Places

Wuzhangyuan

Both

Where Zhuge Liang camped in 234 and where he died. He did not die in the chancellery at Chengdu. The empty fort should not be placed on this standoff.

The frame is historical. Character, dialogue, and scale are often rewritten by the novel.

Modern site: South of modern Qishan county, Shaanxi, near the Xie valley mouth
Region: Western edge of Guanzhong

Wuzhangyuan lies south of the Wei where the Xie valley comes out. On the last northern expedition Zhuge Liang camped here and faced Sima Yi for more than a hundred days. Sima Yi would not fight. After Zhuge Liang died, the army withdrew in secret.

The saying that a dead Zhuge routed a living Zhongda is kept in Pei’s notes. The empty fort is a different story, which Pei rejects, and it is usually told of Yangping or a western city, not as a reliable report from this camp. Wuzhangyuan is not a captured Chang’an.