In the Battle of Chibi in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Liu's allied forces returned with a burning Cao Cao, and the wise Zhuge Liang had long expected that Cao Cao would definitely take Huarong Dao after his defeat, and even more so, if Guan Yu was sent to guard Huarong Dao, Guan Yu would definitely remember his old feelings and let Cao Cao go, or let Guan Yu go to Guard Hua Rong Dao after writing a military order, what was the reason for this?
Huarong Dao's "capture and release of Cao" can be called a divine stroke in the early chapters of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the magic is that Zhuge Liang knew that Guan Yu would release Cao Cao and sent him to guard Huarong Dao. Why did Zhuge Liang, who is known as a clever scheming, come up with this "defeat move"? And listen to Shi Jun's analysis one by one: Cao Cao lived liu bei lived in chibi, and the three families of Cao, Sun, and Liu maintained a delicate relationship of checks and balances. But among these three families, Liu Bei is also an obvious weak side, basically in a situation with no soldiers, no grain, and no city for a long time. That is to say, if the situation of checks and balances between the three families is broken, the first unlucky person will definitely be Liu Bei, which is why Zhuge Liang advocates uniting with Wu to resist Cao. If Cao Cao died in Huarong Province, the north would fall into a state of division. In this way, Sun Quan had no worries and would certainly be able to free his hands to deal with Liu Bei.
Secondly, Cao Cao should not have died at this time
At that time, Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun to intercept and kill Cao Cao, but did not exterminate him. Instead, after killing half of his military horses, he was released. Then he also asked Zhang Fei to ambush him, and also killed some of his soldiers, but did not kill Cao Cao. Later, some other generals were also asked to take back the equipment of those defeated troops so that they could be used later. Then he also asked Guan Yu to go to Huarong Dao, because he knew that Guan Yu would definitely let him go. At that time, Zhuge Liang calculated that Cao Cao could not die at this time, and at most he could only send a few people to scare him, and then kill some of his generals and give his army to his men.
Moreover, when Cao Cao attacked Liu Bei, after Liu Bei was defeated, Guan Yu was captured by Cao Cao, Cao Cao did not kill Guan Yu but treated guan Yu with extreme kindness, and then there was Guan Yu who rode alone for thousands of miles, at this time Guan Yu owed Cao Cao a favor, which was the most important thing in ancient times.
Zhuge Liang let Guan Yu town guard Huarong Dao this time, is to give Guan Yu a chance to return the favor, after all, this time Huarong Dao before and after are in Zhuge Liang's calculations, and let go of Cao Cao is not too much impact, if this time do not return Cao Cao's human feelings, the next time in a more important occasion to return the human feelings, there may be unknown influence, this unknown influence is the most deadly, it is better to pay off a hundred when everything is under control this time.
Liu Bei knew that Guan Yu Huarong would release Cao Cao and let Guan Yu go, which Zhuge Liang deliberately arranged in order to balance the relationship.