Cao Cao, who has always shown his white face in our ancient dramas, represents a treacherous villain. However, he grew up in the chaotic era of the Eastern Han Dynasty and rebuilt the new order in the north with superb strategy. The Cao Cao we see in the film and television drama is arbitrary, the real Eastern Han Dynasty was the society dominated by the Menmen clan, how to win over and coordinate the various clans, and let them support you, Cao Cao also played his strong leadership.
Pandora's Box
From Wang Mang's usurpation of han Liu Xiu's claim to the emperor to establish the Eastern Han dynasty, to the establishment of Guangwu's Zhongxing, the Eastern Han Dynasty has gone through nearly 200 years. During the Han and Emperor Dynasties, the power of the Three Dukes was weakened, and the centralization of state power was strengthened, but in the middle and late Period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, foreign relatives interfered in politics, and the young emperor could only rely on eunuchs, resulting in a game between foreign relatives and eunuchs in the imperial court. The Eastern Han Dynasty ended during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han and Emperor Ling of Han, and in order to strengthen the centralization of power, taxes began to be levied, so the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184 AD.
The Eastern Han army was strictly controlled by the central government, and it was also because of the Yellow Turban Rebellion that the power of the warlords was magnified, resulting in a chaotic situation of rebellion by warlords everywhere. One of the earliest warlords was Dong Zhuo, who was originally an ordinary military general, who quickly became bigger after the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the great general He Jin wanted to kill eunuchs and recruit Dong Zhuo to Luoyang, in fact, before He Jin recruited Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo had already privately led troops and garrisoned near Luoyang, which showed that he had lost control of the local warlords at that time.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a huge plague occurred, which lasted for nearly a decade, and there were more than 50 million people during the Han and Emperor Dynasties, but after the Yellow Turban Uprising, the registered population was less than 10 million, and it is not denied that the demographic errors caused by the turmoil are not denied, but the population has decreased by more than half is an undeniable fact. For example, the seven sons of Jian'an, Xu Gan, Ying Yue, Chen Lin, and Liu Zhen, we know, all died of this plague.
Zhang Jiao preached the "Taiping Dao", the propaganda routine is actually very simple, Zhang Jiao used sulfur and other Taoist "spells" to create an illusion for the masses, and then invited holy water, only pious, drank holy water to escape the plague, those who are not cured, prove that the sincerity is insufficient, or the sin is deep.
Using this simple routine, Zhang Jiao gathered as many as 300,000 people in the chaotic era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and if you count the uprisings in his name, it is estimated that there are millions. Such a large-scale national riot, coupled with years of disasters, the imperial court was really powerless to control the situation. The plague also broke out because too many people died to be buried and burned in time.
Like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the imperial court was unable to resist so many rebellions, it would delegate the authority to recruit troops. In the Qing Dynasty, we see that Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, etc., all rose up in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The situation was similar in the Han Dynasty, where there were almost no armies, or very few troops, but only to maintain local law and order. Like the rebels, only the central government has the strength to suppress them. This also caused the Yellow Turban Uprising in Zhangjiao to be infancy, and the local government was unable to suppress it. When the military scale expanded, the central army was unable to cope with it. This nationwide rebellion of the same period could not be resolved by concentrating forces.
Decentralization of military power was very cautious in any dynasty, and once opened, it undoubtedly opened the Pandora's box. Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quelled in 184, the warlord division had only just begun. Dong Zhuo opened the prelude to the warlord chaos, he deposed Liu Jie, the eldest son of the Han Ling Emperor, and established Liu Xie as emperor instead. It's like poking a honeycomb, where warlords from all over the world join forces against Dong Zhuo, while warlords everywhere divide one side and crusade against each other.
A staircase of chaos
In "Game of Thrones", Littlefinger famously said: chaos is not an abyss, chaos is a ladder, and the chaotic Eastern Han Dynasty also gave Cao Cao a chance. In 192 AD, the remnants of more than 1 million Yellow Turban rebels attacked Yanzhou on a large scale, which is the border area of Hebei, Shandong, and Anhui today, and it is difficult to define whether this is a group of displaced people or a rebel army, because many people are dragging their families and mouths, and when attacking Yanzhou, the imperial court just appointed Cao Cao as Yanzhou Mu, responsible for resisting this group of rebels.
Cao Cao was different from his predecessor Yanzhou Mu, who was not simply suppressed, but suppressed and appeased by force, and divided this group of rebels through coercion and inducement and persuasion, and then the more than 1 million were settled by him.
Cao Cao integrated the most elite parts of this into an army of 80,000 people, which is the Qingzhou soldiers we see in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Cao Cao adopted the suggestions of Zao Qi and Han Hao to adopt the "Tun Tian system" and placed the remaining more than 1 million people on the land abandoned by the plague and war, the so-called Tun Tian system, which had been implemented during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but in the border areas, and the harvest on this part of the land was jointly owned by the local garrison army and peasants, and no longer paid taxes to the state.
Since then, Yanzhou has become Cao Cao's rear area, and while restoring its economy, it is also the main source of Cao Cao's troops. Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu's troops are very similar to those of the nomads, relying mainly on robbery to maintain the operation of the army, this form of operation, in the period of conquest can quickly acquire territory, but will soon lose the base due to excessive robbery. Like the Internet now, only focusing on traffic customers, not focusing on existing customers, it seems to attract a lot of traffic, but it has not survived.
