Chapter 36 Chapter 36 After Kong Ming's Death

Being frightened away by the dead—it is very unsightly to spread such a thing.Even if such a thing had happened, the person involved would definitely try to cover it up, but Sima Zhongda deliberately let this word spread.As a result, the humorous saying "dead Zhuge scares away Sheng Zhongda" has been chanted by people all the time. It has been four years since Sima Zhongda was promoted from general hussars to general, and now he is the number one person in the Wei Dynasty.Due to his many years of fighting, his influence on the army has reached a level that no one can match. For the court, such a character must be on guard.Wang Mang, who usurped the former Han Dynasty, was a general, and the Cao family who replaced the later Han Dynasty also started with a background of force.

The reason why Cao Zhi (the third son of Cao Cao), who died two years ago, is still unrecognizable as an adult is that besides being a first-rate poet, he is also very talented in all aspects. Courtiers must not be warned.Those who arouse the court's suspicion will be eradicated sooner or later-this is a clear historical lesson. "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" were must-read books for scholar-bureaucrats at that time, and these two books recorded in detail how Han Gaozu Liu Bang gradually eliminated the heroes of the founding of the country. Therefore, it is very good to be the object of ridicule for "being scared away by dead Zhuge".It is for this purpose that Zhong Da tried to make this sentence widely circulated.

The killing of the heroes of the Han Dynasty was after the completion of the founding of the country.At this time, the world has been unified, and there is no need for talented generals. ——The cunning rabbit dies, the running dog cooks. This proverb is also recorded in "Historical Records". When the cunning rabbits—that is, powerful enemies—are all eliminated, the general himself will become precarious.Keeping a strong enemy, the imperial court dare not disrespect the general who has great influence on the army. After the death of Kong Ming, it was not the most difficult thing to defeat the Shu army on the way back to the south.But as far as the general Sima Zhongda is concerned, like Wu, the hostile force of Shu must survive without being too weak.

While keeping the enemy alive, one must also make oneself the object of ridicule.Zhong Da, who was about to rise to the top, smiled wryly in his heart: It's getting harder and harder to be a human... It is easy to stand on tiptoe to make yourself appear taller, but it is very difficult to make yourself appear smaller than you really are.In order to make himself appear short, Zhong Da really wanted to shrink into a ball. "Don't you think Zhong Da is too cautious?" When he heard Sima Zhongda's report that he had not pursued the Shu army, Emperor Ming showed some doubts.

"That's because I don't know what kind of tricks Kong Ming will make?" The close minister replied. "yes?" Emperor Ming seemed a little skeptical.Among all the talents in the Wei Dynasty, Sima Zhongda's talent was the most radiant.Even if Zhuge Kongming tried again to plot his plan after his death, Zhong Da should be able to overcome it.The top intelligent generals of the Wei State were not as good as Kong Ming of the Shu State—the Emperor Ming never believed this. "He seems to be afraid of being suspected by the court..." Emperor Ming guessed more or less what happened in the Central Plains.

Shu, which lost its prime minister Zhuge Kongming, began to experience a crisis in personnel affairs.In order to fight for the position of prime minister, all the dignitaries in the court secretly competed with each other. Kongming named Jiang Wan as the prime minister, but Yang Yi expressed his dissatisfaction with this.When he retreated in Wuzhangyuan, he once killed Wei Yan, a fierce general who did not agree to retreat. Wei Yan was originally coveting the position of prime minister. ——When the prime minister is dead, it is not necessary for all the staff to retreat.The army can be commanded by me!

Wei Yan intends to use this to actually climb to the position of prime minister.Of course, Yang Yi couldn't make Wei Yan get what he wanted, so he attacked and killed Wei Yan on the grounds that "Wei Yan rebelled and refused to obey the military order". This is already a kind of civil unrest.Due to Wei Yan's poor popularity, there were not many people following him, so he was able to avoid expanding the incident.Jiang Wan was appointed prime minister, and Yang Yi, angry, announced her retirement.In fact, he did not really retire, but became a dissatisfied. The Shu Han court once moved this dangerous dissatisfied person to Hanjia County.But Yang Yi still didn't change her attitude.

"When the prime minister passed away, if I led the whole army to return to Wei, the situation in the world would be completely changed!" He even said so. In addition, Yang Yi repeatedly wrote letters, slandering Jiang Wan and other important ministers, and his words were quite violent.The imperial court then ordered Yang Yi, the governor of Hanjia county, to be placed under house arrest. Yang Yi finally committed suicide. The news of the internal disharmony in the Kingdom of Shu, of course, spread to Luoyang in the Kingdom of Wei.Emperor Ming tilted his head, and said alone: ​​"With Kong Ming's wisdom, he can't figure out how to solve the people and problems of the Shu Kingdom satisfactorily after his death? When retreating from Wuzhangyuan, if Zhongda pursued him to the end, what would the result be? ..."

