How could Sima Yi, who has no military power, launched the Gaopingling coup and created the foundation of the Jin Dynasty for more than a hundred years?

To remove the layers of fog that shroud this period of history, we need to rewind the time to eleven years ago. At that time, Sun Yuan, the former prefect of Liaodong of the Wei Kingdom, suddenly proclaimed himself King of Yan and rose up against Wei. In order to quell the rebellion, Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui ordered Taiwei Sima Yi to lead 40,000 troops and expedition to Liaodong. [1]

The twists and turns of the process

Before the expedition, Cao Rui once asked what strategy Gongsun Yuan would use to confront and how long the battle would last. Sima Yi designed three sets of plans for Gongsun Yuan and predicted that he would choose the "lower strategy." Finally, the 59-year-old veteran promised to end the campaign within a year. The progress of the battle after

confirmed Sima Yi's extraordinary ability in military and psychological analysis. And the simultaneous killing of Gongsun Yuan in the killing of Gongsun Yuan more than half a year later showed the complex side of his unscrupulous efforts to conquer the army.

Sima Yizong slaughtered the city to tree private grace

In the same year that the Liaodong War ended, Sima Yi received a letter from Emperor Wei Ming who asked him to guard the pass. But when he was still halfway there, he received multiple edicts within three days. Paradoxically, these imperial edicts, which also came from Emperor Wei Ming, conveyed contradictory information. There was an edict that made him immediately diverted to the capital Luoyang, and there was an edict that prevented him from going to Luoyang first, and then there was an edict to let him continue. Go to Luoyang. Looking at the orders that people did not follow, Sima Yi, who was in a mess in the wind, thought that a major incident had occurred in the capital. 【3】 But in fact, the repetition of the imperial decree is a true portrayal of the complicated psychology of Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui before his death.

At that time, 36-year-old Wei Mingdi was nearing the end of his life. He plans to make a seven-year-old adopted son (the Ming emperor himself has no son) Cao Fang as the next emperor, and plans to appoint one with the Yan Wang Cao Yu as the core, including the leading general Xia Houxian, the Wuwei general Cao Shuang, the Tunqi captain Cao Zhao, and Xiaoqi A team of five people including General Qin Lang. Among the five people, Yan Wang Cao Yu is the son of Cao Cao and the uncle of Emperor Wei Ming. Xiahouxian, Cao Shuang, and Cao Zhao are members of the Cao family/Xiahou family, and Qin Lang is the adopted son of Cao Cao, all members of the close circle of Emperor Wei Ming. And Sima Yi was not in the original plan for entrusting a child. This is why he was first arranged to go to Guanzhong.

However, Cao Yu, the gentle king of Yan, chose to quit. Maybe his aspirations did not lie in this, or he was concerned about Wei Wendi Cao Pi had a rule that princes should not be involved in politics. Regardless of the reason, Wei Mingdi needs to first select another core member from the remaining four. As for who to choose, Emperor Wei MingI hope that the two officials responsible for formulating the edict, Zhongshu Supervisor Liu Fang, and Zhongshu make Sun Zi help out. Coincidentally, Liu Fang and Sun Zi had conflicts with Xiahouxian and Cao Zhao. Qin Lang was only an adopted son (not a member of the clan), so he strongly recommended Cao Shuang as the core minister. Perhaps Liu and Sun were also worried that Cao Shuang could not control the situation, so they added a suggestion that Sima Yi should come back to assist Cao Shuang in governing, so as to squeeze Xia Houxian and Cao Zhao out of the situation. [4] This is the reason why Sima Yi returned to Luoyang immediately after the edict.

However, after Liu and Sun left, the excluded Cao Zhao and others immediately lobbied Wei Mingdi and successfully made the latter change his mind and issued an edict that Sima Yi did not need to return to Luoyang for the time being.

When Liu and Sun came back, they found something was wrong, and started some ideological work. Emperor Wei Ming adjusted his thinking again and announced that the new ministers of Tuogu were Cao Shuang, Sima Yi, Liu Fang, and Sun Zi. [5] Among them, Cao Shuang, who was already "sweat enough" at that time, has the final decision. 【6】

Core Tuogu Minister——Cao Shuang

Seeing from Wei Mingdi’s true Tuo-gu process in three turns, The two players in the game are Cao Shuang, Liu Fang, Sun Zi, Xia Houxian, and Cao Zhao, while Sima Yi is always just a piece that balances the game. In some changes, this chess piece is useful. In some changes, this chess piece is useless.

