I. Sima Yi had four "Engong"
Sima Yi was able to seize the power of Cao Wei at the age of 70, which was a long-term process. To sum up, it is because Sima Yi has four "engongs".
The first was Cao Cao. In 201, when Sima Yi was just 22 years old, he received an invitation from Cao Cao to join the job. According to the Book of Jin, Sima Yi despised Cao Cao so much that he bullied Emperor Xian of Han and refused to take office by pretending to be ill.
He also said that Cao Cao secretly sent someone to verify it after hearing about it. Once he found out that Sima Yi was pretending to be ill and deceived himself, he clicked him away. Sima Yi, on the other hand, relied on his pure acting skills to be saved — but the author was skeptical about this.
Because Cao Cao, around 201 AD, was busier than anyone else, he had just defeated Yuan Shao. At this moment, he was busy harvesting the fruits of Hebei while pursuing Liu Bei. At the same time, it is even more important to pay attention to karasuma's movements, after all, although Yuan Shao died, his sons Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi fled to Karasuma and made an alliance with karasuma's leader, Gandun...
Look, Cao Cao has so many big things to worry about, even sima Yi who is not a recruit egg, how can He De make Cao Cao pay so much attention? Isn't that what it is? Its purpose is nothing more than to usurp Wei for Sima Yi's father and son, saying: Draw a clear line with Cao Wei - of course, this is only the author's inference, and the right should be a reference.
But in any case, Cao Cao was obviously Sima Yi's first engong, and he excavated Sima Yi.
Seven years later, in 208 AD, Cao Cao once again conquered Sima Yi, and this time Sima Yi immediately came to the post! Thus began to mix with Cao Cao, and became a good buddy with Cao Pi! In Cao Wei's later years, Sima Yi replaced the aging "Five Great Strategists" and stood out with Liu Ye.
The second is Cao Pi! Sima Yi was able to set off such a big wave, and Cao Pi's contribution was indispensable. In order to become emperor, he implemented the "Nine Pins Zhongzheng System", ceded the privilege of the Gate Valve Clan, obtained the support of the Gate Valve Clan, and overthrew the Han Xian Emperor. This is tantamount to declaring the end of Cao Cao's "meritocracy" - the door valve clan, which was released from the cage.
At the same time, in order to consolidate power, Cao Pi reused the representatives of Sima Yi, Chen Qun and other door valve clans to suppress Cao's clan relatives, so that Sima Yi's rockets rose during the Cao Pi period, not only directly entering the power center, but also beginning to contact the military. As a result, Sima Yi quickly became the leading big brother of the "Gate Valve Clan".
In other words, Cao Pi provided Sima Yi with a stage that he could not ask for. It laid the foundation for him to stand in the center of the stage in the future.
The third is Zhuge Liang! Since Cao Pi's death, the Three Kingdoms have entered the "Zhuge Liang period". Almost all major events revolved around Zhuge Liang's five northern expeditions (six out of Qishan).
The first to resist Zhuge Liang was Cao Zhen, who made Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition a tragedy, such as the loss of the street pavilion of Ma Mo and Hao Zhao's Battle of Chen Cang.
With the death of Cao Zhen, Cao Wei had almost no one to fight against Zhuge Liang except Sima Yi. In this way, Sima Yi followed Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition and took the stage and entered the center of the stage. Although the process was difficult to see, Sima Yi was not squeezed out of the circle by Zhuge Liang.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang can be called Sima Yi's third enduring duke. It can even be said that without Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, there would have been no "tiger roar" that Sima Yi had when he was 70 years old.
The fourth is Cao Rui! He can be called Sima Yi's greatest benefactor, and he is also an important story in this book.
2. Cao Rui, Zhuge Liang, and Sima Yi
The year 234 AD can be called an important turning point in the Three Kingdoms period, because Zhuge Liang fell ill and died!
With the death of Zhuge Liang, both Cao Wei and Shu Han began to enter the period of cultivation. At the same time, Cao Rui was finally relieved, because Zhuge Liang could be called Cao Rui's biggest nightmare. He scolded him regardless of the facts, such as "(Zhuge Zhuge) Liang's name of Mu Li lonely outside, but the truth of internal greed and expertise."
This means that Zhuge Liang has two "skins". Externally, he coveted vanity, for his own good reputation, unscrupulous, did not talk about martial arts, and found me Cao Wei to fight when there was nothing to do, which was really hateful! Inside the Shu Han Dynasty, he overstepped his authority and bullied good children, and my peer Liu Chan, who was obviously a courtier, did not regard himself as an outsider.
From Cao Rui's evaluation of Zhuge Liang, we can see what kind of pressure Zhuge Liang gave him.
But then again, where there is pressure, there is motivation. Although Zhuge Liang brought Sima Yi to the center of the stage, he also fulfilled Cao Rui's title of "Ming Jun". Almost all of Cao Rui's reliable and wise decisions were made during the Zhuge Liang period. For example, he personally sat in Chang'an, commanded the fight against Zhuge Liang, and cooperated with Sima Yi to play a thousand miles to seek his will.
