Three Kingdoms, I'm really not a general!

Chapter 493: Setting Fire to Hexi County

When marching and fighting, sometimes strategies cannot be thought of in the camp alone. Soldiers must be dispatched to the battlefield and some methods of fighting the enemy must be devised based on the battlefield situation.

This is also one of the reasons why Xing Daorong came in person to test the waters.

His affirmative words made Cao Zhang feel a little uneasy.

Let's not talk about Xing Daorong's claim that Hangu Pass was taken in half a month.
It is true that Hangu Pass is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but the opponent is Xing Daorong, and Cao Zhang himself is not very confident.

Although saying that it would take half a month might seem a bit exaggerated and detrimental to one's own morale, Cao Zhang had to admit that this might be a real possibility.

But it is absolutely impossible to say that one can directly reach Yecheng after passing Hangu Pass!

This doesn't mean that Xing Daorong is incompetent, it's determined by the geographical environment.

After all, Yecheng is in Hebei. If Xing Daorong wants to go there, he will have to fight the "Battle of Guandu" again.

How can he be so sure?
There must be something wrong!

Besides, he keeps talking about internal and external troubles. The external trouble is Xing Daorong, yes, but who is the internal trouble?
Isn’t it Sima Yi from Hexi County!
Thinking of this, Cao Zhang's hair stood on end!

If Sima Yi of Hexi County colluded directly with Xing Daorong, then we would be doomed!
Cao Zhang felt that this matter sounded unreliable, but he couldn't resist thinking about it!
If you think about it carefully, Sima Yi lost Chang'an and fled without fighting.

After the journey, they did not return to Yecheng, but directly stationed their troops in Hexi County.

If he joins forces with Liu Bei and sends troops at the same time, wouldn't they be able to attack Huanglong directly and Yecheng would be in danger!
To be honest, when Sima Yi stayed outside, the Cao family only thought that he might rebel, but never thought that he would collude with Liu Bei!

After all, Cao Pi was really good to Sima Yi, so there was no reason for him to harm the Cao family in this way.

However, the current situation, especially after hearing what Xing Daorong said, made Cao Zhang doubt.

He immediately wrote a letter and went to Yecheng, asking his brother to be careful.

Xing Daorong was not sure whether Cao Zhang of Hangu Pass would be influenced by his words, but he did have the plan to provoke trouble in Hexi County.

“In order to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down at home!”

This is an eternal truth!
Indeed, Sima Yi had a lot of thoughts that ordinary people could not understand, but his behavior was so clear that no matter how many concerns people had, they could no longer tolerate him.

Cao Pi certainly wanted to deal with Sima Yi in Hexi County, but because of internal instability and too much external pressure, he was not able to take action openly.

He had no choice but to take drastic measures. On the one hand, he killed the chicken to scare the monkey and moved the Xun family. On the other hand, he brought in Zhang He and Xu Huang to pave the way.

However, even so, he still did not dare to take action against Hexi County.

Or perhaps the cost of taking action is too high!

Over the years, Sima Yi's reputation in the army has also risen. Before the Battle of Chang'an, he was the only general of the Cao family who could compete with Xing Daorong.

The rebellion of such an important general was itself a blow to Cao Pi.

The best way, naturally, is to seize power smoothly and take military power back into one's own hands.

In fact, this is what Cao Pi did when he first proclaimed himself emperor. He did not expect Cao Zhen to live up to his expectations, and he misjudged Sima Yi, which led to the loss of military power today.

However, delaying action is not a solution!

Xing Daorong wanted to give Cao Pi a reason to make up his mind, a reason that he had to get rid of Sima Yi first!
So he immediately wrote another letter to Chengdu, asking Liu Bei to write an article.

Hexi County.

Sima Yi has not had a good time recently. Not to mention his worried expression every day, just the number of his white hairs has increased.

It can be seen that life in Hexi County is not easy.

As for when these sad days began, it has to start from when Zhang He and Xu Huang returned to Yecheng.

During that time, Sima Yi led his troops in Hexi, and there were some doubts among the army.

Sima Yi, however, said to his generals in a friendly way: "This is a plan to cut off the firewood from under the cauldron. When Chang'an moves, we can use this to bypass Chang'an and kill Xing Daorong in his rear."

The generals were extremely depressed because they lost Chang'an without a fight. But after hearing Sima Yi's plan and considering his reputation in the army, they finally felt at ease and followed Sima Yi to station troops here.

Unexpectedly, Cao Pi had a plan and was not afraid of the chaos in Yecheng, and he claimed to be seriously ill.

In this way, Zhang He and Xu Huang were led back to Yecheng.

Sima Yi naturally tried to stop them, but the two generals, remembering Cao's kindness, refused to be stopped.

If we force him to stay, we are afraid that those in the army will oppose it, so we have no choice but to let him go.

From then on... Sima Yi became a little worried.

He didn't expect that after winning people's hearts for several years, he was still no match for Cao Pi's show.

good…

As soon as the news of Cao Pi's serious illness came out, Sima Yi knew it was fake.

And now...

It's not just Cao Pi, even Liu Bei has his eyes on him.

Why?

Because Liu Bei recently issued a summons.

"Sima Yi has made great contributions by abandoning Chang'an. If he is loyal to the Han Dynasty, he can go to Chengdu quickly, where he will be rewarded for his military achievements."

Even a fool could tell that Liu Bei's summons was meant to disgust people.

However, Sima Yi took this very seriously.

This made his good friend Yu Jin feel a little strange.

That day, he asked, "Zhongda... Why do you care about Liu Bei's deliberate disgusting tactics?"

"Just treat him as a fart and ignore him."

However, Sima Yi did not relax at all because of Yu Jin's comfort. Instead, his expression became even more tense and he asked, "Who is Liu Bei?"

"Without power or influence, relying only on the title of the emperor's uncle, the brotherhood between Guan Yu and Zhang Fei started from a small beginning."

"Now that I have inherited the throne, I have proclaimed myself emperor and am heading north to fight. I see great hope of unifying the world."

"How can such a person have nothing better to do than to disgust me?"

Yu Jin heard Sima Yi speak so seriously that he knew what he said was true.

Of course…

What's the point of relying on a strategy that even a fool can understand?
Yu Jin was puzzled and asked: "Liu Bei is like this, does he really think we can surrender him?"

Sima Yi sneered and said, "How can a man like Liu Bei have such womanizing thoughts?"

"This is an open conspiracy, just to draw fire to Hexi and give Cao Pi a reason to take action."

Yu Jin was shocked when he heard this and said, "Now that there is a powerful enemy outside, if Cao Pi attacks Hexi again, does that mean he will ignore Liu Bei?"

Sima Yi said: "If it is not an open conspiracy, Liu Bei's ridiculous order is actually telling Cao Pi that as long as Cao Pi comes to Hexi, Liu Bei will not send troops!"

As soon as these words came out, Yu Jin suddenly stood up and said, "If Liu Bei doesn't attack the fake emperor of the Cao family, why would he be thinking about us?"

"If we stay in Hexi, we can certainly be of use to them. Why would they want to put us to death?"

Yu Jin couldn't figure it out, but since Sima Yi was so sure, he couldn't be making a random guess...

(End of this chapter)