Chapter 705

Beihai City

Inside the Sima family mansion.

Sima Yi quietly arrived at the study and asked his father, Sima Fang:

"Father, now that Yuan Benchu has been defeated, Cao Mengde likely cannot hold on for much longer."

"What should our Sima family do?"

At this time, the young Sima Yi was far from being as cunning and treacherous as he would be in later generations.

Although he had provided Cao Cao and Yuan Shao with strategies for rapid troop expansion some time ago.

That was less of a long-term plan and more of a stopgap measure.

After all.

Everyone knew the truth as clearly as a mirror.

The group of able-bodied men forcibly conscripted through rapid expansion were less like a regular army and more like farmers who had just put down their tools.

How could such an army possibly be mentioned in the same breath as the battle-hardened veterans under Gu Yi?

The strategy of forced rapid expansion was merely delaying the defeat of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

Originally, Sima Yi thought such a strategy could extend their lives, at least for another six months to a year.

But he did not expect that after going back and forth, they only held on for less than two months before Yuan Shao failed first.

Yuan Shao's defeat would bring a series of chain reactions to Cao Cao's camp.

The first to bear the brunt would be Cao Cao's territory, Qingzhou, which would suffer strikes from different directions.

Before Yuan Shao's defeat, if Gu Yi wanted to attack Cao Cao, he could only send troops from the Xuzhou front.

But now, Yuan Shao's failure meant that Gu Yi could not only send troops from the Xuzhou direction, but also dispatch a flanking force from the Jizhou direction to move south and form an encirclement around Cao Cao.

Gu Yi was indeed executing this strategy.

The army responsible for moving south was precisely the one led by Lu Bu and Zhang Liao.

And Gu Yi's main force was already on the road from Chang'an to Qingzhou.

It was estimated that in at most a month or so, they would officially arrive at the Qingzhou front line.

At that time.

Cao Cao's forces would face multi-directional strikes.

If he wanted to win, the difficulty would be no less than Sun Shiwan defeating Zhang Babai at the Battle of Hefei.

Could Sun Shiwan defeat Zhang Babai?

The answer was naturally impossible.

So now, whether Cao Cao could turn the tables was actually the same logic.

Therefore, Sima Yi began to panic at this moment.

Taking in Sima Yi's expression at a glance.

Sima Fang stroked the graying goat beard on his chin and then smiled:

"Zhongda, what do you think is the foundation for an aristocratic family to stand in the world?"

"Is it by relying on their powerful local appeal, or their immense political energy?"

As if not expecting his own father to ask such a question.

Sima Yi was slightly stunned, and after a moment of thought, he replied:

"Father, aren't those two reasons the foundation for an aristocratic family's standing?"

Sima Fang shook his head.

Sure enough, his second son was still a bit too young.

He simply couldn't see through many deep-seated truths.

But it didn't matter; with him as the father, he had to cultivate Sima Yi into someone who could inherit his mantle.

The question arose.

Why did Sima Fang want to cultivate Sima Yi instead of his eldest son, Sima Lang?

Because although Sima Lang was considered a decent aristocratic talent.

He appeared relatively upright in character.

Many dirty and exhausting tasks were not suitable for him to do.

On the contrary, his second son, Sima Yi, had more in common with Sima Fang.

To put it bluntly, both were cunning and treacherous, stopping at nothing to achieve their goals.

Being told this by his father, Sima Yi was truly a bit bewildered.

He considered himself quite clever.

But what exactly was this foundation for an aristocratic family that his father spoke of?

Looking at the longing in Sima Yi's eyes.

Sima Fang spread out the map on the table and smiled at Sima Yi:

"Zhongda."

"The reason Gao Zu Liu Bang was able to govern the world in a very short time after defeating Xiang Yu."

"Actually, behind this, it was inseparable from the compromise with our aristocratic families."

Sima Yi nodded slightly.

He naturally understood this logic.

Although Liu Bang was also considered a member of the peasant uprising army back then.

But looking at the entire camp of the peasant uprising army, the real main force, besides peasants, consisted more of the nobles of the Six States.

Opening the map of the Chu-Han Contention, one could know.

During the Chu-Han Contention.

Besides Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.

There actually existed dozens of feudal lords, large and small, led by the remnants of the Six States.

For example, the remnants of the Wei State, Chu State, Zhao State, Qi State, and so on.

Yes, even the so-called remnants of the Chu State were not just the Xiang clan of Xiang Yu.

Besides the Xiang family.

There were also those flying the banner of the Xiong character, as well as the Huang character.

Not to mention the remnants of the other states.

And the Xiang Yu of that time was actually quite different from many perceptions in later generations.

Many people think Xiang Yu didn't kill Liu Bang because of womanly benevolence.

Actually, that is not the case.

Before Ying Zheng, there had never been any unified dynasty in the history of the Dragon Kingdom.

Including the previous Xia, Shang, and Zhou, they were just so-called "leading brothers" and did not complete unification in the true sense.

That is to say.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and even the pre-Qin era, the unification of the Qin State was a quite novel and seemingly deformed thing.

If placed in later generations, we would think unification is the trend of the times.