Sima Yi took refuge with Li Tang after escaping from Luoyang, because only in Li Shimin could he see some hope of revenge. As a result, the first Guanzhong War ended with Li Tang's disastrous defeat.
In order to preserve the remaining land in Guanzhong, Li Shimin had to give up the throne to himself, cede territory to pay compensation, and pay tribute to the Qin Dynasty as a vassal.
The Qin and Tang Dynasties signed the Treaty of Luoyang, one of which was to hand over the traitor of the Sima family, that is, Sima Yi.
After learning the contents of the terms, Sima Yi was in despair. He obviously did not think that Li Shimin would protect him. After all, Li Tang did not lack talents at the time, and his role for Li Tang was far from that great.
But what happened next was once again beyond Sima Yi's expectation.
Although Li Shimin ostensibly agreed to Da Qin's request for surrender, he secretly disobeyed it, secretly planned to let Sima Yi escape, and protected Sima Yi from escaping from Guanzhong.
Sima Yi knew very well how risky Li Shimin's move was, as it would most likely anger Da Qin and tear up the peace treaty just signed.
But even so, Li Shimin still let him go. This was what touched Sima Yi the most.
Why did Li Shimin let Sima Yi go at the risk of falling out with Da Qin? There are three reasons:
First, Sima Yi's own ability is indeed extraordinary. If he is left to operate in the dark, he will definitely cause some trouble to the Qin Dynasty;
Second, as the mastermind of the Luoyang coup, Sima Yi had no other choice but to fight against Qin;
The third and most important point is that the peace talks were a foregone conclusion at that time, and neither country wanted to continue fighting, so it was impossible for Sima Yi to change the general trend.
It was precisely because of these three points that Li Shimin was willing to take a gamble for Sima Yi, and the result was obvious. Da Qin did not tear up the treaty just because of Sima Yi.
It was Li Shimin who took Sima Yi in when he was homeless.
When Sima Yi was at his most desperate, it was Li Shimin who resisted the threat of Da Qin and secretly let Sima Yi go.
For Sima Yi, Li Shimin was truly benevolent and righteous, but how did Sima Yi repay Li Shimin?
He made Li Shimin miserable.
In the Second Guanzhong War, the main reason why Li Tang was defeated so miserably and so quickly was because of internal disunity.
The main culprit for the disunity within Li Tang was that people led by Yu Huatian and Li Si were operating in the dark, helping the Qin Dynasty to divide and disintegrate Li Tang's resistance.
Without Yuhuatian's efforts to divide Wajia Litang, how could there be so many people turning to Da Qin?
Who brought Yuhuatian to Li Tang?
Sima Yi.
Yuhuatian saved Sima Yi's life during the Luoyang coup, and it was because of Sima Yi that Li Shimin trusted Yuhuatian so much.
Therefore, although the main responsibility for Chang'an's fall and Li Shimin's death in battle did not lie with Sima Yi, he definitely had an unshirkable responsibility.
After the fall of Chang'an, he learned that Yuhuatian was actually from Da Qin, which made Sima Yi angry and terrified at the same time.
After all, he had never doubted Yu Huatian, and if the other party wanted to kill him, he would have many opportunities.
Sima Yi felt extremely indebted to his benefactor Li Shimin, who had been tricked by him, but the deceased was gone, and all he could do was to strengthen his decision to fight against Qin. This was the only way he could live up to Li Shimin's expectations of him.
Under the protection of bad people, Sima Yi finally chose to seek refuge with Liu Xiu, the king of Chu, after escaping from Guanzhong.
There is no other reason. Liu Xiu is the one with the strongest will to oppose Qin among all the princes at present, and he has not been defeated by Qin yet.
Any princes who completely offend the Qin Dynasty will suffer thunderous revenge from the Qin Dynasty.
Li Shimin offended the Qin Dynasty, and took advantage of the main force of the Qin army to fight in Hebei, and brazenly launched the Sizhou War.
Li Shimin undoubtedly hurt Da Qin with this blow, so after Da Qin reacted, he defeated Li Tang in one battle. In the end, Li Tang was divided among the Three Kingdoms and was destroyed.
