It was not that Sima Yi did not want to fight the Shu kingdom, but that he did not dare and could not fight.
In the second year of Qinglong (234 AD), Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, which marked the end of the seven-year Northern Expedition of the Shu State, and due to the loss of Zhuge Liang, the main backbone, the Shu army immediately retreated.
At the same time, infighting broke out within the Shu army, and the general Wei Yan died at the hands of Yang Yi, due to a struggle for military power.
It can be said that at this time, the Shu state was full of chaos inside and outside, and Zhuge Liang's death and the seizure of power by high-ranking generals all led to the Shu state being in an extremely dangerous situation.
If at this time, Sima Yi led a large army to pursue the Shu army, it was very likely that it would be destroyed in one fell swoop, and even the opportunity to kill Chengdu might not be certain.
But in fact, since Zhuge Liang's death, Sima Yi never launched another attack on the Shu state for the rest of his life, did Sima Yi not want to destroy the Shu state? In fact, this is not the case, the reason why he does not fight is that he does not dare, and the second is that he cannot fight.
In fact, when Zhuge Liang had just died, Sima Yi had proposed a plan to take advantage of the victory to pursue.
At that time, Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, and then Wei Yan was killed by Ma Dai, and the Shu army was in chaos, at this time, Sima Yi decisively proposed to take the opportunity to attack the Shu state.
However, Sima Yi's proposal was rejected by The Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui.
Therefore, this allowed the Shu army to withdraw, and from this incident, it can be seen that at that time, Cao Wei's decision-making power was still in cao Rui's hands, and it was not Sima Yi who had completely decided.
In other words, whether to cut Shu or not at that time was not determined by Sima Yi's subjective will, but depended on Cao Ruitong's disagreement.
In this case, even if Sima Yi had the intention to take advantage of the victory and pursue, he also realized that it was a once-in-a-lifetime good opportunity, but because the decision-making power was not in his hands, he could only hope that "Shu" would sigh.
So, why did the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui disagree with Sima Yi's proposal? Didn't he realize this good opportunity to destroy Shu?
Of course, Cao Rui was aware of this opportunity, but in his heart, it was okay to destroy Shu, but it was absolutely impossible for Sima Yi to destroy Shu.
Why? This brings us to Cao Rui's "balancing skills".
Cao Rui, this person, can be said to be the most talented leader of the Three Kingdoms period to become a generation of Ming Lords, in the early days of his succession, diligence and wisdom are the impressions he gave to others at that time.
But in the later period, after Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Rui began to "exile" himself.
For example, daxing palace, and for example, extremely lustful, in short, Cao Rui was like a new person, from the beginning to the end of the fall.
But no matter how depraved he was, one thing he knew very well was that sima Yi could not be allowed to continue to grow bigger.
Sima Yi's family already occupied many seats in the court at that time, and because Sima Yi successfully resisted Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the status of the Sima family was once again enhanced and more prestigious.
If Sima Yi continued to attack the Shu state and successfully destroyed Shu, it was bound to make Sima Yi's family have a more detached position in Cao Wei's court, and even directly threaten Cao Rui's rule.
Therefore, no matter what, Cao Rui would not agree to Sima Yi's proposal, and he did not want to see Sima Yi threaten him.
Even, not long after, when the Shu general Ma Dai invaded the border of Cao Wei, although Cao Rui still arranged for Sima Yi to dispatch troops to deal with it, in fact, it was the general Niu Jin, who was loyal to Cao Wei, who really fought against Ma Dai, because only in this way could Sima Yi's continued rise be curbed.
After saying Cao Rui's careful thinking, it can be understood that at least while Cao Rui was alive, Sima Yi had no chance, let alone continue to attack the Shu state, and the big boss did not agree, and Sima Yi, as a courtier, could only give up.
In addition, before Cao Rui's death, Sima Yi was "very busy", which was also one of the reasons why he could not attack.
