Chapter 47 7. Two Tigers Fighting

In 220 AD, Cao Cao died, and Cao Pi succeeded to the throne as King Wei.Cao Pi actively adjusted the conflict with the gentry, adopted Chen Qun's opinion, and established the nine-rank Zhongzheng system.The nine-rank Zhongzheng system defended the interests of the gentry, and Cao Pi won the support of the gentry, which laid the foundation for proclaiming emperor.In October of that year, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to abdicate and named the country Great Wei.Cao Pi's political and military talents are far inferior to those of his father Cao Cao. For example, he led an army of millions to the south to attack Wu and returned without success. However, he conquered the tribes such as Xianbei and Goguryeo in the north, and expanded the territory of Wei State to Mongolia. plateau.

In June 226 AD, Cao Pi died at the age of 40, and his son Cao Rui succeeded him as emperor.Cao Rui began to be very diligent, commanding Cao Zhen and Sima Yi to successfully defend against several attacks by Wu and Shu.Since Zhuge Liang's death, there has been no large-scale Northern Expedition in Shu for a while.Cao Rui relaxed and began to overhaul the palace, which consumed a lot of manpower and delayed agriculture.Later, Cao Rui was critically ill, so he entrusted the crown prince Cao Fang to Cao Shuang and Sima Yi, which laid the foundation for their future struggle. Cao Shuang is a mediocre person who is strong on the outside but has a lot of ambitions. He wants to take over Sima Yi and monopolize the government.He persuaded Cao Fang to appoint Sima Yi as Taifu, which was a nominal honorary position, and Sima Yi was emptied according to Cao Shuang's wishes.

Faced with Cao Shuang's aggressive moves, Sima Yi was not in a hurry to fight back. On the contrary, he behaved submissively and cautiously.This trick really deceived Cao Shuang. He thought he had a plan, so he became unscrupulous, became more and more arrogant, and gradually lost people's hearts. During this period, the state of Wei was attacked by the state of Wu several times, but was beaten back by the troops led by Sima Yi.After making these contributions, not only did Sima Yi's food counties increase again and again, but his children were also enshrined as marquises one after another.Even with such a beautiful scenery, Sima Yi still maintains a low-key style of life.

Compared with Sima Yi's low-key, Cao Shuang continued to be domineering.He is good at government affairs, has a wide range of party members, and even changes the country's laws and regulations at will. He lives extravagantly and pays more attention to food and clothing than the emperor.In order to avoid Cao Shuang's limelight, Sima Yi took the initiative to claim illness, retired and returned home, and no longer participated in government affairs. Cao Shuang was worried, so he sent Li Sheng, who was about to take up the post of Jingzhou Mu, to go to Sima Yi's house to find out the truth in the name of saying goodbye.How could Sima Yi not know Cao Shuang's tricks, so he acted out a trick.

When he came out to meet Li Sheng, he was moved out tremblingly with the support of two people.When Li Sheng saw it, he hurriedly explained the purpose of his visit. This time, I am going to serve as the governor of Honzhou, so I came here to bid farewell to you today.Li Sheng is from Jingzhou, so Jingzhou is called Honzhou.After Sima Yi finished speaking, he was about to speak but couldn't help panting. He hurriedly motioned for a drink, and the maid brought the cup over. He just took a sip and coughed it out, water spilled all over his body.Seeing this, Li Sheng struck up a conversation and said, alas, I didn't expect you to be so old and sick.It took Sima Yi a long time to settle down, and he said out of breath, alas, old people are useless, you have to go to Bingzhou, that place is very close to the barbarians, you have to be more careful, I am so sick, it seems We don't have a chance to see each other anymore, please take care of me, Teacher Xiaoer.Li Sheng heard that he heard Honzhou as Bingzhou, and quickly corrected him, saying, I am going back to Honzhou, not Bingzhou.It's okay if you don't correct it, but once you correct it, Sima Yi's performance will be more vigorous, huh?You just arrived in Bingzhou?Li Sheng had no choice but to repeat it again, and Sima Yi seemed to understand it now, and said, I am really confused, you can't hear what you said, now you go back to this state to be the governor, do it well.

Li Sheng bid farewell to Sima Yi, and replied to Cao Shuang, reassuring him that Sima Gong is now like a candle in the wind, and his days are numbered.Cao Shuang believed it was true, so he no longer guarded against Sima Yi.Little did he know that Sima Yi had already made up his mind to get rid of Cao Shuang, and was preparing intensively in secret. In the spring of 249 A.D., Emperor Cao Fang went to Gaoping Mausoleum outside the city to visit the tomb. Cao Shuang also took his brothers with him, taking the opportunity to enjoy the spring.Before leaving, some of his subordinates advised Cao Shuang not to take all his brothers out of the city, so as not to take care of things in the city.Cao Shuang's power was in full swing at this time, and he never thought that anyone would dare to plot against him, so naturally he didn't listen to this.

