Chapter 341 I am not my father, I am the Lord of Destiny! Dare to provoke my Great Chu first? How dare you! Kill him!

The person who made the suggestion was Sima Yi.

The son of Sima Fang, he was a leader among the Sima family of Henei County.

Henei County is located north of the Yellow River, across the river from Henan Yin where Luoyang is located. Although it nominally belongs to Sili, it geographically belongs to Hebei.

Before Yuan Shao crossed the river and headed south, Henei County was in a state of no man's land and had been sitting on the fence and watching.

After Cao Cao was defeated at Guandu and took the emperor hostage to move west to Guanzhong and gave up all the states in the Central Plains, Henei County quickly announced its submission to Yuan Shao.

As a prominent family in Henei, the Sima family naturally had to work for Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao also heard that the second son of the Sima family was quite talented, so he recruited him to serve as an official to assist Yuan Shang in guarding Yecheng.

As Sima Yi was half Hebei native, he naturally sided with Yuan Shang.

In order to win merit, Yuan Shang personally led 30,000 troops to Suiyang to reinforce Yuan Shao.

At that time Sima Yi persuaded Yuan Shang to just send the troops and not to go himself, as there was no need to get involved in the war between Chu and Wei.

However, Yuan Shang did not listen to the advice and insisted on going to Henan to compete for merit. As a result, he was defeated miserably in the Battle of Jialu River and his reputation was ruined.

From then on, Yuan Shang trusted Sima Yi even more and made him his trusted adviser.

Today, on the eve of the massive attack by the Chu army, when all the counselors had no perfect plan to resist the enemy, Sima Yi suddenly spoke up and claimed that he had a plan to prevent the Chu army from attacking his Wei State!

Yuan Shang was naturally cheered up.

Sima Yi slowly stepped out of the line, stood in the hall, and faced everyone's gaze calmly.

"Liu Bei is very ambitious. He will never be satisfied with just taking over the Central Plains. He wants to unify the world!"

"And now, the only ones who can stop Liu Bei from unifying the world are our Great Wei and Cao Cao's fake Qin."

"According to the current intelligence, Liu Bei is very likely to cross the river and head north, intending to destroy our Wei first."

"Then let's think about it the other way around. Why did Liu Bei want to destroy us first? Couldn't he destroy the fake Qin first?"

Sima Yi's question was meaningful and it was obvious that there was something else behind his words.

Ju Su's eyes moved, as if he was inspired by something, and he was the first to guess what Sima Yi meant.

Including Yuan Shang, the others were still confused and puzzled.

Sima Yi walked to the wall and pointed to the border between Chu and Qin on the map.

"Our Hedong County is across the river from Hongnong, and Hongnong County is the border between the Pseudo-Chu and Pseudo-Qin countries, and it is also the only way to connect Luoyang and Chang'an."

"I ask the king to send a group of soldiers disguised as Qin soldiers, cross the river from Hedong to Hongnong, pretend to be Qin soldiers, attack cities and plunder land, and kill officials and civilians of the pseudo-Chu."

"In this way, we can incite the anger of the officials and people of the Pseudo-Chu against the Pseudo-Qin, and guide the public opinion of the Pseudo-Chu."

Sima Yi swallowed his saliva and continued:

"While pretending to be the Qin army, we can also use spies in Luoyang, Nanyang, and Xuchang to spread rumors everywhere, claiming that the fake Qin wants to unite with our Great Wei to form an alliance."

"When Liu Bei led his army across the river, the Pseudo-Qin would raise its army, either from Tongguan or Wuguan, and launch a full-scale attack on the Pseudo-Chu from behind with all its might!"

Say it.

Sima Yi turned around and bowed to Yuan Shang:

"The purpose of all I have said is to stir up conflict between the Pseudo-Chu and the Pseudo-Qin, and to make Liu Bei believe that attacking Wei first will only benefit Cao Cao!"

"This will induce Liu Bei to change his strategy and decide to march westward first to destroy Qin!"

"Although the pseudo-Qin was weak, it had the strategic location of Tongguan and Wuguan. It used the geographical advantage to make up for the difference in national strength, so that both sides could fight under the strong pass and end up in a protracted stalemate."

"If the Pseudo-Chu and Pseudo-Qin are deadlocked and the war becomes protracted, it will give us the opportunity to recruit and train new troops, recuperate, and revive our military strength."

Sima Yi spoke eloquently and finally revealed his entire strategy.

To put it simply, it means to lure Liu Bei to fight Cao Cao instead of fighting them.

Yuan Shang suddenly came to his senses, jumped up, walked a few steps to the map, looked around excitedly, and pondered Sima Yi's strategy in his mind.

"Everyone, what do you think of the strategy that Zhongda mentioned?"

Yuan Shang turned around and looked at Ju Su, Shen Pei and other counselors.

"I think Sima Zhongda's plan is a good one in the current situation."

"Since ancient times, unifying the world has always been about starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult. Although our great Wei is not as powerful as the pseudo-Chu, it is stronger than the pseudo-Qin."

"If Liu Bei follows the principle of doing the easy things first and then the difficult things, then he should have attacked the fake Qin first!"

"If Zhongda's plan is implemented properly, it is indeed very likely to lead Liu Bei's troops to the pseudo-Qin."

"As long as Qin and Chu can train their troops at Tongguan, it will only take about six months, not one or two years, for us to be able to train a new army of 70,000 to 80,000."

"Then our weakness of insufficient military strength will be made up. Then, relying on the natural barrier of the Yellow River, even if Liu Bei turns his troops to attack Wei, we will have enough confidence to resist him!"

