The reason why Zhuge Liang thinks that Sima Yi is nothing to worry about is because in the past two years, he has not stopped at Cao Wei's small court in the north.
When Cao Shuang was defeated and retreated to Youzhou, it can be said that he was in quite a panic.
When Cao Shuang ran to Youzhou, it could be said that he didn't even have any personal guards around him. He just took some of Cao Wei's original officials and ran to Youzhou in a hurry before Deng Ai could reach Yecheng. .
That is to say, Tian Yu, the governor of Youzhou in Cao Wei, was also a veteran of three dynasties, and he was loyal and upright. In this situation, he did not add insult to injury. He took in Cao Shuang and some Cao Wei officials, and sent troops to strengthen the defense of western Youzhou to block Jiang Wei. The offensive to attack Youzhou in the north.
In the first half of the 10th year of Yanxi, Cao Shuang, who had retreated to Youzhou, was relatively peaceful. Not only did he respect Tian Yu very much, but he also specifically entrusted Cao Xun to convey his respect to Sima Yi, who had retreated to the east of Jizhou and stood by the boundary bridge. .
However, with the arrival of the second half of the 10th year of Yanxi, the Han Dynasty ended the Northern Expedition and gradually withdrew its troops from Jizhou. The battle against the Wei army also shifted from an offensive war to a defensive war. After concentrating on managing Jizhou, Cao Shuang's attitude began to slowly emerge. Changed.
Cao Shuang, who had just retreated to Youzhou, was so badly defeated in the battle of Jizhou that Cao Wei's Emperor Cao Fang and Queen Mother Guo were both captured by Ji Han. Cao Shuang could not escape the blame.
Even Cao Shuang couldn't even blame Sima Yi. In the battle of Jizhou, except for refusing to send troops at the last moment, you really have nothing to blame him. Not only did he defend Wei County, but he also recaptured Yecheng for a time. If it weren't for Sun Zi The two young men Liu Fang and Liu Fang bewitched the Emperor Cao Fang and the Queen Mother Guo and asked them to go to Chaoge. In this battle, the Wei Dynasty would not be defeated so miserably.
At that time, everyone within the Cao Wei Group believed that Sima Yi was a model of "loyalty to the country" and had a high reputation.
Although Cao Shuang does not believe that Sima Yi is such a person, Cao Shuang must consider that Sima Yi is now guarding Jieqiao and still has the last one-third of the elites of the Wei Dynasty. If Sima Yi is provoked too much, Sima Yi will have an excuse to return to the Shu Han. , that may be the end of Cao Wei's regime.
Therefore, in the early days, Cao Shuang still kept his tail between his legs for a while.
But as time went by, the external threats gradually weakened, and Cao Shuang's inner desire for power began to stir again.
To a certain extent, Cao Shuang is not even as good as Yuan Shao's three sons. It took Cao Cao five years to defeat them one by one. Now Cao Shuang can't even wait two years.
Cao Shuang first used a series of political tactics to impeach Tian Yu, the governor of Youzhou, and forced Tian Yu to hand over his military power to his third brother Cao Xi.
Regarding this matter, it can only be said that Cao Shuang did seize the opportunity.
On the one hand, Cao Wei's small court is now based in Youzhou, and the military power of Cao Wei's remaining county soldiers is in the hands of Tian Yu and Sima Yi. The generals of the Cao clan do not have any military power at all, even Cao Yu, the new emperor of Wei , and dare not rest assured.
On the other hand, Cao Shuang's opponent was Tian Yu. Tian Yu was really a loyal and upright man for the country. Since the emperor wanted to take back his military power, Tian Yu readily handed over his military power.
If you ask Cao Shuang to remove Sima Yi's military power, you won't even dare to kill Cao Shuang.
When things have progressed to this point, you can't say that Cao Shuang did anything wrong. After all, it was Cao Wei's tradition that the Wei clan directly controlled military power, and what Cao Shuang did was not too outrageous.
If Cao Shuang could be smarter at this time and give Tian Yu the title of Duke and the official position of Three Dukes, support him at a high level, and calm down the crowd, this matter would be over.
But Cao Shuang didn't do this.
Not only did Cao Shuang fail to give Tian Yu the symbolic position of Three Officials, he even caught some of the mistakes made by Tian Yu's second son and took the opportunity to reduce the rank and salary of Tian Yu's three hundred households.
Regardless of whether Cao Shuang did the right thing or whether Tian Yu's second son really made a mistake, the evidence is solid. Cao Shuang's actions will always give people the feeling of burning bridges.
This not only made Tian Yu himself dissatisfied, but also caused dissatisfaction among many ministers in the court and some Yongzhou County soldiers who originally took orders from Tian Yu.
If Cao Shuang stops here and doesn't do stupid things, although the problem is a little bit, it's not too big.
But at this time, a case broke out in Cao Wei's small court.
Some courtiers wrote a letter to Sima Yi, who was stationed in the east of Jizhou. In the letter, he accused Cao Shuang of being dictatorial and hoped that he, as a lonely and important minister and an old minister of the Wei Dynasty, would raise troops to serve the king, kill Cao Shuang, and return power to the emperor.