Therefore, we can also understand why the two "jointly entrusted to the solitary", Cao Shuang can issue an appointment to Sima Yi, but Sima Yi often fails to veto Cao Shuang's idea.

Did Cao Shuang raise and lower Sima Yi?

In the year when Emperor Wei Ming died, the general Cao Shuang in charge gave an order in the name of the young emperor Cao Fang, to the effect that: Taiwei Sima Yi worked hard and made great achievements, so he was specially promoted to Taifu.

This order is often considered to be Cao Shuang’s rise and fall of Sima Yi, with the purpose of cutting off actual power. The reason is that the Taiwei was the highest military commander at the time, and the Taifu was just the emperor's teacher and had no real power. According to this logic, Taishi is also the emperor's teacher, so Dong Zhuo's Dong Taishi must have no real power.

Dong Zhuo's Taishi and Sima Yi's Taifu are one of the "Three Masters"

Actually, at the time, Sima Yi's There is another sentence in the edict on the appointment of the Taifu that is worthy of attention, that is, "Holding the festival to supervise the military as before." [7] In other words, Sima Yi has not only been upgraded, but the military privileges he enjoyed have not changed.

Generally speaking, the first few years of cooperation between the two are fairly harmonious. On the one hand, Cao Shuang regards Sima Yi as a teacher and respects him. On the other hand, Sima Yi's opinions have been implemented, and he is relatively sensible. 【8】

Whose cake did Shangshu Province monopolize?

The change in the relationship between the two actually happened after Cao Shuang appointed He Yan, Deng Yang, Ding Mi and other cronies to hold the core positions of Shangshu Province.

As early as the Wei Wendi Cao Pi period, the Minister 高柔 suggested that some important matters of the province, such as the selection of officials, the strategy of fiscal revenue and expenditure, and the outstanding major cases, should be Submit to the "Three Masters" (Taishi, Taifu, Taibao) and the "Three Gongs" (Taiwei/Sima, Situ, Sikong) to discuss together and listen to the opinions of the veterans. The role of the veterans is equivalent to the post of prime ministers such as "participating in the government" and "Tongping Zhangshi" of later generations. [9]

The veteran of the Sima clan in the change of Gaopingling-Gao Rou

But He Yan, Deng Yang, Ding Mi and the group entered Shangshu After the province, I have my own small abacus: If you can decide things in your own hands, it will naturally be good for you to do it yourself. Take He Yan as an example. When he was in office, he often putSome publicly owned fields and industries are under their own names, and they have abused judicial power to attack political enemies. [10] If the affairs are handed over to the veteran to discuss, then He Yan's so-called privilege will lose most of the operating space.

So the group urged Cao Shuang not to share power with other veterans too much. Cao Shuang readily accepted the suggestion. Maybe he thinks that he is the core minister, but he can't even decide a little thing about Shang Shushen. Isn't he just nameless?

So, under the instruction of Cao Shuang, Shang Shushen's affairs were rarely submitted to the veterans for discussion. [12] This is tantamount to abolishing the political power originally owned by Tai Fu Sima Yi, Tai Wei Jiang Ji, Situ Gao Rou and other elders, and Sima Yi is not the only one who offends.

Cao Shuang's approach cannot be said to be wrong. After all, in order to centralize power, Emperor Han Jing also did things like slashing the han. But the problem is, if you seize the rights of others, you can do better than others. But He Yan's group of people made things miserable again. Only in the eighth year of Zhengshi (two years before the Gaopingling Change), Taiwei 蒋济 wrote angrily. The main meaning is: what the high official does should be done by the high official. If a bunch of small officials were allowed to change the process, what else would the high officials do? [13]

The veteran of the Sima clan in the Gaopingling Change Squadron——Jiang Ji

Cao Shuang playing with the military touch Forbidden land

Sima Yi has been leading soldiers in battle for many of his life, and the army is his traditional sphere of influence. If Cao Shuang's control of Shang Shusheng only made him angry, then it would be tantamount to hitting the forbidden territory if he ran into the army at will.

