Su during Jie Ting, he will try taunting Sima Yi in the Battle of Wu Zhang Plains, however this causes Ma Su's morale to decrease and can easily be defeated in the musou mode. In Shu's scenario, you start out at the southern point of the map informed that Ma Su is in trouble in the fortress and that you need to rescue him before Zhang He, Xu Huang, Xiahou Yuan, and Sima Zhao defeat one of Ma Su's sub-officers. However, approaching the southern gate before Zhang He is defeated will cause a cutscene to occur where he'll light the gate on fire and preventing Ma Su's camp from ever being entered from that area. In the Xtreme Legends expansion, this exact map is reused for Xu Zhu's Legend Mode.

In the fifth installment, the battle is easily won when using the Wei forces. The easiest way to win is capturing certain points of the mountain, then defeating Ma Su. While playing as Zhen Ji, Cao Pi will decide to become more of a "family man" and abandon the main camp, opting instead to follow his wife around the remainder of the stage, providing support for the player. When using the Shu Forces the battle will be a more challenge. The enemy force will try to surround Ma Su by destroying the bridge he uses to escape. The player should help Ma Su if he gets surrounded by Wei forces to ensure victory. Eventually Cao Pi will appear, defeating him will end the battle.

In the sixth installment, the battle was removed only to be re-added in the PlayStation 2 version of the installment as one of Ma Chao's and Zhang He's stories for their Musou Mode. In this version, Liu Bei will arrive as reinforcements if Ma Su survives the initial assault. For Wei's scenario, Sima Yi will lead the battle. The player is ordered to first capture the lower bases of the mountain. Afterwards, Wang Ping will begin to slowly move to Ma Su's aid. Eventually, Sima Yi's will send an archer unit to burn Ma Su's camp after which Liu Bei appears to support Ma Su. In Shu's version of the battle, Cao Cao will be the commander for Wei. Players need only to defend Ma Su until Liu Bei's arrival or morale will deflate rapidly. After his arrival, Liu Bei will order everyone to attack to Wei's main camp.

Jieting makes its return in Dynasty Warriors 7 in Conquest Mode for several warriors' special stages. Depending on the character, the battles may go in different ways. In all of the versions, Sima Yi will be Wei's Commander and Ma Su and Zhuge Liang will command Shu. In this installment, the battle uses the map of Shiting from Dynasty Warriors 6. Jieting uses the same layout as the sixth installment again in its expansion.

Outside Conquest Mode, Jieting serves as a Hero Scenario for Yue Ying in the Xtreme Legends expansion.

Dynasty Warriors 8 makes Jieting a Shu-exclusive stage using the Hanzhong map. Ma Su is already close to being surrounded. The player has to rescue him and his officers along the way. If the officers are rescued, Ma Su will be spared, allowing Chencang to be unlocked. If not, he will be executed. In Wei's Free Mode version, Zhang He and Sima Yi will first take the foothill garrisons to surround Ma Su. Once Ma Su is isolated, a charge is ordered, but if the player takes too long, Zhuge Liang will be able to appear in the far south to assist Ma Su. Defeating Ma Su and Zhuge Liang will end the stage.

Warriors Orochi

As a Shu side story stage, Magoichi will send Xing Cai and Zhu Rong to trap the Orochi army commander, Masamune in the middle. The paths to the main camp are blocked, but Magoichi and another member of the party can go into the center and draw a lot of attention. As soon as Masamune is surrounded, he can be recruited.

In Warriors Orochi 3, Jieting has two stages. In one stage, Nō leads the Oda army to try and fight the Serpent forces with cannons. However, the gunpowder meant for the cannons never made it, thus resulting in Mitsuhide's fiery death at Honnōji. Having heard of this, Sun Ce, Goemon, and Achilles set out to make sure the gunpowder does indeed make it and use it all up. The second battle comes for Xing Cai, with Keiji and Katsuie fight against Guan Ping and the Oda forces to recruit the former.

Historical Information

Jieting was a crucial region for the securing of supplies, and Zhuge Liang sent generals Ma Su and Wang Ping to guard the region. Ma Su went accompanied by Wang Ping but did not listen to his sound military advice. Relying purely on books of military tactics, he chose to 'take the high ground' and set his base on the mountains instead of in a city with ample walls, ignoring Wang Ping and his advice to set up base in a valley well-supplied with water. Wang Ping, however, managed to persuade Ma Su to give him command of a portion of the troops, and later Wang set up his base camp near Ma Su's camp in order to offer assistance when the latter was in danger.

Due to this tactical mistake, the Wei troops led by Zhang He encircled the hill and cut off the water supply to the Shu troops and attacked; later, Sima Yi's forces set fire to the hill. Wang Ping led his troops in an attempt to help Ma Su but the Shu army even with Zhuge Liang's eventual reinforcements suffered a great defeat in which both the army and the fort were lost. Zhuge Liang then had no choice but to order a full retreat due to a lack of advance routes.

Though he survived the battle, Ma Su feared punishment and attempted to flee (even with Xi Liang, being an old close friend of his, not reporting him). However, he was soon captured by Shu Forces with the loss of the campaign and executed him. It was said in some records that Ma Su even wrote to Zhuge Liang that he harbored no ill will towards the Prime Minister for his execution. Many others wept for Ma Su due to the loss of talent and thus Zhuge Liang afterwards took over in looking after Ma Su's remaining family. Even then, some records in Xi Zuochi's writings have even claimed that Jiang Wan told to Liang that "the campaign was his fault for employing Ma Su in the first place, and executing him when Shu couldn't afford to lose such talents". But it was also stated that Zhuge Liang argued that he needed to uphold the martial law to the best of his ability.

The prefectures of Nan'an, Tianshui, and Anding revolted in favor of Zhuge Liang, though Zhang He eventually pacified all three.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

While most of the battle in the novel follows the historical counterpart, the major difference is Ma Su's execution. Instead of attempting to escape punishment, Ma opted to willingly give himself up, and take responsibility for the defeat with death. Zhuge Liang was heartbroken, and wept as he ordered Ma's death. After Ma Su's execution much like historically, Zhuge Liang would uphold the late man's request, and would take care the deceased's family.

Trivia

So far, only 2 instances of the Musou Warriors versions of Jieting reference the historical anecdote of Ma Su's forces being deprived of water; the cutscene in which Zhang He has successfully surrounded Ma Su in Dynasty Warriors 4, and the BGM for the stage in Dynasty Warriors 6 dubbed as THE CREST OF THIRST.