Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 736 The Reincarnation of Heaven
The troops sent by Zhuge Liang to cross the river were led by Wen Qin and Pang De, with Liu Zan leading 5,000 infantry.

When Generals Liu Qin and Tian Zhang were causing chaos in the Wei army, Generals Wen Qin and Pang De, in accordance with Zhuge Liang's pre-battle arrangements, immediately launched a charge towards the chaotic Wei army. The two cavalry units formed a pincer formation, bypassed the relatively strict front army in the rear formation, and went straight to the chaotic left and right wings.

Pang De was quite old, and the leader of the charge was Pang Hui. He inherited his father's bravery, riding a horse and holding a spear, before the Wei cavalry had time to stop him, he galloped several miles in an instant and rushed into the chaotic flank of the Wei army.

The Wei army was in disarray due to its own chaos and the fact that it was marching. Facing the aggressive Han cavalry, the Wei army was in a panic. Before Pang Hui and his armored horse could crash into the crowd, they saw the Wei soldiers fleeing in all directions.

In an instant, the armored cavalry of the Han army rushed into the Wei army with overwhelming force. After Pang Hui stabbed the Wei soldiers to death with his spear, he chopped left and right with his inner-curved ring-headed sword, killing several Wei soldiers and causing the rest to flee in panic.

"Kill Cao Rui and Sima Yi, and you will be rewarded with a thousand gold coins and be made a marquis!"

Pang Hui was in high spirits, waving his sword and shouting loudly.

"kill!"

With this encouragement, the morale of the Han cavalry became higher and higher, and they continued to charge forward. Because the morale of the Wei army was low, the charge of the Han cavalry was like a crushing force, which made the chaotic Wei formation even more chaotic.

At the same time, Sima Yi, who had just crawled up from the ground, was so frightened by the Han cavalry's charge that he had no time to reorganize his army or his horse with a broken leg. He asked his trusted men to help him escape from the chaotic army.

However, the Wei army was defeated by the Han cavalry charge, and the crowd took Sima Yi and his confidants with them during their escape. With the desperate struggle of his confidants, Sima Yi finally left the chaotic army.

At the same time, Sima Yi looked at the Wei army's phalanx again. With his naked eyes, he could see that the Han cavalry, in units of hundreds or even dozens of cavalry, were maneuvering in the Wei army's formation, charging with swords and spears, and breaking through the few phalanxes of the Wei army.

On the battlefield, smoke and dust covered the sky. The number of Han cavalry was unknown. The Wei army had no desire to resist and allowed the Han army to drive them away.

Sima Yi looked gloomy. He had wanted to fight Zhuge Liang today, but his troops were defeated before the battle even started. Now the last army was defeated, so Cao Wei could no longer stop the Han army.

Cao Wei is about to perish!
Sima Yi was extremely unwilling to accept this. He had paid too much for Cao Wei, but he still could not change the fate of destruction.

"The situation is too chaotic, General, please leave!"

"go!"

On the chaotic battlefield, Sima Yi lost contact with his eldest son Sima Shi, and was surrounded by only a dozen close confidants. Because they had dismounted to help Sima Yi, they only had two war horses.

At that moment, Sima Yi was riding on a war horse, and under the protection of his trusted men, he tried his best to avoid the Han cavalry who might attack at any time.

"Bah!"

Suddenly, four or five armed Han cavalrymen appeared behind Sima Yi. Perhaps they saw that Sima Yi was of noble status and decided to kill him.

"Armor Cavalry?"

Hearing the noise, the attendant saw the fully armed cavalry and was immediately terrified. He said, "General, hurry up, the Han cavalry is behind us!"

Sima Yi turned around and saw that the Han cavalry had charged towards him, and his face turned pale.

"drive!"

Out of fear of death, Sima Yi spurred his horse and fled, ignoring his followers who were walking.

Seeing Sima Yi fleeing on horseback, the Han cavalry confirmed that Sima Yi was of noble status and sped up their horses to pursue him.

"what!"

The escorting attendants were either killed by the Han cavalry with spears or swords, or managed to escape with their lives.

