In the process of Sima Jia's usurpation of Wei, the resistance of the Huainan Military Region was the most intense.
The three rebellions in Huainan, one after another, took the Sima family a long time without completely controlling the place.
The reason for this has a lot to do with the special situation of the Huainan Military Region at that time.
The special national defense center of gravity of the Huainan Wei state was mainly in four places: Youzhou on the northern front, Guanzhong on the western front, Jingzhou on the southern front, and Huainan on the eastern front. The State of Wei set up the Four Expeditionary Generals in these four places.
Huainan was the center of gravity of the Wei-Wu struggle.
We know that since Cao Cao crossed Chao Lake, the focus of Cao Wei's offensive has always been in Huainan.
In contrast, Cao Wei's offensive against Yizhou and Jingzhou was much smaller and on a much smaller scale.
After Cao Cao's death, in the Wei-Wu War, whether it was Wei Fa Wu or Wu Fa Wei, Jingzhou was usually the auxiliary direction of attack, and Huainan was the main direction.
Therefore, the strength of the Wei army here is very strong.
All along, Cao Wei has attached great importance to the management candidates in this area.
At the beginning, the person in charge of the place was Xiahou Cao, who had served as the head of the area.
After Cao Xiu's death, Cao Wei's old minister Man Yu took over. Although Man Yu was not a member of the Family of Marquis Cao of Zhuxia, he followed the Cao family from the time Cao Cao entered Yanzhou, and could be described as an old minister who was absolutely trusted by the Cao family.
It can be said that for a long time, Huainan had a strong military strength, and it was firmly in the hands of the Cao family or the Cao family's cronies.
After the death of Emperor Wei ming of Game of Thrones, Cao Shuang and Sima Yi began to unite as auxiliary governments.
Cao Shuang and Sima Yi transferred the old minister Manchu back to the central government (I don't know whether it was because Man's favor was old and took him back to enjoy happiness, or to prevent Man's favor from sitting on the throne).
At that time, Cao Shuang and Sima Yi had a good cooperative relationship on the surface, and they did not dare to be too eccentric about the position of general of Zhengdong.
In all aspects, Wang Ling is the most ideal successor.
Wang Ling had been in the southeast for more than twenty years, had all-round talents in literature and martial arts, and performed well, and there was no more suitable candidate than him at that time.
The problem is that Wang Ling is another force independent of the cao shuang and sima yi families.
Wang Ling was somewhat similar to Sima Yi, the grandson of Wang Yun (that is, except for Dong Zhuo), and the family's influence was even higher than that of the Sima family at that time. Moreover, he had a wide network of contacts, was close to Guo Huai, and had a good relationship with Xiahou Xuan (Cao Shuang Group) and Sima Yi.
Obviously, Cao Shuang did not want Wang Ling to be in charge of Huainan like Cao Xiu and Man Yu.
After suppressing Sima Yi, Cao Shuang began to attack Huainan.
Cao Shuang made his hands and feet and arranged for two people to enter Huainan.
One was Wen Qin, a general who was Cao Shuang's nemesis, and was appointed as the Gatekeeper of Huainan and the Taishou of Lujiang, which was a nail that Cao Shuang inserted into Huainan.
The other is Zhuge Birthday. The man's political position is very unclear. He had a good relationship with Xiahou Xuan, and was also an in-law with Wang Ling and Sima Yi.
Zhuge Shi was assigned to yangzhou as the chief official, apparently, to divide the power of Wang Ling.
Therefore, before the three rebellions in Huainan, the main power figures in Huainan were the Cao Shuang faction (Wen Qin), the independence faction (Wang Ling), and the centrist faction (zhuge birthday), and the Sima family had no foundation here.
This pattern also doomed the military power system in Huainan to be very complicated, and the Sima family could not simply and directly take it back, and it was also doomed that it would be difficult for the various factions in the region to unite against the Sima family!
After Sima Yi seized power, how to deal with the Huainan issue became a difficult problem.
Huainan's military power was not seized, and the Sima family was uneasy;
Huainan's military power was seized, and Eastern Wu took advantage of it, which was not favorable to the Sima family.
When Sima Yi seized the military power in China, he could transfer the order on a piece of paper and enlist Xiahou Xuan to enter the dynasty.
