frightfiction Chapter 698 Guan Xing's Doppelganger
Chapter 698 Guan Xing's Doppelganger
Sima Yi escorted the captured cattle, sheep, horses, and Xianbei prisoners back to Youzhou. After returning, he did not go back to Liaodong, but instead handed the cattle, sheep, and horses over to Cui Lin, the governor of Youzhou, to handle, and then escorted the prisoners back to the capital to present them as captives.
When news of Sima Yi's great victory reached the capital, the Cao Wei court was shocked, and Cao Pi excitedly roared to the sky.
The main reason is that the results of this battle were so great that no one expected them.
Cao Pi originally only wanted to recover Liaodong and prevent the Gongsun clan from colluding with Liu Bei. Unexpectedly, Sima Yi not only recovered Liaodong, but also destroyed Goguryeo, killed Kebineng, and crippled the Xianbei in the east.
Although the failure to capture Gongsun Yuan made the campaign to recover Liaodong less than perfect, this flaw is negligible compared to the devastation inflicted on the eastern Xianbei.
It should be noted that Kebineng's eastern Xianbei archers numbered over 100,000 and had become a major threat to Cao Wei's borders. Moreover, Kebineng was increasingly disobeying the court's orders, posing a much greater threat than the Gongsun clan of Liaodong.
Now that Kebineng has been assassinated and the eastern Xianbei have been decimated, this news is even more exciting for Cao Pi than the recapture of Liaodong.
More importantly, Sima Yi acted too quickly. Before the New Year was even over, he ended the great war and returned to the capital, preventing the court from getting bogged down in the war and saving the court a lot of money and grain. He did a brilliant job.
It was at this moment that the Cao Wei officials were surprised to realize that they had underestimated Sima Yi.
After the initial shock, Cao Pi decisively issued an edict to hold a grand ceremony in Luoyang to present the captured prisoners, affirming Sima Yi's achievements and announcing his great accomplishments to the world.
He has expanded the territory of the Great Wei Dynasty, so how can we not publicize and commemorate this achievement?
Therefore, on the day Sima Yi returned to the capital, Cao Pi sent Grand Tutor Zhong Yao to lead a hundred officials to greet him ten miles outside the city, giving Sima Yi the highest honors.
After entering the city, Sima Yi presented the captured prisoners to Cao Pi, who was dressed in imperial robes and standing on the city wall, in front of the palace gate. He reported the victory to civil and military officials and countless soldiers, making the ceremony exceptionally grand.
It wasn't that Cao Pi liked extravagance and waste, but rather that Cao Wei desperately needed this victory.
The current Cao Wei state is being suffocated by the pseudo-Han regime, and Cao Pi's ascension to the throne was illegitimate. If they don't produce some decent achievements, they really won't have any confidence.
Now that's a victory, who dares to say that Cao Pi is not worthy of being emperor?
Cao Pi accepted the prisoners offered by Sima Yi, bestowed simple rewards upon them, and then held a grand banquet in the palace.
During the banquet, the Cao Wei rulers and their ministers toasted each other, creating a very harmonious atmosphere. After several rounds of drinks, Sima Yi approached his friend Jiang Ji to inquire about the recent situation in the capital and the movements of the puppet Han regime.
Jiang Ji said, "Nothing has changed in the court; it's still the same old mess. The war between Rencheng Prince (Cao Zhang) and Guan Ping in Guanzhong hasn't made much progress either; they're still at each other's throats. But on the side of the pseudo-Han..."
"The pseudo-Han people are now producing more and more factories, and the variety and quantity of goods they produce are also increasing. The number of merchant ships at sea is also increasing. Luo Tong's detective team is almost overwhelmed. His Majesty plans to upgrade the detective team to a detective agency after the New Year to increase manpower for Luo Tong and expand the crackdown."
"Furthermore, according to a secret report from the school administration, that damned Guan Xing actually trained three thousand guerrilla students and led them to suppress bandits in the mountains for several months, almost eradicating the bandits in Jiangnan."
Sima Yi's expression changed slightly, and he quickly asked, "Is Guan Xing's training of these students more than just bandit suppression?"
Jiang Ji nodded and said, "According to the news from Jiangling and the court's speculation, Guan Xing wants to send these three thousand men into the heart of our Great Wei, to carry out sabotage in our heartland in the same way he fought guerrilla warfare in Eastern Wu. If these three thousand men infiltrate the interior of Great Wei and become a force to be reckoned with, the consequences will be unimaginable."
Upon hearing this, Sima Yi gasped in shock and cursed incredulously, "Damn Guan Anguo, this move is far too vicious."
