In August of 222 AD (the third year of Huangchu of Wei), after Liu Bei fled to Baidi City (Yong'an), the generals of the Eastern Wu warrior Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang and other generals wrote to Sun Quan, requesting to step up the encirclement of Yong'an, kill Liu Bei first and then destroy Shu Han.

At this time, Cao Pi had secretly ordered Xiahou Shang to lead his troops to secretly station around Yiyang, appearing to assist Sun Quan in fighting against Liu Bei, but Lu Xun could see at a glance that Cao Pi must have the intention to plot against Wu. If he supports the battlefield in Jingzhou, he only needed to send Cao Ren, who was guarding Nanyang, to go south immediately. Xiahou Shang's purpose of stationing troops in Yiyang was to suddenly stab Wuchang from behind. Moreover, Zhuge Liang would not sit idly by Liu Bei, and rashly attacking Yong'an would inevitably be ambushed by the Shu army.

So Lu Xun, Zhu Ran and Luo Tong wrote a letter to request return the troops and end the war.

At the same time, Lu Xun also expected that Cao Pi would soon make another request to let the prince's son Sun enter Luoyang as a hostage. His real purpose was to take advantage of the situation when the main force of the Eastern Wu was in Jingzhou. For this reason, he reminded Sun Quan to take more precautions.

Sure enough, after receiving the results of the battle report of the Battle of the King, Cao Pi was amazed that Lu Xun was talented and thought that Sun Quan would definitely take advantage of the victory to pursue the battle, so this was the best opportunity to attack the Eastern Wu. So he asked Sun Quan to ask Sun Deng to set off for Luoyang. He originally planned to let the Shizhong Xinpi and the Minister of the Minister Huan Jie go to the Eastern Wu to start the army, but unexpectedly, before he and the other two set off, Sun Quan once again refused the date of letting Sun Deng go on a journey as a pretext.

Now Cao Pi thought he had the reputation of becoming a military leader, so he began to prepare for a strategic plan to attack Wu.

When asking for advice from Jiang Ji, Jiang Ji said to Cao Pi:

"Sun Quan is a smart man. He knew that refusal this time would inevitably arouse His Majesty's dissatisfaction. I'm afraid he has been ready to fight you. Moreover, the Wu army wiped out Liu Bei's 50,000 troops at a very small price in the battle of the Qingting. Now the morale is in full swing. Your Majesty is not a good time to send troops at this time."

Cao Pi felt very uncomfortable when he heard Jiang Ji's words of enhancing others' ambitions and destroying his own prestige, so he sent someone to Cao Zhen's mansion to summon him to the palace to meet him.

At this time, Cao Zhen was playing chess with his adviser Huan Fan. After hearing the summons from the envoy, Huan Fan reminded Cao Zhen:

"I'm afraid that General Xuan entered the palace at this time to discuss the matter of going south to attack the Eastern Wu."

"What?"

Cao Zhen was shocked after hearing this because he and Jiang Ji had the same view on this matter. Huan Fan seemed to see through his thoughts. He put down the chess piece in his hand and asked, "What do the general plan to do?"

"That's all right, of course, it's to stop Your Majesty from expeditioning south..."

Before he could finish speaking, Huan Fan spread his palms and interrupted him:

"No, according to my opinion, I am afraid that your Majesty will seek the consent of your general as the leader of the military general because he encountered resistance from others. This is enough to show that Your Majesty's determination has been made. If the general objectes, then Your Majesty will undoubtedly vent his anger on you because of this, so you can only agree and not object."

"Do you want me to fight this unsure stick?"

Huan Fan analyzed: "That's not necessarily the case. Lu Xun is currently on the front line of the Qiting. Although Liu Bei was defeated by him, Liu Bei had just retreated to Yong'an and Zhao Yun led 40,000 elite troops from Jiangzhou to Yong'an to protect the enemy. In addition, they were also gradually gathering the broken remnants of the Shu army. Now there are almost 50,000 people. In order to prevent Liu Bei from revenge, Lu Xun would definitely stay in Yidu to guard. In this way, he was unable to clone his clone, and the first major obstacle to our army's southward movement would no longer exist."

After hearing Huan Fan's words, Cao Zhen also felt something was right. In addition to the first time, Huan Fan also reminded Cao Zhen:

"Zhang He, a famous general who had already entered the hinterland of Jiangling, is familiar with the terrain of Nanjun and is a rare general. The general can transfer him to his command to fight south together, which can also increase his confidence in winning."

