The Duke of Shu Han began guarding Jingzhou in place of Guan Yu.

Chapter 362 Conditions
Sima Yi was actually willing to surrender to the Han dynasty.

Miwei was initially quite shocked.

He even suspected that it might be because of him that this "Emperor Gaozu of Jin" suffered from Zhuge Liang PTSD earlier than the original historical figure.

So much so that when he saw that the prime minister could probably live another ten years in good health, he went home, closed the door, and thought about it. He felt utterly hopeless and decided to just give up.

But upon calming down and thinking about it, I realized that this was actually quite reasonable.

Because after Cao Pi became emperor and established the state, the internal political ecology of Cao Wei was completely different from that of Shu Han.

In particular, with the implementation of the Nine-Rank System for Officials, there was a tendency towards oligarchy.

In other words, the emperor could not completely control the government.

Meanwhile, powerful clans and aristocratic families could greatly influence the emperor's policies.

Although the emperors of Cao Wei still possessed a certain degree of authority compared to the aristocratic politics of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in later generations.

However, compared to the emperors of the Han Dynasty, their power was somewhat diminished.

On the other hand, the Shu Han dynasty inherited the system from the Han dynasty, and Liu Bei was a strongman who had emerged from the era of warlordism.

Therefore, the prestige of the Han emperors who revived the Han dynasty three times remained unshakable.

It was only because of Liu Shan's personality that he appeared to be a ruler who did nothing.

However, this did not prevent the powerful clans from gaining strength under the Shu Han system, despite numerous obstacles.

Not to mention that Miwei had taken many precautions against this years ago.

In short, under the combined influence of these inevitable and accidental factors, prominent figures from the Central Plains gentry, such as Sima Yi, emerged.

It was clear that the ship of Great Wei was about to sink.

Naturally, they would have to find a way out for themselves and their families.

The worst-case scenario is that they would perish along with Cao Wei.

A slightly better option was to join Ji Han's ship as a surrendered person.

Even better than that was the simultaneous revival of the Nine-Rank System of Officials while parasitizing the Shu Han dynasty.

Once that happens, it won't matter whether the emperor's surname is Liu or Cao, or whether the country is called Han or Wei.

However, as mentioned earlier, the latter is indeed quite difficult.

Therefore, these people decided to settle for second best, taking advantage of the fact that Cao Wei could still struggle for a few more years, coupled with the general trend of people wanting peace and stability, and sought to obtain the status of being granted land and being enfeoffed as kings or marquises as early as possible.

how to say?

Mi Wei was instinctively wary of Sima Yi.

But he never overestimated his skill in remote micro-management.

Seeing this, they decided to wait and see how Zhuge Liang in Chang'an planned to handle the situation.

Unsurprisingly, Zhuge Liang adopted a rather pragmatic approach to this.

He first replied to the other party's request to be made a king, but agreed in principle to make Sima Yi a county marquis with a real fief.

The fiefdom could be in Ji County, other counties in Youzhou, or even other more prosperous prefectures and counties.

For most of the Han Dynasty, this was theoretically the highest title that non-Liu clan members could obtain.

It should be noted that Zhuge Liang himself was only the Marquis of Wuxiang! (Note)

Secondly, this title of marquis was not given for nothing; it had to be earned through military merit.

Specifically, would it be to cooperate with Zhao Yun to quickly capture Yanmen, or for Sima Yi to personally carry out a righteous betrayal of Cao Rui when the Han army conquers Hebei in the future?

This can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

It can only be said that the earlier and greater the merit, the more generous the reward.

This time, Sima Yi may have already entrusted something to his eldest son.

The reply was sent to Youzhou and returned the next day along with Xu Shu's second secret letter.

Sima Shi said that Xie Jun could be appeased as a county marquis, but his father must be granted the title of king.

However, a concession could be made: the fiefdom could be changed from the entire territory of Youzhou (where Ji County is located) to Liaodong Commandery, and the title of king could be changed to the second-ranking Liaodong King.

In exchange, Sima Shi was willing to send troops to attack Gongsun Gong, the governor of Liaodong under Cao Wei, to expand the territory of the Han Dynasty and take over Youzhou. To be honest, Sima Shi's proposal was clearly not in the current interests of the Shu Han.

