Chapter 199 On insidiousness, my Sima Yi is willing to be defeated
Chapter 199 When it comes to insidiousness, I, Sima Yi, am willing to be the loser.
Guo Huai described himself as a scholar who fled here from Liangzhou. He was quite talented and learned. He wanted to serve in the Wei Dynasty and asked to meet the general Sima Yi.
After explaining, even though Guo Huai did not reveal his real name, the expression of Sima Fang, a junior official in the official residence, changed.
At first, because of Guo Huai's drastic change in body shape and slovenly appearance, he did not recognize the latter - he had only seen Guo Huai from a distance a few times before.
But as Guo Huai narrates, the person in front of him gradually overlaps with Guo Huai's image.
"Guo Huai, you are Guo Huai!" Sima Fang couldn't help blurting out.
"It's me!" Guo Huai nodded excitedly and almost burst into tears on the spot. He felt that the haze hanging over his head was about to dissipate. Since the little official in front of him recognized him, he would definitely help him meet Sima Yi and tell him the whole story.
Snow stigma.
Just as my heart was racing, I suddenly heard Sima Fang shouting: "Come here, arrest this Shu spy!"
"Locked into a dungeon!"
"???"
Guo Huai was completely stunned.
Two strong and powerful soldiers came over upon hearing the sound and arbitrarily dragged Guo Huai down, who was stunned on the spot.
…
It's night, the temporary general's mansion in Hebei County.
Master Sima walked into the inner room with a stack of bamboo slips, placed them in front of Sima Yi, brought another candle, and said softly: "Father, Xi Zuo has received news from Liangzhou. Guo Huai recently tried to escape Shu and return to the Han Dynasty, but he failed.
He was arrested, contracted the plague in prison, and died. All the information is here."
"Father, it seems that the "Guo Huai is about to serve as the governor of Liangzhou in the Shu Han Dynasty" widely publicized by the Shu army is false news. Lord Guo has not betrayed the country and surrendered to Shu."
Sima Yi nodded slightly, took the candle, and began to review the detailed records about Guo Huai in the past few months volume by volume. He wanted to confirm two points: first, whether Guo Huai really never rebelled against Wei; second, whether Guo Huai really did not rebel against Wei.
's already dead.
If you confirm the first point, you can vindicate him; if you confirm the second point, you can immediately implement the rescue plan.
Even if he spends some money, even if he pays some price, Sima Yi will get Guo Huai back.
No matter what, he needed to adopt such a positive attitude, not only to win over the hearts of his subordinates; but also because Guo Huai and he had always been on good terms, he needed to clarify to the court that he did not know people well.
Previously, the news that "Guo Huai had surrendered to Shu" and that "Guo Huai was about to serve as the governor of Liangzhou in the Shu Han Dynasty" reached the capital city of Luoyang, and the civil and military officials had already criticized him a lot.
Everyone knows the relationship between Guo Huai and Sima Yi. Guo Huai surrendered to the enemy, how could Sima Yi get rid of the relationship?
Sima Yi knew very well that his being "demoted one level" was not due to "failure to rescue Liangzhou". It was just an official excuse. The real reason was that Guo Huai was implicated in his defection to Shu.
As the commander-in-chief of the three armies, Sima Yi had his own unique judgment on the situation.
So he wanted to find out whether Guo Huai was still alive!
But unfortunately, after searching carefully, no relevant information was found to prove that Guo Huai was still alive. It could only prove that Guo Huai did not surrender to Shu.
Sima Yi sighed in disappointment.
At this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a bamboo slip with the word "Guo Huai" written on it. He quickly took out the bamboo slip, spread it out on the table, stretched out his hand to carefully cover the candle flame, and leaned over to take a closer look.
.
"On the third day of February in the ninth year of Jianxing, Guo Huai was burned on a rocky hill in the south of the city."
Due to the many battles against Shu in recent years, Sima Yi had seized many Shu Han official documents and was familiar with the Shu Han official document recording method. These few dozen words in front of him contained a lot of information in his eyes.
This is an ordinary military record, dated five days ago, one month after Guo Huai's first failed escape, and the content is about Guo Huai's cremation.
There is nothing wrong with these contents on the surface.
What really made Sima Yi suspicious was the last sentence: "Guo Huai was burned on a rocky hill in the south of the city." This statement is very thought-provoking. If Guo Huai died of the plague first and then was burned, this sentence should be written as "his body was burned on a rocky hill in the south of the city."
.And what is recorded in this document is "Guo Huai was burned at the Rock Hill", which means that Guo Huai must have been alive when he was burned, so it was recorded like this.
In other words, Guo Huai was burned without being completely dead at that time.
Not completely dead...
A bright light flashed before Sima Yi's eyes.
This is most likely Guo Huai's plan to fake his own death to escape.
It’s not possible, it’s certain!
This idea quickly took shape in Sima Yi's mind and became increasingly clear.
He knew Guo Huai, who was good at both civil and military affairs, good at military management and general strategy, and was a rare talent in the Wei state.
In the Battle of Jincheng, if Ma Su had not possessed so many sophisticated and novel equipment, even if Ma Su attacked with twenty times the superior force, Sima Yi believed that Guo Huai could at least deal with him for a month.
Rather than being destroyed in one day.
