Vol 2 Chapter 2533: Sima Yi and Sun Zhongmou

Chapter 2533 Sima Yi and Sun Zhongmou

Chapter 2529: Sima Yi and Sun Zhongmou

Sima Yi joined Li Tang after escaping from Luoyang, because only in Li Shimin could he see some hope of revenge. As a result, the first Guanzhong War ended with Li Tang's disastrous defeat.

In order to preserve the remaining Guanzhong land, Li Shimin had to give up the throne, cede territory, pay compensation, and pay tribute to the Qin Dynasty.

 The Treaty of Luoyang was signed between the Qin and Tang Dynasties, one of which was to hand over the traitor of the Sima family, that is, Sima Yi.

 After learning the contents of the terms, Sima Yi was in despair. He obviously did not think that Li Shimin would protect him. After all, Li Tang did not lack talents at the time, and his role for Li Tang was far from that great.

 But what happened next was once again beyond Sima Yi's expectation.

Although Li Shimin ostensibly agreed to Da Qin's request for surrender, he secretly violated it, secretly made arrangements and protected Sima Yi from escaping from Guanzhong.

Sima Yi knew very well how risky Li Shimin's move was, and it was very likely to anger Da Qin and tear up the peace treaty just signed.

Even so, Li Shimin still let him go. This was what touched Sima Yi the most.

Would Li Shimin let Sima Yi go at the risk of falling out with Da Qin? There are three reasons:

 First, Sima Yi's own abilities are indeed extraordinary. If he is left to operate in the dark, he will definitely cause some trouble to the Qin Dynasty;

Second, as the mastermind of the Luoyang coup, Sima Yi had no other choice but to fight against Qin;

 The third and most important point is that the peace talks were a foregone conclusion at that time, and neither country wanted to continue fighting, so it was impossible for Sima Yi to change the general trend.

It is precisely because of these three points that Li Shimin was willing to take a gamble for Sima Yi, and the result is obvious. Da Qin did not tear up the treaty just because of Sima Yi.

　　It was Li Shimin who took Sima Yi in when he was homeless.

When Sima Yi was at his most desperate, it was Li Shimin who resisted the threat of Da Qin and secretly let Sima Yi go.

 For Sima Yi, Li Shimin was truly benevolent and righteous, but how did Sima Yi repay Li Shimin?

 He gave Li Shimin a hard time.

  The main reason why Li Tang was defeated so miserably and so quickly in the Second Guanzhong War was because of the internal disunity.

The main culprit for the disunity within Li Tang was that people led by Yu Huatian and Li Si were operating in the dark, helping the Qin Dynasty to divide and disintegrate Li Tang's resistance.

Without Yuhuatian to divide Wajia Litang, how could there be so many people turning to Da Qin?

Who brought Keyuhuatian to Li Tang?

 Sima Yi.

Yuhuatian saved Sima Yi’s life during the Luoyang coup, and it was because of Sima Yi that Li Shimin trusted Yuhuatian so much.

Therefore, although Chang'an fell and Li Shimin died in battle, although the main responsibility did not lie on Sima Yi, he definitely had an unshirkable responsibility.

After the fall of Chang'an, Sima Yi learned that Yuhuatian was actually from Da Qin, which made Sima Yi angry and frightened at the same time.

 After all, he had never doubted Yuhuatian, and if the other party wanted to kill him, he would have many opportunities.

Sima Yi felt extremely indebted to his benefactor Li Shimin, who had been tricked by him. But the deceased was gone, and all he could do was to strengthen his anti-Qin decision. This was the only way he could live up to Li Shimin's expectations of him.

Under the protection of bad people, Sima Yi finally chose to join Liu Xiu, the king of Chu, after escaping from Guanzhong.

 There is no other reason. Liu Xiu is the one with the strongest anti-Qin will among all the princes at present, and he has not been defeated by Qin yet.

 Any princes who completely offend the Qin Dynasty will suffer thunderous revenge from the Qin Dynasty.

Li Shimin offended the Qin Dynasty and took advantage of the main force of the Qin army to fight in Hebei, and brazenly launched the Sizhou War.