You can't play like this for Huainan!
The Sima family showed a steady and sophisticated political skill.
The Sima family adopted a three-step strategy and gradually seized military power in Huainan.
1. Lian Wenqin and Zhuge Zhi and eliminate Wang Ling.
Wang Ling, the general of Zhengdong, was the only person who could compete with Sima Yi at that time.
In addition to the strong strength of the eastern army he controlled, the general Guo Huai of The Western Expedition was his brother-in-law, the general Wang Chang of the Southern Expedition "took matters into brotherhood" with him, and the Jingzhou Assassin Wang Ji was favored by him.
However, Sima Yi knew that he himself had a deep influence in Guanzhong and Jingzhou, and unless he reached the point where the wall was pushed down by everyone, these two places could not threaten him.
Wang Ling's weakness is that his control over Huainan is unstable!
Cao Shuang's insertion of Wen Qin and Zhuge Zhi divided Wang Ling's power! Moreover, the three of them were already in the same situation in the friction of power!
Sima Yi quietly inherited Cao Shuang's policy of suppressing Wang Ling, and added officials to Wen Qin and Zhuge Zhi to strengthen his heart.
Finally, with the cooperation of Wen Qin and Zhuge Shi, when Sima Yi came, Wang Ling did not even have the basic strength to resist and quickly surrendered.
2. Weaken Zhuge Birthday and Wen Qin, and divide and control them.
This step was the step that was fought the most in the three rebellions in Huainan and also cost the most.
After eliminating Wang Ling, in order to maintain the stability of Huainan, the Sima family still did not directly arrange for someone to take Huainan.
Zhuge Shi served as the general of Zhendong.
Subsequently, the Sima family took advantage of Zhuge Zhi's defeat at Dongguan and transferred him to be the general of Zhennan, with Wuqiu Jian as the general of Zhendong (Zhuge Zhi was not demoted, and the new Wuqiu Jian was not a member of Sima Yi's family, so the hearts of the people were still at peace).
In this way, although Wuqiu Jian had many military achievements, after all, there was no foundation in Huainan, so in fact, only Wen Qin's strength was left in the Huainan region!
Although Zhuge Shi was still a general of Zhennan, he was transferred away from Huainan and his strength was also weakened!
Subsequently, after Xiahou Xuan was killed, Qiu Jian and Wen Qin raised an army, and although Zhuge Shi was friends with Xiahou Xuan, he hated Wen Qin (who had become a sworn enemy after years of power friction), and instead of helping, he served as a vanguard for the Sima family.
3. Easily solve Zhuge Birthday.
At this time, the unstable forces, only the "centrist" Zhuge Was born...
No need to talk about it!
After the epilogue completed the suppression of the three rebellions in Huainan, the foundation of the Sima family in Huainan was still not very stable.
Shi Bao was a general promoted from the bottom by the Sima family. Sima Yan was a rather open-minded and generous monarch.
However, when Shi Bao was in charge of the Huainan region, Sima Yan was suspicious of Shi Bao, and almost caused another turmoil!
It can be seen that the Sima family's rule over Huainan has always been very unstable!
Moreover, the generals in Huainan were naturally the object of suspicion of the central government (close to the center of rule and strong in troops), which did not seem to have a complete relationship with the loyalty of the generals themselves.
In general, the Huainan Military Region, because of its important position, has long had a strong military strength and a relatively independent general system (Man Yu, Wang Ling and others have been here for decades and have been operating deeply).
Therefore, in fact, the Huainan region has formed a strong faction of local forces.
The Sima family had not been involved in this local power for many years and had no influence.
In order to deal with this local power, the Sima family must not only worry about the powerful military strength of the Huainan Military Region itself, but also worry about the intricate personal relations between the military and political leaders in the Huainan region, and even more worried about the eastern Wu taking advantage of the chaos!
Therefore, the Sima family did not dare to seize power too directly by drastically changing the generals. He took a step-by-step approach, seizing power step by step.
It can be said that the collection of military power in Huainan is the basis for the Sima family to completely stabilize the interior and start a unified war!
In 258, when Zhuge Shi was killed and the three rebellions in Huainan were completely quelled, the Sima family began to set their sights on the Shu state to the west.
The three kingdoms era of disturbance is coming to an end!