At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the Gongsun family was able to enter Liaodong from the rebellion of Dong Zhuo, Gongsun Du was born as a minor official, and in 169 AD, he was appointed as the Assassin of Jizhou, and in 90 AD, he was appointed by Dong Zhuo as the Taishou of Liaodong. At this point, the Gongsun family began to dominate the side of liaodong, and after three lifetimes of not falling, Gongsun Du was quite talented. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the Central Plains and having no time to take care of it, he expanded his power in a big way, and his wings gradually became full, and Gongsun Du divided Liaodong County into liaoxi and central Liao counties, and set up the post of taishou and set up yingzhou assassin history; he declared himself the marquis of Liaodong and the pastor of Pingzhou. Honoring Cao Wei as Zheng Shuo. Chen Shou commented in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "The degree of cruelty is not modest, the yuan is still carrying evil, and the foot is covered with his clan", this evaluation is obviously taken for granted. Gongsun Du was able to gradually become an assassin from a small official. Later, he developed Liaodong and became the founding lord of Liaodong. It's not a waste of time. In 204 (the ninth year of Jian'an), Gongsun Du died, and his descendants Gongsun Kang and Gongsun Yuan succeeded to the throne. It can be said that since Gongsun Du, although Liaodong was nominally subordinate to Cao Wei, it has actually been in a semi-independent situation.
However, Gongsun Yuan's long-term independence caused concern to Cao Wei, especially after Cao Wei's emissaries arrived in Liaodong, Gongsun Yuan had no courtesy of his subjects, and repeatedly said that he was not inferior, insulting the imperial court envoys. All kinds of indications show that Gongsun Yuan has the possibility of rebellion at any time. In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang died of illness, and Cao Rui finally had time and troops to attack Gongsun Yuan. After more than three years of preparation, in the first year of the Jing Dynasty (237), Gongsun Yuan defeated qiu Jian, the assassin of Jingzhou, who had come to fight. Shi Zai: "To the east bank of the Liao River, defeated and returned." Gongsun Yuan defeated Qiu Jian. Immediately bursting with confidence, he established himself as the King of Yan, with the name of Shaohan in the founding year, and set up a hundred officials and divisions. In fact, for Gongsun Yuan, since he wants to be called emperor, he must fight one and pull one. I can't offend Sun Quan and Cao Wei at the same time, if I accept Sun Quan's "reward", and then the two families will merge to attack Cao Wei. Or light a fire on both sides and reap the benefits of the fisherman yourself. This is the most beneficial thing for Liaodong, or a complete fall to one side. Unfortunately, several favorable measures gongsun Yuan did not do, and adopted a most deadly way, establishing himself as emperor without offending everyone.
The defeat of Jingzhou's assassin Shi Yiqiu was shocking, and if Gongsun Yuan was not decisively suppressed, Cao Wei's entire northern defense area could be shaken. In this case, Cao Rui used Sima Yi, who was already 59 years old (who belonged to the advanced age), to attack Gongsun Yuan, and Cao Rui was discussing with Sima Yi how to fight with Gongsun Yuan, and Sima Yi said to Cao Rui: "Abandoning the city and fleeing beforehand is the best plan. Relying on Liaoshui to resist our army, this is the second plan. Sit guarding Xiangping, then he will be a prisoner. Emperor Wei Ming asked Sima Yi, "What kind of strategy do you think Gongsun Yuan will adopt to resist the enemy?" Sima Yi said, "Only smart people can correctly assess each other's strength." Abandoning the city in advance was not something that Gongsun Yuan could do. He will certainly think that our lone expedition will not last, and that we will first resist in Liaoshui and then retreat to Xiangping. Cao Rui asked Sima Yi how long would it take to put down the rebellion? Sima Yi said, "Go for a hundred days, go back for a hundred days, attack for a hundred days, and rest for sixty days, one year is enough." ”
When Sima Yi was passing through Youzhou, he and Yiqiu Jianbing marched along the Banghai Road to Liaodong via Jieshi Mountain, and reached the west bank of Liaoshui in June 238, where the Gongsun Yuan faction would resist and mainly defend, and built a fence on the riverside for more than twenty miles to prevent the Wei army from crossing the river. Sima Yi sent a suspicious army downstream of Yuqiu Jian with the intention of dispatching gongsun yuan's main force, while he himself led the main force to smuggle from upstream and sneak into Xiangping. Sima Yi explained to Yuqiu Jian that our army was far away and must attack the place where the enemy must be saved to win, Sima Yi attacked Gongsun Yuan's old lair, gongsun yuan could only rescue with all his might, so only hard fighting, Cao Wei's army fought bravely, Cao Wei's main force defeated Gongsun Yuan's troops, and the latter retreated to Xiangping City. Sima Yi then besieged Xiangping. Sima Yi's generation of military masters used the phrase "although the enemy is at a high base, those who have to fight with us, they must also be saved by attacking them." For Gongsun Yuan, the difference was not a little bit, in Sima Yi's view, Zhuge Liang died. No one in the world is his opponent anymore, this kind of someone in the strategy, psychology, experience, on-the-spot command almost all crush all people. The era that belonged to Sima Yi had arrived.
