Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1380 Division of Troops
In Sima Yi's mind, Cao Pi was not actually a competent lord. He was far inferior to Cao Cao in both civil and military affairs, but he had self-awareness, did things without much hassle, and was able to entrust important matters to his subordinates with confidence.

Of course, the Cao Wei clan was an exception. Sima Yi had heard some rumors that Cao Pi seemed to have a physical illness, which caused some problems with his offspring.

Sima Yi didn't know how such an outrageous rumor came about. He once thought that it was spread by some Cao clan forces that were at odds with Cao Pi. But if this was true, the Wei Kingdom would probably face great turmoil in the future.

Sima Yi was a very insecure person. He especially hated being involved in unknown and uncontrollable things. So at the beginning he would rather pretend to be sick than take up an official post because he was afraid that if he became an official he would fall into danger that he could not control.

However, things went against his wishes, and he finally entered the court. He rose rapidly without any intention, and now his status and power have even surpassed that of his father Sima Fang.

But even so, his inner insecurity has never been eliminated. As a close minister who has followed two generations of Cao Cao and Cao Pi, he knows how ruthless the Cao family can be. He might be in high demand today, but die in obscurity tomorrow.

Sima Yi didn't want to follow in the footsteps of Chen Gong and Xu You. Those people were very close to Cao Cao, but they still died violent deaths. How could he possibly entrust his life to the Cao family?
Therefore, all of Sima Yi's actions now are based on self-preservation as the primary premise, including taking the initiative to confront Zhuge Liang.

Even if we are defeated in Nanyang, there are still many ways to survive. At the very least, we can retreat to Hanzhong. But the situation is different with Chang'an and Luoyang. If we are surrounded by the Jin army on three sides, we will die without a burial place!

Especially when he thought of the fire in the valley that almost burned him to death last time, Sima Yi felt a chill down his spine. This time, he set up camp across the Han River from the Jin army to prevent a fire attack from the opposite side.

In contrast to Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang, who traveled all the way north from Jiangling to Fancheng, understood Sima Yi's thoughts very well. It was obvious that the enemy had lost their fighting spirit in recent battles and always put defense first, considering defeat before victory. I'm afraid they had already prepared to escape.

Of course, in order to make Sima Yi run away, he had to fight him. Although Zhuge Liang was able to gain the upper hand in the battles against Sima Yi in recent years, Zhuge Liang believed that this was mainly due to the various equipment of the Jin army. If both sides were at the same starting line, he might not be able to defeat Sima Yi.

This time was the same. Sima Yi knew that his navy was not as good as that of Jin and Hannan, so he simply gave up the entire Han River and only built a camp on the north bank.

The walls of these camps are very sophisticated. The side facing the water is made of rammed earth to make it difficult for the Jin army's warships to land. There are also high earthen platforms behind the long walls, where bows and arrows can be placed to target enemy warships that are crossing the river to attack.

It has to be said that these measures achieved very good results. The stone-throwing arrows covered the entire Han River, making it difficult for the Jin army and the Hannan navy to find a breakthrough. Especially since the tops of the Jin army's warships had some shielding and protection, but it was different on the Hannan side.

Guan Ping, who was leading the army for the first time, tried to lead the fleet to attack several times, but found that Cao Wei responded properly on the shore. After the navy lost more than a dozen ships, Guan Ping found that he could not break through alone, so he sent people to ask Zhuge Liang for help.

After receiving the letter, Zhuge Liang thought that Guan Ping was still too impatient. He should wait for an opportunity to lure Sima Yi into an attack. Then the next battle would be much easier to fight.

After thinking about it, he called Wei Yan, Huang Zhong, and Wen Pin to come and told them his next idea, "I want to divide the troops into three groups to expose the flaws of the Wei army."

"One route is to Fancheng, one route is to Maicheng, and one route is to Xinye. Order the three generals to attack respectively."

"The opponent doesn't have many generals. As long as the three generals continue to put pressure on Sima Yi's attack, he will reveal his flaws sooner or later."

Wei Yan said, "The route to Fancheng requires Hannan to voluntarily give way. What if they refuse?"

Fancheng is the front line of Hannan Kingdom, and behind it is Xiangyang. If they are asked to make way for the Jin army, if the Jin army turns against them, Hannan Kingdom will not be able to keep Xiangyang. Therefore, if they give way to the Jin army, if they lose the battle and retreat, or if the Cao army takes the opportunity to seize Fancheng, it will be quite troublesome for Hannan Kingdom.

Wei Yan said this because he was worried that the opposing commander Guan Ping would be difficult to deal with, after all, he had no friendship with the Jin army generals before.

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "I'll write a letter and have someone take it over."

After Guan Ping received the letter, he took a quick look at it and immediately understood it. He stood up and walked a few steps, thinking that the military advisor and prime minister opposite him was worthy of his reputation as he had guessed what he wanted at once.

Guan Ping had been practicing martial arts and learning military tactics before. In Guan Yu's opinion, Guan Ping's aptitude was limited and he needed to study hard and practice diligently. Only when his level reached a certain level could he go into battle and kill the enemy so as not to bring shame to the Guan family.