Because Liaodong was too remote and too cold to be cultivated due to the Little Ice Age, it was relatively barren.

The cost of taking it down was considerable, but the expected returns were not high.

It would be far more cost-effective to force the Gongsun clan to surrender directly in the future.

Even if direct military conquest were to be considered, it would only be after unifying the north.

The Shu Han side actually hoped that the Sima clan could directly participate in the attack on the core areas ruled by Cao Wei.

However, Xu Shu raised another point of view in his secret letter.

He believed that if Sima Shi were to launch an eastern expedition to Liaodong, he could draw away all of Cao Wei's relatively strong border troops in Youzhou.

If a major battle were to occur in Hebei in the future, the Han army would have one less enemy province and one less worry province.

Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Miwei had additional considerations regarding this.

That is, he knew that according to the original historical development, Sima Yi and Guanqiu Jian caused a large number of casualties among the Han people in Liaodong during their joint conquest of Liaodong.

Afterwards, they did not leave enough troops to replace the Gongsun clan in guarding the counties east of the Liao River.

Therefore, after their withdrawal, Liaodong was invaded by foreign tribes such as Goguryeo.

So much so that it required a large-scale military campaign and another war.

If the Sima clan were to directly replace the Gongsun clan in guarding Liaodong, would this consequence have been avoided?

It's better to get the Sima family and sons cheap than to get Goguryeo cheap.

Moreover, Xu Shu had also calculated the military situation in Youzhou very clearly.

Thus, the Shu Han rulers and ministers quickly reached an agreement and agreed in principle to the Sima father and son's request to be enfeoffed as Kings of Liaodong.

The reason it is "in principle" is because...

As I said before, if you want to be made a king, first show real military achievements, and then ask for rewards.

So, in the late summer of that year, Sima Shi, who had been prepared, together with another Protector of the Xianbei, Xie Jun, who had been successfully bribed, each led 10,000 troops, totaling 20,000, and marched eastward from Yan State (prefecture) to launch a surprise attack on Liaodong.

This unusual military mobilization could hardly be kept secret from the neighboring Ji Province for long.

However, the two sides had already reached a tacit understanding through private communication.

While Sima Shi and others launched their eastern expedition, Zhao Yun had already taken the lead, heading north from Jiuyuan to Yanmen, and first divided his troops to block Qian Zhao near Guangwu.

Then he led the remaining troops to continue north, entering the Kou River basin near Lingqiu County of Zhongshan State (Prefecture), and then went southeast down the river, crossing the northern part of the Taihang Mountains, and entering the vicinity of Puyin County in the lower reaches.

This refers to the Puyin Pass, one of the eight passes of Taihang.

This place is theoretically also an important military passage.

However, because it was located further north than Jingxing and most of the area was within the cover of the Wei army in Youzhou, Qianzhao was not as heavily guarded as it was in Jingxing—of course, it could also be because the troops were simply not enough.

In short, Zhao Yun, taking advantage of intelligence discrepancies and his extremely decisive raids, successfully infiltrated the heartland of Cao Wei's territory in Hebei.

This immediately drew the attention of Ye City to Sima Shi and his group.

The reason why Zhao Yun was so familiar with the geography of this place was naturally because the south of Yanmen Commandery and Zhongshan State was Changshan Commandery, where his hometown Zhending was located.

However, this was ultimately just a cover operation, and Puyin Pass was indeed quite remote, so the opposition from Lu Yu, the governor of Bingzhou, could not be ignored.

Therefore, Zhao Yun actually only brought a thousand or so knights to the vicinity of Puyin as a feint.

It's not enough to return home in glory.

But in any case, he did manage to drive a thorn in the side of the Han army in the heart of Hebei.

Now it remains to be seen how Sima Yi and his son Sima Shi will fulfill their promise of being made kings in the south and north respectively.

……

[Note: Whether Zhuge Liang's title of Marquis of Wuxiang and Zhang Fei's title of Marquis of Xixiang were township marquises or county marquises is controversial. Scholar Lu Bi, for example, argued that they were township marquises. We won't delve into the details here, as it doesn't affect the logic of this passage.]

(End of this chapter)