Sima Yi was mainly from Liaodong, and at that time, Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong succeeded Liaodong Taishou, with his terrain and strength, was very disrespectful to Cao Wei, and also established himself as the King of Yan, which made the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui very annoyed.
Annoyed, Cao Rui decided to give Gongsun Yuan some color, so in the second year of the Jing Dynasty (238 AD), Cao Rui ordered a large army to go to attack Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong.
The commander of this crusade against Liaodong was None other than Sima Yi.
The Pacification of the Liaodong War lasted for about a year, during which time Sima Yi, whether reluctant or unwilling, had to devote all his energy to the Liaodong War, so he did not have time to consider continuing to attack the Shu state.
After all, he wouldn't be able to split the body, not to mention that only by calming Down Liaodong could he continue to reassure Cao Rui about him.
Therefore, in the early period, that is, during the life of the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, Sima Yi did not have the opportunity and time to attack the Shu state, for the simple reason that one was that he did not count, and the other was that he did not have time.
Then, after Cao Rui's death and Cao Fang's succession, why did Sima Yi still not attack Shu? Quite simply, he was also very busy, busy playing Dongwu, busy "cheating on the disease to earn Cao Shuang".
Before Cao Rui's death, sima Yi and the general Cao Shuang were made chancellors, and the two of them jointly assisted the successor Cao Fang, and just two years after Cao Fang ascended the throne, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu began to "stop".
In the second year of the first year (241 AD), Sun Quan's army attacked Wei in four ways, and Sima Yi once again fought as the commander-in-chief, and this time he fought with Eastern Wu for nearly three years.
It was not until the first four years that Wu abandoned Zhuge Ke in Shucheng, and Sima Yi's conquest of Eastern Wu came to an end.
Similar to the conquest of Liaodong, during this period, Sima Yi also devoted himself to dealing with Eastern Wu, first, Eastern Wu was indeed a threat to Cao Wei, and second, in public and private, Sima Yi had reasons to eliminate this threat.
After all, at this time, Sima Yi had gradually begun to replace Cao Wei's mind, and this fight against Eastern Wu was actually for himself.
Coupled with the fact that Eastern Wu had already reached the doorstep of his home at that time, Sima Yi could not turn a blind eye, but instead attacked the Shu kingdom, and first solved the immediate problem, which was the most important thing.
After the matter in Eastern Wu came to an end, Sima Yi also ushered in an important moment in his life.
From the beginning of the first five years, Sima Yi and the general Cao Shuang launched a battle for power, of course, in the early stage, Sima Yi did not take advantage of anything, after all, Cao Shuang was not a vegetarian.
To this end, Sima Yi had to start pretending to be ill in order to deceive Cao Shuang, which is the origin of "cheating on the disease to earn Cao Shuang".
Since they all began to pretend to be sick, then attacking the Shu state at this time has also become an unrealistic and impossible thing, and sima Yi can't pretend to be dead and live on this side, but attack the Shu state alive and well, right?
If this is done, Sima Yi's plan will be revealed immediately, and it will also be right in Cao Shuang's arms.
Therefore, compared with cutting Shu, it is more important to live first, and Sima Yi will not launch a war against Shu at this critical time under any circumstances.
Moreover, the change of Gao Pingling also occurred during this period, removing Cao Shuang and overhead Cao Wei, which is the ultimate goal of Sima Yi at the current stage, and things that do not serve this goal can be put aside first.
In addition to fighting Eastern Wu and getting rid of Cao Shuang, there was another reason why Sima Yi did not attack the Shu state at that time, that is, there was a lesson from the past.
In the spring of the first five years, Cao Shuang proposed to attack Shu Han, when Sima Yi tried his best to stop it, but Cao Shuang was bent on making meritorious achievements, did not stop dissuading, and finally insisted on sending troops.
According to historical records, Cao Shuang suffered many casualties in this battle, which not only caused Guanzhong to suffer great waste, but even Qiang, Hu and other places complained about Cao Wei.