In order to pursue the fleeing Sima Yi, the Han cavalry dispersed and aimed their bows and arrows specifically at the fleeing Sima Yi.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

More than ten arrows were shot at Sima Yi in the back. In pain, he could not control his horse and fell to the ground again.

This time he was not as lucky as last time. Sima Yi's head hit the stone on the ground and broke it. Bright red blood flowed out of his helmet and covered Sima Yi's old face.

The Han cavalry chased after him and looked at Sima Yi lying on the ground, not knowing whether he was dead or alive, and asked, "Brother, do you want to kill him?"

"Kill him!"

Cheng looked at the unconscious Sima Yi and said, "You and I have been in the Han Dynasty for many years, but we have not made any great achievements. Now that we see this man is of high status, we can chop off his head, find out his identity, and then ask the Prime Minister for credit."

Cao Pi was defeated in his southern expedition against Zhongli, and a large number of Wei soldiers were captured by the Han army, including the brothers Cheng Ji and Cheng Ji.

Although the two men were surrendered, they were good at using cavalry and were soon recruited into the cavalry to serve as commanders of a hundred cavalrymen.

The Cheng brothers had followed Huo Jun in battle for a long time, but they were unlucky and had not achieved much success. Now that they met Sima Yi, their luck had changed.

"Then let me do it!"

Cheng Ji dismounted from his horse, took out the sharp ring-handled knife from his waist, slit the throat of the unconscious Sima Yi, then chopped him off with the knife a few times, and put his bloody head into a sack.

Poor Sima Yi only felt a pain in his neck before he lost consciousness and became a headless corpse, dying tragically on the chaotic battlefield. Sima Yi's death almost declared that the retreat of the Wei army was unstoppable!

At that moment, the news of the Wei army's inexplicable defeat reached Kebineng's ears.

Ke Bineng was shocked and surprised, and asked, "Why did the Wei army lose?"

"I don't know!"

The attendant hesitated for a moment, then replied, "According to reports from the scouts, the Wei army was suddenly defeated while retreating, and then thousands of Han cavalry charged from both wings, and the Wei army was unable to stop them. The Han army took advantage of the victory to pursue them, and now the infantry has followed closely behind, and most of the army has crossed the river."

"Where is Sima Yi?"

Ke Bineng frowned and asked, "Where is Cao Rui?"

"Sima Yi has disappeared, and the army is now without a commander. Seeing the army's defeat, Cao Rui abandoned his troops and fled under the protection of Xu Chu," said the attendant.

Ke Bineng, who was unaware of the details, was amused by the actions of the Cao Wei monarch and his ministers, and said sarcastically: "The two armies have not even started fighting, and the Wei army has abandoned the battle and fled. No wonder the Han people will rule the world. The foundation of China left by Cao Cao has been ruined by his descendants."

"Then will our army fight with the Han army?" Budugen asked at an inappropriate time.

"Hit me!"

Ke Bineng was very angry and said, "All the Wei people have fled. How can our army fight against the Han army?"

"The power of the Han people is unstoppable. How can we sacrifice our lives for Cao Rui now? Order all the tribes to follow me to plunder Hebei, and then go out of the border from Dai County." Ke Bineng said.

"promise!"

The people of Wei were unwilling to fight, so the Xianbei people naturally had no need to fight for Cao Wei. It would be better to take advantage of the chaos in Hebei and let the army plunder hard. In the future, when the Han Dynasty unified the world, it would not be so easy to plunder.

At Kebinen's command, the horn representing retreat sounded, and the Hu cavalry on both wings, who were eyeing the battlefield covetously, left the battlefield, leaving behind the defeated Wei soldiers.

The news that the Hu cavalry had left the battlefield was quickly reported to Qinan by scouts.

Upon hearing the news of Ke Bineng's retreat, Jiang Ji stroked his beard and smiled, saying: "The Hu people and the Wei army joined forces due to the situation, and now they are defeated due to the situation. The Hu people led their cavalry to retreat, and the Wei army was defeated and fled. Cao Rui has no troops to use, and Hebei will be conquered soon!"

