In order to prevent Sima Yi and Cao Rui from continuing to connect, Cao Pi specially transferred Sima Yiyuan to Xuchang to guard, but he still underestimated his son Cao Rui and even underestimated Sima Yi's ability.

Although he was far away in Xuchang and could not contact Cao Rui directly, Cao Pi could not detect the secret communication of letters in private. During the year of Cao Pi's fierce battle with Sun Quan, Cao Rui would communicate with Sima Yi almost every five days.

After learning that Cao Pi was about to go to the army, Sima Yi immediately warned Cao Rui in a letter that he would not only welcome Cao Pi back to Beijing in a state of great victory in the southern expedition, but also return the power of the state to supervise the country as soon as he saw Cao Pi.

Cao Rui is a smart man. He knows Sima Yi's intention to let him do this:

This mobilized many troops but hardly seized Sun Quan's city and pool. This was a great shame for Cao Pi who was eager to establish his authority. In order to blur this fact as much as possible, he would particularly appreciate Xiahou Shang. This was naturally not hidden in Sima Yi's eyes. He asked Cao Rui to welcome Cao Pi with the understanding of the triumphant army to avoid touching Cao Pi's rebellion; and returning the power to supervise the country was a more clever move. Cao Pi was eager to end the war and Sun Quan's return to Luoyang because he noticed that he had been away from Luoyang for too long. If he did not go back, he would be very likely to face the danger of Cao Rui's complete control of real power and even undermining himself. Cao Rui immediately returned the power to avoid arousing Cao Pi's suspicion.

Cao Rui did this without any fault and did achieve good results. Seeing that Cao Pi was away, Cao Rui actually made the national government cuisine in an orderly manner. Moreover, he did not see any signs of disagreement from his actions. He began to slowly lower his vigilance towards Cao Rui, but he was not completely relieved.

So shortly after Cao Pi entered Luoyang, under Chen Qun's secret incitement, many ministers asked Cao Pi to submit Cao Rui as the crown prince in view of Cao Rui's outstanding performance. These people did not include Sima Yi in Xuchang...

Facing the advice of the ministers, Cao Pi was not in a hurry to make a decision, so the matter was left unresolved.

For Cao Pi, he could not determine how far the relationship between Sima Yi and Cao Rui had reached, but in comparison, he was still obsessed with the gloom of the strength of attacking Wu.

Especially when Cao Pi learned that Liu Bei had re-concluded an alliance with Sun Quan during his lifetime, and Liu Chan, who ascended the throne, continued to maintain his alliance with the Eastern Wu under Zhuge Liang's strong suggestion, which made Cao Pi feel uncomfortable because he knew very well that neither the Eastern Wu nor the Shu Han side was his opponent, but once they formed an alliance, it would be hard to say.

Jia Kui, who was in Yuzhou to help Cao Pi stabilize his side, also wrote a letter to advise Cao Pi that after the Battle of the King Ting, Shu Han was already very clear-headed, and Eastern Wu would not ignore the flat defense line that lasted thousands of miles long to attack Yizhou, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. At least for decades in the future, Wu and Shu would not have major military conflicts, but would be possible to join forces to resist Cao Wei. For this reason, Jia Kui reminded Cao Pi to be prepared for some precautions.

The reason why Cao Pi transferred Jia Kui from his side to serve as the governor of Yuzhou before he became emperor was because Yuzhou was the real foundation of Cao Wei, and its strategic position was very important. Although Jia Kui did not stay with Cao Pi like Sima Yi, this just reflects Cao Pi's trust in Jia Kui, which is much more than Sima Yi's trust.

Seeing Jia Kui's handwritten letters made Cao Pi's determination to attack Wu again.

In Cao Pi's opinion, the new and old regimes of Shu Han were replaced at this time, and Yong Kai's rebellion broke out in southern Yizhou. It was too late for Zhuge Liang to clean up the chaos. On the surface, it seemed that attacking Shu Han was the best choice, which was also the reason why some officials suggested that Cao Pi attack Shu.

However, Cao Pi was not an ordinary person. He knew that Yizhou, which had a complex terrain, would take immeasurable time and expense to conquer Yizhou, and at this time, the Eastern Wu was likely to attack his back. However, if he directly attacked the Eastern Wu, even if Zhuge Liang and Liu Chan wanted to send troops to provide assistance or had trouble in Yongliang, they would be powerless.

