Chapter 11 Military Meeting Cao Rui chuckled and said, "The Grand Marshal, the General, the General of the Fujun Army, and the General of the Zhenjun Army, there are four important ministers of state in the Shangshutai. What do I have to worry about?" Cao Xiu said, "I have not seen Your Majesty for half a month, and I feel a little uneasy." Cao Rui raised his eyebrows: "Oh? What's wrong with the Grand Marshal?" Cao Xiu said: "Your Majesty, our Great Wei is in mourning after all. Most of the state affairs we have been dealing with in the past few days are to communicate with the ministers in various places to reassure them." "In fact, according to the time, both Dongwu and Shu Han should have known about the death of our great Wei." Cao Rui nodded. It was difficult to conceal the national mourning. It would be strange if the Wu and Shu countries did not take the opportunity to cause trouble. Cao Xiu continued, "Your Majesty, if Wu and Shu make any unusual moves, how should our Great Wei respond? We all have some ideas, but we still want to ask Your Majesty for your opinion." The four ministers all looked at Cao Rui, but the meaning in their eyes this time was obviously different from the last time they met. In fact, no matter which dynasty, the assistant ministers were more like people who shared power with the emperor than helpers. In order to govern the world, ministers and the emperor should be like brothers and confidants; the two are one.
If the emperor makes wise decisions, the ministers will not dare to conceal anything and will do their best to implement the emperor's arrangements. But if the emperor is a mediocre figure, although the ministers will work loyally, they will undoubtedly conceal a lot of information, details and personnel matters. If power is kept in the dark, then such power is illusory. This was the first official communication between the four ministers and Emperor Cao Rui. Cao Rui understood that this was not so much a request for instructions from the emperor as a two-way test. The emperor tests his ministers' political inclinations and whether they are greedy for power, while the ministers test the emperor's intelligence and policy direction. Few ministers have ambitions from the beginning. Ambition mostly comes from indulgence. After indulgence, ambition will spread and grow like weeds after a spring rain. Of course, Sima Yi is an exception. At this moment, Cao Rui felt that he could no longer hide his shortcomings and should show off his talents appropriately to give the four ministers a little shock. "Grand Marshal, what do you think?" Cao Rui asked the ministers what they thought. Cao Xiu replied, "Your Majesty, Shu Han is weak and not a concern. Sun Quan of Eastern Wu has long been a threat to the border, and I am afraid he will cause trouble on the border. I think we should gather our forces in Jingxiang and Xuyang." "If Dongwu has the guts to attack, we will not allow them to return to Jiangdong. If Dongwu does not attack, we can cross the river and punish them." As soon as Cao Xiu finished speaking, Cao Zhen also said: "Your Majesty, I also think that we should attack Dongwu. The previous emperor attacked Dongwu three times. Your Majesty should inherit the previous emperor's will after ascending the throne and try to quell Dongwu as soon as possible." Cao Rui smiled and nodded: "What the Grand Marshal and the General say makes sense. Mr. Chen and Mr. Sima, what do you two think?" Sima Yi said calmly, "I think that although Dongwu is a threat to our border, its ability is limited to protecting itself along the river, and it is not enough to threaten our Wei in the north. Your Majesty, do you remember Zhang Liao and Zhang Wenyuan? Even Sun Quan's 100,000 troops could not capture the city of Hefei." "I think that it is up to your majesty to decide whether to fight or not." Cao Rui nodded and turned to look at Chen Qun: "Chen Qing, what do you think?" Chen Qun clasped his hands and answered solemnly: "Your Majesty, I think it is not appropriate to fight. Large-scale warfare is very costly. The previous emperor attacked Wu three times, and the counties of Jingzhou, Yangzhou and Yanbian were burdened with great burdens, and they have not recovered yet." "I think we should order all the generals to defend the city strictly." Cao Rui understood that the four people's debate on whether to fight or not was actually a disagreement on their respective routes. Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen were generals from the royal family, and their use was on the battlefield. Moreover, the two of them were now in charge of the troops of the whole country, and they were full of ambition and pride. They would definitely not be afraid of the difficulty of going south to fight. Sima Yi was more cunning. He had never commanded an army before, and although the start of the war would not benefit him much, it would not necessarily take away his power. Cao Rui did not believe that Sima Yi would truly care about the country.