"What's the current situation in Wu Kingdom?" Emperor Wei Ming expressed concern about the movements of Wu in the south. After the death of Zhuge Kongming, Shu was no longer to be feared, and when their national strength was weakened by internal strife, it would not be too late to use their brains again.What's more, as far as the terrain is concerned, Shu is a difficult place to attack. Heroes such as Cao Cao, the grandfather of the Ming emperor, suffered defeat in attacking Hanzhong. ——Shu, you can wait for them to destroy themselves. In this way, the problem is only Wu.

"Wu is still struggling with the lack of troops." The near minister made a report to Emperor Ming about Wu Zhi's situation. Four years before the Battle of Wuzhangyuan, that is, the second year of Wu Huanglong (AD 230), Sun Quan had awarded 10,000 armed soldiers to two generals and ordered them to sail eastward for the purpose of "Latin".This is because Sun Quan heard the following rumors. ——To the east of Kuaiji, on the other side of the sea, there are Yizhou and Danzhou. The inhabitants are many and all are brave.People in this area mostly use antlers as weapons and are very good at fighting.

The reason why Sun Quan is like this is that Wu State lacks troops. Due to the turmoil in the Central Plains along the Yangtze River, there were as many refugees as crucian carp crossing the river.But after Cao Cao pacified the Central Plains, all these people returned to their hometown like the ebb tide.As a result, Wu was greatly troubled by the lack of local residents and troops. Hearing that there are islands inhabited by warlike people in the East China Sea, Sun Quan immediately drew up a "Latin" battle plan. But two generals—Wei Wenwen and Zhuge Zhi—returned in defeat.Since Dianzhou is too far away, it is impossible to continue sailing there.Yizhou, which was finally reached, has not many residents.As a result, only 3,000 residents were barely captured.But Yizhou is a land of miasma, and among the 10,000 soldiers brought by Wu, more than 8,000 died of the disease. Of course, it is not cost-effective to lose 8,000 regular armed soldiers and bring back 3,000 untrained and non-speaking people.Sun Quan was so emotional that he killed the two leading generals. One year before the Battle of Wuzhangyuan, Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong sent school captain Su Shu and Lang Zhongling Sun Zong to Wu to express their surrender. Liaodong was truly another world at the time.Every time there was turmoil in the Central Plains, a large number of refugees flocked to Liaodong and even North Korea.In the past, Gongsundu, the governor of Liaodong, made himself king here, and conquered Goguryeo and the Karasuma tribe. Cao Cao also gave him the title of General Wuwei and named him Yongninghou. ——I am the king of Liaodong, so I don't care about being a prince! It is a famous story that Gongsun Du threw the sent seal ribbon into the warehouse and wrote this section. After Gongsun Du died, his son Gongsun Kang succeeded to the throne.Cao Cao fought against Karasuma in the time of Gongsun Kang. As a result, Yuan Shang and others fled to Liaodong.Gongsun Kang beheaded Yuan Shang and sent his head to Cao Cao.After Gongsun Kang died, his younger brother Gongsun Gong succeeded to the throne. This man was not only mediocre, but also had no ability to rule.Later, Gongsun Kang's son, Gongsun Yuan, abolished his uncle and established himself as the lord of Liaodong. The Gongsun family took Xiangping as their base.The most important issue for the Xiangping regime is how to maintain the independence of Liaodong. When the adjacent Wei is too strong, there is a danger of being annexed.The Xiangping regime certainly hoped that the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu would always be in a state of mutual struggle. The fact is that Wei gradually became the champion, compared with the two countries of Shu and Wu.Although the alliance between Shu and Wu was barely able to compete with Wei, but in terms of strength, Wei was far above the alliance between the two countries. ——Come on, you guys! The reason why Gongsun Yuan sent envoys to Wu was to support them. After the failure of the mission to the East China Sea and Japan, the Wu regime was somewhat depressed.If Wu doesn't pull himself together again, Wei might use his excess power to attack northeast Liaodong. Wu Zhisun Quan really cheered up. ——Perhaps it is possible to pinch Wei... With this hope in mind, Sun Quan decided to send envoys to Liaodong.The envoys between Liaodong and Wu went back and forth, of course, by sea.If you go by land, you have to go through Wei's territory, and this is impossible. Zhang