Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1423 Suspicion
Sima Yi did not even escort Cao Pi into the city, but led his troops straight to Hanzhong.

Logically speaking, as he was the hero who opened up this route, he must send Cao Pi back to Chengdu. However, Sima Yi knew what was going on. When he rushed over to see Cao Pi, he saw not only surprise on the other's face, but also a hint of caution that was hardly noticeable.

Sima Yi had been trying to figure out Cao Pi's thoughts over the years, and he immediately understood when he saw this. If he had put himself in Cao Pi's shoes, it would have been impossible for Sima Yi to have no fear at all, and he might even have been more cautious.

As an emperor, he would definitely be thinking at this time, what if the trusted ministers who came to welcome him rebelled and ambushed him in the city?
Of course, this possibility is not very high. After all, if Sima Yi really wanted to kill Cao Pi, he could just lead his troops to kill him. So Cao Pi's expression immediately softened.

Sima Yi saw all of this and thought to himself that if it were him, he would not give up his vigilance.

Because rebels did not necessarily ambush convoys, this approach would not only make it difficult to find the target, but would also accidentally injure other ministers, causing trouble for the change of dynasties.

Sima Yi felt that if they really wanted to rebel, it would be safer to trick Cao Pi into the city, then find an assassin to kill him and put the blame on the Yizhou gentry.

Of course, the current situation is extremely turbulent, and Sima Yi would definitely not do such a crazy thing at this time. He just deduced what might happen in his mind. Now, he is still loyal to the Wei court and is a loyal minister in Cao Pi's words.

So what he had to do now was to eliminate Cao Pi's suspicion, so he tried his best to calm Cao Pi's emotions and proposed to lead his troops immediately to Hanzhong to resist the Jin army.

Sima Yi realized that after he spoke, Cao Pi was obviously relieved and readily agreed to take the city without even asking about the layout of the city. This made Sima Yi further certain that Cao Pi was definitely suspicious of him!
Sima Yi couldn't help but recall that Zhong Yao had once privately told him that as long as the ministers were capable, the emperor would definitely be on guard, and the ministers just had to do their job well.

But why?
Why should I be suspected even though I support the entire Wei court?

Do you really think anyone can clean up this mess?
Sima Yi's heart was filled with turmoil, but he pretended to be calm on his face and led his soldiers towards Hanzhong.

When he arrived in Hanzhong, it was already two months later and summer had already begun. Cao Zhen was in charge of Hanzhong. Upon learning that Sima Yi was coming, he allowed Sima Yi to enter the city with no more than ten personal guards.

After hearing this, Sima Yi felt uncomfortable at first, but he still went into the city and paid a visit to Cao Zhen obediently.

When Cao Zhen saw Sima Yi, he said, "General, you are from Chengdu. Have you met His Majesty?"

Sima Yi replied, "I saw him outside the city of Chengdu, so I came to Hanzhong to support you, General, on your Majesty's orders."

Cao Zhen nodded slightly, "Thank you, General. Bo Ren is blocking the Jin army at Wuzhangyuan now. The situation is not optimistic. Please go to rescue him."

Sima Yi thought that Xiahou Shang was not in Hanzhong, but still in Wuzhangyuan, so he asked, "What is the enemy situation over there?"

Cao Zhen said stiffly: "I don't know either, so I asked the general to rescue quickly."

Sima Yi was furious. We are both generals. I went all the way to Chengdu and back, but you only defended Hanzhong and tried to investigate the enemy's situation?

He slowly opened his mouth and said, "General, the State of Wei is already weak now. The troops I brought were all assigned to me by His Majesty. If the enemy situation is wrong and too many are killed, it will not only be difficult to explain when I return, but it may also affect the survival of the State of Wei."

His words were soft but firm. Both of them held the same military rank of general, but Cao Zhen had just kept calling him general, which was a bit inappropriate. Sima Yi, on the other hand, used the term "qibing" which is a term used by subordinates to address their superiors, which was a clear sarcasm, and Cao Zhen could naturally understand it.

As expected, Cao Zhen's face flashed with shame and anger, but he couldn't refute it because he was the one who was rude first, so he could only say: "General Sima, don't worry. Although the intelligence of the past few days has not been delivered, I still have the battle reports from a few days ago."

After saying this, he took out a few bamboo slips and said, "Please have a look, General."

There was obviously some sarcasm in these words, but since Sima Yi had already achieved his goal, he suppressed his anger for the time being, held the bamboo slips, and stood on the ground to read them carefully.

Cao Zhen saw this and did not ask Sima Yi to sit down. He just sat there and waited until Sima Yi spent a quarter of an hour reading the bamboo slips. He then put the bamboo slips back on the table and stood up and said, "I have a general understanding of the situation. I will let the soldiers rest outside the city for a day and set out tomorrow."

After hearing this, Cao Zhen's tense expression relaxed a little, and he stood up and said, "Thank you very much."

"I will arrange for the food and supplies. Once they are ready, I will ask the general to inspect them."

Sima Yi said, "Thank you very much. I will not bother you any more."

Cao Zhen did not try to persuade him to stay, and immediately extended his hand, "Please!"

Sima Yi left Cao Zhen's mansion with a sneer in his heart. He naturally knew where Cao Zhen's hostility came from.

At the beginning, Sima Yi followed Cao Pi's secret order. He first intercepted Cao Zhang at Wuzhangyuan and forced him to commit suicide. He then captured Cao Zhi in Hanzhong and took him all the way to Chengdu to lock him up.

