Sima Yi had no clue what Shu Han planned to do next. But as the head of the Northwest Theater, he had to think in the worst direction.

In case the Shu army is rushing to fight with you this time, if you can't withstand the entire Guanzhong, it will be gone.

Therefore, on the one hand, he played and asked the reinforcements from the Luoyang direction to come to Guanzhong to help, and on the other hand, he let the entire Guanzhong Theater start first-level combat preparations. There are 100,000 soldiers and horses in all parts of Guanzhong, all of whom are assembled in advance and are ready to face the Shu army that may appear at any time.

For Sima Yi, the biggest headache for him is the four Shu roads in the south. Except for the westernmost Qishan Road, he had to watch out for several other roads, even the Meridian Valley.

What if Ma Jian doesn't talk about martial arts and comes out of here with thousands of people?

At the same time, Sima Yi also started an internal investigation and began to liquidate Shu Han's undercover agents.

Before Cao Zhen died, he instructed Xiahou to dominate Chang'an that there must be internal ghosts, otherwise the battle of Meridian Valley would definitely not be lost so badly. Xiahouba relayed it to Sima Yi, although Sima Yi didn't believe it very much, but still conducted an internal investigation.

Considering that Cao Zhen made the plan of the main force to attack Meridian Valley, the secrecy measures were well done from the beginning. So since there are internal ghosts, they must be in a high position and still have a heart for Han.

In the end, Sima Yi investigated, and really found out a suspect.

This suspect is the founder of Cao Wei's Northwest Army, Zhong Xuan!

Although this master is an old man of the Cao Wei regime, his foundation is not very clean. These 100,000 Guanzhong troops are basically his old bottom, and their influence is all over Guanzhong, and they are absolutely capable of transmitting intelligence to Shu Han.

Of course, what really made Sima Yi suspicious him was a case.

In September of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Guan Yu emerged in Jingzhou at that time, and Liu Bei also issued a relatively good-looking record in Hanzhong. At this time, a small man named Wei Wei in Yecheng launched a rebellion.

The scale of this rebellion was not large, and it was quickly quelled by the then crown prince Cao Pi. However, among them, a large number of people were involved, and a large number of Jingzhou officials and his former boss were involved.

Zhong Xuan, among them!

Although Zhong Miao was later reinstated by the official, his suspicion was not cleared. Now that this matter is on the table again, it is impossible for Sima Yi not to doubt him.

However, Zhong Yi is an old leader in Guanzhong, older than Cao Zhen, so Sima Yi naturally didn't dare to touch him openly. However, Sima Yi quickly sent a piece of paper to Luoyang, saying that the situation in Guanzhong was tense and someone was in urgent need of someone to control the field.

Although Mr. Zhong is over seventy years old, he can't help it, so let's make do with it. In order to calm Zhong Xuan's heart, didn't he have a young son who was only a few years old, and sent him to a safe place in Luoyang to receive education, so that Old Man Zhong could work for the country with peace of mind.

Obviously, Sima Yi has never been a good person, and this guy is talented in calculating and grasping the weaknesses of others.

At the same time that Sima Yi in Guanzhong forcibly dragged Zhong Xuan, who was in his seventies, to the battlefield, the combat preparations on the other side of Shu Han were not so tense.

The 30,000 soldiers of Yongzhou, together with the 3,000 cavalry under the command of Ma Dai, were the main force in the north of the Shu Han Eastern Expedition this time. Liangzhou also dispatched 10,000 foot cavalry, but the main body was Hu Bing, which could only be used as a support.

A total of 40,000 soldiers and horses went out to fight, and the core goal was to push the battle line to Guanzhong Sanfu. At the same time, the cool land was used to restrain the attention of Guanzhong and even Luoyang, so that Guanzhong could not recuperate.

From this moment on, Shu Han and Cao Wei officially began a full-scale showdown.

Yongliang does not dissolve the armor, and the moment of Guanzhong does not release the saddle has officially come.