Mi, Xu Yan, two important ministers at the cabinet level, and a general named He Da led ten thousand soldiers to set off on a boat, loaded with gold and silver treasures, to answer the gift.Responding to the envoy Zhang Miqie's Wu Zhiguo letter with the meaning of "making you the king of Yan". Wu Zicheng Prime Minister Gu Yong, including veteran Zhang Zhao, all strongly opposed this matter, but Sun Quan insisted on going his own way and insisted on it to the end. "What? Coming with a large fleet? This is simply nonsense!" When Gongsun Yuan of Xiangping heard the news that Wu Zhida's envoys had led 10,000 troops and came with a large fleet, he was completely stunned. If you want to come, only send two or three ships to come, so as to deceive people's eyes and ears.With dozens of large fleets and 10,000 soldiers, and going north via the Langya Sea, it must be impossible to avoid Wei's intelligence network! Gongsun Yuan originally intended to incite Wu secretly without Wei knowing about it.Now that Wu Guo came here in such a mighty way, didn't he expose his background? Knowing that Liaodong and Wu had colluded, Wei must be very angry.And angering Wei will put Liaodong in jeopardy. "I have to think of a way..." Gongsun Yuan folded his arms in thought.Now he had to figure out how to explain it to Wei. ——Wu went to the country of Wa to seek soldiers the year before last, but failed.The reason for the failure is that there was no prior negotiation.As your emperor knew, we had some dealings with Wa through Daifang (Korean Peninsula), and Wu therefore asked us to mediate.But if Wu uses the soldiers of the Japanese kingdom, it will increase the enemies of the Celestial Dynasty (referring to Wei), so we reject Wu's request and behead his envoys... Poor envoys Zhang Mi and Xu Yan were beheaded as soon as they arrived in Xiangping.Of course, the gold and silver treasures that Lao Yuan brought from Wu were confiscated by Gongsun Yuan. The head of Wu Zhili envoy was sent to Luoyang together with the explanatory documents.Wei Shi praised Gongsun Yuan's loyalty, gave him the title of Da Sima, and named him Duke Le Lang. Sun Quan gritted his teeth and regretted this, furious. "Damn Gongsun Yuan, how dare you deceive me! If you don't avenge this revenge, you will never be reconciled!" Sun Quan immediately began to study the strategy.Strategy is his forte, and, under the emperor, there is a secret service agency called "School Affairs".Sun Quan then ordered the school to start a rumor campaign. ——Gongsun Yuan is extremely disrespectful to Wei, and often talks about Wei's right and wrong. He spread such rumors so that Emperor Wei Ming could hear them.In addition, he even released the false information that "Gongsun Yuan secretly colluded with Wu and planned to attack Wei", and forged evidence sufficient to support this matter, and arranged for it to fall into Wei's hands. In the first year of Wei Jingchu (237 A.D.), Emperor Ming ordered Guan Qiujian, the governor of Youzhou, to lead the army, Wuwan and Xianbei soldiers to station in the southeast of Liaodong, and ordered Gongsun Yuan to come to accept the questioning. ——You have a lot of deviant words and deeds, which made Ke Ri come here for questioning. After receiving such an order, who would obediently come forward to accept the questioning?Such a document is already equivalent to a declaration of crusade. Gongsun Yuan led his troops to rebel with the mentality of going all out. At that time, the Liaohe River was flooding, so Guan Qiujian led the army and temporarily retreated to Youbeiping. Gongsun Yuan established himself as the "King of Yan" and named the Yuan as "Shao Han". At this time, China had three emperors, and Gongsun Yuan, who was about to be the fourth emperor, called himself king for the time being.Why doesn't he just proclaim himself emperor?Once you proclaim yourself emperor, you can't beg for reinforcements from others.Gongsun Yuan sent envoys to Wu again, asking Wu to attack Wei's back. "This guy is really thick-skinned!" Wu Guozhong said disdainfully.In the past, it was the envoy of the state of Wu who answered the ceremony and was killed. Now it should be Wu's turn to kill the envoy sent by Liaodong, right? "Don't be impulsive!" Sun Quan stopped the agitated retainers. In fact, Sun Quan hates Gongsun Yuan more than anyone else, but this is the best chance to defeat his old enemy Wei!Wei is busy attacking Gongsun Yuan in the northeast, isn't there a gap to take advantage of! "Let's agree to the alliance first! In this way, Gongsun Yuan will be full of energy and desperately fight Wei....It is of course impossible for him to win." When Sun Quan said this, he smiled treacherously.