The story of the Three Kingdoms War in this issue is found in the 105th episode of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which takes place during the Battle of Liaodong, and the relevant characters are Sima Yi, Xiahou Ba, Xiahou Wei, and Gongsun Yuan. The synopsis is as follows:
Knowing that Sima Yi's army had directly attacked Xiangping, the Yang tunnel guards Pei Yan and Yang Zuo were greatly shocked, worried that Gongsun Yuan had lost, and hurriedly pulled up the camp and retreated to Xiangping, but unexpectedly Sima Yi was in the middle of sima Yi's arms. Sima Yi ordered Xiahou Ba and Xiahou Wei to each lead a troop of soldiers and horses to set up an ambush on the shores of the Liaoshui River, and ordered the two to launch a surprise attack when Pei Yan and Yang Zuo arrived.
Not long after, Beiyan and Yang Zuo did indeed enter the encirclement of Xiahou Ba and Xiahou Wei, and the two immediately killed, and Bei and Yang, who had no intention of fighting, took the road and fled. When he fled to Shoushan, Gongsun Yuan personally led his troops to meet him. The three of them joined forces and returned to engage Xiahou Ba's brothers, but as a result, Beiyan was beheaded by Xiahou Ba, and Gongsun Yuan's troops were defeated, so they had to retreat to Xiangping and could not hold out, and Sima Yi immediately surrounded the city.
At the time of the continuous autumn rains, the heavy rain fell for more than a month, and there was no sign of stopping, and the water potential in the Xiangping area rose. Gongsun Yuan's grain carriers passed through the mouth of the Liao River and easily transported grain into Xiangping, while Sima Yi's army's camp was soaked in water. Some subordinates suggested to Sima Yi that the camp be moved to a higher mountain, but Sima Yi refused.
A few days later, Sima Yi ordered the soldiers and horses of Nanzhai to retreat twenty miles to xiazhai. The people of Xiangping saw the cao army withdrawing, went out of the city to collect firewood and herd cattle and horses. Sima Chenqun was puzzled by Sima Yi's move, and taking Sima Yi's annihilation of Meng Da in eight days as an example, questioned why Sima Yi did not speed up the course of the war and take Xiangping as soon as possible.
Sima Yi replied that in those years, Meng Da had more grain and fewer soldiers, and he had less food and more soldiers, so he could only adopt the method of warfare of quick victory. Now, Gongsun Yuan's soldiers have more food and less food, and their own soldiers have less food and more food, so they cannot adopt the strategy of quick victory, and can only find the most suitable fighter and take measures to annihilate it. For Sima Yi's answer, Chen Qun was impressed.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the Liaodong Battle described in the novel did happen in history, and the generals sent by Cao Wei did have Sima Yi and Xiahou Ba. However, Xiahou Wei and Chen Qun mentioned in the novel did not participate in this battle. Xiahou Wei mentioned in the novel is the fourth son of Xiahou Yuan, a famous general of Cao Wei, who served as the assassin of Jing and Yan prefectures, and was a high-ranking general in the southeastern region of the Cao Wei Empire at that time. In many cases, Xiahou Wei had never served in the northeast region, let alone participated in the Battle of Liaodong.
The Chen Qun mentioned in the novel, there is only one in the Cao Wei Empire, one of the three dynasties of the Cao Wei Empire, and also the formulator of the "Nine Pins zhongzheng system", and the later famous general Chen Tai of the northwest of Cao Wei is the son of Chen Qun. However, a year before the Liaodong War broke out, Chen Qun had died of illness. Therefore, it was impossible for him to appear on the Liaodong front.
However, during the Battle of Liaodong, there was indeed a Sima surnamed Chen who participated in the war with Sima Yi. This person's name was Chen Jue. However, he was not the father of Chen Deng, a famous scholar at the end of the Han Dynasty, but a junior officer who was not well known in Cao Wei. His name also does not appear in Chen Shou's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Fang Xuanling's Book of Jin, but in Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian.
As for the specific history of the Liaodong War, I will detail it in the next article. Perhaps many readers who have a certain understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms will ask this question: With Sima Yi's military talent, why did it take a year for the Liaodong War to end? In real history, this question has been haunting him ever since Cao Rui ordered the conquest of Liaodong. Many courtiers objected to this decision, the most crucial of which was how long it would take Sima Yi to successfully end the Battle of Liaodong.
According to the relevant biographies of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Jin, Cao Rui specially asked Sima Yi for questioning. Sima Yi gave a very clear answer: one year. Sima Yi made this statement: It takes a hundred days to march, a hundred days to fight, a hundred days to return, and sixty days to rest in the middle. The entire Liaodong War from the beginning to the end, one year is enough.
The actual course of this war also proved that Sima Yi's judgment was completely correct. In February of the second year of the reign of Emperor Jing of Wei (238 CE), Sima Yi led Niu Jin, Hu Zun, Xiahou Ba, and others from Luoyang to Liaodong. In June of the same year, Sima Yi's army came to Yang Tunnel. In July of the same year, Sima Yi began to besiege Xiangping, during which it experienced more than thirty days of heavy rain. In August, Sima Yi launched a general offensive and annihilated Gongsun Yuan.
After that, Sima Yi's army began to return to the Central Plains. If the normal marching speed is followed, the return to Luoyang happens to be February of the following year. It should also be noted here that after this battle, Sima Yi did not return to Luoyang, but came to Chang'an via Ji County and XuanGuan in Hanoi County.
Reference books: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Jin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms