Wei Ni

Jiang Ji did not realize that his silence made Emperor Cao Rui feel that he was becoming decadent.

But he guessed one thing right. Cao Rui had indeed anticipated that Jiangdong might gain benefits from the war between Wei and Liaodong.

To be precise, Xiahou Hui had mentioned this a long time ago.

The scale of the war against Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong was not small. Although not many troops were mobilized, under the objective conditions of fighting the enemy thousands of miles away, the loss of national strength was equivalent to half of Cao Zhen's attack on Shu, and even worse than the previous Northern Expedition against the Xianbei.

Since Cao Rui ascended the throne, the only offensive wars he had launched were the Battle of Shiting, Cao Zhen's expedition against Shu, and the Northern Expedition against the Xianbei.

The defeats of Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen on the battlefield forced Wei to adopt a passive defensive tactic against Shu and Wu, and also made Cao Rui fall into the frustration of having "no achievements worth writing about" since he ascended the throne.

As for the victory over the Xianbei
From the strategic point of view of Wei, the Northern Expedition to Xianbei and the attack on Gongsun in Liaodong were both for the purpose of stabilizing the rear, and the two can be seen as one battle. The former was to resolve the current threat from You and Bing states, while the latter was to resolve potential risks.

Therefore, Cao Rui could not claim any credit for his achievements before the Gongsun clan of Liaodong was destroyed by the Wei Kingdom.

Xiahou Hui also knew this.

Therefore, when the imperial court officially designated Gongsun Yuan as a traitor and Gongsun Yuan proclaimed himself king, he, who was designated as the chief general to fight against the rebels, followed his duties and made a very detailed battle plan report to Emperor Cao Rui.

Although Cao Rui did not ask him to do so, and after he returned from surveying the terrain in Liaoze, he also sought consultation with Guanqiu Jian, and later Guanqiu Jian submitted a memorial to the imperial court, which was a battle plan.

But Xiahou Hui felt that he still needed to report to the emperor again.

It's not just a matter of worrying that Guanqiu Jian's retelling of certain things was not clear enough, but also because it was a matter of attitude.

It's about military power.
In order to allow him and Guanqiu Jian to accumulate merits and establish prestige, Emperor Cao Rui was willing to gamble with tens of thousands of troops. How could he not even behave properly?
Besides, he really had a lot of things that he needed to say hello to Cao Rui in advance~
There were indeed a lot of things. His memorial was nearly ten thousand words long, recording every detail.

Some of these things had been mentioned before when he was doing calculations in the temple in Luoyang, but he still attached them again this time, and used the actual situation and the previous causes and consequences of Jia Zuo to make Cao Rui, who was far away in the Central Plains, have a clear understanding of the war situation.

Roughly classified, there are three.

First, he must not let Cao Rui send him more troops.

Needless to say, he was mainly worried that there were too many troops and the Liaodong Army would not dare to come out for a field battle, making it impossible to realize his strategy of weakening the Liaodong soldiers and generals and shaking the hearts of the Liaodong scholars and common people.

The secondary concern is that increasing the number of troops will increase the loss of food and fodder.

If the war came to a temporary stalemate and the huge daily consumption of food and fodder left him with no time to even confront the enemy or think of a way out, then he would be in tears.

Secondly, it is the prediction of Gongsun Yuan’s response and the direction of the war.

To put it bluntly, it was to strengthen Cao Rui's confidence in the war and prevent him from being shaken by the advice of the officials in the court.

For this reason, Xiahou Hui, the second emperor, shamelessly plagiarized Sima Yi's prediction.

It is also a very detailed claim that Gongsun Yuan had three strategies for responding to the battle, such as retreating to Xiangping and holding on, stationing troops at the Liao River, abandoning Xiangping and fleeing, etc. It is also a firm assertion that Gongsun Yuan would definitely choose the middle or the worst strategy.

There is no other reason.

Gongsun Yuan does not have that much courage.

Although he might have considered the best strategy of "abandoning Xiangping and escaping into the mountains to preserve strength", this move meant that he had to clear the Liaodong and Xuantu counties.

You should know that among the four counties of Liaodong, Lelang County and Daifang County are both in mountainous areas!

If we abandon Liaodong and Xuantu County, which have the largest population and the most abundant production, it would be equivalent to giving up the entire Liaodong.

Moreover, the purpose of abandoning these two counties was to lengthen the supply lines of the Wei army and wait for the arrival of winter and the cold weather to make the Wei army lose its combat effectiveness and automatically withdraw.

But the problem is that most of the Wei army that attacked Liaodong were border troops from Youzhou.
These border troops are not afraid of the cold.

They could easily accept the two counties of Liaodong and Xuantu, build defensive fortifications, appease the common people, and then slowly erode Lelang and Daifang, making Gongsun Yuan's plan backfire!
The most important thing is that the Liaodong soldiers and generals were reluctant to leave Liaodong and Xuantu County.

Gongsun Yuan is not Liu Bei, the ruler of Shu.

Without the reputation of benevolence and righteousness that is known throughout the world, the common people would be willing to leave their homes and follow their parents and children.

Perhaps, as soon as Gongsun Yuan said he wanted to give up these two counties, half of his soldiers and powerful families would have decided to abandon darkness and join the light, preparing food and drink to welcome the royal army!
The third issue is about the rainy season in Liaodong.

Xiahou Hui claimed that he would definitely lead the army to cross the Banhai Road and reach the Liaoshui River before the rainy season arrived.

But the rainy season would still cause trouble to the expeditionary army. Therefore, he pointed out that when the rainy season came and the Liao River surged, the large ships carrying grain and fodder from Jizhou and Qingzhou could directly arrive outside Xiangping City, which was a good thing with both advantages and disadvantages. He asked Cao Rui not to listen to the words of the officials in the court, who ordered him to withdraw his troops and return because it was difficult to achieve success due to the rainy season.