While he was deep in thought, Sima Zhao pushed open the door and called out: "Father, the officials from the official residence have come to report that they have captured a Shu army spy, who looks like Guo Huai."
Sima Yi quickly put away his chaotic thoughts, stood up straight, and did not immediately order to summon Guo Huai. Instead, he looked around at his two sons and remained silent.
He was 99% sure that the person caught in the official residence must be Guo Huai, it must be Guo Huai.
Guo Huai, who survived the plague, escaped back.
plague……
Sima Yi muttered to himself, then suddenly his expression changed drastically, and he ordered urgently: "Quickly, seal the official residence, no one is allowed to enter or exit, immediately, immediately!"
Sima Shi was very surprised because he had seen this information earlier than his father Sima Yi and concluded earlier that Guo Huai had not yet died. So when his younger brother Sima Zhao said "Guo Huai is back", he was immediately overjoyed.
But as soon as he heard his father's order, he immediately realized that there was a fraud in it. He was frightened and hurried out.
Unlike his "stupid" brother Sima Zhao, Master Sima realized the seriousness of the matter in an instant and wanted to deal with the incident personally.
The father and son were left in the room.
Sima Yi looked directly at Sima Zhao and said nothing.
Sima Zhao was a little frightened by his father's sharp gaze, and asked anxiously: "Father, what happened?"
Sima Yi looked away and sighed secretly.
Too young. This son is still too young.
Because the Guards was commanded by Sima Division, and the intelligence was in charge of Sima Zhao, Sima Zhao had seen all the intelligence that Sima Yi and Sima Division had seen in advance.
Normally, Sima Zhao should have realized that something was wrong as soon as he learned that Guo Huai had returned, immediately sealed off the official residence, and then reported it.
If I report it first, if something goes wrong and the plague spreads...
How can the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses stationed in Ji County survive?
But it’s not his fault. He was only twenty years old after all... Sima Yi shook his head and did not blame Sima Zhao. Instead, he ordered:
"Sima Zhao. This general orders you to immediately send all the troops and horses in the city to station outside the city."
As soon as he heard this title, Sima Zhao knew that the matter was serious, so he quickly accepted the order, raised his sword and left.
After Sima Zhao left, the peaceful Hebei County suddenly became lively.
The general's shouts and the neighing of the horses were intertwined and resounded throughout the night sky.
A messy night.
At dawn, Master Sima dragged his tired body back and brought back bad news:
Sima Fang, a minor official in the official residence, developed symptoms of the plague, and later, the prisoners, laborers, and refugees in the official residence dungeon also developed mild measles.
Sima Yi shook his head helplessly. The bad news he least wanted to hear finally happened.
In fact, he had doubts from the moment he deduced that Guo Huai was alive: What kind of person is Ma Di? This is an old man who is more scheming than Zhuge Liang.
When Zhuge Liang pacified the Southern Barbarians, he offered "attacking the heart first". When he became the governor of Yongliang, he offered "counterintuitive tactics", which made him miserable.
Will such a person be deceived by others' tricks?
It's impossible even if you think about it.
Although Guo Huai was indeed a talented person, Sima Yi admitted that few people in the world could match Ma Su when it came to playing dirty tricks.
This person's marching and fighting may be ordinary, and he can do nothing except stand still and make sneak attacks. But when it comes to scheming others, he is really insidious!
Sima Yi still remembers the joke Ma Di told Cao Zhen about "Cao Rui and four ministers who care about life are traveling by boat".
[The Lord of Wei, Cao Rui, and four of his ministers were on a boat trip. When the boat reached the middle of the river, it suddenly began to leak and sink.
The situation is extremely critical. At this time, someone must be willing to sacrifice themselves and jump off the boat to save Cao Rui from drowning.
At this time, Cao Zhen stood up bravely, shouted "For the Cao family's hegemony...", and then jumped out.
The ship's descent was temporarily suspended, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, praising Cao Zhen as a good general of the Cao family and a loyal minister of Wei!
But after a while, more water leaked, and the downward trend accelerated again. Another person had to jump out to reduce the weight on the boat.
So, Cao Xiu had no choice but to shout "For the sake of the people of the world..." and jumped out. The sinking of the ship was temporarily suspended.
However, after delaying for a while, it was no longer possible, and the ship continued to sink. Chen Qun hesitated for a long time, shouted, "For the sake of loyalty and integrity..." and jumped off.
The ship did not stabilize for long, and soon began to draw water again. At this time, there were only two people left on the ship, Cao Rui and Sima Yi.
Sima Yi stood up and shouted righteously, "For the great Wei Dynasty!"
With that said, he threw Cao Rui out.】
…
It was this joke that made Sima Yi not dare to take the initiative to face the king for a long time. He kept his tail between his legs every day, almost keeping a low profile.
Even so, he still felt that something was wrong with the way His Majesty Cao Rui looked at him, something very wrong.
And the chief culprit who put him in such a predicament was Ma Su.
Although he does have some small thoughts that cannot be expressed in words, among all the powerful families in the world, which one does not have small thoughts?
Everyone knew this tacitly, and each ran his own family according to his own abilities. Only Ma Di not only saw through it, but also spread the word everywhere that Sima Yi had a disobedient heart, and would eventually rebel against him, and would eventually devour his master.