This letter happened to fall into the hands of Cao Shuang. Cao Shuang directly killed the officials who wrote the letter. At the same time, he ordered the soldiers of Youzhou County to station troops at the junction of Jizhou and Youzhou to guard against Sima Yi.
Afterwards, Cao Shuang issued an edict to Sima Yi in the name of the emperor Cao Yu, asking Sima Yi to hand over military power. At the same time, he went to Jicheng to meet the emperor and explain himself face to face.
Obviously, Cao Shuang now felt that he had troops in hand and no longer had to worry about Sima Yi surrendering to the enemy, so he made such a tough response.
But it is also obvious that how could Sima Yi, an old fox, listen to Cao Shuang's orders, give up his military power, go to Cao Shuang and capture him obediently? !
Sima Yi knew with his heels that once he went to Jicheng, Cao Shuang would definitely take the opportunity to kill him. Therefore, Sima Yi just submitted a letter to protest and would not go to Jicheng.
As a result, internal strife broke out within the Wei army. Sima Yi's troops and the Youzhou soldiers led by Cao Xi faced off at the border between Jizhou and Youzhou.
This made the old ministers who were really still working hard for Wei anxious.
Jiang Ji, the unlucky man, stood up again. While persuading Cao Shuang, he went to communicate with Sima Yi. Since the Wei Dynasty was now weak and facing a formidable enemy, he should stay together through thick and thin. He persuaded the two of them to take a step back.
Cao Shuang no longer held Sima Yi accountable, and Sima Yi also needed to withdraw his troops and continue to defend the eastern part of Jizhou.
The important reason why Cao Shuang made the compromise was that Cao Shuang felt that although he had twice as many troops as Sima Yi, if he really had to go head-to-head with Sima Yi, he might not be able to win. Even if he won, the Wei Dynasty would be severely weakened. It's cheap for Shu thieves.
The reason why Sima Yi chose to take a step back was that Sima Yi still had to maintain his character as a "loyal minister of the Wei Dynasty", and at the same time he also needed to preserve the military power in his hands and seek to maximize his interests in the future.
Sima Yi's strategic vision is much higher than that of Cao Shuang and Jiang Ji. He is very clear about the current situation. The three rises of the Han Dynasty are inevitable. He no longer has any hope for the small court of Cao Wei.
The biggest role of the small court of Cao Wei was to obtain the greatest benefits for Sima Yi when he surrendered to the Han Dynasty in the future.
Therefore, falling out with Cao Wei's small court was not in line with Sima Yi's plans for his future.
Under the ulterior motives of both parties, this internal conflict ended in the form of reconciliation.
However, when the news of this internal strife reached Zhuge Liang in Yecheng through the channels carefully created by the Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang discovered very keenly that there was already a rift between Sima Yi and the small court of Cao Wei.
Let's put it bluntly, based on Sima Yi's current attitude, Zhuge Liang is not sure whether Sima Yi is bent on serving Cao Wei. But based on the intelligence collected by Zhuge Liang over the years and Zhang Xi's repeated affirmation, Zhuge Liang is still willing to believe that Sima Yi Not a true "loyal minister".
If this is the case, then the time is ripe to continue attacking Youzhou and destroy the small court of Cao Wei.
Even this time, Zhuge Liang did not need to dispatch troops from other states to assist in the battle. He only needed to rely on a total of 150,000 troops in Jizhou and western Youzhou, which was enough to completely wipe out the small court of Cao Wei.
However, out of caution, Zhuge Liang sent a letter to Pang Tong of Luoyang, Xu Shu of Chenliu, and Zhang Xi of Jingzhou, asking them for their opinions on sending troops to destroy the small court of Cao Wei.
Zhang Xi didn't have any objections to Zhuge Liang's use of troops. After all, Zhuge Liang's use of troops this time only involved two states, and the number of troops was only 150,000, and he did not need their help. As long as Zhuge Liang felt confident, this matter could basically be accomplished.
However, Xu Shu and Pang Tong were somewhat opposed to Zhuge Liang's ideas.
The idea of these two people was exactly opposite to that of Zhuge Liang. They believed that the small and cold land occupied by the small court of Cao Wei had no output, no economic ability, and only less than 100,000 defeated soldiers. , it is not easy to survive.
If you leave them alone, they will only become weaker and weaker. There is no need to send troops to conquer, just let them fend for themselves.
On the contrary, Soochow has been taking frequent actions in Huainan and Xuzhou recently. According to the news from Jiangdong Xizuo, there is also a saying that Soochow may use troops against Yanzhou.
At this time, we should take the first step and consider the war against Soochow.
Regarding this matter, you can't say that what Pang Tong and Xu Shu said is unreasonable, but Zhuge Liang still feels that now is not a good time to attack Wu.
However, the opinions of Pang Tong and Xu Shu cannot be ignored. Zhuge Liang is gradually transferring power to the emperor. He does not want to act arbitrarily on such a big matter by himself.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang wrote to Xu Shu and Zhang Xi, asking them to meet in Chang'an two months later to discuss state affairs.
A decision needs to be made whether to destroy Wei or to march eastward.
(End of chapter)
