Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1225 Siege
After leaving Cao Cao's mansion, Sima Yi bid farewell to Zhong Yao and Xun You, and headed towards the top of the city wall under the protection of a group of servants and soldiers.

It wasn't that he had to arrange his schedule so tightly, but Sima Yi felt that given the current situation in the city, it would be safer for him to be surrounded by soldiers on the battlefield rather than as a household slave.

In the carriage along the way, he had already put on the prepared armor, and finally put on the helmet, covering his whole body tightly.

Sima Yi has always been an extremely cautious person, but the things he has been involved in in recent days have made him nervous and unable to sleep at night.

He was actually reluctant to take part in the fight for the crown prince position, but Zhong Yao tied him to the chariot of the Yingchuan sect without even discussing it with him, and forced him to pledge his allegiance, giving him a handle on him.

After thinking about it, Sima Yi felt that he had no choice but to stay out of it, but he did not want to be used as a shield by the Yingchuan faction, so he adopted an extreme method of doing the opposite.

Just like actively sending out his household slaves, deeply binding himself with the Yingchuan faction, as well as his performance and reaction in front of Cao Cao just now, these were all things Sima Yi had considered long ago, in order to create a negative and positive interactive impression on Cao Cao.

That is, he is a person who has the ability to get things done, but acts rashly, has character flaws, and is not in line with the Yingchuan faction.

Such a person cannot come to the front and become the backbone of a faction. Even if he is loyal, he will be suspected by Cao Cao because of his strong ability, such as Zhong Yao now.

Before Sima Yi used his household slaves, he predicted that this matter would be discovered by Cao Cao sooner or later, and eventually traced back to the original mastermind Zhong Yao. This was actually a kind of revenge for Zhong Yao's behavior, so Sima Yi agreed so readily at the beginning.

As for whether Zhong Yao would be suspected by Cao Cao because of this, that was not something Sima Yi could decide. What he wanted to do now was to push others to the front and make himself a scapegoat, while seeking to climb up and gain enough strength to protect himself.

After all, in Sima Yi's heart, only himself can be trusted. Neither Cao Cao nor Cao Pi are people he can entrust his life to, especially since Cao Cao has an erratic personality and has killed so many of his old friends. Sima Yi does not want to die in confusion one day.

Sima Yi didn't know what kind of image he had deliberately created looked like in Cao Cao's eyes. He was also prepared to try his best to escape if things didn't go well. After all, nothing was more important than his own life!

He listened to the wind outside the city and found that the Jin army was not attacking the city, so he climbed up the city wall, but found that most of the catapults that were originally densely packed under the city had been dismantled. He was immediately surprised. Was the Jin army going to withdraw?

But after listening to the soldiers' stories, he found that things were not that simple. The Jin army dismantled the catapults in the early morning and did not leave the outskirts of Yecheng. Instead, they went to find other people.

Sima Yi fell into deep thought, and at noon, his doubts were finally answered. From afar outside the city, an army was rushing towards them, but they were carrying the flag of Cao's army.

When they arrived at the city, a general from the front army came out. After checking the seal, Sima Yi found that it was Cao Hong who was defending the east road.

He quickly ordered people to open the city gates. Seeing that the soldiers entering the city were exhausted, he grabbed a lieutenant and asked in a low voice: "What happened on the eastern front?"

The lieutenant general recognized Sima Yi and whispered, "The Jin army is gathering a large force on the eastern front. The general is outnumbered and has no choice but to retreat."

"General Zhang Xiu's whereabouts are unknown, and General Le Jin was seriously injured. He is now staying in Dongwuyang City with General Li Dian. General Cao heard that Yecheng was in danger, so he came back to rescue it."

After hearing this, Sima Yi complained in his heart, "What's the point of breaking the siege? The entire eastern front has been lost. This will only make the situation worse, right?"
And the most outrageous thing is that the East Route was originally full of generals, but now only Cao Hong has returned. What kind of situation has this caused?

He asked aloud: "Are there many Jin troops?"

The general shook his head repeatedly, "Too many, there is no way we can win!"

"General Cao is here, military advisor, please do as you please."

After saying that, he shook off Sima Yi's hand and returned to the team. Sima Yi saw Cao Hong riding on a horse, his armor covered in blood, his face gloomy and unwilling, and he looked absent-minded.

When he passed by, he didn't even notice Sima Yi and just rode past.

Sima Yi was now thinking that if Cao Hong lost this route, the Jin army would certainly take advantage of the situation to advance westwards and attack the central army where Yu Jin was stationed. By then, Yu Jin would be attacked from both sides and suffer a great loss.

He thought about it but did not go up to say hello. Cao Hong was coming back to see Cao Cao anyway, so let them discuss it themselves. There were Zhong Yao and Xun You in the city anyway. Sometimes being too smart is not good and will make people hate you.

As Sima Yi expected, one hour after Cao Hong entered the city, a spy rushed out of the city with an urgent letter and went straight to the northern defense line where Yu Jin was.

But it was already late. Sima Yi slept in the city gate tunnel all night and heard some news early the next morning.

First, two more officials and generals were assassinated in the city. One of them had followed Cao Hong into the city yesterday. Because he was ordered to rest for a day, he went to the city to find prostitutes for entertainment, but was assassinated in the back alley.

After hearing this, Sima Yi secretly congratulated himself for making a wise choice. This must be the assassin of Xionghu. Yecheng was surrounded like this. The enemy must be attacking from both inside and outside. There is no hope for Yecheng to be defended! The second is Yu Jin, who was stationed more than 100 miles north of Yecheng. He was attacked by the Jin army from the east last night and had to fight and retreat. He had already reached dozens of miles north of Yecheng. Cao Ren and Cao Hong had already led their troops out to meet him.

