In 257 AD, it was the twentieth year of Yanxi of Shu Han, the second year of Cao Wei Ganlu, and the second year of Taiping of Eastern Wu. In May of this year, Cao Wei's capital governor Yangzhou Zhujun, the general of the expedition to the east, Zhuge Dan raised the flag in Shouchun. Announced the dispatch of troops to defeat the Sima clan, who intended to usurp the throne.

This is the third time that Shouchun has raised the banner of crusading against the Sima clan after Wang Ling and Biqiu Jian. It is also the last resistance of the local real power generals who are loyal to the Cao Wei regime (this is not necessarily the end of Cao Wei, but more of the last one).

This year, it has been 18 years since Sima Yi launched the coup d'état in Gaopingling. Sima Zhao, who succeeded Sima Yi and Sima Shi, has been in charge of the Sima clan for two years. The forces loyal to Cao Wei were already minimal, and it can be said that this rebellion launched by Zhuge Dan was doomed to failure from the beginning.

However, Guan Yi, as a traverser, knows how it ends. People in this era don't know anything about it. Zhuge Dan's rebellion, for the increasingly weakened Han and Wu countries, is tantamount to a shot of chicken blood with sufficient weight!

The closest to Cao Wei's Yangzhou (Cao Wei's Yangzhou was only a small part of the northern part of Yangzhou in the Eastern Han Dynasty) reacted quite quickly, and the general Sun Qi quickly sent the former Cao Wei generals Wen Qin and Wen Yang and the Eastern Wu generals Quan Duo and Quan Duan to lead tens of thousands of troops to rush into Shouchun to assist in the defense before Cao Wei's Luoyang court crusade army was in place. At the same time, the Eastern Wu side continued to recruit men and horses, and the grain and grass were ready to meet the upcoming Cao Wei expeditionary army with Zhuge Dan's rebels.

On the Shu Han side, after learning of Zhuge Festival's rebellion, the general Jiang Wei once again strongly asked the imperial court to distribute grain, grass and armor, and he wanted to take this opportunity to go on another northern expedition.

Faced with the opportunity of a large-scale rebellion within Cao Wei, Zhuge Zhan, who had resolutely opposed Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition, could not calm down. He no longer insisted on his opinion, but kicked the ball to Emperor Liu Chan.

"Well, does the waiter mean to let me decide? Can't you give an opinion? ”

"Your Majesty forgives your sins. The puppet Wei rebelled again, and it was indeed a rare opportunity. However, it is an indisputable fact that the state has been conquered one after another, the government treasury is empty, and the people are poor. So, so, the ministers really don't know what to do. ”

"....... hey...... Zhongchang served, Fengzong still can't look at things? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the slave personally went to Shang Shuling's house yesterday, and Shang Shuling still couldn't get up, so ......"

"....... hey"

Liu Chan is very smart and also has high political wisdom. He knew very well that this Shouchun rebellion might not necessarily lead to a good result. At this time, Shu Han may not be able to get good when he sends troops. But for the Shu Han, who claimed to be the orthodox Han dynasty, the crusade against Cao Wei was itself the only proof of the legitimacy of his regime. Now that there is such a big rebellion within the family, you don't send troops to recruit it, so what do you call the Han orthodoxy?

So at this time, Liu Chan missed Chen Yuan very much. If it was Chen Yuan, then he would definitely strongly recommend another Northern Expedition. Even if the Northern Expedition fails, Chen Yuan will not hesitate to carry the pot of failure, and it will not have any bad impact on Liu Chan. But Zhuge Zhan, the son-in-law, went too far, and kicked the ball directly to himself - where is the attitude of a courtier? As a courtier, you can't just take the blame for the emperor just to cherish your feathers!

"Well, what do you mean by shooting?" The acting secretary general is incompetent, isn't he? Then I asked the secretaries directly.

But alas, all of them are not open.

What kind of people are these! You've joined forces to roast me on the fire!

"Call, the general Jiang Wei led the troops to the northern expedition to the puppet Wei. It is necessary to use troops cautiously and repeatedly look for good opportunities to break the enemy. ”

…….

Wudu County, under the debate. Jiang Wei, the general of Shu Han, was stationed at the festival.

"General, the will of the imperial court has come down. Allow us to send troops! ”

"Good, I'll take a look...... Hey......"

"Why is the general sighing?"

"Huran (Liu Yin), come and see this will of His Majesty. How many troops are allowed to be used? There is also the phrase of using troops cautiously and repeatedly looking for good opportunities to break the enemy...... Your Majesty, this is asking us to focus on stability. In other words, the soldiers are to be produced, but it does not matter if they do not get decent results, but there must be no big losses. ”

"How can Your Majesty do this? On top of this battle array, how can there be a foolproof strategy? ”

"Chen Fengzong is ill, Your Majesty is above the court......"