"Transfer Zhang He again?"

Cao Zhen felt very embarrassed about this: "But Zhang He only arrived at Chencang Camp last year. Is it appropriate to mobilize so frequently?"

Huan Fan smiled and said, "There are few military generals like Zhang He in the world. Besides, Shu Han has just had an old hatred with Eastern Wu before it has been snowed. He has no spare energy to go north in a short period of time. The transfer of Zhang He is also for the sake of the overall situation."

When Cao Pi was seeking opinions from all the ministers Nanzheng, Xin Pi agreed with Nanzheng. Jiang Ji insisted on his original opinions. Sima Yi pleaded for the Pingyuan Hou Cao Rui in March. Although Cao Rui was finally named King of Pingyuan, Sima Yi was suspicious of Cao Pi and remained silent. All his eyes were on Cao Zhen. In the end, Cao Zhen agreed with Cao Pi's plan to fight Sun Quan in the south, which made Cao Pi very happy. So he ordered General Xinpi Cao Zhen to be the commander and Xinpi to be the military advisor, and immediately prepared to lead the army south.

However, one detail attracted Sima Yi's attention, that is, Cao Zhen transferred Zhang He, who had just arrived at Chen Cang's camp, back to the team of the Southern Expedition. If it were normal, he would not care so much about this matter, but Sima Zhao is now in Chen Cang...

After receiving the transfer order, Zhang He wanted to take this opportunity to take Sima Zhao back to Luoyang to see his parents, but at this time Sima Yi wrote to him and asked Zhang He not to bring Sima Zhao back and let him continue to stay in Yongzhou.

Coincidentally, Sima Zhao himself had no intention of returning to Luoyang, because since he followed Zhang He to Chen Cang, he had witnessed the real military formation that could not be seen in the military art books. At the same time, he and Guo Huai, the governor of Yongzhou who had previously rescued him from the man in black, chased him all day long to ask questions.

Although he missed his mother and family very much, Sima Zhao still gritted his teeth and made up his mind:

He must wait until he has enough ability to protect his mother before he will return to Sima's home to bring his mother back.

I don’t know why, but Guo Huai, who is cold and silent to outsiders on weekdays, is always very gentle to the eleven-year-old Sima Zhao. No matter what request Sima Zhao makes, he will try his best to satisfy it.

Seeing that both the father and son were equally stubborn, Zhang He had to entrust Sima Zhao to Guo Huai and set off for Luoyang.

After learning that Sima Zhao was beside Guo Huai, Sima Yi immediately found Sima Fu:

"Shuda, you will immediately send a letter to Cheng Wu and Zhong Yu, and let them set off for Yongzhou immediately."

Sima Fu heard the urgency of the matter from his serious tone:

"Brother, are you worried about Guo Huai? But I think he should not have any malicious intentions towards Zhaoer."

"No, I'm not worried about how he will do to Zhao'er. I'm worried that someone will use Zhao'er to borrow my knife to kill him..."

Soon Sima Fu understood what Sima Yi meant, and he became more aware that he had no time left:

"But in order not to arouse Cao Pi's suspicion, you ordered Zhong Yu, Jia Mu and Cheng Wu to escape and stay in Yecheng for the time being. It's too late to let them rush to Yongzhou. Why don't you go?"

Although Sima Yi was always worried that Sima Fu would be in danger, he knew that he could not stop Sima Fu, so he patted Sima Fu on the shoulder and said, "Be careful of everything..."

After the grand plan for the Southern Expedition was decided, Sima Yi began to work on another major event, which was to help Cao Rui, who had been demoted, regain his position as soon as possible. For this reason, he thought of the person who could speak beside Cao Pi at this time, that was Gao Rou, the Hou of Guannei.

When Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and relied on his own, he still stayed in Xuchang Palace. For this reason, rumors spread everywhere in Xuchang City. Liu Bei and Sun Quan took advantage of the opportunity of "exploding fire with heavy rain" during the Fengshan period, and secretly spread the remarks of slandering Cao Pi in the city. The influence gradually spread. Cao Pi, who was angry and angry, immediately ordered the execution of those who spread rumors and rewarded the whistleblower with a large sum of money, so that many people in the city were falsely accused. Fortunately, Gao Rou dissuaded Cao Pi in time and carefully identified every case, avoiding many unjust cases and stabilizing the people's livelihood in Xuchang City.

