Chapter 54 Chapter 54: Zhongda Comes Back

The fast horses sent by Cao Zhen rushed to Luoyang City one after another, and what they brought was news of defeat. Wei Emperor Cao Rui turned pale with fright, hurriedly summoned a group of ministers, and asked anxiously who could solve the urgent need at this time. Hua Xin said: "Your Majesty must personally conquer Weishui in order to boost the morale of the three armies. If only a few generals are replaced, it will increase the enemy's prestige." Taifu Zhongyou objected greatly after hearing this: "An old saying goes: 'Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will win a hundred battles.' Cao Zhen was no match for Zhuge Liang in the first place. Now even if His Majesty marches personally, it is difficult to expect to make up for Cao Zhen's shortcomings. Moreover, if he is defeated again, It is bound to endanger the fate of the country. At this very moment, it is better to use a reclusive expert, give him a seal and ribbon, and make him subdue Kong Ming. Apart from this, there is no other way."

Zhong Yao was originally a veteran and important minister of the Wei State. Cao Rui, the Emperor of Wei, heard from him that there was a high-ranking scholar who lived at leisure, so he immediately asked him to tell the name of the high-ranking scholar without any scruples. "That Gao Shi is none other than Sima Yi. Last time he was troubled by the enemy's countermeasures. The Shu Kingdom spread rumors in the market, causing him to be exiled. This fact is a pity. I heard that Sima Yi is currently living in his hometown Wancheng. Now it is right to call him here, and the country must not bury such a talent."

What Zhong Yao said made Emperor Wei show remorse. In fact, Emperor Wei knew that he had wronged Sima Yi. "This is the biggest mistake I've ever made. Now that he's been buried in the countryside with a grievance, will he lead the battle immediately?" "Sima Yi is a man who is worried about the country. If His Majesty sends an imperial envoy, he will follow the imperial edict." Emperor Wei immediately sent an envoy to Sima Yi with the seal and ribbon of the governor of Pingxi, saying: "I know that you are a man who cares about the country. If you can gather all the troops and horses of Nanyang and rush to Chang'an recently, I will also march in person. Wait for the rendezvous in Chang'an After that, I will break Kongming together with you."

Just these few days, Kong Ming, who was in Qishan, thought: "The opportunity has arrived, now we just need to capture Chang'an, and then drive straight into Luoyang." He didn't want to miss the momentum of winning streak, and prepared to attack the core area of ​​Wei State in one fell swoop. At this time, it was suddenly reported that Li Yan, who was guarding Baidi City, had sent his son Li Feng to come to see him.Kong Ming was shocked when he heard this: "It must not be a trivial matter. Could it be that Soochow sent troops to invade the country again?" Baidi City is located in an important place, so Kong Ming couldn't help but think about it this way.He immediately called Li Feng into the account, but when Li Feng saw Kong Ming, he said happily, "I am here today to announce the good news on behalf of my father."

"Oh? What's the happy event?" "Does the Prime Minister remember that when General Guan Yu defeated Jingzhou, the culprit was Meng Da, who later defected to the State of Wei?" "How can you forget? What's the matter with this person?" "Wait for the villain to explain carefully..." According to Li Feng, when Meng Da first descended to Wei, he was favored by Cao Pi.But after Cao Pi died of illness and the new emperor Cao Rui came to the throne, Meng Da was left out in the cold, and recently he was despised from time to time, because he was a minister of Shu, and he was frequently suspected by others, which made him unhappy.Many people in Meng Da's old department missed the hometown of Shu. Today they heard the battle in Qishan and Weishui, and they deeply regretted the rebellion against Shu and surrendered to Wei.

Meng Da had written this feeling in detail in his letter, and specifically asked Li Feng's father, Li Yan, the guard of Baidi City, to intercede for him and convey to Kong Ming his intention to return to Shu. Li Feng detailed the process of Meng Da's request for surrender, and then said: "After receiving the letter, my father has already met with Meng Da. Meng Da said to his father: When the Wei State Five Routes attacked Shuzhong, he had already planned to surrender. I mean, the prime minister must have known about this matter. This time I hope to mediate for him. If he can accept his surrender, when the prime minister attacks Chang'an, he will raise Jincheng, Xincheng (now Hefei, Anhui), Shangyong (now Zhushan County, Hubei) The three armies in the southwest) will attack there and take Luoyang, and the Wei Kingdom will collapse in a short time."

Kong Ming was overjoyed when Li Feng finished speaking. He clapped his hands and applauded: "This is really the biggest happy event recently! Thank you for telling me. Now that Meng Da has changed his mind and is willing to help Shu, our army only needs to attack from the outside. Internal riots break into Luoyang, under attack from both sides, the situation in the world will change immediately." After Kongming rewarded Li Feng heavily, he happily held a banquet to celebrate with his staff.While drinking, a fast horse came to report: "It was discovered that Cao Rui, the Lord of Wei, sent an emissary to fly to Wancheng, and named Sima Yi, who was living in the countryside, as the governor of Pingxi, and urged him to lead the army again."

After hearing Kuai Ma's report, Kong Ming couldn't help but said in astonishment: "What? Send Sima Yi?" After speaking, he lowered his head weakly, his face lost the joy of drinking in an instant. Ma Su, who joined the army beside him, asked in surprise, "Prime Minister, why are you so surprised? Why should Sima Yi care so much?" "No, it's not that simple." Kong Ming shook his head preoccupied, and warned Ma Di, "In my opinion, Sima Yi is the only one who can be called a high-ranking scholar in Wei. I feel that this is the only one who is difficult to deal with. Just now we were still glad that Meng Da was able to do it." Neiying, now I'm worried that he might die in Sima Yi's hands, why is it that Wei Guo has an extra Sima Yi who is difficult to deal with!"