However, Guan Yu's mistake was that the standard he set for Guan Ping was really too high. Guan Yu used his own standards, so no matter how you looked at it, Guan Ping was not qualified. But how many people in the world could compare to Guan Yu?
Therefore, Guan Ping never had the opportunity to fight in the wars after he became an adult. He just stayed at home and worked behind closed doors. If Zhang Fei and Liu Bei had not died one after another and Hannan Kingdom was in urgent need of manpower, he might not have been released by Guan Yu.

But as Liu Chan came to power, Xu Shu, the prime minister, overcame many objections and persuaded Guan Yu to let Guan Ping go into battle, which is the current situation in Xiangyang.

Assisting Guan Ping were Hao Zhao, the defender of Xiangyang, and Ma Liang, a military officer. Both of them were very capable people, so when Guan Ping came here, he was still full of confidence.

But unfortunately, Guan Ping happened to meet Sima Yi. Although they were of the same age, Sima Yi was already a veteran in battle and had seen all kinds of storms. So after a battle, Guan Ping, Ma Liang and others suffered several minor losses.

Hao Zhao's strength lies in defending the city, so he can't help much in attacking. After all, Xu Shu and Guan Yu's original intention was to let Guan Ping defend Xiangyang, rather than looking for opportunities to kill the enemy and capture the city.

But with Guan Ping's ambition, how could he bear to waste his time like this? At this time, Zhuge Liang's letter just hit the nail on the head.

The letter said that if Guan Ping wanted to make merit, he had to defeat Sima Yi, the great enemy, which required the joint efforts of both sides, so Zhuge Liang asked Huang Zhong to secretly lead troops into Fancheng and set up a trap with Guan Ping to lure Sima Yi's Wei troops into the trap so that they could counterattack and defeat Sima Yi. In this battle, Jin had no plans in Fancheng, and Guan Ping could get all the merits and territory after the battle.

This was undoubtedly quite attractive, and Guan Ping was immediately attracted. He showed the letter to Ma Liang and said, "What do you think of joining the army?"

"Can you trust the Jin army?"

Ma Liang said, "I think you can trust it."

"The Jin army and General Guan have always been here, and they definitely have no motive to harm the young general."

"To be honest, the Wei army on the other side underestimates our group more than the Jin army. If the young general can make them underestimate the enemy, there may be unexpected gains."

Guan Ping pondered for a while before sighing, "It is my incompetence that has failed my father and your expectations."

"Now that we cannot defeat the Wei army alone, we need the help of the Jin army. This is really shameful."

Ma Liang consoled him, "Young General, don't underestimate yourself. The general Sima Yi on the other side is the first person who rose from a civilian official to where he is today through military merit."

"This can be said to be the most difficult person to deal with in Wei State. It is not shameful for the young general to have a slight setback. The key is to see the final result."

Guan Ping nodded and said, "Okay, in that case, let's follow the Jin army's plan and cooperate with Huang Zhong to see if we can make a breakthrough along the way!"

Sima Yi was also staying up late with a lamp on the table in front of him. This map was far less detailed than the Jin army's, but it was already the best map of the Wei State, and it was also densely covered with marks.

Sima Yi was accompanied by his military advisor Xu Miao and his military assistant Liang Ji. Facing their compliments, Sima Yi frowned and said, "Not quite right."

"The Jin army's offensive has slowed down a lot in the past few days. Based on my understanding of Zhuge Liang, he should have divided his troops to deploy them."

"After much thought, I think the most likely problem is with the Hannan Kingdom. I'm afraid they have long been planning to attack the Han River defense line together with the Jin army."

"Although our camp is well built, it is a battle line of several hundred miles after all, and it is impossible to defend it. If the enemy combines all ships to launch a saturation attack on a certain place, I am afraid that within two days, our river defense line will completely collapse."

Xu Miao said: "In this case, we can't just sit there and wait for death. How about we try to counterattack first and seize the initiative?"

Liang Ji said: "What if this is really a trick by the other side to lure me into attacking and revealing my weakness?"

Xu Miao said: "This is just a guess. If we just defend blindly, the opponent will find a flaw sooner or later."

Liang Ji sighed: "But the person opposite is Zhuge Liang."

"This guy has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Who knows when you'll fall for his trick?"

Xu Miao was speechless. He thought that he was no match for Sima Yi, and Zhuge Liang had defeated Sima Yi several times. Now Cao Wei's advisers were all suspicious of Zhuge Liang. How could they fight?
Sima Yi said: "I do have an idea."

"No matter what happens along the Hannan route, the key to the war still lies with the Jin army."

"The overall strength of the Jin army is stronger than ours. If we don't adopt some unique strategies, I'm afraid we will be slowly worn down by the enemy if we continue like this."

"The success or failure of the Jin army depends on Zhuge Liang alone."

"Based on the information I received, I speculated that the Jin army might divide its forces to surround us, which would reveal a flaw: the Jin army is short of manpower."

"As long as we can defeat one of the armies, or directly launch a surprise attack on one of them, we might get unexpected results."

Xu Miao and Liang Ji looked at each other, thinking that this army was taking a very risky move. If they were not careful, they would fall into the trap of the Jin army. They would not be able to return and would suffer heavy casualties. It would be difficult to defeat the Jin army again.

Sima Yi turned to the silent chief secretary Guo Huai and asked, "Boji, do you have confidence?"

(End of this chapter)