During the last Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang finally accumulated fatigue and fell to the plains, fulfilling his lifelong promise of "bowing down to exhaustion and dying later".
Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were lifelong opponents, no matter military strategy, military management methods, and political skills, the two were on a par, just as the so-called "chess meets the opponent, will meet the good talent."
After Zhuge Liang's death, there was no one in the Shu kingdom who could resist Sima Yi, so why didn't Sima Yi take the opportunity to cut down Shu and take the Shu kingdom in one fell swoop, but instead gave up the great opportunity?
In the first year of the Jing Dynasty (237), Gongsun Yuan, the Taishou of Liaodong, betrayed the State of Wei, established himself as the King of Yan, conferred hundreds of officials, established the capital Xiangping, and sent emissaries to join Eastern Wu in the south and Xianbei in the north, hoping to become a country of their own, and the State of Wei became a full force. Emperor Ming of Wei summoned Sima Yi back and ordered him to lead troops to quell the rebellion in Liaodong.
In the first month of 238, Sima Yi led an army of 40,000, with Niu Jin and Hu Zun as his deputy generals, and set out from the Capital Division on a journey to quell Sun Yuan's rebellion. Sima Yi spent nearly a year quelling the Liaodong rebellion and solving the Liaodong problem that had plagued Cao Wei for ten years.
In 239, Sima Yi, who had just quelled the rebellion in Liaodong, had originally planned to go to Guanzhong to guard the town, but emperor Wei Ming issued a decree that 100,000 people would urgently recall him to the capital.
It turned out that the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui was already terminally ill and wanted to see Sima Yi for the last time when he was dying. When Sima Yi came to Emperor Wei Ming's sickbed in a hurry, Emperor Wei Ming took Sima Yi's hand and gave him a will: "Things will be entrusted to him in the future." Death is tolerable, and I endure death to wait for the king, to see each other, and to have nothing to hate. ”
At this point, Sima Yi and Cao Shuang became the 8-year-old emperor Cao Fang's orphan ministers, assisting Cao Fang in handling the government. At this time, Sima Yi had become an official to supervise the Chinese and foreign armies, record Shang Shu, and have power in the opposition.
In 241, Sun Quan believed that Emperor Wei was young and weak, and it was a good time to cut down Wei, so he attacked the State of Wei in four ways. Quan Chun led tens of thousands of troops to attack Huainan, Zhuge Ke attacked Lu'an, Zhu Ran attacked Fancheng, and the general Zhuge Jin attacked Zhongzhong.
Sima Yi played Cao Fang, asked himself to lead troops to resist the Wu army, defeated Zhu Ran at The Mouth of Sanzhou, and annihilated nearly 10,000 Wu troops. The rest of the Wu army saw that the situation was not good, and they also withdrew their troops on their own. The sieges of Lu'an and Yuzhong were also lifted one after another due to Zhu Ran's defeat.
After Cao Shuang and Sima Yi became Cao Fang's ministers, Cao Shuang, in order to be able to monopolize power, has always coveted the military power in Sima Yi's hands and used various opportunities to suppress and squeeze Sima Yi.
Soon after Cao Rui's death, Cao Shuang spoke to the young Cao Fang several times, falsely accusing Sima Yi of having a disobedient heart and reminding Cao Fang to be careful of this person with a foreign surname. Cao Fang was finally moved by Cao Shuang's words, and withdrew Sima Yi's military and political powers, gave him a taifu who had no real power at all, and allowed Sima Yi to "enter the temple without tendency, praise and worship without name, and sword to the temple."
At this time, Sima Yi took out his own stunt - pretending to be ill. This method has been tried and tested many times, and he once used this method to deceive the shrewd Cao Cao. Now, he plans to repeat the same trick. He waited for the opportunity to raise obscurity, and then gave Cao Shuang a fatal blow.
At this time, Cao Shuang held Emperor You hostage and controlled the imperial government. In order to build meritorious service, Cao Shuang did not listen to the dissuasion of the ministers, raised an army to cut down Shu, and as a result, he was defeated by the shu general Wang Ping, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and Cao Shuang had to lead the troops back.
In 247, Cao Shuang adopted the scheme of several henchmen and forcibly moved Empress Guo to Yongning Palace. At this time, the court became the world of Cao Shuang alone, "specializing in the government of the dynasty, brothers and forbidden soldiers, many trees pro-party, and repeated changes to the system."
Cao Shuang not only kidnapped the young emperor and excluded dissidents, but also arbitrarily mobilized troops, which not only violated Cao Rui's testament, but also caused the decline of Wei's national strength. The ministers were resentful and hoped that Sima Yi would come out and preside over the overall situation.
Sima Yi, who had been dormant for a long time, thought that the opportunity had come. In 249, when Cao Shuang accompanied Cao Fang to Gaopingling to pay homage to Emperor Wei, Sima Yi launched the famous "Gaopingling Coup" in history, killed Cao Shuang's clan and his cohorts, regained military and political power, and was appointed by Cao Fang as a chancellor and added nine tin gifts.
To sum up, after Zhuge Liang's death, Sima Yi was busy suppressing rebellion, resisting Wu, and fighting for power and profit, and had no opportunity to cut down Shu. By the time he had finished dealing with these things and the State of Wei had stabilized, he was already an old man in his 70s and was no longer able to lead the army to cut down Shu.
Reference: Romance of the Three Kingdoms
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