Ju Su expressed his approval of Sima Yi's proposal.

He turned his gaze to the young Hanoi strategist, nodded slightly, and a hint of admiration appeared between his brows.

Tian Feng and other counselors also looked at him with admiration.

Only Shen Pei frowned, with a hint of jealousy flashing in his eyes.

Ju Shou and Tian Feng were both magnanimous and generous people, so they naturally appreciated and were pleased with Sima Yi, the young newcomer.

Shen Pei was quite unhappy.

I am a veteran, and I don't have any good plan for the current situation, but you, a young boy, have stolen the limelight?
Don't I want to lose face?
However, no matter how unhappy he was, Ju Shou had already expressed his approval of Sima Yi's plan, so he naturally couldn't say anything more.

"Okay, since you and I agree, let's use Zhongda's plan to lure the big-eared thief to attack the fake Qin!"

Yuan Shang readily agreed.

Then he looked at Sima Yi with a gratified look and said approvingly: "I didn't expect that there is a young talent like you with brilliant ideas in Hebei."

"Okay, okay, I really didn't make a mistake about you, Zhongda, you really didn't let me down!"

Despite receiving Yuan Shang's high praise, Sima Yi did not show the slightest bit of pride, but instead became even more humble.

Yuan Shang admired and liked her modest character even more, and he couldn't help but praise her again.

The strategy was thus decided.

Yuan Shang stood in front of the map with his hands behind his back, staring at the location of Xuchang, with a hint of pride on his lips.

"Big-eared thief, I am not my father. Do you think that if you can defeat my father, you can defeat me?"

"I will prove to everyone in the world that I am the only one who is destined to be the master!"

"This world will belong to me, Yuan Shang, in the future!"

...

Half a month later, Xuchang.

Liu Bei sat on the throne, listening to his ministers' reports on the preparations for the attack on Wei.

"This time, in addition to the troops staying at home and defending against the pseudo-Qin, our army can mobilize a total of about 170,000 troops."

"As for food and fodder, we have already prepared about one million hu of food and fodder, and we can raise about 700,000 hu more in the future."

"Our army has a clear advantage in terms of manpower, food, and morale."

"Based on the current preparation progress, we should be able to march north and attack Wei by the beginning of next month at the latest!"

Pang Tong read out all the preparations in detail.

This report not only gave Liu Bei more confidence, but also inspired all the generals, who were eager to fight.

"However, Huo Jun sent back a report from Hongnong, saying that Hongnong County has been invaded by the Pseudo-Qin several times in the past half month."

"The invading pseudo-Qin army burned and looted everywhere, and even massacred an entire county. How despicable!"

However, Xu Shu submitted another report, his anger evident in his words.

When Liu Bei heard the news, the smile on his face disappeared instantly and was replaced by anger.

"This thief Cao has not changed his nature. He massacred Xuzhou before, and now he is massacring Hongnong!"

"Hateful, hateful~~"

Liu Bei slammed the table with his fist and spoke angrily through gritted teeth.

"Moreover, there have been rumors in Luoyang and Nanyang recently that Cao Cao has formed an alliance with Yuan Shang and intends to take advantage of our army's northern expedition against the pseudo-Wei to attack our Luoyang and Nanyang lines."

"If these rumors are not groundless, it means that Cao Cao is indeed trying to take advantage of the situation."

"Your Majesty, I think we should reconsider our strategy of attacking Wei first."

Chen Deng also gave a report.

Liu Bei's eyes moved and he asked:

"Yuanlong, what do you mean by this?"

After a moment's thought, Chen Deng bowed and said:

"Now there are three kingdoms, and our Great Chu is the only strong one, and is the hegemon among the three kingdoms."

"Not only is Cao Cao not afraid of our Great Chu, but he dares to invade, burn, kill, and loot the border counties, and even commits heinous atrocities such as massacring the city!"

"This is a blatant disrespect to our Great Chu, and a provocation to the king's prestige."

"The officials and people of the border counties hate the Pseudo-Qin to the core, and the scholars and people of the country are also extremely indignant, and the voices for fighting against the Pseudo-Qin are growing more and more."

"And if we mobilize all our national forces to attack Wei, Cao Cao will most likely take advantage of the situation to invade the heartland of our Great Chu, just like the rumors say, and reap the benefits."

"So I think we should weigh the pros and cons and reconsider whether to attack Wei or Qin first!"

Chen Deng made his position clear.

There was an immediate discussion in the hall.

All the ministers had originally been determined to attack Wei, but at this moment they began to waver, and the call to attack Qin was raised again.

"Your Majesty, what Chen Yuanlong said makes sense!"

"We are the strongest in the world, Great Chu. We didn't deal with Cao thief, but he dared to trouble us first?"

"The most hateful thing is that, not only did he burn, kill and loot, he even dared to massacre the city?"

"Can we tolerate this evil?"

"In my opinion, we should attack the fake Qin first. After I kill Cao, I will come back to deal with Yuan Shang, the child!"

Zhang Fei was completely enraged and jumped up, shouting indignantly.

With him taking the lead, many generals such as Huang Zhong became furious and declared that they would attack the pseudo-Qin first.

The direction of public opinion seems to have begun to change significantly.

Liu Bei was a little hesitant and had to look at Xiao Fang:
"Jinglue, what do you think?"

Xiao Fang did not answer Liu Bei, but turned his gaze to Zhang Fei and Chen Deng and asked:

"Yide, Yuanlong, how do you determine that it was Qin soldiers who invaded Hongnong, burned, killed and looted?"

Zhang Fei and Chen Deng were stunned.

(End of this chapter)