Liu Bei died of illness in Chang'an in the fifth year of Zhangwu, and the crown prince Liu Chan ascended the throne in Chengdu and succeeded to the throne, with Empress Zunbu as the empress dowager. Amnesty the world, change the yuan and build the country.

When the news reached Luoyang, Cao Pi happily announced the boycott for three days, and the monarch and the people were happy. But I finally have a long memory this time, and I didn't drink and take drugs with my fox friends and dog friends.

Even if Cao Pi wanted to, Sun Zi, and Liu Fang, they didn't dare.

The last time I accompanied Cao Pi to drink and take drugs, I almost made Cao Pi ga, and the two of them were also afraid.

Later, Cao Pi was physically recovered, and the two didn't get anything good, and they were almost impeached by Cao Wei and Qunchen, and directly reprimanded them as ministers. This time, even if Cao Pi still wants to drink and take drugs, the first ones who don't agree are these two people.

No one is happy to have a "minister" label on their name.

Of course, this time Cao Pi really didn't want to find guilt for himself again, so he didn't even dare to drink more wine for three days.

After the restoration of the government, the first thing Cao Pi did was to gather his ministers to discuss the crusade against the Shu thieves.

Now that Liu Bei is dead, the Shu thieves will inevitably have no leader, if they don't take advantage of this time to send troops to recover Guanzhong, what are you waiting for?!

Then, Cao Pi was poured cold water.

The old minister Zhong Xuan stood up and quoted the classic declaration - "Etiquette is not mourning".

Zhong Xuan started from "Zuo Biography" and continued to talk about Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Dew", focusing on the reason for "etiquette and mourning".

Our Cao Wei is orthodox by Zen, and what he does must not be petty, and must reflect the bearing of a great country.

Now that Liu Bei, the lord of the Shu thief, has died of illness, we can't take advantage of the danger of others, we should abide by etiquette, and even send an envoy to mourn, which can show the demeanor of a great country.

Of course, if Zhong Miao was just such an inflexible old-fashioned man, he would not be able to be reused by Cao Wei in both dynasties.

In fact, Zhong Miao also knows that the "etiquette and mourning" recorded in the historical records is just an excuse in most cases, and the main reason is that the monarch of a country is attacked by the enemy country just after his death, and it is easy to force the domestic nobles to temporarily give up internal contradictions, unite, and defend the country first.

The situation is actually similar now.

The internal Shu thieves are not an iron plate, and there are many internal contradictions, especially between the Yizhou faction, the Dongzhou faction, and the Jingzhou faction, which have not reached a real balance.

Now that Liu Bei has died, Liu Chan is only twenty years old this year, and he does not have enough prestige and means to suppress the ministers in the court and suppress the domestic families.

But once the Great Wei sent troops to attack Guanzhong, the various factions might temporarily give up the internal struggle between each other and unite to resist the Great Wei for the sake of common interests. If this hadn't been fought, wouldn't it have allowed Liu Chan to build up his prestige in vain, and might even lead Liu Chan to use this war to clear up some opposition parties and establish his own ruling base?!

Well, even if Liu Chan, a kid who is only twenty years old, doesn't have this brain, what about Zhuge Liang, Zhang Xi, and Zhang Fei, who were entrusted by Liu Bei? ! Are they easy to mess with?!

Therefore, Zhong Xuan's "etiquette and mourning" is actually to give Cao Pi a high-sounding excuse, and the original intention is to dissuade Cao Pi from immediately launching an attack on the Shu thieves.

It's not impossible to fight, but it can't be a person, Liu Bei just died, let's fight. Wait a few months, wait for the internal contradictions of the Shu thieves to be stimulated, and the infighting will be out of control, and then we will send troops again, but it will be much easier than sending troops now.

In the end, Zhong Miao was the cattle man who faced the Liangzhou Mahan warlords in Guanzhong back then, and he was still able to guard Chang'an, which was very clear, and what he said was reasonable, Cao Pi was a little shaken after hearing it.

And after Zhong Xuan, the person who stood up against the troops was Jiang Ji.

If nothing else, just one word - no money.

We only returned to Luoyang from Guanzhong last year, and lost a lot of grain, grass and ordnance, and now it is only a year, and it is not so easy to ease this momentum.

