At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the death of emperor Ling of Han, the world was in chaos. In 189 (the sixth year of Zhongping), Dong Zhuo entered the capital Luoyang, deposed the Shao Emperor, and established Liu Xie as emperor, that is, the Han XianDi, and killed the empress dowager and the Shao Emperor, claiming to be Xiang Guo and specializing in imperial politics. Helplessly, Dong Zhuo's Western Liang Army was strong and strong, and they acted arbitrarily and committed many evils, and the officials of the capital dared to be angry and did not dare to speak out. At that time, Cao Cao was serving as a lieutenant in the military academy, and because he did not want to cooperate with Dong Zhuo, he changed his name and surname and fled to Chen Liu.
The Han family declined, and Dong Zhuo gradually claimed the emperor's ambitions. People of insight were eager to kill Dong Zhuo, Kuang Fu Han Room, and Cao Cao was no exception. Cao Cao read a lot of books since childhood, and at the age of twenty, he was filial piety and honesty, entered the capital as a lang, was just for officials, strict laws and regulations, and all the places he governed were political and religious, and he had also paid over the Yellow Turban Army, and he had considerable military talent. He could not stand Dong Zhuo's perverse behavior, and was determined to get rid of the national thieves, revive the Han Room, and save the world. After he fled to Chen Liu, he sold his property, recruited his clan members, and organized a team of five thousand people to prepare for the crusade against Dong Zhuo.
Cao Cao was not the only one who planned to attack Dong Zhuo, but not everyone was really rebelling against Dong Zhuo in order to revive the Han Dynasty. From the perspective of modern people, Cao Cao organized a rebel army at any cost, and then ventured to attack Dong Zhuo with a weak attack and a strong attack, which showed his loyalty to the Han Dynasty. This is in line with the orthodox education that Cao Cao received from childhood to support imperial power, which is his original intention and the heart of a pure son.
In 190 AD (the first year of Emperor Xian's reign), the Kwantung counties rebelled against Dong Zhuo, and Yuan Shao became an ally of the allies. Cao Cao led his troops into the Allied forces and became the general of Xingfenwu. In February, Dong Zhuo coerced Emperor Xian to move the capital to Chang'an and stay in Luoyang himself. Cao Cao was anxious to save Emperor Xian of Han, and naively thought that all the allied troops were like him, sincerely serving the Han Dynasty, thinking that the allies would cooperate with their actions, so Cao Cao led the army westward, and when it reached Xingyang Beishui (present-day southwest of Xingyang), it encountered Dong Zhuo's army. Dong Zhuo's Liangzhou army was brave and good at fighting, Cao Cao fought alone, and was defeated, most of the soldiers were killed and wounded, and he himself was also wounded by the arrows, and retired to the army.
Although Cao Cao's army suffered heavy losses, he did not change his original intention of helping han fu, and suggested that he avoid Dong Zhuo's front and fight a protracted war, with all the allied troops guarding the key areas, and then dividing their troops into Wuguan (present-day southeast of Danfeng, Shaanxi) to besiege Dong Zhuo. It's just that Cao Cao still didn't understand that the various departments of the Allied army had ghosts in their hearts, and most of them didn't really serve the Han Dynasty. Cao Cao's suggestion naturally went unanswered.
After the final dispersal of the Dong allies, Cao Cao only had the remnants of the defeated army left, and his thinking was very touched, and he gradually changed his eager idea of first eliminating the national thieves and then meeting the Han Emperor. In the third year of Chuping, the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou killed Liu Dai of Yanzhou, and Bao Xin, the chancellor of Jibei, welcomed Cao Cao as Yanzhou Pastor. Cao Cao temporarily gained a foothold, and he and Bao Xin joined forces to attack the Yellow Turban Army, and Bao Xin was killed. Cao Cao set up an ambush and fought day and night against the Yellow Turban Army, winning a great victory, collecting more than 300,000 troops and a population of more than 1 million, and greatly increasing his strength. At the same time, the situation in Chang'an changed, Dong Zhuo was killed, Li Dai and Guo Feng rebelled and merged, Wang Yun was killed, and Lü Bu fled in defeat.
In the fourth year of Chuping (193), Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou (徐州, in modern Wangcheng, Shandong), intending to expand his power to the southeast. Xuzhou Mutaoqian retired to Tan County. Cao Cao withdrew his troops, and the following summer, Cao Cao again conquered Xuzhou and attacked the East China Sea, killing people in the land they passed. At this time, Chen Liu Taishou rebelled with Chen Gong and welcomed Lü Bu into Yanzhou. The only cities that Cao Cao could control were Yicheng (邺城), which Sima Xunyu held, Fan of Dong Commandery (東郡), which Ling Cheng Yu of Shouzhang County (寿張县) had insisted on, and Dong'a (東郡太守夏侯惇), which was held by Xiahou Huan (東郡太守夏侯惇). The situation was extremely critical, and Cao Cao was in danger of collapse, so he returned to attack Puyang, which Lü Bu was holding. The two armies held each other for 100 days, the locust plague broke out, the two sides ceased hostilities, and Cao Cao retreated to Yecheng.
In the second year of Xingping (195), Cao Cao fought Lü Bu again and won a great victory. Lü Bu fled to Xuzhou and defected to Liu Bei. As a result, Cao Cao started from thousands of soldiers, single-mindedly revived the Han Dynasty, turned to many places, and after six years and nine deaths, finally had a combat effective army, and eliminated internal threats, standing firm in the land of Yanzhou to lay the foundation for future growth.
Edited/Genichi, with pictures from the web