As for Chen Qun, Cao Rui believed that he was a loyal and patriotic person. Chen Qun's reasons for suggesting not to fight were very real. The counties were in ruins, all industries were in decline, and there was a shortage of food and people. Naturally, there was reason not to fight. Faced with such serious differences, Cao Rui's decision was crucial. Cao Rui's recent research on Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen's articles is titled as a study of literature, but in fact he is constantly analyzing past government affairs and their views on various ministers in the written archives of Cao Cao and Cao Pi. The remarks of the four ministers initially confirmed some of Cao Rui's views, but Cao Rui still needed to confirm some more things. Cao Rui said, "I understand your opinions. Grand Marshal, you said we should attack the Eastern Wu, right? The late emperor attacked the Eastern Wu three times, but failed in the end. I want to ask you, why can't we defeat the Eastern Wu?" The four ministers were all a little stunned at this moment. For a moment, they felt that Cao Rui's question was a bit absurd. Of course, there were too many reasons why he couldn't defeat the enemy. In the past 20 years, Cao Cao and Cao Pi had repeatedly failed in their military operations, and the reasons were too numerous to count. Cao Rui saw that the four people were silent for a while, and then asked: "Let me change the question. How many times did Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen attack Wu?" Cao Xiu thought for a moment and said, "In the 13th year of Emperor Wu's Jian'an reign, he went south to attack Sun and Liu, and in the 17th and 22nd year of his Jian'an reign, he went south to attack Huainan twice, a total of three times." "In the third year of Emperor Wen's reign, he attacked Wu from three directions. In the fifth and sixth years, he inspected the troops in Guangling twice, a total of three times." Cao Rui continued, "There were six attacks on Wu in total. Let's not talk about the distant ones, but just the three times Emperor Wen attacked Wu." "The third year of Huangchu was also the largest-scale attack by the previous emperor on Wu. Grand Marshal, you were in charge of the eastern route at that time, right?" Cao Xiu bowed and said: "I was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army at that time, leading Zhang Liao and Zang Ba to attack Guangling." Cao Rui asked: "Why didn't the Eastern Army win at that time?" Cao Xiu said: "At that time... at that time, I took advantage of the fact that Zeng Wu was not prepared and sent Zang Ba to lead 10,000 elite soldiers to cross the Yangtze River. However, since there was no place to stand on the south bank of the Yangtze River, they eventually retreated to the north of the Yangtze River." "When the reinforcements from Wu arrived, we were unable to defeat the Wu army in the naval battle, and therefore failed." Cao Rui said, "I know the situation of the Eastern Army. General, you are in the Western Army, right?" The question, which seemed like a roll call, made everyone's nerves tense. Cao Zhen quickly replied, "I was in the Western Route Army. At that time, I led Generals Xiahou Shang, Zhang He, Xu Huang and others to besiege Jiangling City for more than half a year. Finally, due to the increase of epidemics in the army, the late emperor ordered the army to withdraw." Cao Rui looked straight at Cao Zhen, who looked away in embarrassment. After all, he had lost the battle, even though it happened a few years ago, and it was not glorious in front of the emperor. Cao Rui continued to ask: "What about the middle road? If I remember correctly, the middle road is led by the loyal marquis Cao Ren, right?" Sima Yi replied: "It was Cao Ren, but he died on the battlefield after the defeat of the central army." The defeat was used to embarrass themselves, and Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, who advocated war, both looked a little depressed. Cao Rui did not care about the two men's face at all and continued to ask: "Then why didn't they dare to cross the Yangtze River during the second and third attacks on Wu? (End of this chapter)