Jiang Ji exclaimed: "Prime Minister used the half-crossing as bait to make the Wei army retreat slightly, and then ordered the surrendered people to cause chaos in the army, so that the enemy would be defeated without fighting. This is really a brilliant idea."

"Ha ha!"

Zhuge Liang stroked his fan and smiled, saying: "The situation in the world is clear. The morale of the Wei army is low. It would be a pity not to let the surrendered people cause chaos!"

Taking advantage of the retreat to cause chaos is essentially a tricky strategy. The reason why it was successful was that the Cao Wei army was of complex composition, the soldiers had no will to fight to the death, and their morale was low. If it encountered an army with strict discipline and strong unity, this strategy would be difficult to succeed.

Zhuge Liang chose this strategy to defeat the enemy because he saw that Cao Wei had internal problems, which led to Liu Qin and Tian Zhang causing chaos during the retreat. Now with the charge of the Han cavalry, it is not surprising that the Cao Wei army collapsed so quickly.

Zhuge Liang stopped what he was doing, sighed slightly, and said, "In the past, the Han and the Xianbei formed an alliance and led the Xianbei to plunder Hebei, which made me feel ashamed. Now Ke Bi is able to lead the cavalry and escape, and he will definitely plunder the counties in Hebei. Now the people will suffer a great disaster again!"

Jiang Ji said: "Prime Minister, if you want Kebi to leave Hebei as soon as possible, you must also make Cao Rui surrender as soon as possible. If the Wei people defend Yecheng for a long time and refuse to surrender, the Xianbei will plunder the northern counties."

Zhuge Liang pondered for a moment and said, "Now that the Wei army has been defeated at the Qi River, there is no longer a large army in Hebei for Cao Rui to command. After this battle, Liang should write a letter to Chen Qun, asking him to persuade Cao Rui to surrender as soon as possible to avoid his own death and the extinction of his clan."

"How does the Prime Minister want to treat Cao Rui?"

Jiang Ji hesitated for a while and said, "If we treat them harshly, I'm afraid Cao Zhen of Bingzhou and Cao Hong of Bohai will not accept it."

Zhuge Liang paced and looked towards the north bank, saying, "Cao Cao and his son usurped the throne, and we must now investigate their responsibility. If we turn a blind eye, I am afraid it will be difficult to deter the evildoers in the Central Plains."

"It's better like this!"

Jiang Ji thought for a while and said, "If Cao Rui is willing to surrender, then we will spare his death sentence and follow the example of Emperor Gaozu. We will change Cao Rui's surname to Liu. Cao Zhen will change his surname to Qin, and Cao Hong will change his surname to Xiahou. We will also destroy the tombs of Cao Cao and Cao Pi, and store their skulls in the national treasury."

Zhuge Liang hesitated for a while and said, "Cao Zhen was raised by Cao Cao himself, and Cao Hong is a relative of Cao Cao. If we follow Wang Mang's example, I'm afraid the two Caos will rebel sooner or later."

"It's not like this!"

Jiang Ji showed a cunning look and said, "Prime Minister, first allow Cao Rui to surrender and persuade the two Caos to surrender. The overall situation is under control now, and then follow Wang Mang's old practice. If the two Caos get angry, they will be punished for treason and the two Caos and their clansmen will be imprisoned and killed."

Zhuge Liang gradually began to think deeply. Although he was a moderate person in politics, when necessary, he would use killing to deter criminals.

"Zi Tong's words make a lot of sense!"

Zhuge Liang thought for a long time and said, "If Cao Rui is willing to surrender, he must be given the surname Liu and cut off all ties with the Cao family. As for the rest of the Cao family, I will not mention them for now. All the former Wei officials who are willing to surrender can surrender."

As many of the ministers who persuaded Cao Cao to become emperor have died over time, it is difficult to hold them accountable. If the list is expanded to hold those who persuaded Cao Cao to become emperor accountable, it will be detrimental to the future governance of the Han Dynasty and will easily cause panic.

Next, the only thing left was how to deal with the surrender of Cao, which would require Zhuge Liang to think for a few more days.

ps: There will be another chapter tonight

(End of this chapter)