At this time, the central authority was lost, and after Dong Zhuo supported the establishment of a new emperor, it caused a crusade among the princes everywhere. The most important of these princes was the Shi clique, which was mainly concentrated in Taiyuan, Shanxi, and near Shandong. Here is a brief introduction to the formation of the Han Dynasty warrior clan. Different from the Song Dynasty's examination system, the Han Dynasty mainly adopted the inspection system, that is, recommended by the local government, and over time, everyone recommended their acquaintances around them, thus forming a group of scholars. Moreover, at that time, there were very few conditions to read, and this group of scholar elites monopolized political power, and Zhuge Liang and Lu Su that we saw in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were typical of the scholar clan. The reason why Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang for three times was also to win over the zhuge family's scholarly strength.
Dong Zhuo saw that the form was not favorable to him, so he took the opportunity to flee to Chang'an with Emperor Xian of Han, which was easier to defend and difficult to attack than Luoyang. At this time, warlords everywhere were in chaos, constantly annexing and fighting each other. Later, dong zhuo was killed by Lü Bu, and when the dragons were leaderless, Emperor Xiandi of Han escaped from Chang'an, and Emperor Xiandi of Han originally wanted to return to Luoyang, and at this time, the warlords everywhere were more interested in Yuxi and did not see the value of Emperor Xiandi of Han. Only Cao Cao placed Emperor Xian of Han in Xuchang, which later accumulated political capital for him.
Battle of Chibi
After that, it was the process of Cao Cao's suppression of these northern warlords, and the strongest military strength was the three forces of Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao and Lü Bu. In fact, the battlefield is like a football field, strength and luck are very important, such as Cao Cao when attacking Xuzhou, Lü Bu sneaked into Yanzhou, the Battle of Guandu Cao Cao luckily won, etc., these can not be seen from the perspective of later victors, the historical luck component is also very critical.
The battle that had the greatest impact on Cao Cao was undoubtedly the Battle of Chibi, and everyone knew the course of the war, cao Cao led his army south after pacifying the north, and the victory in Jingzhou at this time also blinded Cao Cao's eyes. In August, Liu Biao died of illness, and Jingzhou surrendered to Cao Cao on the advice of Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, and others, which made Cao Cao's victory very easy. At this time, Cao Cao's troops were all lightly armed and not ready to fight a protracted war, feeling that victory could be won through intimidation. After the surrender of Jingzhou in September, it did not stop, and in October it attacked Chibi, hoping that the old trick would be repeated and repulsion sun quan.
When we look at history, we always like to understand from the interpretation, Cao Cao declared: "There are 800,000 people in the water army under the rule of the present, and Fang and the general will hunt Wu." "However, we carefully analyzed that Cao Cao bragged very much, at that time, within the jurisdiction of Cao Cao, there were only 3 million people, according to the 10:1 conscription ratio, Cao Cao's 300,000 troops are reasonable, if you count the later surrender of Jingzhou, it is only 400,000." It seems that everyone is bragging about the same, and now the Internet industry claims to have raised 100 million yuan, and from the later listed financial reports, most of them are less than 50 million, that is, half blowing, because everyone blows like this, and half blowing is conscience.
Although the political centers at that time were in the north, such as Luoyang and Xi'an, due to years of war, China's economic center has shifted to the south. For example, in the Guanzhong region of Xi'an, the population of 2 million fell to less than 500,000. At this time, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions on Sun Quan's side were already very rich in economy due to their distance from the battlefield.
Cao Cao's reflections
Of course, the war was accidental, after the Battle of Chibi, and later the Battle of Wusu, Cao Cao and Sun Quan both won and lost each other, and it was difficult for the northern regime to unify the south in a short period of time. After recognizing the form, Cao Cao began to rectify the order in the north, planning to prepare for a protracted war.
As mentioned above, we see in the film and television drama that Cao Cao's family is the only one, in fact, the entire Cao Cao regime is the result of the support of many scholars, so how to integrate the strength of the warrior clan is also very critical. One of the most powerful warrior forces in Cao Cao's alliance was Xun Yu, and the political resources of the warrior clan possessed by Xun Yu can be said to be very thick, and later many clans were recommended to join Cao Cao, such as Zhong Xuan, Chen Qun, Guo Jia, and so on. Cao Cao was also because of the support of these gatekeeper clans, and gradually became a duke from Cheng Xiang, and in 216 AD, he established the state of Wei and was crowned king of Wei, only one ceremony away from the actual emperor.
Cao Cao summed himself up in the Shu Zhi Ling: When he was young, his greatest ambition was to be a county sheriff, and later with the conquest of the four, his ambition also became larger, and he always wanted to be a general of the Western Expedition at the time of the Battle of Chibi; when he became the King of Wei, he felt that he could stand shoulder to the Duke of Qi Huan and govern the water and soil of one side. Even if there was no Cao Cao in this country, there must be other princes, as long as they sat in that position, their ambitions were not necessarily smaller than Cao Cao's.
When we look back at Cao Cao today, we cannot simply symbolize whether he is a traitor or a tyrant, he is just a "hero of the times" in a special historical environment, in that era of warlord division and social turmoil, a person needs to stand up to unify the country and establish a stable order, and Cao Cao was chosen in that era.