Chapter 482: Don’t learn from Gongsun Yuan and stick to it
Zhang Pi looked around and sighed: "If Gongsun Yuan hadn't misjudged the situation back then and took advantage of Jiangdong's power, but he had already turned against Jiangdong and killed his envoys, why would it be like this? You and others must not do it now. Learn from Gongsun Yuan!"
Several generals in the hall clasped their fists and said, "I will defend Xiangping City to the death!"
Zhang Pi stroked his beard and said: "There is no need to defend. If nothing can be done, you can retreat to Youzhou and make plans later. But you must not surrender and treason. I believe you all know where the world's power lies."
In the east, in September of the same year, the Battle of Shiting broke out between Wei and Wu. In this battle, Grand Sima Cao Xiu suffered a disastrous defeat and returned.
A series of wars made Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui tired of dealing with it. In addition, although Gongsun Yuan deviated at this time, he did not touch the bottom line. Therefore, Cao Rui acquiesced to Gongsun Yuan's deviant behavior and worshiped Gongsun Yuan as General Yang Lie. Governor of Liaodong.
Proclaiming vassal status to Soochow: Gongsun Yuan, who had little political experience, did not know that this move had touched the red line drawn by Cao Wei.
After Cao Rui recognized Gongsun Yuan's legal status in Liaodong, Gongsun Yuan, who had tasted the sweetness, began to turn his attention to the distant Soochow.
He sent envoys many times to contact Soochow and professed his tribunalship to Sun Quan.
Gongsun Yuan's purpose of stepping on two boats was to gain benefits from both Wei and Wu.
However, Sun Quan had other ideas. He wanted to take this opportunity to fulfill his dream of Huainan.
After the Battle of Chibi, although Sun Quan gained a firm foothold in Soochow, the vast Huainan area on the other side of the Yangtze River was still firmly in the hands of Cao Cao. This kept Sun Quan often awake at night, because as long as Cao Cao crossed Soochow The only line of defense, the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, can directly attack the capital city of Soochow.
Therefore, in order to stabilize Soochow's defense, the defense line must be moved forward from the Yangtze River Basin to the Huaihe River Basin, so that the southward passage of the Huaihe River can be controlled and a strategic buffer zone between the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River can be established.
In this way, a chain defense pattern of the Huaihe River Defense Line, the Buffer Zone, and the Yangtze River Defense Line was formed, which is the strategic principle of "defending the river must defend the Huai" as the ancients said.
In order to achieve the strategic goal of controlling Huainan, Sun Quan made six Northern Expeditions to Hefei without any victory.
The cruel reality made Sun Quan realize that the Northern Expedition via the Hefei route was no longer feasible, so he found another way and planned to expedition north by sea: leaving the Yangtze River Estuary and heading north along the East China Sea coastline to attack Xuzhou.
This choice of the Northern Expedition route was ground-breaking. Once implemented, it would achieve the purpose of taking the enemy by surprise and attacking them unprepared. However, Lu Meng poured cold water on Sun Quan.
Lu Meng told Sun Quan: It is easy to seize Xuzhou but difficult to defend Xuzhou. Because the terrain of Xuzhou is flat, it is suitable for cavalry to fight, and the cavalry and land combat capabilities are exactly the Achilles heel of the Soochow army (the Soochow army is only good at water warfare). In this way, Is Sun Quan’s plan for the Northern Expedition by Sea almost in jeopardy?
However, since Sun Quan was able to proclaim himself emperor in Soochow, it means that the height at which he considered the problem was definitely not comparable to that of Lü Meng. Sure enough, Sun Quan quickly came up with a solution: to win over Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong, and use Gongsun Yuan's War horses and powerful soldiers were used to implement his plan for the Northern Expedition by sea.
In 233 AD, despite the opposition of his ministers, Sun Quan sent Zhang Mi, Xu Yan and others to lead 10,000 elite soldiers, carrying gold and jade treasures, and rushed to Liaodong by sea, and established Gongsun Yuan as King of Yan.
Gongsun Yuan was flattered that Sun Quan valued him so much, but he did not lose his mind.
After some weighing, Gongsun Yuan believed that there was a huge gap between his own strength and that of Cao Wei. Once he agreed to join forces with Sun Quan to fight against Wei, Cao Wei would attack Liaodong, and he would die without a burial ground (Sun Quan could not save himself from a nearby fire).
It was the lesser of two evils, so Gongsun Yuan killed the envoy sent by Sun Quan, gathered 10,000 elite soldiers from Sun Quan, and presented the Wu envoy's head to Cao Rui as a sign of goodwill.