For this reason, Cao Pi made a strategic plan to fight again in the south, but at that time he was opposed by Xin Pi and Wang Lang in the court. Xin Pi, who had previously gone on the expedition as a military advisor, knew very well how difficult Lu Xun and Sun Quan were to deal with it, and this attack would not have any result. Instead, he should learn from his lessons and raise the people and farm. It would take at least ten years before he could have the strength to destroy the Wu Kingdom.

So I beg Cao Pi to take back his order, but Cao Pi did not give up because of this and still went against the opposition to issue an order to advance.

In August of 224 AD (the fifth year of Huangchu of Wei), after making all the preparations for combat, Cao Pi still ordered the king of Pingyuan Cao Rui to supervise the country and Sima Yi to guard Xuchang. Compared with the previous one, he left the Central Army General Cao Zhen and the Secretary of the Secretariat to assist Cao Rui, and before leaving, he told Cao Rui that both of them would be ceremonially ceremonially for military and political affairs. This move was memorable.

Then, he led his army south for the second time, with the navy as the main force, personally drove the dragon boats along the Caishui River and Ying River to Shouchun, and arrived in Guangling in September, posing a frontal threat to the Northeast Defense Line of Dongwu.

Cao Pi's second personal expedition seemed to be just a bluff in the eyes of Sima Yi, who was in Xuchang. The Eastern Wu must have been prepared for a long time, so naturally there would be no result in this battle. He would even withdraw his troops before the fight started.

As a result, Sima Yi expected that shortly after Cao Pi came to Guangling, Lu Xun ordered the defending general Xu Sheng to build a fake city building of hundreds of miles between Jianye and Jiangcheng by using a plan to make the city-suspected city, and placed a floating boat on the river surface to make the sea-suspected soldiers. At that time, the river water surged. Cao Pi, who was standing on the north bank of the river, saw such a spectacular river defense, knew that he could not cross the Yangtze River, so he ordered the withdrawal of troops again.

While Cao Pi was visiting Guangling, the prefect of Guangwei County, under the instigation of the general Liao Hua of Shu, and was preparing to surrender to Wei Yan, who was guarding Hanzhong. After the news reached the position of Guo Hua, the governor of Yongzhou, he was worried that the prefect of Guangwei County was familiar with the deployment of Tianshui generation. If he disclosed these secrets to Shu Han, the border of Yongzhou would face a great crisis.

In order to stabilize the situation in Longshang, Guo Huai decided to intercept and kill the rebels before they had crossed the Wei River. However, the situation was urgent and he had no time to mobilize so many troops. At this time, Sima Zhao said to Guo Huai:

"The art of war says: soldiers are very fast. Uncle Changjian should lead his troops to intercept the attack while sending scouts to Tianshui to urge the prefect Ma Zun to send troops to Duan Gu to intercept the killer, and then we will attack him behind him. This will surely succeed."

After hearing this, Guo Huai stroked Sima Yi's head and praised:

"It's Zhao'er after all, it's a clever plan!"

Seeing that Guo Huai praised him, Sima Zhao pestered Guo Huai and said:

"I'm going too!"

At this time, Sima Fu, who was standing by, quickly stopped him:

"Zhao'er, marching and fighting is not a joke, you are too young..."

However, before Sima Fu finished speaking, Sima Zhao refuted him firmly:

"My father was over 10 years old and he could help his uncle give advice, so could I, Sima Zhao!"

Seeing that Sima Zhao could not stop his determination, Sima Fu and Guo Huai had no choice but to allow him to join the army to attack Linwei.

At the same time, Guo Huai also sent a scout to Tianshui to inform the prefect Ma Zun, and then led more than 1,000 people directly under the headquarters to cross the Jingshui River and head straight for Linwei.

Shortly after the scout and Guo Huai's troops split into two groups to Tianshui, they were suddenly shot and killed by cold arrows flying from afar.

The feather arrow shot the scout's forehead accurately, making him not sure what was going on until he died.

Soon, "Liu Ji" who was hiding nearby came to the scout's body with Cao Hong, who was holding an iron bow. He squatted down and found the handwritten letter written by Guo Huai from the scout's body, and then sneered:

"It seems that your order cannot be transmitted to Tianshui. It's a pity, Guo Huai..."

Cao Hong was shocked when he saw "Liu Ji" who could smile calmly no matter what happened, even when he conspired to kill someone, he was a little scared. However, due to the grudge between Zhao Rui and himself and Sima Yi, he had to join forces with "Liu Ji":

"Fortunately, you have discovered that the prefect of Guangwei County and have been secretly engaging in Zhuge Liang. Otherwise, it would be really difficult to find such an opportunity to catch them all in one go. I didn't expect that you could even use Zhuge Liang..."