Although all this was done under the instruction of Cao Pi, it would inevitably arouse great hostility from the Cao clan, including Cao Zhen.

Sima Yi's actions from Wuzhangyuan to Chengdu were on behalf of Cao Pi. As an outsider, it was obvious that Cao Pi wanted to avoid the Cao Wei clan's leniency towards Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi. However, from Cao Zhen's perspective, Cao Pi not only did not trust the Cao family, but also let outsiders execute his own people. How could he feel comfortable? Moreover, Cao Zhang, as Cao Cao's son, was forced to commit suicide. Will Cao Pi use these methods on his own Cao clan members in the future?

In addition, Sima Yi traveled thousands of miles to Hanzhong with Cao Pi's order, and it seemed more like he came to supervise the army out of distrust of Cao Zhen. Under all these factors, it would be strange for Cao Zhen to have a good face.

Sima Yi was well aware of the twists and turns in the matter. As the scapegoat pushed by Cao Pi, he naturally felt uncomfortable as well. However, he had already anticipated this situation. In fact, it was precisely because he guessed it in advance that he secretly promoted the formation of a situation of confrontation with Cao Zhen.

Sima Yi naturally had his own considerations. If this continued, the news of their discord would inevitably reach Cao Pi's ears. Cao Pi's thinking was different from that of ordinary people, and the disagreement between the generals would make him more at ease.

Hanzhong was a very sensitive place. If it was lost, the State of Jin would march straight in. With normal defense, Hanzhong would be difficult to capture. The biggest hidden danger was surrendering to the enemy.

That's why Cao Pi let Sima Yi and Cao Zhen take charge together to check and balance each other, and also put the most reliable Xiahou Shang in the middle. This way, no matter who has problems along the way, the other two parties can counterattack.

Sima Yi guessed this correctly, so he deliberately made things difficult for Cao Zhen. This way, when Cao Pi found out about it in the future, he would have an excuse to suppress Cao Zhen and appease himself at the same time.

As a member of the Cao clan, Cao Zhen also has his bottom line, which is to put the interests of Wei first. In other words, he can indeed make things difficult for Sima Yi, but he will not endanger Sima Yi's life or cause the situation to collapse. With this bottom line, Sima Yi does not have to worry too much.

Sima Yi walked out and sneered in his heart. Cao Zhen had not thought too much, or it could be said that whatever he thought was useless. From the moment Cao Zhang wanted to run to Hanzhong to find Cao Zhi, Cao Pi was completely disappointed with the Cao clan.

The most troublesome thing about Cao Zhen's situation was that even though his child was adopted by Cao Pi, precisely because of this, Cao Zhen's future was the most difficult among all members of the Cao clan, and it might even be a dead end.

There is no other reason. If Cao Pi died and his adopted son ascended the throne, and Cao Zhen was still alive, who would own the country?

Therefore, Cao Zhen's position could only be far away from the center of Wei court, the farther the better. So he and Xiahou Shang became the best candidates to guard Wuzhangyuan to Hanzhong.

So now a strange sight has formed: three great generals of Wei State are all crowded on the Hanzhong Road, while on the Chengdu side, there is only one civil general, Chen Qun, left.

This is also what Cao Zhen was dissatisfied with. Do other passages in Yizhou not need to be defended?
Sima Yi set out the next day. When he arrived at Wuzhangyuan after walking for half a month, Xiahou Shang had already set up numerous camps. Sima Yi saw that everything was in good order and the soldiers were in high spirits. He could not help but admire him and said to Xiahou: "The general is really good at managing the army."

Xiahou Shang smiled bitterly and said, "Don't mention it. It's just that the Jin army didn't launch a major offensive."

"They launched a few exploratory attacks, then retreated to dig trenches and build camps outside Wuzhangyuan. They had no intention of attacking us at all."

Sima Yi thought for a moment and understood. He said, "It seems that Jin wants to build a defense line centered on Chang'an to stabilize the situation. Will it launch a large-scale attack in a short period of time?"

"It will be very difficult for us to counterattack. We can hardly bring out cavalry. Even if we fight our way out of Wuzhangyuan and enter the plain near Chang'an, we will be attacked by the Jin cavalry and will be at a disadvantage from the start."

Xiahou Shang said, "I think so too."

"It's not difficult to get out of Wuzhangyuan. The difficult part is that there is no other way to go after we get out."

"As long as the enemy defends Chang'an and launches cavalry attacks from the outside, we lack siege equipment, so we have no way to stop them."

"But the enemy can advance step by step and erode us year by year. Sooner or later, it will be difficult to defend Wuzhangyuan or even Hanzhong."

"Does Zhongda have any good plan?"

Sima Yi thought to himself, what other strategies can I have? After being beaten like this, the only difference is whether I die ugly or honorably.

He thought for a long time and said, "We can only turn Wuzhangyuan into a huge camp and cultivate land at the same time."

"Also, we don't necessarily have to leave the mountain from Wuzhangyuan and retreat hundreds of miles. Although crossing the mountains is extremely troublesome, if we persist in opening up mountain roads, we can open up roads to Sili and even Liangzhou in several directions."

"Even if we send a small group of troops to harass them, if we find the right direction, we can still cause considerable turmoil in the State of Jin."

"The border across from Guanzhong is thousands of miles away, and it's impossible to completely defend it."

After hearing this, Xiahou Shang exclaimed: "Zhongda is really amazing. He saw at a glance where the Jin army was most difficult to deal with."

"In the next six months, let us work together to stabilize the situation in Wei State."

(End of this chapter)