Li Shimin undoubtedly hurt Da Qin with this blow, so after Da Qin reacted, he defeated Li Tang in one battle. In the end, Li Tang was divided among the Three Kingdoms and was destroyed.

 Liu Ji also offended the Qin Dynasty. As a result, the Northern Expedition army was almost completely destroyed, and he himself was seriously injured. He was later replaced by Liu Yu, and even his wife and son became someone else's.

From this, it can be seen that Great Qin has always destroyed the anti-Qin forces if they can, and continues to suppress them if they cannot. This attitude undoubtedly greatly frightened the princes of all walks of life.

This is also the main reason why the situation in the world has gradually become clearer, but there are still many forces that dare not completely oppose Qin.

 First, he was not prepared to completely fall out with Da Qin;

 The second reason is that he is afraid of retaliation from Qin if he falls out.

With the precedents of Li Shimin and Liu Ji, even if the other princes wanted to rebel against Qin, they would naturally feel awe and fear when they thought of Li and Liu's tragic descent from the mountain. As a result, they delayed again and again, and even now they dare not fight Da Qin completely turned his back.

 But among so many anti-Qin forces, there is one country that is extremely special, and that is Chu.

Chu State was an anti-Qin force from the beginning to the end. It had enmity with Qin as early as Liu Biao's period. Later, Liu Xiu also reversed the situation and never missed any opportunity to target Da Qin.

Da Qin also regarded Liu Xiu as a thorn in its flesh, and its suppression of Liu Xiu and the Chu State never stopped.

  But what’s the result? From the initial one county of Nanjun, to the four counties of Jingnan, and then to the seven counties of Jiaozhou, it dominated Jingchu.

 The more Qin suppressed it, the stronger Liu Xiu became.

Chu State became the only one among all the powers in the world that did not decline but grew even under the pressure of Qin Dynasty.

Although the state of Chu can survive to this day, this is mainly due to the Qin Dynasty's policy of moving north first and then south.

 Great Qin has never concentrated its forces to deal with the Chu State. Only Jingbei was dealing with the Chu State, which gave the Chu State a chance to breathe and develop.

 The three generals Qin Qiong, Yue Fei, and Xue Li who guarded Jingzhou successively were all famous generals famous in the world.

 Under the pressure of these three famous generals, Liu Xiu was able to develop and grow and defend Jiangling, which fully shows his ability and fortune, as well as the strength and resilience of Chu State. It is precisely because of this that Sima Yi chose Liu Xiu.

 In his opinion, apart from the fallen Li Shimin, only Liu Xiuneng was left to fight against Ying Hao.

As for Liu Yu of Shu, although he won the final victory in the internal struggle and took over the military and political power of Shu, there were still hidden dangers internally, and many people were still unconvinced.

 So, in Sima Yi's mind, Liu Yu, who seized power through a coup, was naturally not as good as Liu Xiu, a king who gradually developed on his own.

Since he decided to join Liu Xiu, Sima Yi also had to plan for the future of Chu.

To the east of the Chu State is the sworn enemy Wu State, to the north is the old enemy Qin State, to the west is the ally Shu State, and to the south is the undeveloped wilderness of Siam.

Apart from the useless Siam, the only way Chu could expand was to annex Wu to the east.

Sima Yi thought about it and discovered that there were three obstacles to Chu’s annexation of Wu:

 1. Wu and Chu are equally powerful.

Even if the Chu State is stronger than the Wu State, it is not much stronger, and it is impossible to annex the Wu State in the short term.

 Secondly, although the Wu Kingdom did not have many strong generals, it did have the famous general Sun Wu who was victorious in every battle.

 All the generals of Chu State, including Liu Xiu, were basically defeated at the hands of Sun Wu.

Chu State has no famous generals who can defeat or even rival Sun Wu. As long as the threat of Sun Wu is not resolved, the Chu army will not even be able to defeat the Wu army, let alone annex the Wu state.

Three, Qin and Wu are allies. Qin is too wary of Chu and will never sit back and watch Chu annex Wu.

Once the Chu State launches a war of annihilation against the Wu State, it must win in the short term, otherwise it will benefit the Qin State.