In the first five years of the first five years, Ding Yang and others, in order to make Cao Shuang famous all over the world, ordered 60,000 to 70,000 horses and hurriedly attacked Shu without conducting in-depth enemy analysis and careful preparation. Cao Shuang had to discuss with the veteran in advance of such a military event. However, when Sima Yi clearly voted against it, he still insisted on the decision to dispatch troops with "selfishness". After the army went out, Sima Yi issued a severe letter to the deputy Xia Houxuan who accompanied Cao Shuang on the expedition. Under Xia Houxuan's fear, this led Cao Shuang to withdraw his troops with a shame. However, it was ambushed by the Shu army in the process of withdrawing its troops, and its logistics suffered a great loss. [14] From this incident, we can clearly see Sima Yi’s territorial awareness in the military, and the immature military operation level of Cao Shuang’s team . In the first six years of

, Cao Shuang did another thing that made Sima Yi extremely disgusted, and that was the abolition of the middle and middle camps. At that time, Cao Shuang’s younger brother, Cao Xi, took up the position of the leader of the middle, responsible for the management of the five schools (tun cavalry, infantry, Yueqi, Changshui, shooting sound), three battalions (middle base, backbone, Wuwei), a total of eight battalions of the forbidden army [ 16]. After Cao Shuang abolished the middle base and the backbone battalions, he was equivalent to driving off the commanders (lieutenants) of the two battalions and handing his team to Cao Xi's direct command.

Why is Sima Yi angry about this? Because at the beginning of the order, Sima Yi and Cao Shuang each held three thousand each, taking turns on duty [17]. Both sides have their own spheres of influence in the Forbidden Army. Moreover, Sima Yi's eldest son, Sima Shi, held the post of the Central Guard at the time. This official position is the deputy to the leader Cao Xi (Cao Shuang's younger brother), who is responsible for the selection of military attachés.

Although the history books did not clearly mention the specific relationship between the evicted Chief of the Forbidden Army and Sima Yi. However, judging from the latter's involvement in the Queen Mother Cao Shuang's crimes in the Gaopingling Incident, he specifically mentioned that "the old guard of the old guard, and he was reprimanded" [18], the old man hated the matter with deep hatred and brooding.

"Book of Jin" described Sima Yi's character as "bogey inside but wide outside, and suspicion can be changed." A person with this kind of personality, even if he didn’t say much about Cao Shuang’s series of things at the time, he was likely to bear resentment (internal jealousy, suspicion) in his heart, and he would be paralyzed by the expression that the matter had passed. The other party (external width, contingency). This may be an important reason why Cao Shuang has been underestimating the destructive power of Sima Yi.

城府极深, Sima Yi

The undercurrent surging before the upheaval

The eighth year of Zhengshi (247 AD) was two years before the Gaopingling Change. There are several major events that deserve attention this year.

The first major event was Taiwei Jiang Ji's official letter, denounced some "little officials" for altering the decision-making process without authorization, and overriding the "big officials". This shows that the conflict between the veterans and Cao Shuang's team has become public. Pave the way for the former Sima to stand in the Gaopingling Incident.

The second major event was that the Queen Mother moved to Yongning Palace.

In the picture, Yongning Temple is the location of Yongning Palace [19] [20]

As shown in the above picture, Yongning Palace is outside the imperial palace, in Luoyang city to the southwest. According to historical records, at that time, Cao Shuang followed the advice of his think tank and moved the wife of Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, who is now the Queen Mother, to live in Yongning Palace. [21] When the empress dowager and the emperor parted, the two of them cried and reluctantly gave up. [22] This move is often regarded as Cao Shuang's "major criminal evidence" for forcibly separating the Queen Mother and the Emperor.

But what is strange is that from Sima Yi's later "crime" of Cao Shuang during the incident, he did not mention the matter. It is conceivable that if Cao Shuang really had any compulsive behavior towards the empress dowager’s move to the palace, Sima Yi would definitely be caught in chasing after him.

In fact, Emperor Cao Fang was 16 years old. He and the Queen Mother are not biologically related. In this case, Cao Shuang moved the Queen Mother to Yongning Palace, which is still located in Luoyang City, which is undoubtedly a more ethical good thing. The Queen Mother and Cao Fang have been together for many years, and once parted (in fact, both are still in Luoyang City), it is also common for both sides to cry sentimentally.

However, the empress dowager moved to Yongning Palace, where the security level is relatively low, which greatly facilitated Sima Yi's later initiation of the Gaoping Ling change. This is probably something Cao Shuang did not expect.

The third major event of the year was that Sima Yi was sick at home and no longer intervened in government affairs. With his broad and internal taboo, once he stops communicating through illness, it means that his relationship with Cao Shuang will no longer be repaired.

