Sima Yi in Zitong. I've been in a very bad mood lately, and I can describe it as "terrible".

The East Road Army, which he had high hopes for to attack Jingzhou, was unable to break through Huya Mountain, which was defended by Huang Zhong after Zhang Ren became the commander, although it improved and captured Jingmen Mountain again. This battle has been fought to this extent, and it really makes the Yizhou army feel as difficult as pulling teeth from the mouth of a tiger.

The year-long offensive and defensive battle made the Yizhou East Road Coalition Army, which originally had 130,000 soldiers, now have only 80,000 left, while the defending side, which originally had 30,000 Jingzhou soldiers and 20,000 Wuxi barbarian soldiers, now has less than 25,000 left. Yizhou lost 50,000 soldiers, and Jingzhou lost 25,000 soldiers, just to fight for Huya Mountain and Jingmen Mountain, which are sandwiched between the banks of the Yangtze River.

The reason why Huang Zhong was able to withstand Zhang Ren's fierce attack was only because at the most urgent time, Liu Biao sent Li Yan with 30,000 reinforcements to join the defensive battle group in time. In this way, not only did the number of troops defending Huya Mountain double, but the originally low morale was also encouraged and improved.

It is naturally difficult to fight 80,000 with 25,000 men, but if you defend 80,000 with 55,000 men, you can rest easy on the defense.

Today, the situation on the Eastern Front is once again in a state of stalemate, and without external forces to make changes, it is difficult to make a major turn for the better for a while. The reason for this passive situation stemmed from the accidental assassination of Sun Jian in Wuzhou. If Eastern Wu still sent troops to attack the southeast of Jingzhou, the 30,000 fresh troops that Li Yan came to support could only scruple about one side, either defending Guiyang or saving Yiling, in short, it would be difficult to take care of it and completely mess up Jingzhou.

Sima Yi really hated the person who secretly calculated Sun Jian in his heart, and he had no choice but to send someone to contact Cao Cao and Liu Bei again, making it clear that Yizhou was facing difficulties now, and only asked Cao Liu to divide Jingzhou Nanjun and Wuling, hoping that the imperial court would launch an attack on Liu Biao in the north of Jingzhou as soon as possible to avoid changes over time, and Zhao Xing sent troops to Shangyong to rescue Jingzhou.

Sima Yi was polite to Cao Cao and Liu Bei in the letter, but the truth of the cold lips and teeth was very clear. He believed that with the political wisdom of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, they would never sit idly by and watch Yizhou be taken by Zhao Xing, and they were also willing to see Yizhou and the imperial court join forces in the Jingzhou area, and eventually form a favorable situation of back-to-back joint efforts against Zhao Xing.

The enemy of the enemy is a natural ally, and the only thing Cao Cao and Liu Bei can count on now is Sima Yi, so Liu Biao's power in Jingzhou must be cut off as soon as possible. Only by occupying Jingzhou and connecting Yizhou and Jingzhou could the imperial court have the opportunity to turn around and clean up Jiangdong and Jiaozhou, and finally be able to compete with Zhao Xing north of the Yellow River in terms of actual control of territory and strategic depth.

Because it has now entered the middle of winter, the various armies of the Jin State in Hanzhong and Wudu in the north of Yizhou seem to have begun to be busy celebrating the New Year on the spot, and they have not even launched small-scale raids and harassment operations. This made Sima Yi's heart move, and a very bold idea suddenly popped up.

If we take advantage of this "window period" when the fighting on the northern front has stopped, suddenly transfer 50,000 troops from the northern front to Yiling, defeat Huang Zhong and Li Yan in one fell swoop, and then return the same way, as long as the timing is grasped properly, Zhang Jaw, Xu Rong and others are afraid that they will not have time to make a correct response. What's more, even if the Jin troops found signs of the movement of troops on the northern front of Yizhou, the 80,000 troops left behind would not have to worry about the Jin army's invasion for a while with their strong and dangerous fortifications.