It is difficult to solve any one of Chu's three major problems, let alone all three together.

Sima Yi thought for a long time, and only came up with the same strategy as Da Qin used to deal with Li Tang, which was to disintegrate the Wu State from within. This was the only way for the Chu State to defeat the Wu State.

However, it is definitely more difficult for Chu State to divide and disintegrate Wu State than for Qin State to implement Tang State.

 Da Qin was able to successfully divide and disintegrate Li Tang from within because Da Qin was much stronger than Li Tang. Li Tang had almost no hope of winning, which was why there was such internal disunity.

But Chu and Wu are different. There is not much difference in national power between the two countries, and Wu is extremely united internally. It is almost impossible for Chu to divide and disintegrate Wu from within.

Sima Yi thought it was impossible at first, but after he surrendered to Chu and got a better understanding of Wu's intelligence, he discovered that Wu was not invulnerable, and the only flaw was the issue of the successor.

In Sima Yi's view, the issue of Wu's successor is the last thing that should exist, but it does exist, and it has a tendency to get worse.

Sun Jian, the king of Wu, was old and in poor health. Although his eldest son, Sun Ce, was capable of commanding troops, his political achievements could only be said to be average.

As for the second son, Sun Quan, his ability in commanding troops was mediocre, and he suffered repeated defeats in battles, but his ability in government affairs was extremely strong.

During Sun Quan's tenure as the governor of Yuzhang, Yuzhang was under great rule. From the poorest county in Jiangdong, it became the second richest county in Wu after Danyang.

In addition, Sun Quan directly pointed out the unreasonable regional division of Yuzhang County and divided it into three counties: Yuzhang, Pengze County, and Poyang.

 Since then, Yuzhang County has been divided into three parts.

After the division, the development speed of the three counties in Yuzhang has not slowed down, but has developed faster than before due to administrative refinement and resource integration;

 It was precisely because of his outstanding political achievements in governing Yuzhang that Sun Quan dared to compete with his eldest brother Sun Ce and coveted the position of King of Wu that should not belong to him. However, he did not expect that a major defeat would knock him back to the starting point.

The Japanese pirates invaded the southeastern coast, and Sun Quan was defeated miserably. In addition, the main force was in confrontation with the Chu army, leaving the Wu State with no domestic troops. This triggered a chain of responses, causing the mountains and rivers in the country to rebel, and almost overthrew the entire Wu State.

Although the problems of Japanese pirates and Shanyue were later solved by Sun Ce and Sun Wu, they also added a large number of people to Wu State, which was considered a bad thing turned into a good thing.

But it was Sun Quan who was responsible for this matter after all. Based on this alone, he lost the qualification to compete with Sun Ce.

Sun Jian naturally knew this, so he transferred Sun Quan out of Yuzhang and went to Kuaiji County to serve as the governor.



After the great rule of Yuzhang, Kuaiji County, which was second to last in Jiangdong, naturally fell to the last place.

Sun Jian transferred Sun Quan from Yuzhang to Kuaiji in order to completely cut off Sun Quan's thoughts, but he did not expect that he would be defeated by Sima Yi again.

Finally discovered the flaws of Wu State, Sima Yi naturally wanted to dig deeper, so he took the initiative to ask Liu Xiu for help, changed his name to Zhong Da, lurked beside Sun Quan, and started a plan to divide and disintegrate Wu State from within.

  The reason why Sima Yi chose to start with Sun Quan was that, in addition to Sun Quan being the only person who could threaten Sun Ce, the most important point was Sun Quan's political concepts.

Yuzhang County has experienced countless governors, but why did Yuzhang usher in great governance as soon as Sun Quan took over it?

Sima Yi discovered that in addition to Sun Quan's own ability, another major reason was the support of the aristocratic family.

Sun Jian and Sun Ce's attitude toward the Jiangdong family was always to use and suppress them, and to throw them away after use. They were extremely harsh on the family.

Of course, this is also the general trend. After all, all the princes in the world, except Li Tang, do not suppress the aristocratic families, and there are already aristocratic families in the Ming Dynasty.

 Who allowed the aristocratic family to control so many resources?

 The common man is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying the jade.