Liu Ji also offended the Qin Dynasty. As a result, the Northern Expedition army was almost completely destroyed, and he was seriously injured. He was later replaced by Liu Yu, and even his wife and son became someone else's.
It can be seen from this that the Qin Dynasty has always destroyed the anti-Qin forces if they can, and continues to suppress them if they cannot. This attitude undoubtedly greatly frightened the princes of all walks of life.
This is also the main reason why although the situation in the world has gradually become clearer, there are still many forces that dare not completely oppose Qin.
First, he was not prepared to completely fall out with Da Qin;
The second reason is that he is afraid of being retaliated against by Da Qin if he falls out.
With the precedents of Li Shimin and Liu Ji, even if the other princes wanted to rebel against Qin, they would naturally feel awe and fear when thinking of Li and Liu's tragic descent from the mountain.
Da Qin completely fell out of favor.
But among so many anti-Qin forces, there is one country that is extremely special, and that is Chu.
Chu State was an anti-Qin force from the beginning to the end. It had enmity with Qin as early as Liu Biao's period. Later, Liu Xiu also reversed the situation and never missed any opportunity to target Qin.
Great Qin also regarded Liu Xiu as a thorn in its flesh, and its suppression of Liu Xiu and the Chu State never stopped.
But what is the result? From the initial one county of Nanjun, to the four counties of Jingnan, and then to the seven counties of Jiaozhou, Jingchu dominates.
The more Qin suppressed him, the stronger Liu Xiu became.
Among all the powers in the world, the Chu State was the only one that did not decline but grew even under the pressure of the Qin Dynasty.
Although the Chu State can survive to this day, this is mainly due to Qin's policy of being conquered first and then going south.
The Qin Dynasty never concentrated its forces to deal with the Chu State. Only Jingbei was dealing with the Chu State, which gave the Chu State a chance to breathe and develop.
But the three generals Qin Qiong, Yue Fei, and Xue Li who successively guarded Jingzhou are also famous generals famous in the world.
Under the pressure of these three famous generals, Liu Xiu was still able to grow stronger and defend Jiangling, which shows his ability and fortune, as well as the strength and resilience of Chu State.
It was precisely because of this that Sima Yi chose Liu Xiu.
In his opinion, apart from the fallen Li Shimin, only Liu Xiuneng was left to fight against Ying Hao.
As for Liu Yu of Shu, although he won the final victory in the internal struggle and took over the military and political power of Shu, there were still hidden dangers inside, and many people were still unconvinced.
Therefore, in Sima Yi's mind, Liu Yu, who seized power through a coup, was naturally not as good as Liu Xiu, a king who gradually developed on his own.
Now that he decided to join Liu Xiu, Sima Yi also had to plan for the future of Chu.
To the east of the Chu State was the sworn enemy Wu State, to the north was the old enemy Qin State, to the west was the ally Shu State, and to the south was the undeveloped wilderness of Siam.
Apart from the useless Siam, the only way Chu could expand was to annex Wu to the east.
After thinking about it, Sima Yi discovered that there were three obstacles to Chu's annexation of Wu:
1. Wu and Chu are equally powerful.
Even if the Chu State is stronger than the Wu State, it is not much stronger, and it is impossible to annex the Wu State in a short period of time.
Second, although the Wu Kingdom did not have many strong generals, it did have the famous general Sun Wu who was victorious in every battle.
All the generals of the Chu State, including Liu Xiu, were basically defeated at the hands of Sun Wu.
The Chu State has no famous generals who can defeat or even rival Sun Wu. As long as the threat of Sun Wu is not resolved, the Chu Army will not even be able to defeat the Wu Army, let alone annex the Wu State.
Third, Qin and Wu are allies. Qin is too wary of Chu and will never sit back and watch Chu annex Wu.
Once the Chu State launches a war of annihilation against the Wu State, it must win in the short term, otherwise it will benefit the Qin State.
It is difficult to solve any one of Chu's three major problems, let alone all three together.
Sima Yi thought for a long time, and only came up with the same strategy as Da Qin used to deal with Li Tang, which was to divide and disintegrate the Wu State from within. This was the only way for the Chu State to defeat the Wu State.