Since then, Cao Pi has admired Gao Rou's calm and steadfast political talents very much. In addition, Wang Ling, another governor of Yanzhou who Cao Pi, also wrote a letter to recommend Gao Rou, which made Cao Pi gradually reuse him, and granted him the title of Marquis of Guannei.

When Cao Pi decided to go south to fight against Sun Quan, Gao Rou was dealing with the aftermath of moving the capital to Luoyang in Xuchang. After learning that Cao Pi was about to fight south, he immediately explained what he had and left to return to Luoyang, preparing to dissuade Cao Pi.

However, when he rushed to the gate of Luoyang City, he found that Sima Yi, who had formed a deep friendship in Changshan, had been waiting for him at the gate of the city. He was naturally very happy to be together, but Gao Rou was also deeply surprised.

"Zhongda...why are you here?"

After dismounting, Gao Rou walked to Sima Yi and smiled at the reason why he appeared here. After hearing this, Sima Yi smiled and bowed and said, "I think Brother Wen Hui will definitely come back after the news of His Majesty's southern expedition to Xuchang."

"I was just about to ask you, how could Your Majesty be so reckless? Why don't you stop it?"

Faced with Gao Rou's series of questions, Sima Yi turned sideways and pointed his hand at Cheng's door and said to him:

"This is not a place to talk, let's talk in detail when we enter the city."

Sima Yi invited Gao Rou to his home as a guest, but Gao Rou was not in the mood to reminisce about the past with Sima Yi. Shortly after the family had tea, he stood up and wanted to go to the palace to meet Cao Pi. Sima Yi picked up the teacup and stopped him:

"Now that the imperial edict has been issued, Brother Wen Hui cannot change anything even if he goes to see His Majesty. His Majesty originally wanted to use his resourcefulness and familiarity with Jiang Ji along the Yangtze River as a military advisor, but because Jiang Ji opposed sending troops, he temporarily replaced him with Xinpi. This shows how determined Your Majesty is in this matter. What's the use of you, brother?"

After hearing Sima Yi's words, Gao Rou had no choice but to sit back to her original position:

"When I was in Xuchang, I also heard the strange story of Lu Xun defeating Liu Bei with a magical pen. Such a person cannot be defeated overnight. What's more, the Wu army is in full swing now, and His Majesty will probably be unable to do it if he wants to take advantage of the situation."

"Actually, you should understand that your Majesty's initial intention of attacking Wu this time is the same as Liu Bei's attack on Wu, which is to establish his authority. Since Your Majesty has no idea of ​​letting us join the army, it is useless to think more."

As Sima Yi saw that the tea in front of Gao Rou had already been cold, he reached out to pour out the tea and brewed it again for him. At the same time, he observed Gao Rou's reaction and said: "But I am really worried that Luoyang is very empty after His Majesty's personal expedition, and the Wei State has been in short supply since its establishment. If the war ahead is in a stalemate, no one in the capital will defend the country, I am afraid..."

In fact, when Sima Yi heard from Sima Yi that Cao Pi was personally leading the army to the southern expedition, Gao Rou was already considering this issue. It was just that the matter was involved in the position of crown prince, so he did not dare to say it easily. After Sima Yi mentioned this, he also expressed his concern: "It is only that although the eldest son Cao Rui was renamed the King of Pingyuan, he did not enthrone the crown prince after all. It can be seen that Your Majesty was still afraid of the eldest son because of the death of Mrs. Zhen. But among the sons under Your Majesty, the rest of the princes were very young, and only the eldest son was smart and agile. If Your Majesty wanted to fight in person, he would also be qualified to serve as the governor at this time."

Although Gao Rou did not express his position clearly, Sima Yi had already heard his position on the issue of establishing a heir from Gao Rou's tone. Seeing that the temptation had already come to an end, he sighed deliberately and said, "It's a pity that there are many people who can see this matter among the ministers, but none of them have the courage to touch His Majesty Ni Lin to make such advice..."

Gao Rou knew that Sima Yi took a great risk to Cao Rui be re-established as king less than a year after being demoted to the Housing. He also knew Sima Yi's difficulties, so he immediately expressed his position:
Chapter completed!