Chapter 649 Sima Shi’s Decision
"In the heyday of the Wei Dynasty, there were nearly a million soldiers stationed in the fields... but now there are only a few left?"
Cao Shuang's face looked a little ugly, and his hand holding the battle report began to tremble.
The situation of Cao Wei has now deteriorated to a certain extent. No matter how stupid Cao Shuang is, he can see that Cao Wei is no longer able to resist the Shu army.
With this amount of troops, even if the Shu army does not come, the Wei army will find it difficult to maintain the garrisons in various places. If Ma Su leads the army north again, Cao Shuang is sure that this amount of troops will not be enough to fill Ma Su's teeth.
In addition to external pressure, what makes Cao Shuang most nervous is the internal situation.
In the court, the attitude of the representatives of the local big families in Hebei is deteriorating at a visible speed. This means that the big families in Hebei no longer trust them so much, and they have begun to consider withdrawing their investment.
Although the Central Plains gentry who followed them are still willing to support the court, they are all in a panic. Even Xiahou Xuan ran back from the front line to persuade him to make plans early.
That's Xiahou Xuan, and his own clan members have lost confidence.
As for General Qin Lang... there's no need to mention him.
As of now, Cao Shuang has found that his situation has almost reached the point where he is surrounded by enemies. If Sima Shi, who is still in Qingzhou, surrenders to Western Shu with the Liaodong Army, Cao Shuang might really go crazy.
Therefore, after Cao Shuang figured out the key to everything, he responded quickly. He quickly drafted an edict to posthumously confer the title of Taifu to Sima Yi in the name of Cao Fang, and posthumously named him Wenzhen, in order to appease Sima Shi.
At the same time, he also urged Sima Shi to abandon Qingzhou as soon as possible and withdraw to Hebei to defend. Cao Shuang even prepared to send someone to assassinate Sima Shi and quickly seize the military power.
Never mind whether the military power can be taken back to defeat Western Shu, just take it back first!
However, it seems that none of the backhands prepared by Cao Shuang were used. After Sima Shi buried Sima Yi in Jinan, he led his troops back north after two months of stationing, and did not go south to surrender to Western Shu.
This made Cao Shuang feel relieved. At least the Sima family didn't seem to have the idea of withdrawing investment at this time.
The relaxed Cao Shuang quickly gave rewards and ordered Sima Shi to replace Sima Yi and take office as the Grand Marshal. Guanqiu Jian was promoted to General of Chariots and Cavalry, and Yang Hu was promoted to General of Zhenxi to appease the army.
In response, Sima Shi did not respond at all, but honestly took his people back to Yecheng.
After Sima Shi returned to Yecheng, he immediately went straight to Sima Mansion.
"Brother!" Sima Zhao, who was in mourning, burst into tears when he saw Sima Shi coming back. The two brothers almost hugged their heads and cried, and their grief was difficult to hide.
No matter how hypocritical they were to the outside world, the feelings between brothers were still sincere.
"Brother! Did my father have any instructions before he died?"
The two cried for a while, and Sima Zhao asked with tears. Looking at Sima Zhao's eyes with a bit of hope, Sima Shi's eyes couldn't help but be a little erratic.
"Before my father died... he asked me to take good care of you and the Sima family."
"And my father also said that I should stay in Yecheng, but I need to send you to Chang'an..."
"I won't go! I'd rather die than work with Ma Su!" Sima Zhao frowned and stood up suddenly.
"How can I bear the hatred of killing my father? Ma Su and I are sworn enemies!"
"Brother Zhao! You are still so willful!" Sima Shi shook his head gently and smiled bitterly.
"But if you don't want to go, don't go. After all, I don't want to go. There is Uncle Fu's family over there, which still leaves a way out for our Sima family."
"As for us, we can only fight Ma Su to the death to be worthy of our father!"
At this point, Sima Shi's eyes flashed with a trace of loneliness.
Although Sima Zhao might believe these words, Sima Shi couldn't deceive himself.
After all, Sima Shi did not take the initiative to lead the troops back in violation of Sima Yi's will. The final fact is... Sima Shi failed to surrender and had no choice but to return.
After burying Sima Yi, he had been in Jinan for two months and had already written a letter to surrender to Western Shu according to Sima Yi's will. If nothing unexpected happened, Sima Shi should have been in Luoyang at this time.
But Sima Shi waited for two months, and only waited for Ma Su's words.
"Get out! If you Sima Yi dare to come, you will all be killed!"
Ma Su didn't want to let these Cao Wei high-level officials go so easily. They have been sucking blood in the Central Plains for many years, and they have long caused the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China in the original history.
If he let them go so easily, Ma Su would not be able to forgive himself.
Moreover, Ji Han was in a super favorable situation at the moment, and unifying the world was a foregone conclusion. In this case, compared to accepting conditional surrender, Ma Su had to rob directly to save more effort.
It was precisely because Ma Su refused Sima Shi's surrender that he had no choice but to lead his troops back north in the end.
Ma Su's refusal not only disrupted Sima Yi's deployment, but also completely blocked Sima Shi's last hope. Now, all Sima Shi had left was to protect Cao Wei...
Isn't this a different kind of dying with the country...
However, Sima Shi's mentality was still good, and he had accepted the fact before returning to Yecheng. After crying bitterly with Sima Zhao, Sima Shi had adjusted himself.
"Brother Zhao, did anything big happen when I was not in Yecheng?" Sima Shi breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Sima Zhao and asked.
"Well...nothing big, but the court was really in chaos." Sima Zhao was silent for a while, shook his head and said.
"According to my staff, it won't be long before the Hebei clans break with the court. If we don't appease and deter them, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on until the Western Shu advances north."
"It seems that things are already very critical..." Sima Shi narrowed his eyes and felt the pressure suddenly increase.
"As for Cao Shuang...it is said that he plans to send people to the south to beg Western Shu for reconciliation. Although I don't know what he is thinking, it will probably cost a lot of sacrifice." Sima Zhao thought for a while and added.
"But there is no need to worry about this. My staff said that Western Shu is unlikely to agree."
"Hehe...this waste, if he continues to be in power, it is only a matter of time before the Great Wei is destroyed." Sima Shi's eyes flashed with a gleam of light, as if he was thinking about something important.
Soon, he figured something out, then looked at Sima Zhao and gave him a serious instruction.
"Brother Zhao, I'm going back to Nanpi right now to handle an important matter. You should be careful in Yecheng."
"You must wait for me to come back!"
After saying that, Sima Shi turned and left without giving Sima Zhao a chance to speak.
"Brother! Brother!!" Sima Zhao shouted repeatedly, but got no response at all.
"Ming Gong, there's no need to shout. Zheng Xi... The general should be back soon."
At this time, a more childish voice came from behind, calling Sima Zhao.
"Oh? May I ask what Mr. Zhong Hui thinks?"