"Then, should someone be sent to Meng Da immediately to remind him of this matter?" "Of course he must be reminded immediately, prepare the horse immediately, and pick the messenger!" Kong Ming said that he left the banquet and wrote a letter to Meng Da. The messenger set off overnight and hurried to the new city where Meng Da was located. When Meng Da learned that Kong Ming's envoy sent the letter, he couldn't help but beam with joy, knowing that Li Yan had conveyed his request to surrender to Kong Ming.When I opened the letter, I saw that although Kong Ming had promised to surrender, the words behind it were quite unpleasant: the letter informed Sima Yi that he had raised troops from Wancheng under the order of Emperor Wei.Kong Ming not only said that Sima Yi was excellent in strategy, but also described in detail the coping strategies for all kinds of situations that Meng Da might encounter.

After reading the letter, Meng Da sneered dismissively and said, "People say Zhuge Liang is suspicious by nature, and it's true." He casually put away Kong Ming's letter, wrote a reply letter, and asked the courier to take it back on the spot. Kong Ming finally expected Meng Da's reply, opened it hastily, then immediately crumpled it into a ball and sighed, "Oh, this person is really short-sighted!" He cursed bitterly: "Meng Da is so blindly optimistic, he doesn't care about my warning, he will definitely die at the hands of Sima Yi! It's over, it's too late."

"Why is the prime minister sighing?" "Ma Di, just read this letter. Meng Daxin said that even if Sima Yi wants to attack Xincheng, he must first go to Luoyang to take office, and he will not lead the army until more than a month at the earliest. During this time, I will consolidate my defenses. , don’t worry about Sima Yi coming to attack. He thinks very highly of himself, speaks bold words, and doesn’t take Sima Yi seriously at all. This matter is over!” "Is it irreparable?" "There is a saying, 'Attack the unprepared, catch the unawares', how can Sima Yi not understand this kind of military strategy? I am afraid he will go straight from Wancheng to attack Xincheng to attack Mengda, and then go to Luoyang to take up his post. The time required for that is much longer than I send someone to go Warning Mengda is much less, it's too late now..." Although Kong Ming lamented that the general situation was over, he still couldn't give up. He immediately wrote a warning letter and ordered the messenger to rush to the new city as soon as possible. It is said that after Sima Yi was dismissed, he returned to the countryside of Wancheng. He had no official position and was light-hearted. He took his eldest son Sima Shi and his second son Sima Zhao to live a leisurely and contented pastoral life.His two sons are familiar with military books, resourceful and courageous, Sima Yi is also very optimistic about the future of the two brothers. On this day, Sima Shi and Sima Zhao came to their father's study. Seeing Sima Yi's face was not good, the second son Sima Zhao asked, "Father, what makes you unhappy?" "Huh? I'm not very unhappy." As Sima Yi said, he raised his thick hand and stroked his sparse long beard. The eldest son, Sima Shi, looked at his father's gloomy face and said, "My son knows that my father has anger in his heart, so he can't let it out." "Stop talking nonsense! What do you know?" "Why did you ever talk nonsense, kid? It must be lamenting why the emperor didn't come to call father back to his post." "What nonsense!" The second son, Sima Zhao, said loudly with confidence: "Why worry about such things? Father will be reinstated sooner or later. Perhaps the emperor will call father to go in the near future." After hearing this, Sima Yi couldn't help looking at him strangely, "Oh? Could it be that there is also a unicorn in my Sima family?" A few days later, the imperial emissary came to knock on the door. Naturally, Sima Yi accepted the edict, summoned his clansmen and retainers, and immediately sent the call to action to all the roads in Wancheng. There are many people who admire his reputation in the Wancheng area, and many soldiers and horses have gathered in a short time.But Sima Yi set off in a hurry before the number of soldiers was full. Along the way, soldiers who had been recruited late came to join the army, which made him lead more and more troops. There was a reason why Sima Yi was so impatient.It turns out that although he has been at home all the time, he knows the situation of the Wei and Shu battles like the palm of his hand, especially recently someone has secretly reported to him that Meng Da, the guard of the new city, has signs of rebellion. The person who informed Sima Yi was a retainer of Jincheng prefect Shen Yi.He said that Meng Da had expressed his intention of rebellion to the prefects of Jincheng and Shangyong, and began to plan an attack on Luoyang. Sima Yi regards this as a major matter, and he knows that once Meng Da's rebellion plan succeeds, no matter how powerful the Wei state is, it will not escape the fate of being disintegrated from within. He was restless a few days ago, but he was actually very anxious about this matter.The second son observed the words and expressions, and from the gloomy expression he had never seen since he was dismissed from office, he actually perceived the reason and judged the inevitable fate that followed. His intelligence is really not inferior to his own. Sima Yi applauded with his forehead: "Knowing in advance about Meng Da's conspiracy, it is really the fate of the Wei Dynasty and the great blessing of the emperor. It is really gratifying to congratulate. If you don't lead the army to fight today, Luoyang and Chang'an will definitely be destroyed." He called the team he led as Jiqing's division, and instead of going to Luoyang, they galloped straight to the new city. His two sons asked worriedly: "Father, you haven't paid homage to the emperor in Luoyang yet, and you don't have the seal and ribbon of the leader in your hand, so you can send troops to attack first?" Sima Yi replied: "Of course it doesn't matter. The military situation is urgent, and the time is not waiting for us." He led the soldiers to attack Meng Da non-stop, and it was exactly as Kong Ming was worried.