As soon as Zhuge Liang died, the pressure subsided, and Cao Rui immediately changed his appearance.
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, in 235 AD, less than a year after Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Rui secretly surrendered to Sima Yi and stripped Sima Yi of his position as a general, stuffing the three high-ranking officials with pension treatment such as "Tai Wei".
Because the reason why Cao Rui used Sima Yi was because of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. For example, he once asked Chen Jiao, the elder of Cao Wei: "Sima Gongzhongzheng can be described as a subject of sheji?" (Sima Yi was very loyal and upright, could he be called a minister of the society?) ）
Chen Jiao replied: "The hope of the imperial court; Sheji, the unknown also!" (Sima Yi was very famous, but it would be inaccurate to be promoted to the height of a minister of sheji.) ）
This is actually the biggest contradiction between Cao Rui and Sima Yi. Both, Cao Rui had always distrusted Sima Yi. Therefore, once Zhuge Liang died, Sima Yi was bound to withdraw from the center of the stage.
In this way, Sima Yi went to the pension. Cao Rui let go of his hands and feet and began to build a large number of civil engineering to "create a palace room", and the harem was beautiful, and there were more than 10,000 people. So much so that when Cao Shuang's dictatorship occurred, he had "privately taken seven or eight people from the former emperor (Cao Rui)" and became his own concubine.
For this change in Cao Rui, many ministers are resolutely opposed and constantly advised, but Cao Rui does not pay any attention to it, it is time to play, it is time to build, and beautiful women should be chosen. As a result, only 5 years later, in 239 AD, Cao Rui suddenly found that his body collapsed - he was not yet 36 years old!
That is to say, in the five years after Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Rui has been playing wildly, and as a result, he has played himself to death.
So why is Cao Rui so crazy to enjoy? One is that Zhuge Liang had put too much pressure on him before, so that he had not enjoyed the pleasures of the emperor. The second is that Cao Rui had three sons, but they all died prematurely. If you want to have an heir to the throne, you must work hard to regenerate your son.
Unfortunately, his son had not yet seen the shadow, and Cao Rui himself had come to the end of his life. Cao Rui had to choose his adopted son, cao fang, who was only eight years old, to be his successor. Because everything was in a hurry, the list of orphans he entrusted to was not mature. First of all, Xiahou Xian, Cao Zhao, Cao Yu and other relatives of the Cao family were selected as the ministers of the Orphans, and Sima Yi had nothing to do at all.
Unexpectedly, they were mixed up by Liu Fang and Sun Ziyi, and eventually became Cao Shuang and Sima Yi, two joint auxiliary governments. Sima Yi was very touched, and immediately swore to Cao Rui: "Your Majesty does not see the former emperor's subordinates to his majesty?" "That is, the emperor's eldest brother, you can rest assured, when your father entrusted you to Sima Yi, I will do absolute loyalty to you, and I will be able to do the same in the future!"
Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, a change in Gao Pingling, Sima Yi took away cao Wei's power, and what oaths became a lie.
Third, the most powerful Cao Rui
So why is it said that Cao Rui is Sima Yi's most powerful engong? For two reasons.
One is that there is no way to maintain balance. Cao Shuang is the son of Cao Zhen, relying on Cao Zhen's merits, he has gained great benefits, which is equivalent to becoming the most cattle in the Cao family, and the only force. Moreover, other Cao clan relatives could not effectively restrain Cao Shuang.
Sima Yi was the leading elder brother of the Mengmen clan, and after two generations of Cao Pi and Cao Rui, he became a "unicorn" in the imperial court.
Cao Rui's idea was to use Cao Shuang to balance Sima Yi, and the worst was to let the two fight each other, and the emperor would reap the benefits of the fisherman. But the question is, Cao Fang is only eight years old, can she play with this plate? The so-called one mountain does not allow two tigers, no matter which side wins, it means all-you-can-eat.
When Cao Shuang first took advantage, wasn't that the case? The empress dowager was honorable enough, and they were all bullied and asked to move the palace. As mentioned above, Cao Shuang took the beautiful ladies and others of Cao Rui's life for himself! Later, Sima Yi also ate everything after turning Cao Shuang over, so this balance could not be maintained.
Second: the unification of government and military power. Once they control the military power again, is this equivalent to the "emperor behind the scenes"?
Cao Cao was a grasp of the government and military power, and played a cruel game against Emperor Xian of Han. Now look at Cao Shuang and Sima Yi, which is not the case?
Even Cao Pi did not play like this, before his death, he entrusted four lonely people: Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu to dominate the military power, and also belonged to the two major war zones of Eastern Wu and Western Shu. Sima Yi and Chen Qun were more focused on the main government, which was equivalent to the separation of government and military power.
Therefore, Cao Ruituo's lonely Cao Shuang and Sima Yi are equivalent to letting these two people play an ultimate final, and whoever wins can play with the emperor like Cao Cao.
Therefore, from this point of view, Cao Rui can be called Sima Yi's most powerful engong, directly guaranteeing Sima Yi to enter the final final, and the opponent is Cao Shuang, who is like a brother in law...