In July 238, when the rainstorm suddenly continued, the ship was able to sail directly under Xiangping City. The water in Sima Yi's camp had even reached several feet deep. His subordinates urged Sima Yi to move the camp one after another, but Sima Yi insisted that he not, and those who dared to speak falsely about moving the camp were decided, and they all ordered Zhang Jing to be killed, and everyone knew that sima Yi's words were true. Sima Chen Gui asked Sima Yi: "When I attacked Shangyong, the eight roads went hand in hand, day and night, so I was able to capture Jiancheng and kill Meng Da in a period of ten and a half years. Why is it that the action is more slow this time? Sima Yi said: "At that time, Mengda's army was small and grain could support a year, and our army was four times that of Mengda, but the grain was less than a month. It was feasible to attack one with four attacks, even if half of the casualties were killed, and at that time, regardless of casualties, it was to buy time for limited grain and grass. Now that the enemy has more soldiers and fewer soldiers, our army has less food, and we have more grain, and in the face of heavy rain, it is impossible to fight quickly. From the beginning of the troops, I did not worry about the enemy attacking, but afraid that they would escape. Now that the enemy's grain and grass are running out, our army's encirclement has not yet been closed, and if we plunder the cattle and horses now, we will force them to flee. Soldiers are devious, good at events. By virtue of the large number of people and the great water, although they were hungry, they refused to be captured. At this time, it is better to stabilize the other party, and not to scare the enemy away for small profits. Therefore, Sima Yi besieged and did not fight, Sima Yi took the plan into account, and deliberately showed weakness to cause concern to the imperial court, and heard that the rain was strong, and many people requested to summon Sima Yi back. However, The Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui said: "Sima Yi is in danger of changing the situation, and the capture of Gongsun Yuan is just around the corner."
It was not until the rain stopped that Sima Yi finally began to besiege the city. At this time, in Xiangping City, the grain and grass were already stretched, and even cannibalism had occurred. Gongsun Yuan was greatly frightened and sent envoys to seek peace. However, Sima Yi categorically refused, and beheaded the emissaries in front of the two armies. In August, Sima Yi dug tunnels and attacked Xiangping in various ways. On August 23, the 23 men attacked Xiangping, and Gongsun Yuan's father and son fled, but were eventually beheaded. In Xiangping City, Sima Yi went on a killing spree, killing gongqing dafu and more than 7,000 men over the age of fifteen, and built it as "Jingguan" to completely incorporate the four counties of Liaodong (辽東郡, 玄菟郡, Lelang County, and Daifang County) into Cao Wei's territory. And for the people of Liaodong is very generous. The Gongsun family, which had ruled Liaodong for more than fifty years, was completely destroyed.
In fact, Sima Yi was a civilian official, military is not his strong point, Sima Yi's real contact with the military began from the Cao Wei period, at this time Sima Yi was already from the age of 46, so his military career is not particularly long. Sima Yi began his career at war with Zhuge Liang, and it was Zhuge Liang's engagement that established Sima Yi's position in the military circles. And the crusade against Sima Yi in Liaodong showed almost all the qualities necessary for a famous general, whether it was a pre-war temple calculation or a long-distance march, whether it was a forced crossing of the Liao River or a siege of Xiangping. It shows the full quality of a great military man and a great statesman.
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