"General, after Shang Shuling fell ill, the supply of our army ......."

"I know, I know." Jiang Wei paced back and forth irritably for a long time: "The gap between the national strength of the Han and Wei countries is getting bigger and bigger, and the talents of our army are gradually withering...... Don't look for life in the battle anymore, don't say that the revival of the Han family is still in the old capital, and whether my Han can survive or not is ...... Hey, Wei can only do his best to figure out one or two. It's just that I'm going to meet the prime minister over there in the future, and I'm ......."

"General, even so, we still have to do it, don't we?"

"Yes, even if there is no hope at all, we will fight to the end!"

It can be said that Jiang Wei's situation is much more difficult than that of Zhuge Liang's era.

After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang was an out-and-out minister of Shu Han: The emperor or something will go to my side! The other ministers will also go to my side. Military, civil, and diplomatic affairs are all up to me. If I want to go on the Northern Expedition, the manpower and material resources of the whole country will be transferred to me.

But Jiang Wei is completely different, he is not a minister. He can't get involved in civil affairs, and diplomacy basically has nothing to do with him - anyway, diplomacy with Cao Wei is just one word: fight! As for the military, speaking of which, he is the highest military commander of Shu Han and a general. However, he can only mobilize the mobile corps directly under him, and there are no more than 50,000 people in the sky. This is still after Fei Yi's pacifist hung up, and the army in his hands had never exceeded 20,000 before!

So in the era of Zhuge Liang, the Northern Expedition of Shu and Han. Cao Wei had to defend with the strength of the whole country. And Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition, basically a commander of the Yongliang Military Region can deal with it.

The decline of Shu Han was caused by many factors. The most fundamental reason is that after a long time since the founding of the Shu Han Dynasty, new clans began to form, and began to embezzle the country's resources, resulting in the state getting less and less from the peasants, and having to further exploit the yeoman farmers who could be controlled, and then causing the life of the remaining yeoman peasants to deteriorate and go bankrupt on a large scale - the whole vicious circle. Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition did cost a certain amount of national strength, but this consumption was not at all an order of magnitude with the consumption of Zhuge Liang's era. Jiang Wei is more of a pathetic backstabber.

"Either way, this is a rare opportunity, no matter how small the hope is, we still have to try to seize it. Hugh, give the order to go down, sort out the armor, and count the grain and grass. Prepare for the army. ”

"No!"

"By the way, let's send someone to Bo Gong and Yuan Jian, and ask them to lead the soldiers and horses of their headquarters to meet within ten days."

"Uh...... Promise! ”

Where there are people, there is strife. Shu Han's mobile corps is, in general, a place where a group of idealists gather - knowing that they can't do it. But even this idealistic team has the same voice.

Zhang Yi, whose name is Bogong, is a general from Yizhou. It is the representative of the Yizhou faction in the military. This one, like Qian Zhou, was a staunch anti-war activist. He was extremely resistant and dissatisfied with Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition over the years. But who made Shu Han have fewer and fewer generals to fight, and they are getting older and older? Relatively speaking, Zhang Yi, who is only in his fifties, is a rare general who is not very old and has a good ability to lead troops. Moreover, due to political considerations, how could the Northern Expedition of the Han Dynasty not have representatives of Yizhou people? Therefore, every time Jiang Wei sends troops, he must bring Zhang Yi as much as possible. Although Zhang Yi was full of reluctance, he also had to follow the Northern Expedition.

As for Liao Hua, this old gentleman was not against the Northern Expedition. But the old gentleman was very dissatisfied with Jiang Wei's ability: Fei Yi used to restrain you, and you didn't get any results if you were a soldier. Now you are a great general, and the most elite troops in the country are handed over to you, but you still cannot achieve decisive results. It fully shows that you are not a good person - it is better to replace me.

Despite this, the commander of Shu Han is really too lacking, so Jiang Wei has to endure Liao Hua's eyes and ridicule every time to bring this person Rui. In any case, this old gentleman is a veteran of the Jingzhou faction, and Jiang Wei needs Liao Hua's military talent on the one hand, and he also needs to rely on him to suppress the young people of the Jingzhou faction on the other hand.

Because, the second generation of the Jingzhou faction, such as Zhuge Zhan, Zhang Shao and others, as well as Fan Jian, Dong Ju and others, who were still small characters in the Jingzhou faction when Shu Han was founded, and now have grown into big bosses, have begun to gradually merge with the Yizhou faction in their political opinions, and they don't want to go on the Northern Expedition.

As a native of Liangzhou, Jiang Wei, who was a general of Cao Wei, was actually the loneliest ideal adherent of Shu Han in this era.