That was truly vicious. You have to understand that Guan Xing single-handedly wiped out nearly 80% of the elite troops of Eastern Wu by fighting guerrilla warfare in the heart of Eastern Wu, without asking Liu Bei for a single soldier or grain of food. This achievement is extremely remarkable, not to mention now, even in the entire history.
Now Guan Xing is planning to use this trick on their Great Wei again, what should they do?
Although the trainees trained by Guan Xing were less than half as capable as him, or even less than a tenth of his ability, their sheer number of trainees was overwhelming—a full three thousand!
These three thousand people are scattered in various corners of the Great Wei. If you surround and attack someone, you will miss the other side while surrounding this side, and you will let this side escape while surrounding that side. In that case, let alone capturing people, you will be exhausted to death from running around.
Besides, can we capture them all just by working hard? Of course not. Even if we capture 90% of the 3,000 men, there will still be 10% left. That remaining 10% could definitely turn Cao Wei upside down.
It's no exaggeration to say that these three thousand people are Guan Xing's clones. Guan Xing split himself into three thousand parts and fled in different directions, causing trouble in different directions. Who are you going to arrest?
Sima Yi realized the seriousness of the problem and asked impatiently, "Where are these three thousand men? Have they already infiltrated the Great Wei?"
Jiang Ji said, "Guan Xing has already released them from the camp to begin operations, but these people disappeared as soon as they left Jiangling. The court doesn't know their exact whereabouts at the moment, but His Majesty has ordered a thorough investigation to ensure that these people are found."
"Furthermore, His Majesty is also planning to emulate Guan Xing by training students and then sending them to Jiangnan to cause trouble, using their own methods against them!"
Sima Yi shook his head and said, "That's impossible. The trainees we train can't enter Jiangnan."
Jiang Ji asked curiously, "Why?"
Sima Yi said with a wry smile, "First of all, the generals of Wei do not have as much guerrilla experience as the Guan family father and son, so they can't handle guerrilla warfare."
"Secondly, languages are difficult to learn. Our Great Wei speaks the Central Plains Mandarin. Although there are differences in local dialects, they are basically the same. It is easy for people in Jiangnan to learn, at most they will have some lisp. But the dialects in Jiangnan are different. They are not only difficult to learn, but there are also many of them. Don't forget that the pronunciation can be different every ten miles and the customs can be different every hundred miles in Jiangnan. Not to mention anything else, there are more than 150 dialects in Yuzhang County alone. How can you learn them?"
That's true. It's not difficult for people from the South to learn the Mandarin of the Central Plains. They can learn it after listening to it a few times. Although they might stutter a bit, they can at least learn it. But asking people from the Central Plains to learn the dialect of Jiangnan is out of the question. That's an impossible task. If a secret agent from the Central Plains went to Jiangnan, let alone infiltrate, he wouldn't even be able to pass the test of speaking.
Sima Yi continued, "Therefore, sending students to infiltrate Jiangnan is like showing off one's limited skills before an expert; it simply won't work. We need to think of other methods."
Jiang Ji smiled bitterly and said, "What else can we do? Recently, smuggling along the coast has become more and more rampant. At the same time, some gentry families have also secretly contacted the puppet Han. There are even rumors that Chen Yu of the Chen family in Xiapi did not die suddenly, but faked his death and escaped to the puppet Han. However, there is no evidence."
"Although there is no evidence for this, it has pointed out a path for the gentry in the Central Plains. There are quite a few gentry who are secretly contacting the pseudo-Han regime. On the other hand, none of the gentry in the south have contacted the court. They are all wholeheartedly gathered around Liu Bei, waiting for the Northern Expedition. Now, with the addition of Guan Xing's three thousand clones, I'm afraid that with this shift in power..."
None of the pseudo-Han gentry surrendered to Wei, but some of the Cao Wei gentry surrendered to Han, which was extremely disadvantageous for Cao Wei.
In addition, although Liu Bei did not launch a northern expedition for the time being, other fronts such as trade war, propaganda war, and espionage war never stopped. These battles were like termites hiding on the riverbank, constantly gnawing at the foundation of Cao Wei. The longer it went on, the weaker Cao Wei became.
On the contrary, the pseudo-Han regime was growing stronger every day because of Liu Bei's successful reforms. With this ebb and flow, if Liu Bei launched his northern expedition in three to five years, Cao Wei would probably collapse before the war even started.
Sima Yi frowned and said, "It seems we can't delay any longer. We can't continue following the pace of the pseudo-Han regime. We must launch a decisive battle ahead of schedule to interrupt Liu Bei's process of accumulating strength."