Another one, last year, Manchu moved 400,000 people from Guanzhong into the customs, and the money and grain for the resettlement of these people in Dingkou is an astronomical amount, and the annual harvest in the hinterland of the Central Plains last year was insufficient, and the taxes of Qingxu and Xu were missing, and Pengchengguo also needed to be rebuilt if it was broken, even if all the taxes in the Central Plains last year were not necessarily enough, where was the excess money, food, and ordnance to support a campaign to attack Guanzhong? !

As for the operating expenses of the imperial court in Hebei, don't you need money and grain?!

Dawei attacked Guanzhong at this time, if it can be done quickly, it will be okay, Dawei has a thick foundation, tightens his belt, and mobilizes a batch of grain and grass from Hebei, it is not impossible to fight Guanzhong Chang'an, is it so easy? !

The Shu thief desperately took the Guanzhong, how could he let the Guanzhong out so easily?!

Another one, now the Yongzhou assassin history of the Shu thief, is that Zhang Xi, Zhang Yuan is full of civil and military affairs, who dares to say that he can defeat this famous general in the world in a short period of time and occupy Guanzhong?!

Jiang Ji said this, although it is also true, but it is a bit too straightforward. Cao Zhen stood up on the spot and asked Cao Pi for his life.

"The last general is willing to lead tens of thousands of elite divisions in the Central Plains to the west of Chang'an, capture the Shu thief Zhang Xi, and dedicate it to the bottom of the stairs."

Cao Zhen can't help it, if he doesn't stand up, won't it seem that there is no one in the DPRK and China!!

Cao Zhen is now the general of the Chinese army of Great Wei, if he doesn't stand up to ask for war on behalf of the military general group, it will be really embarrassing.

But Jiang Ji was not used to the problem of this goods, and asked directly, "I don't know how many generals need soldiers, how many good generals there are, and how long will it take to capture Guanzhong?!" ”

Cao Zhen paused slightly when he heard this, and then said, "The matter of the military formation, how can there be a reason that is known in advance, only the soldiers use their lives, and the three armies are combined." ”

That's right, Cao Zhen himself didn't have much confidence when he heard it.

If Yongzhou could be recaptured so easily, then Cao Wei would have done it a long time ago, why would he let people be driven out of Guanzhong?!

Soldiers, grain and grass, these things are easy to say, there are always people who desperately squeeze it, but the leading generals, in the past two years, Great Wei has indeed been sluggish.

Last winter was even worse news, first Zhang Liao died in Wancheng, and then Zhang He, who was taken back to Luoyang to recuperate, because of a serious knee injury, and finally failed to rescue him, and died of illness a year ago, and in February this year, Xu Huang, who was stationed in Pengcheng, was also seriously ill because of the infection of the spring cold, and his condition deteriorated quickly.

In the Mesozoic Generation, Cao Xiu has been losing his temper since he came back from the last attack on Shouchun, and he excused himself to recuperate, Guo Huai and Cao Zhen were defeated and were driven into the pass from Guanzhong, Xiahou Shang has always been guarding the Chinese army, and he has no experience in leading troops outside, that is, Sima Yi blocked the attack of the Shu thief Jingzhou army in Wancheng, and showed his face slightly, but he wanted to guard Wancheng, and it was impossible for him to lead the army to counterattack the attack.

Today's Cao Wei, there is indeed no one who can be sure enough to defeat the famous Shu thief Zhang Xi and reoccupy Guanzhong Although Cao Zhen stood up to ask for battle, how much confidence he had in his heart, in fact, anyone with a discerning eye could see it.

Not to mention Jiang Ji, even Cao Pi can hear it, and the confidence in Cao Zhen's words is seriously insufficient.

What Jiang Ji is talking about is a quick victory, what do you mean by "soldiers use their lives." In the end, don't you still have to drag into a protracted war?

Today's national financial situation is not enough to launch a campaign, but the problem is that after launching this campaign, even if Guanzhong is taken, the gains outweigh the losses.

In the short term, Guanzhong, which has been in turmoil for many years, cannot immediately provide enough tax money and grain to the Great Wei, but has to spend money and grain to govern the place.

The input and output are not proportional, and if he loses again, Cao Pi doesn't want to experience another failure.