Fourthly, it is about predicting the movements of Shu and Wu when Wei raised troops in Liaodong.

As for the State of Shu, he concluded that they would not attack because the Yongliang tribes had not been mobilized and the previous military expedition by Shu had failed; and as for the State of Wu, he gave the same inference as Jiang Ji.

It is also believed that given the character of the Wu rulers and their ministers, they would definitely take measures to take advantage of the situation.

But he asked Cao Rui to be at ease.

On the grounds that Jiangdong soldiers would be cowardly if they left the shore and that none of them were brave enough to die, he concluded that even if Wu State sent troops to Liaodong, they would not fight with Gongsun Yuan; instead, they would choose to watch the fire from the other side of the shore and act according to circumstances when the situation became clear. In this way, he had enough time and energy to make preparations in advance for possible surprise attacks from Jiangdong.

Fifth, it is to seek Cao Rui's permission.

He wanted to ask the imperial court to issue another proclamation, in the name of restoring the imprisoned Gongsun Gong's official position, to deprive Gongsun Yuan of his title as the commander of the four counties of Liaodong, so that the soldiers and common people of Liaodong would have more choices.

In order to create discord and shake the Liaodong Army's will to resist.

In any case, although Gongsun Gong was too weak to manage affairs, he was the lord of Liaodong after all. Many Liaodong soldiers and generals were his former subordinates, and Gongsun Yuan had not been on the throne for long.

This strategy of sowing discord is crude and low-brow.

It will definitely not cause trouble to Gongsun Yuan in the early stage, but if Gongsun Yuan fails in the war, the effect will be very obvious, and many people will give up supporting Gongsun Yuan for the sake of their own family's interests.

After all, Xiahou Hui's move gave them a decent excuse to betray their master - they did not abandon their old master and surrender to Wei, but chose to serve Gongsun Gong, who could better preserve the Gongsun family.
As for whether Gongsun Gong was really going to be allowed to lead the four counties of Liaodong afterwards?
Wouldn't it be enough to transfer him to another official position?

Just like Jingzhou surrendered without a fight before, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao, directly recommended Liu Cong to be the governor of Qingzhou, and he was just a figurehead and had not actually taken up the post.

These five points are the contents of Xiahou Hui’s memorial.

After reading it, Cao Rui ordered the governors of the three major war zones, Yongliang, Huainan and Jingxiangyang, to prepare a memorial to discuss the reasons for the war against Liaodong.

It's not that he has no confidence in Xiahou Hui.

Instead, he wanted to know what the plans of the various commanders were, and whether there was any possibility of filling in the gaps for Xiahou Hui.

Cao Rui is particularly good at this.

As long as the strategy is decided, he will not interfere with the governor's decision-making on the battlefield. He will not only give him full trust, but also cooperate with him wholeheartedly.

Sima Yi’s previous request to fight a war thousands of miles away is the best example.

However, after the three generals' memorials were submitted, he read them and sealed them together with Xiahou Hui's memorial.

Because Xiahou Hui mentioned the contents of their memorials.

It’s not that Xiahou Hui’s strategy has surpassed theirs, but they cannot describe the war far away in Liaodong in detail, so they can only talk about it in general terms and add some reminders.

For example, Man Chong, who was guarding Huainan, mentioned the possibility that the bandit Wu might raise an army.

Xiahou Ru, who was guarding Jingxiang, was in a state of depression. Perhaps because the commander of the war was from his family, he changed his usual moderate words in his memorial. He said with contempt that the Gongsun of Liaodong was just a dead bone in the tomb. The reason why he survived for three generations was because the government had no time to take care of him. Now if we send a large army to fight him, we will surely win the battle and there will be no disadvantages. Cao Rui does not need to worry about the disadvantages of the war. However, he did not give any suggestions on the war because he was not familiar with the situation in Liaodong.
Sima Yi, the Grand Commandant stationed in Yongliang, was much more outspoken.

Although he had never been to Liaodong in person, he was quite familiar with the situation there.

It is through the analysis of previous events such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Cao Cao's northern expedition against the Wuhuan in the three counties, Zhang Liao's defeat of Liu Yi, and Gongsun Kang's wild words to Liang Mao that it is pointed out that the difficulty of the war in Liaodong lies not in the number of troops, but in the long distance and difficulty in supply; it is also pointed out that there are three strategies to choose from in Liaodong, namely, the best, the middle and the worst, and it is predicted that Gongsun Yuan will not take the best strategy.

It was precisely because he and Xiahou Hui said the same thing that made Cao Rui completely relieved.

After all, if he even doubted Sima Yi's strategic vision, then he would have no one to discuss war with in the entire Wei Kingdom. So what he had to do now was to follow the previous conclusion, let the officials supervise the transportation of war food and fodder, and then wait for the outcome of the war.

Early summer, late April.

Outside Guzhu City in Liaoxi County, the soldiers who were going to attack Liaodong gathered in their barracks.

On the high platform of the huge parade ground, General Guanqiu Jian, the general who crossed the Liaodong River, read out the manifesto in an impassioned voice to punish the disloyal Liaodong people; below the platform, more than 20,000 Youzhou border troops, 6,000 surrendered Xianbei and Wuhuan cavalry, and more than 10,000 Luoyang Central Army Guards all listened solemnly. Some people had eager and expectant eyes, some were calm, and some looked silent and confused.

They have been organizing their troops in this camp for nearly a month.

The soldiers and generals are already familiar with each other, and the responsibilities of each unit are clearly divided. It is time to set off to the Liaodong battlefield. (End of this chapter)