Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1198 Launch
After hearing this, Sima Yi knew that he could not refuse, and immediately said: "The Prime Minister is loyal to the Great Wei, and I will definitely follow him!"

Seeing Sima Yi agree so readily, Zhong Yao nodded with satisfaction and said, "Don't worry, Zhongda, I won't let you show up in public. There is someone else standing in the way."

Sima Yi asked, "Who is it?"

Zhong Yao said: "He will come with the token, and you will know when the time comes."

"When the time comes, you only need to hand over a few hundred private soldiers to him, and he will naturally get the job done. You only need to sit back and give orders."

Sima Yi hesitated and asked, "List of personnel and their names?"

Zhong Yao replied: "Collaboration with the enemy and treason, no explanation is needed, just arrest the person first, and kill those who resist without mercy."

He mentioned the names of Yang Xiu and Ding Yi brothers, and finally said: "Don't worry, Zhongda, these people are closer to the emperor, and the king of Wei cannot tolerate them. What we do is what the king of Wei wants to do but is inconvenient to do."

"After this incident, I will definitely take care of everything for you in front of the King of Wei."

After hearing this, Sima Yi bowed and said, "Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for your thoughtfulness."

Zhong Yao nodded with satisfaction, "Get ready immediately and start the war with Xu Chu tonight."

Sima Yi was shocked. The attack was too fast. He only had two or three hours to prepare!

Zhong Yao patted Sima Yi on the shoulder and said, "Zhongda, work hard. I believe in you."

Sima Yi sent Zhong Yao away and gently closed the door. He turned around with a gloomy face.

He received the military order and rushed back from Yizhou urgently, even earlier than Le Jin and Xiahou Yuan. Cao Cao must have taken a fancy to Sima Yi's talents. As soon as Sima Yi arrived in Jizhou, he served as a military advisor under Cao Cao and resisted the Jin army coming from Anping and Julu in the middle road.

Before Sima Yi came, the Jin army had Zhuge Liang as its military advisor and Zhang He as its central commander. Later, they mobilized generals such as Xu Huang and Yan Rou, and equipped them with new crossbows and catapults. They only fought against Cao's army, which made it quite difficult for Cao Cao to deal with the army when he led the army himself.

After working day and night for many days, Cao Cao soon became exhausted. Sima Yi arrived at this time and took over the defensive duties. After suffering some losses, he actually managed to stabilize the situation.

This made Cao Cao quite pleased, and he became more appreciative of Sima Yi. But even so, the Cao army's front line was still slowly compressed by the Jin army towards Yecheng.

Finally, Sima Yi saw that the situation was hopeless and decisively proposed that the Wei soldiers should abandon the border of Wei County and re-arrange the defense line with Yecheng as the center.

This suggestion was criticized by Cao Wei officials. Wasn't it equivalent to giving up half of Wei County and handing it over to the Jin army?

Moreover, if we defend Yecheng, what if the enemy gathers a large number of troops and surrounds and kills everyone in the city, including Cao Cao?
So some people took this opportunity to attack Sima Yi for collaborating with the enemy. This was naturally done by Yang Xiu and others from Cao Zhi's faction, and this was also supported by quite a number of Cao Wei's ministers. After all, Sima Yi's suggestion also put them in danger.

Sima Yi explained this to Cao Cao and gave several reasons.

First, the northern part of Wei County had been emptied out, and Cao's army had to allocate a lot of troops to defend many useless villages and towns to prevent sneak attacks by the Jin army, which already consumed a lot of strength.

Secondly, the Wei army copied the trench tactics of the Jin army, but they were no match for the Jin army in terms of equipment. If they continued to fight, the Wei army would suffer a lot, so the most effective way was to rely on strong city defense to minimize the gap between the two sides.

Moreover, there are abundant water systems around Yecheng, and the enemy's trench tactics are hardly useful. Instead, the Wei army can rely on the high walls of Yecheng to defend at the lowest cost.

Third, all the grain in Jizhou has been plundered, and the people in Weijun have no surplus food at home, and the Wei army cannot supply them with military rations. In this case, it is better to throw this mess to the Jin army and use the people in Weijun to consume the Jin army's military rations.

Cao's army stored all their food in Yecheng, which greatly reduced the logistical pressure on the defense. There were no idle people in the city, so as long as the old, weak, and sick were driven out of the city, they would naturally flee in all directions, causing great headaches for the Jin army.

As long as these three points are done well, Cao's army will surely survive this winter safely. Next year, the Jin army will be dragged down by these civilians, and it will be much more difficult to launch a large-scale offensive. The Wei army will rely on Yecheng to consume the Jin army, and once the food from Jingyi arrives next year, they will be able to switch from defense to counterattack, thus reversing the situation in Jizhou!
After these reasons were put forward, even Cao Cao could not help but admire them greatly. He then supported Sima Yi's proposal against all odds, and gradually withdrew his defenses over the course of these two months, redeploying the defense line to the north of Yecheng.

At the same time, the Wei army dug up all the rivers along the way and burned all the villages and towns along the way, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Wei County homeless and forced to flee to the back to ask for help from the Jin army.

Facts have proved that this approach is effective immediately. In order to provide disaster relief, the Jin army greatly slowed down its pace of advance. The Cao army gained a precious opportunity to rest in Yecheng. Sima Yi was also praised by Cao Cao at this time and became very popular for a while.

However, man proposes, God disposes. When everyone in Cao’s camp thought that the situation in Jizhou had stabilized and they could safely spend the winter, news came that the situation in Jingzhou and Yuzhou had collapsed!
Cao Cao had thought about the possibility of Yuan and Liu joining forces, but there were Xiahou Yuan and Liu Cong in Jingzhou, Cao Xiu and Le Jin in Yuzhou, and the Wu Kingdom in the south holding them back. Logically speaking, it would be impossible for Yuan Xi and Liu Bei to capture Jingzhou in just a few months.

