Chapter 2532 Sima Yi and Sun Zhongchao


    Chapter 2529: Sima Yi and Sun Zhongchao


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


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


    The Qin and Tang dynasties signed the "Treaty of Luoyang", one of which was the traitor who handed over the Sima family, namely Sima Yi.


    After learning about the terms, Sima Yi was completely desperate. He obviously did not think that Li Shimin would protect him. After all, Li Tang was not short of talents at that time, and his role in Li Tang was far less than that great.


    But what happened later was beyond Sima Yi''s expectations again.


    Although Li Shimin agreed to the request of the Qin Dynasty''s disciple on the surface, he secretly disobeyed the situation and secretly arranged for permission to protect Sima Yi from Guanzhong.


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


    But even so, Li Shimin still let him go. This is what moved Sima Yi the most.


    Li Shimin risked his confrontation with Daqin and let Sima Yi go? There are three reasons:


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


    Second, as the planner of the Luoyang coup, Sima Yi had no other way to go except the anti-Qin road;


    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 gamble for Sima Yi, and the result was obvious that the Qin Dynasty did not tore up the treaty just because of Sima Yi.


    When Sima Yi was homeless, it was Li Shimin who took Sima Yi in.


    At the moment when Sima Yi was most desperate, Li Shimin withstood the threat of the Qin Dynasty and secretly let Sima Yi go.


    For Sima Yi, Li Shimin was really kind and righteous, but how did Sima Yi repay Li Shimin?


    He cheated Li Shimin miserably.


    The main reason why Li Tang was defeated so badly and so quickly in the Second Guanzhong War was caused by the inconsistency between people.


    The culprit that caused the unevenness of the people within Li Tang was that the people led by Yu Huatian and Li Si were moving in the dark to help the Qin Dynasty divide and disintegrate Li Tang''s resistance.


    Without the rain and fields, the division within Waga and Li Tang, how could so many people turn to the Qin Dynasty?


    Who brought Keyuhuatian to Li Tang?


    Sima Yi.


    Yuhuatian saved Sima Yi''s life in the Luoyang coup, and Li Shimin trusted Yuhuatian so much because of Sima Yi.


    Therefore, although the main responsibility was not on Sima Yi when Chang''an fell and Li Shimin died in battle.


    After Chang''an fell, Sima Yi was angry and frightened when he learned that Yu Huatian was actually from the Qin Dynasty.


    After all, he never doubted Yuhuatian, and if the other party wanted to kill him, there were many opportunities.


    Sima Yi also felt extremely guilty about Li Shimin, the benefactor who was cheated by him, but the deceased was gone, and all he could do was to firmly uphold his anti-Qin decision. This was also the only way he could live up to Li Shimin’s expectations for him.


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


    The reason is nothing. Liu Xiu is the one with the strongest will to fight against Qin among all the princes at present, and has not been defeated by Qin.


    Any princes who completely offend the Qin Dynasty will be retaliated against by the Qin Dynasty.


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


    Li Shimin undoubtedly hurt the Qin Dynasty, so after the Qin Dynasty reacted, Li Tang defeated him in one battle, and eventually Li Tang was divided up by the Three Kingdoms and was destroyed.


    Liu Ji also offended the Qin Dynasty, but as a result, the Northern Expedition Army was almost completely destroyed, and he was seriously injured. Although he was replaced by Liu Yu, even his wife and son became someone else''s.


    From this we can see that the Qin Dynasty has always been able to destroy the anti-Qin forces, and if it cannot be destroyed, it will continue to suppress it. This attitude undoubtedly greatly shocked all the princes.


    This is also the main reason why the situation has gradually become clearer, but there are still many forces who dare not completely rebel against Qin.


    First, he was not prepared to completely turn against Daqin;


    Second, he was afraid of being retaliated by Daqin after turning against each other.


    With the precedents of Li Shimin and Liu Ji, even if the other princes were willing to rebel against Qin, they would naturally feel awe and fear when they thought of Li and Liu going down the mountain. As a result, they would delay and delay, and until now they did not dare to completely turn against Qin.


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


    The State of Chu was an anti-Qin force from beginning to end. It had made enemies with the Qin Dynasty as early as the Liu Biao period. After that, Liu Xiu also turned against the Qin Dynasty and never missed any opportunity to target the Qin Dynasty.


    The Qin Dynasty also regarded Liu Xiu as a thorn in his eyes, and the suppression of Liu Xiu and Chu State has never stopped.


    But what is the result? From the original Nanjun county to the four counties in Jingnan, and then to the seven counties in Jiaozhou, they dominated Jingchu.


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


    The State of Chu became the only force among all the forces in the world that has not declined but has grown up under the suppression of the Qin Dynasty.


    Although the State of Chu has survived to this day, this is mainly due to the Qin Dynasty''s policy of first north and then south.


    The Qin Dynasty never concentrated its efforts to deal with the State of Chu. Only Jingbei is dealing with the State of Chu, which gave the State of Chu a chance to breathe and develop.


    But the three generals Qin Qiong, Yue Fei and Xue Li who guarded Jingzhou were also famous all over the world.