"Liu Ji" stepped on the back of the horse and looked towards Duan Gu, saying meaningfully:

"Let me see, how will you deal with it next?"

After rushing to Linwei City, Guo Huai found that the defenders in the city were indeed missing, so he continued to chase Duan Gu that he thought he had agreed with Ma Zun.

However, when Guo Huai and Sima Fu's pursuers came to Duangu Mountain Road, they did not find any traces of troops passing by. Not only that, they did not even see Ma Zun's men, which made him feel extremely strange.

At the same time, Guo Huai and Sima Fu also faintly into the valley. The atmosphere was unusual and surprisingly quiet...

At this moment, Sima Fu shouted loudly to Guo Huai:

"Retreat quickly! There is an ambush among us!"

But it was too late at this time. Just as Guo Huai ordered to retreat immediately, Wei Yan's 20,000 troops suddenly broke out from the south of the valley, and more than 2,000 rebels from Linwei appeared in the north of the valley entrance. The difference in strength between the two was too large.

Realizing that he was trapped, Guo Huai immediately pulled Sima Zhao on the back of the deputy general's horse to his mount, then took off the tassels from his head and covered Sima Zhao's head, raised the long sword in his hand and said to the soldiers:

"Brothers! Go out with me!"

Sima Fu raised his crossbow and covered Guo Huai's back. The two of them led their men to break through to the north entrance of the valley, but faced strangling on both sides, the Duangu Mountain Road was extremely narrow, and it was impossible to rush out.

In the end, under the desperate escort of the soldiers, only Guo Huai and Sima Fu broke out of the siege, but the enemy troops behind him still pursued him relentlessly. In order to avoid capturing Sima Fu in one net, they separated the road with Guo Huai and lured the pursuers to chase him.

At the critical moment, Sima Fu tied his robe to the horse's back, then jumped into the grass, avoiding the enemy's pursuit, but he also injured his right arm because of this, and had no way to use a crossbow gun.

For Sima Fu, the danger was not completely resolved. Instead, he entered another bigger dangerous trap...

He realized this because after the pursuit passed, Cao Hong, who appeared behind him, suddenly appeared, and strangled his neck with a bowstring before Sima Fu could react.

Sima Fu, seriously injured, could only struggle desperately, but he was seriously injured and had no choice but to Cao Hong, whose physical and martial arts skills were several times stronger than him. His eyes were covered with bloodshots, and the lasting sense of suffocation made his consciousness gradually blur, and the left hand that was holding Cao Hong's arm was slowly losing strength.

At this time, Cao Hong was also focused on killing Sima Fu. He didn't notice that Cheng Wu, who was following them, had already swung his sword to stab him in the back. Cao Zhen was stabbed by Cheng Wu because he could not dodge. In desperation, he could only dodge sideways, while Sima Fu, who escaped from danger, lay on the ground and coughed violently. The bright red mark on his neck was clearly visible.

"Shuda, are you okay?"

After Cheng Wu forced Cao Hong back, he quickly stepped forward to check Sima Fu's injuries. He was furious and rushed towards Cao Hong with a sharp sword in his hand:

"I kill you!"

Since Cao Hong had been stabbed by Cheng Wu, and Cheng Wu's martial arts were not inferior to him, he soon got at a disadvantage. Seeing that the situation was not good, Cao Hong reached out to pull out a feather arrow from the quiver behind him and shot it quickly towards Cheng Wu who was approaching him. Cheng Wu dodged in time, but Cao Hong took this opportunity to draw out the feather arrow and shoot it at Sima Fu, who had no power to dodge...

After shooting Sima Fu, Cao Hong quickly stepped onto the back and fled. Cheng Wu wanted to chase him, but was stopped by Sima Fu:

"Cheng Wu! Stop chasing Guo Huai! Hurry up and chase Guo Huai, just Zhao'er is the most important thing!"

Sima Fu, who endured the severe pain and pulled out the feather arrow, forced himself to stand up, but soon he felt the blood in his body as if it was starting to flow backwards. Then he vomited blood and then sat on the ground.

Seeing this, Cheng Wu jumped off his horse and ran to Sima Fu. After Sima Fu looked at the arrow of the feather arrow in his hand, he immediately understood that Cao Hong had smeared the poison on the arrow.

The toxin spread quickly, and Cheng Wu also saw from Sima Fu's pale face and black purple lips that he had been poisoned, which shocked Cheng Wu, but Sima Fu panted and grabbed Cheng Wu's clothes and said:

"There is no time. Since they can ambush me, I will never let Guo Huai and Zhaoer go. Don't worry about me, go..."
Chapter completed!