But things were just so outrageous. Yuan Xi and Liu Bei invaded Jingzhou with great force and killed Xiahou Yuan and Cao Xiu one after another, while the State of Wu just watched the whole time!

Xiahou Yuan and Cao Xiu were core figures in Cao's camp. Their deaths were a huge blow to Cao Cao, who immediately vomited blood and fainted.

Sima Yi was also present at the time. He quickly ran back home and hid. He could guess that if Cao Cao fell, there would be chaos in the city. As a person who knew how to protect himself, he didn't want to get involved.

But he didn't expect that even though he didn't want to be involved in this matter, the Yingchuan School did not let him go, and it was Zhong Yao who came to him in person!
After Sima Yi figured out Zhong Yao's intentions in asking him to do these things, he was not very opposed to it. After all, Zhong Yao's starting point might really be for Cao Cao's sake, and although doing some things was risky, it should be controlled within a certain range. But Zhong Yao did one thing that touched Sima Yi's bottom line.

Secretly raise assassins.

Sima Yi naturally had his own considerations for doing this, and he did it quite covertly. Among the hundreds of slaves, there were probably only dozens of death warriors, not as many as Zhong Yao implied.

But what made Sima Yi sick was that Zhong Yao used hundreds of people as an implicit threat to force Sima Yi to submit. Anyway, dozens or hundreds of people were both leverage, and Zhong Yao was in a high position with great power, so whatever he said was the truth. How could Sima Yi dare to defend himself?

A murderous look flashed across Sima Yi's eyes. No one could threaten him, no one!

Sooner or later, I will get revenge for this!
But he could only endure it at the moment, so Sima Yi began to mobilize his servants and wait for the person Zhong Yao mentioned to arrive.

It was not until late at night that someone knocked on Sima Yi's door. After Sima Yi asked someone to open the door, he found that the person holding the token was Xu Chu sitting in the carriage. Only then did he realize what was going on.

He said, "General, the two hundred servants are ready, but how about you ..."

He looked at Xu Chu's legs. He couldn't even stand up. What should he do?
Xu Chu said in a deep voice: "Give me a war horse."

Sima Yi followed his instructions and had the horse brought over. Xu Chu, leaning on a crutch, got off the carriage with difficulty and walked towards the warhorse. He raised his legs to step on the stirrup several times, but his body could not support himself. In the end, the guards helped him onto the horse with great difficulty.

Xu Chu asked the guards to take the rope and tie his legs to the saddle. Then he took the sword handed to him by his men and said to Sima Yi, "I am sorry to have embarrassed you, military advisor."

Sima Yi sighed: "General, your loyalty to you is evident to all. I wish you great success."

Xu Chu grinned, revealing a smile that was uglier than crying, "I appreciate your words, military advisor."

He pulled the reins and turned his horse around, raised the sword in his hand, and shouted to the servants, "Follow me!"

"Today, I have been ordered by the King of Wei to suppress the rebellion. Anyone who dares to stop me will be killed without mercy!"

Sima Yi saw Xu Chu and his men rushing out of the mansion, and thought that Zhong Yao had really found the right person.

Ever since Xu Chu's legs were crippled, the ministers in Cao's camp believed that he was worthless and many of them took advantage of Xu Chu's misfortune, including Yang Xiu. Now Xu Chu might take revenge. Who knows how many people will lose their lives in Yecheng tonight.

At this time, Yang Xiu was in his mansion, but he also summoned his acquaintances to have a secret discussion. Yang Xiu was naturally the presiding person, and the others included Ding Yi, Ding Yi, and Handan Chun.

Handan Chun was from Yingchuan, and was good at calligraphy. He had written "Xiao Lin" and "Yi Jing", which were favored by Cao Zhi. He had previously defected to Liu Biao, and later when Cao Cao conquered Jingzhou, he followed the scholars of Jingzhou and defected to Cao Cao.

Although he was from Yingchuan, the pie among the Yingchuan people was not big enough, so naturally there would be no place for him. However, Cao Zhi's faction extended an olive branch to him, so Handan Chun defected to Cao Zhi, and the three of them, together with Yang Xiu, were called the Four Friends of Cao Zhi.

He is also the oldest among them. The three brothers Yang Xiu and Ding Yi are all in their early twenties, while Handan Chun is now over sixty years old.

At this time, Yang Xiu looked solemn and said to the three people: "I just received some bad news. Someone wants to harm us, so I quickly called the three of you to discuss the matter."

Handan Chun said, "The King of Wei is seriously ill. Is there anyone who wants to take advantage of this situation?"

"Is the news reliable?"

Yang Xiu said, "He should be reliable. He has no reason to harm us."

Ding Yi frowned and said, "You can know a person's face but not his heart. How can you know that person is not deceiving Dezu?"

"As I say, the less we know about the situation at this moment, the more we should not act rashly. It's even possible that you are pretending to be sick and are watching our performance."

"If we take drastic actions, won't that give others an advantage?"

Yang Xiu sighed, "Zhengli, you thought too highly of us. The enemy has already started to kill us. The current situation is much more serious than you imagined!"

"And I can tell you that it's true that Lord Ming fainted, and it's also true that the Yingchuan faction is going to take action. The news is definitely not wrong!"

Ding Yi frowned and asked, "Who is the person who delivered the message to make Dezu so trusting?"

Yang Xiu looked towards the direction of Cao Cao's residence, "Of course it's that person."

(End of this chapter)