When Zhuge Liang raised Yongliang's troops and conquered Guanzhong, Ma Tan returned to Liangzhou to count the headquarters and prepare to go south to Hanzhong.

Prime Minister Zhuge really gave him a lot of power this time, and let him serve as the commander of a Northern Expedition. Not only that, in order to make Ma Tan progress smoothly in Nanyang, the prime minister personally came to give you a feint.

Behind such heavy power is a huge responsibility, which makes Ma Jian a little weak-hearted.

But no matter how you say it, you have to be a general of the expedition to the north, how can you escape. So after Ma Tan returned to Liangzhou, he brought all the elites of his headquarters with him.

Now Longwuyi has a total of 3,000 people, most of whom are the Qianghu cavalry that was incorporated later. The earliest veterans who followed Ma Tan now have only about 600 people.

This time, Ma Jian brought them all with him, and brought all the novelties he had prepared for many years.

Don't say anything, Nanyang has to take it down.

By the way, when he returned to Liangzhou, Ma Jian also specially investigated where the prince got the seal of the Thorn Mansion. As a result, I found out after inquiring that the prince had recruited several rangers, one of whom was extremely good at forging seals, and the prince used these rangers to deceive some soldiers and horses to go north.

It's a pity that he still underestimated the prime minister, and was directly vetoed by the prime minister, and in the end he didn't succeed in running to the north.

However, before Ma Jian left, Shu Ji rushed back from Beidi County and reported something to Ma Yan.

It's nothing else, it's Jiang Wei, who Shu Ji discovered before, likes to raise the dead in the yin.

"I found that General Jiang was not only a dead soldier in his own army, but also hundreds of dead soldiers in his courtyard. It has long been forbidden by the imperial court to raise dead soldiers, and General Jiang is afraid that he is going to set himself on fire. ”

Shu Ji returned to Wuwei and found Ma Jian to report the matter to him. At the same time, Shu Ji implored Ma Jian to persuade Jiang Wei, after all, this kind of thing is easy for others to use as an excuse to talk about things.

In the past few years, several of their old departments have been promoted very quickly because of their many military achievements. There are a lot of red-eyed people in the army, and you must not make mistakes at this time.

However, Ma Jian scratched his head a little about this, and recalled that it seemed that Jiang Wei was particularly fond of raising dead soldiers in history. Why is it not said in the history books, but this is obviously not an advantage.

Whether this matter is big or not, whether it is small or not, it depends on whether someone has said it.

So Ma Tan pondered for a while, but shook his head and said directly and loudly.

"Boyo is a pillar of the Han Dynasty, doing his best for the country, and everything he does is what the Han family can stop. Let Boyo rest assured, he and you don't need to worry about other people's gossip, the responsibility for the accident is all mine! ”

Ma Yan's voice was not small, and someone else in the Assassin's Mansion must have heard it. Shu Ji didn't say anything about this, and since the general had expressed his position, he had nothing to say.

"Alright, let's go back! Just say it, don't worry about anyone gossiping. Ma Tan patted Shu Ji on the shoulder, said calmly, and then turned over and got on the horse and prepared to go.

In September, Ma Tan led the elite of the headquarters to quickly go south and return to Hanzhong via the Qishan Road.

This time, he basically didn't bring his own henchmen, only 3,000 cavalry. Jiang Wei, Shuji, and Deng Fan were all left in Beidi County, and even Yao Hu was left in Wuwei to cooperate with the prime minister's eastern expedition to Guanzhong.

As for Hanzhong, 30,000 elites have been gathered at this moment, and a large amount of grain and grass has been gathered here.

However, Ma Tan arrived in Hanzhong and did not go to the barracks to get the handsome seal as soon as possible. And he went into the Hanzhong Arsenal and found the talented Pu Yuan to discuss big things.

This time he went east to Nanyang, and he was ready to give the Wei army something new.

(End of chapter)