From Gongsun Yuan's attitude towards Sun Quan, we can see that Gongsun Yuan was in awe of the Cao Wei regime.
Because he knew the strength gap between the two sides, he did not dare to make any mistakes. This shows that Gongsun Yuan is not "crazy", on the contrary, he is very rational.
Gongsun Yuan surrendered to Soochow just to obtain more benefits.
However, Gongsun Yuan, who was inexperienced in politics, did not know that this move had touched the red line drawn by Cao Wei for him (to surrender to Soochow).
Cao Rui knew Sun Quan's strategic intentions very well, so at this time he was determined to get rid of Gongsun Yuan. But he needed an excuse to send troops.
In 233 AD, at the same time that Gongsun Yuan beheaded the Wu envoys, Cao Rui sent an envoy group headed by Fu Rong and Nie Kui to Liaodong. Note that Cao Rui sent an envoy group, and the name of the envoy group was to worship Gongsun Yuan for joy. Lang Gong actually came to test Gongsun Yuan's tone.
When Gongsun Yuan learned that there was a strong man in the envoy group, he began to feel guilty and did not dare to meet the envoy alone. Instead, he sent troops to surround the place where the envoy group lived, and then he dared to come out to see the envoy and receive the title. But in the process "He said bad words to his guests again", which further strengthened Cao Rui's determination to solve the Liaodong issue.
In 235 AD, Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan. In the same year, Cao Rui sent assassins to assassinate Kebineng, the Xianbei master who had repeatedly defeated the Wei army. This relieved Cao Wei's external military pressure, and Cao Rui began to take action against Liaodong.
In 237 AD, Cao Rui sent Guanqiu Jian, the governor of Youzhou, to summon Gongsun Yuan with a letter and seal. This was Cao Rui's ultimate move. If Gongsun Yuan answered the call, Cao Rui would put him under house arrest; if Gongsun Yuan resisted If he summons Guanqiu Jian, he will take the opportunity to attack Liaodong. It seems that Gongsun Yuan is in doom this time.
However, Gongsun Yuan acted first and sent troops to Liao Tunnel to stop Guanqiu Jian and drove him back.
At this point, the relationship between Gongsun Yuan and the Cao Wei regime has been broken, and Cao Rui has successfully found an excuse to send troops. So, with the huge disparity in strength, should Gongsun Yuan surrender voluntarily, or should he fight hard?
After rejecting Cao Rui's call and sending troops to the Liao Tunnel to block the imperial envoy Guan Qiujian sent by Cao Wei, Gongsun Yuan only had two choices left.
If you take the initiative to surrender to Cao Wei, you may be able to save your life, but your current status will not be preserved.
Fight against the Cao Wei regime, but there is no chance of winning, and the result will be collapse.
If you surrender voluntarily, you will feel unwilling. In this case, you can only treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor, and maybe there is a glimmer of hope.
Therefore, Gongsun Yuan decided to give it a go. He called himself King of Yan, established the Shaohan Kingdom, and openly rebelled against Cao Wei. His purpose in doing so was to use retreat to advance, in order to achieve the following goals.
Geographically, to the west of Liaodong is Cao Wei's offensive route, to the east is Goguryeo, which submitted to Cao Wei's regime, and to the north is Xianbei, which also surrendered to Cao Wei after Kebineng was assassinated. In other words, Liaodong is actually in a
Surrounded on three sides by the forces of Cao Wei.
In order to solve this strategic dilemma, Gongsun Yuan bucked the trend and established the Shaohan Kingdom. He awarded the Xianbei Shanyu a seal ribbon in the name of King Yan, and at the same time promoted officials and titles to the ethnic minorities on the border, and lured the Xianbei people to invade the north of Cao Wei.
This was used to differentiate and sow discord between Cao Wei and Xianbei.
Later, when Sima Yi sent troops to pacify Liaodong, Goguryeo directly sent troops to participate in the counter-rebellion. However, Xianbei, who had expressed his allegiance to Gongsun Yuan, abandoned the secret and surrendered under pressure and directly sent troops to participate in the counter-rebellion.
He once again expressed his goodwill to Sun Quan and hoped to use Sun Quan's power to fight against Cao Wei.
At the critical moment, Gongsun Yuan thought of Sun Quan.
After proclaiming himself Queen of Yan, Gongsun Yuan once again expressed his goodwill to Sun Quan by professing his vassalship.
In order to achieve his own strategic goals, Sun Quan also temporarily agreed to Gongsun Yuan's request. However, the cunning Sun Quan only watched the fight from afar this time.