With this idea, Sima Yi anxiously waited for Luoyang's reply. As long as the imperial court sent a large army to attack Liu Biao from the north of Jingzhou, Jingzhou would no longer have any surplus troops to Yiling, and Sima Yi could transfer part of the troops from the northern front to Yiling to help Zhang Ren win this protracted battle and finally achieve his goal of annexing Nanjun and Wuling. If the imperial court's war in the north of Jingzhou did not go well, perhaps Zhang Ren, after taking Nanjun and Wuling, took Liu Biao's old nest in Jingzhou, Xiangyang, by the way, and actually controlled a larger territory.

It's a pity that Sima Yi's ideals are very full, but the reality is so backbone. Before he could wait for Cao Liu's clear reply, the military information for help was transmitted from the south of Yizhou to Chengdu like snowflakes, and then quickly transferred to Sima Yi who was sitting in Zitong through the spy personnel of the Sima family.

When Sima Yi saw the news that Yizhou County was occupied by the Jiaozhi natives, that a large area in the southern part of Qiqi County had been invaded by the tribal soldiers of Yulin County, and that the entire territory of Yongchang County had fallen into a tribal civil war, he felt a splitting headache at that time, and his chest felt as if he had been kicked several times.

Sima Kui, the fourth son of the Sima family who stayed in Kunze, is now unknown in his life and death, and the latest news in Yizhou County is completely isolated. The people who fled into Chengdu from the north of Yelang County have spread the word that the indigenous people of Jiaozhi and Yulin have invaded Yizhou, and are now burning, killing and looting in Yizhou County and Qiqi County. News came from Yueshan County, which is close to the north of Yongchang County, saying that the four major tribes in the southwest of Yongchang are now out of the management of Han officials one after another, and they are constantly fighting with each other, and the war has burned to the yak Qiang tribe in the north of Yongchang, and it is seen that Yueshan County is also going to be chaotic.

One after another incredible news came, making Sima Yi, who had always been calm and calm, a little overwhelmed. Several counties in the south of Yizhou, especially Yizhou County, which is densely populated, rich in products, and full of government treasury, is the cornucopia of the entire Yizhou, and it is also a solid backing to support the Yizhou army to fight on the northern and eastern fronts.

Resisting the urge to rise up in anger and kill people and set fires, Sima Yi urgently ordered Yan Yan, the governor of the soldiers and horses of the East Sichuan Road, to lead his headquarters of 60,000 soldiers and horses to withdraw from the battlefield on the northern front and go to Yizhou County to attack the Jiaozhi natives who crossed the border and caused rebellion. At the same time, Sima Yi also immediately sent a letter to Jiaozhou Shixie, asking Shixie what he wanted to do in extremely strong words, whether he felt that the Sun family of Dongwu was not strong enough to attack Jiaozhou, and he had to provoke Yizhou to use force against Jiaozhou!

Sima Yi's original plan to send troops to raid Yiling naturally ended without a hitch, and he was not in a hurry now that the fighting on the Eastern Front was too fierce. Before properly resolving the chaos in the southern counties of Yizhou, Sima Yi hoped that the eastern front would remain stable, and even had the spare strength to draw some troops as Yan Yan's backup. In case the 60,000 troops of Yan Yan's department failed to quell the rebellion, Sima Yi really didn't know where to move reinforcements for a while.

Sima Yi, who was forced to be anxious, hurriedly returned to Chengdu, and after an urgent discussion between his father Sima Fang and his eldest brother Sima Lang, the Yizhou Pastoral Government immediately issued a temporary recruitment notice, requiring Ba County, Guanghan County, Guanghan Subject, Shu County, Yueshan County, Jianwei County, and Jianwei Subject State Seven counties that were still under the control of Yizhou Pastoral Prefecture began to recruit troops at the same time, with 20,000 large counties and 10,000 small counties, and 100,000 troops within a month.