Since Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he has been losing, if he continues to lose like this, what is there to talk about "obeying the heavens and responding to the people, Zen and letting the Han Dynasty", the emperor's position should not be stable.

As far as Cao Zhen speaks, Cao Pi doesn't dare to worship Cao Zhen as a general. Since you can't do it quickly, it's better not to fight this battle in the first place.

At this time, Cao Pi somewhat retreated and gave up his plan to go west to the pass. But five days later, a letter from Wancheng changed Cao Pi's mind.

The sparse music was sent by Sima Yi, and it elaborated on Sima Yi's views on the situation that arose after Liu Bei's death.

Sima Yi advocated that he should take this opportunity to seek to recapture Guanzhong.

However, it is not just a direct dispatch of troops to take it, but it is necessary to pay attention to timing and strategy.

In the sparse performance, Sima Yi offered three plans to Cao Pi.

The first plan is to send people to make a detour to merge with the state to contact those Qiang, Di, Xianbei, and Huns in the northwest of Liangzhou, so that they can take advantage of Liu Bei's death and the Shu thieves to rectify their internal affairs, launch a rebellion, attack the border of Liangzhou, and attract the attention of the Shu army.

The second plan was to send envoys to Eastern Wu, Xu Yiqingxu, to lure Eastern Wu to send troops to attack Jingzhou, split the Wushu Alliance, and share the military pressure on Jingzhou.

The third plan, after the above-mentioned two lines of troops and horses action, taking advantage of the opportunity that the Shu army was tired of coping, Guo Huai led the army out of Wuguan, Luoyang selected a general out of Tongguan, and attacked the three auxiliary areas in the pass on the two roads, not seeking a complete victory, as long as they could seize a place and occupy the springboard for westward advance, they could be taken away.

After that, Sima Yi's opinion, was to burn the flames of war within Guanzhong, and after occupying the springboard for westward expansion, he kept sending troops to harass the Guanzhong area, and did not give Guanzhong time to recuperate.

In this way, after the Great Wei has recuperated for a few years, he will wave his army to the west, so that he will be able to recapture the two states of Yongliang and drive the Shu thieves back to Shu.

The more Cao Pi looked at it, the more he felt that Sima Yi's strategy was really good, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this strategy was feasible.

Therefore, Cao Pi once again convened Zhong Xuan, Jiang Ji, Liu Ye, Man Chong, Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang and others to discuss Sima Yi's strategic plan.

And this time, neither Zhong Yi nor Jiang Ji had any opinion on Sima Yi's strategy.

This strategy, from the beginning of the plan to the actual implementation, will take at least half a year, after this period of time, basically after this year's autumn harvest.

With this year's autumn grain as a hoard, Dawei wants to enter Guanzhong north and fight a battle that will take half a year, and the problem is still not big.

Again, this strategy does not require Great Wei to start immediately, but to wait for the Qianghu soldiers and Jiangdong to make a move, and at the same time disperse the deployment of Shu thieves' troops, and the defense of Guanzhong will inevitably be affected, which will make it easier for Great Wei to attack Guanzhong.

In the end, Sima Yi's vision is very accurate, and the strategic appetite he formulated is not great, and it is not a strategy that only looks at the immediate needs to occupy a springboard, with the combat strength of the Great Wei Army, it is not impossible to achieve a quick victory.

And what the Chinese martial artists of the DPRK appreciated the most was also the real killing move in Sima Yi's strategic layout, which was the "tired Shu plan" proposed by Sima Yi - not giving Guanzhong a chance to rest and recuperate, and using harassment and destruction to make it impossible for Shu thieves to develop Guanzhong.

This is beneficial to Dawei.

After all, Dawei has two passes in his hands, Wuguan and Tongguan, it can be said that he can't fight it if he advances and retreats freely, let's hide in the pass, if you Zhang Xi have the ability, then you will attack the pass?!

With the size of the Great Wei, there is no problem at all if you bear a small force to attack and harass Guanzhong, but if you Shu thieves want to conquer Wuguan and Tongguan, you can't do it without a large army and a protracted war.

This kind of exhaustive strategy is the way of warfare that is really beneficial to the Great Wei.

(End of chapter)