Here it is necessary to say why Sima Yi wanted to stop Cao Shuang from cutting down Shu, for two reasons, one is Sima Yi's careful thinking, he does not want this immortal achievement to be taken away by Cao Shuang, and the other is that Sima Yi knows that cutting Down Shu is not an easy task.
First of all, at that time, the Shu state still occupied the military strongholds of the Han Dynasty, and the Shu Han side was still following the defensive policy left by Zhuge Liang, that is, using natural dangers and terrain to defend, coupled with the fact that the Shu Han Dynasty was still clear at that time, these factors combined made it a difficult thing to cut down Shu.
Most importantly, cutting Shu was a huge tug-of-war for Cao Wei, especially in terms of grain and grass supply, and if Shu was forcibly cut down, it would cause a great negative chain reaction at least at the time.
In short, it was not the right time to cut down Shu at that time, which was also the fundamental reason why Sima Yi did not agree to cut Shu.
And Cao Shuang's failure, but also deeply verified this point, with Cao Shuang's "test method by body", Sima Yi will not "know the difficulties", you know, if on the "chicken thief", Sima Yi wants to say the second word, no one dares to rank first.
This is the reason why after the death of the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, Sima Yi still did not cut down Shu, and after Sima Yi completely took power, why did he still stay still and not attack the State of Shu?
Quite simply, at this time, there was not much time left for Sima Yi.
Sima Yi's real ascension to Power over Cao Wei came in the first year of Jiaping (249 AD), after the GaopingLing Rebellion.
At this time, the situation facing Sima Yi was a little easier than before Cao Shuang was eliminated, but he also did not dare to take it lightly.
Why? Because he had just seized power at that time, the situation in the court was not a monolith, and all kinds of undercurrents were surging and he also had the possibility of losing power.
Therefore, at this time, what Sima Yi needed to do most was to consolidate the power in his hands, rather than to go far with a large army.
After all, he knew how Cao Cao had "blackmailed the Heavenly Son to order the princes" in those years, and he was more aware of how his "Gaopingling Change" had been successful, and if he had attacked the Shu state with a large army at this time, it would undoubtedly have kept himself away from the emperor.
At that time, Bao Buqi himself will be the second Cao Shuang, and whether he can come back is unknown.
Therefore, he could only stabilize the situation at this time and sit in the court, only in this way could he better and more securely transfer power to the next generation of the Sima family.
Moreover, at that time, there were only two years left before Sima Yi's death.
Leaving some foundation for his descendants before his death is the habit of almost everyone, and Sima Yi is the same, after nearly half of his life's "struggle", he finally put Cao Wei in the air and made the Sima family the biggest ruler, and in his later years, what he needed to do was how to pass on this "fruit of labor" and carry it forward.
Therefore, he can't cut down Shu at this time, nor will he cut it, he wants to leave this immortal merit to future generations.
As long as his son destroyed the Shu state, he could further the prestige of the Sima family and ensure the transcendent position of the Sima family in Cao Wei.
Only in this way can the ultimate goal of the Sima family "usurping Wei" be realized.
In fact, after Sima Yi's death, his two sons also strictly followed their father's steps, and after Sima Shi ascended to the throne, he first established his authority, eliminated the forces opposed to himself, and consolidated the power of the Sima family, but because Sima Shi died early, the matter of Cutting Shu was left to Sima Zhao.
And Sima Zhao did not just come up to cut down Shu, he also stabilized the government and the opposition, and finally launched the war against Shu in 264 AD.
Therefore, there were many reasons why Sima Yi did not attack the Shu state in his lifetime, first of all, when Emperor Wei Ming was alive, Sima Yi said that it did not count, and at that time he still had to deal with Liaodong, and secondly, after Cao Rui's death, Sima Yi fought against Eastern Wu and fought with Cao Shuang for power, there was no opportunity to cut down Shu, and finally after Cao Shuang was removed, Sima Yi also came to the end of his life, so Shu shu could only be left to posterity.