However, it is definitely more difficult for Chu State to divide and disintegrate Wu State than for Qin State to implement Tang State.
Great Qin was able to successfully divide and disintegrate Li Tang from within because Great Qin was so much stronger than Li Tang and Li Tang had almost no hope of winning, which was why there was such disunity internally.
But Chu and Wu are different. There is not much difference in national power between the two countries, and the Wu State is extremely united internally. It is almost impossible for the Chu State to divide and disintegrate the Wu State from within.
Sima Yi thought it was impossible at first, but after he surrendered to Chu and got a better understanding of Wu's intelligence, he discovered that Wu was not invulnerable, and the only flaw was the issue of the successor.
In Sima Yi's view, the issue of Wu's successor is the last thing that should exist, but it does exist, and it has a tendency to get worse.
Sun Jian, the king of Wu, was old and frail. Although his eldest son, Sun Ce, was capable of commanding troops, his political achievements could only be said to be average.
As for the second son, Sun Quan, his ability in commanding troops was mediocre, and he suffered repeated defeats in battles, but his ability in government affairs was extremely strong.
During the period when Sun Quan served as the prefect of Yuzhang, Yuzhang was under great rule. From the poorest county in Jiangdong, it became the second richest county in Wu after Danyang.
In addition, Sun Quan directly pointed out the unreasonable regional division of Yuzhang County and divided it into three counties: Yuzhang, Pengze County, and Poyang.
Since then, Yuzhang County has been divided into three parts.
After the division, the development speed of the three counties in Yuzhang not only did not slow down, but actually developed faster than before due to administrative refinement and resource integration;
It was precisely because of his outstanding political achievements in governing Yuzhang that Sun Quan dared to compete with his eldest brother Sun Ce and coveted the position of King of Wu that should not belong to him. However, he did not expect that a great defeat would knock him back to the starting point.
The Japanese invaders invaded the southeastern coast, and Sun Quan suffered a disastrous defeat. In addition, the main force was in confrontation with the Chu army, leaving the Wu Kingdom with no domestic troops. This triggered a chain of responses, causing the country's mountains and rivers to rebel, and almost overthrowing the entire Wu Kingdom.
Although the problems of Japanese pirates and Shanyue were later solved by Sun Ce and Sun Wu, and they also added a large number of people to Wu State, it was considered a bad thing turned into a good thing.
But it was Sun Quan who was responsible for this incident after all. Based on this alone, he lost the qualification to compete with Sun Ce.
Sun Jian naturally knew this, so he transferred Sun Quan out of Yuzhang and went to Kuaiji County to serve as the governor.
Kuaiji County was the two provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian in later generations. It was also the largest county in the Wu Kingdom. However, it was not considered wealthy due to its vast territory, sparse population, and numerous mountainous areas.
After the great rule of Yuzhang, Kuaiji County, which was second to last in Jiangdong, naturally fell to the last place.
Sun Jian transferred Sun Quan from Yuzhang to Kuaiji in order to completely cut off Sun Quan's thoughts, but he did not expect that he would backfire because of Sima Yi again.
After finally discovering Wu's flaws, Sima Yi naturally wanted to dig deeper, so he took the initiative to ask Liu Xiu for help, changed his name to Zhong Da, lurked around Sun Quan, and started a plan to divide and disintegrate Wu from within.
The reason why Sima Yi chose to start with Sun Quan was that, in addition to Sun Quan being the only person who could threaten Sun Ce, the most important point was Sun Quan's political ideas.
Yuzhang County has experienced countless governors, but why did Yuzhang usher in great governance as soon as Sun Quan took over it?
Sima Yi discovered that in addition to Sun Quan's own ability, another major reason was the support of the aristocratic family.
Sun Jian and Sun Ce's attitude towards the Jiangdong family was always to use and suppress them, and to throw them away after use. They were extremely harsh on the family.
Of course, this is also the general trend. After all, all the princes in the world, except Li Tang, do not suppress the aristocratic families, and the aristocratic families already exist in the Ming Kingdom.
Who allowed the family to control so many resources?
The common man is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying the jade.