Sima Yi calculated the time and guessed that this Jin army should be the one that defeated Cao Hong.

The contraction of any defense line will make the nearby friendly forces extremely passive. Cao Hong was only concerned with his own retreat and ended up harming Yu Jin. I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to explain this failure in front of Cao Cao.

Moreover, if Yu Jin was defeated again, the safest western front would probably be in trouble. Sima Yi remembered that it was the area defended by Cao Zhen and Ma Chao. After the Jin army defeated Yu Jin, they would not miss this opportunity and would probably outflank the enemy in one go.

Thinking of this, Sima Yi felt increasingly heavy-hearted. The Jin army seemed to have greatly increased its strength in a short period of time. Even Cao Wei's mainstays, such as Xiahou Yuan and Cao Xiu, had died in battle. Was there really any hope for the Cao family?

Sima Yi looked at the devastated city and thought that if Cao Zhen retreated again, Yecheng would be abandoned and that would be a foregone conclusion.

Just as Sima Yi had expected, after repelling Cao Hong, Yuan Xi did not take advantage of the situation to attack Dongwuyang, but instead ordered Wei Yan and Huang Zhong to advance westward to the middle road and attack the rear of Yu Jin's camp.

However, Yu Jin was experienced and had set up a large number of outposts along the way. He had made this move to deal with the Jin army's ubiquitous balloon reconnaissance, but he did not expect it to come in handy at this time.

When Wei Yan and Huang Zhong were still dozens of miles away, Le Jin learned that the retreat route had changed, so he abandoned the camp immediately and retreated at full speed towards Yecheng.

At this time, Zhang He and Xu Huang, who were confronting Yu Jin and had not yet received the news, were confused when they saw Cao's army retreating rapidly. Then they reacted and immediately led their troops to chase them. However, Yu Jin had been prepared. After some struggle, he successfully escaped from the encirclement that was about to close.

Zhang He, Xu Huang and others saw that their plan had failed, so they had to take advantage of the situation and launch a fierce attack, killing many of Cao's soldiers who had no time to escape, until Wei Yan and Huang Zhong arrived.

After the two generals joined together, they advanced all the way and set up camp forty miles north of Yecheng. Zhang He asked about Yuan Xi's whereabouts and found out that Yuan Xi had gone to Zhuge Liang.

Zhang He asked, "Has the king told you what to do next?"

Wei Yan said, "My lord said that if we defeat Yu Jin, we can split our forces to attack Cao's rear on the west route like we did on the central route. Although the enemy will be prepared, we can force them to Yecheng and prepare for a decisive battle in the future."

"And the two of us will be stationed in the front to build a defense line to prevent Cao's army from counterattacking."

This order was reasonable. Wei Yan and Huang Zhong's soldiers had fought for many days and were exhausted. Their defense was still okay, but they were no longer able to attack.

Zhang He and Xu Huang discussed for a while and decided that Xu Huang would lead the troops to help Gao Lan in the west, while Zhang He would go to support Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang.

Zhang He led thousands of cavalrymen and rushed southeastward. It took him more than a day to reach Yuan Xi's camp to the east of Yecheng.

Zhang He rushed into the tent. Yuan Xi, the chief, was talking to Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, two military advisors. When he saw Zhang Liao coming in, he smiled and greeted him, holding Zhang Liao's hand and saying, "Junyi, you have worked hard."

Zhang He said modestly: "My lord, you are too kind. He fought for more than half a year but did not achieve any success. He only advanced the front line by a hundred miles. But my lord fought in three states and captured the head of Cao Wei's general. We can't do that."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Jun Yi, don't praise me. If you hadn't tied down the main force of Cao's army, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this so easily."

"And this time I have the help of two new generals, Wei Yan and Huang Zhong. They are both outstanding talents of the time. Now I have so many talented generals under my command that I can completely suppress Yecheng."

"What I have to do next is to launch a continuous offensive without stopping for a moment and defeat all the Cao troops outside Yecheng!"

As orders were issued from Yuan Xi's military camp, the Jin army in the entire Weijun and even the entire Jizhou took action. Soldiers and baggage trains sent by various counties and prefectures stretched like straight lines towards Yecheng. Now they were no longer afraid of Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry cutting off their food and grass routes, because all the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had been compressed in the area west of Yecheng.

The other three directions of Yecheng were all covered with large trenches, which were not suitable for cavalry to operate. The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were forced to dismount and engage in infantry combat. However, a considerable number of them were heavy infantry, so they were still able to cope with the Jin army's offensive.

But Cao's army did not expect that the Jin army's offensive would never stop in the next half month. They took advantage of the last period before winter and started all the excavators to dig trenches more than ten miles outside Yecheng.

At this time, Yu Jin, Cao Zhen and others on the periphery no longer had enough space to set up camp, so they were forced to retreat to the west of Yecheng and station there, leaving the periphery of Yecheng empty and using the city walls to block the attack of the Jin army.

The continuous attacks and defenses over the past half month have been extremely brutal. More than a dozen troops from both sides have been fighting within an area of ​​100 miles, and tens of thousands of people have been killed or wounded in a short period of time. Moreover, as the fighting went on, the logistics of Cao's army, which relied on the Guanzhong and Yingchuan lines, were already stretched to the limit.

At this time, Zhuge Liang pointed to the map and said to Yuan Xi: "My lord, these few days are the best opportunity to attack the city."

(End of this chapter)