The most attractive part of the story of the Three Kingdoms is that in the early days, heroes from all walks of life competed for power, and heroes were judged by force;The later stage turned into a contest of wisdom and courage. Take the early Lu Bu as an example, no one dared to despise him before his death, but after Lu Bu died, the generals disagreed with each other. As these generals who disobeyed each other withered one after another, the world gradually evolved from "fighting ruthlessly" to "fighting wits". Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi at the end of the period are a typical example, the first-class veterans of the two countries have fallen one after another, and the strength of the military generals left behind is no longer able to start a devastating war. As a result, the two began a tug-of-war of brains, with the goal of who would get tired first and who would make a mistake first. When Zhuge Liang was alone in the empty city, Sima Yi obviously realized that Zhuge Liang had no power to resist, why didn't he take the opportunity to eliminate this big trouble?
This is actually because of Luo Guanzhong's partiality. As we all know, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is almost a chapter back from the perspective of Shu Han**. Luo Guanzhong completely pinned his emotions on the side of Shu Han, and he was even more partial to Zhuge Liang. Under his favoritism, the credit for beheading Huaxiong was secretly changed by Sun Jian to Guan Yu's, Liu Bei's burning of Bowangpo was also arranged on the head of the fledgling Zhuge Liang, and even the credit for burning Chibi, which was originally Zhou Yu's, was changed to Zhuge Liang's. Therefore, in order to highlight Zhuge Liang's resourcefulness and foresight, his opponent Sima Yi unfortunately became an almost insignificant character, so that the portrayal of Sima Yi was not as profound as Zhou Yu.
Therefore, when Zhuge Liang laid out an empty city plan, according to Luo Guanzhong's description, Sima Yi was very panicked, suspecting that the city might have ambushed the Shu army and did not dare to attack. After thinking for a moment, he decisively withdrew his troops and let go of Zhuge Liang, who was at his fingertips. So, did Sima Yi really retreat because he was worried about the ambush as described?Sima Yi's situation. Before the advent of the imperial examination system, the power to select ** in feudal society was completely in the hands of the scholar clan. The emperor's selection of his own political team relied entirely on the mutual nomination of these gatekeepers. The advantage of this approach is that these groups can benefit the emperor** and support the ruler even if it is for their own benefit;But the disadvantage is that in this way, the bureaucracy is completely monopolized, and the various gates are constantly in dispute, and every move can affect the overall situation.
This led to chaos in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, where either the courtiers competed with each other for power, or the eunuchs colluded with the scholars. The Sima family has always been a famous family in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with a strong gate valve nature. When Cao Cao was alive, in order to support the Han family and maintain the rule of the imperial court, he was very disgusted with the corrupt gate lords and vigorously attacked them. Cao Cao's aggressive attitude adversely affected Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, but in action he solved many problems for the imperial court, and crusaded against many princes who were disloyal to the imperial court. He himself once commented on himself: "If it were not for me, I am afraid that many people in the court would be called emperors and kings." Under Cao Cao's tough rule, the Sima family could only silently carry out the tasks assigned by Cao Cao and could not turn over. In particular, Cao Cao had a very bad opinion of Sima Yi, and repeatedly warned Cao Pi not to trust Sima Yi.
However, after Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi wanted to establish himself as emperor, and for this he needed the support of the Shi clan lords. In order to achieve this goal, Cao Pi reactivated the Shi clan gate lords that Cao Cao had suppressed throughout his life, including the Sima family. Although Cao Pi benefited from the Sima family during his lifetime, he always remembered his father's advice and did not give Sima Yi power. When Cao Pi was critically ill, in order to prevent the recurrence of the situation of forcing the palace to concede, he had to choose a representative from the scholar clan, so Sima Yi once again became an important minister of Tuogu. Also entrusted to Gu are Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, two brothers who are the key figures who really hold power and check and balance Sima Yi. Therefore, it can be said that Sima Yi has always been feared by the Cao family. After Cao Rong ascended the throne, it was when Zhuge Liang came out of Qishan on the sixth day.