So, what is the father doing at home? According to historical records, it is quietly preparing. [23] To be more specific, let the eldest son Sima secretly raise the "three thousand dead men" and secretly plan a coup d’état. Since the secrecy work was done so well, even the second son Sima Zhao was kept in the dark. [24]

However, as Sima Yi's side looked calmer, Cao Shuang and others became more disturbed. The reason is very simple, everyone has no idea. Therefore, there is the widely circulated story of Sima Yi cheating on illness to earn Cao Shuang. And this dramatic performance is not a fabrication of "The Romance", but a real history.

In the winter of the 9th year of Zhengshi (248 AD) (just a few months after the Gaopingling Incident), a minister named Li Sheng was assigned to Jingzhou. Before leaving, he went to Taifu's Mansion to leave. With the support of the two maids, Sima Yi, who was covered with porridge, asked tremblingly where he was going? Li Sheng said to go to Jingzhou. Sima Yi deliberately said that Bingzhou is close to the grassland and should be careful to guard against foreign enemies. But Li Sheng said that he was not going to Bingzhou, but Jingzhou. Sima Yi said, whatever the state, I wish you success in your career. [25] After

, Li Sheng gave a detailed report on Sima Yi's situation to Cao Shuang, and lamented sadly that a generation of heroes is no longer courageous. [26]

At that time, Sima Yixu was seventy years old, and he was actually less than three years away from his true life. Therefore, Cao Shuang believed in Li Shengzhi's words and relaxed his vigilance against his biggest competitor. This may be the direct reason why he dared to bring a bunch of brothers out of the nest a few months later.

The thrilling change of Gaopingling

On the sixth day of the first month of 249 AD, General Cao Shuang and his brothers accompanied Emperor Cao Fang out of the city to visit the Gaopingling Tomb.

The ancient city of Luoyang in the Han and Wei Dynasties is about 55 kilometers away from Changhe Gate and Gaoping Mausoleum

Since the south gate of Luoyang City Palace is about 55 kilometers away from Gaoping Mausoleum, the emperor’s driving back and forth to Kabai Mausoleum is included. Waiting for activities untilIt takes at least two to three days. Therefore, the most likely time for Sima Yi to initiate the action was the early morning of the day after Cao Shuang left the city (7th). Only when he was 100% sure that Cao Shuang had left the city, Sima Yi dared to summon the "three thousand dead men" who had been raising for many days. [27]

And it was not until the eve of the coup (the night of the 6th) that the second son Sima Zhao learned of such a plan. [28]

In the early morning of the 7th, the "Three Thousand Dead Soldiers" arrived at the scheduled assembly point-Simamen Meeting as scheduled, and obeyed the direct leadership of Sima Division.

According to Qian Guoxiang's "Study on the City Gate and Palace Gate of Luoyang in the Han and Wei Dynasties", Sima Gate is located in the south of the imperial palace, on the east of Changhe Gate

The temporary Sima Yi couldn't help but admire the assembled team because of the extremely strict military appearance. This also means that the "dead soldiers" are not in a free-range state on weekdays, but have special personnel to arrange strict military training. [29] It can be seen that Sima is very well prepared for the details of the coup.

Schematic diagram of the key location of Gaopingling’s change, the picture is from the "Investigation of Luoyang City Gate and Palace Gate in the Han and Wei Dynasties" Qian Guoxiang

Simamen Located on the south side of the imperial palace, and close to Yongning Palace where the Queen Mother lives. Sima chose this place as a rallying point for the convenience of controlling two palaces at the same time.

Next, Sima Yi entered the Yongning Palace with relatively low security level as the Taifu, and forced the Queen Mother to issue martial law throughout the city and exempt the Cao Shuang brothers from the military power of the "Queen Dowager". It is conceivable that the queen mother must have been temporarily put under house arrest for some time.

Sima Yi, who got the edict, immediately declared that the doors were closed and Luoyang was in a state of emergency. Later, he led the "dead soldiers" into the palace from the south gate, and took over the palace defenses one by one along the route from south to north in the name of the "Queen Dowager". In the process, he passed through the palace gate guarded by Cao Shuang's confidant, and was once targeted by arrows. But at a critical moment, the opponent's internal disagreement on whether to resist or not, Sima Yi finally walked out of the north gate of the imperial palace without any risk, and came to the "arsenal" located in the northeast of Luoyang inner city.

Here, Sima Yi quickly armed the "dead soldiers" into an elite army with a large number of weapons and armors stored in the library. After that, Sima Yi made three more important arrangements: [30]