    Under the suppression of these three famous generals, Liu Xiu was able to grow and grow, and defend Jiangling, which shows his ability and fortune, as well as the strength and resilience of the State of Chu.


    It is precisely because of this that Sima Yi chose Liu Xiu. In his opinion, besides Li Shimin who has fallen, only Liu Xiuneng and Ying Hao are left.


    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 hidden dangers within him, and many people were still convinced and dissatisfied.


    Therefore, in Sima Yi''s heart, Liu Yu, who seized power through coups, was naturally not as good as a king like Liu Xiu who gradually developed on his own.


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


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


    Apart from Siam, which is just a useless person, the only direction that Chu State can expand is to annex the Wu State to the east.


    Sima Yi thought about it and found that there were three obstacles to the annexation of Wu:


    1. Wu and Chu are of equal strength.


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


    2. Although there are not many powerful generals in the Wu Kingdom, they have the famous general Sun Wu who is victorious in every battle.


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


    The State of Chu was not able to defeat him, even a famous general who could compete with Sun Wu. As long as the threat of Sun Wu was not resolved, the Chu army could not even defeat the Wu army, let alone annex the State of Wu.


    3. Qin and Wu are allies. Qin is too afraid of Chu and will never sit idly by and watch Chu annex Wu.


    Once the Chu State launches a war to destroy the country against Wu, it will be necessary to win in a short period of time, otherwise it will benefit the Qin fisherman.


    These three major problems of Chu State are not easy to solve, let alone the three together.


    Sima Yi thought for a long time and only thought of the same strategy as the Qin Dynasty to deal with Li Tang, that is, to internalize the Wu Kingdom, which is to dismantle the Wu Kingdom, which is also the only way for Chu to defeat Wu Kingdom.


    However, the difficulty of Chu''s implementation of the Wu State is definitely much more difficult than that of Qin State on Tang State.


    The Qin Dynasty was able to successfully dismantle Li Tang from internalization because the Qin Dynasty was much stronger than Li Tang, and Li Tang had almost no hope of victory, so there was such disunity within.


    But Chu and Wu are different. The national strengths of the two countries are not much different, and Wu is extremely united. It is almost impossible for Chu to internally dissolve the Wu Kingdom.


    Sima Yi also felt it was impossible at first, but after he surrendered to Chu and gained further understanding of Wu''s intelligence, he found that Wu was not impeccable, and the only flaw was the problem of his successor.


    In Sima Yi''s view, the issue of Wu''s heirs is the least supposed to exist, but it just exists, and there is a tendency to become increasingly fierce.


    King Sun Jian of Wu was old and weak, and although his eldest son Sun Ce had a strong ability to command troops, he could only be said to be average in terms of political achievements.


    As for the second son of Sun Quan, he was mediocre in commanding troops and was defeated repeatedly in wars, but his government affairs were extremely capable.


    During the reign of Sun Quan as the prefect of Yuzhang, Yuzhang Dazhi became the second richest county in the Wu Kingdom 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 not only did not slow down, but instead, due to administrative refinement and resource integration, the development speed was faster than before;


    It is precisely because of his outstanding political achievements in governing Yuzhang that Sun Quan dared to compete with his elder brother Sun Ce, coveting the position of King of Wu that should not belong to him, but he did not expect that a great defeat would directly fight him back to the starting point.


    The Japanese pirates invaded the southeast coast, and Sun Quan was defeated. In addition, the main forces were confronting the Chu army, and the Wu State''s domestic troops were empty, which triggered a chain response, causing the country''s rebellion, almost overturning the entire Wu State.


    Although the problems of the Japanese pirates and Shanyue were later solved by Sun Ce and Sun Wu, and added a large number of people to the Wu Kingdom, it was considered a bad thing to turn into a good thing.


    But this matter was caused by Sun Quan after all. With this alone, he lost the qualification to compete with Sun Ce.


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


    Kuaiji County is the two provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian in later generations. It is also the largest county in the Wu Kingdom. However, because it is vast and sparsely populated and has many mountains, it is not considered wealthy.


    After the Great Administration of Yuzhang, Kuaiji County, the second-last in Jiangdong, naturally fell to the last.


    Sun Jian transferred Sun Quan from Yuzhang to Kuaiji in order to completely cut off Sun Quan''s thoughts, but he did not expect to backfire because of Sima Yi again.


    After finally discovering the flaws of Wu, Sima Yi naturally had to dig deeper, so he took the initiative to ask Liu Xiu for his appointment, with the pseudonym Zhong Da, lurking to Sun Quan, and starting a plan to internally dissolve the Wu Kingdom.


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


    Yuzhang County has experienced countless prefectures, but why did Yuzhang usher in great governance as soon as Sun Quan governed it?


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


    Sun Jian and Sun Ce have always used and suppressed the attitudes of the Jiangdong family, and they throw them away after using them, which is extremely harsh to the family.


    Of course, this is also the general trend. After all, except for the Li Tang, there are no one in the world who does not suppress the aristocratic families, and there are even more aristocratic families in the Ming Dynasty.


    Who has let the aristocratic family master so many resources?


    Every man is innocent and is guilty of possessing a treasure.


    (This chapter ends)