The two brothers, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu, were not easy to deal with, they were the mainstay of the Cao family, so only Sima Yi could lead the army to resist the Shu army. This battle became known as the "Battle of the Street Pavilion". According to the description of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang did not listen to the advice, and appointed Ma Tan, who joined the army, to command the army, and ordered him to be stationed in the main road of Jieting, using the terrain to block the army led by Zhang He, and preventing Sima Yi's follow-up troops from occupying Jieting, thus cutting off the grain route. However, Ma Tan was stubborn, did not follow the plan and did not listen to the advice of the soldiers, and insisted on camping in the mountains, trying to use the terrain to attack Cao Wei's army. However, Zhang He's skills were superior, he cut off the water source of the Shu army, and adopted a strategy of defending and not attacking. The Shu army, which had no water supply, faced a shortage of food and soon collapsed.
The Shu army retreated in a panic, and Sima Yi led the army to pursue, so that Zhuge Liang lost the opportunity. Faced with this situation, Zhuge Liang had to order a retreat to Xicheng and send troops to raise food and grass, while he only had more than 2,500 old and weak soldiers available. Then, Sima Yi led an army of 150,000 to continue south, and Zhuge Liang was in a desperate situation. However, he opened the gates wide and asked the soldiers to sweep the streets, while he sat on the gate tower and played the harp, seemingly unconcerned about the enemy forces he was about to face. Sima Yi experienced a psychological struggle in Luo Guanzhong's description, constantly deducing whether Zhuge Liang had the possibility of ambushing soldiers. However, there is a clear loophole in this point. Why not send a thousand-strong force to reconnoiter around?Or send an archer to shoot Zhuge Liang?At worst, you can send a small force into the city to check it, and you don't need to retreat immediately.
Therefore, Sima Yi's retreat was not due to fear of ambush, but for deeper reasons. Zhuge Liang bet on whether Sima Yi could think of this reason - "The cunning rabbit dies, and the lackey cooks."The birds are all gone, and the good bow is hidden". The two of them are like weights on the scales, if one side is heavy, the other side will lose balance. Sima Yi once deduced whether there were ambushes, however, his retreat was not out of fear of ambushes, but for deeper reasons. Zhuge Liang bet on whether Sima Yi could realize this - "The cunning rabbit dies, and the lackey cooks."The birds are all gone, and the good bow is hidden". The two of them are like weights on the scales, if one side is heavy, the other side will lose balance. Once Zhuge Liang died, Shu Han lost his support, and Sima Yi's elimination of Shu became inevitable.
On the contrary, if Zhuge Liang dies and Cao Zhen or Cao Xiu replaces, they can also destroy the Shu Kingdom, so why do they need Sima Yi?On the contrary, even if Sima Yi destroyed the Shu Kingdom with his own hands, this kind of courtier with high achievements will often not end well. The Cao clan has always been jealous of the Sima family. As soon as Zhuge Liang died, the Sima family lost the meaning of existence, and it would only incur the suspicion of the emperor and the fate of being given death. Therefore, Zhuge Liang could not die, at least until another powerful leader appeared in Shu, Sima Yi could not take the initiative. Sima Yi could only use the excuse to withdraw from the army. Fortunately, after Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wei took over the Shu army. Jiang Wei was more aggressive than Zhuge Liang, and nine consecutive attacks on the Central Plains undoubtedly gave Sima Yi enough time to consolidate his team.
Therefore, Sima Yi experienced the deaths of Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Zhuge Liang, and even the death of Cao Ei, and once again became the minister of Tuogu. This time, he no longer had any worries, because in the process of fighting against Shu for a long time, his team had grown and was no longer afraid of political struggles. To sum up, for his own safety, even if Sima Yi saw through the empty city plan, and even Zhuge Liang walked out of the city gate in person, he would not be able to kill him. The contest between the two wise men is breathtaking.