In the history of the Three Kingdoms, there are many ambitious people, such as the three core figures of the Three Kingdoms - Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei, who are called emperors and kings, and have made great military exploits, which are enough to be admired by future generations. However, compared with Sima Yi, they seem to be slightly inferior, because Sima Yi not only has all their advantages, but also in the era of Cao Wei's heroes and generals, they are unique and unmatched.
Let's go back to a past: After Cao Zhen passed away, his son Cao Shuang was a senior because of Sima Yi's high prestige, and he was a senior. Later, in order to expand his power, Cao Shuang introduced cronies and set up Sima Yi. Faced with this scene, although Sima Yi was helpless for a while, he knew that Cao Shuang was a nobleman of the clan, and he was only a distant relative, and the military power of the Taiwei was taken away, so he was unable to compete with Cao Shuang. Therefore, Sima Yi chose to call himself sick at home to avoid his edge.
Sima Yi's retreat hit Cao Shuang's arms and made him get carried away. But Cao Shuang has not completely forgotten the existence of Sima Yi. Soon, Cao Shuang sent his henchman Li Sheng, the assassin of Jingzhou, to Sima Yi's mansion to say goodbye to him to find out his truth. Sima Yi was witty, and let the two maids support him and sit on the bed. When he saw Li Sheng, he pretended to be weak, his clothes slipped off, and he was thirsty, and the maidservant brought him porridge, and when he drank the porridge, the porridge juice flowed down the corners of his mouth to his chest. Seeing this, Li Sheng pretended to be sad and said: "Now that the Lord is young, the whole world depends on Ming Gong, I thought that you were just a recurrence of the old disease, and I never thought that the condition was so serious. At this time, Sima Yi sighed and said, "I am old and frail, and my life hangs by a thread. Jun will go to the state, and the state is close to Hu, I hope you take care, I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to see each other again. Li Sheng hurriedly corrected it, but Sima Yi pretended to mishear it and repeatedly mentioned the merger. In the end, Li Sheng reluctantly said that he would go to Jingzhou, and Sima Yi woke up like a dream and said goodbye.
Subsequently, Sima Yi called out his two sons, Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, and asked them to befriend Li Sheng, hoping that Li Sheng could take care of them after his death. After saying that, Sima Yi choked up again. However, all this was Sima Yi's strategy, he was not in good health at this time, and deliberately pretended to be sick to confuse Li Sheng. Li Sheng was a native of Jingzhou, and he called Jingzhou "Dangxi Benzhou", because the sound of "Ben" and "and" was cleverly used by Sima Yi.
Li Sheng returned to Cao Shuang and said happily: "Taifu's words are chaotic and his actions are slow, and I am afraid that time is running out. Since then, Cao Shuang has no longer been wary of Sima Yi, and has become more unscrupulous in his dictatorship. However, this is exactly what Sima's strategy is. Soon, Sima took advantage of Cao Shuang's hunting to force the Empress Dowager and the Son of Heaven to issue an order to arrest Cao Shuang and his cronies. In the end, Cao Shuang and others were executed.
It can be seen that Sima Yi's excellence is reflected in the following aspects:
First, he is good at keeping his head down, calm and sophisticated, making it difficult for people to peek into his true intentions. This kind of character made the great politician Cao Cao feel uneasy and wanted to get rid of it quickly. However, Sima Yi won Cao Cao's trust with his words of persuasion and became an important confidant of the Prime Minister's Mansion.
Second, he has Zhang Liang's resourcefulness, Han Xin's bravery, and Xiao He's talent, which can be called an all-rounder. Therefore, Cao Wei was both defensive and reusable against him. The strategy he proposed to sit firmly in Xudu and unite Wu to control Shu successfully undermined Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Pair" and greatly damaged the vitality of Shu Han. At the same time, he also indirectly contributed to the failure of Liu Bei's attack on Eastern Wu, which won Cao Wei valuable strategic time.
Third, he acted decisively and never dragged his feet. For the pleas of Cao Shuang and others, he mercilessly refused, cutting the grass and eradicating the root to prevent future troubles.
Fourth, he has great ambitions, and he is determined to pursue his great cause no matter how bad the environment is. He successfully coped with the challenges and threats of Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, Sun Quan and other first-class figures, and eventually became Cao Cao's trusted minister, making great contributions to Cao Wei's stability and prosperity. It can be seen that Sima Yi was indeed an outstanding strategist during the Three Kingdoms period.