This was an excellent opportunity, of course Sima Yi would not let it go. After he found out that Cao Fang and his party had indeed left the city, he ordered in the name of Queen Mother Guo to close all the gates of Luoyang City.Sima Shi also took the 3,000 dead soldiers he secretly summoned and occupied the weapon warehouse and the palace.Then, Sima Yi let his cronies occupy the barracks of Cao Shuang and his younger brother Cao Xi. After the entire Luoyang city was brought under control, Sima Yi, with the approval of Queen Mother Guo, went to Cao Fang to list Cao Shuang's crimes one by one, and personally led troops to occupy the bridgehead of Luoshui.When passing by the gate of Cao Shuang's house, the guards of Cao Shuang's house bent their bows and set up arrows to shoot Sima Yi, but they were stopped by the people next to them. This arrow that might change the history of the Three Kingdoms was not shot after all.Sima Yi successfully occupied the head of the Luoshui bridge, completely blocking Cao Shuang's way back to Luoyang.

Cao Shuang in the suburbs was taken aback when he received Sima Yi's melody. Anyway, he couldn't figure out why the old man who was half buried in the ground suddenly became alive and well.Panicked, he didn't even dare to submit the playlist to Cao Fang. Cao Shuang had a counselor named Huan Fan who was in the city at that time. Huan Fan falsely claimed to have the Queen Mother's edict, and after sneaking out of the city, he went straight to Cao Shuang's location.Sima Yi sent someone to chase him, but failed to catch up.The Taiwei Jiang Ji next to him advised him that Cao Shuang had never believed in Huan Fan, and he would not believe him this time either.Only then did Sima Yi feel relieved, and sent envoys to Cao Shuang one after another, saying that he only wanted to seize power and had no intention of harming him. If he could give up his military power and come back, he would still not lose his title of Marquis.

After seeing Cao Shuang, Huan Fan reported to him the changes in Luoyang City, and urged Cao Shuang to take His Majesty to move to Xuchang, and then mobilized the whole country to attack Sima Yi.This is indeed a clever plan to reverse the situation, it just depends on whether Cao Shuang has the courage to reverse the situation. The envoys sent by Sima Yi arrived later, and these people were all good friends of Cao Shuang.They said that Sima Yi had made an oath in Luoshui not to harm Cao Shuang's life, and advised him not to go to war, but to obey Sima Yi's words, give up power, and become a wealthy farmer.

The two opinions could not be decided for a while.Cao Shuang spent a night thinking outside Luoyang City. At dawn, he walked out of the tent with a tired face, dropped the sword in his hand weakly, and said to the people waiting outside the tent: "The intention of the Taifu is just military power. I don't want to be a soldier." Go home and become a rich man." Huan Fan turned pale when he heard this, "Why did Cao Zidan (Cao Zhen's character) give birth to such a son, I am now a burden for you, and I will inevitably exterminate my family!" Cao Shuang then handed Sima Yi's memorial to Cao Fang, saying that he was willing to obey the law, and asked Cao Fang to remove him from his official position. At the same time, he handed over the general's seal and ribbon, and ordered someone to give it to Sima Yi in Luoyang City.The chief secretary Yang Zong stopped him and said, General, if you hand over your seal and ribbon, you may die.Cao Shuang shook his head and said, Taifu will not break his promise to me.

Just like that, a group of people came out high-spirited and returned to Luoyang City dejectedly.Sima Yi waited at the gate of the city, still paying respects to Cao Fang according to the etiquette of emperors and ministers, but not even looking at Cao Shuang. After this mutiny, Huan Fan was the first to be arrested.As for the Cao Shuang brothers, Sima Yi did not break his oath, letting them keep their titles and stay at home.But Sima Yi didn't stop there, he played Cao Shuang slowly like a cat catching a mouse.He built a wooden building at each of the four corners of Cao Shuang's mansion, and sent 800 people to guard the wooden building in turn to monitor Cao Shuang's movements.Cao Shuang got bored, sometimes he took a slingshot and went to the back garden to shoot birds.The common people stared at him closely and sang loudly: "So the general is going southeast!" "So the general is going northwest!" They humiliated the formerly prominent general like a mangy dog. It stands to reason that Cao Shuang should commit suicide at this time, which is also Sima Yi's original intention.But Cao Shuang made another mistake. He thought that he was a relative of the emperor, and Sima Yi, as a courtier of Cao Wei, would not treat him too much. He once again underestimated the viciousness of the enemy. At this time, Sima Yi was tightening the noose around Cao Shuang's neck bit by bit.He tried every means to incriminate Cao Shuang, and soon someone came out to expose that Cao Shuang had colluded with fellow party He Yan and others to conspire against him.The Cao Shuang brothers and their accomplices were all executed, and their families, including women who had been married for many years, were all killed in a row.Among those killed were many famous literati, so the world sighed that "the world's famous scholars are halved". The war without smoke between Sima Yi and Cao Shuang ended in Cao Shuang's complete defeat. Sima Yi's mutiny seemed to be an accidental success, but it was actually a fatal blow after long-term preparation.He did not compete head-on with Cao Shuang for power, but he maintained his prestige by leading troops to march, so he was able to control the entire capital with a small number of troops in a hurry.In addition, his long-term humility and concessions fueled Cao Shuang's arrogance and arrogance, causing him to relax his guard, and finally had to bow his head and surrender. What seems to be a purely accidental appearance is actually the result of various inevitable factors silently and silently foreshadowing.The difference between a wise man and a fool is: a wise man leads life, and a fool is led by life. The key reason is that a wise man captures the inevitable factors under the appearance with a pair of discerning eyes, and uses them to guide; fools only see superficial phenomena, ignorant Unconsciously accepting the guidance of life, and even sinking into the situation of being obliterated by tragic events.